"Ding ling!"
The tin rod was lifted high, then lowered, its iron rings colliding with each other, emitting a crisp sound. Duanmu Huai tightly gripped his weapon, staring at the Seven People of the Imperial Court before him, who remained silent, speechless. In fact, they couldn’t speak because these seven were entirely mummified in appearance.
According to Teacher Gan Xia, the Seven People are souls wandering on the ground, unable to ascend to Heaven. They can only ascend by capturing a scapegoat to replace them — hmm, this is no different from those water ghosts in China looking for scapegoats.
Then there is only one thing to do.
"Ascending to Heaven is impossible."
Duanmu Huai stared intently at the seven people, letting out a cold laugh.
"I will send you to Hell!"
As his words fell, Duanmu Huai stomped on the ground. In the next mont, a blur flashed before everyone’s eyes, seeing Duanmu Huai’s figure appear tens of ters away in front of the Seven People of the Imperial Court, slashing his sword at them!
"Clang!"
However, Duanmu’s inevitable sword stroke was blocked!
The Seven People of the Imperial Court raised their seven tin rods, blocking Duanmu Huai’s attack, hindering his further actions.
"Whoa, you all know the Seven Star Sword Formation then? Could you be of the Quanzhen Sect?"
Duanmu casually joked, then quickly retreated, almost simultaneously as the seven tin rods lunged at him, with a whistling sound of breaking through the air, even shattering the ground beneath!
"Man, you guys are like the Shaolin Temple’s Eighteen Bronze n."
Duanmu Huai tightened his grip on the longsword, squinting his eyes, once again focusing on the Seven People of the Imperial Court before him. Up until now, Duanmu Huai had almost figured out the rules of this world.
Clearly, this world’s subspace is not like the realms of Heaven and Hell, and the beings here aren’t so kind of divine entities or evil spirits either. On the contrary, from what is seen so far, the things they encountered are obviously monsters born from human imagination.
Moreover, the wider the circulation of a monster, the stronger its power becos.
Among the monsters Duanmu Huai previously encountered, the weakest was the black-haired female ghost, but that was a story told by Spicy Girl Ueda from ancient tis, and everyone didn’t particularly pay attention to this black-haired female ghost, making her power relatively weak. The strength of the insect eggs is unknown because no one has actually consud them, so it is not counted.
And the curse of Banai, because it was very likely a story made up by their family to trick kids into eating, wasn’t really strong either, resolving it was quite simple.
Being cursed from picky eating? Just don’t be picky, had it not been mixed with the insect egg urban legend, this so-called curse wouldn’t even count as anything.
But then things changed.
Snow Woman is a household tale in Japan, and her strength has already proved this, being able to control such a vast blizzard proves it, fortunately, Duanmu Huai did not fight Snow Woman in her ho field, otherwise, it would have been more troubleso.
As for atmospheric creatures, according to Professor Sato’s description, they belong to a popular niche pseudo-science theory in the United States, aning there’s a certain audience. Of course, atmospheric creatures themselves are not difficult to deal with, the issue lies in its annoying ability to fly overhead.
Now to the Seven People of the Imperial Court... Teacher Gan Xia said this belongs to a kind of local folk tale, which ans there are not a few people who know of the Seven People of the Imperial Court. And the monster ford from the imagination of these people naturally cannot be compared to ordinary urban legends.
Sure enough, this world’s subspace is related to the subconscious.
Feeling the vibration on the sword hilt, Duanmu Huai grimaced, Springti Syndro, causes reality-defying phenona driven by intense thought consciousness in the real world. And the urban legend creatures in this world seem to be solidified from human thought and cognition.
Therefore, this world’s subspace seems highly sensitive to thought — hmm, Cunning Deception would certainly love this place.
Damn it, if my real self were here, one fire would burn this wretched place down!
For the Judge, thoughts count as the most troubleso enemy, even more so than the plague from the Corrupted Foil. So Duanmu Huai hates confronting ntal and thought challenges, given he himself dislikes thinking much, in his view, the critique of weapons far surpasses the critiquing of weapons.
As long as my hamr is hard enough, every problem can be solved.
But now... Duanmu Huai felt a slight sense of powerlessness in subspace for the first ti.
Like earlier in the real world, not to ntion seven tin rods, even seventy or seven hundred of them tied together, Duanmu Huai would slice them into pieces.
Yet the sharp blade capable of finely cutting evil spirits can’t even sever the opponent’s tin rod?
The reason lies not in the hardness of the tin rod, but in the thoughts!
Duanmu Huai’s single thought cannot overco the multitude! The more nurous, the denser, the more Duanmu Huai struggles!
Clearly, Teacher Gan Xia said this belongs to folk legend story, aning those who know of or even believe in the existence of Seven People of the Imperial Court are not few!
In the real world, even if all these people gathered together to take on Duanmu Huai, he could defeat them all.
But in the world of ntal thoughts... hmm?
Wait a minute.
Gazing at the Seven People before him, a sudden glint flashed in Duanmu Huai’s eyes.
The Seven People is an ancient folklore tale.
At its core, it’s actually just an ancient ghost story.
Much like Painting Skin from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio or Little Qian, it’s no different.
But... not only ancient ghost stories are ghost stories, modern ghost stories are ghost stories too!
Did I make so many horror films for nothing?
There’s a way!
Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai let out a cold snort.
Now it’s ti to see, how formidable the "childhood fear" I left in the audience’s hearts really is!
If I rember correctly, the most terrifying character I played in movies ranked first by the audience should be...
Duanmu Huai recalled briefly, then suddenly tossed away the sword in his hand, and abruptly fell to the ground.
"Eh? What’s wrong with Xiao Ai?"
Seeing Duanmu Huai suddenly throw away the sword and lie on the ground, Chitanda was taken aback, while the others also watched this scene in astonishnt, but very quickly, the bizarre event occurred.
"Hehehe, hehehe..."
Accompanied by an eerie laughter, Duanmu Huai began crawling like a gecko using both hands and feet, twisting his head, the long white hair covering Duanmu Huai’s face.
"Ugh... this, this is..."
Seeing this scene, Chitanda was still clueless, while Banai and the others turned pale, evidently recalling sothing.
"Anan, what’s happening to Xiao Ai?"
Facing Chitanda’s inquiry, Banai paused for a mont, then hurriedly spoke.
"This is Xiao Ai’s most famous role, the Night Woman!"
The so-called Night Woman was a role played by Duanmu Huai in a previous film "Late-night Horror." The plot of the film itself wasn’t particularly outstanding—most horror films have straightforward and clichéd plots. Simply put, the Night Woman was similar to Banai’s Curse, initially just a ghost story made up to scare children.
The story went that if children didn’t close their bedroom doors at night and sleep obediently, the Night Woman would crawl in through the door crack, hide under the bed, and blow cold air to wake them up in the middle of the night. Then, when the children got out of bed, she would suddenly reach out from under the bed, grab the children’s legs, and drag them under the bed, twisting off their heads.
In the movie, this ghost story, initially used to scare children, gradually manifested into a real evil spirit known as the Night Woman. Ultimately, one day, a child who left the door unclosed was scolded by the parents and subsequently killed by the Night Woman while sleeping. That child’s friends and teachers began investigating to unravel the mystery of the child’s death.
The movie concludes with the Night Woman fended off, and the relieved teacher returns ho, neglecting to close the door. Later, upon waking up wanting to shut the door, a hand suddenly reaches out from under the bed grasping the teacher’s feet, revealing the pale face of the Night Woman beneath the bed. And the movie ends there.
Upon release, the film caused significant social uproar; as far as horror films go, the Night Woman did not feature any special plot. The problem lay in many parents taking their children to see this movie and then scaring them, saying if the door and windows are not properly closed, the Night Woman would appear to kill them, terrifying the children into obedience.
There even were instances where children beca excessively frightened of the Night Woman, shutting windows in the sweltering heat, nearly dying of heatstroke.
Once this matter made the news, the film "Late-night Horror" naturally stirred public debate, causing most children, regardless of liking or disliking horror, to have notably heard of the Night Woman.
For Banai, it represented childhood trauma; even now, he still doesn’t dare leave doors or windows open.
Fearing a hand might reach out from under the bed and grab his foot if not properly closed.
In the film, besides the Night Woman appearing under the bed unnoticed, her most famous trademark scene was Duanmu Huai’s current body-spider-like motion crawling quickly on all fours. Every ti this scene played in theatres, it scared audiences into screaming.
Chitanda disliked horror movies, naturally offering immunity, but clearly, others weren’t. Even Chief Ooyama and Spicy Girl Ueda’s expressions grew rigid and distorted—evidently, Duanmu Huai’s movie indeed wreaked havoc without limit.
"Hehehe!!"
Duanmu Huai let out a bizarre laugh, then using both hands and feet, darted swiftly towards the Seven People at an unimaginable speed!
"Jingle!!"
Facing the charging Duanmu Huai, the Seven People hesitated not and raised the Tin Rod, striking out once more. This ti, however, Duanmu Huai neither dodged nor flinched, allowing the Tin Rod to hit him. Yet the next mont, an unexpected turn occurred.
The previously unyielding Tin Rod that could deflect the Sharp Blade designed to slay Evil Spirits, upon touching Duanmu Huai’s body, twisted and deford like fragile straw, followed by a "snap" as it shattered to pieces.
"Hehehe!!"
Unperturbed, Duanmu Huai kept the eerie laughter as he lunged forward, stretching both hands to grasp the Seven People’s heads, twisting and wrenching them off instantaneously. The Seven People decapitated by Duanmu Huai faded like smoke, vanishing without a trace.
Duanmu Huai, however, clearly wasn’t finished, letting out another chilling laugh, contorting his body like a Monster, charging towards the remaining Seven People!
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