Zhang Enpu's deduction was correct; the Hanba wasn't actually injured, but had chosen to wait patiently for someone to approach before delivering a fatal blow. When no one came for a long time, she realized her scheme had failed, immediately leaping up from the ground and letting out a mocking cackle directed at Zhang Enpu.

"This..." Seeing the living Hanba, Young Master Liu and the other two were completely stunned. Weren't they told that as soon as this thing got smeared with black dog blood, it would kick the bucket? But now...

Zhang Enpu took a ragged breath, tucking the hem of his Taoist robe into his belt. Although the look was somewhat incongruous, these were desperate times, and he couldn't bother with maintaining any semblance of immortal dignity. His eyes narrowed to slits; while warily observing the Hanba's movements, he drew the peach wood sword that had been stuck in the ground: "The situation has changed. I was too reckless, involving everyone. I jumped into this mess without adequate preparation."

"Zhang... Uncle Zhang, what does that mean?" Young Master Liu stammered out the question.

"Alas!" Zhang Enpu sighed. "I assumed that even if this female corpse was extremely ferocious, at best it had only just become a Hanba, not yet a major threat. I thought that by proceeding cautiously, we could resolve this disaster. But I never expected... I never expected..."

"Hey, Uncle, you're scaring me half to death! Why do you always get stuck when the crucial moment arrives..." Young Master Liu complained.

"She has become a Xue Hanba," Zhang Enpu stated this time, cleanly and without delay.

"Xue Hanba?"

"Mmm," Zhang Enpu nodded, habitually stroking his short goatee. "I don't know which scatterbrained fool committed such an atrocious act. This place borders the reservoir to the east and the mass grave to the west. Kwai Shui generates Yin, Yin mixed with water, and this area carries a strange malevolent energy. As a result, the two currents merged, forming a self-perpetuating spiral that cycles continuously. And the person buried here was precisely placed at the center of this vortex—the Pool of Gathered Yin. Because of this, not only did it create this Hanba, but the corpse's flesh and bone also gave birth to a pair of vengeful spirits, mother and child!"

Zhang Enpu's analysis was too profound, laced with arcane terminology. Young Master Liu, being just a half-grown youth, naturally couldn't grasp it all; he felt utterly bewildered, his head throbbing. However, upon hearing the words 'vengeful mother and child,' his heart suddenly skipped a beat. He suddenly remembered that when he and Village Head Tian narrowly escaped the clutches of this Hanba before, they had indeed encountered a tiny child. Could this be A'Lan's son? But she hadn't been pregnant when she died; what was going on? Thus, he briefly recounted his doubts to Zhang Enpu.

Zhang Enpu frowned, his gaze sharpening. "Then she must have become pregnant after death!"

"How is that possible?" Young Master Liu was dumbfounded, feeling the old man was spinning yarns like a storyteller.

"I don't believe it..." Tian Guoqiang also shook his head repeatedly, feigning an air of complete indifference.

Zhang Enpu glanced over and caught the subtle shifts in all three of their expressions, letting out a cold sneer. "Anything that hasn't reached its final conclusion is possible. This isn't strange; ghosts giving birth is a known phenomenon."

"Ghosts giving birth?" Young Master Liu felt enlightened. He had only ever heard of ghosts harming people, never of ghosts bearing offspring. This old man was getting more and more outrageous. "Maybe it's a little ghost she brought with her?" Young Master Liu offered his own guess.

"Hmph, hmph, just look at her belly yourselves!" Zhang Enpu shook his sleeve, and the peach wood sword spun mid-air before settling smoothly into his palm. This skill was indeed quite elegant, like an acrobatics show.

Heeding Zhang Enpu's words, Young Master Liu quickly shifted his gaze back to the long-motionless Hanba. But once his eyes fixed there, he couldn't look away. Why? He was shocked to discover that the Hanba's lower abdomen was slightly distended. In just a few breaths, her belly had grown noticeably larger, straining the blood-red wedding dress so much that it started to pull apart. "Zhang... Uncle Zhang..." Young Master Liu’s hand hovered in the air, vaguely pointing ahead, trembling uncontrollably.

"I saw it long ago, that's why I was trying to warn you just now," Zhang Enpu stressed, his tone becoming supremely serious and dignified.

"Keep a close watch; the little one is about to emerge. Dealing with one is hard enough; if two show up, we're definitely in trouble. This Hanba's resentment is too heavy; the only way to deal a critical blow now is with a deluge of dog blood. I will distract her now, prevent the little one from showing itself. You find the right moment to pour the last bucket of dog blood over her head. I don't care if you have to hit her from behind or throw bricks, as long as it's accurate and hard. Remember, you only get one chance; if you fail, things will become much harder."

"Pour it again?" Young Master Liu's face visibly twitched.

"Yes, I can't pull away my hands."

"Then... then who's doing it this time?" Young Master Liu's teeth were chattering, but the moment he said it, he wanted to slap himself. He realized that at that precise moment, both Tian Guoqiang's and Ma Xiaoyan's eyeballs had snapped toward him like spotlights, as if he had a garden growing on him.

"Why... why are you all looking at me?"

"Big Brother Liu... hehe... you know the drill," Tian Guoqiang chuckled foolishly, but to Young Master Liu, the laugh sounded three parts more terrifying than the Hanba's own cackle.

"I... I'm not doing it! I already did it once." Young Master Liu waved his hands frantically.

"Brother, relax, just go for it with confidence! I'll be on the sidelines cheering you on, wishing you great success!" Tian Guoqiang clapped Young Master Liu on the shoulder and said earnestly.

"Get lost, you bastard!" Young Master Liu was past the point of tears; he realized he couldn't even cry anymore. Oh, the sea, all water; oh, my belly, all tears.

"Stop dawdling, time waits for no one. I'll count one, two, three. Split up and act!" Zhang Enpu shouted the count, then immediately charged toward the Hanba with his peach wood sword, showing no hesitation. However, after taking a few steps, he realized he was the only one shouting orders; the three behind him hadn't followed. Zhang Enpu felt a prickle of dread on his scalp, but since he had already started, he had no choice but to bite the bullet. He even cursed under his breath: "Don't blame me for not warning you; if we can't hold this Hanba, we all go down together!"

Zhang Enpu's warning had an effect. Young Master Liu, who had been about to give the old man a thumbs-up and praise him as being even more steadfast than Liu Hulan, gritted his teeth, picked up the bucket, and followed with quick, small steps. Tian Guoqiang spat twice into his palms, rubbed them together, told Ma Xiaoyan to be careful, and then grabbed a tree trunk as thick as a thigh. He chased after them as if carrying a light artillery piece, preparing to strike the Hanba whenever the chance arose. With this thickness and quality, even if she were the reincarnation of Sun Wukong, he'd beat her until her guts exploded and her soul fled in terror!

Having seen Zhang Enpu's sneak attack, the Hanba was already furious. Fortunately, her resentment was too great, and she had achieved the Hanba form; a bit of black dog blood had no effect on her, and her power remained completely unimpaired. In a frenzy of rage, the Hanba fiercely brandished her black fingernails, instantly kicking up dust, stones, and howling winds. Dense swarms of pebbles and branches rained down upon Zhang Enpu.

The Hanba's fury put Zhang Enpu in grave danger. It was hard enough dodging the flying stones and branches from all directions, let alone attacking. Soon enough, he was struck by a projectile he couldn't evade and tumbled to the ground. Of course, having lived so long and practiced the Tao for many years, Zhang Enpu wasn't going down so easily. With a sudden (carp flip), he sprang up, tightened his grip on the peach wood sword, and launched three rapid-fire thrusts. The Hanba ignored these entirely, pressing her attack against Zhang Enpu, determined to tear him to shreds. Seeing that direct force wasn't working, Zhang Enpu thought, you have to risk something to gain something! He gritted his teeth, leaned his body back, forming an iron bridge, just as the Hanba's claws scraped past his face. The contact was so close that Zhang Enpu could feel the stinging pain on his cheek. An opening! At the same moment, Zhang Enpu shifted his right heel backward to stabilize his stance, engaged his waist, and executed a spinning whirl on the spot. His left hand formed a Lingxu hand seal, darting out like lightning to Zhang Enpu's shoulder, then clamping down like a massive iron vise. "Ow!" The Hanba's skin was thick and tough; it was fine, but Zhang Enpu's nail sank into the flesh, causing him to cry out in pain. However, he knew what was more critical now. He retracted the elbow of the arm gripping the Hanba's shoulder and then extended it, exerting a precise force that pulled her entire body into mid-air, about two or three meters off the ground. At this moment, the Hanba hadn't recovered yet and was searching around for Zhang Enpu. Zhang Enpu sneered, gripping the peach wood sword tightly, and utilized the force of his downward trajectory to plunge the sword viciously toward the back of the Hanba's neck.

"Crack!" Subjected to such weight, the peach wood sword naturally couldn't withstand it. It let out a weak muffled sound, embedding itself in the Hanba's neck, with the other end held fast in Zhang Enpu's ten fingers, bending into an arc.

"Die," just then, Young Master Liu appeared behind the Hanba without warning and slammed the wooden bucket filled with black dog blood onto her body. After Zhang Enpu told him he only had one chance, Young Master Liu had quietly circled around to her rear while she was fighting Zhang Enpu, holding his breath and waiting for the old man to create an opportunity.

"Ah..." The Hanba shrieked tragically as the dog blood drenched her. Green smoke rose from her body, and she began to tremble uncontrollably.

"Beautiful!" Zhang Enpu was overjoyed. Quick as thought, he jumped back to the ground, jammed the mostly ruined peach wood sword back into his robes, and rushed toward the Hanba chanting incantations. He believed he could subdue this scourge today, otherwise, if they reached the village and started slaughtering innocents, it would cause immense trouble. But Zhang Enpu was unlucky; the moment he touched the Hanba, his whole body went numb, and he was violently flung back, stumbling several times before groaning in dusty distress. Simultaneously, a patch of dark, inky blood began to surface beneath the Hanba's feet, and a small lump of flesh was slowly writhing within it. Gradually, the lump of flesh transformed into an infant.

"Bad! The little Hanba is coming out!" Zhang Enpu exclaimed in alarm. Just as he tried to get up, a chain reaction of sharp pain shot through his shoulder, forcing him back down.

Young Master Liu’s breath hitched. The child’s left eye was a vivid, blood-red staring directly at him, almost dripping blood. The grotesque body suddenly merged completely into the Hanba's form, leaving only one left eye embedded in the Hanba's clothing, unmoving, staring fixedly at the crowd. The eye on the garment was perfectly aligned with the child’s height, just under a meter tall. But that large, blood-red left eye fixed them with a gaze that made the two men and one woman feel chills run down their spines. A sound, like a newborn's cry, suddenly echoed through the entire graveyard:

"Gua ah, gua ah..."

The sound was not one of the joy of birth, but filled with hatred and contempt for existence. The cry nearly made every hair on Young Master Liu’s body stand on end, even though he kept muttering to Tian Guoqiang and Ma Xiaoyan that it was just a twitching, idiotic child, nothing to fear.

The infant's cry continued, sounding distant, as if from another world. Gradually, it transformed, shifting... from crying to a cold sneer. That laughter suddenly pierced their eardrums. The sharp sound made everyone’s nerves fray, as if they were taut strings being pulled by its laughter, tightly constricting their hearts!

"Everyone, be careful, I've seen this thing before, it's just an idiotic kid!" Young Master Liu said, cautiously drawing closer to Ma Xiaoyan and the others. Though his words were lighthearted, even he didn't know what was truly happening. Perhaps it was self-deception, but it was better than fleeing in defeat! The thing's sharp laughter grew more piercing, seemingly mocking them as it drew closer. If the crying had been from another world, this laughter sounded as if it were hidden right next to their ears, leaving them nowhere to escape!

At that moment, Young Master Liu's ankle was seized. The wound on his foot suddenly tore open again! With an icy touch, his cloth shoe felt as if it were glued to the ground, utterly immovable. Young Master Liu looked down to see a pair of hands so thin they were almost skeletal gripping his injured ankle tightly!

The thin, bony hands gripped Young Master Liu's ankle firmly. The white skin looked as stiff and cold as if stretched over a skeleton! Startled, Young Master Liu frantically tried to free himself, only to find his legs felt like they were filled with lead, completely immobile.

Slowly, a small head began to emerge from the grayish-green soil, gradually pushing its way out. It tilted its face up to look at Young Master Liu, its blood-red left eye reflecting his image. Its tightly closed right eye also looked strangely unnatural. Tilting its head back, its large forehead was a dark, bluish-green. Pale lips parted to reveal beast-like teeth, uneven and bared widely at Young Master Liu.

"Holy crap!" Young Master Liu struggled desperately to shake his legs free, but he couldn't move at all. Now he finally understood what it meant to be completely at someone else's mercy—he was just a piece of meat on the chopping block! At this moment, our Young Master Liu suddenly recalled the sentence that had left the deepest impression on him while reading Journey to the West: Wukong, hurry and save your master...

"Da Shao!" Tian Guoqiang and the others wanted to help Young Master Liu out of loyalty, but the creature snarled fiercely at Tian Guoqiang. Accompanied by a roar like a wild beast, it not only stunned Tian Guoqiang into immobility but also froze Young Master Liu himself. Ma Xiaoyan, being a girl, was even more distressed and started crying.

Its roar was an indescribable sound of rage; the thing was simply... simply... to put it disgustingly, it was a sound Young Master Liu never wanted to hear again in his life. It was like a furious beast issuing a fierce warning to any challenger, ready to pounce and tear apart its prey in the next second!

The creature seemed pleased with the group's reaction, its gaze falling upon Young Master Liu's injured ankle with unmistakable greed. A purplish-black tongue suddenly emerged from its mouth, licking Young Master Liu's injured ankle thinly and delicately. Because of the creature’s earlier grip, Young Master Liu’s ankle had already been torn, and now bright red blood was seeping out. The tip of its tongue brushed against the blood, as if savoring it, and it began to chuckle incessantly again!

This thing seemed very pleased with itself. Young Master Liu twitched the corner of his mouth. Damn it, this idiotic child probably thought I was dinner! If it likes sucking blood like its dead mother... Crap... I don't want to die that disgustingly!

Forget it, might as well try a desperate measure!

"By the command of the Immortal Celestial Splendor Daoist Lord, the rivers, sun, moon, mountains, seas, and stars are in my grasp. What I command to be bright is bright, what I command to be dark is dark. The thirty-three heavens are under my law; what I command to the east goes east, what I command to the west goes west, what I command to the south goes south, what I command to the north goes north. Those who follow me shall be ennobled; those who defy my orders shall be beheaded! Furthermore... um... Amitabha, Namo Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva... Never mind! Supreme Old Lord, as fast as the law commands!"

This was the first incantation Granny Fan had taught him. He could only hope it would work against this thing. In truth, Young Master Liu broke nearly all the precepts of the Taoist and Buddhist paths by smoking, drinking, and eating meat. If he hadn't been protected by the Pixiu pendant he wore, reciting this rubbish would have been utterly useless! Now, even if the effect was minimal, he had to try.

Young Master Liu's croaking recitation of the scripture instantly echoed throughout the graveyard. Although it sounded utterly incoherent, scrambled and haphazard, with the ending failing to connect to anything coherent, it still had some effect. In his field of vision, the jade pendant around Young Master Liu's neck seemed to flash once, like a final ultimatum being issued.

Sure enough, the creature glared at Young Master Liu with its hateful left eye, then suddenly submerged back into the soil. It released Young Master Liu's ankle along with it. The moment the thing was gone, Tian Guoqiang rushed over to support him as he nearly collapsed.

"Da Shao, are you alright?" As Tian Guoqiang helped him up, Young Master Liu’s gaze suddenly fell behind Ma Xiaoyan! The sun in the dark clouds cast an eerie, dim yellow light, strangely tinged with ghostly energy, and a small shadow slipped like water toward Ma Xiaoyan's feet. Young Master Liu's expression changed, and he shoved Tian Guoqiang away. In that instant, he watched helplessly as the small shadow crawled onto Ma Xiaoyan's shoulder.

"Yanzi!" Young Master Liu's voice came out as a near-shout.

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