Chapter 21: The Second Day's Rain

  I stared at Mr. Zhuo in surprise, unsure of what to do next.

  If the dark fog is that thing's body, then I want to put a sticker on it, I have to reach into the dark fog and stick it on its skull.

  But this black fog is corrosive and cannot be touched at all.

  Mr. Zhuo was also apparently thinking about this issue, propping up his chin in silence.

  "Is there any way we can stick the talisman on without touching it with our hands?"

  "This is very difficult." Mr. Zhuo sighed and replied, "The Taoist symbols will only weaken the magic as soon as they come into contact with that black fog, it's impossible to cause any harm to it."

  I sighed and lowered my head, only to find that the ring Daguang had given us earlier was emitting a faint glow.

  I took off the ring and handed it to Mr. Zhuo, saying: "Look, why is the ring glowing?"

  "This ring has been around for a certain number of years and has absorbed a lot of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, so it will glow in certain situations." Mr. Zhuo replied.

  I heard Mr. Zhuo's words and suddenly had an idea, and said: "Master, if there are items with years on them, can we stick the Dao symbol on the skull?"

  Mr. Zhuo's eyes lit up and he said hastily, "This method is indeed feasible!"

  "What shall we go find then?" I asked again.

  Mr. Zhuo stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "We can look for willow trees that are older."

  I took a look at the Yunying Mountain Villa, and the whole villa had many trees, but there wasn't a single willow tree.

  Mr. Zhuo also discovered this problem, so he spoke: "Willow trees have a purifying effect on monsters, and even those without yin-yang eyes can temporarily open their yin-yang eyes by relying on willow leaves. Therefore, there will be no willow trees in this Yun Cong Mountain Villa."

  Mr. Zhuo saw that I was busy all night and didn't have the energy to go out of the villa to find the willow tree today, so he let me and the little fox stay in the room on the mountain top to rest, and he went out to find the willow tree himself.

  To prevent the aura on me from attracting other monsters, Mr. Zhuo specially set up a seal at the door of the room.

  After everything was ready, Mr. Zhuo walked out of the Yunying Mountain Villa. I couldn't hold on any longer and fell asleep right there.

  When I woke up, the sky outside was somewhat gloomy.

  I thought it was evening already, but after asking Little Fox about the time, I found out that I had only slept for four hours.

  It means it's still morning now!

  I looked up at the sky, and it was overcast with thick dark clouds, the sun completely hidden from view.

  Outside was a raging storm, but inside the house it was completely calm due to the barrier.

  Won't something else happen again? I thought gloomily.

  "It's going to rain, isn't it?" The little fox sensed the change in the weather outside with its animal instincts.

  It's just going to rain!

  I felt a bit relieved, thinking that Mr. Zhuo should be back soon, so I decided to go find an umbrella first and wait for him outside.

  I searched the whole house and finally found a somewhat worn-out umbrella in the corner.

  It is better to have an umbrella than not to have one.

  As I was thinking this, just wanting to open the umbrella, a little fox suddenly rushed over and snatched the umbrella from my hand, holding it tightly with both hands, looking at me with a terrified face.

  I couldn't help but curiously ask: "Little fox, what's wrong with you?"

  The little fox stared with a pair of big eyes, and its eyes were full of panic: "Nothing, just can't use this umbrella."

  "Why?" I asked in puzzlement.

  The little fox hugged the umbrella, turned around, and gently stroked it, saying in a low voice: "There's no reason why, I just can't use it! If I do, something terrible will happen!"

  I grew even more curious, took a step forward, and lifted the little fox's collar to my eye level, saying word by word: "What is going on here? Come, tell me."

  The little fox shut its mouth and didn't say a word.

  Since it wouldn't speak, I couldn't force it to, so I put it down and walked into the house, casually finding a place to sit. "If there was no umbrella, Mr. Zhuo would have gotten rained on and might have fallen ill. That way, tonight there would be no one to help us catch monsters."

  The little fox's eyes flickered with a hint of hesitation, but the hand holding the umbrella still didn't let go.

  It hesitated for a long time, and finally moved slowly in front of me, saying firmly: "Mr. Zhuo will definitely be fine, because he has always been very powerful. At that time, it was easy to save me!"

  "Are you saying Master saved you in the past?" I asked.

  The little fox nodded and said, "At that time, I was still a demon who was about to become a spirit. As a result, I was discovered by the yin-yang master, who wanted to capture me. At this time, Mr. Zhuo appeared and fought with the yin-yang master, saying that I had not done anything harmful or unjust."

  "What's next?"

  "After that, the Onmyouji said that Mr. Zhuo was obstinately ignorant and wanted to get rid of him together." The little fox frowned and thought back.

  The little fox continued: "Later, Mr. Zhuo had a great battle with the yin-yang master. I heard the yin-yang master say, 'Why does Mr. Zhuo always go against himself?' Mr. Zhuo said, 'I have always believed in my own path.'"

  "Mr. Zhuo and the Onmyouji fought for a long time, but in the end Mr. Zhuo emerged victorious. The commotion caused by that incident was huge, as their battle startled many youkai and onmyouji, and to my surprise, even the Peng bird with golden wings was summoned."

  The little fox's eyes lit up as if recalling the scene at that time.

  I think I understand now, it turns out that the conflict between Mr. Zhuo and the Onmyodo Master has been there from the beginning.

  But I still don't understand why Mr. Zhuo seems to be biased towards the monster many times?

  I shook my head in doubt and asked Little Fox what happened next.

  "Next, Mr. Zhuo completely broke off with the people in the Yin Yang Master realm because of this matter. The people in the Yin Yang Master realm said that from now on, if they encounter Mr. Zhuo, they will think of ways to defeat him. Mr. Zhuo didn't care about these things at all and sent me to Yunyong Mountain Villa to prevent the Yin Yang Masters from catching me."

  I blinked my eyes and felt that the Mr. Zhuo mentioned by Little Fox was somewhat different from the Mr. Zhuo I knew.

  It seems I still don't quite understand Mr. Zhuo.

  The little fox said with a tone of unfinished meaning, his eyes full of reverence: "Many of our kind have always admired Mr. Zhuo. He is our benefactor."

  After finishing speaking, he didn't forget to tightly hug the umbrella in his arms twice, as if the umbrella was Mr. Zhuo himself.

  I stared at the umbrella, and the more it refused to let me open it, the more curious I became.

  I moved closer to the little fox, almost close enough to reach out and grab the umbrella.

  The little fox looked at me with some alertness, took two steps back and said very seriously: "Do you know why nothing happens in this house?"

  What it said was completely unrelated to what it had just said, and I didn't react in time. I stared blankly at the little fox, unsure of how to respond.

  The little fox seemed to think I wouldn't answer either, and with a mysterious face continued: "It's because of this umbrella."

  "Can this umbrella defeat that dark fog monster?" I looked up and down at the umbrella in surprise.

  That umbrella looks very ordinary and doesn't have anything special about it.

  The little fox said: "Of course not, but this umbrella is the guardian deity of this house, protecting it from any harm."

  "Why didn't you say so earlier?" Last night I was afraid that the house would be damaged, and Qicai Bird and I were running around outside like two fools.

  The little fox looked wronged and said, "Because I don't know if this umbrella is useful against that black fog monster. It's just that the rain in Yunying Mountain Villa is different from elsewhere, and this house is also different from other houses. As long as it rains, this umbrella will automatically fly out of the house, expand above the house, and protect this house."

  I asked the little fox again why the rain here is different from elsewhere.

  The little fox hesitated for half a day without saying anything reasonable, only saying that if the monster went out at midnight, all the magic on its body would flow away with the rain.

  Just as they were talking, a loud clap of thunder was heard outside and big raindrops started falling down.

  The umbrella in Little Fox's hand flew out of Little Fox's hand immediately.

  However, because there was a barrier at the entrance of the house, the umbrella did not fly out, but instead hit the barrier and bounced back.

  The umbrella seemed to have some kind of vitality, and it struck the boundary once again, but the result was still the same as before.

  I hadn't even reacted to the strange movement of this umbrella when I felt the whole house start shaking.

  The little fox immediately got scared and hugged my leg, shivering all over and asked: "What happened?"

  I also want to ask what happened!

  I thought helplessly and looked up to see that a lot of ghostly faces had gathered on the roof at some point.

  Those ghost faces some smiled, some cried, some were angry, and some had no expression, looking very terrifying.

  "Hehehe."

  Just then, a strange laugh echoed beside us.

  I broke out in a cold sweat and turned around to look behind me, but there was nothing there.

  Haha.

  Another burst of laughter erupted behind me, and a gust of wind whizzed past my ear! My Celestial Eye automatically opened, scanning the entire room in an instant. Apart from those ghostly faces on the ceiling, I didn't see anything else.