Gods Watch from Three Feet Above

Xu Yi saw Jing Hesheng rolling his eyes, about to faint, and hurried over to pinch the spot beneath his nose, only then bringing him around.

"Phew..."

Jing Hesheng curled up in his wheelchair. Having exhausted too much strength, he was barely breathing, his voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz:

"I offended an expert. My body fell ill, and all my family property was snatched away. In your terms, I became a pauper—there was no more fat left to squeeze."

Jing Hesheng seemed no longer clear-headed. Staring at Xu Yi, his voice grew even softer, and what followed was spoken only to himself:

"I only have Tao Tao left...

Are you here to take her away too..."

Xu Yi could not hear him at all.

"Mr. Jing, what are you saying?"

Jing Hesheng suddenly twisted into a ferocious expression. With those withered hands like old grapevines, he desperately shoved his wheelchair and rammed toward Xu Yi with difficulty:

"Get away! Get out!"

His mind was no longer lucid.

Not wanting to provoke him, Xu Yi took two steps back, then turned and left the main hall.

"Did Jing Hesheng merely offend someone, or has he gotten tangled up with something unclean?"

He had this suspicion because the residence was terrifyingly desolate, almost devoid of human presence, its yin energy cold and oppressive.

Xu Yi carefully inspected the surroundings but found no one else in the residence.

He could only return to the entrance. At the same time, he pulled a cigarette from the pack of Hardman cigarettes he had just bought, intending to offer Old Gatekeeper a few puffs and strike up a conversation to see whether he could learn anything useful.

The moment he drew out the cigarette, he sensed something was wrong.

He hurried into the gatehouse, and his scalp instantly prickled—

Old Gatekeeper, who had been so full of vigor just moments ago, was now sitting on a stool in utter silence, as though he had turned into a "dummy."

The "dummy" was far too lifelike, and an indescribable terror filled the cramped gatehouse.

Xu Yi staggered back several steps and retreated from the gatehouse, quickly taking out Ye Miao's sachet and holding it over his nose and mouth.

As the rich fragrance entered his nostrils, black and white spread out before his eyes.

When the black-and-white vision covered the gatehouse, Xu Yi was shocked to see that Old Gatekeeper had vanished outright. The gatehouse doorframe had become a "mouth," filled with stiff flesh and blood—the gatehouse seemed to have once come alive, but had now become a zombie.

"What the hell is that?!"

He hurried to the main gate and saw that the black-lacquered wooden doors had turned to stone.

Even more horrifyingly, the seam between the doors had disappeared.

Xu Yi turned toward the courtyard. The daylight was bleak, and beneath that miserable gray light, the entire courtyard had undergone earth-shaking changes—

The flowerbeds no longer held flowers and weeds, but clusters of tentacles. Where their suckers should have been were round, wide-open eyeballs. Those eyes had much white and little black, clearly not human eyes, but more like those of squid.

When Xu Yi looked at the tentacles, the tentacles looked back at him, and his head immediately began to tingle.

Xu Yi hurriedly shifted his gaze, and only then did the numbness in his head fade.

From the corner of his eye, Xu Yi saw several scrawny, bizarrely shaped "people" inside the large water jar at the center of the courtyard, watching him from afar.

"What are those? Lotus demons?"

This residence was truly cursed!

Xu Yi was certain:

"Those tentacles, and those lotus demons, are the Hundred Night Miasma Red-Eyed Brother mentioned."

He looked at the enormous canopy of black gauze above the courtyard.

"The black gauze imitates the conditions of night, letting the Hundred Night Miasma appear during the day!"

Xu Yi guessed:

"As long as it is dark, things like the Hundred Night Miasma should appear."

As he shifted his gaze, he suddenly saw two points of light floating about three feet above his head—110 centimeters.

The lights were white and brilliant, illuminating even the area not far around him.

"What are these?"

If everything in the courtyard made him feel "sinister and terrifying," then the two points of light above his head felt "solemn, austere, and cold."

It was exactly the same feeling as the towering figure outside his window in last night's dream.

"This is the towering figure that protected me in my dream last night!"

Though Xu Yi did not understand, he was deeply shaken.

Xu Yi proceeded along the corridor at the side of the residence. He did not know how long he had walked, yet he still had not found the side gate.

"The side gate has disappeared too."

Xu Yi turned his head, and his gaze jolted.

The corridor behind him seemed endlessly long. The path beneath his feet stretched and stretched, the columns overhead lengthened and lengthened, and countless red lanterns hung beneath the beams until they vanished into a thick, inextricable, sticky gloom.

"This is... a ghost wall?"

He looked at the two points of light three feet above his head.

The two lights stayed close beside him, illuminating everything within at least three meters around him in white.

They were not friendly toward him, but neither were they hostile.

At some point, the two sides of the corridor had become mottled vermilion walls with peeling paint. Though the paint had flaked away, the walls were tightly sealed, and his gaze could not penetrate them at all.

Xu Yi knew he had no way back. He could only steel himself and continue forward.

Before long, a flight of descending stairs appeared before him.

Xu Yi glanced at the endless corridor behind him, then at the two points of light above his head. After pondering for a moment, he took down a lantern hanging beneath a beam in the corridor.

A touch of brilliant crimson appeared in his hand, and that crimson did not draw the displeasure of the two points of light overhead.

Compared to the two points of light, the crimson flame was pitifully weak, its glow almost negligible.

To be safe, Xu Yi still held the lantern steadily, with no intention of extinguishing it.

He descended who knew how many steps before finally reaching a ruined cellar. It had clearly once been used to brew wine, for the air was thick with the heavy smell of wine lees.

In the vision enhanced by spirituality, the depths of the cellar were shrouded in darkness. That darkness writhed and churned like dense, viscous clouds, and indistinct whispers drifted from within.

Xu Yi took one step forward, and a fence suddenly appeared in his illuminated vision.

A fence?

Xu Yi took another step forward. The fence abruptly grew taller and larger, buried deep underground and extending upward into the darkness.

It was not a fence.

It was a prison!

The prison bars were bound by iron hoops. Those hoops nailed beneath the ground were covered in a thick layer of verdigris, speckled with brilliant crimson like splattered blood.

As Xu Yi looked ahead, he saw ghostly shadows swarming within the prison, while a chilly wind rushed into his face!

Xu Yi was just about to retreat when he heard a delicate cry, laced with sobs:

"Sir! Please save this humble woman!"

Huh?!

Xu Yi realized something was wrong and was about to step back when a fragrant breeze struck his face. Then a woman clad in only a few strips of silk burst from the darkness and threw herself against the prison bars.

She looked no more than twenty. Her pale face was like fragile porcelain, and though her face was filled with sorrow, the naturally upturned curve at the corners of her eyes transformed that sorrow into a certain allure, enough to stir pity in anyone who saw her.

Her slender body was covered in bloodstains. Thick bloodied silk was wrapped around her waist and abdomen, and she was clearly wounded.

When she threw herself against the prison bars, that fragrant breeze swept toward Xu Yi once more.

Xu Yi froze for a moment.

Within that fragrant breeze, he seemed to smell...

A strange, fishy stench.