Chapter 284 The Twenty-Ninth Day of Entering a Xuanhuan Novel
Chapter 284 The Twenty-Ninth Day of Entering a Xuanhuan Novel
Chapter 284: The Twenty-Ninth Day in a Fantasy Novel
Just then, the wooden door of the courtyard let out a creak that set one's teeth on edge, slowly swinging inward to open a crack.
An even colder, more sinister gust wafted out from within.
Then, an extremely bizarre figure emerged from the shadows behind the door in a stiff, sluggish manner.
It was, in fact, three "people."
Or rather, three things with human forms, yet with faces as pale as paper, sunken eye sockets, and bluish lips.
They were like clay sculptures forcibly fused together, their backs tightly adhered, sharing a single contorted base that supported three upper bodies.
Their limbs were as thin as withered branches, hanging limply.
Three heads faced three different directions, their hollow, lifeless eyes staring blankly into space, yet radiating a malice that made one's skin crawl.
It was indeed the Three-faced Wraith!
So it had already gotten here.
An Yi tilted his head toward Xie Xuandu, "This is it."
A faint scent of blood lingered on it. It crept to the middle of the alley, its three heads slowly rotating.
The smile on Xie Xuandu's face widened. He even casually adjusted his sleeve, then leaned toward An Yi and whispered, "An Yi, since you like it, how about I catch it for you?"
His eyes gleamed with anticipation. Faced with such a bizarre and dangerous creature, the destructive urge within him was burning hot.
An Yi glanced at him without objecting, just reminding, "Be careful."
He had already explained what this thing was like to Xie Xuandu on the way here.
Xie Xuandu raised an eyebrow, his smile widening even more, "Worried about me?"
He chuckled, "Don't worry. My favorite thing is breaking the rules."
Just then, one of the Three-faced Wraith's heads—the one facing them—stopped moving.
Those hollow eyes locked onto them.
However, when that head turned toward them, its empty eye sockets seemed to see something utterly terrifying, and the entire fused body violently shuddered!
The expressions on all three heads twisted simultaneously, revealing pure, absolute terror!
The next second, this creature that had just been giving off cold, resentful malice dropped all pretense of attacking without hesitation. Its fused body turned with a speed that didn't match its stiff appearance and frantically scurried toward the other end of the alley, trying to escape as a gray blur!
An Yi: "..."
It just bolted like that?
He was speechless—he'd been waiting for it to attack!
Xie Xuandu, who'd been ready to strike, a smile already forming on his face: "..."
His smile stiffened slightly, then turned into an expression of someone who'd been robbed of his fun.
Trying to run? Did it ask him?
Xie Xuandu chuckled lightly. He raised his hand, fingers slightly spread as he formed a seal, and made a grasping motion toward the fleeing gray shadow from a distance!
As his gesture completed, an invisible wall seemed to rise instantly in front of the Three-faced Wraith at the other end of the alley, forming a closed circle.
The Three-faced Wraith, now a gray shadow, slammed into it at full speed—"Boom!"
The gray shadow rebounded off the barrier as if it had struck a brick wall, sent flying back and crashing heavily to the ground. Its fused body twisted violently, and all three heads let out soundless shrieks of pure rage.
Xie Xuandu turned to An Yi, "What do you think? This move of mine is called 'Drawing a Prison with a Circle'—does it look anything like that spell you used before?"
An Yi felt it for a moment, "Similar, but different."
Seeing that the two men were completely ignoring it and chatting away instead, the Three-faced Wraith was completely enraged. Realizing escape was hopeless, one of its heads suddenly whipped toward Xie Xuandu, its parched lips moving, and that sandpaper-scraping voice rang out again, dripping with malice:
"Ex-cuse me, how do I get to the clinic?"
Xie Xuandu's smile widened hearing that, "So it's going to fight back?"
An Yi's eyes crinkled, "It even said 'excuse me'—quite polite."
Three-faced Wraith: "..."
An Yi felt the binding that had been placed on him as soon as the Three-faced Wraith spoke those words. So that's how it worked.
The binding was quite strong, but... not impossible to break!
He glanced at Xie Xuandu, "How about it?"
Xie Xuandu considered it, "It's got decent power, and the magic is quite interesting. The moment it finishes speaking, it puts a contract on us. Breaking it would require at least three times the creature's own power—maybe even more!"
"Especially since the more it kills, the faster it grows. If we don't stop it, it might become difficult to control later."
An Yi nodded and smiled, "So now I'm going to seal it up."
Seeing that the two men didn't care at all, even talking about it right in front of it, the Three-faced Wraith completely freaked out!
It tried to use its spiritual power to kill the two of them for not answering, only to find it had no effect at all!
That could only mean the power of these two before it was way stronger than its own!
What rotten luck!
An Yi ignored the Three-faced Wraith's murderous glare. He raised his hand, and the Juxing Tulu materialized in his hand.
The pages rustled and flipped on their own, settling on a blank page.
He gave a gentle beckon toward the Three-faced Wraith, still trapped in place.
On the page, inky light spread like living things, forming a complex, intricate sealing rune.
The rune cast a hazy glow that enveloped the Three-faced Wraith.
Its body began to twist and contort within the glow, as if compressed and condensed by an invisible force, until it finally dissolved into a streak of gray-black light that was yanked into the Juxing Tulu.
On the previously blank page, a lifelike ink painting now appeared—the humanoid monster with fused backs and pale faces, frozen in the middle of asking for directions, forever frozen on the page, utterly silent.
An Yi closed the book and put it away.
The entire process was over in a flash.
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Ever since they'd silently sealed the "Three-faced Wraith" in that alley that day, An Yi and Xie Xuandu had taken up residence at that inn in Tianjing City.
Sure enough, just as in the original tale, the very next day, a bright yellow imperial edict was issued from the palace gates—the Emperor sought to summon the realm's extraordinary talents for a grand "All-Cultivator Prayer Assembly" at the imperial capital in two weeks.
The news—about praying for the nation's fortune and blessings for all living things—spread swiftly to every corner of the capital, then radiated outward like wildfire across the dynasty's vast territories.
This decree instantly sent the already prosperous and bustling Tianjing City into a frenzy.
In no time, people of all stripes and factions—whether they were genuine monks, Taoists, or reclusive masters truly skilled in the arcane arts, or charlatans and con artists looking to cash in on the chaos—flocked in from all directions like sharks drawn to the scent of blood.
As time passed, the capital's atmosphere grew unprecedentedly lively. Inns and taverns were packed to capacity, rents soared, and on every street and alleyway, one could see people in bizarre attire with all manner of auras.
In teahouses and wine shops, tales and anecdotes about various "Immortal Masters" and "True Ones" proliferated endlessly, their authenticity impossible to discern.
An Yi sighed: "Man, what a crowd!"