I am the Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysterious-Chapter 181 - 154: The Clash of Red and White (Requesting Monthly Tickets)
Sang Que got lost because she didn’t sacrifice to the evil spirits in Old Tian’s opera house, and Old Tian wasn’t lenient with her at all.
Actually, Sang Que couldn’t understand how she got lost. The direction was clearly confirmed by the compass on her bracelet, yet she still ended up wrong, and increasingly so.
She has now found herself deep within the maple forest, unable to find her way back.
The mask of the Night Traveler indeed had some effect. Several times, Sang Que saw evil spirits appear in the forest, but before she got close, they fled.
To return, she must first repay the evil spirits owed to Old Tian, otherwise, during the next teleportation, she might even end up in a lake.
Sang Que took off the Night Traveler’s mask and stuffed it back into her bag, surveying the surroundings.
The evil spirits Old Tian demanded should at least be of the third layer.
The Skinning Master she encountered before was barely shy of the third layer, and Old Tian accepted it. The five cursed children she encountered later had strong cursed power, reaching the third layer level.
"Most of the wandering spirits in the wild are Youshun, and evil spirits of the first and second layers are more common. Finding a third-layer one isn’t easy."
The ticking sound in her head was making Sang Que irritated. The side effects of using the key to open the opera house were not only getting lost but also continuous misfortune.
If it were like that time at the Ming Mansion, attracting a third-layer evil spirit would be fine, but if she were to encounter something even stronger...
As she was thinking, a cold wind attacked from behind, and when Sang Que turned around, her scalp tingled instantly.
A flower sedan suddenly appeared in the forest, among the gusts of cold wind, the leaves on the surrounding maple trees withered and fell, losing their color. In the dead of night, only dry branches remained and beneath them, a bright red sedan chair.
The sedan curtain was lifted by the wind, as if inviting Sang Que to enter.
There were vague figures around the sedan that Sang Que could not see clearly, indicating that those things were of a higher level than she was currently.
Without hesitation, Sang Que decisively used Evil Mist Instant Teleportation, but upon landing, the sedan was still right in front of her.
Sang Que’s heart drummed like thunder, and after another teleportation, an unseen force drew her landing spots closer and closer to the sedan, making escape impossible.
She put the Night Traveler’s mask back on, started running, mist engulfing the forest, and no matter which direction she ran, the flower sedan appeared again.
The Night Traveler’s mask could repel evil spirits but couldn’t fend off evil ghosts.
"Old Tian, you’re going to get me killed!"
Sang Que cursed inwardly. Evil spirits are simply evil spirits, always bringing misfortune, without emotion, and without mercy to anyone.
As she ran, suddenly the sound of suona flutes played, and white paper money fluttered down from above. Ahead in the mist, shadowy figures carrying coffins with white paper banners could be seen.
Sang Que remembered during the Mid-Autumn Festival, when she took refuge outside Tangyuan County with the villagers of Black Mountain Village, experiencing a similar scene.
Kou Yushan said those were ghost coffin bearers, and if you picked up their Life-saving Money, you’d be dragged into the coffin and taken away.
First the ghost flower sedan, now the ghost coffin.
In modern Maoshan Taoist Skills, this is called red-white clash, when weddings and funerals collide, it spells major trouble!
Sang Que used Evil Mist to ward off the paper money continuously falling from above, sprinting in another direction, cold wind hitting her face, paper money and fallen leaves flying everywhere, moonlight casting a bluish tint on the night, and there again was the flower sedan.
This time, before Sang Que could escape, the sedan teleported in rapid succession, charging directly towards her.
With no time to spare, Sang Que’s brain went into overdrive, reaching out with force into mid-air.
As darkness enveloped her, Sang Que fell backward, the bone-chilling cold wrapped around her, and everything around her began to sway rhythmically.
She had been struck into the flower sedan!
Sang Que couldn’t stand up, fixed by a force inside the sedan, engulfed in icy coldness, unable to utter a sound, left with nothing but the flower sedan carrying her to certain death.
However...
Sang Que cast her eyes down to her tightly clenched hand, inside which was a piece of white paper money. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
The sound of suona flutes still echoed around her; she had taken the Life-saving Money, the ghost coffin bearers would definitely come for her. It would depend then on whether the ghost flower sedan was more powerful or the ghost coffin bearers were.
She could still use Old Tian’s key to try and escape from within the flower sedan. There are two keys; one opens the opera house, the other for escape.
But the key relies on the power of village resentment, and village resentment is only a third-layer evil spirit, so it might not work on the ghost flower sedan.
Moreover, to escape using the key, she still needs to sacrifice a Third Layer Evil Spirit to Old Tian. At this moment, the previous side effects haven’t cleared, and adding another layer might make the situation worse, attracting greater misfortune.
The persistent ticking in her head made Sang Que a bit anxious, so she simply closed her eyes to wait quietly.
Previously, what she encountered were Evil Spirits, because her level in the Nine Netherworld wasn’t deep. Now, both she, the Yin Child, and the village resentment are falling toward the Fourth Layer of the Nine Netherworld, so meeting Evil Ghosts isn’t surprising at all.
This trip was meant to catch Qu Tianhe, but she ended up getting herself killed here; it’s a huge loss.
This also shows that what Old Yu said was right; using the power of Evil Spirits comes with a price, direct, indirect, sooner or later.
The sedan chair shook continuously in all directions, making Sang Que’s stomach churn, and even closing her eyes and taking deep breaths couldn’t ease the agitation in her heart.
Not sure how long the sedan had been going, the sound of the suona suddenly emerged from ahead, getting closer and closer.
Sang Que’s eyes lit up, the sedan indeed stopped, and as the sound of the suona rose higher, Sang Que saw through the slit in the curtain and noticed the paper money flying outside.
The chill swept in, Sang Que’s breath turned white in her mouth, the whole sedan seemed to be under great pressure, making creaking noises.
The curtain in front began to show bluish-black marks like corpse spots, and the whole sedan was visibly decaying.
As if it had weathered millennia, losing its bright red color, turning gray-white, ready to fall apart at a touch.
The force imposed on Sang Que quickly weakened, and the moment she regained movement, she spread the Evil Mist, frantically using Instant Teleportation in one direction without stopping, trying to escape as far as possible, not daring to be curious about what the red-white clash really looked like.
Once she was far from the earlier spot, she halted to catch her breath.
A cool air drilled into her chest toward her heart, Sang Que reached into her bosom and pinched out a paper money.
Life-saving Money!
The sound of the suona abruptly emerged in the woods behind her, paper money raining down from above.
In the bluish-black mist, a group of ghostly figures slowly approached Sang Que, carrying a coffin and white paper flags.
At this moment, Sang Que felt an uncontrollable fear, clenching her teeth and continuing to flee.
Only by willingly handing over her Life-saving Money to someone else could she escape the Ghost Coffin’s entanglement.
After running for over five minutes, the power of the Evil Mist was about to be exhausted; she approached the foot of the mountain, suddenly seeing a golden-topped temple appearing in view.
Sang Que immediately sprinted toward the temple. Upon reaching the front, the tightly closed gate couldn’t stop her, and the sound of the suona remained omnipresent behind her.
She glanced at the plaque with ’Baoguang Temple’ inscribed, then ran to the side wall, took a running start, climbed the wall in three steps, and leaped over.
It was late at night; the temple was eerily quiet, with the monks resting in the back courtyard, no one in the front hall.
Sang Que saw a giant Buddha statue in the central hall. As she approached, through the Everlasting Lamp inside the hall, she gradually discerned the statue’s appearance.
The statue was entirely black, with a belly as large as Maitreya, possessing eight arms, two of which formed strange Buddhist seals in front of it, while the other six arms held different Magic Artifacts behind it.
The statue was covered in golden Buddhist text, seated on a black-red lotus pedestal. When Sang Que reached the entrance and looked up, she found the head of the statue unexpectedly covered by a red cloth, concealing its true visage.
Sang Que wasn’t sure if this was the image of the ’Longevity Buddha’, but it looked quite different from what she had seen in the Evil Suppression Bureau’s painting.
The sound of the suona halted outside the Buddhist Temple, giving Sang Que a headache. At this moment, she saw the Merit Box beneath the Buddha statue and had a sudden inspiration.
The ticking in her head made Sang Que impatient, so she took out a few Copper Coins wrapped in white paper money from her purse and tossed them into the Merit Box.
"Infinite Life Buddha, the believer sincerely donates, praying for the Buddha to protect the believer, granting peace throughout tonight. Next month when there’s a monthly salary, the believer will donate everything!"
With palms together, Sang Que bowed. A cracking sound suddenly echoed from above, and the sound of the suona ceased abruptly.
In a trance, Sang Que noticed some changes in the Buddha statue in front of her; the blood-red lotus throne had turned into intertwined arms of various thicknesses and lengths, each displaying different strange Buddhist seals.
Grotesque, eerie, sending chills down one’s spine!
"Who’s in the front hall?"
A voice came, and the statue returned to normal, as if she had been seeing things.
Sang Que warily retreated, quickly leaving the Buddhist Temple, avoiding being discovered by the monks coming to check.
After leaving the temple, she saw, outside the gate, a coffin shattered into pieces, paper flags scattered on the ground, and the ghosts were nowhere to be seen.
