The Evil God Descends

"Shen Lang?"

Just as Shen Lang was heading back toward the little temple, Ye Qianfan suddenly opened his door. "Why are you still wandering around outside?"

"All the houses are taken, and the ghost fog swallowed the rest," Shen Lang explained. "I was going to try my luck at the temple!"

"Too late!"

Ye Qianfan shook his head. "I already saw a little monk move into the temple. He probably couldn't find a suitable house either!"

"Huh? Then..."

Shen Lang was at a loss, but he still shook his head and reached to open the door. "I can't drag you down with me!"

"I'll keep looking around. If worst comes to worst, I'll stay in one of the houses on the outskirts and gather enough firewood to keep the whole place blazing bright!"

"No need." Ye Qianfan held down Shen Lang's hand. "Just stay here. You'll be fine!"

"But that would..."

Shen Lang wanted to say more, but Ye Qianfan shook his head again. "Don't worry. I have a way to hide my human aura! The ghosts won't see me as human, so there's nothing for you to worry about!"

Ye Qianfan wasn't making an empty claim. He had already asked the Daoist.

The Daoist had said that, in essence, Ye Qianfan no longer counted as human.

Besides...

If something living inside a Paper Puppet counted as a person, then he wasn't one person, but two.

After all, the Daoist would certainly have to count as a person too.

After hearing that...

Ye Qianfan had immediately felt reassured.

If he counted as human, trouble would come knocking anyway. In that case, he might as well let Shen Lang stay too. If evil spirits really attacked, at least the two of them could watch each other's backs!

"No words can repay such kindness!" Shen Lang bowed deeply to Ye Qianfan. "Brother Ye, if you ever run into trouble, please don't hesitate to ask me! Even if it costs me my life, I will repay what you've done for me today!"

"No need for that. I'm treating you as a brother today. All I ask is that you don't stab me in the back someday!"

Shen Lang's words reminded Ye Qianfan of old Fu Lao.

Shen Lang, however, wore a solemn expression. "What kind of ungrateful wolf do you take me for? If I ever wrong you, Brother Ye, may five thunderbolts strike me dead!"

"Aaaah!!!"

But just as the two were talking...

A scream suddenly rang out from the outskirts. Ye Qianfan hurried over to the window, but he couldn't see anything.

Ghost Village had no streetlights, and fog veiled the moon. Aside from the faint yellow firelight leaking through a few small windows, the entire village was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face!

"Holy shit!"

Perhaps it was because Ghost Village was so quiet, but even though the house was near the village's outskirts...

Ye Qianfan could hear everything clearly from the window. It sounded as though the voices were coming from the Martial Artist's group.

"Which bastard said we'd be fine staying in separate rooms in the courtyard house?"

"That fucking fog is full of ghostly shadows!"

"Get the hell out here!"

"Where is everyone?"

"All of you, get out here!"

Yet...

Throughout Ghost Village, aside from Brother Wu's shouting, there wasn't a single voice answering him!

Only when the knocking and pounding on doors began did Ye Qianfan and the others realize something was wrong!

Bang, bang, bang!

"What the hell is going on?"

It was still Brother Wu's voice. In the darkness, his remained the only voice...

Echoing throughout Ghost Village.

"Why won't the door open?"

"Where the hell did you all go? Come out!"

"I can't hold them off alone! Get out here and help... Ah! Stay back! All of you, stay back!!!"

"Aaaah!!!"

Soon...

Brother Wu's scream rose, then faded away.

Ghost Village once again fell so silent that a dropped pin could have been heard!

"Let's sleep."

When Ye Qianfan heard nothing more outside, he simply went over and sat by the bed. "When soldiers come, we'll meet them with generals; when floods come, we'll dam them with earth. Whatever happens, we'll deal with it tomorrow!"

"True." Shen Lang's initial anxiety had eased somewhat. "If trouble comes, there's no escaping it. If it doesn't, we'll sleep straight through till dawn!"

That was what they said.

But neither of them really slept. Shen Lang lay on the pile of straw on the floor, and Ye Qianfan could clearly tell that his breathing was a little uneven.

A sleeping person's breathing would have been steady.

As for Ye Qianfan...

He didn't need to sleep in the first place. All he could do was close his eyes and rest his mind.

"Your real disadvantage is not having a cultivation method. If you had one, you could spend the time others use for sleeping on cultivation," the Daoist grumbled.

"There's plenty of time ahead. No need to rush," Ye Qianfan said. "Once the trial is over, I'll find a suitable cultivation method."

"Easy for you to say. Even my Puppet Sect has no cultivation methods for Soul Cultivators. How could that old Fu Lao, a mere wanderer, possibly have one?"

"Haven't you heard that you can't judge a person by their looks? Maybe..."

Ye Qianfan was only halfway through his sentence when the Daoist suddenly interrupted him. "Ye Qianfan, look outside. What's that?"

"What's what?"

At those words, Ye Qianfan hurriedly turned to look outside too.

He saw an enormous moon!

A blood-red moon!

And...

Why was there a long, thin line down the middle of that moon?

Thud! Thud!!

But...

When that enormous blood-red moon hanging in the air began to move, Ye Qianfan finally realized...

That wasn't a moon!!!

It was an enormous eye. And the instant the monster turned its head, Ye Qianfan noticed that the gigantic creature had two eyes. Each one had to be as big as a washbasin, didn't it?

Perhaps they were much larger than washbasins, but since they hung so high in the air, Ye Qianfan couldn't accurately judge their size.

Still, judging by the height of the monster's eyes...

He could tell that the monster stood over ten meters tall!

It was about three stories high, more than twice—roughly three times—the height of the houses they were staying in, which stood a little over three meters tall.

Bang!

Just as Ye Qianfan was studying the monster whose form remained hidden in the night...

The monster smashed through a house's roof with a single punch. A scream immediately came from inside. "Ah!! What kind of monster is that? Don't grab me! Don't..."

"Help! Help... Aaaah!!!"

The scream cut off abruptly, but after it ended came a crunch, crunch of chewing.

It sounded just like when the Mountain God Hag had stuffed people into her mouth and chewed them to pieces!

And...

When the light of the fire inside the house fell across the monster's face...

Ye Qianfan finally saw it clearly. That enormous monster's face belonged to the figure that had sat upon the Sumeru pedestal during the day—

The Evil God!