Chapter 64 of the Taoist Priest Arc: The Unknown is What's Terrifying

That person was walking toward Li Xi, wielding a kitchen knife.

Terrified, Li Xi kept backing away.

Panic filled her eyes as she continuously pleaded with him, "Please, do not kill me. I can give you money. I will give you everything you want. Please spare my life."

Yet, that person acted as though he could not hear a single word she said, continuing his steady advance toward her.

Li Xi retreated step by step until she was swiftly cornered with no way out.

Behind her was a dead-end wall, leaving her nowhere to hide.

Overcome by despair, Li Xi dropped to her knees in terror before the man.

Yet she said nothing more, only offering silent prayers.

The man raised the blade and slashed into her body, blow after blow.

Blood gushed from Li Xi as numerous wounds multiplied across her flesh.

She shrieked in agonizing pain.

Even so, she chose not to sit passively and await her doom.

With a quick motion, she snatched up a wooden stick lying nearby.

Then, aiming directly at the man's head, she brought it down with all her might.

The blow struck true, drawing a trickle of blood from the man's head.

Li Xi initially thought he would pass out.

Instead, he merely clutched his head in brief pain before lunging forward and seizing her firmly.

Once captured, Li Xi was subjected to a flurry of further slashes.

She hovered on the brink of death.

Yet she was not killed outright.

Though barely breathing, she was thrust into a cage.

The man even applied medicine to staunch her bleeding.

Other than halting the blood loss, however, he provided no further treatment whatsoever.

She lay weakly within the confinement of the cage.

Even now, she could not fathom the reason behind this nightmare.

At this point, she even felt that her family, despite all their mistreatment, was infinitely preferable to this hell.

After enduring more than ten days in this state, Li Xi was finally sent back to the Wang family residence.

She was dumped mercilessly in the courtyard.

At death's door.

When that man went to confront Wang Wei, the truth finally reached her ears: all of this had been a malicious conspiracy orchestrated jointly by Wang Wei and the man.

Wang Wei had desperately wanted her dead, which was why he had hired someone to impersonate a fortune teller.

That individual was not a Daoist priest at all, but merely a practitioner of wicked sorcery.

Li Xi's heart turned to ash.

She died a despairing death right there in the courtyard.

Following her demise, her corpse was retrieved by the man, who refined her into a living corpse.

Every day, she had to feed on fresh blood.

Ever since she was transformed into a living corpse, the members of the Wang family had fed her on a daily basis.

The man had deceived the Wang family with promises that as long as the living corpse was properly nourished, any desire they held would be granted.

Wang Wei believed him. Over the years, he continually lured strangers to the house under the pretense of seeking medical treatment for Li Xi, or by fabricating other excuses.

All of this was done solely to feed Li Xi.

Gradually, Li Xi evolved from a hopping corpse into a flying corpse.

Slowly, she began to ravage the region, bringing calamity to all the surrounding settlements.

After Li Xi transformed into a flying corpse, the man returned to the Wang family estate once more.

He intended to take Li Xi away to serve his own purposes.

However, Wang Wei adamantly refused, no matter what.

Flying into a rage, the man kidnapped every member of the Wang family.

He then replaced them with paper effigies.

At this point, Li Xi's memories faded away, and the vision dissolved from Li Yan's mind.

"I still feel something is off. Even if Wang Wei had a change of heart, he shouldn't have been this cruel, right? After all, they were husband and wife in their youth; surely there was still some shred of affection left between them?"

Frowning deeply, Li Yan pondered the sequence of events, feeling as though he had missed a crucial detail.

He recounted everything he had witnessed to Shi Fou with a solemn expression.

Having listened intently, Shi Fou acutely seized upon the vital point: "We must find a way to draw the mastermind out into the open and question the Wang family. While memory-retrieval techniques are mostly accurate, a sufficiently powerful practitioner can alter the memories within, skewing what we perceive."

Nodding noncommittally, Li Yan thought for a moment before saying to Shi Fou, "Senior Brother, I have an idea. Look, there is still one paper effigy left unburned. We can use this effigy to send a challenge to its master, demanding he come here at the midnight hour to face us. We can apply a tracking spell to it."

Upon hearing this, Shi Fou's eyes lit up, and he nodded in appreciative agreement.

Li Yan let out a yawn, then placed his fingers between his eyebrows, chanting an incantation under his breath.

After a brief chant, a golden light array materialized right where the paper effigy lay.

The array was shaped precisely like a tracking talisman.

Once formed, the array activated instantaneously.

Seeing it successfully initiated, Li Yan felt considerably more at ease.

"This spell is actually quite simple. I'd never used it before, yet it worked on the very first try."

After waiting a short while, the paper effigy within the array vanished entirely.

In the empty air above the array, the name of a location appeared: Fog-Enshrouded City.

Upon seeing this place name, both Li Yan and Shi Fou wore expressions of sheer bewilderment.

Without hesitation, however, Li Yan penned a challenge letter and transmitted it directly to that location via the array.

The array would guide him to the exact person he sought.

Once this was accomplished, Li Yan's spirits lifted considerably, whereas Shi Fou's expression remained grim and overcast.

Taking the initiative, Li Yan stepped up to Shi Fou and asked with concern, "Senior Brother, what is wrong with you? Why have you been so gloomy this entire time?"

With an awkward smile, Shi Fou replied, "It is nothing. I simply received word recently that someone in my family has fallen gravely ill, and I cannot return to help. If only Master were here to administer acupuncture for my family."

Hearing this, the simple-minded Li Yan declared without a second thought, "Senior Brother, leave it to me. Master taught me how to use acupuncture. Is your home very far from here? Shall we go take a look right now?"

Shi Fou shook his head and answered, "It is very far. Let us finish our current mission first."

With a resigned nod, Li Yan agreed.

After taking a brief rest, the two of them set about setting up various mechanisms and traps around the place.

Some were weaponized traps, while others formed an intricate network of red thread barriers.

Every single red thread was sprinkled with black dog blood and rooster blood.

A generous scattering of glutinous rice covered the ground.

Numerous protective talismans were pasted across the doors and windows.

In the center of the courtyard, they placed a long table laden with offerings, incense burners, and candles.

They even went out to purchase electric lamps, installing them securely throughout the courtyard.

With all preparations fully complete, they awaited their visitor.

They neither hid nor showed fear, simply waiting in calm composure.

They sat together on the ground, engaging in joint cultivation as they awaited the arrival of midnight.

As dusk deepened into night, they shared a meal together.

Then they resumed their vigil.

Before long, midnight arrived.

All the electric lamps in the courtyard were switched on.

Their brilliant illumination cast a glow as bright as day across the entire courtyard.

Li Yan and Shi Fou both stifled yawns, checking the time before deciding sleep was no longer an option.

For reasons unknown, the sky, previously peppered with twinkling stars, suddenly choked with billowing dark clouds, accompanied by the faint, distant rumble of thunder.

Frowning, Li Yan muttered, "This portends ill. Who knows what we might encounter next?"

The unknown remained the most terrifying thing of all.