Chapter 100: The Celestial Hound

Without much delay, Zhou Bai soon returned to the front of the room.

The crowd at the mouth of the alley had thinned significantly; most people had their own livelihoods to attend to and were naturally not idle enough to spend too much time gawking.

Seeing Zhou Bai and Lin Chong, Wang Yuanfang breathed a sigh of relief. The wait for their return had been agonizing, but fortunately, nothing had happened. He reasoned that with an immortal’s abilities, ordinary demons would find it hard to take their lives, but if something were to happen to Lin Chong, he would bear some of the responsibility and could not avoid feeling guilty.

"Zhou Bai, no major trouble, right?" Daoist Hou asked in a low voice. The longer he waited in front of this house, the stranger it felt.

"No, but nothing good either. The things inside this house are indeed troublesome."

Zhou Bai walked to the door, intending to open it, but paused. Instead, he turned and went to the hole in the window that had been plugged with clothing.

"You all move further away, it is best if you leave this place. Otherwise, if something really happens, I cannot guarantee your safety."

Hearing this, the bailiffs scrambled to leave. Only Wang Yuanfang and Lin Chong hesitated, unsure if they should retreat. Zhou Bai waved his hand to signal them to go; after all, they were mere mortals, and facing the aura of a ghost domain head-on would likely drive them insane in no time.

Wang Yuanfang and Lin Chong bowed respectfully and backed away, leaving only Zhou Bai and Daoist Hou in the open space before the house.

"Is this ghost domain really that sinister? You’re acting so prepared that I’m starting to get nervous," Daoist Hou said, looking at the house as goosebumps broke out on his skin.

"Whether it's sinister or not is hard to say, but starting from that strange infant, things have become tricky. It is best to be cautious."

Zhou Bai didn't have a deep concept of ghost domains either. His impressions were limited to the thousand-foot giant in the deep-layer ghost domain, but that was enough to make him deeply wary.

He stepped up to the window, placed his right hand on the fabric, and turned to say to Daoist Hou, "If I remain motionless for five minutes... no, three minutes, pull me away from the window and plug the hole back up."

Through his few encounters with the ghost domain, Zhou Bai had summarized the characteristics of this strange aura. It was somewhat similar to a biochemical virus; it could infect others through the air, though it did not seem to affect inanimate objects.

"Alright..." Daoist Hou nodded.

Seeing this, Zhou Bai removed the rag and, activating his Yin-Yang Eyes, peered into the room.

There was not a sliver of light inside, but with his cultivation, the scene was clear before his eyes, and it made his scalp tingle.

A withered corpse sat at a desk. It was nothing but skin and bone, looking as if it had died long ago in a scorching environment. The aura emanated from this corpse, though it was not very dense, and Zhou Bai did not yet feel any abnormality.

What felt eerie was the corpse's posture: one hand held a brush, while the other had been severed at the wrist and placed on the inkstone, as if it had been painting with its own flesh and blood before death.

Three scrolls hung on the wall, though they were rolled up, hiding their contents. There was also a semi-finished piece on the table, but due to the limited angle, Zhou Bai could not see it clearly.

Because he was observing the room, he froze for a moment. Daoist Hou, thinking he had been affected, was about to push him aside when Zhou Bai suddenly straightened up, giving him a massive fright.

"Damn, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. There is indeed a major problem inside. Follow me."

After saying this, Zhou Bai stuffed the clothing back into the hole, walked to the door, pushed it open, and stepped inside.

Daoist Hou followed behind him. As soon as he entered, he smelled a faint stench of blood emanating from the corpse.

Once they approached, they discovered the corpse was indeed the man named Tang Yin. He could not have been dead for long, as the blood on his severed left hand had not yet dried. It was unclear why the body appeared so withered, while the painting on the table was covered in a layer of dust, as if a long time had passed.

"Why does this corpse feel so strange? Could it have been killed by some ghostly entity?"

Daoist Hou was about to reach out and touch the corpse, but Zhou Bai grabbed him.

"This corpse carries the aura of the ghost domain, which can drive people mad inadvertently. Your cultivation is still shallow, so it is best to be careful."

"Is it that sinister? Indeed, as soon as I entered the room, I felt a tightness in my chest. I thought there was something like a black donkey hoof affecting me."

Daoist Hou retreated quickly, constantly circulating his Yin energy to cover his body. His movements were a bit clumsy, and he accidentally bumped into the scrolls hanging on the wall.

Zhou Bai examined the corpse closely. There wasn't a drop of blood left in the body, as if it had been forcibly squeezed out through the wound on the severed hand, which appeared incredibly bizarre. The inkstone, however, was filled with blood; the painting on the table must have been created with the brush dipped in that blood.

He checked the body again. Aside from its strange state, there were no signs of it becoming a ghost entity. However, because it was contaminated with the ghost domain's aura, Zhou Bai placed the corpse into his storage belt, intending to dispose of it along with the other things inside when the opportunity arose.

"Zhou Bai, come take a look at this. What kind of ghost painting is this..."

Zhou Bai turned toward Daoist Hou. Seeing him flipping open a scroll with a strange expression, he stepped forward to take a look.

The painting depicted a Guanyin Bodhisattva. If not for the cow's face, it would have been a masterpiece for the ages.

Daoist Hou said in a low voice, "This Guanyin is a 'Child-Giving Guanyin.' I remember you mentioned the situation with the yellow cow giving birth earlier; there must be a connection between the two, right?"

Zhou Bai nodded slightly. Zhang Dahu had indeed mentioned paintings before he died; there had to be a link.

He rolled up the Child-Giving Guanyin scroll, placed it into his storage belt, and turned his eyes to the remaining two hanging on the wall.

"Let's see what the rest of the paintings contain."

As he spoke, Zhou Bai removed the second painting in order. This one was slightly larger, and he could smell the thick scent of ink; it was clearly a substantial work.

After unfolding the scroll, the content was incredibly bizarre.

The background was the streets of Hangzhou, and a monster with a human face and a dog's body stood in the center. Its size was level with the surrounding houses. Its human face was twisted, its features crammed together, with the mouth occupying most of the head. In its gaping, bloodthirsty maw were rows of dense, canine teeth. The human-faced dog was captured in the act of howling at the sky, while countless pedestrians on the street fled in terror.

In the bottom right corner of the painting, Tang Yin had written a line of small characters. The handwriting was crooked, revealing the state of his mental health at the time.

Zhou Bai read it word for word, his body involuntarily radiating Yin energy, causing the temperature in the room to drop significantly.

"The Heavenly Dog will swallow fifteen hundred people before the moon disappears."