jdhmnovel Chapter 531
Chapter 531
The mountain mists of late spring drifted among the sword tassels. Lin Yan's fingertips traced the dragon patterns on the hilt, his gaze passing over the crooked stone lanterns and landing on the broken stele of the White Fox Shrine. The two characters "Guardian of the Mountain" were gnawed away by moss, leaving only half a corner, yet a faint golden pattern was revealed as Dongfang Wan'er flicked her sleeve—a Taoist talisman used to ward off evil, which had not completely faded even after twenty years of wind and rain. The jade pendant in her sleeve matched the patterns on the broken stele, gleaming faintly, as if responding to some ancient call.
Buried in the pile of fallen leaves on the stone steps was half a ceramic fox head, its glaze peeling away to reveal a dark red base, like dried blood. Lin Yan suddenly recalled the human look in the wolf demon's eyes last night. As his boots crunched over the withered branches, he heard soft footsteps behind him, which turned into the rustling of a mountain breeze through the bamboo forest as he turned around. Dongfang Wan'er's talisman suddenly burned in her palm. She saw a glimpse of a garment behind the broken wall to her left—a moon-white robe, the very style worn by the scholar in the teahouse who sought medicine for his sister.
"Beware of illusions." Lin Yan held his sword horizontally in front of his chest, the sword energy cleaving through the thin mist before him. The mist transformed into countless shattered mirrors, each reflecting the scholar's face with a different expression: some pleaded with tears in their eyes, some sneered coldly, and some had empty, lifeless eyes. A drop of blood from Dongfang Wan'er's fingertip dripped onto the jade pendant, and in an instant, all the mirror images shattered, revealing the true face—the scholar was standing beside the ruins of the altar behind the triple gate, the copper bell hanging around his neck exactly the same as the one the wolf demon had worn the night before, except that there was a crack on the bell's surface, strikingly similar to the scar on the corner of his left eye.
“It’s the third year…” The scholar’s voice sounded like it had been pulled from an ancient well, damp and decaying. When he raised his hand, Lin Yan saw a faded red rope wrapped around his wrist, with half a peace lock tied to the end. It was the same half he had seen at the pharmacy last month, the one he said “broke when my sister was seriously ill.” The lock’s surface was now reflecting the sunlight, and the words “longevity” were faintly visible, but near the edge was a tiny “mysterious” character, exactly the same as the engraving on the hairpin from the previous night.
Dongfang Wan'er's talisman was affixed to the nearest stone pillar. In the rising golden light, the scholar's shadow suddenly lengthened, casting a wolf-shaped outline on the ground. "Reincarnation requires a sacrifice of three animals," his pupils began to glow gold, but his voice remained that of a scholar, clear and gentle. "Master used his own guardian beast as a catalyst, unaware that with each change of body, the soul gains a bit more of its bestial nature." Only then did Lin Yan notice the bluish-black fingernails growing from his fingertips, digging deeply into his palms, the blood seeping out falling into the cracks of the stone, blooming into tiny datura flowers.
"You are a disciple of Master Xuanqing..." Dongfang Wan'er's words were scattered by the gust of wind. The scholar suddenly let out a wolf howl, but at the same time, he chanted the Rebirth Mantra. From the ruins behind the triple gate, countless black wisps suddenly surged out, each containing a semi-transparent beast shadow: a tiger, a wolf, and a fox, the three guardian beasts recorded in the county annals. Lin Yan swung his sword at the nearest black shadow, but the blade pierced through the black wisps, sparking as it struck the remains of the altar—there lay a skeleton, its right wrist still adorned with the same red rope as the scholar's.
"The fire back then wasn't an accident." The scholar's body began to contort, his bony frame bulging beneath his clothes. "When my sister breathed her last, I was at the foot of the mountain seeking medicine. By the time I rushed back, my master had already set the ancestral hall ablaze. He said he would use the power of the fox spirit to reverse yin and yang, but little did he know..." His voice suddenly transformed into a cacophony of screams from men, women, and children, wolf ears sprouting from his hair, his pupils shrinking to slits. "Each time he returns to life, he has to devour the inner core of the previous body. Now, here I am..." He pointed to his chest, a chilling laugh spreading across his face, "...hiding three inner cores, each one gnawing at my very soul."