NOVEL NEXT Chapter 533: The Gap
This time, even before the old Village Chief could speak, Tian Lin had already said to him:
"It's already late today, why not discuss this tomorrow?"
The old Village Chief quickly nodded and, disregarding whether Tian Lin and the others had left or not, waved to the other Evil Spirit villagers and said, "Hurry back to your homes, close the doors and windows, and worship the Earth Spirit."
As they were speaking, Tian Lin had already led Fairy Mei toward the old watchman's small courtyard.
But upon entering the courtyard, Tian Lin glanced at where the old watchman lived.
Fairy Mei, although a step behind Tian Lin, was also drawn to the 'bang bang' sound of the door panel opening and closing from that direction.
It was seen that at the old watchman's place, the door latch appeared to have been broken from the inside.
The old watchman couldn't close the door, so he kept trying to latch it from the inside.
Seeing this, Fairy Mei couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Even if this fool's door latch is broken, doesn't he know to find another wooden stick or iron rod to use as a latch?"
Tian Lin neither agreed nor disagreed with Fairy Mei's statement; he was more curious about who had broken the latch.
At this moment, a fierce wind started outside. Tian Lin turned his head and saw a soldier wearing a black iron helmet in the dark wind.
"Let's go, back to the house!"
After saying this, Tian Lin immediately lunged towards the door panel of the guest room.
The door was latched from the inside and muffled voices of female True Disciples were heard inside: "This door can't be opened. What if opening it lets the soldier from outside in?"
Then Wang Yanyu's voice was heard: "The door must be opened. If something happens to Fairy Mei and Tian Lin, who will meet the old Village Chief next time?"
The female True Disciple said, "Without butcher Zhang, we can still eat fuzzy pigs. Anyone can meet the old Village Chief, but who will take the risk of opening the door?"
"Afraid of Evil Spirits? If you're too afraid to open the door, I'll break the latch and none of you will survive."
"You dare!"
As they spoke, the door did open, and it was Zhou Ting who opened it.
Tian Lin and Fairy Mei didn't say anything, and the two hurriedly entered the house. After the two entered the house amidst the dark wind, Zhou Ting slammed the door shut and locked it.
Inside the house, no one spoke a word, all were silently recovering from the shock of a near-death experience.
Outside, the howl of the wind was accompanied by the soldier knocking on the door: "Open the door, quickly open the door, why won't you let us in?"
Apart from the knocking, the wind continued to howl.
The raging wind banged against the door, as if it might break down at any moment.
At this time, Fairy Mei was the first to accuse, pointing at the female True Disciple and saying, "You dare to harm me?"
Just as Fairy Mei was about to make a move, Tian Lin stopped her.
Similarly, Zhou Ting stepped in front of the female True Disciple and said to Fairy Mei, "Why is Sister Mei angry? Didn't I ultimately open the door for you?"
Fairy Mei was not to be fooled, glaring murderously at Zhou Ting, "Didn't you harbor the intent to get Tian Lin and me killed, sending us to see the old Village Chief?"
Zhou Ting looked innocent, saying, "If I truly harbored such intent, I wouldn't have opened the door for you."
Fairy Mei sneered, "You were only afraid Sister Wang would destroy everything alongside you, so you had no choice but to open the door."
Behind Zhou Ting, the female True Disciple shouted:
"I was the one who said not to open the door, don't wrong a good person. Besides, I acted for everyone's safety, not out of selfish motives."
Seeing her still arguing, Fairy Mei threw her Divine Lady Tree at her.
But Zhou Ting and the two male True Disciples beside him, along with Du Qiping, intercepted the strike of the Divine Lady Tree.
True Qi collided everywhere in the small house, and the already dilapidated wooden house trembled indeed.
Tian Lin's expression changed slightly; as he raised his hand, he absorbed the colliding True Qi. Yet, the violent True Qi ran rampant within him, and if not for his strong physique, he would have been severely injured.
Even so, a mouthful of blood surged up Tian Lin's throat, but he forced it back down.
"Sister Mei, let it go!"
Tian Lin pulled at Fairy Mei, who actually didn't want to fight to the death, but if they let the matter go, others might think they're easy targets and might set traps a second time.
"This matter can't just rest; there must be an explanation."
Zhou Ting was also afraid of Fairy Mei going berserk, so he hurriedly said, "Even if Sister Yu was at fault this time, the most pressing matter is the enemy outside; continuing to fight will only benefit the Evil Spirit outside."
This hardly needed saying, for just then, the door latch started making squeaking noises, and Wang Yanyu shouted, "This is bad, the door latch is cracking!"
Zhou Ting's face changed, and he said to Fairy Mei, "After this matter is resolved, we will definitely give an explanation to you, Fairy. The urgent matter now is to save the door latch!"
"Alright!"
Fairy Mei didn't waste words, stepping forward to brace the door panel with one hand.
At the same time, Tian Lin stepped forward and began casting the Withered Wood Spring Technique on the door latch.
To his surprise, his Withered Wood Spring Technique seemed to disappear into an ocean when applied to the door latch, without causing any waves.
"This door latch is peculiar; it seems that being exposed to Evil Spirits for a long time has turned it into an evil object."
Zhou Ting didn't respond to Tian Lin but instead attached several door latches securely onto the door.
Seeing this, Tian Lin raised an eyebrow, confirming that all the door latches Zhou Ting used came from the houses in Taiping Village.
Connected to the destroyed latch of the old watchman's door, it wasn't hard to imagine that Zhou Ting stole these latches from other houses.
A Disciple of the Wenda Sect, who mastered skills, resorted to theft. If this got out, it would surely cause laughter.
However, no one laughed at Zhou Ting at that moment; instead, they praised his audacity.
"Our first plan was to use the outside Evil Spirit with the Wolf Fang Club against the villagers' Evil Spirits. But since it's confirmed that there are Evil Spirits acting at night and the soldier Evil Spirit outside opposes the villagers,
why not directly use the soldiers at night against these villagers?"
Tian Lin praised, "Brother Zhou is indeed smart and courageous."
Zhou Ting said, "This idea wasn't mine but Brother Zuo's. However, Brother Zuo didn't get to use it, so Sister Wang passed it to me."
He referred to Wang Yuanji, and with the door secured by the latch, it finally stopped banging.
Yet, outside, the fierce wind persisted, and through the slits of the window lattice, they saw five armored men at the old watchman's door constantly blowing air. That fierce wind came from the dark wind spewed from their mouths.
"The old guy's house opens easily with a touch, yet these guys just stand outside blowing air, why?"
The female True Disciple frowned and questioned, and Fairy Mei, beside her, gave her a disdainful look, huffed, and turned away.
However, Tian Lin, appearing not to bear any grudges against the female True Disciple, still answered her:
"Because of the door gods, each household has door gods to resist Evil Spirits. These soldiers dare not approach, probably fearing to anger the door gods."
Beside him, Wang Yanyu nodded approvingly, "Brother Tian is right. I've also noticed that each household in the village has door gods. However, these door gods are unusual; their portraits are missing, and their costumes seem different from what we commonly see."