Chapter 69: The Demon Daoist’s Hiding Place
The cold moon hung dimly overhead as paper money drifted across the night sky. Sha Lifei had scattered money to grant safe passage. In the funeral customs of Shenzhou, whenever a funeral procession passed through a crossroads, the most respected elder of the family would scatter spirit money into the air.
First, it would guide the deceased on their journey, hence the saying: “As the dead travel westward, spirit money paves the road.”
The second reason was to lure away wandering ghosts and prevent them from entangling themselves with the procession.
Wu Laosi had started the Yin Crossing. At that moment, his soul had already left his body, leaving his flesh like a house with its doors thrown wide open. It was certain to attract wandering ghosts and filthy entities.
According to legend, stray spirits unable to enter the underworld did not live freely at all. They were trapped by the memories and obsessions of their former lives while simultaneously enduring endless loneliness and terrible cold.
Once daylight came, a single touch of sunlight would cause their souls to scatter completely. To put it simply, it was like being stranded on a planet where daytime resembled a molten hell and nighttime froze even the soul itself. One could easily imagine how irresistible a warm human body would be to such beings.
Sha Lifei had drifted through the jianghu for years. During the worst periods of his life, he had even worked odd jobs helping wealthy households arrange weddings and funerals, so he was extremely familiar with these customs.
He vigorously scattered spirit money into the air as he spoke in a placating tone, “Everyone, everyone, please don’t disturb us, don’t disturb us!”
Rustle...
The paper money swirled wildly in the yin wind, spinning and dancing before eventually settling back down.
Li Yan’s nose twitched and he muttered, “They’ve left.”
As the yin wind dispersed, the oil lamps that had been flickering violently also calmed. Sha Lifei finally sighed in relief. What were a few sheets of spirit money worth?
Wu Laosi had requested three jin of spirit money, but Sha Lifei had bought eight. As long as things could be resolved smoothly, throwing out a few extra handfuls meant nothing.
Of course, that was the peaceful method. If even spirit money failed to drive the entities away, then Li Yan would have to solve things with his blade. Several more wandering ghosts approached, but before they could even come close, Li Yan detected them and gave Sha Lifei a warning.
Then suddenly, another scent drifted over from the distant riverside.
This time, it was cold and musky.
Li Yan abruptly rose to his feet, Guanshan blade already in hand as he stepped before Sha Lifei. At the same time, he hung the Three Talents Demon Suppressing Coin Tassel on the blade.
Sha Lifei asked in confusion, “What is it?”
He cautiously peeked ahead. Under the moonlight by the riverbank, a massive snake as thick as a bowl slowly slithered ashore, coiling into a spiral while hissing repeatedly.
Li Yan warned in a low voice, “Don’t look into its eyes!”
He tightened his grip on the blade. The coin tassel immediately began swaying gently, cold killing qi spreading outward. Seemingly sensing the threat posed by the Three Talents Demon Suppressing Coins, the snake stopped advancing and flicked its tongue in uncertainty.
Though it stopped moving, Li Yan did not dare lower his guard in the slightest.
Wang Daoxuan had once told him that wandering ghosts were among the most pitiful things in heaven and earth. Weak as they were, even possessing an ordinary traveler walking alone at night required perfect circumstances and enormous effort.
Sometimes merely spitting on the ground and cursing at them was enough to frighten them away. A handful of road money alone could disperse such entities.
Fortunately, since the City God Temple’s yin soldiers stationed in Xianyang existed nearby, truly powerful entities rarely dared approach. In addition, the City God Temple annually performed rites of feeding spirits and releasing river lanterns to ferry the dead away, so even drowned river ghosts rarely caused trouble in the area.
For techniques like this, where the soul left the body and the flesh temporarily lay vacant, the greatest danger aside from vengeful ghosts came from creatures that had cultivated some level of spirituality.
Once those things possessed a body, their behavior became entirely beastlike. When their cultivation was still low, the creatures often borrowed human flesh to cultivate. Sometimes they even used corpses for practice, slipping into graves and occupying bodies within coffins.
Occasionally, when people opened coffins and found snakes coiled up or foxes curled on the corpses, it was precisely those little creatures cultivating themselves.
At last, the snake sensed danger, uncoiling as it slipped back into the river. Li Yan did not pursue it; protecting the ritual was more important. Thus, they safely passed the hour of the rat.
Li Yan finally relaxed slightly and looked toward the six lamps that had been arranged in the big dipper formation.
Once the hour of the rat passed, possession became far more difficult. That meant that Wu Laosi’s Yin Crossing ritual would likely succeed.
The only question was... where exactly was that evil cultivator hiding?
***
Meanwhile, inside Xianyang City, the Iron Blade Gang headquarters blazed with lights from multiple torches. Cries and screams of pain echoed everywhere.
Zheng Heibei stood with a dark expression, watching his subordinates run frantically about.
Zhou Peide had been imprisoned. The White Ape Gang had been wiped out. Yuan Qu had fled. The Zhou Family now faced utter catastrophe. Zheng Heibei had remained within the Zhou Family estate, discussing countermeasures with the others.
Yet unexpectedly, his own headquarters had been attacked!
“Boss, it was the Taixing Carriage and Horse Company!” One subordinate with shattered limbs gritted his teeth and cursed, “I recognized their leader. Normally he acts all meek and spineless. When he saw me before, he didn’t even dare fart. Who would’ve thought...”
“Who would’ve thought what?!” A middle-aged man in green robes standing behind Zheng Heibei suddenly barked angrily, “I already warned you people not to provoke certain individuals, especially fellow experts from the jianghu!
“You even tried squeezing protection money out of the Taixing Carriage and Horse Company? Those people are ruthless even in Chang’an! They simply couldn’t be bothered dealing with trash like you. Did you really think you were invincible?”
The middle-aged man was Liu Jincheng, one of the Eight Vajras and also the chief guard of Xianyang’s Changshun Escort Agency. He had come under orders to investigate the situation.
Having traveled extensively, he possessed experience and knew when to fear danger. He had repeatedly warned Zheng Heibei and Yuan Qu in the past, but neither had ever listened.
Seeing the Zhou Family reduced to such a state now only filled him with rage.
Zheng Heibei had always possessed a stubborn temper. He knew the rest of the Eight Vajras looked down on him, so hearing Liu Jincheng mock him immediately made him snort. “Senior Brother Liu, my men aren’t yours to discipline!”
Liu Jincheng laughed in anger and turned to leave. “Hahaha, you are hopeless! There’s no saving you!”
Zheng Heibei’s words had been spoken in the heat of the moment, and regret immediately followed. Watching Liu Jincheng leave only caused his expression to sink further. He had not directly participated in the child abductions, but he had secretly assisted from the sidelines.
It was only because Yuan Qu had fled and Zhou Peide knew little of the full truth that the authorities had not yet come to arrest him. However, some things could never remain hidden forever.
More importantly, Zhou Pan was still standing. If the man could sacrifice even his own younger relatives, then what was a filthy errand-runner like Zheng Heibei worth? Moreover, that night, Zhou Pan’s attitude toward him had suddenly become unusually kind.
At that thought, an inexplicable fear rose within Zheng Heibei’s heart. On the surface, he put on an entirely different expression, speaking with righteous anger and heroic sincerity.
“Brothers, don’t worry! I’ll cover all your medical expenses! Men, send everyone to Anren Hall! Rest and recover in peace. We’ll definitely avenge you all!”
The Iron Blade Gang members were immediately moved to tears of gratitude.
“Boss is righteous!”
Zheng Heibei nodded before ordering his men to make proper arrangements. Then he returned to his room, pushed aside a bookshelf, and opened a hidden compartment beneath the floor. The instant he opened the small chest hidden inside, he felt as though he had been struck by lightning.
The box, once packed full of gold bars, now lay completely empty. That fortune had been everything he had accumulated over the years. If disaster ever came, he could have used it to recruit men and flee into the mountains as a bandit lord.
But now, nothing remained.
“You Laosi!”
How could Zheng Heibei not know who had done it? Though rage nearly consumed him, he also understood his place was no longer safe. He immediately slipped into a hidden tunnel inside the room, emerged from a small courtyard near the Iron Blade Gang compound, changed clothes, and disappeared into the darkness...
An hour later, when his deputy chief noticed the candles had burned out, yet Zheng Heibei still hadn’t emerged, suspicion immediately filled his heart. He hurried inside to investigate.
Soon, furious shouting erupted from the room.
“That damned coward! The boss ran away!”
***
The hour of the tiger arrived without anyone realizing it.
Autumn nights grew longer while days shortened. Though dawn’s pale light had yet to appear on the horizon, the large rooster tied to the tree had already begun pacing restlessly. It then stretched its neck and released a loud crow.
Li Yan and Sha Lifei immediately looked at the copper bell hanging from the tree. Wu Laosi had said that he would awaken when the rooster crowed. If the bell did not ring, then the ritual had failed, and they were to immediately burn the coffin.
However, the bell remained still. Just as worry rose within them, the hemp rope protruding from the earth suddenly tightened, violently tugging the bell side to side.
Ding, ding, ding!
“Quick, move!”
Li Yan and Sha Lifei hurriedly shoveled away the loose dirt before forcing open the coffin lid.
The moment the lid opened, Li Yan’s expression changed. He could smell an incredibly dense yin aura. It was so pure and ice-cold that one didn’t even need divine senses to see it.
The interior walls of the coffin were entirely coated in white frost, cold air spilling everywhere. Wu Laosi’s body was similarly covered in frost, his skin frozen bluish-white. As the two men repeatedly called out, he slowly opened his eyes. His gaze was hollow and dazed, as though he had only just awakened from a dream. After seeing them, clarity quickly returned.
Supported by Li Yan and Sha Lifei, Wu Laosi struggled to rise before pointing southwest, his voice extremely hoarse. “The man is over there, inside an ancient tomb a hundred li away! There are many children there as well. If you want to save them, hurry!”
The instant he finished speaking, he seemed to sense something approaching.
Struggling upright, he pushed Li Yan and Sha Lifei away before respectfully kneeling toward the south, trembling as he spoke. “This junior, Wu Laosi, knows his crimes. I willingly accept punishment...”
Before he could finish, his body tilted sideways and his voice trailed off. He stopped breathing immediately.
Li Yan cried out, “Senior!”
Though grief-stricken, he was also deeply shocked. Wang Daoxuan had once told him that divine abilities were not omnipotent. Some terrifying things could only be perceived once one’s cultivation reached a certain level.
He had smelled absolutely nothing.
Sha Lifei exclaimed, “Little Yan, look!”
Following Wu Laosi’s earlier instructions, Sha Lifei gently lifted the dead man’s clothing. The bruised markings across his back, the pattern of the Summoning Writ with chains, had vanished completely!
The sight sent chills through both their hearts.
Li Yan gritted his teeth and forced the words out. “We follow the original plan. You go report to the City God Temple and properly prepare Senior Wu’s remains. I’ll head there first and keep watch so the evil bastard can’t escape!”
The two men placed Wu Laosi back into the coffin together. When they were done, Li Yan vaulted onto his horse, snapped the reins, and charged into the endless darkness.
