NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 19: Within the Mist
Chapter 19: Within the Mist
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Lin Yao drew Green Edge, scanning his surroundings with heightened vigilance.
Just as the oxhide had foretold, the scenery of Leifeng Pagoda remained identical—yet something was fundamentally wrong.
“Time itself is distorted here.”
At most, only an hour and a half had passed since the first bell toll, far too soon for the midnight chime. Yet the second bell had sounded regardless.
“Then these bells don’t mark the hours—they signal something else.”
Twice now, the oxhide’s prophecies had contained contradictions.
And twice, those contradictions had nearly killed him.
But survival took precedence over solving temporal riddles. The pressing matter was navigating this mist-woven realm.
“If the oxhide’s account holds, this space manifests from the corruption within Nie Xiaoqian.”
Advancing cautiously, Lin Yao spotted a bridge ahead. Beyond it stood the withered tree—but no Temple of Lanruo.
“Is that tree the key to revealing the true temple?”
He mentally reviewed the oxhide’s details:
After witnessing the tree’s shadow, the temple had materialized, followed by Nie Xiaoqian’s gruesome arrival.
Above him, the moon hung half-veiled by clouds.
“The moon—the Great Yin in ancient cosmology.”
As his foot touched the bridge, the lunar disk emerged fully from the clouds. The barren tree now loomed before him.
Lin Yao halted.
The temple remained absent despite the unveiled moon.
Another step forward. The tree shuddered, its leafless branches rustling unnaturally.
Then—
A flicker.
The outline of Lanruo Temple solidified in his periphery.
“There.”
Retreating a step didn’t dispel the illusion. The temple gates yawned open as Lin Yao turned his attention back to the tree.
“What caused that sound earlier?”
Green Edge flashed—yet left no mark on the desiccated bark.
“Heh…”
A laugh rippled through the thickening mist. At the temple entrance, a familiar silhouette materialized.
Even forewarned by the oxhide, the sight churned Lin Yao’s stomach.
Corpse and specter entwined.
An abomination beyond his darkest imaginings.
“Staying here means death. I need cover—now.”
According to the prophecy, Ning Caichen’s desiccated corpse had ambushed him at this very spot.
Channeling the blood pool’s enhancements, Lin Yao vaulted soundlessly onto the tree.
The elevation granted unexpected clarity—the fog’s influence vanished above ground level.
“The mist only affects those earthbound?”
Below, the false Nie Xiaoqian’s robes slipped from her shoulders as she undulated atop the cadaver. Her whispers slithered through the night, igniting a primal heat in Lin Yao’s veins.
Desire clawed at his reason.
Thump.
The curse’s bite in his heart restored fleeting lucidity.
“Close call.”
Suppressing ragged breaths, Lin Yao reassessed.
“That’s not Nie Xiaoqian.”
Activating the absorbed curse in his palm yielded no response—confirming his suspicion.
This matched Yan Chixia’s records of a specific entity:
A Seducer Specter.
A lust-demon that fed on male essence by manifesting victims’ deepest yearnings.
“Then the corpse isn’t Ning Caichen either?”
The cadaver’s scholar garb resembled the blue robes Xiao Qing had provided. If this were Ning, why would he appear here?
As the specter reached the tree’s base, its head snapped up—sensing prey.
The corpse beneath it trembled, not with pleasure, but terror.
“If it’s just a Seducer Specter, there’s hope.”
Lin Yao struck like a shadow.
Green Edge’s arc severed the specter’s head before it could scream. A second slash dispersed its form permanently.
The liberated corpse collapsed, finally at peace.
Lin Yao felt no pity.
“A scholar who traded his future for brothels, reduced to this half-death.”
Prying open the specter’s severed head confirmed it wasn’t Nie Xiaoqian—just another victim wearing her guise.
The temple’s gates pulsed with ominous energy. The curse’s resonance pointed unmistakably inward.
A dilemma:
Enter unknown horrors armed only with a sword and enhanced physique?
Or remain trapped in this mist-locked purgatory?
Another life-or-death choice.
“One gamble left.”
Lin Yao exhaled, already dreading another week of blood pool recuperation.
“I wonder how Zhi Nü fares outside…”
He stepped across the threshold.
—
Lanruo Temple – Main Hall
Zhi Nü sat serenely amidst carnage.
Beyond the doors, Rulai butchered devotees just as when Lin Yao first entered the Flesh Lotus.
Her fingers tightened imperceptibly.
“Seven days confined by divine power must chafe.”
Rulai’s blood-drenched face materialized before her.
“I have faith in my husband.”
The demon monk’s grin faltered, then widened.
“In seven days, he’ll nourish my growth. Perhaps then I’ll let you glimpse his remains.”
His laughter dissolved into the slaughter.
Zhi Nü gazed upward at the embroidered sky.
“Don’t disappoint me, little husband.”
—
Within the Temple
“What hellish place is this?!”
Even after witnessing the horrors beyond the Buddha’s Hand Lotus, Lin Yao’s hair stood on end.
Icy dread crawled down his spine.
Twin rows of kneeling figures lined the path, their attire spanning social strata—scholars’ robes, merchants’ silks, peasants’ hemp.
All headless.
From each smooth neck-stump protruded a candleholder, flames guttering atop spinal wicks.
Congealed in meditation poses.
Frozen as saints.
Lin Yao’s grip on Green Edge trembled. An instinct screamed to flee—
Then the mist returned.
Thicker.
Hungrier.
Amidst the haze, dying candlelight revealed a new horror:
The headless devotees had shifted positions, now facing him.
A Daoist chant echoed behind him.
Lin Yao whirled, sword slashing empty fog.
“Nothing?”
The chanting intensified as the mist congealed into tangible strands.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Footsteps approached.
A towering figure emerged from the gloom, a greatsword strapped across his back.
On its hilt gleamed a single character:
燕 (Yan).
(End of Chapter)