Lan JingYi looked out through the door slit, then immediately blocked it with his body, "Th-th-there are so many of them!"
Wei WuXian, "Walking corpses? How many is so many?"
Lan JingYi, "I do not know! They fill the entire street-possibly hundreds! And more are coming! I do not think the mannequins can hold them off any longer!"
If the mannequins outside failed to guard the doors, all of the corpses on the street would rush into the shop. If they were killed, one would be under corpse poisoning and, when struggling to fight, the poison would circulate quickly; if they were not killed, one would be ripped and bitten to death. Holding his sword, Xiao XingChen got ready to leave, most likely in the hopes of doing as best as he could with all that was left of his strength. However, his face suddenly flushed purple, and he stumbled to the ground.
Wei WuXian spoke, "You can just sit back and relax. It's going to be over soon."
Again, he cut the index finger of his right hand on Lan JingYi's sword. Droplets of blood trickled down.
Lan JingYi volunteered, "Are you going to use the Summoning again? If you dot twice in each mannequin's eyes, how much blood are you going to use? Do you need me to give you some?"
Immediately, a few other boys rolled up their sleeves, "I can also spare some..."
Wei WuXian couldn't decide whether to laugh or sigh, "It's okay. Are there any blank talismans?"
The disciples were still fairly young, not yet at a level of cultivation that allowed them to write runes on-spot. Thus, all of the talismans that they carried with them had already been written with runes.
Lan SiZhui shook his head, "No."
Wei WuXian wasn't too concerned, "Already-written ones are fine as well."
Lan SiZhui took out a stack of yellow talismans from a Qiankun Pouch, yet Wei WuXian only grabbed one of them. After taking a rough look at it, with the middle and forefinger of his right hand put together, he scrawled from top to bottom, above the cinnabar runes that were already there. The crimson blood and the vermilion cinnabar formed a new set of runes. With a flick of Wei WuXian's wrist, the yellow talisman and the red runes hovered in the air and ignited on their own. Wei WuXian reached out his left hand to catch the sprinkling ashes. Then, he closed his fingers into a fist and lowered his head slightly. As he opened his hand again, he softly blew the black ashes toward the row of paper mannequins. He breathed, "With prairie fires it fails to die, when spring winds blow it regains life."
The ashes whirled around the room.
The Nether Brawler who stood in front of all others suddenly picked up the hacking saber by his feet and carried it over his shoulder.
A lady, wearing a tall bun and fine robes, slowly raised her right hand. Her slender fingers twirled nimbly, as though she was a languid noblewoman, insouciantly appreciating her long, blood-red nails. By the lady's side, there stood a golden boy and a jade girl-a pair of child servants. The boy playfully tugged at the girl's braid, while the girl stuck out her tongue at him. A tongue almost nine inches long rapidly stretched out from within her mouth, stabbing a large hole in the boy's chest as if it were a snake. After the violent attack, it shrunk back at once. The boy opened his mouth wide, revealing two rows of ghastly, white teeth, and bit into her arm. With this, the two paper children started a fight of their own.
One by one, the dozens of paper mannequins started to teeter. As if they were stretching their limbs, they jolted as they whispered to one another. The rustling noises rose and fell all around them. They were not human, but better than humans.
