Zhang Yuanqing returned to the main hall and bathed in the candlelight, soothing the throbbing ache of his recurring ailment while giving himself a purification. According to his calculations, the wraith would latch onto him again in a minute or two. Right now was definitely not the time to enter the East Courtyard and face the jiangshi head-on.
After resting for four or five minutes, his physical condition only worsened. His headache was joined by mild dizziness; he knew the corpse poison was steadily invading his body, beginning to manifest its symptoms.
The candlelight in the main hall did not seem able to purge the toxins within him.
"I can't delay any longer."
He had to take advantage of the red dancing shoes' thirty-minute usage limit to fight a swift battle and clear the instance in one breath.
Zhang Yuanqing left the main hall and followed the pebble path through the wild grass until he reached the courtyard.
Standing amid the swaying weeds, he opened his inventory and summoned the red dancing shoes.
Two streaks of dim red light darted nimbly through the night, condensing into a brand-new pair of dancing shoes.
*Select second form!* Zhang Yuanqing chanted silently.
The red dancing shoes dissolved into dim red light once more, tracing two arcs before wrapping snugly around his feet.
In an instant, the sneakers on his feet transformed into an oversized pair of red dancing shoes.
*Is... isn't this practically cross-dressing? Good thing they're dancing shoes and not high heels...* Zhang Yuanqing looked down at his feet with discomfort, feeling thoroughly bizarre.
Forcing himself to ignore this detail, he took out the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman, pinched it in his hand, and walked through the arched gateway amid the rustling of the great banyan tree, returning once again to the East Courtyard.
In the East Courtyard, the wild grass swayed under the bright moonlight. The two large structures stood in silence; everything was profoundly quiet.
He looked around warily. Seeing no trace of the jiangshi, he cautiously crossed the courtyard and approached the long building partitioned into four rooms.
The wooden door of the room containing the coffins had already been knocked off. He didn't need to enter; standing far back across the threshold, he peered inside.
Moonlight beamed down through the gaps in the roof tiles. The corpses, coffins, the hurled coffin lid, and the brass pestle all lay quietly in their original positions, unmoved in the slightest.
The jiangshi was nowhere to be seen.
*Could it have climbed back into its coffin?*
From his angle, he couldn't see what was inside the coffin.
Just as he hesitated, he suddenly noticed the moonlight dimming. A dark silhouette plummeted from above, engulfing him in shadow.
Immediately after, the night wind delivered a thick stench of rotting flesh, accompanied by a low, guttural roar.
*It—it was hiding in the tree?!* Zhang Yuanqing was terrified. His heart clamped tight, and his instinct shouted to dodge.
In the next moment, the red dancing shoes on his feet flashed with a dim red glow. Zhang Yuanqing's feet abruptly slipped, and before he could even register what was happening, he went into a sliding tackle, plowing a furrow through the wild grass.
*Thump!*
Draped in tattered clothes, the jiangshi lunged and struck empty air.
*I... I dodged it...* Scrambling to his feet in a fluster, Zhang Yuanqing was overjoyed, his racing heart finally settling.
The red dancing shoes were indeed marvelous. Their dodging capability was even stronger than he had anticipated; with his own reaction speed, it would have been impossible to evade that strike.
His confidence soared.
*"Heh... heh..."*
The dry-haired jiangshi let out an ear-splitting roar, its bulging eyes burning with even greater ferocity. Bending its knees, it pounced toward its prey once more.
It was as fast as a speeding car.
As a foul wind hit his nostrils, the terrifying creature was already upon him. Zhang Yuanqing's feet twisted uncontrollably, tracing a smooth semicircle like a pirouetting ballet dancer. Evading the razor-sharp nails, he carved his way right behind the jiangshi.
Immediately afterward, he "naturally" dropped into full splits. His body abruptly sank down just as a fierce wind howled overhead, two arms sweeping past above him.
*I... I pulled a nut...* Zhang Yuanqing's face contorted, desperate to clamp his crotch and scream, but the red dancing shoes had already manipulated his legs to spring, bouncing him straight up.
Leaping high into the air, he planted both feet violently into the jiangshi's chest.
*Bang!*
Amid the dull impact, fine dust puffed from the creature's ragged clothes.
It let out an indignant roar of rage as the tremendous force kicked it over backward.
*My chance!* Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing ignored the tearing pain in his groin, surged forward in broad strides, and slammed the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman in his hand right onto the heavily decomposed, foul-smelling face before him—
Straight onto its forehead.
*Smack!*
The frenzied, bloodthirsty jiangshi froze solid, as if struck by an immobilization spell.
All motion vanished, settling into dead quiet.
The jiangshi lay stiff in the thicket of weeds, the crimson gleam in its hideous eyes gradually dimming.
It had lost its "vitality."
Gazing at the jiangshi, which was now paralyzed like a clay sculpture and stripped of all menace, Zhang Yuanqing panted heavily. Exhaustion and jubilation rushed through him at once.
He had survived!
*Without the help of the red dancing shoes, taking down a jiangshi single-handedly would have been nearly impossible. And the jiangshi is just one of the eerie anomalies here. An S-rank Spirit Realm really lives up to its reputation—it's brutally difficult.*
*Still, the construction crew had numbers. In theory, dealing with a jiangshi shouldn't have been an issue. How could a bunch of grown men have been so incompetent...?*
Zhang Yuanqing suddenly sighed; he understood why.
The Corpse-Suppressing Talisman had been found in the pocket of the skeleton beneath the window. That predecessor had obtained the item, but instead of telling his companions, he had hoarded it for himself.
The human heart was far more complicated than ghosts and monsters—and far more terrifying.
Now that the jiangshi was handled, it was time to check the well for that shameless female ghost.
Before that, however, there was one more item that Zhang Yuanqing cared deeply about.
Leaving the jiangshi behind, he walked toward the room with the coffins. Supporting himself against the doorframe, he stepped over the threshold into the dim chamber where moonlight streamed down in beams.
He stopped before the desiccated corpse, bent over, and picked up the bronze pestle.
Though clearly a bronze object, it felt far from icy in his hand; instead, it was as warm and smooth as jade.
Immediately, a notification surfaced in his vision:
[Name: Demon-Subduing Pestle]
[Type: Weapon]
[Function: Purification, Spirit-Suppressing, Demon-Dispelling]
[Description: A weapon imbued with the divine power of the sun, the bane of all yin entities. Sacrificing essence blood to this pestle will grant the power of the Sun God.]
[Remark: Powerful, isn't it? Traded for with a life.]
*It really is an item.* Judging by its description, it seemed even stronger than the candle in the main hall. That predecessor from the construction team probably wanted to kill the jiangshi with it but failed. *Sigh, they had already lost too many people before even facing the jiangshi...* Zhang Yuanqing rejoiced that he had made the right call.
He had cleverly utilized the red dancing shoes to overcome the crisis.
Of course, those construction workers had no other choice; there was no way they could have subdued a rule-based item, and most of them had died under the trampling of those very red dancing shoes.
"With an item specifically countering yin entities paired with the red dancing shoes, my chances of passing the trial mission have increased significantly."
Holding the Demon-Subduing Pestle, confidence surged within him. Before his five minutes were up, he left the room and returned to the courtyard.
This time, he headed straight for the ancient well for a final search.
The mouth of the well was pitch-black and deep, billowing with a damp stench of rotting vegetation.
*Let's go down and take a look.* Gripping the Demon-Subduing Pestle in a defensive posture, Zhang Yuanqing placed one foot on the well curb. Then, he simply walked down, striding across the vertical well wall as if traversing flat ground.
Had it been before, he definitely wouldn't have dared explore down here. Never mind whether there was danger at the bottom; without ropes or backup, jumping into the bottom of a well was practically suicide.
Soon, he reached the shallow bottom of the well without incident. The moonlight was extremely faint down here.
The well water had dried up long ago. Black silt sat accumulated at the base, clumps of weeds sprouted along the edges, and dark green moss crawled over the shaft walls.
"There's no ghost in the well..."
Zhang Yuanqing frowned. *This isn't right. I clearly saw a faceless female ghost poking her head out of here.*
He searched the bottom of the well repeatedly, but because the duration for wearing the red dancing shoes was limited, he could only scale the sheer walls back to the surface in exasperation and rush beneath the eaves of the main hall.
Only then did he feel safe enough to unequip the red dancing shoes.
In the main hall, bathed in the dim yellow candlelight, Zhang Yuanqing leaned listlessly against the offering altar. The corpse poison's erosion of his body had deepened; following the dizziness, symptoms like labored breathing and chest pains had set in.
Time was running out.
"I've explored both back courtyards and successfully subdued the jiangshi, yet the mission hasn't ended. That means there's still a place I haven't explored..."
He had checked every room in the back courtyards and even descended into the well. There couldn't have been an oversight.
Where on earth could it be?
*When you have eliminated all other possibilities, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth...* Muttering the adage in his mind, he slowly pushed himself up.
The place that had yet to be "explored" was right here—the main hall right in front of him.
Zhang Yuanqing slowly swept his gaze across the main hall, finally coming to rest upon the clay statue of Lady Sandao. Back when he first stepped into the hall, a detail about the statue had caught his attention.
The clay statue's right hand was empty, yet its fingers curled in a gripping posture, indicating it had originally held something.
Earlier, he hadn't known what had once been in her hand. Now, he did.
It was the Demon-Subduing Pestle.
Thinking there was no harm in trying, Zhang Yuanqing stepped forward and slotted the gleaming yellow Demon-Subduing Pestle into the clay palm. He then hopped down from the pedestal and backed away several paces.
Almost the instant he retreated, the surface of the pedestal cracked with a sharp snap. Dust puffed from the fractures, and then the entire pedestal collapsed inward, revealing a pitch-black subterranean vault.
Chapter 16