Chapter 57 Ancestral Spirit

Faced with my master’s accusations, the old man blushed. Fortunately, his skin was a little yellowish and dark, so it wasn’t that conspicuous. However, he was obviously a little anxious, and the veins on his neck bulged out, and he said anxiously, “I’m not cheating you. It’s more dangerous to go up the mountain on another road.”

My master said with a smile, “Is there a man-eating tiger on this mountain? Where is the danger?”

The old man was stunned by my master’s words. After all, there were no reports of tigers in the Xiangxi area, but he was even more anxious. After hesitating for a long time, he said, “What if… what if it’s even more terrifying than a man-eating tiger?”

“What is it? A python?”

“Black Blindness?”

“Could it be wolves?”

My master was talking nonsense. He said that black bears (black bears) could not be found in such a climate. The old man just shook his head and didn’t answer. Anyway, he walked a few steps forward and deliberately blocked us.

Seeing the old man’s behavior, the master sighed and said helplessly, “I understand…” Then he said, “I understand…” and then he put down his backpack and took out a solid package made of paper from the bulging backpack. Then he slowly opened it, and it was full of yellow tobacco leaves.

Pretending to be reluctant, the master took out a small portion of it, and regardless of the old man’s dumbfounded expression, took the old man’s pipe and stuffed it all into the pipe’s bag, then said helplessly, “Brother, don’t say I don’t know how to do it.

After that, the master turned around, picked up the bag without even having time to pack it, took me by the hand, and pushed the old man out of the way.

The old man shouted behind us, “Outsiders are not allowed to go up the mountain, they are not allowed…”

His voice was so urgent that it was hard for his hoarse voice to become so sharp. His already somewhat stilted Chinese sounded even more stilted, with a hint of the local Miao language.

Unfortunately, my master and I didn’t listen to him at this time. We just kept our heads down and walked towards the mountain in a loud and heavy step.

My master and I were in good shape, and when we deliberately increased our speed, we were even faster. We were probably faster than ordinary people running, let alone climbing the stairs. In any case, we walked for a minute without hearing the old man’s footsteps catching up.

I was feeling strange, and suddenly a feeling of cold chills ran through my body, and all of a sudden my body’s hair stood on end. Before I could react, I heard a dog barking in our ears… it was just an ordinary dog barking, but the sound was not real at all, but rather extremely ethereal, so it seemed strange.

If I were to describe it in detail, it would be like a ghost talking to a person. The sound reaches the human soul, without a real sense of “landing,” as if it were coming from the depths of the void.

Although the dog barking was weird, it was still a dog barking… But when it barked like that, I couldn’t help but feel my legs go weak. But how could I kneel down? I stumbled back two steps and suddenly leaned against the mountain next to the cobblestone path.

My master was no better off than I was. It was only with my help that he managed to stand up straight.

Not only that, but as soon as I leaned against the mountain wall, a tiger roar came from the depths of my soul… It was the long-sleeping Silly Tiger who had suddenly awakened. Every time Silly Tiger woke up, I could see the silent space deep in my soul, where I saw Silly Tiger lying down suddenly open his eyes, his eyes like a torch.

Compared to the previous stupid look, this look is much more lively… Not only that, but as soon as it woke up, its fur stood on end, and when it stood up, its back was slightly arched and its tail was straight up, which was clearly a sign of fear!

Because this is how cats look when they are scared. No matter how powerful Shitu is, he is just a big cat.

What was Shatu afraid of? I was suddenly dragged back from the silent world of my soul to reality. It was less than a second, and at this time, I heard endless barking, like the barking of wild dogs in the mountains and fields, and I didn’t know where it was coming from.

It was just a dog barking… Why? Why? I was sweating profusely, and couldn’t help but turn around and look around in a panic. But in a moment of distraction, I saw that the sky in front of me seemed to have darkened… Before I could figure out if it was my imagination, I saw the blackness disappear.

I subconsciously wanted to rub my eyes, but I saw a… beast? No, it wasn’t a beast at all. It was more like a monster… it looked like a cow, but it had a tiger’s head, and its whole body was red… it was…

Before I could react or even take a good look at the details, I felt that the monster looked so unreal, not like it was real, but it was so in your eyes, and I saw the monster staring at me with a half-smile… The expression was inhuman… I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my throat. Then I saw a red flash of lightning, which suddenly rushed towards me and my master.

My master and I didn’t have time to react at all before we saw a huge mouth open wide, with sharp fangs, aimed at my master’s head… It looked like it wanted to swallow my master’s head whole!

“Master…” I could only subconsciously call out this word, and my hand was outstretched, but I didn’t have time to pull my master.

I seemed to have already sensed that as long as this illusory monster’s big mouth only wanted to bite my master’s head, my master’s soul would be swallowed up. What could I do? At this critical moment, I almost forgot to be afraid.

In my soul, the tiger was originally extremely fearful, but at this moment, it seemed to sense my anxiety from the depths of my soul and my willingness to take the place of my master to face this danger. It suddenly roared and the next moment it was about to burst out of my soul.

That roar of Silly Tiger was unlike anything I had ever heard before. Although I was afraid, I summoned up the courage to roar back, perhaps with a little bit of defiance and a desire to challenge… At that moment, I distinctly felt that I was Silly Tiger, and Silly Tiger was me!

The monster was about to bite my master, but suddenly, as if it had heard the roar of Silly Tiger, it turned its head. In that instant, our eyes met. Those eyes were the most indifferent eyes I had ever seen, and they were also filled with some kind of inexplicable evil aura that made people feel sick to the stomach.

I wanted to kneel down and surrender to these eyes, but an inexplicable will kept me standing, and I stubbornly refused to look away!

“Interesting,” a faint comment sounded in the depths of my soul. The words that should have been spoken with a rising and falling tone were spoken in such a calm tone, which was particularly strange… It was that Tao Tongzi guy.

I thought I was saved, but that guy just made a comment and then fell silent.

In less than two seconds, I thought I was hopeless… because the stupid tiger didn’t even have time to come out, but I didn’t expect the figure of the fiery red monster to suddenly stop, and then quickly fade away until it disappeared completely.

“I told you not to go in there, and if you do, I won’t be nice. You can see the ancestral spirit, so you must be cultivators.” At this point, the old man’s voice came again, still hoarse, with a stilted Chinese accent. The difference was that it was obvious that he was angry.

Before I could wipe the sweat off my forehead, I turned around and saw that the old man had already walked up to the strange carving again, looking at me and the master with a cold stare. His hand was on the carving, and I could clearly see blood oozing from his palm, but as soon as it came out, it disappeared… just like the carving was mysteriously sucking blood.

At this moment, I suddenly remembered the image of the monster. Isn’t it similar to this carving? The only difference is that the monster doesn’t have hair standing upright like a hedgehog, and it has strange wings.

I don’t know if it was my imagination, but I saw a red light flash across the sculpture, and then it disappeared. At that moment, what had seemed strange and plain suddenly seemed to have a strange, cold, evil aura of majesty, making people feel an infinite spiritual oppression.

Just one glance, and I couldn’t help but feel my legs go weak again, even more so than before. I could only completely rely on the mountain wall… When I thought back to the monster just now, I felt that it seemed much more immature than the carving… I couldn’t put it into words.

I let out a long breath, because the carving only gave off such a breath for a moment, and it obviously made me feel incomplete. If it were in its prime… When I looked again, it had already returned to its calm appearance and had become a strange but not particularly special carving.

“Yes, we are cultivators… but I never thought that your village would…” The master walked two steps towards the old man and said something inexplicable.