It was an utterly absurd sight: their behavior was just like living people, yet they were made of paper.
What should he do now?
Was all of this the Spirit Medium's illusion? How could it be broken?
After a moment's thought, He Lingchuan oriented himself, leapt down from the large tree, and made for the Gan residence.
All these troubles originated with Third Master Gan; He Lingchuan had a feeling that the crux of the matter lay with him.
Besides, Third Master Gan seemed to be the only living person he could find.
The evil spirits along the roads possessed surprisingly sharp senses. Before long, they spotted him and steered their paper figurines to pursue.
With a sprawling crowd of tailgaters at his heels, He Lingchuan did not want to waste his energy on them and darted through courtyards and alleyways.
Several times around corners he encountered massive bronze mirrors—the sort teahouses and inns placed for patrons to adjust their attire. Caught off guard, He Lingchuan found himself locking eyes with them.
The reflections in the mirrors desperately sought to seize him, but now on guard, He Lingchuan firmly guarded his mind. How could they succeed so easily?
Right then, a signal suddenly came through from the eyeball spider.
He Lingchuan tuned in to look: dragging his battered body, Third Master Gan had finally crawled back to his family manor. Yet from the front gate to the inner courtyards, not a soul was in sight!
Old Mistress Mao was not there, nor was Second Master Gan.
All those servants and maidservants were gone without a trace.
It was an empty house. The night wind blew through the halls and window lattices, howling like weeping ghosts.
Third Master Gan called out for a long time to no answer. In his bewilderment, he suddenly heard a voice calling, "Third Master Gan! Third Master Gan!"
He shuddered in terror. "Who's there?!"
It was not the voice of any family member, yet it continued to call his name.
Plucking up his courage, Third Master Gan crawled forward a few steps. A row of lanterns beneath the eaves suddenly flared to life on their own, sweeping away the dark haze shrouding the courtyard.
He saw a reflection in the pond, but it was not his own.
Then, someone rose from the pond's surface, walking toward him step by step.
"Sp—" His teeth clattered uncontrollably. "Spirit Medium?"
Who else could this middle-aged woman be but the Spirit Medium?
"Aren't you dead?!" So that He kid hadn't killed her, and now she had come for revenge!
Watching the live feed, He Lingchuan frowned. Through the eyeball spider's perspective, he couldn't tell whether this resurrected Spirit Medium was a paper figure or if an evil spirit possessed her.
"I cannot die." The Spirit Medium walked up to Third Master Gan and crouched down before him. Her tone held no chill whatsoever, but was instead brimming with sympathy. "I served you wholeheartedly in every task. Why did you help an outsider against me?"
"I... I was forced!" The closer her face drew, the more terrified Third Master Gan became. "If I didn't lead the way, that He kid was going to kill me!"
"Do you want to live?"
"...I do."
"Do you want to save the Gan Merchant Guild?"
"I do!" So the Spirit Medium knew everything?
"Do you want to kill that He kid?"
Third Master Gan hesitated, not daring to utter a peep.
"You cannot hide your thoughts from me." The Spirit Medium smiled, revealing eerie white teeth. "You want him dead—you want it more than anything!"
Third Master Gan could only plead bitterly, "Spare me, Spirit Medium!"
"Not only will I spare your life, but I will also resolve all your troubles." The Spirit Medium extended a palm, which glowed like a red-hot branding iron. Upon it were dense, tiny characters as small as fly heads, every single one luminous.
Third Master Gan asked in a trembling voice, "What is this for?"
"To seal the covenant," the Spirit Medium said softly. "Place your palm against mine, and our covenant will be complete. Leave everything that follows to me."
"W-why are you helping me?"
"Originally, completing three tasks for you would naturally have sealed the covenant," the Spirit Medium sighed. "Yet it cannot be transferred to someone else midway. Since this final task was left unfinished, I might as well sign the covenant with you directly."
"This covenant..." Panicked as he was, Third Master Gan sensed something amiss. "What does it require me to do?"
"You don't need to do a thing. Just watch!" The Spirit Medium smiled. "Whatever your heart desires, I will strive to accomplish for you."
Third Master Gan's eyes darted incessantly.
"If you don't sign, you will never get out. Before dying of thirst or hunger, you'll be devoured by other evil spirits!" the Spirit Medium coaxed. "Even if you could escape, you are no longer the Third Master Gan who commanded the wind and rain in Wuze County. The Gan Merchant Guild is on the brink of ruin; you will soon become a beggar on the street, fighting stray dogs for scraps!"
She cackled. "Look at the state you're in already. Even if you sign a covenant with me, could things get any worse than this?"
These words struck Third Master Gan right where it hurt most. He even stopped trembling, murmuring, "If I sign, can I return to the life I once had?"
Indeed, his life had never sunk to such depths.
"Of course you can, and it will be even better than before," the Spirit Medium smiled. "You will no longer be held back by Eldest Brother Gan, and the old mistress and Second Master Gan will hang on your every word."
Third Master Gan's breathing steadied.
He Lingchuan had already reached the front gate of the Gan manor. Just leaping over the screen wall of the courtyard, he shouted upon hearing this: "Don't seal the covenant! It's tricking you!"
Wait, wasn't something wrong here?
At this critical juncture, he had no time to stop and examine details, striding into the courtyard.
The Spirit Medium made a sweeping motion toward the direction He Lingchuan was rushing from, then urged Third Master Gan: "Seal the covenant! You can kill him right now! Think of all the humiliation you've suffered these past two days!"
Return to his old life!
No, make it even better!
Third Master Gan gritted his teeth and pressed his palm against hers.
"Ahhh—!" It felt like pressing against a branding iron with no way to pull back; the searing agony made him scream bloody murder.
Before him, the Spirit Medium's flesh rapidly shriveled. In just a few breaths, she withered into a skin-and-bones crone, her posture hunching, her skin covered in wrinkles, looking far older than Old Mistress Mao.
She pulled back her hand, no longer calm and composed, but looked up at the night sky and sighed with emotion:
"At last, I am free."
"May you find your own release soon as well."
With those parting words, her skin darkened, and her entire form turned into paper ash, scattered by a gust of wind.
Third Master Gan looked down at his palm. The glowing reddish script had transferred onto his own hand.
He clenched his fist and reopened it; the characters were gone, leaving his palm completely smooth.
His gaze had changed now, and he let out a couple of cold chuckles.
...
He Lingchuan was inwardly cursing the fool, but as he stepped through the moon gate, the scene before his eyes abruptly transformed.
Before crossing through the gate, he had clearly seen a three-story building ahead.
After crossing through, he was inexplicably standing at a dust-blown street intersection where cavalry charged back and forth slashing with their blades, commoners fled in panic, burning dwellings blazed everywhere, and cries and shrieks echoed on all sides.
It was as though he had stepped onto a besieged city's battlefield in a split second.
This wasn't right. A complete change of scene in a single second?
Yet when he looked closely, those riding horses, those fleeing in the streets, those looting house to house, laughing and screaming—they were all paper figurines!
In this grand war spectacle, the invaders, defenders, and townsfolk were all played by evil spirits, performing their roles with meticulous devotion.
It was as grotesque as it was horrifying.
Several cavalrymen spotted He Lingchuan and charged toward him, brandishing weapons.
He leapt straight back over the wall, vaulted through several passageways, and shook off the cavalrymen.
The layout of this compound was entirely different from the Gan manor.
Not just the Gan manor—every building he saw along the streets was unlike those in Wuze County, being much larger and far more ancient.
Judging by the width of the streets alone, this looked like a provincial capital or a major metropolis.
Right then, he heard a strange, long cry—grand, resonant, and soul-stirring.
He Lingchuan leapt onto a wall to look into the distance, and froze in shock:
Soaring in the sky was a colossal scarlet bird. A high crest crowned its head, resplendent plumes trailed from its tail, and its body stretched over a hundred feet long. Its wings spread wide enough to blot out the sky, effortlessly casting the buildings, men, and mounts below into deep shadow.
Its bulk rivaled a great whale, yet it soared through the heavens, making it all the more magnificent.
The great bird mercilessly spat fireballs toward the ground, obliterating an entire building with each blast.
So that was where the raging inferno everywhere had come from.
Though this giant bird was also crafted from paper, He Lingchuan had no doubt about the sheer power of the true fire it unleashed.
Moreover, he felt an endless aura of intimidation radiating from the beast. With such a creature circling overhead, it truly felt as though doomsday had arrived.
Wherever it passed, the warhorses below either neighed in terror and bolted, or their legs gave out entirely and they collapsed to the ground.
The great bird circled high in the sky, performing an undulating dance, and seven or eight tornadoes whipped up across the ground, each measuring at least a hundred feet in diameter.
Fueling the fire with the wind, they roared into fiery whirlwinds, consuming everything in their path.
It was worth noting that without He Lingchuan's own truth filter, anyone else would see these figures, birds, and beasts as vivid, living beings. Consequently, the sight of commoners and children shrieking and fleeing only to be swallowed whole by the fire tornadoes appeared exceptionally real and tragic.
Just as it seemed the bird alone would incinerate half the city, several specks of light flew in from the horizon.
He Lingchuan looked closely, his eyes widening further:
These appeared to be six or seven sorcerers. Some rode cranes, while others tread upon auspicious clouds, fanning out around the scarlet bird and each tossing out a mirror almost simultaneously.
The mirrors positioned themselves above, below, left, right, front, and back—the six cardinal directions around the scarlet bird—each beaming a ray of light that struck the creature.
The scarlet bird, which had been swooping freely, was actually pinned in place by these six beams of light. Flap as it might, it could not break free.
Yet its power was formidable. After several furious, piercing screeches, fierce gale-force winds of at least force fourteen tore through the sky above the city, blowing so violently that the six mirrors wobbled, on the verge of losing their hold.
One of the sorcerers bellowed down toward the ground, "General You, now is the time!"
General You? He Lingchuan wondered: hadn't he heard that name somewhere before?
Several riders suddenly surged out of the alley ahead. The general in the lead was not riding an ordinary steed, but a towering strange beast. Resembling a fierce tiger with a tucked, slender waist, its body was covered in stripes, with a single horn on its head and three tails behind.
Seeing this exotic beast, He Lingchuan couldn't help muttering under his breath:
"A zhen!"
He had read many leisure books during his time in the Panlong dreamscape, including texts devoted to ancient great demons and strange beasts, complete with wildly sketchy and abstract illustrations. Though the illustrator had been something of an eccentric scribbler, the beast's distinctive features made it unmistakable.
This was a zhen—and people had even coined a specific word from it:
Zhenning, ferocious.
It was said an adult zhen had five tails, but General You's mount had only three, indicating it was not yet fully grown.
Even so, its movements were extraordinarily agile. Under General You's command, it bounded several times in quick succession, leaping higher than the four-story rooftop where He Lingchuan stood!
Chapter 355