Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp

Under the cover of night, Lin Yan wore plain clothes. His handsome, pale face was filled with killing intent.

He carried a saber and walked through the alley.

From the other end of the alley emerged a young man clad entirely in black robes. His features were completely different, and his face held no expression.

"the city is sealed after nightfall. Go back!"

The soldiers guarding the city shouted from a distance.

"Heavenly Supervision Department business. Open the gates!"

Lin Yan pulled a token from his robes. Without slowing, he walked forward.

He reached the city gate, tilted his head, and said, "Give me a Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp. And bring Three Incense Sticks and a pair of red candles!"

"That's against regulations... Fifth Master?"

The gate captain was about to refuse, but suddenly recognized him.

Seeing the killing intent filling the other man's eyes, he could not help but shudder from head to toe.

Then he remembered the title of Killer Star that the man bore. He immediately turned his head and shouted, "Didn't you hear him? Get a Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp, Three Incense Sticks, and a pair of red candles!"

Only after saying this did he cautiously ask, "Fifth Master, what are you going outside the city for so late at night? It's extremely dangerous out there..."

Lin Yan remained expressionless and silent. He took the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp and Three Incense Sticks from a young soldier.

Seeing this, the gate captain hesitated again. "You're with the Heavenly Supervision Department, so leaving the city is within the rules. However, before dawn, nothing from outside the city is allowed inside. When the time comes, you..."

"I won't make things difficult for you."

Lin Yan's voice was low as he said, "I'll return after dawn."

Carrying the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp, he quickly walked out through the gap in the opened city gate.

Outside the city, gloomy winds swept past in waves, and darkness stretched without end.

The light of the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp gradually receded, vanishing in the endless darkness like a firefly.

That speck of light could illuminate only three feet ahead.

It could not clarify this long night or its boundless darkness.

The soldiers guarding the city looked at one another.

Only then did a young soldier whisper, "Everyone says that Fifth Master is known as the Killer Star, a vicious man. I didn't expect him to be this fierce—to dare walk the night road outside the city?"

"That's why he borrowed a Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp from us, isn't it?" someone said with a laugh.

"The darkness outside the city is endless, and monsters run rampant. Even a divine lamp might not necessarily work."

The gate captain shook his head slightly and explained, "Gao Liu City is protected by Willow Venerable. We hang Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps on the city walls to clearly mark the boundary!"

"Unless the powerful Evil Spirits in the darkness want to go to war with Willow Venerable, they wouldn't dare attack."

"Of course, accidents can still happen. Even among the brothers guarding the city, some inevitably die every year."

"Even guarding beneath the city walls is like this. Once you leave the city, it's an entirely different matter."

"Not every Evil Spirit in the darkness is willing to show Willow Venerable some respect."

The captain rubbed his brow, his expression somewhat grave, and said, "I heard that last year, over by the prefectural city, a great personage went outside the city to receive tribute. But for some reason, he was delayed on the way back."

"Though they lit a Phoenix Tree Night-Illuminating Lamp along the way, their souls were still devoured. The bodies of all six people remained unharmed, and they continued breathing, but none of them ever woke up."

The soldiers looked at one another, suddenly feeling that the night wind had become piercingly cold.

"The Phoenix Tree Night-Illuminating Lamp symbolizes the Phoenix Tree Mother Goddess who protects the prefectural city. Even that couldn't suppress the Evil Spirits?"

"That's why if he returns before dawn, we absolutely cannot let him in!"

The captain's face was extremely solemn as he whispered, "No one knows whether what returns at night will be a person... or something else."

Everyone fell silent, and their hearts grew heavier.

The recruits who had recently joined the city guards were especially frightened, their faces paling.

Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp.

The lantern looked ordinary enough, but a willow branch hung beneath it.

Naturally, this was not a branch from the true body of Willow Venerable, who protected Gao Liu City. It came from a willow tree planted in the temple and stained with Willow Venerable's aura.

Inside the lantern was actually a small jar containing lamp oil, with a wick set into it.

The lantern itself cost two hundred wen—not exactly cheap.

But the lamp oil was extremely expensive as well.

This oil came from the Temple of Lord Liu. A single liang cost one hundred wen.

Even if ordinary families bought a Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp, they generally could not afford to burn the lamp oil produced by the Temple of Lord Liu.

Ordinary people generally did not dare leave the city after nightfall. When they bought Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps, they usually kept them at home to ensure peace and safety.

They would usually light one during festivals, when moving into a new home, or when getting married. It would burn all night without going out, serving as an Ominous Omen of good fortune.

This had already become a local custom.

"..."

Lin Yan carried the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp and sprinted along the road.

Gao Liu City was already far behind him.

But when he looked back, he could still see the faint glow enveloping the entire city, like a colossal beast crouching in the darkness.

The Prefectural Governor's Mansion allocated a fixed amount of lamp oil every day. Lamps were placed around the city walls, one every hundred paces, illuminating the boundary and driving away Evil Spirits.

Naturally, both the lanterns and the lamp oil suffered some "loss."

Lin Yan knew about this unspoken rule, so he simply asked for a lantern, along with Three Incense Sticks and a pair of candles.

"Half of Chen Jiangbao's head was found two li ahead, beneath the tree on the left."

"There should still be traces there!"

That was what Lin Yan thought. The worry in his heart grew heavier, and he unconsciously quickened his pace.

The light of the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp illuminated three feet ahead, as if dispersing the darkness before him.

But all around him remained endless darkness.

Only the pale yellow firelight before him swayed gently in the cold wind, racing forward through the darkness.

Yet before he had gone thirty paces, he stopped.

The darkness ahead had not been dispelled.

The firelight of the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp illuminated only two feet ahead.

"..."

Lin Yan's expression turned cold. He extended the lantern another foot.

But there was still nothing but darkness beyond it.

He extended it another half-foot.

The darkness ahead remained as black as ink.

The Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp could no longer illuminate the darkness ahead.

After a moment of silence, Lin Yan drew the lantern back and said, "Are you unwilling to show Willow Venerable some respect?"

The darkness ahead remained pitch-black, with no response whatsoever.

Only the cold night wind blew, chilling the soul.

Seeing this, Lin Yan pulled an incense stick from his robes and held it inside the lantern, lighting it from the flame.

He planted the incense stick before him.

These incense sticks came from the Temple of Lord Liu and were said to possess the power to ward off evil.

But Lin Yan knew that they did not drive away evil. They were offerings!

"By tradition, the living walk only the roads of the living."

"It is already night, so I have trespassed on your road."

"I offer this incense and apologize here!"

Lin Yan carried the lantern and bowed.

This was the rule passed down through the generations in Gao Liu City for people traveling at night!

A rule acknowledged by both day and night. If it was not observed, an Ominous Omen would certainly arise!

The incense stick stood in the ground, but the darkness ahead still did not move an inch.

Lin Yan knew that the other party felt one incense stick was far from enough.

Then he saw Lin Yan follow the same procedure, lighting another incense stick and planting it in the ground.

The darkness ahead remained black as ink, showing no sign of retreating.

A chill entered Lin Yan's eyes, but he still lit the third incense stick and planted it in the ground as well.

"Tonight, I offer you Three Incense Sticks. Please lend me this road."

Lin Yan spoke calmly.

These incense sticks had been made by the Temple of Lord Liu and were no ordinary incense. An ordinary person could offer only three incense sticks in a single day.

Burning too much incense and making too great an offering would harm one's own vital essence.

But the Three Incense Sticks flared to life.

The pitch-black night ahead still did not retreat in the slightest.

The Evil Spirits in the darkness remained unsatisfied.

The atmosphere fell silent for a moment. Gloomy winds howled like sinister ghosts wailing.

"Refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit!"

Lin Yan finally lost patience. His left hand still held the lantern, but his right hand suddenly drew his saber with a ringing sound. In a chilling voice, he said, "Seeking death!"

The etiquette of this world had been observed.

The ancestral rules had been followed.

He had given the other party more than enough face!

Since they still refused to let him pass, he could only hack out a road ahead!

Lin Yan swung his saber forward without hesitation.

Divine Ability: Demon Suppression!

The darkness suddenly retreated like a surging tide.

Lin Yan remained expressionless as he picked up the Three Incense Sticks and pinched out their flames.

Then he lifted the lantern and continued forward.

The firelight gradually receded, vanishing at the end of the darkness ahead.

The place remained silent for a moment. Then green, oily lights emerged among the trees in the night.

"Grandpa, didn't you say that only monsters with flesh and blood fear human blades?"

A childish voice said, "Evil Spirits have no physical forms, so blades can't split them apart. Then why did the Evil Spirits retreat?"

"It wasn't that blade that split apart the darkness."

An aged voice sighed with emotion. "It was the intense killing intent he revealed at the moment he drew his blade, along with the Killing Intent covering his entire body."

"There's an old saying: even gods fear the wicked."

"If even gods are like that, let alone Evil Spirits?"

The aged voice sighed again.

The childish voice from before could not help asking, "But earlier, outside Phoenix Perch Prefecture City, wasn't that fierce-looking person also devoured by this black fog?"

"He looked fierce, but that was only on the surface. He roared viciously, yet his heart had long since been filled with fear. That's why he died."

"Then was that person completely unafraid just now?"

"Whether he was afraid in his heart, Grandpa doesn't know. But at the moment he drew his blade, the Evil Spirits were certainly afraid of him."

The aged voice held a trace of emotion as well. "He's so young, yet covered in Killing Intent. Especially when he drew his blade—he seemed vicious beyond compare, with a Sea of Corpses and Blood looming behind him... In all my years, Grandpa has never seen such a vicious man!"

After a pause, the aged voice sighed again. "But he trampled upon the rules of day and night. I'm afraid an Ominous Omen will come of it."