Coffins black as charcoal, corpses thick as a forest; ghostfire glimmered faintly, ghosts wailed and sobbed, and the whole place brimmed with resentment.
A chilly wind carrying corpse qi swept past. Yue Jingming raised his head and looked toward the fox, the human, and the ghost locked in battle.
Xiao Chunhe had grown up on Zixu Mountain without, apparently, any master or elder to teach him. His techniques were a patchwork cobbled together from here and there. In the past, whenever danger struck, he usually transformed into his demon form and fought with a fox’s hunting instincts. Now that he was maintaining human form, aside from the demonic qi he had cultivated, most of what he used were underhanded tricks picked up from who knew where. His fan and the phantom stone had therefore become his main weapons.
Ye Shijiu was extraordinarily gifted, but because he was deaf and mute, with blocked meridians, he had wasted more than ten years at Xingyang Daoist Temple. After Yue Jingming began teaching him, he grasped things astonishingly quickly, but his foundation was still weak and his true qi insufficient to sustain a long fight. Worse, his comprehension was so high that he constantly devised strange variations on the basics, and because his temperament was still unsettled, those techniques tended to be rather vicious as well.
Yue Jingming silently sighed, then looked toward Lu Yu. This fierce ghost had two or three hundred years of cultivation behind him, and every move he made came from an established lineage and followed its essential methods. Xiao Chunhe and Ye Shijiu were having a hard time dealing with him. His long halberd was also packed with wronged souls and wandering ghosts, constantly forcing the two of them to divide their attention.
Xiao Chunhe was already badly injured, and Lu Yu kept aiming for the wound in his chest. With wandering ghosts interfering as well, Xiao Chunhe slipped up once and took a palm strike directly to the injury, sending him retreating several zhang.
Yue Jingming flung out his horsetail whisk, but his true qi was too weak to wrap it around Xiao Chunhe. He immediately sprang forward instead, caught him, and forcibly took the brunt of the biting ghost qi for him.
Xiao Chunhe turned his head in astonishment. “Are you insane?”
The Daoist had only just recovered a little true qi in his dantian. If ghost qi struck him again now, the consequences could be disastrous.
Yue Jingming shook his head. When Xiao Chunhe tried to charge forward again, he wrapped his arms around him. Xiao Chunhe said urgently, “Little Ye can’t handle him alone. Let go of me!”
Yue Jingming patted the wound in the center of his chest, then pointed toward Liang Yun.
Liang Yun had just dragged the brothers Ji Chen and Ji Luo over. Seeing Yue Jingming point at him, he hurried over. “Do you need my help?”
Yue Jingming nodded, then pointed at Lu Yu.
Liang Yun said, “Huh?”
Lu Yu’s halberd struck Ye Shijiu on the shoulder and sent him flying straight toward them. Just as he was about to crash down, Yue Jingming whipped out his horsetail whisk and caught him, softening the fall somewhat, though Ye Shijiu still hit the ground. He scrambled up cursing. “You son of a bitch! If I don’t scatter your soul today, my surname isn’t Ye! Fuck you, you bastard—mmph!”
He hurriedly raised a hand to feel his sealed mouth, then turned and discovered Yue Jingming standing right behind him. His scalp instantly went numb. He had to admit that with that evil-ghost face, his master looked far more convincing than Lu Yu did. It was enough to send chills through his entire body!
Lu Yu lifted his long halberd and pointed it at the four busybodies before him. He sneered, “If you know what’s good for you, get out now. I’ll spare your lives.”
Xiao Chunhe clicked his tongue, the hand behind his back gripping the phantom stone as he gestured to Yue Jingming. Ye Shijiu looked from one person to another, then glanced out of the corner of his eye at Ji Chen and Ji Luo on the ground. Liang Yun silently took one step backward and pressed closer to Ye Shijiu before giving a disdainful snort. “Hah. As if we’d be afraid of you!”
Lu Yu’s expression turned cold, and his grip tightened around the long halberd. “You overestimate yourselves!”
He gathered his strength and was just about to bring the weapon down on them when, to his surprise, the three people in front of him all stepped backward in perfect unison, as though forming some mysterious array. Lu Yu immediately grew wary and his movement faltered. Xiao Chunhe scattered charm incense from the phantom stone, turned around, hoisted Yue Jingming over his shoulder, while Liang Yun grabbed Ji Chen and Ji Luo. Xiao Chunhe and Liang Yun bolted for the door. Ye Shijiu stayed behind long enough to fling out his red cord and block Lu Yu’s path, then turned and ran after them.
Lu Yu said, “???”
“Quick, quick, quick, run! He’s coming after us!” Ye Shijiu shouted.
“Then hurry up and hold him back!” Liang Yun cried.
“I-I can’t beat him.” Ye Shijiu put all his strength into a leap and vaulted past him. “R-running is the b-best plan.”
Carrying two people, Liang Yun yelled, “Weren’t you the one telling me to run by myself? Xiao Chunhe, you disloyal bastard, why are you running so fast?”
Xiao Chunhe was at the very front with Yue Jingming over his shoulder. “I have four legs. Of course I run faster than you two-legged people!”
The exit was right in front of them when the two great doors suddenly slammed shut. Xiao Chunhe stopped short, set Yue Jingming down, then spun around and grabbed Ye Shijiu and Liang Yun, barely stopping them before they crashed into the doors.
A dark-blue barrier shot up from the ground in an instant, brushing past the tips of their noses. Ye Shijiu watched the strands of hair sliced off by the barrier drift slowly to the ground and silently swallowed.
“You fierce ghost really don’t keep your word.” Xiao Chunhe glared angrily at the approaching Lu Yu.
“Exactly. We were being so sensible, so why won’t you let us leave?” Liang Yun accused.
“N-no wonder you became a fierce ghost. No one even li-likes you,” Ye Shijiu added.
Lu Yu’s eyes instantly turned blood-red. “Say that again if you dare.”
Liang Yun and Xiao Chunhe immediately covered Ye Shijiu’s mouth. Ye Shijiu blinked at them, still unconvinced. “Hmph.”
The dark-blue barrier completely enclosed the charity mortuary. Lu Yu floated in midair, blue-faced and fanged, his blood-red eyes savage as he stared fixedly at Ji Luo and Ji Chen lying on the ground. “Since none of you know what’s good for you, you can stay here with them!”
The coffins in the courtyard began to hum. Corpses strewn all over the ground rose in unison amid waves of ghostly wailing. White banners, spirit lamps, and bright offering candles surrounded them. Lu Yu actually intended to refine the souls of every living person present into that long halberd.
“See? You wouldn’t let me control those corpses, and now Lu Yu gets all of them for free.” Cold sweat covered Xiao Chunhe as he tightened his grip on Yue Jingming’s hand.
Yue Jingming finally gathered enough strength to break the seal on his mouth. His voice was low and hoarse. “Don’t be afraid.”
“Well, that’s just wonderful. Now we won’t even make it to the Yellow Springs or the underworld. We’ll be trapped in that soul banner and tortured forever.” Xiao Chunhe suddenly stopped and stared at him. “You can talk?”
“Thanks to the true qi you gave me,” Yue Jingming said. “No matter how vicious a fierce ghost is, it is still a ghost. All things engender and restrain one another. Brother Liang.”
Liang Yun turned toward him in disbelief. “Brother Yue, you’re not seriously telling me to deal with him, are you? The three of you are this powerful and even you can’t handle him!”
“Precisely because of that. You have no magical power, but purple qi protects your body. Once your Heavenly Eye is closed, you won’t be able to see him.” Yue Jingming lowered his voice. “Since he brought people here, this must be his resting place. Whether we get out tonight depends on you.”
“Wh-what does that mean?” Liang Yun hurriedly grabbed his arm, trying to make him explain in more detail, but Yue Jingming said no more. He raised a hand, drew a talisman over Liang Yun’s brow, and closed his Heavenly Eye.
Liang Yun felt his body suddenly grow heavy. When he opened his eyes again, the courtyard that had been full of flying sand and stones was utterly silent. The dark-blue sky had returned to an ordinary black night. The hideous corpses, Lu Yu, Yue Jingming, and everyone else had all disappeared. Only a desolate compound packed with coffins remained, with tattered white lanterns swaying in the wind and paper money scattered across the ground.
Liang Yun’s knees weakened so badly he nearly dropped to the ground. For a moment he could not decide which was more terrifying: being trapped with everyone else by a fierce ghost, or suddenly standing all alone in this desolate charity mortuary. He called softly, “Brother Yue? Brother Xiao? Little Ye? Yue Jingming!”
No one answered in the sinister courtyard. There was only the wind, whimpering like the cries of ghosts.
“I’m not scared. I’m a living, breathing man. Why would I be afraid of ghosts… Hahaha, ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. There are no ghosts in this world…” Liang Yun clutched the sword in his hand and turned to run, only to suddenly remember Yue Jingming’s warning. He nearly burst into tears. “What do you mean whether you can get out depends entirely on me? Couldn’t you explain yourself clearly? I don’t know any of your magic. I’m just an ordinary man. Fierce ghosts, resting places, what am I supposed to do with any of that…”
His voice abruptly stopped. “Resting place?”
A fierce ghost had once been human too. And where did a person rest after death if not… Liang Yun raised his head toward the densely packed coffins before him and swallowed.
Inside the barrier.
Ji Luo slowly woke and saw Lu Yu fighting Yue Jingming, Xiao Chunhe, and Ye Shijiu in the courtyard. His face went white with fright. Then he turned and saw Ji Chen approaching him with a short knife in hand, and hurriedly backed away. “Wh-what are you doing?”
Ji Chen said, “What Lu Yu wants is your body. As long as you die, everything he’s done will have been for nothing.”
“You can’t kill me!” Ji Luo said hastily. “I-I—”
He racked his brains for a reason Ji Chen should spare him. Back when he had believed himself to be the real Ji Luo, he had wanted nothing more than to kill Ji Chen with his own hands. Now that their identities had been reversed, he could not find a single argument that might persuade Ji Chen to let him go.
“I wronged you. I envied your good fate. I couldn’t accept it. All of this was my fault, but we’re brothers of the same blood…” Ji Luo apologized with complete sincerity.
Ji Chen said quietly, “I’m only going to hold you hostage and make Lu Yu stop. Don’t resist.”
“O-okay.” Ji Luo watched him nervously.
Almost at the same instant, Ji Chen thrust the knife straight at his neck. Ji Luo snatched up the wooden club behind him and smashed it toward the top of Ji Chen’s head. Knife and club collided with a dull crack.
Ji Chen said, “…”
Ji Luo said, “…”
Ji Luo shouted furiously, “You really were trying to take the chance to kill me!”
“Weren’t you trying to kill me too?” Ji Chen sneered. “My perfectly good fate was ruined by you and Lu Yu. I wish I could cut the two of you into ten thousand pieces!”
“Hah! We’re both Ji Xin’s sons, so why should one of us live in heaven while the other lives in the dirt? My mother was hounded to death by your mother and Ji Xin. I do want to kill you. I do want to make the entire Ji family live without a moment’s peace.” Ji Luo stared at him. “You got every good thing. Why?!”
Ji Chen turned toward the short knife that had fallen to the ground. Ji Luo followed his gaze. The two of them lunged for it almost simultaneously, only for the knife to suddenly fly into the air and land in someone’s hand.
“Tsk. So you really did hide the weapon that hurt my wife.” Xiao Chunhe wiped the blood from his mouth. Yue Jingming and Ye Shijiu were still keeping Lu Yu occupied. Xiao Chunhe had been injured again just moments earlier and was using the chance to catch his breath.
Ji Chen looked at the vicious-looking young man before him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What weapon?”
Xiao Chunhe leapt down and seized him by the throat. Lowering his voice, he said, “If I hadn’t been waiting for you to expose yourself, I wouldn’t have bothered pretending to be a good person. Talk. Who sent you?”
Ji Chen’s breathing grew increasingly labored. “I… really don’t understand what you’re talking about… This knife… has always been on me.”
Seeing this, Ji Luo snatched up a stone from the ground and swung it viciously at the back of Ji Chen’s head.
Xiao Chunhe kicked him away and said irritably, “Argh, this is so annoying.”
Elsewhere, Yue Jingming tossed his horsetail whisk to Ye Shijiu. “Ghosts fear yang blood most. Use blood from your fingertip to pin down his soul!”
“Got it!” Ye Shijiu cut his fingertip, grabbed the horsetail whisk, and dragged his hand hard down its length. Blood instantly soaked the whisk. Then he sprang into the air, poured true qi into it, and wound it tightly around Lu Yu.
Flames instantly flared all around Lu Yu. He roared in pain, blue veins bulging across his face as he strained hard enough to nearly tear the horsetail whisk apart. Yue Jingming formed hand seals, and several Ghost-Suppressing Talismans lined up before him. They ignited without flame, transformed into golden light, and pierced Lu Yu’s acupoints. Lu Yu refused to yield. With a sweep of his hand, he gathered the ghost qi surrounding Yue Jingming and drove it straight into his dantian.
Yue Jingming was now an evil ghost and could not resist ghost qi at all. The dense ghost qi collided with his true qi and sent him crashing to the ground. Black blood flowed from his ears, eyes, mouth, and nose, and his soul itself seemed on the verge of leaving his body.
Seeing this, Lu Yu opened his mouth without hesitation, intending to swallow Yue Jingming’s soul whole.
“Lu Yu!” an enraged voice roared.
Lu Yu turned toward the sound, and his eyes suddenly widened.
At the main doors stood Xiao Chunhe, staring at him with a dark expression. The fox demon held two fresh hearts in his hands. He opened his mouth and swallowed both of them straight into his stomach. On the ground lay two blood-soaked corpses: the brothers Ji Chen and Ji Luo.
“What have you done?!” Lu Yu screamed.
Xiao Chunhe clicked his tongue impatiently. He slowly licked the fresh blood from the corner of his mouth, and a foxlike smile spread across his face.
“I told you already. Foxes are the real experts at eating hearts.”