I am the Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysterious-Chapter 98 - 79: Ming Mansion
At night, in the guest room of the post station.
When Sang Que briefly lost consciousness and regained it, she felt a burning pain on her arm. Her body couldn’t move, and she was bound tightly by Xia Chan’s hair.
The tables and chairs in the room were toppled over, the buns on the ground were rotting, and the cold Evil Mist was slowly dispersing.
"Little Chan, it’s me, let go now."
Upon hearing Sang Que’s voice, Xia Chan, who was crouched in the corner of the room, clutching Xuan Yu with full vigilance, burst into tears.
"Sister—"
Earlier, Sang Que had let her body be taken over by the Yin Child, wanting the Yin Child to write down the ritual for her advancement. She specifically had Xia Chan watch over her to prevent anything from going wrong.
The Yin Child had no tongue and couldn’t speak after possessing her, a fact Sang Que had informed Xia Chan about in advance.
After getting up, Sang Que first comforted Xia Chan, then began to bandage the wound on her arm while looking at the bloodstains on the ground.
The Yin Child used her blood to write a few words.
Monk, Daoist, government officer.
These were the same entries as before in her diary, clearly showing the Yin Child’s deep resentment towards people with these identities.
The Yin Child’s advancement ritual must be related to these three types of people. The monk and Daoist make sense, but this government officer... it might be referring to an officer of the Evil Suppression Bureau.
The Yin Child had once destroyed a city, and perhaps it was only through the combined efforts of these three groups that she was eventually severely wounded and dispelled, hence the Yin Child’s deep obsession with revenge.
Sang Que furrowed her brows tightly, feeling troubled, "Let’s see as we go, there will always be a way."
After tidying up briefly, Sang Que had Xuan Yu, the night owl, keep watch in the room while she and Xia Chan went to rest, as they still needed to travel the next day.
*
The next morning, the group originally fleeing split into two batches, with most choosing to stay. Including Kou Yushan himself, there were fifteen people willing to leave with him.
Before dawn, Kou Yushan gathered everyone who was willing to leave in the post station’s main hall, ready to set off.
From Black Mountain Village, there was Kou Yushan, Liu Tianyou, Skinny, the family of four of He Baosheng, along with Zhao Ruihu and his wife, and the brothers Song Quancai and Song Quanfu.
Zhao Ruihu and his wife were the parents of Zhao Tiancong, who had been taken by the Water Ghost. They had an elder daughter who was matched with some appropriate-age girls from other villages to get married in Dongyang County through the county’s matchmaker.
This kind of collective marriage happened annually, and the Evil Suppression Bureau had a special team of constables to escort the bridal caravan. Zhao Ruihu and his wife planned to seek refuge with their daughter.
The brothers Song Quancai and Song Quanfu were from Black Mountain Village’s Guard Team. Their parents, being elderly, didn’t leave Black Mountain Village with them.
The two brothers and Skinny, being three of the major bachelors in Black Mountain Village, hadn’t married by the age of eighteen, at which point the county government would forcibly pair them, but due to population scarcity and not finding opportunities, they remained bachelors into their twenties.
From Shihe Village, there was a couple and a pair of siblings, all young people without dependents either above or below them.
Seeing these people, Sang Que understood that only those who were unattached, young and energetic, were willing to leave their homeland to take the risk and venture outside.
The others, besides emotional ties to relatives, were mainly unwilling to leave due to fear.
From the post station to Dongyang County was a day’s journey by carriage. They didn’t have any carriages, only a small donkey cart of Sang Que’s, which meant they would have to run the whole way.
There was also a treacherous mountain forest path along Cuiyun Mountain. Reaching Dongyang County by midnight would already be considered quick.
Thus, most people were unwilling to take the risk, as staying in the mountain overnight was extremely dangerous.
He Buning only paid for two days. If they continued to stay, they’d have to spend their own silver coins, so within a few days, government officers would come to make arrangements.
Kou Yushan told everyone, "Now’s the time to check your belongings. Try to only bring some water, food, and silver coins to lighten the load."
Besides a seemingly weightless little bundle, everyone only had a large rooster covered in cloth, carried like a messenger bag at their waist.
Black dog blood was expensive, and roosters were cheap. If they encountered anything unclean in the forest, they could immediately kill the rooster for blood, which served as a defense method.
Additionally, the rooster could also be a food source.
There were a total of seven females and one child, He Shou’an. The donkey cart could only carry a maximum of four adults and one child. More than that would make it impossible to move, so Sang Que, being strong, decided to run alongside, while the other females took turns riding the cart.
Seeing the tension in the air, Skinny laughed and said, "Our old village chief observed the stars last night, saying they were bright, with a cloudless sky. Today is bound to be a sunny day, perfect for travel. The sun should rise by 5 a.m., and it won’t get dark until after 7 p.m., giving us more than seven hours. We might even arrive earlier."
"Let’s hope so," said Shi Yong from Shihe Village, in his dark and honest manner.
Once everyone was ready, as soon as the rooster crowed, they all set off immediately.
Just like the previous day, aside from drinking water and bathroom breaks, they basically kept moving, trying to cover as much ground as possible.
On their way, they encountered two riders on tall horses galloping towards the post station, seemingly from the government or the Evil Suppression Bureau. Other than that, there were no other travelers like them.
When they passed through places with heavy yin energy like woods and streams, Sang Que would fall behind the group a bit, quietly spreading Evil Mist to hunt and kill low-level evil spirits nearby, replenishing the power of the Yansheng coin.
Even a small mosquito is still meat, and her mother’s concept regarding the gate requires consuming a lot of evil spirit power to be fully verified.
Among them, the most important points were whether there was a time limit between two gate openings, and the issue of movement.
The time limit concerns whether she could use the gate opening as a life-saving method, and the movement issue could solve her big troubles in the future.
For instance, if she needed to travel to Wangshan City, it would take over forty days by carriage from Dongyang County to Wangshan City.
Her mother posed a question: the carriage has a compartment door, and by opening the carriage compartment door to go home, while the carriage is moving, when she returns, would she find herself in the moved carriage, or at the initial gate position?
If she could return to the carriage, it would show that the gate opening is marked by the door’s position, and she could completely hire an escort agency to transport a door or an empty box to Wangshan City, without having to endure the boring daily journey.
Sang Que held great expectations for this.
Everyone was young and strong, indeed moving quickly. Originally, they expected to arrive at Cuiyun Mountain after four o’clock in the afternoon, but just after three, they saw a low mountain rising from the horizon, lush green under the cloud mist, with dense and thriving woods below.
There’s an official road through the woods, and by following it around the foot of the mountain and exiting the woods, they would see the county town of Dongyang County.
The sun blazed, the cicadas’ cries were exhausted, Kou Yushan let everyone rest a bit outside the forest, eating and drinking water, preparing to cross the forest in one go without stopping.
In a normal world, the dense forest with babbling streams would be a cool place, perfect for walking, stopping, and sightseeing.
But in the Deceit Dynasty, areas shaded by trees and with many streams are fraught with danger, and one absolutely cannot linger.
Before entering the forest, Kou Yushan placed some stones under a tree facing the mountain direction, knelt down with clasped hands to pray.
"Witch Lady above, ask the Mountain Ghost for protection, grant us smooth passage through Cuiyun Mountain."
Sang Que keenly noticed that everyone was very nervous about entering Cuiyun Mountain, definitely related to the Ming’s Winery mentioned by Skinny before.
Yet everyone had a tacit agreement not to mention this matter, and Sang Que was unable to gather more information.
After everyone ate and drank their fill, they continued on their way, running for over an hour, when Kou Yushan slowed their pace to let everyone catch their breath.
Rumble!
The muffled thunder sounded, and everyone looked up in surprise, then all looked towards Skinny.
Skinny grumbled anxiously, "Why are you looking at me? The old village chief said it wouldn’t rain today!"
Sang Que’s heart also skipped a beat, the rain came without warning, very ominous, reminding her of her mother’s warning.
The weather changed rapidly, the sky quickly darkening, with yin wind howling and shaking the trees in the forest, the heavy rain was about to fall.
Kou Yushan’s face was stern, "This area is too low to shelter from the rain, let’s keep moving forward and pick up the speed!" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
Everyone picked up their pace, with raindrops soon drifting down through the forest.
On the donkey cart, He Shou’an huddled fearfully into Qin Fangru’s arms, terrified that the Water Ghost would come to claim his life again.
Liu Tianyou was weak, driving the donkey cart ahead, nervously reciting saintly poetry to give himself courage. Along the way, any wind or grass movement made him do this, making Sang Que feel that the saints of this world indeed possessed some power against evil spirits.
Up ahead, a fork in the road appeared, Skinny’s eyes lit up, and he immediately shouted to Kou Yushan.
"Rain is already falling, we simply don’t have time to prepare; we can only take shelter for a while in the Ming Family’s abandoned mansion by the side road."
Kou Yushan hesitated for a moment, seeing the rain getting heavier, he could only call out to everyone before turning onto the side path.
They hadn’t walked far when an old, abandoned mansion hidden among wild grasses came into view.
The crumbling stone walls intertwined with withered ancient trees, flocks of crows cawed hoarsely, under the curtain of rain, the wall’s moss emanated a rotting damp scent, the eerie and terrifying atmosphere made them recoil and their scalps tingle.
In front of the mansion, tattered red lanterns swayed in the wind and rain, the faded red flowers and red cloth on the plaque tangled in vines, below were two peeling gilded characters.
Ming Mansion!
