Chapter 210: Road of Regret

Di Youzhi stood on the small path before the mountain gate, lifting a leg only to put it back down.

He lifted the other leg, only to put it back down again.

He scratched his ears and rubbed his face, trembling all over in his anxiety.

Others saw the path clearly before him, yet he could not walk upon it.

But only he understood that he had suddenly "forgotten" how to walk!

Just as Xu Yuan had previously wanted to see the sword beneath the bridge arch.

Had anyone else tried to walk this path, they would have faced the same situation.

Fu Jingyu and the other two each chose a direction and walked toward the outside of the observatory.

They also lifted their feet; clearly taking a step forward, their bodies uncontrollably turned halfway, so that the step landed not leading outward, but inward toward the observatory!

Everyone's expression was solemn; they quickly returned to the Taoist observatory: "We cannot get out!"

The evil spirit, smug and arrogant, spoke through the carriage: "Here, you can only escape from this place just as I did by following the rules."

Lang Xiao Ba shouted angrily: "My lord burned you to death, everything here will vanish, and we will get out!"

"You little waste, your talent for swordsmanship is terrible! Truly both stupid and arrogant!" the evil spirit said. "Burning me away is also an escape for me.

You must stay here in my place!

If you wish to leave, there is only one path: just as I did, find a new scapegoat.

Your scapegoat must then continue to find a new scapegoat.

The more you find, the more it proves everyone would do the same thing, and the more it proves that I am not wrong—hahaha!"

Lang Xiao Ba did not believe it and looked at his lord.

Xu Yuan was thinking about something, his brows tightly furrowed with no reaction.

Lang Xiao Ba's heart skipped a beat; what the evil spirit said was actually true!

Fu Jingyu and the other inspectors could also guess that it was most likely so!

They, these people, would be trapped forever in this desolate, boring, eerie scene!

If enough time passed, perhaps they too would become like this evil spirit, scheming to trick people in to replace them!

Every member of the Pollution-Removal Bureau felt a chill down their spine and their hair stood on end at the thought.

If that were the case, it would be better to die outright!

The evil spirit grew even more arrogant and reckless: "Hahaha, you refuse to fulfill your oath to slay demons and monsters; you are all traitors!

Do not think of leaving! Never, never think of leaving!"

Xu Yuan suddenly said: "Is it truly impossible to get out forever?"

"If you cannot get out, stay here and keep me company, hahaha!"

Xu Yuan asked: "Then why did you leave that footprint on the path?"

"Footprint? What footprint?" A hint of unnaturalness hid in the evil spirit's voice.

"Hmph!" Xu Yuan let out a cold sneer, knowing his guess was correct.

He had always thought some strange technique was hidden within the footprints on that small path.

But until now, the so-called "strange technique" had not activated.

Xu Yuan had just carefully reconsidered and formed another hypothesis about these footprints.

Xu Yuan waved his hand, and the carriage flew up.

Xu Yuan carried the carriage and walked toward the mountain gate.

Fu Jingyu and the others immediately followed.

Standing on the small path before the mountain gate, Xu Yuan suddenly turned his back to the path and walked backward.

"You did wrong in the past, tormented by the fact that there was no road of regret to walk, allowing you to return to that time to correct your mistake."

"So you left behind this road of regret."

Xu Yuan walked backward: "This path is also proof that you long ago realized your mistake; otherwise, what would you regret?"

As he spoke, Xu Yuan had already retreated more than ten steps.

Fu Jingyu's eyes lit up; he immediately imitated Xu Yuan and walked backward onto the small path.

Inside the carriage, the evil spirit screamed madly: "No, absolutely not like that... I slayed demons and monsters, I was absolutely not wrong!"

"I never regret anything; there is no road of regret in this world!"

It frantically battered against the walls, trying to burst out.

"Do not run! None of you are allowed to run! Stay here and keep me company!"

This display further proved Xu Yuan's hypothesis correct.

If one could not walk forward, the method was wrong.

Then how could one walk upon the so-called "road of regret"?

Let everything follow its original trajectory and return to the very beginning.

The old Taoist priest back then must have desperately longed for this.

So Xu Yuan tried walking backward onto the small path.

When his father told Xu Yuan the stories of the Seven Gates back in the day, he had spoken of this kind of obsession-driven evil spirit.

And he had mentioned that "a friend" had encountered a similar scene.

Sure enough, one try was all it took to succeed.

Xu Yuan had already retreated to the stone bridge and suddenly spat several mouthfuls of Fu Zhong Huo from his belly into the carriage.

Yet this evil spirit was no ordinary matter.

After repeated impacts, the carriage was on the verge of collapsing.

"Stay! You must all stay! How can I find release if you escape—"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Violently striking the carriage.

Xu Yuan wrapped the carriage exterior in Fu Zhong Huo once more.

"It must still be incinerated as soon as possible."

Xu Yuan retreated while continuously spewing fire into the carriage.

The flames rolled, yet this evil spirit was powerful; black wind and black sand swirled wildly inside the carriage, consuming each other with the Fu Zhong Huo.

When Xu Yuan had retreated halfway, his own Fu Zhong Huo was already exhausted.

Xu Yuan gritted his teeth and pressed the final plaster onto his navel.

Boom—

The Fu Zhong Huo surged violently.

Xu Yuan continued spewing flames as he swiftly retreated on foot.

Soon, everyone had backed out of that eerie scene and returned to the mountains.

Seeing Fu Jingyu and the others heaved a long sigh of relief, feeling their entire bodies go limp, and they inevitably sat on the ground.

"Finally out..."

"Fortunately, my lord saw through that evil spirit's trickery; otherwise, our fate would be unimaginable."

That narrow path, in everyone's eyes, was shrouded in a layer of mist.

The mist grew thicker and thicker, gradually obscuring the entire path.

Suddenly, a mountain wind blew, the thick mist dispersed, and that eerie path vanished as well.

Yet the eerie scene clearly had not dissipated; who knows if, in the future, some unlucky fellow might stray into the mountains and take that path again!

Xu Yuan was still spewing flames.

The obsession-bound evil spirit was difficult to refine.

When the medicinal effect of the dog-skin plaster had been consumed by more than half, a final roar finally erupted from inside the carriage, and all movement ceased.

A wisp of green smoke drifted out from the carriage.

Various memory images, like layers of fading shadows, slowly vanished.

In childhood, the family was poor, with no food to fill the belly and no clothes to cover the body.

The father toiled hard in the fields, the mother diligently spun thread, raising three children.

The elder brother was affectionate, the younger sister obedient.

The days were bitter yet filled with joy.

The father often said, "In a few more years, once the elder brother comes of age and the household gains a strong laborer, we can ensure you eat your fill and buy your sister a new jacket."

But that winter, rat demons erupted in the village.

They ate grain and ate people!

The entire village gathered their remaining rations in the ancestral hall; everyone held a kitchen knife, a hoe, or a manure fork, ready to fight the rat demons to the death.

Under the demon calamity, death was the only path; they could only fight.

The father, the mother, and the brother were all among them.

Yet that rat demon, as huge as a tiger, leading dozens of pup-sized minor demons, was invincible to the villagers.

His situation that day was no different from that of the little boy and the villagers during the flood-dragon incident.

The father died, the elder brother died, the mother died, the sister died... everyone in the village died.

(End of this chapter)