CHAPTER 71: CHAPTER 54: INVENTORY (WHITE ALLIANCE LEADER +3)

In the car, Sang Que closed her eyes to rest. With the black cat watching, if anything dirty appeared, it would alert her.

The little one’s eyes could see many things.

Sang Que took a mental inventory; she had already clarified the use and cost of the pig-killing knife, which she could use twice more. It could decapitate from a distance, but the cost was a cut on her own neck.

Most people couldn’t bear this cost, but she had the Yansheng coin. The Geng Trigram representing the Life Gate not only allowed her to travel from Black Mountain Village back home but also had some healing effects.

However, it only kept her from dying, not fully recovering. After losing blood, the symptoms persisted. If involved in a high-intensity fight, she wouldn’t last long, a point to be noted for the future.

With the Geng Trigram of the Yansheng coin, she could use the pig-killing knife without injury for now.

Security guard Old Tian’s two keys were of unclear purpose. Yan Daozi’s book mentioned how to examine the use of yin objects, but she was in a hurry to find a third taming method at the time and hadn’t looked closely.

She would check on it when she got back, to understand the function of those two keys.

With these two yin objects and the remaining five Ghost Soldier Talismans, when she returned to Black Mountain Village, there was no need to fear Yan Daozi anymore.

Moreover, she also had the completely controlled Yin Child.

When she gathered the eight trigrams on her own, some knowledge about the Yansheng coin appeared in her mind as if she had always known it but just hadn’t remembered.

The mark on the Yin Child was called the ’Mountain Ghost Seal’, borrowing the strength of the Mountain Ghost to forcibly suppress the Yin Child.

Researching online after returning, Sang Que found that the Mountain Ghost was similar to the Mountain God worshipped by the Xu Family; the earliest modern records of the Mountain Ghost were from the Warring States Period in a sacrificial poem from Chu State; it was an uncanonical Mountain God.

However, it’s possible that this Mountain Ghost is different. In the different cultural world of the Mysterious World, according to Kou Yushan, the Mountain Ghost is a ghost god.

A ghost god more powerful than the Witch Lady, who borrowed the divine power of the Mountain Ghost to become a Divine and was also the divine of the former National Temple.

This indicates the strength of the Mountain Ghost.

As long as she didn’t let the power of the Yansheng coin get completely exhausted, she could draw on the power of the Yin Child and add it to herself at any time.

However, when the Yin Child’s power was insufficient, it also needed to extract power from her soul residing in the Nine Netherworld Hell.

The Yin Walker and the evil spirits it tames are interdependent.

At this moment, Sang Que felt the existence and changes of the Yin Child more clearly than before. The rascal had privately swallowed the village resentment and was now in a dark space, wrapped into a cocoon by countless black threads.

When she completely absorbed the village resentment’s power and broke out of the cocoon, she was bound to develop new abilities beyond dismemberment.

Sang Que was looking forward to it.

Avoiding the black cat, Sang Que glanced at her right hand. The Mountain Ghost Seal exhausted eight trigrams, but when she brought back the Yin Child, she absorbed some remaining village resentment power from it.

The palm now perfectly showed a Geng Trigram representing the Life Gate and a Kun Trigram representing the Death Gate, allowing a back-and-forth journey.

Black Mountain Village would be sacrificed by Yan Daozi at a specific time, certainly four days later on Mid-Autumn Festival.

With at most three days of preparation, she had to persuade her mom to agree, convince Xu Shufen to move over, prepare some things, and return to Black Mountain Village.

Before that, she needed to subtly gather information from Xu Shufen on how to break this sacrificial ritual.

She hadn’t asked today, fearing that such people, harboring exorcism ambitions, would pursue the village’s location, so she could only say the matter was resolved.

If it was difficult to break, then she would warn Kou Yushan and the others to leave the sacrifice range; it’s all she could do.

Afterwards, she wanted to learn about the origins of the Mountain Ghost, Witch Lady, Yansheng coin, and the Yin Child.

The last important matter was the Heart Lamp.

Having completely controlled the Yin Child just resolved the most urgent crisis for now. This evening’s experience would definitely cause a steep drop in the Nine Netherworld Hell again, attracting stronger evil spirits and more difficult deceit.

Moreover, as Yan Daozi said, if the soul stays beyond the Third Layer of Nine Netherworld Hell for too long, it might go mad immediately.

She no longer needed the Heart Lamp to suppress the Yin Child, but still needed it to stabilize the soul, which the Yansheng coin couldn’t help with.

While the Yin Child and village resentment wrestled, her soul was tugged by both sides, and the Heart Lamp protected her soul.

But this issue truly vexed her, with no good solution in sight.

"Driver, please stop at the hospital ahead."

Sang Que didn’t go directly home, instructing the driver to stop at the hospital next to her neighborhood, where she registered for the emergency department to treat the wound on her neck.

The wound looked quite ghastly; when the male doctor asked how it happened, she casually said she wanted to commit suicide but regretted it afterward.

The male doctor wore a sullen face and told her to call her parents. She then said her real dad had died, and her real mom just left her by the roadside.

The male doctor was taken aback, noticing her wearing old senior clothes and holding a dirty black cat, and fell silent.

In the end, without a word, he stitched up her wound, gave a tetanus shot, and attempted to help pay the fee, to which Sang Que coldly replied, "Are you looking down on me?" rendering the male doctor silent again.

Sang Que paid the fee herself. As she was leaving, the male doctor chased after her and handed her a piece of chocolate, saying, "Stay strong."

Meow~

The black cat in her arms meowed, shaking its head like a human.

"Sometimes, talking nonsense can avoid a lot of trouble."

Sang Que rubbed the black cat’s head, walking home from the hospital.

Before midnight, Sang Que finally got home.

As she opened the door, Sang Que froze at the entrance, incredulously staring at the scene before her.

Her mother, who had been in a wheelchair for over eight years, was now wearing prosthetics, practicing walking with the help of the sofa. Hearing the noise, she looked over.

"Mom, why did you suddenly..."

"What happened to your neck?"

Sang Wan asked nervously, seeing the bandage on Sang Que’s neck.

Meow~

The black cat meowed, asserting its presence.

Sang Wan only focused on Sang Que, who put down the box containing her hunting bow. As she pressed on the bandage on her neck with a hand, the excuse she had thought up turned into the truth.

"I went to Xujiawan Village to hunt evil spirits and got a little hurt. I’ve already been to the hospital, no big deal."

She could lie to anyone but couldn’t deceive her mother.

Sang Wan looked carefully at Sang Que up and down, noticing she’d changed clothes, probably due to being stained with blood, and her complexion was pale, indicative of significant blood loss.

"Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" Sang Wan suppressed her heartache.

Sang Que nodded, "I didn’t have time for dinner. Mom, could you feed it for me while I make some instant noodles myself?"

Meow~

The black cat jumped out of Sang Que’s arms, knowing Sang Wan would give it delicious food, and immediately nuzzled Sang Wan’s leg.

Woof woof! Woof woof woof!

Little General was still kept in the garden cage, seemingly sensing an uninvited guest at home, barking in protest.

*

By the dining table.

Sang Que slurped her noodles, and the black cat meowed as it ate canned food; this person and cat eating scenario oddly resembled each other.

"Is the evil spirit issue resolved?" Sang Wan asked softly.

Sang Que nodded while eating her noodles, "Yes, as I guessed, the Yin Child has been suppressed by me, and what happened this morning won’t happen again."

Remembering the out-of-control scene in the morning, Sang Wan still felt a lingering fear.

Sang Que sensed it quickly and changed the topic, "Mom, what made you think about using prosthetics?"

Because of the eldest aunt, she hadn’t dared to bring up prosthetics with her mom these years. She genuinely hoped her mom could stand up again and live a normal life.

Sang Wan looked down at her leg, smiling, "It still feels a bit strange, and I’m not very steady yet, but I believe it won’t be long before I can run my morning laps and walk the dog. Moreover, Sister Zhang will finish up this week and won’t be coming next week; I’ll take care of groceries, cooking, and household chores afterward."

"I even ordered a home security system for our house, which will be installed in a day or two. Our home will be very safe, and private, with no one knowing your business, and no bad people breaking in anymore."

Pausing her noodle grabbing, Sang Que felt a pang in her nose, looking at her mom. Was it really as she thought?