They All Died

"Aah!!!"

"Help! Someone save me!!"

"I threw the plate away! It's outside! Don't catch me! I don't taste good!"

"Help! Help me, boss! I don't want to die! I don't want that plate anymore! I don't want any of the gold, silver, or jewels! Please, someone save me!!"

That night.

The Evil God kept moving around outside with thud, thud, thud, accompanied every so often by all manner of screams.

Countless people hid trembling in their rooms, unable to sleep at all.

But the strange thing was...

Somehow, Shen Lang actually fell asleep amid those screams?

Early the next morning.

When Shen Lang stretched and sat up, still a little bleary-eyed.

Ye Qianfan couldn't help asking, "Brother Shen Lang, how did you manage to fall asleep last night amid all that ghostly wailing and wolfish howling?"

"Well..."

Shen Lang scratched his head. "I don't know either!"

"At first, I was pretty scared too, but after I saw the Evil God pass us by, it seemed to have no interest in our room. So I figured you must have some way to fool it, Brother Ye."

"With you here, Brother Ye, I actually felt safe, and then I fell asleep."

"You really don't have a care in the world."

Ye Qianfan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Shen Lang yawned. "It's not that I don't have a care in the world. It's that I trust you won't let me down, Brother Ye!"

"And now it looks like I was right!"

"You really think highly of me."

Ye Qianfan opened the wooden door with a smile, but when the two of them stepped out of the room together...

The Rich Merchant and the cultivators who had barely survived all turned to look at Ye Qianfan and Shen Lang, their eyes filled with disbelief.

They all seemed to be asking...

How did you two stay in the same house and still survive?!

"Brother Shen Lang, you only came over to Brother Ye's place this morning, right?"

The Rich Merchant asked in disbelief.

Shen Lang answered with a smile, "Of course no—"

"Of course he did!"

Ye Qianfan immediately cut off the Rich Merchant, then smiled. "What are you thinking, Boss Qian? Didn't everyone see enough examples last night of what happens when two people stay in one house? Clearly, the Night Watchman was telling the truth. We'll probably have to work together to start looking for that Old Almanac next!"

Everyone relaxed, wearing expressions that said it was just as they had expected!

"Exactly, exactly!"

Only then did the Rich Merchant nod repeatedly. "Last night scared me half to death!"

"Luckily, I listened to you back then and took the Cinerary Urn, so I didn't end up as an offering! I wonder if anyone who took an Offering Plate is still alive?"

"Me!"

At that moment...

A young man with a guileless face and a strange waist drum tucked at his waist raised his hand!

The drum wasn't large, only a little bigger than a soup bowl, and oval in shape. But its surface was covered in densely packed tattoos, as though they had been tattooed onto the skin before it was made into a drum.

The lettering had faded slightly from being struck, but Ye Qianfan could still make out what appeared to be scripture.

"How did you survive?" The Roving Exorcist Disciple beside him, holding a Soul Banner, sucked in a cold breath. "I checked several nearby houses this morning. Everyone who took an Offering Plate died. All that was left inside the houses was..."

"All that was left was what?"

Ye Qianfan asked.

The Roving Exorcist Disciple shook his head. "Go look for yourself. I can't really describe it!"