Chapter 816: Chapter 607: Sending Off the Evil Spirit (Requesting Monthly Votes at the End of the Month)
"Come out!" Yang Xiao’s limbs were ice-cold and rigid, making it difficult to move; he could only use his head to ram the door, which banged loudly.
However, his hearing and sight remained unaffected, and separated by the door, he could clearly hear the disorderly footsteps inside the room. Putting himself in their shoes, if he had been suddenly confronted with such a situation in the dead of night while sleeping soundly, he too would have been terrified.
Footsteps approached the door from the inside, but it didn’t open. Yang Xiao knew it must be Jiang Qingluan, but now he had no time to explain; the door of the room he’d been in not far behind him was also being hit with a bang—the ghost was about to come out.
He had to coerce Jiang Qingluan, make her realize he was a real person, not a ghost, and besides... if he didn’t take action to save others, they would all be doomed.
"Think it over, it doesn’t matter if I die, but Nalan Shuo and Xiang Fengchen are also in the courtyard. If they are done for, do you think any of you could still make it out alive?" Yang Xiao roared in a low voice. This wasn’t a threat but a statement of stark reality.
No longer hesitating and unable to lift his hand, Yang Xiao lifted his head and used his mouth to tear off the Gate God paper attached to the door. He wasn’t joking with Jiang Qingluan; he was saving his own life and Director Nalan’s life, as well as the lives of all the remaining people, including Jiang Qingluan!
Jiang Qingluan was astute, personally acknowledged by Xiang Fengchen as a leading figure among the younger generation. Yang Xiao knew she was hesitant because she wasn’t sure whether the person outside the door was human or ghost. If she decided he was a human, then there was no reason not to take action.
And a ghost wouldn’t dare to tear off a Gate God, so this was also a way to prove his identity, and it was the most direct and brutal way.
"Rip—"
The sound of paper being slowly torn off the door. It was in this moment that the door, which dictated life and death, finally opened before Yang Xiao, as the warm candlelight shined on his face. But he had no time to rejoice when he was kicked to the ground by a side kick.
The kick was rapid and precise, hitting Yang Xiao squarely in the chest, almost leaving him gasping for breath and on the verge of suffocation. Then, in his blurry vision, he saw Jiang Qingluan, with a stick of half-burnt incense in her mouth, rush out first, not even glancing at him as he lay on the ground, her gaze firmly fixed in the direction behind him.
That was the direction of his room, where the door slammed open with a "bang". At the same time, the swift Jiang Qingluan, along with Chang Chuchu, stood before Yang Xiao, each lifting a Gate God painting, holding it respectfully before them, stood side by side with about the space of a door between them, and stepped towards the direction behind Yang Xiao.
Chang Chuchu also had a stick of incense in her mouth. At the moment, her left cheek still sported a bright red palm print, her eyes were red-rimmed and brimming with tears, a picture of pitiable beauty.
It seemed to take some effort for Jiang Qingluan to persuade Chang Chuchu to cooperate.
In his daze, Yang Xiao observed that the incense in their mouths burned unusually fast, visibly shortening, and the scented smoke did not drift straight up but bizarrely curved as if attracted by some force, funneling entirely into the Gate God pictures.
The Gate God is also a deity and needs the offering of incense, but at this rate, the incense would only last for five minutes at most.
At this moment, Yang Xiao couldn’t do much more; he picked up the incense that had fallen to the ground, stuffed it into his mouth—it was his own, with just a tiny bit left, less than two centimeters, the incense tip dimly lit with dusky red sparks.
"Snap."
"Snap."
"Snap."
The ghost’s footsteps drew nearer. Yang Xiao could even feel the encroaching coldness behind him, but just a few meters from him, the presence suddenly stopped. Trying his best to turn his stiff neck, Yang Xiao saw the ghost standing before Jiang Qingluan.
To be precise, it was a little in front of and between Jiang Qingluan and Chang Chuchu, roughly less than three meters away.
The two women had risked summoning the Gate God, and it was indeed this authentic Gate God that blocked the ghost.
But it was only temporary; the closer the ghost came, the more incense the Gate God consumed. Incense that was supposed to last five minutes now might not last even three.
Once the incense was extinguished, it would be a complete dead end for them that day.
Although the ghost was blocked by the Gate God, that’s all it was—blocked. The ghost stood for a moment, then suddenly turned and went in another direction, as if it was trying to avoid confronting the Gate God directly and seeking another path to kill. Fortunately, Jiang Qingluan and Chang Chuchu were quick and coordinated, moving together as one to realign the two Gate God figures toward the ghost.
"Hiss—"
But with the movement, the incense burnt off a significant portion.
"Crack—"
The female ghost suddenly turned around, as if changing her target, and headed straight in a different direction towards the well. Because it was a fair distance away, Yang Xiao only now noticed that the dusky red glow before Nalan Shuo’s face had vanished; his incense had been extinguished.
Xiang Fengchen had a tiny bit left, but it was also on its last legs, holding on for perhaps half a minute more. If Yang Xiao hadn’t lured the ghost away in advance, their incense would have burnt out long ago. The closer the ghost was, the faster the incense burned.
The ghost returned to seek out Director Nalan; it was evident that Nalan Shuo wanted to struggle, but his body wouldn’t permit it, his feet rooted to the spot.
In the nick of time, Jiang Qingluan and Chang Chuchu quickly followed and used the Gate God to repel the ghost, but this was just a temporary measure.
To be honest, even if Jiang Qingluan and the others wanted to flee now, it was too late. Peering through the doorway into the room, one could see the room filled with mist and, not far behind the door, a well silently crouched in the corner.
