Holding his saber, Lu Sheng sprinted forward—only to halt at the sight of a cloth puppet lying silently on the ground. It was the same puppet that had been hanging from the beam moments ago.
He crouched and picked it up. A deep gash had appeared across its fabric surface, fresh blood seeping through the stitches.
“So this is the source?” Lu Sheng muttered as he scanned the empty surroundings for any clue.
A faint creak sounded behind him. Xu Chui—long sword in hand—arrived with the others, their breaths tight and subdued.
“My Lord?” Xu Chui whispered.
Lu Sheng tightened his grip on the puppet. Wisps of Yin Qi curled from it like cold threads of mist. He stepped toward the shattered mirror frame on the ground, his boots crunching over broken glass, and stared down at the copper backing.
He lifted the frame carefully. The dog carving that once rested among the three engraved animals was now gone.
“Three animals… could they represent three different kinds of ghosts?” he murmured.
At his side, Xu Chui’s expression grew tense as he surveyed the room.
“My Lord, something’s not right,” he said under his breath. “After all that noise, no one in the entire Holy Fame Plaza has stirred. Normally, people would’ve come running. But now… there’s not a single sound outside.”
Lu Sheng’s eyes narrowed. In one swift motion, he spun around and vaulted out of the room.
A sharp gust of wind tore past him—whoosh.
The courtyard beyond had transformed into a sprawling hay field.
The land was barren, crops long harvested. Bundles of hay stood scattered across the dry earth, some marked with blackened scorch marks. Under the cold wash of moonlight, distant hills rose and fell beneath drifting fog.
“This is…” Lu Sheng turned back. The study he had leapt from had vanished. Xu Chui was gone. He stood utterly alone in this strange place.
“Count to ten!”
“No peeping!”
“Run! Hahaha!”
Children’s voices echoed through the night. Lu Sheng lifted his gaze. Shadows of small figures darted across the field, fleeing into the distance.
“That silly brat really thinks we’re playing with her.”
“I heard her mum is a prostitute on ships… it’s gross.”
“Yea, yea… shame on whoever plays with her!”
“But it doesn’t seem very nice for us to leave her alone here…”
“Why worry about that? Her mum will come get her.”
“That’s true.”
Lu Sheng watched the black shadows until they melted into the darkness. A vague suspicion stirred in his mind.
He turned back toward the scattered stacks of hay.
“One.”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5C3ea4YObw
“Two.”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ46M0K3d5Ym
“Three.”
The voice—hazy and distant—floated across the field.
Lu Sheng drew a steady breath and unsheathed the other saber strapped to his back. With long strides, he advanced toward the sound.
The ground was a mixture of hardened mud and brittle hay stalks; each step felt like pressing into a thick, uneven carpet.
He passed several haystacks before arriving at the largest one.
There, leaning against it with her back to him, was a pale blue girl, quietly counting.
“Four.”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡppsAGEwkfy
“Five.”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC9dQBtLboI
“Six.”
Two uneven braids fell over her shoulders. Her small hands covered her face, as though she were in the middle of a childish game.
Lu Sheng halted a few meters behind her, sabers at the ready.
“Seven.”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXyG9Vm2wTU
“Eight.”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaKoHmEZBBj
“Nine.”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3XVL1pPL2z
“Ten.”
She finished counting.
Lu Sheng’s muscles tightened, ready to move the instant she turned.
“I’m coming! Are you ready?” the little girl said suddenly.
Her voice drifted as though carried from another world—soft, distant, yet chillingly eerie.
Lu Sheng remained silent. She might have been addressing the children who had run off, but somehow, the words felt directed at him.
“Where’s this place?” he asked under his breath.
The girl didn’t respond. She stood frozen, still facing away from him.
“Or perhaps… you think you can defeat me?” Lu Sheng murmured, swinging the two giant cleavers lightly as he tested her reaction—testing what she truly was.
“I’m going to start looking, alright?” the girl said suddenly, calm as drifting fog.
“Start?” Lu Sheng glanced at the haystacks flanking him—then burst into sudden laughter.
BAM!
He snapped his leg out and slammed a kick into the haystack beside him.
“Come on! Hack me to death, or be hacked to death by me!” Lu Sheng growled, impatience sharpening his voice. His twin sabers clashed together in a shower of sparks, the ringing clang echoing across the field. The Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill surged within him—Blood Web blooming outward like a crimson aura. If his formless inner Qi had been visible, it would have looked as though he were engulfed in raging flames, a massive torch blazing against the night.
Slowly, the little girl turned. Her face remained hidden behind both hands, revealing only pale, greenish-blue skin stretched taut over her frame.
Whoosh!
In the span of a blink, she vanished.
Lu Sheng reacted instantly, swinging both sabers toward the space diagonally ahead.
CLANG!!!
A shrill crash rang out as a tiny figure was blasted into the air—only to dissolve again into nothingness mid-flight.
She reappeared behind him, her blue hand reaching for his neck like a hooked claw.
Tszzzzzzzz!
The sound was like metal scraped against metal. Sparks burst from Lu Sheng’s neck.
With a low growl, Lu Sheng threw his weight backward, inner force surging wildly into the Blood Web. He flipped his sabers and slashed behind him in rapid succession.
Thud! Thud!
His blades struck only a haystack.
Tszz tszz tszz tszz tszz!!
Sparks erupted across his body as the ghastly blue figure zipped around him, clawing furiously. Her poisoned nails raked against his skin, each strike skittering harmlessly off him like steel against steel.
Lu Sheng tried to counter, slashing twice—then stopped. Missing her wasn’t worth the effort. Instead, he simply stood still and closed his eyes, letting her claws scrape fruitlessly over him.
Sparks showered from his body like tiny fireworks. On any ordinary person, her attacks would have shredded flesh and bone to pulp. For him, it was little more than a rough massage.
For several breaths, he remained motionless, shifting only to shield his eyes and ears from the flickers of light.
Then, without warning, his eyes snapped open. He lunged forward with explosive force.
BAM!!!
A pale blue shadow lunged for his forehead—only for Lu Sheng to ram his skull forward, smashing into her head and sending her flung backward. Before she could be hurled far, his arm snapped out, seizing her and yanking her violently back toward him. He crashed his forehead into hers again.
BOOM!
The little girl reeled, disoriented. Locked tightly in Lu Sheng’s grip, she endured another brutal series of headbutts.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Lu Sheng slammed his head into hers repeatedly, merciless and unrelenting. After only a few savage blows, the girl’s skull collapsed. Her head burst apart—blood and foul, pulpy matter splattering as fragments of bone clung to her torn neck. Soon, Lu Sheng was holding a headless corpse, which he lifted effortlessly into the air.
He raised a giant cleaver over the top of the mangled body, preparing to cleave it in half.
BAM!
Without warning, the corpse’s legs kicked fiercely into his chest. It tore free of his grasp, tumbling out of his hold.
He glanced down at his hand. He had been gripping her by the waist—but now the only thing he held was a chunk of flesh ripped from her side.
“Oh?” Lu Sheng uttered, surprised, watching the headless corpse stagger away in a frantic sprint.
Ptch!
In a flash, Lu Sheng’s saber flew from his fingers.
The blade sliced cleanly through both legs of the escaping corpse, scorching it with boiling inner Qi. The severed body rolled across the ground, writhing in agony.
“That’s it?” Lu Sheng said, unimpressed. “If I’m not wrong, this should represent the fox.”
The headless corpse twitched a final time—then dissolved into thin air.
Silence returned to the hay field.
“There’s still the phoenix left. All three animals are you,” Lu Sheng muttered as he surveyed the area. Then he walked toward the spot where the corpse had vanished.
A torn scrap of pale blue cloth lay quietly on the ground. He picked it up, felt the Yin Qi clinging to it, and tucked it into his waist pouch.
A sudden numbness crept across Lu Sheng’s back, sharp and cold—like the sting of a needle.
“Who’s that!”
He spun around instantly.
Not far away stood a young woman with tangled hair and filthy, mismatched clothes. She stood silently in the field, staring straight at him.
Her garments were disheveled, pieces from different seasons patched together. The fabric over her chest and lower body was torn apart, exposing pale thighs streaked with dried blood.
“Her mum’s a lunatic!”
“Lunatic! Mad woman!!!”
“How did this lunatic survive? No food, and she has a child with her. Who knows whose child that is?”
“How else? She’s living off the men in the village. They queue up for her every day…”
“Shush… be quieter!”
“Didn’t the village chief bring her back for that reason? What’s there to hide?”
“Kill her! Kill this mad woman!”
“Throw her in a pig’s cage! How dare she seduce my man!”
A cacophony of voices thundered in Lu Sheng’s ears—ugly, vicious, dripping with malice.
“That little girl… she probably doesn’t even know her mum’s dead, does she? I still hear her calling for her on my way home. It’s pathetic.”
“She’s crazy, just like her mum. Someone saw the Chen Family’s man entering that house again last night…”
“Seductive even at that age. Such a slut!”
“Maybe she survived this long thanks to the men in the village.”
Lu Sheng listened, eyes narrowing as he gazed at the ragged woman standing quietly before him.
“Do you hate?”
A deep, resonant voice echoed through his mind.
“Your mother died two years ago. She was mad… yet she refused to leave you. She cared for you every single day.”
“Who pushed you into misery?”
“Who killed your mother?”
“Who abandoned you in this cold, desolate hay field?”
The voice repeated, each question heavier than the last.
“I… I just want someone to play with me…” came the trembling, fragile voice of a little girl.
“Then enter… enter this mirror. And you’ll always have someone to play with,” the deep, resonant voice coaxed.
BOOM!!!
A massive surge of red light erupted at that moment, engulfing the ten-meter radius around Lu Sheng in a roaring blaze. The hay ignited instantly, bursting into crackling flames. Thick smoke rolled upward as ashes and dust scattered through the air like falling rain.
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