Hide Inside, Don't Come Out

After leaving the station, Xu Jin had barely taken two steps when he suddenly stopped.

"You don't need to come with me to the shallows yet."

He turned his head toward Wang Lei. "Go to the temporary shelter first. Put the ten warding jade talismans on the four corners of the doors and windows of the three houses. Then check the records on water wraiths in the case files. Keep a close watch on those three victims, and don't let them break free of their guards and run out."

Wang Lei froze for a moment. "Huh? You're going to Zhang Asi's house alone?"

"Mm." Xu Jin nodded. "The yin baleful intent is strongest around the shallows. Your body-tempering cultivation is on the weaker side; staying close for too long could let it invade your body and distract you. Besides, someone knowledgeable needs to keep watch at the shelter. The village head and villagers have never dealt with yin wraiths before—they can't hold the situation together."

He put it bluntly, without the slightest courtesy. Alone, he could advance or retreat freely. Bringing along a partner with weaker combat strength would only force him to divide his attention protecting him if something unexpected happened.

Wang Lei understood the reasoning too. He did not try to act tough and immediately agreed. "All right! Leave the shelter to me. Be careful on your own. If anything feels wrong, crush the jade token and send word. I'll rush over at once."

"Got it."

As soon as the words fell, Xu Jin tapped off with his toes and activated his Rainbow Transformation divine ability. A faint golden rainbow shot up from the ground and streaked straight toward the village to the south.

A measure of anger lay suppressed in Xu Jin's heart.

Green-Mud Ferry was his jurisdiction.

It would have been one thing if the baleful intent of the Sunk Tomb had not been sealed away, but it had actually dared to drift ashore with the current, cling to an antique, and harm ordinary people.

This was no longer a matter of yin wraiths lying dormant. It was openly reaching into his territory.

First, investigate the carved wooden box. Then find the point where it had leaked out.

If he could trace the current to the side passage of the Sunk Tomb, he would go straight in and cut off the source.

So what if the people of the Profound Yin Hall guarded the front entrance? Sooner or later, they would all have to be cleared out.

Almost at the same time, at the southern village entrance by the ferry, Wang Xiaoyi had just unloaded his towrope and was heading home.

He was a young boat tracker from the ferry, only seventeen or eighteen. Having spent all year soaking by the river, his skin had been baked dark by the sun, and his nose was far keener than most. He could tell fishy water from muddy silt with a single sniff.

"Xiaoyi, taking the day off today?" the old man who sold sundries at the village entrance called out to him.

"Yeah! Taking a day off. Tomorrow I'm heading upstream to haul cargo!" Wang Xiaoyi answered with a grin.

He was still calculating that once this cargo run was done, the money he had saved would be enough to add half a sack of rice to the household stores and buy two feet of cloth to make his mother a new garment.

The lives of ordinary people in a riverside village were simple and steady.

Just after turning past the old locust tree at the village entrance, he ran into someone head-on.

It was the Li family's boy from the eastern end of the village.

The youth had his head lowered, his steps light and floaty as he slowly made his way toward the river, as if he were walking on cotton.

"Li boy? What are you doing heading to the river? Your mother's been looking everywhere for you!" Wang Xiaoyi called.

The Li boy did not answer, nor did he stop walking.

Wang Xiaoyi found it strange and quickly took two steps forward to catch up.

The moment he drew close, a heavy stench of rot and fishiness bored into his nose.

He frowned instinctively and glanced at the youth's wrist.

The wrist exposed beyond his sleeve cuff was an unnatural bluish white, its veins black beneath the skin, like a bloated corpse that had floated in water.

Wang Xiaoyi's heart lurched.

When he raised his eyes to look at the boy's face, the Li boy's gaze was blank and fixed, devoid of the slightest spark. His eyeballs looked as though they had been veiled in ash, and a stiff smile still hung from the corners of his mouth.

He did not look alive at all.

"Are... are you all right?" Wang Xiaoyi took half a step back, his voice tightening.

The Li boy still said nothing. Slowly, he turned his head and stared straight at him.

The stench of rot grew stronger.

Wang Xiaoyi's back went cold in an instant, every hair on his body standing on end.

After hauling boats for so many years, he had heard old folks speak of water ghosts dragging people away as replacements, but he had never taken it seriously.

Yet faced with this sight, he could not help letting his thoughts run wild.

"I... I'm going home to get something. You go wait by the river first."

He dryly made up an excuse, turned around, and headed for his own courtyard, walking faster and faster.

He did not dare look back.

He could feel that fixed stare behind him, clinging to his back the entire time.

Wang Xiaoyi hurried back into his little courtyard, bolted the gate behind him, and, still feeling it was not enough, carried over an arm-thick wooden pole and braced it against the gate.

Leaning against the door, he gulped down breaths, his heart pounding like it would leap from his throat.

"It's fine, it's fine. I must have seen wrong."

He patted his chest and comforted himself. "Maybe he caught some strange illness. I'll tell the village head later and have the physician take a look."

The courtyard was silent, save for crickets chirping at the base of the wall.

The sky was already bright. Sunlight spilled over the wall and fell warmly across the ground.

Wang Xiaoyi relaxed a little, thinking he had simply scared himself senseless earlier.

But at that moment, footsteps sounded beyond the courtyard gate.

Dragging, heavy footsteps, one after another, as though feet were stuck in mud and could not be pulled free.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Someone was knocking on the door.

The force was heavy and muffled, nothing like a normal person knocking with a hand. It sounded more as though someone were slamming into it with a shoulder or a head.

The heart Wang Xiaoyi had just calmed instantly rose again. Holding his breath, he crept over to the crack in the door and peered outside.

The instant his gaze met the eye beyond the crack, all the blood in his body turned cold.

It was the Li boy.

The youth's entire face was swollen and bluish white, his eyes clouded pale. His lips were pulled into a smile so grotesque it beggared belief, his face pressed against the crack as he stared stubbornly inside.

"Open the door..."

A hoarse voice squeezed through the crack, sharp and thin, utterly unlike the youth's original voice.

Wang Xiaoyi fell backward onto the ground in fright, his limbs gone limp.

The banging against the door grew louder and louder.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The old wooden doorframe creaked and groaned, sawdust raining down in soft showers. Even the wooden pole braced behind the door began to shake.

Then, from the window behind the house, came the piercing sound of fingernails scraping against wood.

Scrape—scrape—

Sharp and shrill, as though claws were raking the window lattice again and again.

There was more than one.

There were at least two things outside.

The front door was being rammed, the rear window scratched at, every escape route blocked.

Wang Xiaoyi scrambled backward on hands and feet until he reached the corner of the main room, his back pressed tightly against the cold earthen wall.

He looked at the courtyard gate on the verge of collapse and listened to the uncanny sounds attacking from both front and rear, unable to stop himself from trembling.

Though sunlight shone brightly in the courtyard, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, cold seeping out through the cracks of his bones.

He wanted to cry out for help, but not a sound came from his throat.

The pounding on the door became more urgent.

The wooden door let out a groan of unbearable strain. The bolt had been battered out of shape and looked ready to snap apart.

The scratching at the window lattice grew denser as well.

Wang Xiaoyi curled up in the corner, squeezing his eyes shut as his mind went blank.

He remembered what the old people at the village entrance had said: once a water ghost set its sights on someone, they could not escape.

But he had not finished hauling this load yet, nor had he made his mother her new clothes.

The youth's despair washed over his head like cold water.

Who knew how long passed? Perhaps it was only the span of a few breaths.

Just as the wooden door was about to be smashed open, a sharp golden gleam tore through the air from beyond the courtyard wall.

Sssh—

The ramming at the door abruptly stopped.

The scratching outside the window vanished at once as well.

Deathly silence settled over the courtyard again.

Wang Xiaoyi remained frozen in the corner, not daring to move or open his eyes.

Then he heard a young man's voice from outside the courtyard gate.

"Hide inside. Don't come out."