Chapter 87: Crossing Blades

Hearing the sound of a wine jar shattering outside the window, Lu Chenyuan’s heart jolted with alarm. He snapped his head up, eyes sharp as lightning, fixing on the darkness beyond the window.

“Who’s there?!”

His mind raced. Could it be that pair of senior and junior disciples, returning after leaving earlier in the day? Not good! Moments ago, I was pacifying the doll—if they saw that, not to mention the scene when my palm transformed, they might have glimpsed that too…

In a flash, he made his decision: if his secret had been exposed, there was no way he could let the intruder go.

With Zhenhaichuan on high alert and the Demon Suppression Bureau’s spies everywhere, if word of this got out, he’d be hunted down for interrogation.

As this thought struck him, the figure outside the window reacted in turn, startled and about to flee.

Their gazes met perfectly through a hole in the paper window.

It was a pair of beautiful, deer-like eyes—wide open now, filled with terror.

Without pausing to think, Lu Chenyuan cradled the doll in his left arm. His right hand’s fore and middle fingers pressed together, tracing a talisman in the air before him.

This was his third time performing the Tranquil Spirit Talisman. Practice had made him adept; his spirit moved, and the charm formed faster than ever.

Outside the window, Lin Jianyan knew she wasn’t a match for the youth. If she were caught, she’d become the next living offering for his doll.

She clutched the half-extinguished glass palace lantern in her arms and dashed toward the courtyard wall.

Despite her panic, she instinctively glanced back.

That glance burned into her memory—a sight she would never forget.

Inside the woodshed, the candlelight suddenly dimmed.

A burst of ink-black fire scorched a hole through the window paper, making the scene within clear as day.

The youth stood there, holding that eerie doll in the yellow glow. The shadow cast by the lantern at his feet seemed to come alive!

The shadow rose from the ground, silently transforming into a spectral demon god, nearly ten feet tall.

Its form was grotesque, indescribable—a single arm covered in countless crimson demon eyes, clutching a massive pen fashioned of bleached bones, its tip streaming with inky flames.

The demon’s movements mirrored the youth’s precisely as it brandished the bone brush, stroke by stroke drawing an arcane talisman in the air.

“The Tranquil Spirit Talisman!”

Lin Jianyan couldn’t help but exclaim. She recognized it—the most basic of all cultivation arts.

Yet, how could ordinary cultivators wield such ghostly power?

Her fear deepened. My suspicions were right! He has no ordinary spiritual energy, yet can summon such uncanny phenomena—he must be an ancient fiend who’s lived for ages!

She did not know that even she would not normally see such a manifestation of the demon world. Only because, in her curiosity, she’d dimmed the soul-fire in her palace lantern, unlocking her own power to pierce illusions, was she able to witness this supernatural scene.

As her heart pounded, she leapt, nearly clearing the courtyard wall.

Suddenly, she froze—something seized her, stopping her breath with fright.

Looking down, her face blanched in terror!

Her own shadow had come alive, turning into countless grotesque black arms that gripped her ankles, a mighty force yanking her from mid-air and slamming her to the ground!

She had never seen such a bizarre use of the Tranquil Spirit Talisman. Who could have imagined a simple spell could become so terrifying in his hands?

“Aah!”

She cried out as she fell, helpless.

When she looked up, the youth was walking out of the woodshed, doll in his arms, calm and unhurried.

He strode toward her, each step thudding against her heart.

Lin Jianyan was terrified to the core. Facing death, she suddenly remembered her last resort.

Without thinking, she reached her right hand into her left sleeve to retrieve the "Great Sun Heavenly Heart Talisman" her father had given her.

But as she willed her body to move, she found the sleeve empty. Confused, she realized her body was no longer under her control. She meant to move her right hand, but only her left responded—no wonder the sleeve was empty.

What sorcery was this?

Fear gnawed at her, but she did not lose her wits. If her left and right senses were reversed, then she should simply swap her actions.

She tried moving her left hand—sure enough, her right responded.

It worked!

Relief flickered in her heart, and she immediately reversed her movements, controlling her left hand to reach for the talisman in her left sleeve.

But though her mind commanded it, her body could not adapt to the confusion. She fumbled again and again, her fingers always a hair’s breadth from the life-saving talisman.

In her anxious struggle, the youth reached her, looking down at her from above and said quietly, “Don’t move.”

Meeting his gaze, Lin Jianyan felt a chill seep into her bones, all hope vanishing.

Having been ripped from the wall, her fall hadn’t hurt much, but she was a mess—sitting where she’d landed, one leg stretched out helplessly, the other curled in reflex, her skirt spread over the ground.

Her Demon Suppression Bureau regulation boots—meant to be dignified—looked almost absurd now, one heel cocked up to reveal a slender ankle, glaringly pale in the grim and eerie courtyard, itching at the nerves.

Feeling his gaze, she shivered and instinctively hugged the glass palace lantern, its pale blue flame trembling.

Her delicate face looked pitiable, as though resigned to her fate.

She tilted her head up at the youth, biting her lip, her eyes brimming with tears, long lashes beaded with the drops of fright.

A few strands of hair, tossed by the night wind, clung to her damp temples, making her seem all the more fragile.

Lu Chenyuan’s gaze lingered on her uniform, and he let out a soft “hm?”

She wasn’t the cloaked woman from earlier, but wore the familiar dark uniform of the Demon Suppression Bureau—though cut more loosely, distinct from the usual style.

A member of the Demon Suppression Bureau?

Could she be the inspector who’d come to the inn during the day?

Had she come tonight for the doll…?