"Shopkeeper... Shopkeeper! There's a ghost! A ghost!" In the inn's first-floor hall, a waiter cried out in panic, his voice trembling slightly. "Shopkeeper, what... what do we do?"
"How the hell should I know?!"
The innkeeper had been preparing to close for the night, but this sudden incident made his scalp prickle with terror!
Both their legs were trembling violently, soft as noodles.
It wasn't that they didn't want to run. Their legs simply wouldn't move, and they couldn't get away!
They stared at the entrance of the inn in terror.
There, at some point, a strange coffin covered in a mass of talismans had appeared, lying right in front of the inn's main doors!
The talismans pasted over the coffin were badly tattered, as though they had been forcibly torn apart by some mysterious power—or ripped open by someone's bare hands.
The temperature throughout the inn...
Seemed to have dropped.
Although the innkeeper and waiter had not seen any ghost emerge with their own eyes, in this World of Gods and Anomalies, encountering something this strange... could be taken as absolute proof that they had run into a ghost in the dead of night!
After all, what person would dare drag out a coffin in the middle of the night just to play a prank? Weren't they afraid of being haunted?
Suddenly.
The coffin trembled.
Then, incredibly, it shifted several inches farther into the inn!
It!
Had actually moved!!!
The innkeeper sucked in a sharp breath.
His face instantly turned deathly pale, and his eyes rolled straight upward.
He collapsed limply.
The waiter beside him was left dumbfounded.
The shopkeeper had fainted. Didn't that mean he had to face the ghost all by himself?
Fear had already spread through his entire body and soul.
The temperature inside the inn continued to fall.
The candle flames swayed endlessly, while gusts of ghostly wind swept through the hall.
They made the tables and chairs tremble faintly!
"Ghost... Ghost grandpa! Ghost granny! I... I, Hong Goudan, have never done anything wicked! The most shameful thing I've ever done in my life was... was secretly accepting a piece of broken silver as a tip from a wealthy guest a few days ago, without telling the shopkeeper."
The waiter had already been scared stiff on the floor.
His crotch was soaked through, but he did not feel it at all.
He was so terrified that he did not even notice he had wet himself!
However...
His desperate pleas to every god and ancestor were useless.
The coffin not only failed to stop, but continued shifting farther into the inn!
This time, it moved several steps!
The waiter was completely numb with terror!
At this distance, he could already feel the icy chill radiating from the coffin. It felt as though a ten-thousand-year-old block of ice were closing in on him.
As the coffin drew nearer and nearer, despair rose within the waiter.
With a mournful expression, he desperately pinched his own useless thigh.
But it was still no use.
His legs refused to obey him!
The next moment.
The waiter suddenly felt as though some monster had grabbed him by the back of his collar.
He watched helplessly as his uncooperative feet slowly rose more than two feet off the ground!
"Move."
Two words abruptly rang out from behind him.
Before the waiter could turn around, he found his body being tossed backward.
After landing on the floor with neither too much nor too little force, the waiter hurriedly raised his head.
At once!
He saw a broad and imposing back!
Majestic as a mountain!
Who was this?
The waiter remembered.
The man before him seemed to be the strange person who had arrived at the inn that evening and asked to stay for one night.
He thought the man was strange because, from childhood until now, he had never seen anyone so tall and burly!
The first time he saw him...
He had been utterly shocked!
And now...
He was still utterly shocked!
Fan Wu paid no attention to what was going through the waiter's mind.
He lowered his eyes and glanced at the unconscious shopkeeper. With the sheathed Demon-Slaying Sword in his hand, he gently nudged him aside.
The shopkeeper was pushed away as casually as a piece of trash.
Then Fan Wu turned his gaze toward the blood-red coffin before him.
The coffin was rectangular and did not look small.
Most of the talismans pasted across it had already been damaged, and judging by their appearance, the damage seemed to have happened recently.
There also seemed to be strips of inked measuring line binding the coffin, but more than half of those lines had snapped.
Talismans.
Inked lines.
A coffin.
With these three factors combined, anyone with even the slightest imagination and ability to make connections could guess that inside this coffin... there was definitely some kind of eerie object!
The coffin continued inching forward. Its bottom scraped against the inn's floorboards, producing waves of ear-piercing noise.
"Br... brave sir, that's a ghost..." The waiter was deeply grateful that Fan Wu had "saved" him, and felt he could not betray his conscience.
Thus, he gathered his courage and reminded him in a trembling voice.
Fan Wu acted as though he had not heard him.
He watched the approaching coffin. He did not retreat or dodge.
Instead, he raised his foot and planted it against the front!
Under the waiter's dumbfounded stare, Fan Wu directly stepped onto the top of the coffin!
"Hiss!" The waiter sucked in a cold breath. "Gu... guest, be careful. This... this is..."
His words.
Came to an abrupt halt.
Because he watched with his own eyes as Fan Wu exerted a little force through the leg braced against the coffin. The heavy-looking solid-wood coffin was actually kicked sideways with one blow!
The coffin scraped sharply against the ground, forced to slide straight toward the outside of the inn.
The waiter was dumbfounded once again!
Wasn't this a little too fierce?
Was this guest completely unafraid of ghosts and gods?
He had actually kicked the coffin away!
And furthermore...
What kind of strength did that take?
The coffin looked like it weighed at least three or four hundred jin!
And he had kicked it that far? Without even seeming to use much force?
What the...
Huh?
Wait!
Only after the waiter's mind had finally recovered somewhat did he notice that Fan Wu's clothes were unusual.
He recognized that style of clothing. Weren't they the garments worn by Daoists?
The waiter's eyes widened as realization suddenly dawned on him—
Could this be a Daoist priest?!
No wonder he wasn't afraid of ghosts and monsters. He had even dared to kick the coffin away!
So he was a cultivator of the Dao!!
"Dao... Daoist priest! It... it's coming again!!" The waiter had not even had time to breathe a sigh of relief when he suddenly saw the coffin Fan Wu had kicked outside the inn charging straight back in.
And this time, it was even faster!
If it had moved like a tortoise before, then now it was like a maddened wild bull!
As the coffin came barreling recklessly toward him,
Fan Wu's expression remained as calm as ever, without the slightest trace of anxiety.
He placed one hand on the sword hilt.
The Demon-Slaying Sword was slowly drawn. Under the swaying candlelight, the razor-sharp blades on either side reflected a chilling, sinister gleam.
The aura surrounding his entire body changed as well!
Killing intent spread in all directions!
The fierce, surging aura around him, vast as a savage beast, directly scattered the dark energy spilling from the coffin.
Even the waiter behind Fan Wu could clearly feel a suffocating sensation wash over him.
At that moment, something unexpected happened.
The coffin charging straight toward them seemed to sense something. Just as it was about to enter the range of five steps from Fan Wu...
It suddenly slammed on the brakes.
And stopped!
"Fellow Daoist Fan! Please wait!!"
At that very moment, an anxious shout came from far away, drawing rapidly nearer.
"Please spare the coffin!!"
Before you continue