Chapter 107.2

Before, the three of them had all been completely outmatched when facing White Crane Child. Now Runsheng alone could fight Him to a standstill.

Tan Wenbin understood it clearly too. What White Crane Child lacked was time. As long as they could endure, if He could not kill you, then His spirit medium would be “doomed beyond doubt.”

As the three incense sticks burned out, White Crane Child’s movements became sluggish again, and His vertical pupils once more began to lose focus.

This time, Runsheng did not need Li Zhuiyuan to remind him. He stopped on his own and staggered back a few steps before bending over with both hands braced on his knees. His clothes had already been shredded into strips. The outfit that had once billowed around him like a blower now fluttered as torn cloth clung to his body and lifted again in the wind.

Yet the sixteen wounds on his body that had once held coffin nails did not split open because of this. They remained sealed.

Those coffin nails had been like the little training wheels on either side of a child’s bike, helping him clearly sense where his qi sea was and how to use it. Through this battle, Runsheng had deepened his understanding of it.

Before long, those wounds would heal completely as well, but the vortices of qi would still gather there, producing the same effect.

Tan Wenbin asked, “Brother Xiaoyuan, should we use the needles?”

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. He walked over to Lin Shuyou. At that moment, Lin Shuyou was already kneeling on the ground, his spirit medium state about to end.

The boy dipped his finger in red clay and pressed it to the center of Lin Shuyou’s brow. Then he dragged it down the middle of his face, drawing a red line over the face paint.

Next, he formed hand seals again and drew a circle at each temple.

Finally, he pointed his finger toward the empty space beside him, then flicked it back toward Lin Shuyou.

A faint wind stirred around them, carrying a cold, sinister chill. It was Yin aura.

What Li Zhuiyuan had just set up on Lin Shuyou was a simple gathering-evil formation, or rather, a disposable one.

He had once used this kind of formation before in an attempt to stir up the ferocity of a Dead Sinker.

Now, he was using the same method to awaken the instincts of an Yin god.

Once the evil gathering was complete, the red dot at Lin Shuyou’s brow turned black, and the black spread downward, covering the red line.

Li Zhuiyuan stepped back as he crooked his hand.

“Rise!”

Lin Shuyou opened his eyes again, and his vertical pupils returned.

A smile appeared at the corner of Li Zhuiyuan’s lips. It had worked.

There was a kind of joy in this, no less than when he had once read and studied on the second floor of Taigong’s house and then watched his own theories prove workable.

White Crane Child glared at Li Zhuiyuan, and clear killing intent shone in His eyes.

As an Yin god, worshiped in temples and bound to spirit mediums by an unspoken understanding, whenever the spirit mediums called, They descended, borrowed their bodies, destroyed evil things, and accumulated merit. They were the ones in the primary seat, free to come and go as They pleased.

But the boy before Him was trying to overturn that entire order!

White Crane Child clenched His fist and rose instantly from His kneeling posture.

No one knew whether He truly meant to throw that punch at the boy, because Runsheng never gave things the chance to develop that way.

Runsheng charged in at just the right moment, slammed into White Crane Child, and sent Him flying. White Crane Child got back up and grappled with Runsheng again, repeating the story of the previous two rounds.

Meanwhile, Li Zhuiyuan carefully observed Lin Shuyou’s physical condition. The first time Lin Shuyou had fought the Officers of the Command Banner on the sports field, he had been gravely injured the instant his spirit medium state ended.

At the time, Li Zhuiyuan had suspected that the injuries had simply been delayed.

But was that really the case?

The dull, monotonous exchange of blows continued for some time. The difference was that this time, Runsheng was clearly beginning to flag as well, and White Crane Child was now able to press him down and beat him. Runsheng could only defend passively.

Still, Runsheng’s decline stopped after reaching a certain point. It was like a downward parabola gradually flattening out rather than a continuous plunge toward collapse.

Li Zhuiyuan nodded inwardly. This meant that in the future, when facing troublesome opponents, even if Runsheng was no longer at peak condition, he would still be able to keep dragging things out and holding them back.

The combination of The Qin Family’s Guide to Viewing Flood Dragons and body-tempering techniques truly was wondrous.

In the latter half of this third round, Runsheng endured through it by sheer grit alone.

When White Crane Child once again dropped to His knees with a thud and His vertical pupils lost focus again, Runsheng also fell to his knees, both hands on the ground, swallowing hard with difficulty as even the sound of his breathing weakened.

“Brother Runsheng, can you still go on?”

“I can!” Runsheng lifted his head.

“Yin Meng,” Li Zhuiyuan called out, then walked toward White Crane Child again.

Yin Meng rushed over at once and took up a position diagonally in front of Li Zhuiyuan.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out and pressed his palm over Lin Shuyou’s forehead, saying in a low voice,

“Four Ghosts Lift the Sedan.”

The Twelve Edicts of Fengdu: Four Ghosts Lift the Sedan.

Lord Child, you want to leave, do you?

Come.

Get back here and keep carrying the sedan!

Lin Shuyou threw back his head and let out a shrill scream from his throat. The next instant, his vertical pupils returned, and his aura surged back as well.

It worked!

White Crane Child threw a punch at Li Zhuiyuan, and this time, He did not hesitate in the slightest.

Four rounds. Four whole rounds!

For all these years, the rule had always been that Guiding Incense could only extend it by one more round. But in this boy’s hands, it had already been extended to a fourth.

And White Crane Child still remembered that this group of youths had a set of Dissolution of Evil Talisman Needles. That meant they could extend it one round further, making five!

He had to die. He absolutely had to die!

If a technique like this truly spread, then Yin gods like Them, once lofty and exalted, might end up reduced to tools of spirit mediums!

Yin Meng shot both elbows out and knocked White Crane Child’s punch off course.

The fist swept past Li Zhuiyuan’s ear.

The boy’s expression remained calm as he began to retreat.

When White Crane Child threw His second punch, Runsheng arrived again just in time and took it head-on.

The two sides entered the fourth round of battle.

Only, White Crane Child’s fourth round was as forceful as His first, while Runsheng could do nothing but take blows from every direction. Though he could still hold out, if this continued, White Crane Child would soon be able to break free of Runsheng’s entanglement with ease.

In fact, Li Zhuiyuan, who had already retreated to the edge to keep watching, could feel White Crane Child’s killing intent repeatedly sweeping over him.

He was waiting for a chance to break away from Runsheng and kill him.

“Yin Meng, let me see the results of your special training. Remember, do not use any killing moves. Just hold Him down.”

“Understood.”

Yin Meng rejoined the fight. Her actual martial skill had not improved much, but her footwork was far more nimble than before. She must have had some kind of sachet hidden in her sleeve. After crushing it, black mist began to billow out continuously.

Ordinary black mist naturally could not interfere with the Officers of the Command Banner, but Yin Meng’s black mist was able to trap White Crane Child in a kind of bewildering miasma.

It was probably something similar to the Homecoming Net. You could not see it, nor even realize it was there, yet it was genuinely effective.

With Yin Meng helping to pin Him down, Runsheng’s pressure eased greatly. Working together, the two of them restored the balance against White Crane Child.

Li Zhuiyuan, meanwhile, focused on observing White Crane Child’s condition.

The first time on the sports field, under a normal spirit medium invocation plus Guiding Incense, after two rounds the spirit medium state ended and Lin Shuyou was gravely injured.

The last time, when they faced Granny Yu’s attendant—that old woman—there had been the basic two rounds plus talisman needles, making three. When the spirit medium state ended, Lin Shuyou had been nearly crippled, pushed to a critical point. He had only recovered because his family had extended his life in time.

And now, this was the fourth round.

And in the first three rounds, the blows Runsheng had dealt you were absolutely no weaker than what that old woman had done last time.

Yet you were still vigorous and full of life.

So then, no, there was no such thing as injuries simply being delayed.

Lord Child,

you have a way to channel your own power down to sustain the operation of this body. It is just that in the past, all of you only knew how to exploit the spirit medium’s body and were unwilling to spend any of your own power!

Which meant that in those previous times, so long as White Crane Child had not been so stingy—if He had just transferred a bit of power down to maintain Lin Shuyou’s body—then Lin Shuyou would not have had to end up so miserable every single time.

The spirit medium approached exorcism with the heart of a martyr, but these Yin gods had their own private calculations.

The injuries were borne by the spirit medium, the life that was lost was the spirit medium’s, and the lion’s share of the merit went to the Yin god. This was not a partnership at all.

Li Zhuiyuan murmured, “I really don’t like playing it this way.”

The fourth round ended.

White Crane Child swayed again, and His vertical pupils once more began to lose focus. But this time, He turned His head to look at Li Zhuiyuan.

It was as though He were waiting for the next round.

If the boy gave Him one more round, He felt He could change the situation.

Li Zhuiyuan ignored Him. He walked to the dining table, picked up a bottle of soy milk, opened it with the opener, and took a sip.

White Crane Child said in a hoarse voice, “Do you know that you are playing with fire?”

Li Zhuiyuan raised the soy milk bottle in a mock toast toward Him. “Fire? You lot aren’t worthy of that.”

Thump...

White Crane Child, having failed to get the talisman needles or any other method for another extension, left Lin Shuyou’s body. The face paint peeled away, and Lin Shuyou pitched face-first onto the ground.

Tan Wenbin jogged over and helped him up.

“Hey, hey, Ayou, you still alive?”

Lin Shuyou opened his eyes weakly. “Brother Binbin...”

“Damn it. Another carefully built-up emotional moment wasted.”

Cursing as he spoke, Tan Wenbin yanked up the opera costume and saw that the face-paint mark on the stomach was still intact. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief.

Lin Shuyou raised a hand with difficulty. “Why... didn’t you use... the needles...”

That was not a question Tan Wenbin could answer.

Lin Shuyou continued, “Since you didn’t use them... can you... give them to me...”

Like leftover dishes at a banquet, he wanted to pack them up and take them home.

Tan Wenbin looked up at Li Zhuiyuan.

Li Zhuiyuan walked over with the soy milk in hand.

The moment Lin Shuyou saw him, the whole man grew agitated. His current state was not suited for it, but he could not control himself.

At that moment, the boy carrying that bottle of soy milk looked like a god in his eyes.

Counting the talisman needles that had not even been used, that was five times. Five times. Five whole times—more than double his family’s traditional limit!

If the boy could teach him all of this, and he could bring it home and pass it on, then how many fewer people would the Officers of the Command Banner lose in the future when they went out to slay evil things?

As for things like taking the seat of honor at New Year’s Eve dinner or getting his own page in the family genealogy, those were secondary. Because if anyone could double a lineage’s inheritance, then a hundred years later your memorial tablet would be placed alongside the founding patriarch’s.

Li Zhuiyuan took out a set of talisman needles and placed it on Lin Shuyou’s chest. Lin Shuyou clenched it tightly.

“Before I leave this time, I’ll write out a gathering-evil formation for you. Spend this period recovering and studying it. Learn however much you can understand.”

The moment Lin Shuyou heard those words, his chest lurched upward and blood spilled from his mouth in thick gushes.

Tan Wenbin jumped in fright. “Damn it, don’t actually get so excited you die!”

Luckily, it seemed that Lin Shuyou’s family back home had already started doing something, because some color was returning to his face.

They were probably wondering over there why their Ayou had ended up like this again, but they surely would not dare ask.

“Brother Binbin, take him to the hospital.”

“Got it.” Tan Wenbin hoisted Lin Shuyou onto his back. “Good thing I haven’t sold the crutches yet.”

...

Fan Shulin sat blankly in the duty room, lost in a daze. He had felt lightheaded all day.

“Brother Fan, my dear Brother Fan.”

Fan Shulin shook his head and muttered to himself, “It’s over. I’m even hearing things now.”

The duty room door opened, and Tan Wenbin stuck his head in.

Fan Shulin let out a cold laugh. “Heh. Now I’m hallucinating too.”

But when Tan Wenbin stepped farther in and revealed most of his body, along with the person on his back, Fan Shulin suddenly hiccuped.

He abruptly realized: Damn it, it would be better if this really were a hallucination!

“Brother Fan, Bian Que, Hua Tuo?”

Fan Shulin pointed at Tan Wenbin. “I’m going to call the police!”

“Go ahead, Brother Fan. I’ll call for you. My dad just happens to be a cop.”

Hearing that, Fan Shulin let his arm fall in defeat.

“Brother Fan, look, you’ve already saved him twice. If you give up on him now, that means giving up on two lives!”

“I...”

“Come on, let’s hurry and get him treated. After that we’re still going out for drinks together. Bring that divorced friend of yours too.”

“You...”

“Brother Fan, let’s get moving. That divorced man is still waiting for us to comfort him.”

...

Tan Wenbin ran all the way back to school and arrived at the shop.

Li Zhuiyuan, Runsheng, and Yin Meng were all there. By now the shop was closed, and the dormitories had also shut for the night.

“Brother Xiaoyuan, the treatment’s underway. Ayou’s condition isn’t serious.”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded and handed a black notebook to Tan Wenbin. “This is a detailed explanation of the gathering-evil formation. Take it to Lin Shuyou later.”

“Got it.”

Tan Wenbin tucked the notebook into his clothes.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Runsheng. “Brother Runsheng, how is your body holding up?”

Runsheng answered loudly, “As long as I eat my fill, I’ll be fine.”

Runsheng’s injuries truly were not serious. He was mainly exhausted.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the blackboard the shop used to mark discount goods. He erased what had originally been written on it, then picked up a piece of chalk and wrote down three clues.

At the very top: Min’an Town, Huangshan.

Below that, three lines branched out:

Fatty Wu — partner — partner’s parents — returning home to tend graves — Min’an Town.

Xue Liangliang — father’s birthday — Min’an Town.

Fan Shulin — classmate’s divorce — classmate’s wife — Min’an Town.

Li Zhuiyuan tapped the blackboard.

“Now, assignments.

Yin Meng, go to the hospital ward where Fatty Wu’s partner’s parents are staying and ask questions.

Brother Binbin, go join Doctor Fan at tonight’s gathering.

I do not care what methods you use. I only have one requirement: push your line forward to Min’an Town as fast as possible.

Runsheng and I will go directly to Brother Liangliang’s hometown.

The three of us will each carry a different line of clues, and then we will meet in Min’an Town!”

The three of them answered in unison, “Understood!”

Li Zhuiyuan picked up the eraser and silently wiped the blackboard clean.

Waiting for willing fish to bite the hook?

Bet you didn’t expect this. This time, we are not even using a fishing rod. We’re going straight into the river to drag you out!

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