Chapter Ninety-One: A Knock at the Door, Bear Granny (Please Subscribe and Vote Monthly)

“It really does have such a saying after all.

Perhaps this is a rule of some kind.

To ordinary people, those are nothing more than little flags, not worth taking seriously.

But in the eyes of restless spirits and wandering demons, it means that someone has driven stakes into the ground and built a house there, and the place now belongs to another’s domain.

Even if they pass by here every day, even if they often play around this very spot, once a house is erected, they must go around it.”

Chen Yushu was stunned by Xiaoyin’s explanation.

It made him think of the many beasts in the wild, most of which possessed a sense of territory.

Only, compared with humans, their methods were far simpler and more brutal. They would merely leave their scent in certain places, or even mark the ground with a spray of urine, and that patch of land would be claimed.

Should any living thing intrude, it would be treated as an enemy.

Just then, two martial artists carrying bows came in, each with several wild chickens and hares in hand.

Naturally, there were also people skilled at cooking to help with the preparation.

After the better part of an hour, everyone had eaten a steaming dinner.

By then, however, night had fully fallen.

On Tianyuan Mountain, all manner of sounds rose at once, dense and close: the chirring of insects, the cries of birds, the roars of tigers and howls of wolves. Faintly, there were even threads of sound like a child weeping, an old man muttering, a woman wailing, one after another, surging through the darkness.

Even though most of the people present were martial artists, they all felt a chill at hearing such noises.

The two from Qian Family Village, especially, had shrunk beneath a great tree, their faces slightly pale.

They had never dared to spend the night on Tianyuan Mountain.

This was their first time.

Chen Yushu, however, did not feel afraid.

He had seen enough that a few wandering spirits meant nothing at all.

At this point, he had already spotted figures drifting out from all directions in the distance.

It was as if the Tianyuan Mountain, which had seemed somewhat lifeless before, was only now revealing its true face and coming alive.

One of them, in particular, emerged directly from a small mound of earth not far from where they were gathered.

It looked thoroughly annoyed as it climbed out, because that mound had been freshly dug. Owing to the lay of the land, Chen Yushu noticed that several people had just gone there to squat and relieve themselves. Perhaps fearing the smell would be too strong, the last person had simply shoveled dirt over the mess and buried it.

The thing that crawled out was a middle-aged ghost, perhaps in his thirties or forties. His expression was dark and sullen, and together with his pale face and loose hair, he looked truly terrifying in the black of night.

Then he began to float step by step toward the camp, his posture aggressive and menacing.

Yet when he reached the spot where Lu Yizhi had planted the little flags, he veered aside. He floated a little, turned aside a little, and in the end arrived at the piece of wood that Lu Yizhi had used as a threshold.

There he hesitated.

He lifted a foot, clearly intending to step over it, but after wavering for a moment, he drew it back.

Then, with an unmistakably discouraged look, he drifted outward again. Only after floating some distance away did he turn his head back, seeming unwilling to give up. Several times he made as if to come back, but after drifting only a couple of feet, he gave up again and went on drifting away.

It was a picture of anger and resentment, but also fear and cowardice, wanting revenge yet too frightened to act.

Night deepened and deepened.

Naturally, the group arranged for people to keep watch in rotation.

Chen Yushu was not among them, and he was glad to be spared the duty. Once he confirmed that the surrounding ghosts and spirits were all abiding by the rules and had not stepped into the “house,” he finally relaxed. He sank directly into meditation and began his contemplative practice.

Incense cultivation rose by one.

Incense cultivation rose by one.

“Two points added at once?

So the environment really does affect cultivation.

Back in Jianghuan Town, my cultivation speed was actually rather low. Even with my meditation state reaching the level of deep stillness, a full night of contemplation could only add one point of incense cultivation.

But it is different here.

Tianyuan Mountain is wild country.

And it is also a place rich in precious medicines, where the spiritual particles in the air are relatively active. That is why my cultivation efficiency has increased so dramatically.

That means if I stay here and cultivate, I should be able to cut the time in half and raise my attainment to perfect one-incense level, after which I can begin to ignite the earth fire and reach the level of two-incense attainment.”

Chen Yushu felt a surge of delight.

For the first time, he thought that coming out here was not such a bad thing after all.

Knock, knock, knock.

Just then, Chen Yushu suddenly heard a sound like someone knocking on a door.

“A knock?

We are spending the night in the open wilderness. Where would there be a door?”

At the same time, he felt a chill brush his hand, and Xiaoyin’s anxious voice followed at once. “Brother Yushu, wake up quickly...”

It was Xiaoyin calling out.

Chen Yushu opened his eyes at once.

Only then did he realize that the sky was still not fully bright. It was near dawn, the middle of the Tiger Hour, around four in the morning.

Without even needing Xiaoyin’s explanation, he immediately saw a figure standing not far away at the “threshold” set by Lu Yizhi.

The figure was very tall, but it was draped in several garments of different colors. One of them was even a pair of shorts, which it had tied over its head like a headcloth, with each leg hanging down on either side.

Most crucially, the figure was covered in thick fur, and its two great eyes were like copper bells, emitting a strange, ghostly glow.

A bear.

It was a large black bear.

No one knew where it had scavenged all those clothes, but it had thrown them all over itself so that at first glance it was impossible to tell what it actually was.

At that moment, it had crouched down and was rapping its paws against the round log, as though knocking on a door.

Then the two people standing guard nearby seemed to hear something. Without much hesitation, they walked straight up to the log, nearly coming face to face with the black bear.

Chen Yushu recognized both of them. They were clerks from the Liu family pharmacy: one named Ji Xiong, the other Wang Zheng. Both were body-tempering outer refiners, at the sinew-and-bone stage.

For some reason, they actually walked to the log and each took hold of one end. One stood motionless while the other guided it inward.

It was as though they were controlling a door and opening it from the inside.

“Brother Yushu, stop them quickly, or that black bear will get in.”

As Xiaoyin spoke, she darted forward and hurriedly leaped onto one man’s back, covering his eyes with her hands.

The man jolted and stopped at once. Instinctively, he loosened one hand and reached up to rub at his eyes.

“A house.

The house Mr. Lu made is still working.

This bear is no ordinary one.

It is not merely a black bear, but a kind of uncanny creature. It has lived for years deep in the mountains and, for some unknown reason, acquired a trace of malevolence. As a result, the way it acts is not like an ordinary beast or ferocious animal at all, but rather more like a ghostly thing.

So in its eyes, we are actually inside a crude house. If it wants to come in, it has to trick someone into opening the door for it.

And Ji Xiong and Wang Zheng are the watchmen on duty at this hour, so it naturally bewitched them first and made them help it ‘open the door.’”

Chen Yushu understood everything in a flash.

He realized that this bear was not only a beast and a ferocious creature, but also a spirit thing of the sort found in old folk tales, a Bear Granny.

It would often knock on doors in the middle of the night, deceive the people inside into opening them, then kill them, tear out their hearts and guts, and steal their clothes to hang upon its own body.

The more clothes such creatures wore, the more people they had killed.

This Bear Granny now had seven or eight colorful garments hanging on it, which meant it had taken at least seven or eight lives.

His heart tightened.

Chen Yushu moved just as quickly.

He sprang to his feet, then rapidly formed seals with both hands and thrust them forward, pressing downward with all his strength.

Boom.

The Subduing Yin Art.

In an instant, a tremendous pressure bore down upon the Bear Granny.

“Roar!”

The bear had just straightened up when its entire body suddenly sank. One leg dropped to the ground, and it nearly collapsed flat.

“So a Subduing Yin Art at the minor mastery stage still cannot crush it completely,” Chen Yushu sighed to himself, though he was not disappointed.

Although his technique had not inflicted much damage on the Bear Granny, it had broken the spell that had clouded its victims’ minds.

Ji Xiong and Wang Zheng both came to their senses at once, and confusion appeared on their faces in the same instant.

What was going on?

Why were they each holding one end of a round log in their hands?

Then, all at once, they saw the black bear crouched right beside them.

Their faces instantly filled with terror. They dropped the log and retreated in haste, shouting in panic.

“Bear!

A big black bear!”

The others were roused by the commotion.

“Everyone, be careful!”

Someone cried out in alarm.

By then, Chen Yushu had already seized the moment and charged forward, slashing out in a swift arc.

Eighteen-Linked Blade.

What he used now was precisely the Eighteen-Linked Blade that his master, Su Ming, had always taught him.

With one slash, three strikes fused into a single force, as though three blades of strength had merged together and come crashing down.

Pshh.

The force of the strike landed on the black bear, but it only left a bleeding mark on its body.

“Is its skin really that tough?”

Chen Yushu was also startled.

The minor-mastery Eighteen-Linked Blade could combine three strikes into one, and its power was by no means weak.

With a slash like that, even a martial artist who had cultivated inner force would not dare face it lightly.

Yet all it managed to do was break through a layer of the bear’s hide.

Seeing this, Chen Yushu dared not be careless. After drawing his blade back, he turned and struck again.

This second slash landed on the Bear Granny’s forehead, even cutting half of the trouser leg it had hanging from its head.

But again, it failed to deal much real harm.

Its hide was simply too tough.