For the "welcoming ceremony" that resembled a scene straight out of a horror movie, Beichuan Si simply stretched out his hand and conjured a massive hammer out of thin air!

Then—

He swung it!!!

Splat!

Splat!

Splat!

The heads of the shorter witch spirits exploded with dark blood plasma!

As for the taller robed priests, they met the fate of being smashed in half at the waist!

But after all, spirits are spirits; even a broken waist allowed them to keep moving.

Seeing these spirits still trying to reach out for his legs, Beichuan Si's expression shifted, and without hesitation, he tossed the kindling fire he was holding.

BOOM!!!!

The ethereal blue kindling fire blazed fiercely!

The spirits wailed behind Beichuan Si.

Occasionally, a spirit burst from the blue fire sea, trying to throw itself directly onto Beichuan Si.

But before they could stagger two steps, they had already crashed heavily to the ground.

"I hope you can free yourselves from this spiritual realm and live comfortably in that world,"

Beichuan Si said calmly as he pulled down the witch spirits hanging upside-down from the ceiling and threw them into the sea of blue kindling fire.

With a 'boom', the kindling fire, having received 'fuel', grew a bit stronger.

The wails became even more piercing.

Even Master Yutian and Master Onodera, far away at the shrine at the foot of the mountain, could hear them.

They shivered.

Then they locked eyes.

It was a while before Master Yutian said softly to Master Onodera, "Who knows what kind of terrifying battle is happening over at Beichuan Master's place, the number of spirits is so massive... It seems Beichuan Master is in a difficult situation."

As the saying goes, one can't fight off four hands with two fists. Beichuan Si's strength is indeed astounding, but amidst the onslaught of spirits that appear and vanish unpredictably, he must be utterly beleaguered and tired from coping.

Master Onodera, standing beside Master Yutian, nodded with a sigh: "Indeed... With such a number of spirits, even Beichuan Master must be in a tough fight. But no matter how fierce the battle is, I always believe that Beichuan Master will surely return unscathed."

Master Yutian took out a water bottle, took a sip, and echoed, "Yes... Beichuan Master will be fine."

Indeed.

Even if Beichuan Si was now in a bitter struggle, neither of them doubted for a moment that he could clear out all the spirits.

After all, Beichuan Si had that kind of strength.

On the other side—

A spirit in a blood-red witch's costume wanted to flee from the darkness behind her.

The pervasive dread made the witch spirit instinctively try to get away.

It sprawled on the ground, frantically crawling forward.

Then—

Crack!!!!

A hand grabbed her twisted ankle of bone.

The witch spirit let out a cry of alarm!

Its sharp, black talons dug into the wooden floor to resist the backward dragging.

The force behind it grew stronger, and splinters flew everywhere!

The spirit let out a scream like that of a victim.

This change made Beichuan Si, who was pulling on the spirit's ankle, narrow his eyes in confusion.

He had come all the way from the long bridge, throwing any spirit he caught into the kindling fire to burn like firewood; this spirit had been the most troublesome.

It actually knew to run away.

Spirits should lack self-awareness after all.

Thinking this, Beichuan Si exerted more strength in his grip.

Crack!!!

A crisp sound of bone cracking.

When Beichuan Si pulled his hand back, he already held part of the spirit's foot.

He hadn't expected to actually rip apart the spirit's body.

Shaking his head, Beichuan Si swung the hammer decisively, aiming it directly at the witch spirit's head.

With a dull thud, the witch spirit ceased struggling.

Beichuan Si simply went ahead and dragged the twisted corpse, tossing it into the flames of the kindling fire behind him.

But the question of why that spirit fled remained in Beichuan Si's mind.

After about ten seconds, he seemed to remember something and took out Jian Ding.

Sure enough.

The Spiritual Dagger Jian Ding autonomously activated its intimidation effect against the low-level vengeful spirit.

This also caused the resentful spirit of the just-escaped priestess to be directly subject to this effect.

Because of this, it had cost Beichuan Si some effort.

Thinking of this, Beichuan Si, expressionless, raised his hand and slapped the gleaming surface of Jian Ding.

"..."

Under his gaze, the brilliance on the surface of Jian Ding quickly became dull after the slap, then completely subsided, as if eagerly appeasing Beichuan Si.

Beichuan Si shook his head.

Such ordinary vengeful spirits didn't necessitate the formal deployment of Jian Ding. After all, using Jian Ding would waste its accumulated energy, and once that energy was depleted, Beichuan Si would have to actively infuse it with death qi.

It was hardly worth the trade-off.

After all, shaping death qi for use only required a small amount of it, whereas Jian Ding was a major consumer of death qi.

Moreover, Beichuan Si intuitively felt that there was still something hidden within the Four Directions Shrine this time.

These low-level spirits were just superficial, certainly not indicative of the shrine's entire state.

He had to preserve Jian Ding's stored energy to deal with those lurking in the dark.

"No next time," Beichuan Si said, patting Jian Ding again.

Jian Ding's surface shimmered as if making repeated promises to Beichuan Si.

Beichuan Si didn't care to linger on this topic any longer; he picked up a flashlight and swept its beam around.

Following that recent chase, he had entered a considerably deeper area.

The scenery on either side had changed from the long bridge back to the interior corridors and passageways.

"This is..."

Beichuan Si tilted his head.

Hanging on the adjacent wall was an old wooden plaque.

On the plaque, there was a line of clearly visible, blood-red writing.

"Those not permitted and not of the priestess caste should immediately leave the Pregnancy Protection Room."

This was originally a very common inscription.

Yet, in this dark and gloomy setting, it emitted an indescribable sense of ferocity.

"Not permitted and not of the priestess caste should immediately leave?"

Beichuan Si narrowed his eyes.

Furthermore, just by hearing the name...

The Pregnancy Protection Room?

Beichuan Si clutched the flashlight and walked further in.

The spacious passageway was flanked by neatly arranged small rooms.

Some of the rooms had their paper doors torn off haphazardly, and in some cases, the doors lay on the floor.

Spider webs stretched across dark corners, but no living thing resided there.

Beichuan Si carried the flashlight toward the first room.

It was a Japanese-style room furnished as standard.

A small wooden cabinet, a dimly visible bronze mirror on the table, bedding strewn untidily on the floor.

Even at the table's edge of the room, there was a small window.

Beichuan Si entered and pushed the window open with his hand.

What lay before Beichuan Si was the glitteringly rippled surface of a lake.

The Pregnancy Protection Room was situated on solid ground, with the Moon Ghost Lake at its side.

From here, he could see the path he had taken to arrive and an almost imperceptible small wooden path to the right.

This path seemed to directly lead to the shrine at the mountain's base.

Beichuan Si pondered briefly and then began to rummage through the place, searching for something.

Judging by the bronze mirror, this seemed to be a woman's room.

Coupled with the earlier inscription "Pregnancy Protection Room," which carried a clear implication, it was not hard to infer that this place was likely used by the Four Directions Family for childbirth.

It was no wonder it was deemed off-limits to ordinary clan members.

Beichuan Si searched the room for anything of value, but unfortunately, he found nothing significant.

All there was were a few letters meant for someone unknown.

Beichuan Si was not disheartened.

With so many rooms in the Pregnancy Protection Room, he was bound to fish out some information.

And if he didn't find anything, that wasn't a problem.

Apart from the Pregnancy Protection Room, there were quite a few places in the shrine's rear sacrificial area for him to explore.

Within these places, there were sure to be some clues related to the events of the Moon Witch and the Four Directions Shrine from the past.

And those... were precisely what Beichuan Si was after.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.