Crows Strike the Pillars, an Old Cat Calls at the Door

After delivering his furious rebuke, Xu Feng went around the four corners of the Earth God Shrine, setting out "meals."

Only after settling the wandering souls on all sides did he turn back and shut the main gate!

By then, his master was ready too.

Although his master had left so many tasks to Xu Feng, he had not been entirely at ease. He had stolen a couple of glances at his disciple and seen how well he was doing.

It filled him with pride.

"Not bad," he said. "You have three-tenths of my skill!"

A rare smile crossed his face. "You've got the foundations down. Now they just need more honing."

Xu Feng saw his master sew something onto his own clothes.

It looked like one of the embroidered badges officials wore on their robes, depicting birds or beasts.

At the sight, a thought stirred in Xu Feng's mind.

He did not ask what the "badge" was. After the past few days together, he had learned to read the room.

He knew that, under the present circumstances,

he would get no answer.

As for asking the game, it would not answer either. Unless Xu Feng reached out and touched the thing, he might not get a prompt even if it was an item.

But looking at his master now, Xu Feng had no wish to step forward and lose favor with him.

As for the "three-tenths of my skill" his master had mentioned—

it would be wonderful if he really had three-tenths of his master's skill.

He could accept having less, too. The less skill he had, the more powerful that meant his master was!

As he spoke, his master handed Xu Feng a huge bundle and several smaller satchels.

The two came to the door of the west room. His master smeared "blood" on the stone carving, stuck grass into it, and finally planted a stick of incense before it.

Only then did he say, "Come with me!"

This time, he did not take a fire striker. He took a torch instead.

Nor did he send Xu Feng ahead. He took the lead himself.

After opening the door, he did not go in. He merely thrust the torch inside!

Just once!

With a whoosh, a sound rang out so clearly that Xu Feng heard it even from behind his master.

It was as though someone in the room had pursed their lips and blown hard at the torch.

In an instant, the pine-resin torch turned from red to green. In the end, it was actually blown out.

In that fleeting flash, Xu Feng even saw a face!

A face he could scarcely describe. Before his mind could begin to process it, his master moved faster than thought.

Incense ash flew up first. There must have been other movements as well.

Xu Feng did not see them, but the face let out a wail and immediately retreated!

His master did not let it off.

He was even more overbearing than Xu Feng had been outside the door. He spat straight into the face! After that flurry of moves, an overpowering stench of burning hair lingered in the air.

Then—

Bang!

Something exploded, though Xu Feng could not tell where.

Ash drifted through the air in a great flurry, like falling snow!

His master watched it and said, "Come on, inside! Don't be afraid of that!"

Xu Feng truly was not afraid.

Far from alarmed, he was delighted.

The stronger his master was, the more Xu Feng could theoretically learn! Clearly, his master still had plenty of methods he had yet to teach him.

One might even say

that if his master had lived, there was a good chance he could have dealt with the ancient corpse and the demon corpse himself.

After all, in the perfect life Zhao San imagined,

the first thing he saw was a kind master and a devoted disciple.

His earliest regret was that his master had died young because of his mistake.

Judging by the timeline now, if the Earth-Fire Cult appeared before long, then the original Zhao San, the Corpse Sewer, had not possessed Xu Feng's ability to learn.

He could not have built up an early advantage that kept growing.

So he certainly had not learned as much as Xu Feng had.

Even now, Xu Feng could only just handle some Yinmen affairs. Dealing with a situation like this would still put him in grave danger.

That meant the Zhao San of later years

had never learned many of his master's arts.

They had been lost!

These thoughts flashed through Xu Feng's mind!

His master's face was grave. They had encountered this before even stepping through the door. What was it if not a show of force?

"Get the incense ash out. I'm going to light the lamps. If you see anyone in the room besides you and me, fling the ash at them. Understand?"

Xu Feng answered at once, "Understood, Master!"

The two entered the west room. Inside, the oppressive chill was worse than it had ever been!

Xu Feng's breath came out as mist.

His master drew the torch back and began lighting the candles one by one. This time, the candles did catch,

but their flames glowed a ghastly green.

Several in a row were the same. His master stopped. He handed Xu Feng the extinguished torch and motioned for him to relight it at the fire in the side room.

Then he drew the broken saber. "Hurry."

Xu Feng turned and ran.

The moment he left the room, he sensed that many things had gone wrong.

The flames in the lanterns that had been hung up were now pressed so far back they had nearly vanished inside them.

Even the lantern before the west room was changing from scarlet toward pure white.

He looked toward the main hall.

The curtain at its entrance, which had been tied up before, had fallen again.

It was as if the Land God in the shrine's niche no longer wished to look upon the Earth God Shrine.

At the sight of the Land God's niche, Xu Feng felt he had forgotten something terribly important. But no matter how he tried, he could not recall it now.

So he plunged into the wind!

In that wind, Xu Feng caught a strange smell.

It smelled of wet sand and silt.

Perhaps Xu Feng knew what it was, but he refused to think too deeply about it just then.

Because it smelled very much like the waters of the Yellow River.

Things are getting serious!

Gritting his teeth, Xu Feng returned to the side room. In the few steps it took, he felt the Protective Talisman at his chest begin to radiate an overwhelming aura.

He lit the torch there. The instant he stepped out, he caught something hurtling toward him from the corner of his eye.

He dodged at once.

Xu Feng dropped into an ungainly roll and evaded it.

Looking back, he saw a dead bird on the ground!

The black bird had smashed itself to death against the ground.

A gust of wind sent it spinning away, and he lost sight of where it went!

Then came a second bird. This one did not aim for the moving target that was Xu Feng. It slammed straight into a lantern!

Xu Feng: "!"

The lantern went out. What little firelight remained there dwindled further, and Xu Feng ran for the west room without another word! It was no illusion: as he ran, he heard the yowling of a cat in heat outside.

A crow striking a pillar.

An old cat calling at the door.

For no reason he could name, those two lines sprang to Xu Feng's mind. They were unmistakable signs of a corpse rising!

And that was not all. Despite the howling wind, Xu Feng heard a knock at the gate.

Three knocks, then silence.

Knock, knock, knock.

Knock, knock, knock!