[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit":3,"chapter-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-22":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","There Is a Malevolent Spirit",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2263128,4416,"Chapter 22: 21, Grass-Head Dragon","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-22",22,"\u003Cp>21, Grass-Head Dragon\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a daze, Zhou Chang felt as if he stood at the center of a spacious main hall, surrounded by people dressed in red and green.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sounds of trumpets and suona flutes continuously drifted in from outside the main hall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bow to the ancestors!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the blurred, chaotic scene came the ceremonial master’s artificially raised voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The newlyweds in the hall were pressed by maids and servants to kneel before the paper spirit tablets on the offering table ahead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bow to heaven and earth!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The newlyweds turned around and were again pressed by maids and servants to kneel toward the doorway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bow to each other as husband and wife!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man, wearing a skullcap with a fake rat’s tail made of cotton thread hanging from the back, was guided by maids and old women to bow in return to the bride veiled in red silk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the bow, an old woman brought a bamboo stick wrapped in red silk, resembling a backscratcher, and stood beside the groom, lifting the bride’s red veil: “Young Master Wen, take a look at the bride’s face—so lovely, she’ll surely please you!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beneath the red veil, a pale, delicate face slowly emerged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The woman’s features were fair and delicate, exuding a subtle ethereal charm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But her eyes were tightly shut, her face utterly colorless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A dark, bruised mark circled her neck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Zhou Chang stared at the bride, sudden, searing pain shot through his skull—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He recognized that face!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He recognized the bride!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who was the bride? The bride was—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bai Xiue!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment Zhou Chang realized who the bride was, the scene before him blurred violently; the grand hall filled with red-and-green-clad figures rapidly receded from his vision.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw the eight-legged table before the bowing “newlyweds.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the table, five feet above the ground, stood a black spirit tablet inscribed: “Spirit Banner Altar of Cao Tou Long Chang Wen Yongsheng!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spirit banner!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wen Yongsheng was a spirit banner?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s pupils trembled violently!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw only Wen Yongsheng’s spirit banner on the table—no incense, no candles, no offerings; the people surrounding Young Master Wen and Bai Xiue held burning joss sticks in their hands—their thoughts were the feast for the spirit banner’s glory!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whoosh!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The blurred illusions in his vision vanished instantly!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The serpentine, slick, damp wind had completely disappeared from Zhou Chang’s perception.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The nourishing qi, which had come from nowhere, vanished just as abruptly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s corpse still gaped wide, struggling to draw in the drifting nourishing qi—but now, the air held not a trace of it, like a live fish thrown onto shore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Who dares try to trap you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang smiled coldly; a thread of blood-idea slipped from beneath his flesh, coiling several times around the corpse’s mouth and nose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The corpse fell utterly still, as if it had never awakened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Earlier, during their struggle, it had drawn nourishing qi from outside, restoring its body to its original form—no longer the emaciated, skin-over-bones state it had been when first stirred by the fermented thoughts from the wine cellar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s threads of blood-idea had undergone a greater transformation—they now resembled thick, robust blood vessels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These “vessels” spread beneath the corpse’s skin but could not absorb the corpse’s stored delusional nourishing qi; they could only draw in the fermented delusional qi filaments from the wine cellar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang waited a while.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His heightened hearing detected no further abnormal sounds from outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He then split off a thread of blood-idea, slowly extending it through the coffin’s crack, gently absorbing the delusional fungal filaments in the rice mound surrounding him. After a while, he sent out a second thread, creeping elsewhere to draw in the delusional filaments growing on other rice mounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The blood-idea threads passed through the cellar where Shi Danshi lay; the mountain of grain covering Shi Danshi’s cellar still showed no signs of delusional fungal growth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang gradually increased the number of blood-idea threads spreading outward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The color of the threads deepened further, turning black-red; they no longer thickened, but each thread gained the texture of sinew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The power they absorbed fed back into Zhou Chang’s spiritual essence, and his eyes began to gleam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Faint light shimmered within the dim coffin chamber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After roughly an hour, Zhou Chang again heard vigorous splashing from the nearby living spring; he shifted his thought, and the blood-idea threads spread across half the wine cellar instantly retracted into his coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clusters of blood-idea threads plunged into the corpse’s flesh, intertwining to form a vast net.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The slick, damp nourishing wind blew once more into the coffin chamber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The corpse struggled, trying to draw in the nourishing qi!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after an hour’s rest, Zhou Chang’s blood-idea threads had grown stronger—they wove beneath the corpse’s skin, sealing every pore of its body—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud! Thud! Thud!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The corpse could only thrash like a fish inside the coffin!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s thoughts, touched by the nourishing wind, now produced no clear hallucinations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moments later, the nourishing wind came and went; Zhou Chang repeated his earlier steps, releasing threads of blood-idea to draw in delusional fungal filaments from the surrounding rice mounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One day passed slowly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At dusk, Zhou Chang heard the muffled sound of stone slabs being moved above the cellar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fat man’s voice followed: “Prepare for awakening!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His voice spiraled down from the cellar ceiling, growing faint by the time it reached the cellar’s lowest level—and this time, it produced no echo within the wine cellar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the wine yeast “began fermenting,” the strangeness occurred again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The source of the strangeness might lie in the nearby living spring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang waited quietly in his coffin chamber, listening as the sound of shovels digging through rice mounds descended from above, drew nearer, and finally reached the earth directly above his coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fungal filaments have grown…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This man really is a bit mad…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang heard the fat man’s words; then the lid of his coffin was pushed open. The fat man stood outside the cellar pit, arms crossed, staring into the coffin at Zhou Chang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the dim wine cellar, Zhou Chang could see every subtle expression on the fat man’s face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He did not know what the man was observing, so he feigned the look of someone just waking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How do you feel?” The fat man grinned, his smile false.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Recalling how the nourishing wind had invaded his spirit, Zhou Chang carefully replied: “My head feels dizzy, my memory is hazy, but I can move my body now…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he spoke, he slowly pushed himself up with his arms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the blood-idea threads only covered key joints of his body, his movements were stiff—but to the fat man, this stiffness seemed perfectly natural.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fat man’s smile finally appeared genuine: “Your hysteria is being cured!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it’s not finished yet—you must come back tomorrow!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s eyes flickered faintly; he nodded. “Alright.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Need help standing?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, I can stand up slowly myself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You’re truly kind—may I ask your name?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My name is Qian Chaodong!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Call me Manager Qian.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, the fat man Qian Chaodong led the two men with scarred faces to dig away the grain covering Shi Danshi’s cellar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qian Chaodong stared at the unchanged pile of grain and sneered: “So he’s just faking madness!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He waved his hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two scarred men crouched down and silently lifted off the lid of Shi Danshi’s coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside the coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shi Danshi suddenly opened his eyes, gently stroking his cheek with one hand while forming a orchid-finger gesture with the other, gazing at the men outside with sultry eyes: “Do I look more like a human… or a fairy?”\u003C\u002Fp>",1278,"2026-06-19T18:47:42.084Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","edbdddc0d99f6d629bb53e85ce6fe2e8b2964f7696cdd7a9a6c679792f3891f7","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-23","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-21",209,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthere-is-a-malevolent-spirit-cover.jpg"]