Chapter 87: One More Person Added to the Group

Shanglu very much wanted to ask Third Lady something.

Since she knew how to get out of the uncanny fog, why had she not guided them before, and instead watched him scatter realgar powder all the way?

Was she simply curious to see what tricks he could come up with?

Shanglu shook his head and told himself inwardly: “The next time I run into something strange, I’ll ask Third Lady first. If even she has no answer, then I’ll work it out myself.”

At the same time, after receiving Shanglu’s orders, Constable Liu immediately had everyone call out their numbers.

The fog was too thick to see anyone beyond a few steps.

Fortunately, while sound was affected too, it was much less so.

At the very least, having everyone call their numbers was entirely feasible.

Constable Liu called out “one,” and the others followed one after another, even Shanglu joining in with a number of his own.

Soon the count was finished, and the last man called out “fourteen.”

Constables Liu and Huang showed no reaction. Shanglu was the same at first; seeing that no one was missing, he was just about to call everyone to follow him out of the fog.

The words had barely reached his lips when the liver deity in the shrine within his body suddenly opened its eyes and drew a wisp of black qi from him.

The instant that black qi was purified, Shanglu felt as though a veil had been lifted from his mind, and his awareness returned sharply and all at once.

Then he realized something: the count had been wrong.

No one was missing.

But there was one extra.

Constables Liu and Huang each had five runners under them. Adding themselves and Shanglu, there should have been thirteen people in total.

Yet the number just now had been fourteen.

Had someone counted twice?

No.

If that were all, he and Constables Liu and Huang should have noticed the error in the headcount at once.

But they had sensed nothing at all, and had even felt the number was exactly right.

Clearly, something had been affecting their thoughts.

It was that extra constable.

This discovery startled Shanglu, and at the same time puzzled him: why had the evil thing infiltrating the group not attacked them directly? What was it plotting?

At that moment, Constable Liu clasped his hands and reported, “Captain, the count is finished. No one is missing. What should we do now?”

Before Shanglu could answer, he saw Constable Liu’s eyes turn red as he whirled toward the constables in the fog, whose figures were invisible but whose voices could still be heard, and roared:

“Shut the hell up, all of you. Stop talking and listen to the captain’s orders!”

The constables all fell silent.

But just then, a voice full of provocation came from within the fog:

“What sort of plan could he have? He’s definitely taking us straight to our deaths...”

Constable Liu flew into a rage and barked, “Who said that? Who’s talking? Zhao Qi, was it you?”

From within the fog came Zhao Qi’s nervous voice: “It wasn’t me. I didn’t say that. It was Sun Ke. It must have been him. When I was running just now, I heard him cursing Captain Shang.”

“Go to hell, Zhao Qi. When did I ever curse Captain Shang? Don’t you slander a good man!”

Sun Ke cursed violently, then dragged in yet another person, suspecting that man of speaking ill of Captain Shang.

The constables immediately descended into chaos, cursing one another, biting and accusing one another. Some hot-headed ones even shouted that they would fight the other side one-on-one, to the death, and to determine who was lying.

Seeing this, Shanglu understood at once.

The evil thing hidden among them meant to provoke internal strife and make them kill one another.

Under the influence of the baleful qi, the constables’ emotions were already unstable. With only a little provocation, the evil thing could turn them against one another.

At this point, the situation was already heading in that direction.

Over the past few days, aside from seeking guidance from the shaman-priest, Shanglu had also asked many questions of some old clerks in the yamen about demons, ghosts, and other evil entities.

From them he learned that if companions turned on one another and slaughtered each other, then the hatred, resentment, and even baleful qi formed after death would be very powerful.

That was likely why the evil thing that had infiltrated the group did not attack directly, but instead tried to incite them to fight among themselves.

This evil thing, or rather the sorcerer who controlled it, wanted not only their flesh and blood, but also their hatred, baleful qi, and madness.

“Everyone shut up! At a time like this, and you’re still making these pointless arguments!”

Shanglu spoke at once, stopping the constables’ uproar.

He held a mouthful of blood qi in his mouth, letting his voice ring like thunder, and only then did he barely manage to silence the crowd affected by baleful qi.

“We’re in danger right now. We must stand united and support one another if we are to get out of this fog. From this moment on, anyone who stirs up trouble is our enemy and must be seized at once!”

Then Shanglu had the constables line up one by one.

The reason was to avoid anyone falling behind once they began moving.

As the constables started to form up, Shanglu began counting them from Constable Liu downward, one by one, as if checking whether they had lined up properly.

From the incense burner before the liver deity’s shrine drifted a few wisps of green smoke, which flowed into Shanglu’s eyes and allowed him to see things ordinary people could not.

Soon, Shanglu locked onto a target in the line.

At first glance, this “man” seemed no different from the other constables.

He wore the same uniform and carried the same ox-tail saber.

When he saw Shanglu, he even smiled with a trace of deference.

But under the liver deity’s blessing, Shanglu could see that this “man” had an unreal, wavering outline.

Its human form was false, an illusion created through a burst of demonic qi and a spell.

If they had been outside the fog, even without the liver deity’s blessing, Shanglu would have noticed something odd about this “man.”

Because the human shape it had taken was not very refined.

But within the fog, sight was badly impaired, and even within visible range, what one saw was not clear enough.

That made the illusions of demons and ghosts, even when flawed and imperfect, very difficult to detect.

Let alone the fact that this “man” was also affecting everyone’s thoughts, causing the constables to take it as one of their own and never suspect it.

Even though this face was one the constables had never seen before.

Having found his target, Shanglu did not act in haste. He even nodded and returned the “man’s” smile.

Only after passing it and reaching its back did Shanglu伸 out his left hand, which had been hidden in his sleeve all along.

He was holding a water skin.

Shanglu quickly pulled out the stopper and poured all the black dog’s blood from the skin onto the top of this “man’s” head.

Though the “man” did not turn around, it reacted the moment Shanglu took out the skin, as if it had eyes on the back of its head.

Unfortunately, it was not as fast as Shanglu. Though it dodged, it was still drenched in dog’s blood.

“Aaah—”

The “man” let out a furious shriek, and its body, like wax exposed to a furnace, melted at once, revealing its true form.

It was actually a snake with a human face!

That face was that of a beauty, delicate and alluring.

But under the liver deity’s blessing, Shanglu quickly saw that the face atop the snake was not a real human face.

Beneath its head were two flesh tumors. Joined together, they looked like a human head, and the tumors were covered in patterns that resembled a beautiful woman’s features.

Who knew how many people this sinister creature had deceived with that false face.

In truth, those two tumors were not only ugly, they were also extremely bizarre, continuously spraying droplets in all directions.

It was those droplets that formed the illusion.

It was also those droplets that affected the constables’ thoughts, making them take the monstrous snake for one of their own, never suspecting that an extra companion had joined the group where none should have been.

Having been “revealed” in its true form, the monstrous snake flew into shameful rage. It opened its cavernous maw and lunged at Shanglu to bite him.

The two tumors beneath its head also sprayed foul, stinking venom straight toward Shanglu’s eyes.