SFS Chapter 26 Woman in White
Chapter 26 Woman in White
The temple gate was rotten and leaned against the door frame.
Above the door hangs a faded plaque with the three characters "Lanruo Temple" written on it, the characters now illegible.
Zhou Ning pushed open the door and went inside.
The yard was overgrown with weeds, some as tall as a person.
The roof of the main hall has collapsed halfway, revealing a dark, gaping space inside.
The Buddha statues in the hall had long since disappeared, leaving only empty shrines that looked particularly eerie under the moonlight.
Zhou Ning looked around but found nothing unusual.
He entered the main hall and examined it carefully.
The hall was filled with dust and covered in cobwebs.
There were several sets of footprints on the ground, which looked fresh, and there was more than one person.
Zhou Ning squatted down and carefully examined the footprints.
The footprints varied in size and depth.
Some were men's, some were women's, and some... didn't even look human.
He felt a chill run down his spine and followed the footprints toward the back of the palace.
Behind the main hall was a deserted area of monks' quarters, most of which had collapsed, with only a few remaining relatively intact.
The footprints disappeared in front of one of the monks' cells.
Zhou Ning pushed open the door and went inside.
It was a small, empty room with only a worn-out wooden bed and a crooked wardrobe.
He opened the wardrobe, and it was completely empty.
Just as I was about to leave, I suddenly heard a slight noise coming from under the bed.
Zhou Ning crouched down and looked under the bed.
A young woman was curled up under the bed.
Her face was pale, her eyes were closed, her lips were purple, and she was trembling all over.
"Miss?" Zhou Ning called softly.
The woman did not react.
Zhou Ning reached out and checked her breath; she was still breathing, but very weakly.
He quickly pulled her out from under the bed, placed her on the bed, took out a "calming pill" from his bag, and put it into her mouth.
The pill melted instantly upon entering her mouth, and the woman's complexion gradually improved.
After a while, she slowly opened her eyes and looked at Zhou Ning blankly.
“Who…who are you?”
Zhou Ning said, "I am a cultivator, just passing through this place. Young lady, what brings you here?"
Tears welled up in the woman's eyes, and she said in a trembling voice:
"I...I was captured by a monster..."
"A monster?" Zhou Ning's heart skipped a beat. "What monster?"
The woman said, "It was... a woman in white. She... she was so beautiful, but her eyes were red, so scary..."
A woman in white with red eyes.
Zhou Ning remembered what Manager Chen had mentioned about the "woman in white".
"Why did she kidnap you?" he asked.
The woman shook her head: "I don't know. She locked me up here, and she would come every night and look at me with... with her eyes, and then I wouldn't know anything anymore..."
Zhou Ning frowned.
This woman in white is likely some kind of demon skilled at bewitching people.
She uses illusions to control these women, and it's unclear what she's plotting.
"Girl, are you still able to walk?" he asked.
The woman struggled to her feet, but her legs gave way and she slumped back down.
"I...I can't walk..."
Zhou Ning sighed, carried her on his back, and walked out of the monk's room.
As soon as I stepped into the courtyard, a sudden gust of cold wind blew by, the moonlight was obscured by dark clouds, and the world was plunged into darkness.
Immediately afterwards, a white figure slowly emerged from the darkness.
She was a young woman, dressed in white, with long hair flowing down her shoulders, and with an exquisitely beautiful face.
But her eyes were blood red, gleaming eerily in the darkness.
"Put her down."
Her voice was soft, yet carried an undeniable air of authority.
Zhou Ning did not put the woman down; instead, he shielded her behind him and gripped the Qingfeng sword tightly.
"Who are you? Why are you kidnapping innocent women?"
The woman in white sneered, "Innocent? They are not innocent."
She stretched out her hand, and a ball of eerie green light gathered at her fingertips:
"They owe me, and it's time to pay them back."
Before she finished speaking, she suddenly threw the ball of light in her hand at Zhou Ning.
Zhou Ning was prepared and dodged the attack with a quick movement.
The ball of light struck a dead tree behind him, and the trunk instantly exploded, sending wood chips flying everywhere.
Such powerful force.
Zhou Ning dared not be careless. He drew his Qingfeng sword, poured his inner energy into it, and a streak of azure sword energy shot out, heading straight for the woman in white.
The woman in white moved strangely, dodging left and right like a ghost, causing all the sword energy to miss its mark.
"Hehe, is that all you've got?"
She waved her hands repeatedly, and dozens of green orbs of light rained down on Zhou Ning like a storm.
Zhou Ning gritted his teeth and channeled his inner energy to create a semi-transparent wall of energy in front of him.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
The ball of light slammed into the air wall, producing a dull thud.
The air wall trembled violently, Zhou Ning's hand went numb from the shock, and a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
It won't last long.
Without hesitation, he pulled out an "evil-repelling talisman" from his waist and threw it at the woman in white.
"disease!"
The talisman burned in the air, turning into a golden light that pierced towards the woman in white like a sharp sword.
A hint of surprise flashed in the white-clad woman's eyes. She retreated hastily, but the golden light was too fast and still grazed her shoulder.
"what!"
The woman in white let out a scream as a charred wound appeared on her shoulder, smoldering from the golden light.
She clutched her wound, her eyes filled with resentment and malice.
"You...you dare to hurt me!"
Zhou Ning, panting heavily, pulled out another "Exorcising Talisman" and said coldly:
"If you don't release them now, next time it won't be as simple as just hurting you."
The woman in white sneered, "You think you can scare me with a broken talisman?"
She suddenly opened her mouth and let out a sharp scream.
The sound was like being cut by a thousand knives, piercing Zhou Ning's eardrums and making him dizzy.
It's another sonic attack.
Zhou Ning quickly covered his ears, but the sound was everywhere, piercing straight into his mind.
He felt his consciousness begin to blur, and the scene before him began to distort and deform.
No... I can't faint.
He bit his tongue hard, the sharp pain bringing him back to his senses. He quickly pulled out a "purification talisman" from his waist and slapped it on his forehead.
A cool breeze wafted in from the talisman, dispelling the chaos in my mind.
Zhou Ning took a deep breath, steadied himself, and looked at the woman in white again.
The woman in white was surprised to see that he had regained consciousness so quickly, but her expression quickly turned even more ferocious.
"She does have some skill. However..."
She formed a mudra with her hands and chanted incantations.
The ground began to tremble, and countless withered bones crawled out of the soil, coalescing into a huge skeletal monster that opened its blood-red maw and pounced on Zhou Ning.
It's that same trick again.
Zhou Ning's heart sank, but this was not the first time he had faced such a spell.
He retreated quickly, simultaneously pulling out an "exorcism talisman" from his waist and throwing it at the skeleton.
"disease!"
The talisman transformed into a golden light and struck the skull.
The skeleton let out a roar, and a crack appeared on its skull, but it did not shatter.
Zhou Ning threw out another "Exorcism Talisman," which this time struck the crack precisely.
"boom!"
The skull exploded, and the entire body collapsed, turning into a pile of broken bones.
Upon seeing this, the woman in white's expression finally changed.
She never expected that this young human cultivator would possess such abilities.
"Who...who exactly are you?" she asked sharply.
Zhou Ning gripped the Qingfeng sword tightly and walked towards her step by step.
"A practitioner who does not want to see innocent people die in vain."
The woman in white took a step back, a hint of fear flashing in her eyes.
But then, she sneered and crushed a black token.
A wisp of black mist enveloped her and vanished from the spot in an instant.
escaped.
Zhou Ning did not pursue.
He turned around, carried the unconscious woman on his back, and quickly left Lanruo Temple.
It was already late at night when we returned to the inn.
Zhou Ning settled the woman in his room and gave her a "calming pill" before finally breathing a sigh of relief.
Although the woman in white escaped, her identity and purpose remain a mystery.
Why did she arrest those women?
What does she mean by "owing me"?
Zhou Ning shook his head and decided to go to Lanruo Temple to investigate again tomorrow.
Tonight, let's rest first.
He sat cross-legged in the chair, closed his eyes, and regulated his breathing, waiting for dawn.