Just as Yusang lowered her head, Yan Qige had already set up the array barrier. He walked to a spot near a broken wall, cast an incantation, and took out the Soul Collector lantern from behind him, then raised the lantern before his face and closed his eyes to chant spells. With his light shout, a Five Elements Eight Trigrams barrier appeared in the back courtyard centered on Yusang, emanating purple-gold light.

“Show yourself immediately,” Yan Qige commanded with imposing authority, his voice seeming to spread from all directions then converging toward the center, striking awe into people’s hearts.

“Bang!” With a cracking sound, a pile of earth bricks originally covered with lush weeds exploded apart. A gray figure jumped out from the crack, leaping directly toward the mirror Yusang held high. With a muffled thud, the gray shadow crashed head-first into the mirror surface and fell into the circle at Yusang’s feet.

Instantly, the Eight Trigrams array blazed with brilliant light, quickly contracting toward the center and becoming an invisible net that trapped the gray shadow within. Seeing the demon caught, Yusang crouched down and picked up the thing by its ear, discovering it was a very strange creature – rat head, fox body, rabbit tail. At this moment, a talisman she had deliberately thrown that day was stuck to its short little tail.

“What is this – a rat? Or a fox?” Yusang lifted the small creature by its ears to examine it, recognizing this as the little monster she had seen by the Red Pearl River that day.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t pick him up,” Yan Qige said with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, his meaning unclear.

“Why?” Yusang asked puzzledly. Just as the words left her mouth, she suddenly felt something strange happening to the ear in her hand. The originally small animal suddenly became a living adult, and her hand was grasping that person’s ear.

“Ah!” Yusang cried out in alarm, startled into stepping back and hiding behind Yan Qige. Looking carefully again, it was an elderly man with completely white hair and beard.

“I… I’ve changed back?” The old man looked down at himself, touching his arms and legs, patting his face and head, appearing very happy.

“You’ve been secretly following us all along – what’s your purpose?” Yan Qige asked coldly.

Hearing this question, the old man stopped being happy by himself and looked up at Yan Qige. Seeing his icy expression, he couldn’t help showing a fearful look.

“You don’t need to be afraid – we won’t hurt you,” Yusang spoke up.

“Really?” The old man looked Yusang up and down with apparent disbelief.

“We’re here to catch demons,” Yusang explained.

The old man examined Yan Qige up and down, then seemed to have a sudden realization, nodding and saying: “Oh, so you’re a Taoist priest.”

Hearing the words “Taoist priest,” Yusang’s heart skipped a beat. Looking at Yan Qige’s expression, it had indeed become cold as ice.

“Well… who are you? A demon?” Seeing Yan Qige’s expression, Yusang quickly took over the conversation to ask, afraid that if he became unhappy, he might kill this old man to vent his anger.

“I’m originally the River God of the Red Pearl River – I’m not some demon.”

“River God? Oh, you’re that fellow who wants young girls drowned as sacrifices.” Yusang pointed at the old man.

Upon hearing this, the old man quickly shook his head and waved his hands: “That’s wronging me – I didn’t, I didn’t!”

“Then what’s going on?”

“It’s cursed retribution, alas.” The old man sighed.

“What curse?” Yusang asked.

“That was also twenty years ago. Back then, there was a family surnamed Hu in Red Pearl Village. The Hu family had a young man who fell for the daughter of Landlord Liu. Naturally, Landlord Liu wouldn’t agree to this marriage, so he was determined to drive the Hu boy out of Red Pearl Village and promised the Liu family’s daughter to the son of a moneyed family in Jiangnan. On the morning when the Liu family’s daughter was to be married, somehow the Hu boy died. His corpse stood stiffly under the old sophora tree at the village entrance, as if even in death he was waiting for Miss Liu’s bridal sedan to pass by the village entrance. Tsk tsk tsk… that sight was terrifyingly frightening.”

“Get to the point – what happened next?” Yusang urged.

“Miss Liu kept crying in the sedan, wanting to get out to take a look, but the matchmaker said it was inauspicious and forcibly kept her locked in the sedan as they carried her away. Then the bridal sedan was carried onto the decorated boat that had come for the wedding, but shortly after the boat reached the river, strong winds began blowing. Such a magnificently decorated boat was blown over by the wind.”

“What does this have to do with cursed retribution?”

“That boat was big enough to hold several thousand people – how sinister that it sank just like that. The elderly all said it was inauspicious. Sure enough, someone who escaped from the river that day said that from the moment Miss Liu boarded the boat, she stood at the bow wearing her red bridal veil. When the wind was about to overturn it, he hid and saw Miss Liu’s veil blown away. He saw that she was smiling – that particularly eerie smile like a dead person’s. Then Miss Liu jumped into the river herself.

That night, the person who escaped back went mad, shouting all day that Miss Liu had come back to find him the previous night, and saying Miss Liu was coming back for revenge – everyone would face retribution. Naturally, people didn’t believe his mad ravings, but unexpectedly, on the seventh day after Miss Liu’s death, the usually calm Red Pearl River suddenly flooded. Most of the villagers died in the flood. Miss Liu had returned with magical powers. Those who survived had no choice but to obey her orders, or else their lives wouldn’t be safe. And I, the River God originally responsible for the rising and falling of the waters here, was completely no match for her. She turned my physical body into a stone carving and placed it at the head of Red Pearl Village. I could no longer cast spells and could only hide all day. As for following you, it’s because this place is truly dangerous – I wanted to warn you to leave quickly. It’s just that Miss Liu is too powerful, so I never dared show myself.”

“So, Mingran, is that Miss Liu? Why would she have gained demonic arts, and what is that thing she obeys?” Yusang frowned and looked at Yan Qige in confusion.

Yan Qige didn’t answer Yusang, only handed a yellow talisman to the old man, saying: “Keep this on your person and go gather all the other survivors – tell them not to show their faces tonight.”

“This… will it work? Before you came, several passing Taoist priests had also come here, but they were all killed by Miss Liu… you…”

Seeing Yan Qige’s eyes reveal murderous intent again, Yusang quickly reached out to grab Yan Qige’s arm and push him toward the exit, as if afraid he would strike and smash the River God to pieces. She hurriedly said, “It’s getting late – we should hurry and go look around Red Pearl Village again.”

Outside Red Pearl Village, the old dead tree and the stone fox carving beneath it still stood there. Having heard that story about Miss Liu and knowing that the Hu boy had died here, Yusang reexamined the tree. Walking halfway around the dead tree and looking carefully, she discovered something different.

“There’s something here.” Yusang pointed to a small recessed hole at the base of the tree beside the stone fox carving, seeing something inside that seemed to be glowing.