M

y in-laws woke up in the evening. I seized the chance while Yin Xinyue was taking a shower to ask them what had happened last night. 

My mother-in-law’s face twisted in pain. Subconsciously, she shivered 

and

 pointed at my father-in-law

. Her 

eyes tear

ed up

. “You should ask my husband.” 

“Yesterday, a monster came to our room. It look

ed

 like a buffalo, but it 

had

 scales and many legs. It look

ed

 so strange.” 

Before I could 

interject

, my father started to talk again. His words 

were slow, but

 I could hear his voice shaking. Let alone him, after listening to his descri

ption

, my heart also sank. 

He calmed down and took some deep breaths to adjust himself

. He 

continued, “That monster 

was

 so cold

, li

ke an ice rock. Your mother and I were 

woken

 up 

by

 the cold. We saw the monster right above our heads. Your mother fainted right at the scene. I grabbed the fruit knife at the 

bed stand

 to scare it,

 b

ut I could only scream once. I lost consciousness 

after that

.” 

Then, his face darkened. He hesitated for a long moment before speaking again. “Jiulin, you should leave with Yin Xinyue! I’m afraid that the monster will come 

after the two of you

.” 

I felt a little lost. It

 wa

s their parental care for us

, but h

ow could I leave them here? 

“Father, don’t worry. I’ll 

deal with

 that thing. Please trust me.” 

My father shook his head persistently

. 

“We are just old people. 

O

ur time 

will soon come

 to an end anyway. Don’t get involved in this.” 

Yin Xinyue came in with 

food

 right at this moment. Her face changed immediately. “Dad, we are not leaving. Moreover, Jiulin is 

an

 expert in this field. I’m sure he can safely force that monster to leave.” 

“

Sigh

!” 

My father sighed

 and looked 

as though he was about to 

say

 something

, but my m

other-in-law smacked his arm. They both kept silent.

While they were having dinner, I grabbed a stick and went to the patio to remove the snow and ice 

in

 the room. I asked Yin Xinyue to find the family cat and stick some talismans on it. 

“Yin Xinyue, I have to 

turn

 off the brazier in our parents’ room. It will be pretty cold tonight

, so y

ou should prepare more blankets for them.” 

I brought the brazier to the yard and poured water on it. The cha

r

coal sizzled and quieted down. After the temperature in my parents’ room dropped sharply, I used the ice I had collected from the roof to arrange a Thousand Mirrors Formation.  

The so-called Thousand Mirrors Formation 

didn’t really have so many mirrors

. 

Anyway, it consisted in using mirror-like objects

 and 

arranging

 them

 in the

 directions of 

a Chinese divination technique

. With layers of mirrors, it would work like a labyrinth. 

Commonly, the Thousand Mirrors Formation was used to locate spirits. Of course, powerful casters could use this formation to directly kill the spirit. I hadn’t reached that level yet, though! 

A

s 

the monster exuded

a

 fishy stink, I was sure it 

was related to water somehow

. That

 wa

s why I decided to use the ice instead 

of a mirror

. 

Once

 I activated the formation, the crystal-clear ice could work like real mirrors. Moreover, I could make use of the icy cold to create a snow maze. 

Of course, it was just my assumption

, and I

 didn’t 

wish to

 hurt

 the monster for now

. I just 

wanted

 to see it.

However,

 when I activated the formation, I would need to use my spiritual power. To prevent that monster from running away, I put the cat with 

the talismans

 on it 

by

 the back door. 

“You want to use this kitty to get more time?” Yin Xinyue asked as she watched me

 make the arrangements. 

I nodded. “Cats are the 

nemeses of fish

. 

Although our father

 said that thing doesn’t look like 

one

, 

because

 it smells like fish, it should live in the river

. 

Of course, there 

is

 some danger in this

, and that thing might

 attack the kitty. But in this situation, I 

have to risk it

.” 

After my in-laws 

had

 dinner, I gave each of them a life-protecting talisman. It was to protect them from getting hurt by the Yin energy when the monster came. They had lost a lot of blood, 

which made it easier for the 

Yin energy to affect them. 

“Son, don’t worry. We’ve 

worked

 under 

the rain

 and storms for decades. This cold is nothing to us.” Mother tried to smile and encourage us when she saw me and Yin Xinyue so tens

e

. 

I could only smile back at her. Yin Xinyue turned away and secretly wept.

I frowned and ushered her to our bedroom. “Yin Xinyue, don’t be like this. You will discourage our parents. It’s not good for them to deal with the Yin energy this way. The best weapon for living people 

dealing 

with Yin energy is their 

unshaken

 belief. You got it?” 

Why was it that so many people were not af

raid of death, but torment? 

It was because of belief. If their belief or faith was strong 

enough

, no toxin could harm them. However, there 

weren't

 many people like this in reality. 

Yin Xinyue wiped her 

tears

 as she understood my 

meaning

. She pulled herself together and put on a smile

. Then, she walked 

out to talk with her parents. 

I scanned our room and 

made use of

 the 

geomancy 

to arrange something at the window in the corner. After 

p

utting the Emei Piercer next to Yin Xinyue’s pillow, I felt much better. 

As the night was getting darker, 

the place

 was getting

colder. Frost had already claimed our window glass panels. I checked the clock. It was almost time. I ask

ed 

our parents to rest and told Yin Xinyue to go back to our room. 

In this situation, I knew she couldn’t sleep. I gave her the Emei Piercer. “Stay here and protect yourself.”

As for me, 

I had to go out to watch. 

She hugged me from behind

. In a soft voice, she said,

 “Hubby, 

do

 your best!” 

“You silly wife!”  I turned and teasingly pinched her nose. 

After g

ritting my teeth, I climbed up to the roof. 

The ladder in Yin Xinyue’s house was molded 

from an iron

 bar and was painted red. It seemed people 

hadn’t

 polished it

,

 so the steps felt rough. Every time I took a step,

my fingers felt close to being frozen. After climbing to the roof, I stood up and almost tripped. Cringing, I had to squat to stabilize my center. Then, I found a layer of ice on the roof around three centimeters thick. This layer covered the entire roof as if it was a frozen lake. 

I was surprised. 

I stood up and 

looked around to see the other houses. The houses around were all clean! My in-laws were hard-working people. They wouldn’t let snow 

freeze on

 their roof! 

After t

hinking about this, I realized an issue: I had been watching 

outside

 the windows and didn’t think that th

at creature 

might 

have come

 from the roof. Moreover, Yin Xinyue and I were right outside when it came down through the chimney and wrote the word “d

eath

” on the ground. 

After h

esitating, I slowly crawled to the chimney to see. I caught the 

stench

. 

I thought to myself, 

The problem 

lies

 right here! 

I had just wanted to get up here to take a look

, but I ended up

finding

 something important. If that thing 

had come

 down the chimney every time it came here, I should just stay and wait.

I moved away from the chimney

 and hid

. 

I had been waiting for quite a long time, but that thing 

hadn’t

shown

 up yet. My body felt rigid in the cold already. As it had almost passed the time with the thickest Yin energy, I thought it wouldn’t come tonight. I decided to climb back down to rest. 

All of a sudden, a gust of cold wind swept through the place. I tensed up

 and held 

the Holy Mother Scepter tightly. At the same time, I stuck a Yang Concealing Talisman on myself. 

Indeed, when the wind 

stopped,

 a shadow appeared near the chimney. It looked vague at first. But then, 

when

 it finally landed, I saw its face

. It 

was so disgusting! 

It had the body of a calf but there were so many things growing on its belly. They looked like 

the legs of a 

centipede. Its back was covered with shining scales. 

M

ore surprisingly, it had dragon claws

 that shone and reflected

 light. 

“What… What the heck is this creepy thing?” I couldn’t help but scream in my head while keeping my gaze on it. The beast carefully looked around then turned into a shadow

. It slid 

down the chimney. 

I

t seemed the beast had 

visited

 the house these past few days, but then ran away when it sense

d my presence.

I estimated the time and picked an icicle from the roof

. I 

bit the tip of my tongue to spit blood on it. Before the blood melted, I read 

a

 spell and threw the icicle 

in

 the air. 

The icicle hovered in the air and didn’t fall. The crystal-clear icicle became murky and then red

as if my blood had seeped into it. Then, it flew into the room. I heard my in-laws 

scream

. My heart squeezed. I clenched my fists and continued to read the spell. 

Soon, the room lit up. 

Countless pieces

 of ice were shining like the light at noon. The monster screamed. I recognized that I was so tense 

before

 that I didn’t even release the cat. 

Luckily

, the Thousand Mirrors Formation worked! 

I pulled myself together

 and thought 

that th

is 

monster was easier to deal with than I had thought. I jumped off the roof

 and rolled 

on the ground to reduce the force. As soon as I got up, I kicked the door of 

the

 room open. At first glance, I saw the monster bumping between the pieces of ice in pain. Gradually, it slowed down. 

It seemed the ice 

was

working

 for now. But if it 

was

 afraid of ice, why did it make the entire roof frozen? 

For the time being, I couldn’t figure out the cause. However, as I was afraid that it would break the formation, I directly aimed at the beast’s head and stabbed the Holy Mother Scepter toward it. 

It was 

a trick

Senior Shu

 had taught me. 

Throwing

 the Holy Mother Scepter

 with force could help increase its power

! 

Although it was a one-time

attack, I believed 

it would be 

a fatal hit 

from

 this short distance!