Inner Demons

Chapter 120: Ghost Marriage

Du's appearance was no longer normal by any measure. The people on the street finally felt a hint of fear.

Someone asked Kunyangzi, "Daoist Master, what should we do?" Kunyangzi seemed a little flustered himself. He fumbled in his robes and pulled out some kind of talisman, sticking it on his face and looking around like a controlled zombie.

After looking for a while, he carefully peeled off the talisman and said, "There are no ghosts or monsters, it's fine."

Seeming to feel that he had also lost his composure, he glared angrily at Li Yunxin and said, "So young, yet you pretend to be a god and play tricks with ghosts!"

Seeing their shocked and foolish expressions, Li Yunxin just smiled faintly and turned his gaze.

Only, he was no longer staring to the west, but was looking into Du's courtyard.

First, he looked at Du, then his gaze followed something out—all the way through the crowd, stopping in front of himself again.

He looked as if he were acting. At this time, in this place, in this environment, his behavior was infuriating and angering—who had ever seen someone try to scare people so openly?

But looking at his demeanor, he wasn't a peasant. They really wanted to rush up and beat him away, but what if he was a scholar with a degree, one who didn't have to kneel before an official? If they rushed up and beat him and he reported it to the authorities, they would probably all end up in jail for a few days.

So they resorted to verbal attacks—something these people were best at.But despite this, they were all anxious and still hoped he would say a few words.

A quarter of an hour later, their wish came true… the young man spoke.

He looked at the empty space in front of him and smiled. "…Not really. Without people, where would we get our offerings?"

This gloomy, nonsensical sentence made them shut up again.

Kunyangzi frowned.

Then he saw Li Yunxin turn to them and sigh. "It's rare for me to be kind. I was thinking, you might all be my sources of incense in the future, so I gave you a reminder."

"And what happened? I say one thing, and you all nag me for so long. Why did I even bother?"

"It's too late to look now. You won't live through tonight." Li Yunxin waved his hand. "Go see that Du Zishe for yourselves. Haven't you ever heard of a ghost marriage?"

The people were all silently stunned. Because they didn't feel unwell in any way. And right now, the wind was clear and the moon was bright, so how could it be…

Only Kunyangzi's eyes widened when he heard this. He immediately turned and kicked open the fence gate, rushing straight to Du's side. He slapped him heavily on the shoulder—and Du fell to the ground with a thud.

The people on the street let out a collective gasp.

Kunyangzi then stretched out a trembling hand and checked his breath…

He had been dead for a long time.

Kunyangzi immediately sat down on the ground. He stared at Du's corpse for a long while before suddenly turning to glare at Li Yunxin. "Why didn't you say so earlier?! How many of our lives have you endangered!!"

Seeing the Taoist priest suddenly lose his composure, the crowd knew that something serious had probably happened. But for a moment, they were completely bewildered. They didn't know whether to scatter or to ask the Taoist priest or the young man for a solution.

Then they saw the Taoist priest clench his teeth and get up, his yellow crown falling off. He wrapped himself in his large cloak, rushed out of the fence gate straight for Li Yunxin, raised his hand as if to strike, and cursed, "Why did you endanger our lives?! Why didn't you say so earlier?!"

This Kunyangzi was a stout man. Now, in his panic and haste, he exuded a powerful aura. But before his thick arm could touch Li Yunxin's shoulder…

Li Yunxin had already raised his hand and slapped him to the ground.

This slap was extremely powerful, and the crisp sound echoed far in the night. Kunyangzi was almost sent spinning in mid-air before he fell to the ground.

The people couldn't have expected this handsome-looking young man to be so vicious. They didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

Li Yunxin stared at Kunyangzi on the ground for a while before saying, "Calmed down now?"

Kunyangzi shook his head vigorously while fumbling for something, trying to get up. He finally grabbed onto Li Yunxin's calf, and he didn't kick him away. The Taoist priest grabbed his leg, propped himself up, and looked up at Li Yunxin for a while before saying, "…Save… Senior, save me… I was wrong…"

Li Yunxin just continued to look at him. "Where were you wrong?"

The heavy blow to his head had given the Taoist priest an internal injury. Blood was now seeping from his mouth and nose, which was quite frightening in the night. But he still held on with his last breath and said, "I study… the Dao… I should know that some things cannot be forced… Senior has already given a word of guidance, we… should not have forced you, Senior… you…"

As the Taoist priest spoke, the blood from his mouth and nose flowed more urgently, blocking his throat, and he could only make "heh, heh" sounds.

Only then did Li Yunxin nod with some satisfaction. "You see. That's how things are. It's not like the whole world is your mother."

Then he squatted down, placed a hand on the Taoist priest's forehead, and asked, "You've run into a ghost marriage and don't have long to live. But since you've met me and formed a karmic bond with me before your death, I can't just sit by and watch you become a lonely, wandering ghost."

He exerted a little more force, bringing the Taoist priest's face closer to his own, and asked, "So I ask you—do you wish for eternal life?"

The Taoist priest's vision began to blur. Li Yunxin's voice sounded faint and distant in his ears. But it was precisely this kind of voice that sounded like heavenly music—he blinked with difficulty and said unclearly, "I wish… I wish… I wish…"

Li Yunxin said again, "Then, you have to do something for me."

The Taoist priest could no longer speak. He could only blink slightly to show his agreement.

Li Yunxin then reached up to his temple and, with a pained expression, plucked a strand of his own hair and put it in his mouth. Then, the index finger of the hand supporting his head tapped lightly—the force penetrated his skull, turning the Taoist priest's brain into a pulp.

He died.

And then… his soul dazedly stood up from his corpse.

Only then did he see the scene that Li Yunxin had seen earlier!

It turned out that in front of Du's house, along the small street to the west… to the west… all the way to the shore of Dongting Lake…

It was not empty as they had seen.

It was already filled with… "people."

They looked like people.

On the small street, in the wasteland, in the reeds and calamus by the water, they stood densely packed, hundreds of "people"!

Only their faces were not human—some had gray faces. But their noses were just sharp thorns, and their two round eyes protruded from their faces, like trembling black fruits. They were hunched over, motionless, only occasionally turning their two eyeballs suddenly, quickly, and neurotically.

There were also burly men with wide builds, wearing green armor. Their faces were also grayish-green, like corpses—they didn't even have noses. Their arms were covered with barbs and black whiskers. They were also like sculptures, only occasionally swaying their bodies.

These hundreds of strange people, scattered all over the hills and plains, stood silently, like ghosts.

And a… woman in a red dress was standing in front of Li Yunxin, looking curiously at Kunyangzi's soul, and then at Li Yunxin.

She asked in a shrill voice, "What kind of yin spirit are you?"