Chapter 22: The Secret of Yin-Yang VillageThe muddy ground in the swamp had returned to calmness, and that enormous, eerie centipede had submerged into the swamp along with the completion of the Eight Trigrams Formation. Everything was still, and if not for Xi Zi's constant wailing, it would have seemed as though nothing had happened at all.

  Nan San clung to the iron chain, his mouth overflowing with fresh blood, his eyes fixed intently on what was below. Although that centipede had escaped, he didn't dare let his guard down. This village of Yin Yang was fraught with hidden dangers, and evil spirits ran amok. Even as a Daoist successor, he probably couldn't resolve all the issues here for the time being.

  After staring for over a minute, Nan San saw that there was really no movement below, and then came down along the iron chain. His chest felt suffocated, and he couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood. He wiped his mouth and walked to Xi Zai's side, seeing that this guy was lying on the muddy ground with a face full of dirt, and asked aloud: "Are you okay?"

  Xi Zi cursed as she walked, dejectedly saying: "Luckily my body is tough and I can still take a few knocks. If it were Director Liu, he'd probably be half dead by now!"

  Nan San saw Xi Zhi was fine, and he put his mind at ease. He turned around to look at the eight pillars, pinched his fingers to calculate, and his face seemed thoughtful. This place is extremely dangerous, from the corpses in the previous locust tree forest, it's probably less than seven days left. In other words, all the changes occurred within these seven days.

  Xi Zi patted off the dust and dirt on her body, stood up and whispered: "Third brother, this place is too eerie, I think we should get out of here!"

  When he said this, Xizai's eyes kept glancing around, afraid that a ghost would jump out from somewhere. But Nan San shook his head helplessly: "If we were in Yinyang Village, we could wait till dawn to leave, but now we can only force our way through!"

  "What's the big idea?" Xi Zi asked in confusion.

  Nan San looked up at the sky, then reached into his bag and pulled out a handful of soybeans, scattering them onto the marshy ground. The soybeans seemed to have met with fire and were burned to ashes, but what happened next left Xi Zi speechless. The calm marsh suddenly churned again, pairs of hands and feet emerging from beneath the surface, like a graveyard of corpses, or even more eerily, a place where hundreds of ghosts marched at night.

  If it weren't for the centipede they had seen before, Nan San and Xi Zhi would have been long gone. But he also knew that once the Eight Trigrams Formation was activated, this centipede would probably not be able to come out either.

  Nan San glanced at him faintly and then ordered, "I just saw a mountain road on the other side of this swamp from the iron chain. You must crawl over immediately. Remember, don't lower your head, cover your mouth and nose with urine to avoid inhaling that toxic miasma!"

  Xizi's courage instantly dwindled when he heard that they had to climb over, don't look at his rough appearance, but he hasn't experienced much. If it weren't for Nan San being there, he would have turned around and run away already, awkwardly saying: "Third Brother, how about I follow behind you instead, also good for helping you clear the way!"

  Nan San saw that the little guy was afraid to go over after being scolded, so he didn't dare to go over. Instead, he handed Xi Zi a handful of soybeans and instructed him to scatter them on the marsh every seven steps.

  What's the point of doing this, San Shi is very clear in his heart. The so-called "turning day into night, scattering beans to become soldiers, waving swords to become rivers, and summoning wind and rain" has been passed down since ancient times as Jiang Shang's ultimate skill. Whether it really has such a magical place, I don't know.

  Although Nan San couldn't achieve such a heaven-defying feat, by combining the Taoist spell method, he could temporarily suppress it. So when he and Xi Zǐ climbed up the iron chain with care, crawling towards the opposite side, they also had to throw soybeans downwards.

  They would have been fine if they had continued on their way, but when they were halfway there, Nan San suddenly discovered that the strange black cat was standing silently behind them, its eyes fixed tightly on them. Xi Zi, who was following behind, saw Nan San look back and hurriedly turned around to take a look, and when she saw the black cat, she was so frightened that her hands slipped and she almost fell into the marsh.

  "Be careful!" Nan San hastily reminded, fortunately Xi Zi's body was agile, her legs hooked together, and she used force in her waist to dodge the attack. She made a bitter face and said: "Third brother, how about we switch positions again?"

  Nan San didn't understand, this tone was asking for trouble. At that moment, he turned to the black cat and said: "I don't care what kind of ability you have, it's best not to look for trouble!"

  Xizi trembled slightly on the iron chain and muttered: "Can this cat understand?"

  Nan San's heart was also a bit racing at this moment, after all, the man on the iron chain had some difficulty moving. The two of them and the cat were silently confronting each other, but he discovered that the cat seemed to be staring at Xi Zi with an eerie expression.

  Just as the black cat seemed to be staying, Nan San prepared to scare it away with a talisman. However, when he took out the talisman and was about to cast a spell, he found that the black cat had disappeared again without making a sound, as if it had hidden its body. He hastily asked Xi Zi: "Where did the black cat go?"

  Xi Zi had a dazed expression and shook her head to indicate that she didn't know. Nan San didn't care about it anymore, after all, finding the way out was urgent, so he hurriedly crawled along the iron chain towards the opposite side, and in the faint pink mist below, there were occasional loud explosions, which were caused by the combination of soybeans and talismans.

  With great difficulty, Nan San finally approached the front of the swampy mud with the help of the iron chain. He found that on the opposite side, there was a bluestone staircase about one meter wide, extending upwards step by step. It would be more accurate to say that it was an abandoned mountain road rather than a stone staircase. Due to the darkness of the night, he couldn't see where the staircase led to. However, judging from the weeds growing on it, he knew that no one had come here for a long time.

  Nan San looked at the situation in front of him, then called out to Xi Zi to get ready. He used the iron chain to swing his body with both hands, taking a steady step forward and jumping onto the stone steps. Xi Zi followed closely behind him, and the two of them looked up together.

  "Third Brother, where does this road lead to?" Xi Zi asked.

  "I don't know, let's just go up and take a look!" Nan San's eyes gazed deeply at the small path, but in his heart, there was a faint hint of speculation.

  The two men walked silently up the mountain road, and after about ten or twenty minutes, Nan San suddenly turned his head to look back. In the dark night, there was only a flickering firelight in the pagoda tree forest. Looking around again, it was empty everywhere, with stars twinkling in the sky, and behind the pagoda tree forest, there was a faint starlight floating vaguely. He understood that this was probably Liu Suo's flashlight. Thinking of this old guy being alone in Yinyang Village, he didn't know what would happen.

  Xi Zi saw Nan San standing still and couldn't help but ask: "What's wrong, is there another ghost?"

  Nan San shook his head and smiled: "No, I think we're almost at the top of the mountain now!"

  "The mountain top?" Kiko didn't react, but San also didn't explain, and instead continued on this mountain path, because just now, he had figured it out - the Sophora japonica forest, the Bagua formation in two days' time, and the village of Yin-yang were all built halfway up the mountain, blocking the way to the top. The only way through was to force their way like they did.

  In the midst of it all, Nan San felt that there must be something strange about this mountain top, otherwise why would it be so treacherous, and also go to great lengths to set up a row of Chinese scholar trees and an Eight Trigrams formation. At this moment, he forgot his original purpose for coming here, and with a curious mindset, led Xi Zi on foot upwards, perhaps there was something related to the secrets of Yin Yang Village that would be revealed.

  Nan San Yue felt something was off, so he quickened his pace. Just then, the one-legged black cat reappeared in front of them, looking down at them with an air of superiority. A pair of blood-red eyes exuded a dangerous aura.

  For the third time, Nan San understood that this black cat was definitely evil. With his peach wood sword at the ready and a spell prepared, he waited for the other party to attack. But he was wrong, the black cat just stared at him, its eyes still fixed on Xi Zi, an aura of evil spreading out.

  Nan San pointed at the black cat with his sword, saying coldly: "Little ghost, I know you have spiritual energy, and it's not easy to cultivate. Don't do evil!" Unfortunately, every time Nan San spoke, the cat treated his words as nothing but a breeze in its ear, not responding at all, instead revealing a wary expression towards Xi Zi.

  The girl behind Xi saw the black cat's eyes, trembled a little, and didn't dare to look straight at it. She shouted: "Third brother, hurry up and drive this cat away, it's scary!"

  "Hold on, don't act rashly!" Nan San didn't rush to intervene, because he found that the black cat seemed to be angry with Xi Zi.

  At this moment, a strange scene occurred. The one-legged black cat suddenly let out a meow and turned to head up the mountain road, occasionally turning its head back to call out. Nan San was dazed for a moment before realizing that the black cat seemed to be leading the way. After hesitating for a while, he followed it.

  The black cat seemed to be extremely familiar with the terrain, and although it only had three legs, it was very agile. However, as they followed it, Nan San discovered that something was off. The black cat's leading seemed to have deviated from the opposite direction, and it was actually heading towards another small path. After walking for more than half an hour, he finally confirmed that the black cat was leading them down the mountain.

  Because of the subtle changes, the location of Yinyang Village was getting closer and closer. When Nan San tried to turn around and leave, he found that the black cat had suddenly become ferocious, its fur standing on end, two sharp fangs exposed, and the blood color in its eyes growing thicker.

  Nan San furrowed his brow, not understanding what was going on with the cat. But Xi Zi scolded loudly: "You three-legged cat, what are you growling at? Be careful or I'll stew you for dinner."

  As soon as these words came out, the black cat suddenly flashed and stood behind Xizi, its claws fiercely slashing, tearing the clothes on his back into strips, scaring him to rush to San Nan for help.

  Nan San's eyes turned cold, and with a swing of his Taomu sword, he parried: "You're just a little demon after all, watch this!"

  The peach wood sword chopped towards the black cat, but this guy's body was more agile than a monkey, jumping away two or three meters in an instant, standing on the side and watching coldly. The first strike missed, Nan San didn't get angry, he raised his head to look at the sky, finding that dawn would break in less than a moment. He thought of Liu Zong in Yinyang Village and suddenly let out a sigh of helplessness.

  At this time, the black cat had silently disappeared on the spot, leaving Xi Zi looking around nervously, afraid of being ambushed from behind. However, Nan San knew that the black cat was gone. From start to finish, he had a hunch that the cat just wanted to lead them away.

  "Third Brother, what's going on? Are we still going up?" Xi Zi asked.

  Nan San shook his head helplessly: "Never mind, let's go back. We'll find Director Liu first and talk about it later!"

  The two of them took one last look in the direction of the one-legged black cat before hastily heading down the mountain to find Director Liu.