Strange Happenings!

But after that, Xu Feng was nearly spent. Cold sweat broke out across his back.

Only the Protective Talisman against his chest still gave off a little warmth, warming his body.

Though he felt weak, after that strike of his finger, Xu Feng heard a favorability notification for the first time in ages.

[The Luoyin County City God's favorability toward you has increased significantly.]

Xu Feng let out a long breath. He had not expected the City God to see what he had done here.

Which meant...

The City God had been watching this place all along.

But he had not shown himself?

By the look of it, the City God was still attending to his duties. After all, by rights, everything sinister within the county walls fell under his jurisdiction.

A city had its walls; a moat guarded them.

The City God was master of this territory, one of the two authorities above the local earth god.

"I hope the City God doesn't think I'm a coarse fellow!"

Even now, Xu Feng still had the heart to joke.

Nor did he dwell on the fact that he had cursed.

He had had no other choice.

Ordinarily, a hand seal had to be used together with an inner cultivation method or an incantation.

But Xu Feng knew neither.

So he had used the simplest, most primitive method: a person's own savage ferocity.

Over the past few days, though, Xu Feng had also begun to feel that the gods here were present, but rather lazy.

They had divine power.

Yet unless called upon, they did nothing.

Who knew what was going on?

For the moment, Xu Feng put off checking his character panel and turned to look after Master. Instead, he found Master gazing at him with pride. "Good lad. Good lad. Good lad!"

Only three sentences, each the same.

Yet Xu Feng heard all the emotion packed into them.

He broke into a grin.

Then he gave an "Ow!"

His muscles had been wound too tight. The moment he relaxed, his arm began to ache.

It was as though the effect of the [Great Fish Essence (Red)] had vanished along with that rush of blood!

Seeing this, Master caught hold of him and said with a smile, "You little rascal, always learning the wrong things. Do you think cursing ghosts and reviling gods is as easy as eating and drinking?

"Do you have that much Yin Virtue? Are you really that fearsome?

"Of all the things to learn, you chose something this dangerous!"

But despite his words, Xu Feng could hear no reproach in them.

If anything, Master sounded proud.

He helped Xu Feng over to one side.

Once they had sat down together, Master said, "You've made a name for yourself in front of these people.

"I was thinking I'd take you out to see the world one day.

"Who'd have thought you'd make me proud and do it yourself?

"Everyone here knows you now!"

Xu Feng noticed the eyes on him. When he glanced around, he found that people looked at him differently than they had during the feast.

Only the time it took to eat a meal had passed.

Only a door separated this place from the one before.

But Xu Feng had shown what he could do. Between entering and leaving that door, he was no longer the man he had been.

People did not have to fawn over the powerful and trample the weak.

They could still recognize fortune and danger.

That instinct to seek gain and avoid harm was carved into their bones.

Clearly, in their eyes, Xu Feng had become a potentially destructive danger. Whether for good or ill, he was someone to watch!

Xu Feng looked away. Master had no intention of paying the other Spirit-Baits any attention.

He picked up his bowl again and told Xu Feng to sit and recover.

Then he seemed to remember something!

"Master," Xu Feng asked, "what happened just now? Why did I see a broken door? And couplets?"

Xu Feng still remembered the couplets by the doorway. When it came to their tonal patterns, he was half-illiterate.

He could read the characters, but he knew nothing of rhyme.

He remembered the first line: "Heaven the father, earth the mother; creation wrought by heaven and earth; why must long life be a human life?"

The second line read: "Mountains for bones, springs for blood; the great yin refines the form; long-lasting yin is no match for gazing into eternity."

It did not really sound like a couplet. Master offered no explanation of that. Instead, he said, "I'm afraid there's another show coming tonight. We might not even have to serve as Spirit-Baits after all.

"So do you remember what I told you to do at the start?"

Xu Feng said, "I remember. Whatever Master tells me to do, I'll do it!"

"That's right!" Master said. "Just that. I have a feeling we'll have to run soon! Once we start, forget everything else and follow me. Understand?"

"Understood!" said Xu Feng.

Only then did Master say, "What you saw was probably a temple!

"Long, long ago, a Daoist built the Sword-Sacrificing Temple in Luoyin County.

"A Ritual Sword was enshrined inside.

"But what you saw weren't couplets. They were probably secret words someone carved there later."

"Who?" Xu Feng asked.

"People from the Earth-Fire Cult," Master said.

"Didn't I tell you? The Earth-Fire Cult falsely claimed to belong to the Elixir School. With inner and outer cultivation, they deceived plenty of people.

"They even used the local gentry to get a great many things done.

"Changing the layout of a temple would have been easy for them, wouldn't it?

"But what we just saw was probably a Yin-Yang Confluence. If I remember correctly, that temple was razed after the Earth-Fire Cult members were beheaded.

"A Daoist even came to perform rites to suppress what remained!"

If Xu Feng had heard what Mr. Zhou had told Fa Ming, as Fa Ming had, he would have realized that the Corpse Sewer knew far more about the same temple than Mr. Zhou did.

Xu Feng had not, so he had no reason to wonder why. And although carving "secret words" into the doorframe as couplets was baffling, he had a more important question to ask.

"Master, what is a Yin-Yang Confluence?"

Master said, "When too many people die, a Yin-Yang Confluence can occur.

"The places occupied by yin beings and living people, once as distinct as the Jing and Wei rivers, begin to blur together.

"But that started long ago. Once ghosts began appearing in broad daylight, the world had already fallen into chaos!

"Now it's night, and there may be more to this very night than meets the eye. The Earth-Fire Cult looks to have timed things to lure people onto the hook.

"We might even be part of their plan.

"A temple that was destroyed has appeared again. If that's so, the Earth-Fire Cult has been plotting for decades. You can't say they lack power.

"What in the world are they planning?"

Master finished speaking without noticing that Xu Feng's face had gone dark.

The reason was simple.

The stronger the enemy, the greater the challenge.

Xu Feng was not like Master.

Master might know more about the past, but he did not know the "future."

Xu Feng did.

And that was what left him at a loss!

As Xu Feng saw it, if the Earth-Fire Cult really was so formidable,

how had its members been caught?

How had they been beheaded?

How had they ended up having their corpses stitched together?

If even that had been arranged by the Earth-Fire Cult, then had Master's death really been nothing more than the "incompetent accident" Zhao San believed it was?

Xu Feng's thoughts flashed like lightning. In an instant, countless possibilities raced through his mind. Then, while Master was speaking, he slipped something into Xu Feng's clothes.

Xu Feng's thoughts broke off!

The moment Xu Feng touched it, he did not even need to think.

A game notification appeared before his eyes.

"A blade?" Xu Feng asked quietly.

Master nodded. "Yes, a blade. Its Killing Intent is fierce, and it's tangled up in some karmic ties. I hadn't planned to let you carry it.

"But things are different now. You're capable of handling a Baleful Object.

"I underestimated you.

"You've grown up!"

Xu Feng said nothing. He was reading the description of the broken blade!