Chapter 233: Red and White Double Evil!

No sooner had the words been spoken than another soft sound came from the stone path ahead.

This time, it wasn't just a single small coffin.

From behind the white cloth, several ghastly white lanterns slowly emerged. The lanterns weren't delicately crafted; instead, they were crudely pasted together.

Each lantern face bore a character—"Mourning"—written in black ink, but the edges seemed to have been bled through by water, forming into patches of grayish stains.

Beneath the lanterns hung red tassels.

By all rights, for a funeral procession, the lanterns were meant to guide the way, and the tassels should have been plain in color.

Yet these were white lanterns paired with red tassels, like rouge smeared on a dead person's face, exuding an indescribable sense of wickedness.

"Red and White Double Evil..."

Lin Zhaoxuan's eyes sharpened as he gripped the Thunderclap Token tightly.

Lu Yuan didn't turn around, only watched the few lanterns slowly approaching, his tone revealing no fluctuation.

"It's not a matter of 'how.'"

"Someone deliberately set this up."

Lu Yuan raised his hand, pointing at the copper bell beneath the Yin Poplar tree, then at the soul-binding stone.

"You all asked earlier why this tree was here, didn't you?"

"Because it's responsible for summoning souls."

"Why is this stone here?"

"Because it's responsible for nailing down, grinding, and refining souls."

"But the Yin Malevolence refined here needs a 'title' to claim it."

"Red Evil lures in joy; White Evil lures in mourning. Joy Evil confuses the heart; Mourning Evil severs the soul."

"When these two types of evil collide in this kind of terrain, yin and yang fall out of balance, making it easiest to drag living people on the road into an illusory trap."

The group felt their scalps go numb listening to this.

Song Qinghe couldn't help but ask, "So this is... what the common folk call the 'Red and White Collision of Evils'?"

"Right," Lu Yuan said. "But this isn't an ordinary collision. This is the 'Red and White Sharing the Road.'"

"The white is mourning—it receives souls."

"The red is joy—it hastens death."

"One calls you to follow along; the other tells you to stay."

"Once a person here can't tell which side is real and which is fake, they'll get sandwiched between the two, walking deeper and deeper, until they don't even know how they died."

Zhou Heng's face turned pale, and his hand gripping the sword was already sweating.

"Then what do we do?"

Lu Yuan glanced at him.

"Don't look at the lanterns, don't look at the banners, don't listen to the bells."

"These things are best at borrowing people's eyes and ears."

"The more afraid you are, the closer they get."

Just as Lu Yuan finished speaking, the paper funeral coffin up ahead suddenly trembled slightly.

Even though the two figures carrying the coffin were still shuffling forward step by step, the coffin seemed to move on its own, the edge of its lid cracking open a sliver.

There was no face in the crack.

Only a stretch of darkness.

Darkness as black as a well's mouth.

Zhou Heng's breath immediately grew ragged, and he nearly raised his sword to charge forward, but Lu Yuan pressed his shoulder down firmly.

"Steady."

Lu Yuan's voice wasn't loud, but it landed like a heavy weight of iron.

"That's not for you to look at."

Sure enough, the next instant, the red cloth on both sides of the stone path fluttered without wind, snapping up all at once.

Dozens of faded, darkened red cloth strips rose simultaneously, like rows of bloody hands being lifted from the ground, twisting lightly in the air, and blocking off half the path ahead of the white coffin.

The white banners didn't retreat, and the red cloth didn't give way.

The red and the white seemed to clash head-on within this stone path.

"Ding-lang—"

The copper bell on the Yin Poplar tree suddenly let out a short, sharp ring.

At that moment, everyone heard it.

It wasn't just the bell.

There was also a very, very soft laugh mixed in.

It sounded like a child, or perhaps a woman.

The sound clung to the ground, crawling out from that paper funeral coffin up ahead, seeping through the stone cracks, burrowing into everyone's ears, chilling them to the bone.

"There's something inside," Wang Cheng'an said, his face pale as death.

But Lu Yuan only stared at that coffin, a deep, bone-chilling cold flickering in his eyes.

"It's not just one," he said slowly.

"It's two mouths."

"The White Evil leads the way; the Red Evil seals the rear."

"In that white coffin up ahead is a 'soul-summoning paper,' luring nearby scattered souls."

"Behind all that red cloth is what's really about to come out."

As he said this, his right hand had already risen, a razor-thin talisman sheet pinched between his fingers.

The talisman was small, its color a deep, aged yellow, bearing only a single, starkly simple character: "Decree."

"Lin Zhaoxuan," Lu Yuan suddenly called out.

"Can you cast Thunder Technique preemptively and cut off this evil path?"

Lin Zhaoxuan paused for a moment, then nodded firmly.

"I can try!"

Lu Yuan said coldly, "Don't try. Just do it."

"Hit the foot of that white coffin. Don't touch the body."

"Zhou Heng, step back half a pace. Protect Song Qinghe. Don't let the bell sound lead her astray."

"Cheng'an, Erxiao, stand against the wall. Don't look directly at those two lanterns."

"I'll tell you when to move. Only then do you move."

The group dared not hesitate and immediately followed orders.

Lin Zhaoxuan took a deep breath. The Thunderclap Token shook, and lightning gathered between his fingers. The sharp edge he'd been holding back in his brow finally lifted fully.

Just as his thunder energy was about to surge but hadn't yet, that paper funeral coffin up ahead slowly came to a halt.

The crack in its lid widened by another fraction.

This time, everyone saw clearly...

There was no corpse inside.

There was a pair of paper shoes, their tips pointing upward, placed neatly together.

It was as if someone was lying in the coffin, waiting for them to lift it.

And at that very instant, Lu Yuan snapped his eyes open and shouted in a low, commanding voice, "It's now!"

The moment Lu Yuan's shout of "It's now!" rang out, Lin Zhaoxuan had already flipped the Thunderclap Token in his hand.

He didn't hesitate for a second. His left foot stamped half a step forward, the five fingers of his right hand pressed together, and his index and middle fingers swept across the Thunderclap Token as he recited in a low voice:

"Celestial thunder, veiled and deep; terrestrial thunder, rumbling and vast."

"Thunder decrees from all four sides; descend swiftly, true wind of the blast."

"Dispel evil, bind the specter's might; slay the demon, expel the blight."

"Urgently, urgently, as by the law's command!"

The moment those final four characters landed, a thread of cyan-white lightning abruptly burst forth from the already dim crack on the Thunderclap Token's surface with a sharp crack.

The lightning was incredibly thin but blindingly bright, like a needle suddenly slicing open, illuminating a section of the stone path ahead in a stark white flash.

Zhou Heng's heart was racing wildly, and he instinctively wanted to charge forward, but he forced himself to hold back, following Lu Yuan's orders without daring to step beyond.

As Lin Zhaoxuan released the thunder, Lu Yuan flipped his wrist, forming an extremely steady hand seal with his right hand.

This wasn't an ordinary sword finger seal or the common thunder seal.

Instead, his thumb pressed down on the base of his middle finger, his index finger stood straight, the remaining three fingers curled inward, and his palm slightly cupped, as if forcibly locking an invisible breath of air in his hand.

"Decree."

Lu Yuan shouted low, and the yellowed talisman sheet between his fingers snapped into the air.

The moment the talisman left his fingers, it spun like a living creature, carving a tiny arc in midair as it shot straight toward the foot of the paper funeral coffin.

"Slap!"

A dull sound.

The talisman sheet landed precisely on the front left corner of the white coffin.

At that instant, the entire stone path seemed to be jerked violently by something.

The white coffin shook violently, and the two white shadows carrying it both froze, yet their feet didn't stop moving.

Instead, it was as if they were being pulled forward by invisible threads. Their knees bent sharply, and both knelt down half an inch in unison.

The moment the coffin's base touched the ground, Lin Zhaoxuan's thunder strike descended.

"BOOM—"

It wasn't the explosive crack of a heavenly thunderbolt crashing down, but a sound so deep, so heavy, like thunder plunging into thick soil.

Cyan-white lightning poured straight out from the token, not traveling through the air, but spreading along the stone surface, reaching the white coffin's foot in an instant.

The paper funeral coffin immediately reacted as if burned. A wisp of white smoke rose from the edge of its foot with a hiss, and the paper covering the coffin quickly blackened in the lightning's glow.

"Rise!"

Lin Zhaoxuan shouted with all his might, veins bulging on his forehead.

The lightning crawled up along the coffin's foot, and the paper layer covering the coffin's surface split open with a crack.

From inside, a flurry of finely shredded paper money scattered out.

This paper money wasn't freshly pasted; it was old and brittle, with yellowed edges, many corners already soaked into black by the dampness of Yin.

The moment they were blasted open by the thunder energy, they flew about madly like headless gray butterflies.

But before everyone could sigh in relief, the two white lanterns simultaneously dipped.

The character "Mourning" on the lantern faces trembled, and the black ink seemed to come alive, trickling down along the lantern paper's edges.

Two tiny red lights suddenly flickered on inside the white lanterns.

"Don't look at the lanterns!" Lu Yuan shouted sharply.

But before the words died down, Zhou Heng had already caught a glimpse of the red light.

Just that one glance, and his vision suddenly went hazy.

An icy wind seemed to surge up from under his feet, and somehow, the sound of suonas playing filled his ears.

Wah-wah, wah-wah—

The tune was shrill and long, as if it was blowing in from outside the mountain pass, or as if it was spinning inside his own head.

Zhou Heng's face changed, and his feet involuntarily shuffled half a step forward.

Song Qinghe was closest to him. Seeing this, she quickly grabbed his sleeve and shouted urgently, "Senior Brother Zhou, wake up!"

As she spoke, her left hand had already drawn a yellow talisman from her sleeve. Her right thumb and index finger pinched together, quickly folding the talisman three times as she recited:

"Let a single spark of spiritual light illuminate my mind and spirit."

"Let no evil sound enter, let no delusional thought arise."

"Ancestor above, protect my true essence!"

"Decree!"

The yellow talisman slapped against Zhou Heng's forehead with a sharp crack.

Zhou Heng's whole body shuddered violently, and the haze in his eyes dissipated in an instant.

He felt like he'd been pulled out of ice water, jolting as he took half a step back, his face ashen.

"Damn it..." he gritted out between clenched teeth, cursing under his breath. "That bell sound can reel in souls."

Lu Yuan swept his gaze over and said coldly, "It's not reeling in souls. It's testing your heart's apertures."

"The Red and White Double Evil's greatest fear isn't being fought. It's chaos."

"If you get chaotic, it can take advantage of that chaos to enter."

As he spoke, the paper funeral coffin had already been forced back a step by the thunder fire. The two white shadows carrying it also swayed, as if stepping onto empty ground, yet they stubbornly refused to disperse.

At the same time, the red cloth on both sides of the stone path came fully alive.

Dozens of red strips seemed to be propped up by an invisible breath of air, writhing and tangling wildly in midair, intertwining into a massive red web.

It even dimmed the sky light above the stone path by a layer.

The next moment, many slender, elongated human figures hung down from the red web.

These figures weren't tall, their postures stiff. Their heads were adorned with red flowers, and they were draped in colorful silk scarves. Their faces seemed caked with large patches of rouge—startlingly white, blindingly red.

Their feet didn't touch the ground, dangling and swaying in midair like a row of paper-made brides, yet every single one had a wide, grinning mouth, smiling with an unsettling strangeness.

"Joy Evil..." Song Qinghe gasped in a sharp breath.

Lu Yuan's gaze was like a blade. "This isn't ordinary Joy Evil. This is 'Ghost Marriage Joy Evil.'"

"Someone has set up both funeral and wedding here."

Zhou Heng's scalp felt like it was about to split. "Ghost Marriage?"

"How could this kind of thing be here?"

Lu Yuan, keeping his eyes fixed on the row of red shadows, said quickly, "In some folk traditions, when a man or woman dies before marrying, a ghost marriage is arranged to prevent their soul from wandering alone and scattered."

"But here in Wildman Ditch, this isn't a proper ghost marriage."

"This is using red paper, colorful silk scarves, a bridal sedan, and joy lanterns to feed the thing down below."

"The white coffin receives souls; the red wedding beckons evil."

"One sends you on your way; the other tempts you to leave your life behind."

"It looks like a happy event, but it's really a snare to take your life."

The moment Lu Yuan finished speaking, those red shadows all turned their faces toward the group in unison.

In that instant, everyone saw clearly.

Their faces weren't complete.

Some had only half a face; the other half looked as if it had been singed by fire, black and charred.

Some were simply faces made of paper, their mouth corners drawn extremely long with red ink, while their eyes were just two empty black holes.

For a few at the very front, bone shapes faintly showed through beneath the skin, as if something had forcibly stitched them into human form.

Song Qinghe's legs nearly gave way, and she almost fell.

But Lu Yuan had already stepped forward, changing the seal on his right hand as he flicked his left finger and shouted:

"Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding—the four directions stand clear."

"Cinnabar as the guide, fire bells as the vanguard!"

"Borrow my yang fire to shatter your yin form!"

"By the Supreme Dao's Command, urgently, urgently, as by the law's command!"

As Lu Yuan's words fell, Xu Erxiao hastily lit the fire starter he had prepared, scraping it to spark a small pine torch flame in his palm.

Without even looking, Lu Yuan took a side step diagonally, directly using the firelight to draw a short evil-breaking line on the ground.

The line wasn't long—only about three feet—but its tip was pointed straight at the densest part of the red shadows.

"Song Qinghe, seal the right path!"

Song Qinghe understood immediately. She raised her hand and pressed the Tai Chi Seal to Suppress Evil Plate against her chest.

The black-and-white jade pieces inside the plate turned slightly, and she bit her index finger, smearing blood on the plate's center as she recited rapidly:

"Tai Chi divides and judges; yin and yang return to the center!"

"Evil retreats a thousand li; ghosts avoid threefold obstruction!"

"Seal!"

The Tai Chi Seal to Suppress Evil Plate immediately let out a very soft humming sound, like a copper bell, but much deeper.

A barely visible halo of black-and-white light rippled out from the plate, precisely blocking the two strands of red evil cloth rushing in from the right side of the stone path.

The moment those two red strips touched the halo, they recoiled violently like snakes encountering realgar, letting out two faint hissing sounds as black smoke curled from their edges.

"Excellent!" Lu Yuan shouted low. "Just like that! Don't let it get close!"

But the Ghost Marriage Joy Evil was the most insidious of all. Seeing it couldn't attack head-on, it immediately switched tactics.

The white coffin up ahead suddenly gave a dull thump all on its own.

Then, the edge of the coffin lid slowly lifted upward, and a paper-made hand slowly extended from the crack.

That hand was thin and pale, but its fingers were unnaturally long, and its nails were painted with bright cinnabar red, looking just like a bride climbing out of her coffin.

Immediately after, a second hand also emerged.

Then came a wrist, a flash of white sleeve, a little red flower.

Everyone felt their scalps go numb, even their breathing stalled for half a beat.

But at that moment, a cold light flashed in Lu Yuan's eyes.

"It's about to rise."

Lu Yuan immediately reversed his hand and pulled out a short blade. As the blade flipped over, a fine layer of lightning-sand inlay was revealed.

This was no ordinary knife—it was a short evil-breaking blade that had been tempered by thunder fire.

He had naturally taken it from the system space!

Now that things had come to this point, he naturally couldn't continue hiding or concealing as before. He needed to bring out something powerful early on and prepare to fight for his life!