CHAPTER 76: CHAPTER 59: SAINTLY BATTLE ROBE

Liu Tianyou came out of the west room carrying a book box, carefully opened it, took out a book pressed under the Four Treasures of the Study, hesitated for a moment, then handed it to Sang Que.

"This is my last book, I’ve been relying on it to get by these days."

Sang Que took the somewhat worn gray-covered book, and the cover read "Twelve Chapters of Seeking Knowledge." She opened it and was immediately reminded of the fear of being dominated by classical Chinese reading comprehension.

Yan Daozi’s books were in semi-vernacular, but this one was in pure classical Chinese.

However, some sentences looked familiar, and they seemed similar to those in the "Analects."

"Did you arrive here with your books?" Sang Que asked.

Liu Tianyou nodded, "Yes, when I woke up, this box of books was on the table, just as I had placed them before going to sleep."

"Could it be that this last book is the root cause of your being trapped here? Why not try burning it?"

"Absolutely not!" Liu Tianyou shouted vehemently, snatching the book away.

"Meow!"

Xuan Yu swiped with a paw, forcing Liu Tianyou back and preventing him from approaching Sang Que.

Sang Que looked at him, "Rest assured, I won’t burn your book. After all, I can’t be certain that burning the book would allow us to leave. However, I will need to destroy it unless you can find me another book."

Liu Tianyou gritted his teeth; he’d been here for five months and had searched every place. There were simply no other books.

Sang Que understood that in such times, books were very precious things.

"You can buy another book if it’s gone, but you only have one life."

Liu Tianyou struggled for a moment; finally, with reddened eyes, he asked, "What do you want to do with it?"

Sang Que scratched Xuan Yu’s head, "You haven’t had a full meal in a long time, have you? There’s glutinous rice in that cloth bag over there. Find some firewood and a pot to cook some. Cook it thick and give me half a bowl."

Liu Tianyou’s stomach growled. He walked over, half-believing, untied the burlap bag Sang Que had placed on the ground, and saw the snowy white glutinous rice inside. He rubbed his eyes in shock, and saliva began to pool in his mouth.

He swallowed his saliva and turned to ask Sang Que.

"How do you have so much high-quality glutinous rice? Even the County Magistrate of Tangyuan County couldn’t save up so much of such quality in a year, yet you’re using such precious things for food, such waste!"

"Is eating glutinous rice a crime?" Sang Que retorted irritably, "Are books and glutinous rice more important than your life?"

Liu Tianyou choked, and Sang Que said no more.

Thinking of the days he’d been eating roots, tree bark, insects, and mice, Liu Tianyou’s will to survive overcame the dignity of a scholar, and he decided to exchange his book for a meal.

Carefully collecting some glutinous rice with the hem of his clothes, Liu Tianyou returned to the west room to cook.

He lived there, with pots, firewood, and water all stored.

Sang Que sat in the main room, holding up Xuan Yu in front of her eyes and staring seriously into its green eyes.

"Xuan Yu, I need to ask you a favor. If you’re unwilling, that’s fine..."

"Meow?"

Xuan Yu tilted its head, confused.

An hour later, a full Liu Tianyou watched Sang Que tear his book page by page, his eye twitching.

Unable to resist the delicious glutinous rice porridge, he’d had it for the first time in his life, eating two big bowls, feeling too ashamed to say anything.

Sang Que was dipping the glutinous rice porridge from the bowl onto the torn pages and wrapping Xuan Yu.

A perfectly good black cat, in no time at all, was wrapped all over in pages covered in ink writings, with a square cover on its head with three holes cut in it for the eyes and nose, looking very comical.

Xuan Yu pulled a face and used its paw to push the rice bowl off the table, still in front of Sang Que.

Sang Que stretched out her hand, caught the bowl steadily, and put it aside.

"Don’t mess around, from now on, you’ll wear this, um... Saintly Battle Robe, and keep watch with Liu Tianyou for ’distortion.’ When it appears, you’ll escape from the ’distortion’ spot."

Earlier, Sang Que had confirmed with Liu Tianyou the timing and details of the times she’d seen the bloody book. Except for the additional bloodstains on the book, everything matched, indicating the success rate of throwing the book out was a hundred percent.

The source of the blood was unknown, but the book wasn’t damaged, suggesting that the text and paper might really have special power to break through the obstacles here.

"Once you’re out, find a man named Kou Yushan, show him the paper around your neck, and follow him; he will protect you. Be sure to be wary of Yan Daozi, he’s very insidious and cunning."

"Meow?"

"Almost forgot, you don’t know these two people. Kou Yushan is tall and strong; he’s the captain of the village guard team and lives in the southeast corner of the village."

"Meow! Meow?"

"Yan Daozi is easy to recognize, with a Daoist robe and a goatee; he’s the only one in the village with that beard..."

"Woo~"

Sang Que gestured and described to Xuan Yu, who kept nodding, occasionally meowing.

Liu Tianyou watched the seamless conversation between the human and the cat, feeling deeply alarmed, sensing both the human and the cat were immensely mysterious and powerful.

Meow, meow meow~

After Sang Que finished speaking, Xuan Yu’s paw pressed on her hand, eager to speak.

"Don’t worry, I’m sure I can find another way to escape. When the time comes, I’ll come back for you; I won’t leave you behind."

There was only this one book left, and the ’twist’ spot wasn’t big enough for a person to pass through, only Xuan Yu had the chance to jump out.

Now, the only hope was for the ’twist’ spot to appear again before the Mid-Autumn Festival, allowing Xuan Yu to deliver the message that Yan Daozi intended to sacrifice the entire village to Kou Yushan.

That night, Sang Que and Liu Tianyou took turns keeping watch, but the ’twist’ did not appear inside the room.

At dawn, while Liu Tianyou was still sleeping, Sang Que pushed open the main room door, enveloped by the damp, cold air. The outside sky was a faint blue, and the mist had dispersed somewhat, revealing the outlines of various courtyards in the village.

Barren and desolate, some houses had even collapsed halfway, with some weeds struggling to survive below.

Ash-like objects drifted down languidly, Da Heishan shrouded in a hazy blue mist, the village still eerily quiet, sending chills down one’s spine.

Sang Que took out the mechanical pocket watch her mother had prepared for her from her bag, wound it up, and checked the time: a quarter past five.

After waking Liu Tianyou, Sang Que instructed him and Xuan Yu to continue guarding in the Liu Family Courtyard, cooking food as they wished if hungry, with no restrictions.

She decided to take a walk herself to check the situation in various places.

According to Liu Tianyou, by staying outside for a quarter hour each time, then resting indoors for the same duration, her body wouldn’t be eroded and disappear by the mist.

During the day, aside from some inexplicable noises, there wasn’t much danger outside.

Of course, this only applied to Black Mountain Village; in the past five months, Liu Tianyou hadn’t dared to leave the village, not even approaching the fields.

Walking along the Black Mountain Village road, Sang Que quickly finished a piece of compressed biscuit, with a pocket watch, flint, and Exorcism Red Candle in her arms.

This Exorcism Red Candle also came from Yan Daozi, kept together with ten Ghost Soldier Talismans; there were two, and she only brought one.

Once lit, the halo generated could repel Evil Ghosts and Evil Spirits below the Ninth Netherworld Fifth Layer, definitely Yan Daozi’s last-resort life-saving item, now Sang Que’s biggest reliance.

After all, this was a treacherous Mysterious World, and there was an extremely powerful Water Ghost in the lake next to Black Mountain Village.

Ghosts were said to reside between the Fourth and Sixth Layers of the Nine Netherworld.

Sang Que suddenly wondered if in this in-world of Black Mountain Village, there might also be Water Ghosts, and what they might look like.

After a brief thought, Sang Que dismissed this self-destructive idea.

At that moment, a familiar sound came over.

Sang Que stopped and looked to the side; it was at Skinny’s house, and the disappeared well in his courtyard had reappeared!

Sang Que recalled that the night she brought back He Shou’an’s Summoning Soul, she saw a well at Skinny’s house where his mother fell headfirst into.

The next day, when she went to Skinny’s house again, that well simply didn’t exist.

In that moment, the familiar child’s rhyme was intermittently echoing from the well.

"Green stone green, with many white spots, heartless parents want to sell me, sell me to East Sun Village."

"Eighteen uncles, eighteen aunts, eighteen little sisters govern me, govern me so my skirt doesn’t touch the ground."

"I carry a load to fetch water, but the well is deep, the rope is thin, making my small hands bleed profusely, ah, bleeding profusely."

It wasn’t just one voice, but many, male and female, old and young, women and children, all gathered together in unison.

The well rope’s handle swung, as if something was gripping the rope, climbing up slowly.

The voice of the child’s rhyme moved from far to near, infiltrating her mind, making her feel like those singing were closing in, urging her to join them.

Sang Que broke into goosebumps, backed away, and turned to run.

After running for a while, she stopped and discovered she had somehow reached the outside of Yan Daozi’s courtyard.

The courtyard was dilapidated, the doors and windows damaged, and not a soul could be seen inside.

Just as Sang Que was about to leave, a cold, chilling wind suddenly passed through her body, and in that instant, she heard Yan Daozi’s voice.

"Yo! Wan Xiangtou, why did you come personally?"

*

The next Chapter title was removed as a sanction, the Chapter title is as follows.

Chapter 60, Deceitful Bride