She had just locked the storeroom door when she heard faint voices of inquiry coming from the outer courtyard gate.
“Is Mr. Ziran at home?”
Outside, Mistress responded and went to open the gate.
Master had been away from home for many years, and the people from the nearby villages had long since stopped visiting. Only occasionally would someone from a distant place, unaware of the situation, come seeking him by reputation.
Why are there suddenly so many people today?
Emily Bennett found it odd. She patted the dust from her clothes and walked out unhurriedly, craning her neck to glance toward the courtyard gate.
That single glance made her heart suddenly clench, and the hairs on her back stand on end.
Outside the open courtyard gate stood a woman. She wore rouge and powder, her brows elegantly painted, golden hairpins adorned her temples, and a jade belt circled her waist—a beauty exquisitely and meticulously dressed. But such a beauty stood glaringly at the gate, and Sarah seemed not to see her at all, poking her head out and looking around.
“How strange, I clearly heard someone knocking,” she said in confusion.
The woman narrowed her phoenix eyes, tilted her head, and leaned in to scrutinize the oblivious Sarah.
Emily Bennett dashed across the courtyard, grabbed Sarah's arm, pulled her behind herself, and slammed the door shut with a bang.
“What’s wrong, Emily?” Sarah asked in surprise. “I thought I just heard knocking, but now it’s gone. How odd.”
Emily Bennett stared at the tightly closed door, quietly pinching a yellow talisman between her fingers.
The woman outside was still inquiring, “Is Mr. Ziran at home? Excuse me, is Mr. Ziran at home?”
After a while, seeing that no one came to open the door, the voice finally faded away.
Emily Bennett pressed her pounding heart and let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, she still didn’t dare come in.
Although Master had been gone for many years, the aura of Master still lingered in this courtyard. Most demons and monsters usually wouldn’t come near this place.
Perhaps because Master had been away for so long, the aura had faded, and now even monsters dared to come knocking at the door.
I really should find myself an apostle, Emily Bennett thought to herself.
Chapter 7
Since she had decided to get an apostle, Emily Bennett began making careful preparations.
Over the years, she had indeed studied many spells, but her actual experience in exorcising demons and subduing monsters was still sorely lacking.
Perhaps because Master had presided over this place for so many years, there had hardly been any evil spirits or malicious ghosts harming people in Queqiu Town. The occasional little monsters that appeared were no match for Emily Bennett; they either became her playmates or her victims.
Emily Bennett had read many ancient texts and knew that forming a master-servant contract with a demon was a risky business.
For example, in the book “Dongxuan Secrets” she held, it was mentioned that during the contract ritual, the demon would likely resist fiercely, requiring the practitioner to subdue it with magical power. If the practitioner’s power was insufficient to make the demon submit willingly, there was a risk of backlash at a critical moment—at best, one might be injured; at worst, killed. So most powerful mages, when contracting an apostle, would rather seriously injure the demon first and then use a formation to imprison it, ensuring nothing could go wrong.
Do I really have to beat it half to death first? Emily Bennett closed the scroll and sighed.
She remembered when Master was at home, he got along harmoniously with apostles like Clifford and Edgar, big and small alike. It never seemed like he used spells to force or coerce the demons.
Maybe Master had some method different from others.
In Master’s study, although he had collected the essential teachings and secret techniques of all the major metaphysical schools, he hadn’t left a single word of his own. Emily Bennett knew her Master well—Ethan Young might have been highly skilled in the Dao, but his literary ability was about the same as hers when she was seven or eight. If he could even understand those obscure texts, that was already impressive; expecting him to write a book was asking too much.
Emily Bennett packed up all sorts of odds and ends into her travel bag and basket.
An imperial bell, formation diagrams, talismans, a short dagger, emergency medicine, a water flask, pastries, snacks… Ah, it seemed she’d mixed in quite a few unnecessary things.
She had lived in Queqiu Town at the foot of Tianlang Mountain since she was seven, and was intimately familiar with the surrounding hills and valleys. But even the hunters in town, who made their living by hunting, only ventured a few miles into the nearby forests.
The entire Tianlang Mountain range, a vast expanse of a hundred thousand mountains, stretched endlessly, its depths rarely touched by humans. It was said to be the domain of demons and monsters, no longer part of the human world.
This time, venturing alone into the depths of the great forest, Emily Bennett couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous.
Still, after so many years of studying magic, she had to give it a try. She wouldn’t go too deep—just catch a few little spirits transformed from wildcats or stray dogs to guard the house would suffice.
The primeval forest was filled with towering ancient trees, tangled vines, moss everywhere, and sunlight could not penetrate. It was a world of chaos and gloom.
Emily Bennett, dressed in short brown clothes for easy movement, bamboo staff in hand, stepped on thick fallen leaves, parted tall grass and withered vines, and pressed forward, exploring as she went.