Chapter 503: The Courtyard at the Back of the Mountain
“Don’t be afraid. You just have to turn off the lights early and go back to your rooms to sleep.”
Seeing that the duo did not speak, the young man thought that they were shocked.
“We understand.” Lu Sheng smiled and nodded.
It seemed like they could not return to town tonight.
After dinner, the two of them returned to their room.
“Young man, remember to turn off the lights early.”
The old woman reminded worriedly.
“Yes!”
Lu Sheng replied.
“Here.”
She took out two sets of night clothes and passed one to Chu Sihan.
They had used up the Invisibility Talisman yesterday and she did not have the time to draw another. Hence, the two of them could only prepare their night clothes.
Chu Sihan took the night clothes and changed them in front of her.
Lu Sheng looked at his eight-pack and could not help but feel curious.
Chu Sihan did not exercise usually, but he actually had abs. Moreover, it was obviously an eight-pack.
As she watched, she suddenly reached out and touched it.
“Wow, how firm.”
Chu Sihan was speechless.
If not for the inconvenience here, he would have eaten her up on the spot.
“Stop fooling around.”
He reminded her helplessly and continued changing.
Lu Sheng raised an eyebrow and went to a closet to change.
Chu Sihan was stunned before he pursed his lips and smiled.
“It’s not like I haven’t seen your body before. Why hide?”
Lu Sheng was speechless.
Was she being teased instead?
She sneered and continued changing.
“Apply this on yourself.”
Chu Sihan took out black grass that emitted a strange smell and handed it over.
When Lu Sheng smelled it, she could not help but cover her nose and frown. “What’s this? Why does it smell so bad?”
“This is a type of grass grown in the suburbs of the Netherworld. It’s called Smelly Corpse Grass. Apply it on your body so that you can blend in with those puppets.”
Those puppets were all corpses, and their bodies emitted the stench of corpses.
Lu Sheng raised an eyebrow. “You’re saying that they won’t attack us if we apply this?”
“Yes.”
Chu Sihan nodded slightly. “I personally investigated this. It’s said that the Smelly Corpse Grass is applied to one’s body to prevent those puppets from attacking.”
As he finished speaking, he had already crushed the Smelly Corpse Grass and applied it on Lu Sheng.
Lu Sheng frowned slightly. In order not to suffocate herself, she decided to temporarily seal her taste buds.
After Chu Sihan finished applying it to her, he also applied it to himself. Seeing that it was almost done, the two of them secretly left the farmhouse.
Perhaps because they were afraid of those puppets, the lights in the village were switched off early.
Twilight had just descended and there was no light in the village.
The surroundings were silent except for the sounds of insects. Of course, a few barking sounds could be heard occasionally.
Lu Sheng and Chu Sihan specially went to the village entrance to wait, wanting to see where the puppets came from.
It was only at around eleven at night that the duo heard a roar.
However, there were not many puppets here compared to the ones in town.
Through their voices, one could tell that there were only ten of them.
“Southeast of the village,” Chu Sihan said softly.
Lu Sheng looked up suspiciously and saw that the sky was dyed red. It looked strange.
“Could it be that these puppets were released from somewhere?”
Chu Sihan shook his head slightly. “I’m not sure, but we’ll know when it’s midnight.”
At that time, they could follow the direction where these puppets were headed.
“Do you think these puppets are Xian Jing’s and Xian Ya’s spies?” Lu Sheng asked casually.
Chu Sihan was stunned and suddenly thought of something.
He said, “I once heard from Father that the memories of these puppets can be read by the person who refined them. Of course, unless they can return alive.”
Lu Sheng nodded. “It means that if we finish them off, Xian Jing and Xian Ya won’t be able to read their memories?”
“I think so.” Chu Sihan nodded slightly.
Before the puppets arrived, their voices had already resounded through the entire village.
The duo had just jumped down and blended in when a baby’s cry suddenly came from the village.
Lu Sheng and Chu Sihan stopped in their tracks and looked in the direction of the voice.
At that moment, the puppets also looked in that direction.
“I’ll go for a while.”
Lu Sheng whispered into Chu Sihan’s ear. Her body flashed past the puppets and disappeared into the night.
“Good child, don’t cry! Don’t cry!”
Through the window, Lu Sheng could vaguely see a woman hugging a child and coaxing her softly. A man was sitting beside her. They should be a couple. The two of them were trying their best to coax the child.
“What should we do? Those strange people are coming here!”
The woman’s voice was choked with despair.
The man gritted his teeth and said, “We have no choice. I can only cover her mouth and wait for those things to pass first.”
Lu Sheng pasted a Soundproof Talisman on the window before leaving.
She circled behind the puppets and met up with Chu Sihan.
After losing the baby’s cries, the puppets seemed to have lost their direction. They circled around the spot a few times before continuing to roar and walk towards the village.
One of the dogs was still baring its teeth and barking, but it seemed to have sensed something and escaped with a whimper.
Lu Sheng and Chu Sihan followed them to the end of the village.
Seeing that nothing else happened, the duo could not help but heave a sigh of relief.
The puppets walked to the end of the village and started to return.
The duo thought that they would leave at midnight like the puppets in town.
Unexpectedly, they returned after walking to the end of the village.
Perhaps because of the smell on their bodies, the puppets did not seem to notice them and walked mechanically on their own path.
The puppets quickly left the village entrance and returned the way they came.
Lu Sheng and Chu Sihan followed them.
The two of them walked until an hour later where they entered a silent mountain.
There was a big courtyard at the back of the mountain. It was still lit up and there were people patrolling.
Strangely enough, when the initially irritable puppets entered the back mountain, they actually became docile and did not emit those terrifying roars anymore.
The duo acted according to the situation and quickly killed the two puppets. Then, they put on their clothes and followed the way they moved, approaching the courtyard step by step.
Someone walked over and counted the puppets. Seeing that the numbers were correct, he instructed the person at the side, “You, bring them back to the cage.”
“Yes!”
That person received the order and closed his eyes to recite a few incantations. The puppets immediately followed that person obediently.
Lu Sheng and Chu Sihan followed obediently, but they kept an eye on their surroundings.
“Lord Li, why didn’t I see the two masters today?”
“Last night, something big happened in town. A hundred puppets were lost, so the two masters went to check.”
“I see. I was wondering why I didn’t see them today.”
When Lu Sheng passed by that ‘Lord Li’ just now, she smelled a fishy smell.
It seemed like the people inside were not humans. They should be demons.
Could the two masters they were referring to be Xian Jing and Xian Ya?
The duo looked at each other in the dark and continued walking tacitly.
The person led the puppets to a thick stone door and pressed a switch. The door slowly moved to the side, and the ground trembled.
The puppets walked in slowly, and Lu Sheng and Chu Sihan took the opportunity to hide in the dark.
The person counted the puppets and suddenly scratched his head.
“Strange, weren’t there ten? Why are there only eight left?”
He frowned and stood at his original spot, puzzled.
However, after thinking about it, Lord Li had already counted just now. If the numbers were wrong, he should have said it.
“Did I count wrongly previously?”
He mumbled before shaking his head and closing the stone door slowly.
Chu Sihan and Lu Sheng took off their puppet clothes, flew up the wall, and quickly landed on the ground.
This was a tall wall. Normal people with qinggong would not be able to enter.
After the duo landed, they were shocked by the scene in front of them.
There was a huge altar in the middle of the square.
Thousands of puppets knelt around the altar. They held their heads and did not move.
Chu Sihan observed his surroundings and a hint of understanding flashed across his face.
“Lord, what happened?”
Lu Sheng asked softly.
Chu Sihan said in a low voice, “An evil force suppressed these puppets here, and the source of that strange force is that altar.”
When Lu Sheng heard that, she closed her eyes and nodded carefully. Indeed, she felt an evil force emitting from the altar.
Chu Sihan said in a low voice, “Wait here. I’ll go over and take a look.”
“Be careful!”
“Yes.”
Chu Sihan replied softly. With a flash, he appeared on the altar.
The puppets lowered their heads. There were no living people around, so no one came to stop Chu Sihan.
Lu Sheng looked around warily, afraid that someone would suddenly appear here.
After Chu Sihan circled around the altar, he suddenly reached out and pressed down on a brick.
After a cracking sound, a door suddenly opened on the altar.
He covered his nose with one arm and fanned the evil aura with the other.
Seeing that the kneeling puppets did not move, he waved at Lu Sheng.
When Lu Sheng received the message, she immediately flew over.
The duo looked at the door. After seeing that there was nothing unusual, they walked into the altar.
There was a staircase in the altar. It led to the underground and was very dark. When they walked in, it was as if they were in a cold winter.
Lu Sheng shuddered and could not help but rub her hands.
Chu Sihan held onto her and walked down together.
The further they walked, the colder the air became. Halfway down, Lu Sheng felt her knees freeze.
She suddenly stopped and pulled Chu Sihan, hinting for him to stop.
Inside, the duo did not dare to speak. Even their footsteps were very light and slow. They did not dare to make any sounds.
As the echo inside was too strong, if anyone was below, they would be discovered if they made any slight movements.
Chu Sihan stopped in his tracks and looked at her in confusion.
He saw her take out two cloaks. She draped one over herself and gave the other to Chu Sihan.
After putting on their cloaks, they continued walking.
After walking for some time, the duo finally reached the end.
There was a secret prison below and water was dripping.
The two of them walked around the prison and realized that it had been there for years. The iron bars outside had even formed a thick layer of rust. If they reached out and touched them casually, the rust would fall.
“This should be a family’s secret prison. It seems to have been abandoned for a long time.”
Chu Sihan tapped the metal railing lightly with his finger and spoke faintly.
“Other than the heavy Yin energy, there’s nothing strange here. Where did the evil aura come from?” Lu Sheng was very curious.
Chu Sihan walked up a few steps and his slender fingers brushed past the wall before stopping at a spot.
He said in a low voice, “That evil aura should be hidden in the brick.”
Lu Sheng frowned slightly and followed him up the steps. She stopped beside him.
“Touch here.”
Chu Sihan held her hand and placed it where he stopped.
Although the brick was cold and hard, Lu Sheng could clearly feel a source of warmth inside.
The evil aura was ineffective against the duo, but it was effective to those puppets.
Absorbing this evil aura would allow the corpses of the puppets to remain rigid. This way, the corpses would not rot.
Once the corpses of the puppets decomposed, they would become useless.
“It seems like this evil aura was injected only later,” Lu Sheng said softly.
Chu Sihan nodded. “An ordinary family would not place such a thing in a brick. Hence, it must not have been done by the previous person.”
The duo looked around again and saw nothing special before returning to the ground.
However, just as they closed the trap door of the altar, the sound of something heavy rubbing the ground came from the other side.
Someone was opening the stone door.
Lu Sheng was shocked. Before she could react, she was already in Chu Sihan’s arms. The two of them took the opportunity to squat behind the puppets.
Soon, a weak flame shone in. As the stone door opened, the flame became brighter.
Thankfully, the square was huge, and the fire outside could not illuminate everything.
She heard three people’s footsteps.
Lu Sheng glanced over and realized that three figures were walking over slowly.
Under the light of the fire, Lu Sheng recognized Xian Ya, who was dressed in red.
As for the other two, she did not know them.
After the three of them entered, the door slowly closed again, blocking the weak light outside.
There was no moon tonight, and there were not as many stars as usual. However, there was a thick layer of red clouds, as if it was going to rain.
“Lord, Xian Ya and Brother have already gone to town to investigate. There’s no news of Lu Zhou and Sect Master Kong. Rest assured and stay here.”
Xian Ya spoke softly as she walked.
At that moment, Chu Sihan’s and Lu Sheng’s expressions changed slightly.
The person they had spent so much effort to find was really here?
“Yes.”
As the three of them approached, in order not to be discovered, Lu Sheng could only lower her head and imitate the kneeling actions of the puppets.
The three of them walked up the altar quickly. Xian Ya reached out and pressed the brick. The altar door opened again.
Xian Jing said, “Lord, this is a secret prison. The ghosts inside have been sent to the Netherworld, but the Yin energy is still there. It’s good for you to cultivate here.”
Lu Sheng wanted to see that ‘Lord’s’ face clearly, but she was afraid of being discovered, so she did not dare to look up easily.
If she looked up now, she would see that this ‘Lord’ in front of her was the black-robed person in her dream.