Chapter 126: Breaking the Illusion

After a few minutes of struggling, Xuanxuan successfully "made it ashore," covered head to toe in mud and dust.

"I thought you two had run into some danger... it took you long enough to get here."

"You... you really hear one thing and let it go out the other ear, don't you? Didn't we just say we had to finish off the demon before we could come find you?"

Xuanxuan pointed to the pit. "That He Yulong must have been dead for a long time. His remains have been lying in there for ages. When we get back, we should notify the local villagers and have them call the police to collect the body. We'll just say we stumbled upon it while hiking..."

Uncle Yan nodded. "Yes. Ever since I heard he had been missing for so long, I suspected he had met with an accident, but I never expected we would find him by such sheer coincidence."

Xuanxuan took a black Yin plaque from her pocket. Upon seeing its style, Qi Yan and Uncle Yan recognized it immediately. It was a chain of obsidian beads, but the plaque itself was a flat, circular disc.

"Is this... the fourth plaque of the Yin Palace? It seems our suffering wasn't entirely in vain."

Qi Yan examined the plaque and asked, "I remember you saying that a Yin plaque and its holder are connected by karma. Unless the holder dies from the backlash of the plaque itself, the karmic bond doesn't break even after death. So, what was the cause of this holder's death? It doesn't seem like an accident to me..."

Uncle Yan cupped his hands around the plaque and closed his eyes, as if sensing something. After several dozen seconds, he shook his head and sighed. "Alas... it seems He Yulong did not die from the plaque's backlash. I can still sense a connection between the plaque and another spirit. Since this pit is the lair of those twin demons, and his body was found here... it is highly likely he was killed by the demon long ago."

"Then..." Qi Yan asked in a daze, "where is his soul? We only see the spirit attached to the Yin plaque; where is the host?"

Xuanxuan explained, "Not all ghosts possess a form visible to the living. If it is just an ordinary soul, it carries no resentment. It doesn't even qualify as a ghost—at best, it's just a wandering spirit."

"In short," Qi Yan asked, still only half-understanding, "you mean that even though the holder is dead, the link between him and the plaque hasn't severed? This fourth plaque of the Yin Palace is still 'claimed'?"

"You could say that," Uncle Yan confirmed. "Though it isn't a good outcome, at least the plaque didn't fall into that woman's hands. That is... a silver lining in a bad situation. The plaque manifested before us and led us here; I suspect it wanted someone to find He Yulong's remains so he wouldn't be forgotten in this wilderness..."

"How ironic. I've never met the man, nor do I know what kind of person he was, but to think... he didn't die from the plaque's curse, but rather from the bad luck of being killed by a demon while far from home, only to be left to rot in the wild... How many people has fate toyed with like this?"

Uncle Yan sighed, then pressed his palms together and silently recited a scripture toward the pit. Afterwards, the three of them continued to search for traces of Hao Dalong. Although Xuanxuan tried to restrain herself, she could not hide the anxiety in her eyes. He had been the first to be ambushed by the demon, and given the creature's terror, the risk to his life was the greatest. Uncle Yan was also deeply worried; while they had found the plaque, he did not want to lose a companion who had followed him for years. The price would be too high.

They had to be extremely careful moving forward. Falling into another deep pit would be disastrous; there was no cell signal in this godforsaken place, and the small mountain path had vanished, making it nearly impossible for villagers to find them. The reason He Yulong had remained missing for so long was partly due to the demon's presence, but also because this mountain was exceptionally remote and rarely traveled.

They continued southeast for a few minutes, the terrain sloping downward. They reached a hillside covered in pine trees, where patches of wild greens grew along the ground, tracing a path from the direction of the pit. Xuanxuan suddenly noticed something; limping, she hurried over to a patch of tall grass stained with a pool of black liquid.

"Oh..." Xuanxuan's mood sank further. "My Kuman Thong... I raised it for over two years, and tonight it finally made the ultimate sacrifice."

For those who raise ghosts, especially practitioners with magical power, there is a bond between them and the spirits they keep. Xuanxuan had felt her Kuman Thong sacrifice itself to distract the demon when she fell into the hole, but seeing the black blood now, she couldn't help but feel sorrow. Even a pet earns affection over time, let alone a Kuman, which is usually raised like one's own child. Even if its combat prowess was weak, without it, Xuanxuan likely would have been ensnared by the demon earlier.

A Thai spirit sacrificing itself in China—it was truly dying in a foreign land. Xuanxuan had to put her grief aside for now. Once this was over and she returned to Bangkok, she would find some powerful white-robed Ajarns to see if they could repair the remnants of her Kuman Thong's soul.

"Hehe... hehehehehe~"

Just then, a very annoying, cunning laughter drifted from the nearby grass. They followed the sound—it was Hao Dalong. He was lying in the tall grass, the source of the laughter.

Qi Yan, being the most physically fit of the group, rushed over and pulled him up. Before he could even check his pulse or breathing, he noticed the expression on Hao Dalong's face... it was truly bizarre.

He had no visible wounds, just the same dirt and dust as the rest of them. He was alive, but clearly in a coma.

His face was wreathed in a lewd, suggestive grin—not a smile, but a lecherous smirk. Drool was leaking from the corner of his mouth. Even though his eyes were closed, one could sense his lewd state just by looking at his face.

Xuanxuan and Uncle Yan, who had been deeply worried—Xuanxuan nearly to the point of tears—felt those tears vanish instantly when they saw the look on his face after Qi Yan turned him over.

Qi Yan exchanged a stunned look with Uncle Yan and patted Hao Dalong, trying to wake him. "Hey, hey... are you dead or what? If you're alive, wake up!"

"Hehehehehe..." Not only did he not wake up, but the lewd grin grew wider, and he even reached out to grab and grope at Qi Yan's hand.

Qi Yan pulled his hand back in horror and stood up. "What kind of wild dream is he having? How can he be sleeping this deeply?"

They had thought he was unconscious, but this wasn't a faint; he was just dead to the world, fast asleep.

Xuanxuan was also quite frustrated. While she was relieved he was safe, it was so far from what she had imagined. She had expected him to be covered in wounds and on the verge of death. Instead, he was perfectly fine, lying there having some sort of X-rated dream.

How did they know it was X-rated? Well... wasn't his expression obvious enough?

Uncle Yan wiped the cold sweat from his brow and let out a long breath. "As long as he's alright, that's what matters... stop calling him. I suspect he's under some sort of illusion spell... wait."

As he spoke, Uncle Yan dug into his ear with his little finger. Qi Yan thought he was just cleaning out earwax, but to his shock, Uncle Yan pulled out a small, bright red centipede—the same one that had crawled into his ear when he summoned the infant spirit.

Although the centipede wasn't large, it was still a living, hundred-legged creature. Putting it into one's ear was essentially putting it into one's brain, yet Uncle Yan seemed completely unfazed, as if it were a trivial matter. He pinched the centipede, blew a long breath onto it, and leaned down, placing it near Hao Dalong's ear.

The red centipede, with unexpected intelligence, crawled right into Hao Dalong's ear.

Just watching it made Qi Yan's brain ache.