"Hey, tell me, do I look more like a human or a deity?"
The eerie voice echoed through the woods as branches swayed violently, accompanied by the increasingly high-pitched and piercing sound of laughter.
"You look human! You look human! Oh, merciful spirit, please have mercy on us! We're just a family trying to make a living!"
Overwhelmed by fear, Lu Zhuangyuan threw himself to the ground and began kowtowing furiously in the direction of the voice.
As his head pounded against the earth, he froze mid-kowtow. His gaze caught something horrifying—a pair of embroidered shoes standing at the edge of the woods like sharp nails piercing the ground.
A chill ran down his spine as he slowly lifted his head, and he saw her. A woman in a bright, brand-new floral cotton jacket stood there, eerily alone.
Her face was unnervingly pale, as though dusted with powder, but her tiny mouth seemed pinched and unnatural. Her jet-black eyes looked like beads glued onto her face, wide open and unblinking.
The rest of her ghostly-white visage floated ominously in the shadows, as if detached from reality, resembling a bizarre, inflated balloon.
"Do I look human?" The woman chuckled, covering her mouth as she walked toward the campfire with dainty steps.
But it was the way she moved that truly shattered any remaining hope in Lu Zhuangyuan's heart. Her body twisted and contorted unnaturally, like a creature with no bones.
"Xiwazi! Xiwazi! Wake up, quick! Hurry and use your boy's urine!" Lu Zhuangyuan cried out in desperation, his voice cracking with terror as he frantically tried to rouse his sleeping youngest son.
A burning log was thrown in panic by the trembling hands of Lu Juren, his elder son. But to their horror, the flaming wood passed straight through the woman's body without leaving a mark.
Just as she was about to reach the campfire, her figure froze abruptly. Her unnaturally large head snapped sharply toward the eastern side of the forest.
Branches swayed, and emerging from the darkness were Li Huowang and his group, holding glowing stones that bathed the woods in an eerie, pale light.
"What's that? She doesn't have the back of her head! Both sides are faces!" Bai Lingmiao exclaimed, now free from her blindfold, her pale eyes fixed on the unsettling figure.
"Shing!" Li Huowang drew his longsword, his gaze sharpening as he stared at the woman's twisted figure. "What are you?"
"I'm human, of course. Don't I look like one?" she giggled in a voice as thin as silk. Her grotesque body began to contort and slither toward them, her movements unnervingly reminiscent of a centipede.
Li Huowang didn't hesitate. His left hand reached into his robes and pulled out a dented brass bell—the very one he had taken from Dan Yangzi.
"Jingle! Jingle!" The piercing sound of the bell cut through the night, causing everyone present, including Li Huowang, to clutch their heads in pain.
But Li Huowang persisted, ringing the bell with all his might as he watched everything in his field of vision twist and warp chaotically—including the grotesque woman.
Her floral jacket began to split open, releasing streams of black mist that seeped out and dissipated into the night.
The bell was working!
The woman let out a sharp, inhuman scream as her crumbling form writhed violently before retreating into the depths of the forest. Within moments, she had vanished from sight.
As the ringing subsided, Li Huowang stared at the bell in his hand with newfound appreciation. "So, even though I couldn't summon the You Lao Ye with this, I didn't expect it to have this kind of use."
He mulled over the mysterious bell's inconsistent behavior. Whether it was due to the bell's damaged state or some other reason, every time he rang it, the lines of the world distorted but never formed the familiar figure of You Lao Ye.
The more Li Huowang experienced in this world, the more confused he became. Everything seemed disjointed and chaotic.
"A true master! Thank you for saving us, sir! I truly didn't recognize a hero when I saw one!" Lu Zhuangyuan scrambled forward, bowing deeply as he expressed his gratitude. His tone was filled with heartfelt admiration.
Compared to that horrifying woman, the "monsters" accompanying this young Daoist now seemed far more palatable. After all, they were under the control of a master—this Daoist could keep them in check. That thing from earlier? It had been something else entirely.
"Please, Daoist master, come sit by our fire and warm yourself," Lu Zhuangyuan said, gesturing eagerly toward the campfire.
Still uneasy with Lu Zhuangyuan's sudden enthusiasm, Li Huowang politely declined. "No need for that, elder. I just want to ask you a few questions."
"Ask away! Anything at all, master! You saved our lives—you can ask me anything!" Lu Zhuangyuan thumped his chest in assurance, trying to prove his sincerity.
As he spoke, he pulled his pipe from his armpit, hastily lit it, and held it out to Li Huowang with both hands.
"Uh... Thanks, but I don't smoke," Li Huowang replied, waving the pipe away with a forced smile. "Do you know what that thing was earlier? Does it have a name?"
"Wha—? Me? How would I know that, master? You're the one who drove it off! If you don't know, how could I?" Lu Zhuangyuan's confusion was evident as he scratched his head.
Realizing he was asking the wrong person, Li Huowang sighed inwardly. "You mentioned using boy's urine earlier. Does that really work against creatures like that?"
"Of course! It's common knowledge!" Lu Zhuangyuan nodded vigorously. "Things like that hate filth. They say even snot works if you smear it on them. But boy's urine is the best—full of yang energy and absolutely filthy!"
"Have you ever tried it yourself?" Li Huowang pressed.
"Well..." Lu Zhuangyuan faltered, scratching his head sheepishly. "Not personally, no... But everyone in the village says it works, so it must be true, right?"
Li Huowang couldn't help but sigh in exasperation. Why was every piece of advice in this world handed down through dubious hearsay?
"Fine. Let me ask you this—how often do you encounter things like that?"
"Not often, thank the heavens! If things like that came around every night, I'd sell off everything and move back to farming!" Lu Zhuangyuan exclaimed, puffing on his pipe to calm his nerves. "I've been on the road for years and only had run-ins with these things four times."
"I see," Li Huowang murmured, glancing into the dark woods. This world was slowly starting to make more sense to him.
Spending so much time around Dan Yangzi and his monstrosities had given him a warped perspective. He had assumed the outside world was teeming with creatures like the Hei Taishui. But it seemed that wasn't the case.
For ordinary people, such encounters were rare, more like whispers on the wind than daily threats.