Mysteries of the Cunning Path

The night was as dark as ink. As Ye Yun, dragging his battered body, pushed open the courtyard gate, the wind chimes under the eaves suddenly swayed without wind, emitting a rapid sound. The wound on his ribs oozed blackish-green mucus, leaving corrosive traces on the bluestone slabs with every step he took.

"Young Master!" Uncle Fu stumbled out from the side room, dropping the oil lamp he was holding. In the dim yellow light, the old man gasped as he saw Ye Yun's appearance – five claw marks ripped across the front of his official uniform, revealing skin covered in a spiderweb of purplish-blue lines; most horrifying were the three bloody holes on his right shoulder, from which flowed not blood but thick black sludge.

Ye Yun forced a smile, but it pulled at the festering wound on his neck. His fingers, bracing against the doorframe, dug deep into the wood, knuckles white with strain. "Uncle Fu... prepare... Vermilion..."

Before he could finish, he violently coughed out a mouthful of black blood. The drops landed on the steps, wriggling like living things and coalescing into a mass, vaguely forming the distorted face of a child.

Uncle Fu's cloudy eyes suddenly constricted, and his withered hand struck Ye Yun's back with lightning speed. A warm current surged into his meridians, temporarily suppressing the rampant yin energy. The old man's voice trembled, "It's Yin Sha entering the body! Hurry inside!"

Inside the flickering candlelight of the side room, Uncle Fu retrieved a faded red cloth bundle from a hidden compartment. After unwrapping three layers of oiled paper, he revealed yellowed talismans and a small packet of dark red powder. He bit his index finger and drew complex runes around Ye Yun's wounds, each stroke causing the dark energy beneath the skin to churn violently.

"Bear with it," Uncle Fu sprinkled the powder onto the runes. "This is saltpeter mixed with black dog blood, most effective against evil spirits."

Hiss--!

The moment white smoke rose, Ye Yun's muscles tensed, and a suppressed growl escaped his throat. He saw dozens of hair-thin black threads shoot out from his wounds, writhing in the air before turning to ash. After the intense pain, the bone-chilling coldness finally receded.

"Now, tell me, what exactly did you encounter?" Uncle Fu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his voice hoarse.

Ye Yun recounted the events at Wang Mansion. When he described the iron chains on the female ghost's ankles, Uncle Fu, who was pouring tea, suddenly trembled, scalding his hand without noticing. The old man stared at the blister that instantly formed on his skin and murmured, "Iron chains for bound feet... blue clothes... it really is the Yin Child..."

"You know its origin?" Ye Yun keenly caught the term.

Uncle Fu remained silent for a long time, then dragged out a dust-covered camphor wood chest from under the bed. Inside, several handwritten journals were neatly stacked. The topmost one had "Records of the Mysterious" written on its cover in Vermilion. He trembled as he flipped to a page, pointing at a crude illustration: a little girl in blue, chained to a well, surrounded by runes.

"Thirty years ago, the Wang family had a concubine's daughter named Wang Yun," Uncle Fu's voice suddenly became ethereal. "She was born able to see what others couldn't... At the age of seven, she used a dog leash to strangle her birth mother and gouged out her eyes."

The candlelight strangely turned green, casting the old man's shadow on the wall, which was a full three times larger than his actual body. Ye Yun noticed that when Uncle Fu spoke, the shadow made a gesture of covering its eyes.

"What happened later?"

"Wealthy Wang invited Taoists from Qingyun Temple. They said she was an extremely yin body, born in an yin year, yin month, and yin hour, most prone to attracting evil." Uncle Fu's fingernails unconsciously scraped against the pages, making a grating sound. "They performed rituals by the ancient well in the west wing for seven days... In the end, the child threw herself into the well."

Ye Yun recalled the female ghost's hollow eye sockets. "You seem to know a lot about cultivation?"

"This old servant, when young..." Uncle Fu suddenly coughed violently, expelling black, thread-like phlegm. "I worked as a handyman at Qingyun Temple for a few years."

He hastily covered his mouth with a handkerchief, but didn't notice half a black thread dangling from the edge, which wriggled back into his sleeve. Ye Yun clearly saw this detail and subtly clenched the Flying Knives hidden in his sleeve.

"Tell me about the strange entity," Ye Yun changed the subject. "Why couldn't my Essence Qi harm it?"

Uncle Fu seemed relieved and took out a piece of turtle shell from the bottom of the chest. "There are clear and turbid energies in the world. Warriors cultivate clear, spiritual energy, while strange entities gather yin, turbid energy. The Essence Qi of warriors in the lower three ranks is too thin, like..." He smashed the turtle shell, using a wooden sword to chop at a stone.

In the candlelight, the patterns on the broken turtle shell formed a word. Uncle Fu quickly covered it with his sleeve and continued, "Warriors in the middle three ranks are different. Their Essence Qi is condensed like mercury and can break evil. Back when Old General was around, a single sword energy could destroy a century-old fierce ghost."

Ye Yun thought of his Flying Knives, powered by his vital blood. "What about Taoists?"

"Taoists..." A strange glint flashed in Uncle Fu's eyes. "They are born with spiritual roots and can directly absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Even the most basic exorcism talismans are equivalent to the full power of a sixth-rank warrior."

Flames illuminated a corner of the room where a bronze mirror hung. Ye Yun glimpsed out of the corner of his eye that in the mirror, Uncle Fu... had no shadow!

"However, Taoists have fragile bodies." Uncle Fu suddenly blew out the flames, plunging the room back into darkness. "A third-rank warrior's breath can shatter their heart meridians. So, when high-ranking warriors and enlightened true cultivators meet, it often results in mutual destruction."

A sound suddenly came from outside the window, like someone scratching at the paper. Uncle Fu stood up abruptly, his movements surprisingly agile for an old man. He quickly sprinkled a circle of incense ash on the doors and windows. As the ash line hit the ground, it automatically formed an Eight Trigrams pattern.

"Young Master, remember," Uncle Fu's voice became hollow as he spoke with his back to Ye Yun. "To deal with the Yin Child, you must find its anchor... like..." His neck unnaturally twisted to the right. "Those gouged-out eyes..."

Before he finished speaking, a muffled thud suddenly echoed from the courtyard, like something heavy falling into water. Almost simultaneously, the talisman pasted on the lintel ignited without fire, turning to ash and drifting down.

Uncle Fu's body trembled violently. He slowly turned around, and Ye Yun was horrified to discover – the old man's left eye had turned pure black, and was continuously oozing thick black sludge!

"It's here..." Uncle Fu's mouth stretched into an impossible arc, revealing a mouth full of yellowed teeth. "Young Master... hurry..."

The last word turned into a piercing shriek. Dozens of moving lumps suddenly bulged under Uncle Fu's skin, as if countless small insects were crawling beneath. His right hand shot towards Ye Yun, his fingernails growing three inches, their tips glowing with a faint blue light!

Ye Yun, already on guard, dodged the fatal claw with a sideward roll. The Flying Knives from his sleeve shot out, precisely embedding themselves in Uncle Fu's brow. No blood flowed, only a wisp of black smoke curled up from the wound.

"You're not Uncle Fu!" Ye Yun shouted sternly, his peak 8th Rank Essence Qi surging in his meridians. "Who are you?"

"Hehehe..." Uncle Fu let out a childlike giggle. The wound inflicted by the Flying Knives wriggled and healed. "Young Master Ye is so cruel... to even lay hands on your old servant..."

Its body began to twist and deform, its skin melting like wax, revealing a grayish-blue body beneath – it was the blue-clothed female ghost from Wang Mansion! Except now, its eye sockets contained a pair of cloudy eyeballs, and the pupils... were exactly the same as Uncle Fu's!