The temple

"Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!"

The Shadow Fiend caught up.

Su Wu shook the Imperial Bell. Amid its ringing, the Shadow Fiend lurched forward like footage skipping frames.

But it was so fast that, despite its constant stuttering, it stayed two meters from Su Wu, neither closer nor farther away!

At the same time, Su Wu noticed that every time the Imperial Bell rang, the black hand attached beneath his armpit stuttered too, and his pain steadily subsided.

This Fiend Hand could act on its own!

Although Su Wu's thoughts had influenced it when it tore off a fragment of the Shadow Fiend and grew bone, flesh, and skin, it was the Fiend Hand itself that had responded.

Su Wu's consciousness could influence the Fiend Hand, but that influence was far too weak at present.

When his brain issued a command, his own hands could respond instantly. Yet when the same command reached the Fiend Hand, it needed a minute or even longer to show the slightest response.

A minute? By then, it would be far too late!

"Ding, ding, ding, ding!"

The ringing of the Imperial Bell echoed continuously through the alley.

Dragging the pitch-black, uncanny Fiend Hand with its ten fingers beneath his armpit, Su Wu finally rounded the corner and entered the dim side passage.

At the alley corner, the Shadow Fiend kept trying to emerge. The head of its humanoid silhouette poked out, its featureless black face turned toward Su Wu.

Su Wu felt as though he could see a pair of eyes on that black face, staring straight at him.

An inexplicable chill welled up inside him.

He turned to look at the bustling street at the end of the passage.

The street plunged into darkness-a sign that the Lantern Fiend was about to appear.

Whenever the red lanterns were about to rise into the sky, every light and neon sign within their range went out, leaving everything in darkness, with only daylight reaching the ground.

At the sight, Su Wu's heart lurched.

He whipped his head around. With only faint daylight illuminating his surroundings, the Shadow Fiend that had been "staring" at him from the alley corner instantly dissolved.

The next instant, it appeared in the shadows around Su Wu!

It rose upright in a flash, barely two meters away from Su Wu!

"Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding-"

Su Wu was so startled that his hair nearly stood on end, yet at that most dangerous moment, his wrist instinctively made the best possible choice. It jerked into motion, the Imperial Bell rang, and the Shadow Fiend froze in place!

Thought after thought exploded in his mind.

Before the Lantern Fiend appears, all the lights go out. During the interval when the street falls into darkness, the Shadow Fiend can leave that apartment building and keep hunting me.

This stretch of time is extremely dangerous. I can't let my guard down!

Tap, tap, tap...

Su Wu's footsteps echoed through the passage.

The Shadow Fiend before him pressed closer with every step, but the Imperial Bell's ringing held it back, keeping it two meters from Su Wu.

The stretch was fewer than a hundred paces long, yet it took Su Wu about five minutes to cover it!

At last, he reached the mouth of the passage.

The red lanterns rose high into the sky, and crimson light fell across Su Wu's back. A sheen of cold sweat seeped out. He feared that, in the next instant, his perspective would rise and he would find himself looking down at his own corpse on the ground.

But this time, even bathed in crimson light, his head remained firmly on his neck.

Only the Shadow Fiend before him vanished without warning, like a bursting bubble.

Su Wu turned around. Under the crimson glow, headless corpses stood in shops all along the street, each frozen in the posture of their final moment, like wax figures.

His expression darkened.

His worst suspicion had come true after all.

The red light had shone on him, yet he was completely unharmed.

That meant the Lantern Fiend did not kill the way he had guessed. Being touched by the red light did not guarantee death.

The way it killed was entirely random!

Whether the red light fell on someone proved nothing.

Once it rose, everyone within its range might die-or might remain completely unharmed!

It was a blade suspended above the heads of the living. But when that blade fell was not up to the people beneath it. It was up to the blade itself!

"Hah! Hah!"

Just then, a burst of agony erupted beneath his right armpit. The pain made Su Wu's heart clench, and he gasped twice.

He lowered his head to look beneath his right armpit. The Fiend Hand was swinging about at will, and every movement sent excruciating pain through Su Wu!

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Su Wu gripped the Imperial Bell and kept shaking it, while his brain continuously issued commands to resist, fighting for control of the Fiend Hand.

Under that dual suppression, the Fiend Hand quieted down.

He looked around, his gaze quickly settling on the Little Temple beside the shop whose sign read "Imperial Pastries."

The little temple was built of dark red bricks. Its style was completely different from the shops around it, making it recognizable at a glance.

At that moment, orange light shone from within the temple, carving out a patch ten feet across on the long street awash in crimson.

I'll go there!

Su Wu hesitated no longer and broke into a sprint.

Whether his struggle with the Shadow Fiend had drained too much of his strength or it was merely psychological, Su Wu distinctly felt that he was running slower this time. His legs felt as though sandbags had been strapped to them.

In the glass display window of a clothing store he passed, three mannequins stood silently in the crimson light.

Two wore bright, fashionable clothes;

the third stood off to one side. Her clothes were neither bright nor fashionable, but her missing head gave her a distinctive look.

The mouth of the passage was not far from the little temple.

So even with his strength flagging, Su Wu soon reached the Little Temple's entrance.

Enveloped in the orange light spilling from the Little Temple, Su Wu felt his physical and mental exhaustion ease, and an inexplicable sense of safety arose within him.

Even the Fiend Hand, which had kept stirring and required constant suppression with the Imperial Bell, became much quieter.

His frequent use of the Imperial Bell to suppress the Fiend Hand had also revealed that its ringing could not affect the Lantern Fiend.

Every palace lantern, seemingly soaked in blood, continued turning in the sky as usual. Not one paused for even an instant at the Imperial Bell's ringing.

The crimson quietly faded,

the surrounding neon lights flickered to life,

and silence reigned over everything.

Standing in the orange light, Su Wu studied the little temple before him.

It really was a Little Temple built of bricks, abruptly "squeezed" between the bakery on the left and the blind massage parlor on the right. It had no plaque or street number, and was not connected to the floors above at all.

Was there a temple like this on the street?

I've never seen it.

It's as if it suddenly appeared.

With those doubts lingering in his mind, Su Wu pushed open the half-closed, black-painted temple door, stepped over the threshold formed by a wooden plank, and entered. A thick smell of smoke and burning immediately filled his nose.

He remembered living in his rural hometown as a child. There had been an Earth God temple at the entrance to the street where his family lived.

A group of old men had spent all day sheltering inside, bragging and telling ghost stories. The mingled smells of the various tobaccos they smoked and the fires they lit to ward off the cold had been much like the smell in this little temple.

There was no statue enshrined inside.

There was no incense burner, offering table, donation box, or anything of the sort.

There was only a stone "candlestick" as thick as a bucket, joined to the floor, with an orange flame burning atop it.

He did not know what fueled the flame, but its burning alone brought Su Wu boundless peace.