Chapter 234: There's More?!

Lu Yuan held a short blade in one hand while forming hand seals with the other, chanting aloud:

"The Big Dipper points the way, Earthly Malevolence has no gate!"

"Where thunder's light reaches, paper and wood turn to dust!"

"Lend me this edge, to sever your evil root!"

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

As Lu Yuan finished, the short blade suddenly spun, its tip aimed directly at the seam of the White Coffin. From thin air, he drew a thread-thin bolt of lightning.

The lightning was as slender as a strand of hair, yet exceptionally sharp and fast. In an instant, it drilled into the coffin's crack.

The next moment, a sharp, piercing hiss erupted from within the White Coffin.

It didn't sound human, nor did it sound like an animal. It was a grotesque noise, like the tearing of paper skin mixed with the snapping of bone fragments.

An arm, half-paper and half-bone, shot out from within.

"It's a paper effigy with rising malevolent qi!" Lin Zhaoxuan blurted out in shock.

Lu Yuan, however, remained expressionless, only barking, "Don't break the Thunder Techniques! Keep suppressing it!"

Lin Zhaoxuan gritted his teeth. The Thunderclap Token vibrated again as he chanted once more:

"Ancestral Thunder of the Nine Heavens, save and suppress the demons!"

"Heavenly fire burns the form, earthly fire burns the bones!"

"Thunder, come!"

Before he could finish, a low, rumbling blast of thunder sounded in midair.

It wasn't the rumble of clouds on the horizon. It was as if someone had forcefully hammered a clap of thunder directly above their heads.

As the thunderbolt struck down, it briefly illuminated the red-and-white cloth banners lining both sides of the stone path. It also illuminated the face that had finally half-emerged from the White Coffin.

The face was as white as paper pasted with glue, with a red "double happiness" character pasted on its forehead. Its mouth, however, was torn all the way to its ears, the cracks filled with pitch-black stitching.

"Mom......"

Xu Erxiao's legs went weak at the sight.

But Lu Yuan yanked him backward, shouting sternly, "Don't look at the face! Look at the feet!"

Xu Erxiao was startled. He quickly looked down and noticed that, at some point, a pair of embroidered shoes had appeared beneath the White Coffin.

Red soles, white uppers, topped with two withered red pom-poms.

The tips of the shoes were slowly turning towards them, inch by inch.

"It's trying to use the shoes to guide its path!" Lu Yuan saw through it immediately, his voice deep. "It's going to drag you all into its 'wedding procession' and make you walk its ghost marriage route!"

"Zhou Heng! Slash the red threads with your sword and cut off its footpath!"

"Cheng'an! Get the black ash!"

"Erxiao! Scatter the fire onto the red cloth on the left!"

With their backs against the wall, the group had no room to retreat. They immediately followed Lu Yuan's orders.

Zhou Heng let out a roar. His long sword left its sheath, the blade's light slashing straight for the red threads. With one strike, he snapped three of the black-and-red cords tied to the ground.

The moment the threads broke, the White Coffin seemed to lose its support and tilted slightly.

Wang Cheng'an gritted his teeth, pulled a small pouch of black ash from his chest, and hurled it forward.

This wasn't ordinary ash. It was soot collected from the bottom of an incense censer, mixed with a bit of charcoal, specifically used to suppress the yin path.

The moment the ash scattered, it formed a thin layer of black mist on the ground, enveloping the embroidered shoes beneath the White Coffin.

Xu Erxiao, flustered, stuffed a fire starter and pine kindling into a bundle of dry grass and hurled it towards the red cloth on the left.

As soon as the grass bundle touched the red cloth, sparks flared up, and in an instant, a tongue of fire half a foot high blazed.

The fire wasn't large, but it burned fiercely, specially designed to burn cloth soaked in yin-chill.

As the fire licked the red cloth, a pungent, burnt smell immediately filled the air. Even the Red Shadows swayed with it, letting out thin, sharp cries that were half laughter and half weeping.

In an instant, the White Coffin, the Red Evil, the copper bells, the Yin Poplar, and the Soul-Sealing Stone all became restless simultaneously.

The entire stone path seemed to ignite, but it wasn't fire. It was a backdraft from the yin malevolence being forced out.

Right in the middle of this chaos, Lu Yuan suddenly shouted:

"Seal!"

He flung the "Command" character talisman into the air. Then, he flipped his right palm outward, his five fingers pressed together, his wrist and back of his hand taut and straight.

This technique was a highly refined sealing hand seal in Daoist methods, known as the "Heaven-Overturning Evil-Suppressing Palm."

The incantation was simple, but it carried immense pressure:

"The Heavenly Gate closes! The Earthly Door shuts!"

"The yin soul is locked! The yang qi is separated!"

"With my palm before me, let no evil enter!"

"Supreme Lord stabilizes the altar, urgently, urgently, as by the law's command!"

As the last syllable left his lips, the center of his palm seemed to press down on something invisible.

The "Command" character talisman in the air exploded, turning into countless threads of golden light that scattered in all directions with a whoosh.

The golden light landed on the stone path, forming a net so fine it was almost transparent, spreading out half a zhang in an instant.

The paper hand that had just emerged from the White Coffin reached out to grab something, only to be entangled by the golden light net. Two of its fingers snapped instantly, producing a sickening crack that set teeth on edge.

The paper face twisted violently, and from its pitch-black eye sockets, two streams of red liquid suddenly gushed out.

"There's a way!" Zhou Heng's spirits lifted at the sight. He swung his sword, ready to charge forward.

But Lu Yuan shouted sternly, "Don't get close! It's not dead yet!"

Sure enough, the White Coffin flipped upward, its bottom bulging like a snake's belly.

The next moment, a black shadow shot out from the coffin, heading straight for the nearest person: Song Qinghe.

The black shadow was incredibly fast, like a ball of scorched cloth or a shapeless hand. It tore through the air, leaving a trail of a cold, fishy wind, reaching Song Qinghe's chest in an instant.

Song Qinghe's face turned pale. She barely had time to react, only instinctively raising the Tai Chi Seal to Suppress Evil Plate.

"Humm—"

The plate vibrated violently.

The black and white jade pieces spun faster. The plate's surface turned into a small yin-yang vortex, forcibly sucking the black shadow half an inch off course.

But even so, Song Qinghe was still grazed by the yin wind. Her chest tightened, and she staggered backward two steps, a trace of blood immediately seeping from the corner of her lips.

"Junior Sister!" Lin Zhaoxuan's eyes reddened. He shook the Thunderclap Token with all his might, ready to launch another round of Thunder Techniques.

But the thing inside the White Coffin had used this pounce to tear itself completely free.

The coffin lid shattered with a "crack," sending paper and wood scattering everywhere.

What crawled out wasn't a complete corpse, but two entangled evil shadows.

One was white, one was red.

The white one looked like a skeleton draped in mourning cloth, its face still wet with un-dried paper pulp.

The red one resembled a female evil wearing a wedding veil, its ten dry fingers blood-red, its nails sharp as knives.

They were back-to-front, as if they were never meant to be together. They had been forcibly shackled in the same coffin by some malevolent method, and only now had they torn free from their bindings.

This was the true core of the "Red and White Sharing the Road" evil.

Seeing this, a fierce chill filled Lu Yuan's eyes. He shouted almost instantly:

"Got it!"

"They were trying to use the White Coffin to shed their outer shell!"

"Lin Zhaoxuan! Strike the white one with thunder!"

"Zhou Heng! Cut off the red one's hands with your sword!"

"Song Qinghe! Use the plate to suppress their soul gate!"

"Cheng'an! Erxiao! Don't let the red cloth rise again!"

Although they were battered and exhausted, everyone knew that if they couldn't hold this, they would all die here today. They immediately fought with everything they had.

Lin Zhaoxuan closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his entire being seemed illuminated by thunder-fire.

He held the Thunderclap Token horizontally across his chest with his left hand, while the two fingers of his right hand were pressed vertically on top of the token. His voice rang out like metal and stone:

"Nine Heavens Prime Responder Universal Thunder Transformation Celestial Master above!"

"The Thunderclap Command, ten thousand evils go into hiding!"

"One blow returns to truth, ten thousand evils perish!"

"Command!"

Before his words faded, the cyan-white lightning at his fingertips transformed into a straight line, slashing down diagonally, striking the white evil's shoulder.

The white evil's body shook violently. Half of its shoulder bone instantly turned black and charred. Its paper-mâché face split open inch by inch, revealing the yellowing, blackened bone beneath.

At almost the same time, Zhou Heng struck with his sword. He didn't aim for its head or its body, but went straight for the red evil's wrists.

The red evil was most vulnerable to having its hands severed. Seeing the sword come, it shrieked and retracted its hands.

Its ten fingers hooked in midair, pulling up two strips of red cloth in an attempt to wrap around Zhou Heng's sword.

But Zhou Heng had been suppressed for too long. This time, he erupted. He let out a low growl:

"Break, damn it!"

He twisted his wrist, pressing his blade's edge down hard, forcing the two red cloth strips, along with the malevolent energy behind them, half a foot away.

Seeing that they had held the line, Song Qinghe gritted her teeth and pressed the Tai Chi Seal to Suppress Evil Plate against her chest. She formed a sword seal with her two fingers, brushed it across the plate's edge, and chanted urgently in a low voice:

"Yin and yang divide their paths, malevolent energy returns to the shadows!"

"Tai Chi turns the wheel, seal my physical form!"

"Formation, rise!"

The Tai Chi Seal to Suppress Evil Plate lit up in response, the black-and-white halo spreading out once more.

This time, it was no longer just for self-defense. It was aimed directly at the soul gate where the white and red evils were entangled.

Pinned down from all sides by thunder, electricity, sword, and plate, the two evils writhed and shrieked in agony.

The white one wanted to retreat, the red one wanted to pounce, but they were still connected by an extremely faint, thin black line.

It was like a rope of karmic causality pulled from the depths of the stone path, cruelly binding them together, preventing them from dispersing.

Lu Yuan saw it at a glance.

"There's something else under the Soul-Sealing Stone."

His gaze was icy cold.

"It's not these two evils themselves. Someone has tethered their soul wicks to a furnace core!"

"No wonder they couldn't dissipate. The real hook is down below."

With that, Lu Yuan suddenly reached into his chest and pulled out a small bundle.

When he shook it open, it contained half a bag of black rice, a handful of cinnabar, and a pinch of burnt locust tree ash.

"Lin Zhaoxuan!" he commanded sternly. "Give me three breaths of thunder-fire. Don't let it break!"

Lin Zhaoxuan didn't say a word. He simply raised the token and drew thunder again, reciting the thunder incantation once more, forcibly pinning the two evils in place.

Seizing that moment, Lu Yuan quickly kneaded the black rice, cinnabar, and locust ash together in his palm. With a rub of his hands, he formed a ball of black-and-red mud.

He flicked his finger, and the mud ball flew up. Illuminated by the thunder's light in midair, it burst open with a "pop."

What exploded wasn't smoke, but an extremely fine, fine black sand. Mixed with vermillion specks, the sand scattered down onto the black line connecting the two evils and the edge of the stone path.

Lu Yuan chanted in a low voice:

"Black rice stabilizes the path! Cinnabar severs the contract!"

"Locust ash extinguishes the gate! The yin thread is completely cut!"

"All those who borrowed earth veins, borrowed Vitality Energy, borrowed soul fires, return them to me tonight!"

"Break!"

As the final "break" left his lips, the black sand sank down heavily.

The black line that had been holding the white and red evils together suddenly snapped, severed by something incredibly heavy. It broke completely with a crisp "crack."

The white evil and the red evil simultaneously let out a shriek of such bizarre intensity that it defied description.

It didn't sound human, nor animal. It sounded like the lids of two coffins being ripped open simultaneously, the sound of dry splintering in a bitterly cold wind.

Then, the head of the white evil cracked open first, and the red evil's shoulder collapsed halfway. Their forms dispersed, turning into clumps of white paper ash and red cloth scraps that swirled through the air.

But before anyone could catch their breath, a "dong" sound echoed from deep within the right side of the path.

The sound was extremely deep, as if someone had struck an empty gong deep underground.

Immediately after, the entire Wildman Ditch trembled slightly.

All the copper bells on the Yin Poplar rang in unison.

From the nine black iron nails on the Soul-Sealing Stone's surface, a trace of dark red liquid simultaneously seeped out.

Lu Yuan's expression changed drastically. He suddenly looked up.

"Not good."

"This isn't the end."

"This has knocked loose the deeper gate below."

The moment Lu Yuan's words fell, the icy cold that had just been suppressed came flooding back like a tide, seeping up from the stone cracks, tree roots, and beneath the red cloth.

The Red and White Double Evil, which had been shattered by the combined force of thunder techniques, talisman nets, and the seal plate, had already dispersed into ash and cloth scraps in the air. But those ashes and scraps didn't die immediately upon hitting the ground.

Instead, as if they had their own direction, they crept strand by strand along the black soil towards the Soul-Sealing Stone.

"They haven't dissipated completely!" Wang Cheng'an's voice was tight.

Lu Yuan didn't answer. His gaze was locked on the nine black iron nails on the Soul-Sealing Stone's surface.

Those nails had only been dark before. Now, they seemed to be pushed up by something from below.

A fine ring of dark red liquid seeped from the edge of each nail's cap. It looked like blood, or like juice oozing from copper rust.

Even stranger, the nails themselves didn't move, but the stone was vibrating softly.

It wasn't shaking randomly. It was a rhythmic pulse, one beat at a time.

It was as if someone beneath the ground was tapping the stone slab with the back of their hand. Dong, dong, dong. Extremely slow, extremely deep, causing the entire stone path to go numb.

Lin Zhaoxuan's chest heaved unevenly. His face was already grim to the extreme. "Brother Lu... is there really something down there trying to come out?"

Lu Yuan slowly exhaled, his voice lowered to almost a whisper: "It's not 'trying to come out.'"

"It's that something that was never supposed to be buried down here has been suppressed for too long by this layout."

"Now that the Red and White Double Evil is broken, it's like lifting the outer threshold of the seal."

"What we're hearing now is the furnace core awakening."

Upon hearing this, everyone felt a chill crawl up the back of their necks, as if an icy hand were slithering down their spines.

Song Qinghe was clutching her chest. The dull ache from the malevolent wind that had grazed her earlier hadn't subsided. The small trail of blood at the corner of her lips was starkly vivid against her pale face.

She looked down at the Tai Chi Seal to Suppress Evil Plate in her hands. She noticed the black and white jade pieces spinning faster than before. Even the fine copper patterns on the plate's rim were faintly warm to the touch.

"Daoist Lu..." her voice was a bit weak. "This plate... it's getting hot."

Lu Yuan glanced at it, his brow furrowing. "It means the yin energy here is surging upward. The seal plate felt the impact first."

"Don't keep it against your chest anymore. Hold it out in front of you."

Song Qinghe immediately followed his instructions, supporting the seal plate in her palm, a safe distance from her body.

Zhou Heng also held his sword horizontally in front of him, staring at the open space between the Soul-Sealing Stone and the Yin Poplar. His voice was stiff from tension. "Daoist Lu, according to what you're saying, the furnace core is under this stone."

"So those two evil things earlier were just the keys to unlock the furnace core?"

Lu Yuan nodded.

"Pretty much."

"The Red and White Double Evil was set up to 'open the game.'"

"The white one draws the souls, the red one confuses the heart, scrambling the living person's sight, hearing, and spirit."

"Then, using the coffin, the shoes, and the joy-funeral path, they drag the person in."

"They can't amount to much on their own, but they're perfect for serving as 'keys' in this kind of sacrificial land."

"Now that the key is broken, the door will naturally rattle."

As he said this, Lu Yuan suddenly raised his hand, palm facing down, and pressed it gently against the ground.

"Don't stay where you are. Take three steps back."

Everyone was startled, but they knew this wasn't the time to ask questions. They immediately stepped backward.

Just as their feet left their original spots, a small mound suddenly bulged up from the black soil in front of them with a "puh."

The mound was very small and shallow, as if something was pushing up from beneath the earth.

In the next breath, the mound suddenly split open. A pale white hand slowly extended from the soil.

The fingers were long and thin, the skin like soaked, rotting linen. But the nails were abnormally intact, sharp, black, and cyan.

As soon as the hand appeared, it grasped the ground, as if trying to pull its owner out from under the earth.

There's more?!