Chapter 9: The Paper Effigy!
The door creaked as if moved by the wind, yet no one stood outside. The courtyard outside was completely empty.
The innkeeper was a light sleeper, and normally she would bolt the door before going to bed. Now, that faint noise had stirred her awake. Her entire body tensed, every muscle taut, as she held her breath.
Tap… tap… tap…
Soft, intermittent footsteps echoed faintly outside, each one striking like a drumbeat against the innkeeper’s heart. The air seemed frozen, heavy as a block of ice.
“Who’s there?” she called out.
Only Li Yanchu lived in the courtyard. But the heavy, masculine footsteps suddenly came to a stop, as if… As if someone were now standing right outside her door. There was faint moonlight in the courtyard, yet no shadow could be seen beyond the doorway.
“Daoist Master Yanchu, is that you?” she asked, summoning all her courage.
But, there was no response. There was no breathing, no footsteps, no sound at all, only absolute stillness.
Tap! The footsteps resumed. It sounded closer this time, as if they had stepped right up to the door. The very air thickened, becoming so stifling it was hard to breathe.
Then, from within the tightly shut room, a man's footsteps sounded again, this time slowly approaching her bed. An eerie chill instantly swept through the entire space.
“Ah! Who’s there!?” the innkeeper cried out, clutching her quilt tightly to her chest, her expression filled with terror.
Yet outside, there wasn’t the slightest sound, and even her scream seemed smothered, unable to pass beyond the room. The air was bitterly cold, like the chill inside a frozen chamber. Just then, the innkeeper felt her limbs beginning to stiffen.
As the innkeeper of the inn, she had a far stronger will than the average woman. But even so, faced with this kind of situation, she was still overwhelmed by sheer terror.
She felt utterly hopeless. Her cries for help seemed unable to travel beyond the room at all. It was as if she had been sealed off from the outside world entirely.
Meanwhile, the man's footsteps drew closer and closer.
In the neighboring room, Li Yanchu, who had been cultivating, suddenly narrowed his eyes. Ever since he had begun training the methods mentioned in The Yellow Court Classic, his spirit’s sensitivity had grown far beyond that of ordinary people.
His gaze shifted toward the innkeeper's room.
Boom!
The next moment, the sturdy wooden door to the innkeeper's room was suddenly blasted apart from the outside by a massive force, splintering into countless fragments. The violent impact shook the entire room, and thick cracks spiderwebbed across the walls beside the doorway.
“You’re courting death!” a furious roar erupted. Just then, Li Yanchu burst in like an unleashed whirlwind. With his blade drawn and a murderous look in his eyes, he charged straight toward the bed.
Inside the room, the innkeeper’s body was frozen cold and stiff, unable to resist at all as she was being slowly dragged into darkness. But the moment she heard the door explode and that furious voice ring out, the look of pain on her face finally eased, replaced by a visible sense of relief.
In the next moment, a man appeared before her like a god descending from the heavens. His qi and blood were blazing like a roaring furnace, and he held a blade in hand.
The innkeeper blinked in surprise. Daoist Master Yanchu!?
And in that instant, realization dawned in her heart. No wonder Qinglan insisted on having Daoist Master Yanchu stay here!
As Li Yanchu gripped his blade, his gaze was as sharp as lightning, carrying a depth and intensity far beyond his years. Without a moment's hesitation, he slashed directly at the figure of the "innkeeper" before him.
Splurt! The figure was instantly torn to shreds.
Ahhh!
The illusion shattered, revealing beneath it a male paper effigy. His cheeks were thickly painted with rouge, and he was oozing with ghostly yin qi as he shrieked in agony.
“So, you’re the one behind all this spooky nonsense!”
Li Yanchu’s arm muscles bulged as he swung his blade fiercely at the paper effigy's head. The very air seemed to be torn apart, producing a sharp sonic boom.
He knew full well how dangerous this thing was. It was nothing like that lustful ghost from the Chen family. Thus, he struck with full force from the very start.
However, that eerie paper effigy moved with terrifying speed. In the blink of an eye, it vanished from sight.
Seeing this, a chill ran down Li Yanchu’s spine. The grotesque paper effigy, with its cheeks smeared with thick red blush, had appeared behind him! At this moment, qi and blood surged within Li Yanchu’s body as he spun and slashed behind him, his blade enveloped in the searing power of Six Yang Force. Six Yang Force was pure, unyielding yang, so it was perfect for restraining evil beings like this!
Whoosh!
The paper effigy blew a gust of sinister yin wind at Li Yanchu, and an icy chill instantly swept over him. Just then, yin and yang clashed!
But at that moment, a stream of warm, refined innate qi surged from Li Yanchu’s dantian and sea of qi through his entire body, igniting his qi and blood in an instant. This was the innate qi he cultivated and learned from The Yellow Court Classic.
All evil was repelled before it. With the support of innate qi, Li Yanchu’s blood roared like a furnace, and he was completely unafraid of the ghost’s yin qi. He swung again and again, slashing fiercely at the paper effigy.
The paper effigy, with its face deathly pale, let out a piercing shriek and crashed through the door in panic, fleeing into the night.
“Trying to run?!” Li Yanchu grabbed his blade and chased after it without hesitation.
The red-cheeked paper effigy moved like the wind; it was unnaturally fast. But Li Yanchu was even faster! With overwhelming force, he shattered the courtyard gate into splinters.
Boom! He charged forward and engaged the ghostly paper effigy in direct combat.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Loud metallic clashes rang out.
Despite having fully mastered Six Yang Force and wielding brute strength equivalent to five or six hundred jin, Li Yanchu was still forced back several steps.
However, the weapon in his hand, the Sinreaper, had a powerful restraining effect on the paper effigy. What he usually treated like nothing more than a butcher's knife was, in truth, a lethal blade that had claimed the lives of over a hundred men. It was also a relic left behind by a northern swordsman who had died in a foreign land, and it carried a heavy qi of death.
Combined with Li Yanchu’s sharp and searing Six Yang Force, his momentum only grew stronger with each exchange. In no time, he completely suppressed the grotesque paper effigy.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each of Li Yanchu’s slashes drove the paper effigy backward. Though there was no blood, its arms showed black, charred burn marks. The Six Yang Force could be infused into a weapon, allowing it to penetrate directly into the opponent’s body.
Li Yanchu fought more and more fiercely, every slash heavier and more ruthless than the last. His punches were equally devastating, crackling with faint sparks of lightning and flame.
Brilliant arcs of lightning lit up the dark night, and with each strike, the paper effigy’s presence visibly weakened. The knuckle dusters soaked in black dog’s blood had a natural restraining effect on evil entities. The paper effigy had probably never encountered such a bizarre Daoist weapon in its entire existence.
Just then, a crowd of people came rushing over with torches in hand. What they saw was a man in Daoist robes wielding a thick-backed, thin-edged short blade, slashing fiercely at the air. Now and then, he even threw punches that sparked with lightning and fire.
“It’s Daoist Master Yanchu!” Many recognized Li Yanchu immediately and called out his name.
At this time, the paper effigy was struck to its knees by a powerful blow from Li Yanchu.
Boom!
With that, the hard greyish-blue limestone ground beneath it shattered, splintering into spiderweb-like cracks.
Li Yanchu stepped forward and slammed a punch directly into the paper effigy's eye, then brilliant lightning flared to life. Soon after, a shrill, ghostly wail burst from the paper effigy’s mouth.
Shing!
Muscles tightening, Li Yanchu raised his saber and slashed straight at the paper effigy’s neck. This time, the Sinreaper, charged with Six Yang Force, cleanly severed its head.
Instantly, the ghastly pale red-cheeked paper effigy head rolled across the ground. However, the headless body didn’t bleed at all. Right before everyone’s eyes, the corpse turned to ash and dissolved into the night air!
The crowd stood frozen, staring in shock, chilled to the bone by the scene.
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