Chapter 71            The Secret Pa.s.sage

“d.a.m.n, you want to attack me again?!” Xiao Ma dodged, but the hands followed him and grasped his neck.

The strong force made Xiao Ma feel as if his neck was going to snap into two. He felt dazed and confused; he could not shout for help. He tapped the ground hard with both of his hands to grab Ye Shaoyang’s attention. However, Ye Shaoyang was also locked in battle. He had waited for this opportunity, for the Kappa to bend down to attack Xiao Ma. He quickly took out the Soul Quelling Stake, step forward and sprung toward it. He put his weight on its back and directly stabbed the stake into the hole on the top of its head.

A thin membrane layer covered the deep hole. It broke into pieces once Ye Shaoyang stabbed it and a gush of water splashed onto his face. The water had the stinkiest odor he had ever smelled. The Kappa screamed. It let go of Xiao Ma, stretched its hands, and swung behind itself to strike Ye Shaoyang’s back. Its eight claws brutally dug into his flesh. A stabbing pain pierced through Ye Shaoyang’s body; he also became enraged. He gritted his teeth to bear the pain and silently recited a soul-breaking incantation. Then, he pushed the Soul Quelling Stake further into the deep hole in its head.

Simultaneously, two loud screams rang out—from the Kappa and the creature in the deep hole. The creature attempted to hold back the stake with all its claws. However, it was still unable to escape its fate and the stake pierced through it. A gush of black blood spurted from the hole, but they did not know if it came from the Kappa or the creature.

“Arrgghh!” With a loud howl, Ye Shaoyang thrust the entire stake in. The Kappa s.h.i.+vered as if a current had pa.s.sed through it. Within a few seconds, it let out a puff of demon Qi. Then, it immediately collapsed and fell backward.

Xiao Ma laid on the ground and panted heavily. Just as he slowly caught his breath, the Kappa and Ye Shaoyang heavily fell on top of him. He groaned and stopped moving. Ye Shaoyang pried off the Kappa’s hands on his back. After he caught his breath, he asked the people outside to come in. He moved the dead Kappa aside and gently slapped Xiao Ma’s face, “Did you die from strangulation?”

“No, it's because you and that thing fell on me,” Xiao Ma rolled his eyes and weakly replied.

Ye Shaoyang laughed, “You bombarded me, so we are even now.”

“Is this the Kappa according to the j.a.panese folktales?” Xie Yuqing and the others surrounded the Kappa and looked at it with curiosity. Liu Ming wanted to take a photo of it, but Xie Yuqing stopped him.

“None of us are allowed to snap a photo or tell anyone what happened here today. We don’t want this to affect the school,” she rebuked.

Liu Ming put away his phone and laughed a little, “Why is there a Kappa in here?”

“I think the j.a.panese left it here when they withdrew. The ammunition depot must have a lot of firearms. They thought they might return one day, so they stowed away a Kappa here and fed it blood. A normal sorcerer is no match for a Kappa; it is even more useful than traps and weapons,” Ye Shaoyang made an intelligent guess. Xie Yuqing suddenly realized something, “Sounds logical. We found many ammunition depots the j.a.panese built during those time in our country throughout the years. We found all kinds of traps at the entrances and exits. But this is the first time I’ve seen them use a demon to guard an ammunition depot.”

Ye Shaoyang heard a ripping sound, so he turned around. He saw Old Guo, who was sitting on the ground. Old Guo had torn his s.h.i.+rt apart and exposed the scratches on his skin. The wound oozed dark red blood.

“Are you okay?” Ye Shaoyang asked.

“The wound is fine. I just need to quickly clear off the demon venom in my body.” Demon venom and corpse poison had their similarities, but demon venom would never turn a human into an undead. The only difference laid in the fact that demon venom would gradually infiltrate the skin. Once it invaded the heart, the person would become an undead demon.

Old Guo found the realgar wine from the mess and poured some onto his wound. He gritted his teeth in pain. Realgar wine could eliminate evil Qi, but it had limited effects against demon venom.

Ye Shaoyang thought for a while. He squeezed through the crowd and arrived at the side of the Kappa. He bent down and used the Soul Quelling Stake to knock off the two biggest fangs of the Kappa. He approached Old Guo again and pressed the fangs onto his senior brother's wound and rolled the fangs back-and-forth. The fangs started to absorb the demon venom at a rate evident to the naked eye. The antidote must be present within ten steps! The demon fang acted as the best antidote for the Kappa’s own venom.

After a few minutes, the two fangs became blackened; they had almost cleared out all the venom. Old Guo reached out and grabbed a bag of glutinous rice from his pile of junk. Then, he applied the rice to his wound, which cleared away the remaining venom.

“d.a.m.n! It is still so painful even after I have encountered this many times in the past ten years.” Old Guo cried out in pain.

“Little trickster, your back got injured too. Are you okay?” Xie Yuqing showed her concern as she looked at Ye Shaoyang’s back.

Ye Shaoyang initially wanted to reply that he was a Heavenly Master; his blood resisted demon venom. But then, he thought of how cleaning the wound would hasten the recovery, so he turned his head to Xiao Ma, “Go and grab a few fangs from the Kappa for me.”

“My bones are broken. I have no energy at all,” Xiao Ma laid on the ground and replied; he was currently in a bad mood.

“I can help you.” Xie Yuqing approached the Kappa and used the gunstock to acquire a few fangs for Ye Shaoyang. She helped him sit up on the ground and removed his s.h.i.+rt. Then, she rolled the fang back-and-forth on his wound in the same way he did to Old Guo. Ye Shaoyang took it as a ma.s.sage from Xie Yuqing, so he closed his eyes to enjoy the brief moment.

“How do you feel now?” She stretched her tired arms and asked after a few minutes.

“Not yet. Keep going, keep going.”

“I think it is almost done.” She threw away the fangs, cleaned her hands, and stood up.

“What are we going to do with this?” She asked as she looked at the dead Kappa.

“Find a place and burn it. Better be fast before the demon venom in its body spreads.” Ye Shaoyang pointed at the woven bag that the helpers had previously loaded with quicklime and said, “Use this bag. It still contains some quicklime inside. It can suppress the demon venom.”

Xie Yuqing ordered two policemen to pack the Kappa into the woven bag. She looked at the half-empty pond. She asked anxiously, “Is there anything else in the pond?”

“It should be cleared now. We can continue to drain the pond,” Ye Shaoyang replied.

They reset the water pump and started to drain the pond. This time, there were not any disturbances. After ten minutes, they had almost pumped the pond dry. Only a thin layer of blood that the pump failed to drain out remained. Liu Ming brought a few policemen to fetch a bag of quicklime. They poured the quicklime into the pond to absorb the remaining blood in it. Then, they shoveled the quicklime back into the woven back and wiped the bottom of the pond with pieces of torn cloth. A layer of red tiles became visible to everyone once they wiped away the quicklime.

“Why is it covered in tiles?” Xie Yuqing wondered aloud. She was the first one to jump down. She looked around; it was empty and a secret pa.s.sage did not exist. She felt stunned, “Don’t tell me the pa.s.sage is not underneath? We wasted so much energy to drain the blood away too.”

Then, Ye Shaoyang jumped down and said, “The pa.s.sage must be underneath.”

His surety confused Xie Yuqing, “How do you know?”

“The purpose of keeping a Kappa here is to guard the pa.s.sage. The pa.s.sage must be somewhere here. Besides....” Ye Shaoyang stamped his foot as he talked to her, “I think tiles were scarce seventy years ago, even in j.a.pan. Why did the j.a.panese use tiles in this place if it has no value?”

These words enlightened Xie Yuqing and her eyes lit up.

Ye Shaoyang slowly trod over the tiles. He stamped his foot on every tile he walked over. Suddenly, one of the tiles made a different sound to the others and surprised everyone. It sounded like a hollow lay beneath the tile!

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