When Bai Yu woke up, everything around him was dark, and he could faintly hear some unfamiliar sounds. He instinctively tried to get up and light a lamp, but someone beside him tugged at him.
“Shh, quiet!”
It was Yun Jiao’s voice.
Bai Yu froze, finally realizing they were hiding inside a pitch-black little room. There were no windows, only a faint sliver of light seeping in through a gap up ahead.
“Where… are we?” he asked, bewildered.
“The secret chamber of the library pavilion,” Yun Jiao replied.
“Oh… wha—!” Bai Yu blurted out. “The library has a secret room?!” How did he not know this?
“Mm.” Yun Jiao nodded while keeping an eye on the outside. “It’s behind that cabinet on the far wall.”
“……” Damn it. He’d lived in this temple for decades and never realized there was a hidden room behind that cabinet.
“You… how did you figure that out?”“The wall thickness doesn’t match the size of the adjacent rooms. There had to be a hidden space,” Yun Jiao answered matter-of-factly, then added casually, “I found it on my second day here.” It just took a bit of time to locate the mechanism.
Bai Yu: “……”
Fine, you can be the temple master now!
o(╯□╰)o
“They’re here!” Yun Jiao’s voice dropped low as she pointed outside.
Sure enough, Bai Yu listened carefully and heard terrifying, ghostly wails echoing outside, mixed with cracking sounds. Dense ghostly miasma was flooding in through the cracks ahead. He suddenly remembered the female ghost — clearly, she had found them.
His heart trembled. In a whisper, he asked, “Is that… that… the female ghost?”
“Mm, she’s inside.” Yun Jiao nodded calmly, her face still composed and steady.
Bai Yu, however, began trembling harder. He quickly reached for his talismans — but came up empty.
“Huh? Where’s the talisman paper?” He frantically patted every pocket on his robe but didn’t find a single slip. He’d drawn so many!
“I put them up outside,” Yun Jiao answered.
“A-all of them?!” Bai Yu’s eyes widened. At least save one for defense!
“Mm.” Yun Jiao nodded, then said, “In a moment, when I count to three, if you see purple flames outside, run as fast as you can. Got it?”
“Ah? Ah?!” Bai Yu couldn’t react. Run? Why run? Isn’t this place safe?
“Get ready.”
“What?!” Ready to run where?
“Three, two—”
“Wait! Explain first!” he whispered frantically.
“One!” Yun Jiao suddenly shoved open the secret room door, grabbed him, and bolted toward the back exit. “Run!”
“Wha—” Bai Yu hadn’t even finished speaking before being yanked along. Purple light suddenly flared ahead — huge swaths of violet fire ignited, accompanied by shrill, piercing ghostly screams.
Inside the secret room they couldn’t see, but once they burst out, the sight was horrifying: countless ghostly figures writhed amid the flames. Few were whole; missing arms and broken legs were the mild ones. Many had gaping chests, spilled entrails, severed heads — each one grotesque and terrifying.
Bai Yu took one glance and felt his scalp crawl, terror washing over him like a tidal wave. He didn’t need Yun Jiao to pull him anymore; his own legs carried him as fast as they could.
Luckily, the dense horde of female ghosts was blocked by the violet flames for the moment and hadn’t caught up. Bai Yu guessed the flames were triggered by the Demon-Suppressing Purple Talisman he had drawn. But his version was the lowest grade — it couldn’t hold them long.
Sure enough, as soon as they rushed out the back door, the purple fire began to die out, and the ghost army surged after them like a black tide. The ghostly miasma spread like a dark curtain, swallowing everything. Bai Yu glimpsed houses behind them crumbling and rotting under its corrosion. The protective seals above the main gate were long gone.
Fear gripped him tighter; his legs nearly gave out. He hadn’t expected that ghost called Su Niang to actually summon a hundred ghosts.
I’m going to die, going to die, going to die…
The ghost horde closed in fast, almost upon them. Suddenly, from stone pillars lining the path, white light flashed and clusters of tiny flames ignited one after another. The pursuing ghosts shrieked and stopped as if something blocked them.
Bai Yu turned his head and saw the pillars were plastered with countless yellow talismans — his own drawings.
“Don’t look back — keep running!” Yun Jiao warned.
Bai Yu snapped out of it. Those talismans were just the lowest grade; they could only stall the ghosts briefly. He sped up again.
All around, the talismans ignited in quick succession, lighting the entire corridor like rows of lamps. Everywhere flared red fire. Bai Yu finally realized what Yun Jiao meant by “I already put them up” — she’d plastered them all here!
But clearly, these talismans couldn’t truly stop the ghost army. Even if they delayed them for a bit, it wouldn’t last. The temple wasn’t that big — they’d be caught soon. And the talismans were running out; the number dwindled sharply.
What now?
“Girl…” Bai Yu called out nervously. Ahead lay the lotus pond — no more path beyond.
“We’re here!” Yun Jiao suddenly stopped and pointed to the pavilion at the pond’s center. “We’re going there!”
“Ah? Ah!” That was a dead end! Hiding in the middle of the water wouldn’t help — ghosts weren’t afraid of water. “Maybe we should try asking the Patriarch…”
Before he could finish, Yun Jiao had already dragged him through twisting paths to the pavilion in the center of the pond.
It was too late to turn back. Behind them, the ghosts that had been blocked by talismans burst out of the corridor and reached the pond’s edge.
“Hehehehe…”
A familiar, chilling laugh echoed from the ghost horde. A red-clad woman floated out, looking at the two of them with mocking contempt. “So this is the so-called mystic sect? Turns out you’re nothing special after all.”
It was Su Niang. She still bore that terrifying, disemboweled form, but now the blood-soaked, murderous energy in her ghostly aura was even denser. At her voice, all the other ghosts halted. Looking closely, Bai Yu saw they were all female ghosts — each one horrifying. Yet now, their once-twisted faces seemed blank and lifeless, their empty black eyes staring straight at the pair in the pavilion.
Clearly, these ghosts had all been consumed by the bloodthirsty miasma and lost their consciousness, turned into wandering souls — no wonder Su Niang could control them so easily.
(End of this chapter)