Yue Jingming silently released the other person’s hand.
The “man” behind the fierce-ghost mask stared straight at him, tilted his head, then reached for his hand again.
Yue Jingming: “…”
He raised the wooden halberd across his body and blocked the ghost away, then turned toward the white-robed men in fierce-ghost masks among the crowd, trying to pick Xiao Chunhe out from among them.
Firelight blazed, songs and laughter rang out, and drums thundered. The fierce-ghost masks on the dancers’ faces seemed to come vividly alive. The eyes behind them were pitch-black and lightless, while every emotion played across the ghostly faces until it was impossible to tell who was human and who was ghost.
Yue Jingming grabbed his own mask and tried to pull it off, only to find that it seemed to have grown onto his face, fused with his skin. Threads of icy ghost qi seeped into him, disturbing his mind, while the surrounding crowd gradually descended into frenzy and began throwing themselves toward the bonfire without regard for anything else.
He seized someone beside him who was trying to rush into the fire. The man turned with a shriek, and even the eyes of the ghost mask on his face curved into a smile. “Hahaha! Come on, let’s go together!”
Yue Jingming drew out a yellow talisman, recited an incantation, and slapped it onto the man’s forehead before tossing him away from the fire. He then caught several more people, pasted talismans onto them one by one, and threw them toward the outer edge, knocking down a whole swath of the crowd in the process. Yet some people were already scrambling directly into the flames.
“Have you all gone mad?” A familiar voice rang out. Yue Jingming followed it and saw a man in a fierce-ghost mask kick someone straight out of the bonfire.
“Chunhe!” Yue Jingming shoved the maddened people aside and grabbed him, but it felt as though something had sealed his mouth shut. Not a sound came out.
“Ah!” Xiao Chunhe jumped in fright and violently shook off his hand. “What the hell are you?!”
Yue Jingming froze and raised a hand to his mask, only to feel warm, uneven skin beneath his fingers. Meanwhile, the people he had pushed away with talismans were already getting back to their feet and shoving him toward the bonfire again. He tried to circulate the No-Thought One-Mind Art, but a sharp pain suddenly tore through his dantian, and there was not a trace of true qi left in his meridians.
Xiao Chunhe kept turning his head as though searching for someone. Another masked man came over, Liang Yun’s voice emerging from behind the mask. “Where did Brother Yue go?”
Xiao Chunhe frowned. “He was beside me just now. Ghosts have mixed into the crowd. Be careful.”
“Did Master go find Ji Luo?” Ye Shijiu was frantically trying to stop the people around him from hurling themselves into the fire.
“Chunhe, I’m here.” Yue Jingming tried to speak, but every spell and hand seal had stopped working. When he raised an arm to form a seal, he saw that the limb itself had become distorted. The mask had not merely attached itself to his face. Even the shape of his body had changed.
Xiao Chunhe shoved him aside amid the crush of people. Ye Shijiu and Liang Yun were both busy saving others and did not recognize him at all. Liang Yun even swung a halberd at him. Yue Jingming’s movements had become much slower, and although he barely dodged, the surging crowd still carried him far away.
Xiao Chunhe frowned at the stiff-moving evil ghost. These ghosts were somewhat larger than ordinary people, their faces closely resembling the fierce-ghost masks. Yet while the others were obsessed with the flames, this one not only stayed away from the bonfire but even tried to stop masked people from jumping into it.
So there were kindhearted ghosts even among evil ghosts. Stranger still, this one’s bearing somehow resembled Yue Jingming’s.
Perhaps because of that uncanny resemblance, when Xiao Chunhe saw the ghost nearly shoved into the bonfire while trying to save someone, he casually caught it by the front of its robe and flung it outward.
Unable to use either true qi or magic, Yue Jingming hit the ground. He stiffly climbed back to his feet and brushed the dust from his sleeves.
“Tsk, you’re quite a clean freak for a ghost.” Xiao Chunhe gave him an amused glance, though his thoughts were still fixed on Yue Jingming. When he saw Ye Shijiu set up a formation to hold the crowd back, he headed toward the inn.
Yue Jingming tried one method after another, but nothing restored him. Stranger still, the transformation had come without warning and he could find no cause… He suddenly paused, thinking of the shallow scar near his dantian.
At the time, his soul had not been inside his body. The superficial external wound had led him to believe Ye Shijiu had arrived in time to stop Ji Chen. He had carefully checked his dantian and meridians afterward and found nothing wrong, and even Xiao Chunhe had examined him again because he was still worried. What exactly had Ji Chen done?
His thoughts were in turmoil. Without true qi or magic to rely on, he could not determine the truth for the moment. After thinking it over, he followed Xiao Chunhe.
Xiao Chunhe only realized halfway there that the “evil ghost” was following him. He waved it away. “Go on, get lost. Stop following me, or I’ll swallow you in one bite.”
“I’m going to the inn too,” Yue Jingming told him.
To Xiao Chunhe, however, the evil ghost merely stared at him blankly. Somehow, he could read a trace of helpless confusion in that stare. He snapped fiercely, “You’re not allowed to follow me. I hate ghosts more than anything!”
With a few swift leaps, he vanished from Yue Jingming’s sight.
Yue Jingming silently sighed. His body was growing heavier, and even his mind was beginning to blur. He took out his last Soul-Calming Talisman and tried to fold it and place it over his heart, but the instant the paper touched the ghost qi covering him, it crumbled directly into powder.
“…”
The Clear Breeze Sword and his horsetail whisk had long since disappeared. Every other ritual implement on him had been steeped in ghost qi and could no longer be taken out. The pain at his dantian was growing sharper, and no one around him recognized him. If this dragged on until his consciousness vanished entirely… he would become a true evil ghost.
* * *
Inside the inn.
Despite the clamor outside, Ji Luo slept deeply. The room was growing colder and colder, and in his sleep he unconsciously dragged the quilt around himself. An icy chest pressed tightly against his back. Someone embraced him from behind, laid a cold hand over his lower abdomen, and let out a low sigh.
Ji Luo shuddered instinctively in his sleep. Lu Yu lowered his head and kissed the back of his neck. “Brother Luo, once tonight is over, everything will be fine. Don’t be afraid.”
Ji Luo vaguely heard Lu Yu’s voice, but his eyelids felt unbearably heavy and refused to open. His body and consciousness seemed to have been forcibly separated. His mind grew clearer and clearer while his body became heavier and more rigid. He could distinctly feel Lu Yu manipulating his body, yet he was powerless to resist.
The weight pressing over him was cold and heavy. Ji Luo struggled with all his strength to shout, but only a mosquito-soft murmur emerged. Lu Yu held his lower leg and gave a cloying smile. “Don’t waste your strength. Those friends of yours aren’t here. I’m the only one you can rely on now, Brother Luo. Be good, and you’ll suffer less.”
Get off… get off me! Ji Luo shouted in fury, yet his body instinctively began to sink beneath the influence. A strange thought rose in his mind: if he stopped resisting, perhaps it would feel better. Maybe this was fine… Lu Yu was good too…
No. He was a perfectly good living person. He could not let a fierce ghost control and manipulate him. Ji Luo gathered every scrap of strength and shoved hard at the ghost, but the force that actually landed was weak and feeble. Lu Yu laughed, caught his wrist, and shook it lightly. “Stop acting coy.”
Ji Luo nearly spat blood from sheer fury. Just as despair took hold, someone suddenly knocked on the door.
Lu Yu stopped and looked toward it.
“Elder Brother, are you all right?” Ji Chen’s voice came from outside. “I know you hate me, but I remembered some things. I want to talk to you.”
Ji Luo’s eyes were half-open as he struggled to move. “Save… mmph.”
Lu Yu clapped a hand over his mouth and stared down at him darkly. “Weren’t you always suspicious that there was something between Ji Chen and me? I’ll kill him now so you can stop worrying.”
Ji Luo’s pupils contracted, but every sound was trapped behind Lu Yu’s hand. He stared wide-eyed at the door as two ghostly shadows slowly rose behind Ji Chen and reached for his throat.
Lu Yu smiled faintly. “He should have died long ago. I simply had no choice but to keep him alive until today—”
Bang!
The window was suddenly kicked open, and several poison needles shot straight at Lu Yu. Though he had a ghost body, the needles were saturated with demonic qi, forcing him to dodge and roll off the bed onto the floor.
The needles buried themselves deep in the bedframe and punched through the doors and windows, destroying the two fierce ghosts attempting to strangle Ji Chen and scattering their souls completely.
Ji Chen stumbled into the room and immediately saw Ji Luo. “Elder Brother!”
Ji Luo sucked in a sharp breath on the bed and opened his eyes. At last he could control his own body again. Still badly shaken, he scrambled upright and pulled his disordered clothes back into place.
Xiao Chunhe bared his teeth in disgust at the scene inside. “You lust-crazed fierce ghost really haven’t given up. You actually dared to come back!”
With both old and new grudges piled together and his plans having now been interrupted twice, Lu Yu snapped, “You’re a fox demon. Why don’t you behave like one instead of spending every day around that Daoist pretending to be some good person? Aren’t you afraid he’ll subdue you one day?”
Xiao Chunhe laughed in fury. “What did you say?”
Terrifying demonic qi exploded through the room, ripping roof tiles loose and smashing apart the doors and windows. Xiao Chunhe and Lu Yu immediately clashed. One was a fierce ghost and the other a fox demon, and neither spared a thought for anyone nearby once the fight began. Everything in their path was reduced to wreckage.
The people in the inn fled in panic. Ji Chen stumbled to the bed and helped Ji Luo up. “Run!”
Ji Luo irritably threw off his hand. “Get lost. I can walk by myself.”
Despite what he said, Ji Chen stubbornly supported him. The brothers struggled toward the doorway through the violent gusts whipped up by the battle, only to find a hideously terrifying evil ghost standing there, staring at them expressionlessly.
Ji Chen screamed in fright. Ji Luo caught him and immediately covered his mouth. “Don’t shout. Do you want to provoke it into eating us?”
Ji Chen shook his head again and again.
Ji Luo had been to the underworld before, so he managed to remain calm. “Evil ghosts like this usually aren’t very bright. We’ll slowly go around it. Don’t draw its attention.”
Ji Chen nodded, and the two brothers began edging sideways on silent feet. To their horror, the evil ghost slowly turned with them, staring straight at them the entire time.
Yue Jingming fought down the urge inside him to eat people and reached toward Ji Chen. “Where is the short blade you used to injure me?”
But from Ji Chen’s perspective, the evil ghost said nothing at all and simply reached for him with a vicious expression. He screamed and turned to run, only for Ji Luo beside him to shove him hard, sending him straight toward the ghost.
Ji Chen stared at Ji Luo in shock. “Elder Brother?!”
Ji Luo gritted his teeth, turned, and ran.
Terrified, Ji Chen dropped to his knees before the evil ghost. “Please don’t kill me! Please!”
Yue Jingming: “…”
He was considering how to communicate with Ji Chen when a furious shout suddenly exploded beside his ear. “Where did you hide Yue Jingming?!”
“You fox demon really are insane. Why would I hide him?!” Lu Yu was driven back again and again by Xiao Chunhe’s reckless assault.
“The formation around Ji Luo activated the moment you arrived. He must have reached this place before I did, and you still dare deny it!” Xiao Chunhe swung his fan viciously down at Lu Yu’s head. Lu Yu dodged in alarm, and a deep crater instantly exploded in the floor.
Falling stone fragments struck the cheek of the evil ghost standing by the doorway. Yue Jingming stiffly tilted his head in an attempt to dodge them and failed.
Unable to find Yue Jingming, Xiao Chunhe was frantic, his expression dark and vicious. “If you can’t hand him over, I’ll turn you into a soul banner so even in death you’ll know no peace!”
Yue Jingming, standing directly in front of him: “…”