Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 208: A Sign of Respect

The warriors in the upper room of this inn could be regarded as experts in the martial arts world. Some of them were ever first-rate masters who had made a name for themselves, like One-Armed Swordsman Du Heng, and Fierce Warrior Li Tongzhou. Although they had been chatting before, they had never been distracted, and their hearing was very sharp.

Just as they were speaking, they heard a small noise on the roof. Everyone immediately noticed.

“Crackle… crrrak… crrrrk…”

It was the sound of footsteps in snow. There may have been other sounds mixed in.

It was extremely cold in Jin Province’s region. Not only was the temperature outside very low, it also snowed frequently. The snow on the roof of the inn was at least a foot deep, and it would make a crackling sound when someone stepped in it.

Du Heng’s grip on his sword grew tighter and tighter. The veins on his back began to bulge, showing that his state of calm was a lie.

A martial artist with the best hearing listened carefully. Then he stretched out one finger with a clenched fist. Then two. Then three, four…

Finally, he made a gesture with his pinky finger and thumb alone, indicating to his companions that there were a total of seven different sounds above them.

It was clear what the situation was.

Several warriors nodded to each other. Two of them walked quietly to the large beds, stretched out their hands, and used their internal energy to wake up their sleeping companions one by one, even the four who had been poisoned.

The seven people who had fallen asleep obviously had an idea of what was going on before they had gone to bed. They had similar plans with one another, so when they woke up they made sure not to make any noise. Just by looking around the room, they knew: ‘it’s happening again.’

The few people who had just woken up took out their weapons from the bedside and lifted the quilt. They all slept with their clothes on. Some of them cheered themselves up, while others forced themselves out of bed.

Du Heng pointed towards the table, upon which sat several torches and a cloth bag.

Several of the warriors stepped forward and tossed torches to their companions, one by one. At the same time, they untied the cloth bag, revealing sheep bladders filled with some kind of liquid. The liquid inside the sacs was a shiny reddish-black with an oily sheen: it was black dog blood mixed with kerosene.

There were a total of eleven warriors, some of whom were injured, poisoned, or looked exhausted. At this moment, their expressions all showed anticipation. Even though everyone’s scalp was numb and their expressions were ugly, there was still a sneer at the corners of their mouths.

Although these “trump cards” had not yet been used, they were sure to give these inhumans, ghosts, and other immortal creatures a hard time.

On this trip to eradicate the demonic woman, many friends in the martial arts world had suffered at her hands. Although they were afraid, they carried a deep hatred in their hears. They could no longer count on the government; in the end, they could only fight to the death by themselves.

However, there weren’t that many sheep bladders filled with black dog blood and kerosene — only four total. The four masters each held one in their arms. Aside from Du Heng, the others all readied their weapons in one hand and their torches in the other. They gathered around the charcoal fire, ready to light them at any time.

All these preparations may seem cumbersome, but in truth it only took between four or five breaths.

Everything was ready at this moment. Everyone did their best to keep their breathing as steady as possible, but the feeling of tension grew getting stronger and stronger. Everyone knew that it would be better to maintain a facade of normalcy, or continue chatting with the others around them, but they couldn’t do so.

At this moment, there were footsteps in the corridor. The two servants arrived at the door, each carrying two buckets full of boiling water.

“Sir, the hot water is here.”

“Knock knock knock…”

“Sir, please open the door. Your hot water is here. We have four buckets. Please open the door.”

Everyone in the room was nervous. Naturally, no one wanted to take a shower at thsi time, but they couldn’t ignore the servants.

Du Heng lowered his voice and spoke to his friend.

“Go quickly and send servants away.”

If the group weren’t in such a bad condition, and if they didn’t need so much medical attention, it would have been best to find a small abandoned courtyard to stay in. However, there was no such place in this small county town, and it would be even more difficult to go out into the wilderness.

Now that the roads in Jin Province were blocked with heavy snow, all the merchants and travelers had left before the winter set in. The inn in this small county town was the most deserted place, with the fewest people around.

The warrior with obvious dark circles under his eyes walked up to the door and spoke to the people outside.

“Put the hot water down in the corridor, we’ll bring it in later.”

After hearing his words, the two servants outside glanced at each other, but seemed reluctant to leave.

These guests who were trapped here by the wind and snow were quite generous. They paid them enough money to go buy medicine for them, so the servants often got some benefits. They also gave them money for doing things like boiling water in the middle of the night.

They could leave, but then they wouldn’t get any money!¹

“Uh, sir, it’s late at night. It might be inconvenient for you, so we’ll help you carry it in!”

“Yes, yes, this water is hot and quite heavy!”

The two servants dawdled outside.

“Hey, if I tell you to put it down, just put it down. Why are you saying so much nonsense?”

Hearing the roar from inside, the two servants outside pouted their lips at one another and uttered some reluctant phrases.

“Ok, we’ll leave it outside for you gentlemen. It’s cold in the middle of the night, so be careful and make sure that the water doesn’t get cold.”

“Let’s go, we’ll go back to sleep…”

The two men shouted a few times outside, but there were no sounds of footsteps walking out of the house, so it was obvious that they hadn’t left yet.

Now even Du Heng was getting anxious. He suddenly realized something and whispered to his companions, “Give them money!”

His companions also suddenly realized the same thing.

“They really just want money!”

He cursed quietly and was about to open the door, but another warrior beside him stopped him and shook his head. Now, the other people in the room also felt that something was wrong.

“Hey, I forgot to give you money. Are you still there?”

No one answered outside.

“Bang! Thump…”

They heard the sound of the bucket overturning outside. Several warriors subconsciously looked towards the door, and saw steaming hot water seeping through the crack under the door, followed by a touch of bright red.

The warriors looked at each other and kicked the door down in unison.

“Bang!”

The inn door flew out alongside the doorframe, hitting the door opposite with a bang.

Looking out the door, they saw the two servants lying on the ground. One had a large hole in his chest, and the other was so scared that he had collapsed on the ground, trembling and urinating all over.

A black shadow dodged the door that had been sent smashing towards her. It was a pregnant woman with a pale face but a beautiful appearance. Her eyes were pitch black, with two blood-red pupils.

All the warriors suddenly got goosebumps.

“Witch!”

“Die! Haaah-!”

Du Heng suddenly jumped up and swung his sword. His body moved like a gust of wind has he slashed towards the evil woman. The blade’s energy even glowed red.

“Clang…clang…clang…”

The blade slashed and hit a string of sparks on the woman’s fingernails. Du Heng moved very quickly, and the woman looked like a blur, keeping pace in the fight with Du Heng.

Du Heng’s blade was fierce, and it concealed a kind of sword aura that could even feel threatening to her. However, in this situation, it was unclear whether it was the woman who had engaged Du Heng, or Du Heng who had engaged the woman.²

“Bang…”

“Bang…”

“Bang…”

“Bang…”

The roofs were shattered one after another. Children wearing new cotton-padded jackets rushed into the inn and pounced on the warriors below.

“Be careful!”

“Get out of the way!”

“Light the torches!”

The warriors quickly swung their weapons and dodged in all directions, then found the right moment to light the torches in their hands.

This inhuman creature was not only extremely fast, but it also had sharp claws. If they were not careful, they might be ripped open. It also carried a strange and deadly poison. Even a small injury could be very troublesome.

Fortunately, these things were straight-forward, and didn’t used any martial arts moves. These masters could deal with them after getting accustomed to their movements. If the opponents had now grown increasingly difficult to “kill,” they would have been crushed long ago.

“Clang…”

“Clang… clang, clang…”

“Bang…”

“Bang…”

During the fight, both the door and the wall of the inn’s room had been kicked open. The battle between the warriors and the ghost children took place in this narrow space. This was more beneficial to the warrior, and prevented the ghost child from moving round in flashes of extreme speed.

Li Tongzhou was indeed a great master. Even though his skills were less than half of what they had been in his prime, he still had his vision. When he saw a companion block a ghost child’s attack, he swung the sword with his left hand to block another ghost child’s attack, then swung the torch in his right hand. With a “bang,” it hit the ghost child that had already been blocked by his companion.

The ghost child’s clothes touched the spark, and the hit caused him to lose his original attack power trajectory.

“Well done!”

Another warrior immediately took out the sheep bladder from his arms and smashed it on the ghost boy.

“Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle…”

A sizzling sound like cold water being poured on a hot iron pan immediately rang out.

“Aaaaaah…”

The screams of a child suddenly sounded, making the eardrums of the surrounding warriors tingle.

“Damn, black dog blood really works! Burn him to death!”

At least three warriors swung their torches fiercely at the ghost child, who was covered in a mixture of black dog blood and kerosene, at the same time. Even if the inn burned down, they could pay for it later, but they couldn’t care less about that now.

“Bang…”

“Bang…”

“Bang…”

Because the ghost boy was corroded and burned by the black dog’s blood, he was struck by all three torches.

Boom! Suddenly, a large fire was ignited.

“Ah…aaaah…”

The unusual scream seemed to frighten the other ghost children, and they stopped attacking for a while.

“Hahahahaha… I’ll burn you to ashes, let’s see how you can come back to life now! Hahahaha…”

“Amazing!”

“Alright!”

All the other warriors were in high spirits.

“My child!”

“Witch, you’ll be joining him soon!”

The woman screamed in surprise, but Du Heng didn’t stop his sword strike. He shouted loudly to disturb the other party’s mind.

“Hehehe…hehehehe……”

After the woman shouted, she suddenly laughed coldly, but her voice was full of hatred.

“I have underestimated you heroes. I will obtain your heart, Warrior Du!”

As the woman spoke, she retreated a couple times in a blur, putting some distance between herself and Du Heng. The latter held his sword, breathing and adjusting his state, and was in no hurry to catch up.

“Hmph, that depends on whether you have the ability, you witch!”

At this moment, all the martial artists on the other side shouted again.

“What the hell?”

“It’s not dead!?”

The ghost child’s body and clothes were burned beyond recognition, but he did not die. Instead, he turned into a translucent black shadow. One could even vaguely see the scenery behind it by looking through the figure.

Then the black ash on his body gradually sloughed off, and the ghost’s body grew lighter and lighter until it could no longer be seen.

What was even stranger was that the crying wail still hung in the air, giving the entire scene an even more creepy feel.

“Hehehehe… You arrogant, righteous warriors have really disrupted my cultivation over and over. Now that things have come to this, at worst I can rebuild my cultivation again, but everyone in Tingshui County must die!”

The woman’s voice sounded like the gnashing of teeth, and the bodies of the other ghost children also began to crack. The sight of flesh and bones falling off made the warriors’ feel numb, and for a moment they were at a loss.

It didn’t matter why these inhuman things didn’t use this trick before; if they couldn’t see it, how could they fight it?

It was at this moment that a warm breeze blew through the corridor of the inn.

“Oh? You’re quite arrogant yourself!”

A peaceful, yet deep, powerful voice came from afar. As the voice traveled, a person appeared in the inn corridor, standing next to the servant, who was so frightened that the feces and urine were still flowing.

The newcomer was dressed in a white robe, with hair loosely tied up in a bun, and a black jade hairpin inserted into it. His pale eyes were particularly eye-catching.

Ji Yuan glanced down at the inn servant, then looked at the woman and the ghost children.

“Mr. Ji!”

Du Heng cried out, surprised. When he saw Ji Yuan, his heart immediately calmed.

Ji Yuan nodded to him, took a single step forward, and appeared beside the first few warriors. With a wave of his sleeves, the seven translucent children were directly blown to the woman’s side, grouped close together.

“What kind of thing are you? You’re neither human, nor ghost, nor demon, nor monster. Are you a Ghost Mother of Nine Children?³ It’s not like that… Who taught you this evil method?”

Ji Yuan stood there and gazed at the woman calmly. He could naturally tell that this wasn’t some old witch who had been living for hundreds of years.

The woman had no idea how Ji Yuan had arrived. In fact, she couldn’t even sense the man in front of her. It almost seemed as though he wasn’t truly there. She couldn’t help but take a slow step back, knowing that she might have encountered a master.

“Kill him!”

The woman didn’t answer him. Instead she ordered the ghost children to pounce on Ji Yuan, then turned around and ran away.

The other warriors and Du Heng were about to remind Ji Yuan to be careful, when they saw Ji Yuan gently blow a thin stream of reddish-gray smoke from his mouth.

“Hoooh…”

The smoke cleared away, and the ghost children that had previously been invisible reappeared. This time, though, they were like paper figures on fire, turning to ashes the moment the flames touched them. They couldn’t even scream.

‘Being reduced to ashes by my True Fire of Samadhi is a sign of my respect for you! ’

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T/n: For those of you who wanted a fight scene, buckle up!

1. T/n: Welp RIP servants, you should have left
2. Both in the sense of “who started the fight” but also “who has the upper hand”
3. Can’t find a specific folklore reference, might just be JY trying to figure out what to call her