Chapter 19: The Talisman Monster
Chen Shi bent his knees and leapt onto the roof beam, carefully balancing himself as he edged toward the talismans overhead. With one hand holding a bowl of cinnabar mixed with Black Pot’s blood and the other gripping a brush, he began meticulously altering the intricate talismans drawn on the wooden planks.
The beam was narrow, forcing him to tread cautiously. A single misstep could send him plummeting.
The five talismans clearly weren’t ordinary creations—they were the work of a skilled talisman master who had transformed them into a malevolent force. By tracing the scent of children’s urine, these talismans had captured their victims and suspended them here.
However, rushing to rescue the children without addressing the talismans would be disastrous. Activating the talismans’ full power could harm or even kill the survivors. Chen Shi’s priority was to neutralize them first.
Simply destroying the talismans by brute force wasn’t an option; that would also trigger their energy. Instead, Chen Shi used the cinnabar mixture to disrupt their structure, rendering them powerless.
One by one, he altered the talismans. He defaced their eyes, turning them into smeared chaos, and twisted their heads into indistinct shapes.
The most crucial part was the mouths. The talismans’ demonic faces had chains extending from their mouths, connected to the children. If the talismans activated, the chains would retract, violently tearing out the children’s tongues and possibly killing them.
Using the cinnabar, Chen Shi sealed the mouths of four talismans, ensuring they could no longer tighten their chains even if activated.
But when he moved to the fifth talisman, his supply of cinnabar was exhausted. This final talisman wasn’t connected to any child. Chen Shi decided it wasn’t an immediate threat and turned his attention to the frail boy hanging nearby, his breathing shallow—Liu Fugui.
Just as Chen Shi reached Fugui and touched his arm, the fifth talisman’s demonic face stirred. Its eyes began to open.
The chain extending from its mouth rattled as it slid forward.
Chen Shi froze, holding his breath.
The talisman’s eyes rolled, the cinnabar-painted pupils twisting unnaturally to fixate on him. The demonic face contorted into a grotesque smile, its expression twisted with malice.
Clink-clink.
The chain slithered forward like a snake, rising as if to strike.
Chen Shi’s heart sank—he’d been discovered!
The fifth talisman spoke, its voice booming like thunder. “Who dares disrupt my spellwork?”
The sound reverberated through the abandoned house, shaking the rafters and sending clouds of dust raining down.
This wasn’t the talisman itself speaking. Its creator, likely observing through the talisman’s eyes, was using it as a mouthpiece to confront Chen Shi directly.
Chen Shi’s blood ran cold. Such skill far exceeded that of an ordinary talisman master.
“Disrupt your spellwork?” Chen Shi shot back, his voice trembling with anger. “You’ve turned these children into tools for your foul magic! Do their lives mean nothing to you?”
As he spoke, Chen Shi grabbed the fishhooks embedded in Fugui’s eyelids. Lacking time for finesse, he yanked hard, trying to snap the chains connected to them.
His body, tempered by days of training in the Three Radiance Righteous Qi Method, had become incredibly strong. But the fine chains were deceptively durable. The first pull failed to break them.
With a second surge of effort, he finally snapped the chain. He quickly moved to the hooks in Fugui’s nose and mouth, using all his strength to tear them away.
“And what of it?” the talisman growled, its voice cold. “You talisman masters are no saints. Haven’t you sacrificed others in pursuit of your craft? I merely need the essence of five virgin boys to fuel my Longevity Lamp. You storm into my domain and ruin my work—how utterly disrespectful!”
The lines composing the fifth talisman began to writhe like crimson serpents, twisting into the form of a grotesque demon’s face.
Clang!
The chain hanging from its mouth sprang to life, lunging at Chen Shi like a coiled python.
Chen Shi grabbed the hook embedded in Fugui’s tongue while simultaneously catching the attacking chain with his other hand.
The chains wrapped around his arm like a living serpent, tightening with alarming force. Chen Shi channeled his energy, flooding his arm with vitality until it swelled, becoming thick and powerful.
Planting his feet firmly, he twisted his body and leapt toward another chain binding Fugui’s limbs, wrapping it around his leg to secure himself.
Above him, the talisman’s demonic face solidified, growing to a massive size. Its blood-red jaws opened wide, releasing a foul stench as it lunged to devour him.
This must be the same monstrous mouth the villagers had described. The chains extending from its tongue were what had snatched the children.
Chen Shi gritted his teeth and pulled hard on the attacking chains, hoping to swing the demonic face aside. But it was too strong, its power far exceeding his own. Floating in mid-air, it was unshakable by brute force.
As the demon’s gaping mouth loomed closer, Chen Shi stomped down hard.
The force of his stomp sent tremors through the roof. The wooden planks buckled under the strain, cracking loudly.
The roof collapsed with a thunderous crash, bringing down the planks, tiles, and thatched straw, burying the demonic face beneath the debris.
Freed from the chains, Chen Shi caught Fugui in his arms and dropped to the ground.
Just as they landed, the main beam of the house groaned ominously under the weight of the falling roof.
Crash!
The beam splintered, bringing the entire structure down in a massive cloud of dust and rubble.
Chen Shi wasted no time, clutching Fugui as he dashed out of the collapsing building. He barely made it out before the house fell in on itself, the shockwave sending both him and Black Pot sprawling.
Dust filled the air, making Black Pot cough as it scrambled to its feet.
Chen Shi held his breath and quickly unshackled Fugui’s hands and feet. Before he could fully recover, the enormous roof beam suddenly rose from the rubble as if weightless.
“You’ve made me angry, little talisman maker!”
The booming voice reverberated once more as the demonic face emerged unscathed from the wreckage. It hovered ominously above, glaring down at Chen Shi with blood-red eyes.
Chains dangled from its mouth, connected to a small bronze cauldron—the very lamp the talisman master had been refining using the children’s lives. Though the collapse had preserved the lamp’s oil, the overall quality of the essence had been greatly diminished.
The talisman master, controlling the demon remotely, was seething with rage.
“You’ll pay for this!” the voice growled. “I’ll capture you and refine you into lamp oil myself!”
The demonic face began to ascend, preparing to retreat with its prize.
Suddenly, Chen Shi did something unexpected. He pulled down his pants, exposing himself, and began urinating on the debris.
The talisman master, observing through the demon’s eyes, was momentarily dumbfounded. “Is he… so scared he wet himself?”
But then realization struck.
The demon abruptly stopped mid-air and swooped down toward Chen Shi, ignoring the master’s commands.
The talisman master’s heart sank. “No! The demon reacts to the scent of virgin boy’s urine! He’s baiting it deliberately!”
The demon hurtled toward Chen Shi, its massive jaws gaping wide.
At that moment, the Five Mountains Protective Talisman on the scholar tree activated, releasing brilliant light that formed the shapes of five towering mountains. These spectral peaks descended onto the talisman monster, pinning it to the ground with a thunderous crash. The creature writhed helplessly, unable to move.
The bronze cauldron it carried tumbled from its mouth, spilling the lamp oil across the ground.
Chen Shi shook himself, pulled up his pants, and strode toward the downed monster. With a single heavy stomp, he crushed the cauldron flat, its mangled remains embedded in the dirt.
Squatting down, he locked eyes with the talisman creature, as if trying to peer through it to see its master.
The mysterious talisman master, clearly enraged, was powerless to intervene with the Five Mountains Protective Talisman weighing down the monster.
“Consider our grudge settled,” Chen Shi said coldly. “Pray I never meet you in person.”
The talisman monster’s crimson eyes glared at him.
Chen Shi stood up, planting one foot firmly on the monster’s grotesque head. “If I do, I’ll beat you to death.”
With a loud bang, the monster exploded, dissolving into a slurry of cinnabar and blood that splattered onto the ground. Some of the vile mixture splashed onto Chen Shi’s boots.
Though he had destroyed the monster and rescued Liu Fugui, solving the mystery of the bedwetting children, anger still simmered within him.
This mysterious talisman master was far stronger than any opponent Chen Shi had faced before—even the elite Six Panels Gate enforcers paled in comparison. Chen Shi knew he shouldn’t provoke such an expert, but he couldn’t shake the urge to find this person and pummel them into the dirt.
Turning to the stunned villagers gathered outside the courtyard, Chen Shi suppressed his fury and waved. “Come in. The demon is gone, and Fugui is safe.”
The villagers hesitated, still too scared to approach.
It was only when San Wang, the boldest among them, stepped cautiously into the yard that the others found their courage to follow.
Liu Fugui’s parents rushed forward, scooping their son into their arms. Tears streamed down their faces as they called his name over and over.
Fugui groggily opened his eyes and murmured, “Dad… Mom…” before falling unconscious again.
“He’s drained of energy,” Chen Shi advised. “Let him sleep. Don’t try to feed him too much at once. Start with some rice broth.”
The parents nodded fervently, carrying their son home under Chen Shi’s instructions.
Other villagers began clearing the collapsed house, uncovering the bodies of the three other missing children. Tragically, they had been dead for some time, beyond saving.
Low sobbing soon swelled into wailing, filling the air with grief.
Chen Shi’s chest tightened at the sound, and he turned to leave the accursed house, Black Pot trotting behind him. At the gate, he stopped and called to San Wang.
“You’ll need to bury the Tian family’s coffins,” he said.
San Wang paled, stammering, “But they offended the Godmother Tree and were punished. Who would dare bury them?”
Chen Shi’s expression darkened, his tone laced with sarcasm. “Don’t bury them, then. Leave their eight coffins here to fester. When their resentment turns them into vengeful spirits, they’ll start with your village. Let’s see how many of you are left by then!”
The villagers were horrified, scurrying off to make burial arrangements.
Moments ago, many had doubted Chen Shi’s abilities because of his youth. But after watching him single-handedly vanquish the monstrous entity, they were finally convinced of his skill.
The village elders ordered a table and chairs to be brought out for Chen Shi, along with fruits and refreshments. Seeing his young age, they even called over two village girls to massage his shoulders and legs.
“San Wang, come here,” Chen Shi called, waving the man closer.
When San Wang approached, Chen Shi asked, “Has anyone unfamiliar visited your village recently?”
“Unfamiliar?” San Wang rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Actually, yes. A few days ago, an old talisman master came through. They said they were from the provincial capital, looking for news about a missing young lady—Second Miss Zhao. It was getting late, so they asked to stay the night and left at dawn.”
“And this talisman master,” Chen Shi pressed. “Did they do anything unusual?”
San Wang shook his head. “Not that I know of. They seemed kind, even drew a few protective talismans for us before they left.”