Chapter 45: Soul-Stealing

A wave of frustration calmed Lin Feiyu down, leaving him with an even deeper sense of respect for Uncle Hai. When dealing with matters outside his area of expertise, it was truly wise to listen to the experts.

"Uncle Hai, how is Zhao Yi holding up?" Zhao Qian asked with a hint of worry. After all, Zhao Yi was her cousin, and she didn't want the Zhao family to have to prepare another coffin.

Uncle Hai raised his hand, intending to perform a divination, but I stopped him. "Qian, don't worry," I said. "Zhao Yi is shouting loudly enough. He doesn't have much courage, so at most, a lightning strike landed near his feet and scared the wits out of him. If he had actually been struck, he'd be long gone by now; there's no way he'd still be making a fuss."

"Indeed, young brother Xia is certainly right. We should hurry up the mountain," Lin Feiyu chimed in, knowing full well that conserving Uncle Hai's energy at this moment was of the utmost importance.

Realizing that her momentary panic had almost brought further hardship to Uncle Hai, the quick-witted Zhao Qian understood immediately, a deep wave of guilt washing over her.

However, seeing that our group was still preparing to press forward, she kept her words to herself and asked no more.

As we neared the summit, Uncle Hai stopped us. He produced his Bagua turtle, took out a paper figurine, and performed a few hand incantations. He had each of us surrender a strand of hair, which he bound together with the paper figurine and the Bagua turtle before releasing the creature.

The Bagua turtle stretched out its head, turned back to look at Uncle Hai with an almost human expression of reluctance, and then began to crawl painstakingly up a different path toward the peak. We were filled with curiosity, but Uncle Hai, his eyes reddened, waved us onward with urgency.

"Brother Hai! That is your sympathetic-destiny turtle! You've raised it and fed it alongside yourself since it was small!" Lin Feiyu protested, his expression turning ashen.

"There is no time to worry about that!" Uncle Hai shouted, taking the lead and breaking into a rapid jog. As a result, he stumbled on the path and nearly toppled down the mountain.

I caught him just in time, noticing that his body felt deathly cold. Given the pouring rain, if he didn't return to the manor and take to his bed immediately, he would likely collapse. For him to perform sorceries in this state was tantamount to seeking his own death.

"Uncle Hai, whatever happens later, you must not perform any more spells," I said. Knowing my advice might fall on deaf ears, I had to speak up nonetheless.

Uncle Hai merely nodded, but the unyielding determination in his eyes sent a chill through my heart. There was no doubt he had no intention of listening.

Yet, just as we were a mere step away from the summit, the relentless rain suddenly grew sparse.

Uncle Hai gazed up at the sky, his fingers twitching as he calculated, then looked toward the distant sympathetic-destiny turtle dragging the paper figurine. He let out a long sigh. "Ah, the rain has stopped. We have arrived too late."

True to his words, the rain ceased entirely. We exchanged glances, utterly bewildered.

Lin Feiyu hurried ahead and rushed to the mountaintop. But upon catching sight of the altar set up upon the flat boulder, he stomped his foot in fury. "You wretched swine! If your destiny is so stubborn, you should have had the guts to stay and fight! I'll tear your soul to shreds, damn you!"

Wu Zhenghua had actually escaped?

It seemed Lin Feiyu's desire to show off had been thwarted once again.

Supporting Uncle Hai, I followed him to the summit, while Zhao Qian ran back to retrieve the Bagua turtle. Believing the immediate vicinity to be safe for the moment, I let her be.

Watching Lin Feiyu stamping his feet in frustration, I felt a mixture of pity and relief. Loud though Lin Feiyu's boasts might be, if he were to face Wu Zhenghua in single combat, I truly lacked any confidence in his chances.

Besides, had Wu Zhenghua dared to remain here, he surely would have believed his trump cards sufficient to destroy us. A direct confrontation would have been entirely unpredictable; that fellow's power far exceeded imagination.

Aside from the primary ritual implements, everything else remained on the altar, including the used paper talismans strewn about in complete disorder. Specially crafted incense was still emitting a strange, eerie wisp of smoke amidst the damp air, having burned more than halfway down.

I picked up a stack of burned blue paper talismans and noticed that among the remnants, the spell inscriptions had been blurred into unrecognizability by the rainwater. However, one talisman, burned past the halfway mark, still retained glowing powdery crystals.

Puzzled, I looked toward Uncle Hai. "Uncle Hai, these talismans look just like your blue ones. Are they coated with salt?"

"Much more expensive than that. He even resorted to blue talismans, which cost several thousand each. Looking at this stack, it must be worth well over a hundred thousand; that's a fortune," Uncle Hai joked, maintaining his composure as he picked up a talisman. "Those blue talismans are coated with powdered gemstone, what we call ritual salt. A single coin's weight costs tens of thousands. Wu Zhenghua used them to summon lightning—one used for each strike. It's terribly expensive; ordinary people simply can't afford it."

"Several thousand for a single piece?" I gasped in shock. Didn't that mean when Uncle Hai casually tossed out several blue paper talismans earlier, he was throwing away tens of thousands? Who wouldn't go bankrupt using them like that?

"Money is likely a minor matter to him. Look instead at these brownish stains on the red cloth. Hehehe, that old ghost will have to stew his family's old hen to recover after going back," Uncle Hai sneered, inspecting the altar.

"Hmph, if he didn't spit up some blood, he'd truly be slighting us. Still, I'd say Brother Hai is far more formidable than him," Lin Feiyu grunted, staring at the bloodstains with a sense of grim satisfaction.

Wu Zhenghua had not fared well either; he had been pushed to the brink of collapse just like us, and with no stamina left for a desperate death-struggle, flight was his only option.

"That's only because he was out in the open while we were in the shadows. Had he known beforehand that it was the two of us old fellows coming up, he likely would have fled much sooner and wouldn't have gambled away so many blue talismans," Uncle Hai said in high spirits. Although they hadn't managed to eliminate Wu Zhenghua this time, the adversary had suffered heavy injuries all the same.

"Wait, where is Zhao Qian? Why hasn't she returned after going to fetch the turtle?" Lin Feiyu suddenly recalled something and whipped his head around toward where Zhao Qian had gone.

In my preoccupation with supporting Uncle Hai, I had completely forgotten that Zhao Qian was still behind us!

Just as a sense of foreboding gripped us, Zhao Qian emerged from the tree line carrying the turtle, a radiant smile plastered across her face.

My heart plummeted. I instinctively touched the soul urn tucked in my pocket, my eyes flushing red.

"She is only a young girl. Mountain deity, whose body could you not borrow, of all choices?" I gritted my teeth, fixing a murderous stare upon the 'Zhao Qian' before us.

'Zhao Qian' seemed rather amused, letting out a soft, giggling laugh as she looked at me. She squatted down slightly and set the turtle on the ground. "Oh? You speak of the person from the mountain foot? Unacceptable. Since I must borrow a vessel to be reborn, naturally I must choose a suitable one."

Lin Feiyu opened his metal case, retrieved a coffin nail, produced a handful of powder resembling fine salt, lit a black incense stick, and sprinkled the powder over it.

Uncle Hai shook his head, formed a hand seal, and pulled out a blue paper figurine. Frowning deeply, he said, "Release this child, or else..."

"Originally, I intended to simply depart with you all, but since you were able to pierce my identity at a glance, you must be formidable practitioners. If I do not eliminate you, I fear I cannot peacefully settle into this borrowed body," Zhao Qian smiled faintly, flicking her sleeve as if shaking off dust.

In an instant, a chilling wind swept through the forest, accompanied by phantom beast cries. A horde of at least a dozen ghostly beasts poured out from the woods!

"Very well, since you refuse to leave her vessel, I will make your soul scatter into dust!" I declared coldly, ripping the cover off the soul urn!

Upon emerging from the urn, Xijun instantly let out a furious roar. Her eyes were pitch-black and heavy with menace, glaring balefully at her surroundings, her razor-sharp teeth bared as if ready to devour anyone. I had never seen her take on such an appearance the moment she was released, but right now, the Zhao Qian standing before us was in mortal peril!

"Young brother Xia! Easy!" Uncle Hai was well aware of my current condition. Furthermore, upon seeing Xijun's appearance, a deep unease gripped him—this was clearly the final, frantic madness before an urn shattered and a soul was obliterated.

He had witnessed the fate of the captive ghosts raised by Senior Zhou Xian, and every single one had ended this way.

"I cannot take it easy!" I gritted my teeth. This was no ordinary malevolent ghost; her spiritual intelligence was extremely high, and after borrowing a physical vessel, her vital yang energy had breached the yin barrier, enabling her to speak human words. It was as if she had become a completely different person, and I was terrified she might extinguish Zhao Qian's original soul entirely.

"Let me communicate with her!" Uncle Hai urged hastily, turning his gaze to the mountain spirit. "Mountain deity, I wish to ask, is this child's original soul still present?"

'Zhao Qian' glanced briefly at Xijun, then swept her gaze across the three of us before speaking at a leisurely pace. "It is present, but... I shall refine it shortly, and I will inherit her memories as well. Rest assured, the karmic ties she leaves behind, I shall fulfill. However, this body I certainly will not relinquish."

The mountain spirit seemed to feel this was the utmost limit of her courtesy, but the veins on my forehead throbbed violently, my endurance reaching its absolute breaking point.

"You cannot keep this body. Name your terms! Otherwise, as you can see, it can only end in a fight to the death," Uncle Hai reached out to block me, asking with one final thread of hope.

"Hehehe, a fight to the death? Among the three of you, one raises a malevolent ghost he cannot even control, another can barely manage self-preservation, and the remaining one has some ability, but you exhausted it all just a moment ago. On what grounds do you speak to me of a fight to the death? Do you realize that earlier, when that Daoist priest discovered I was not killing you but instead staying to watch him perform his rituals, he was frightened right out of his wits and fled?" Zhao Qian covered her mouth with her hand and chuckled, her shoulders shaking with mirth.

Behind her, the ghostly beasts began to roar as the ambient yin energy surged violently.

"Then go to hell!" I pressed my middle finger between my teeth and bit down hard until it bled. Ignoring the sisterly figure of the lady pulling at my hem, I smeared a rhombus-shaped mark directly onto Xijun's forehead, drawing a single bloody stroke straight down to her lips.

Xijun, who had already been somewhat losing her reason, grew even more ferocious upon receiving the spell inscription. Her arms hung limply at her sides, and her mouth split open viciously all the way to her ears.

A ghostly beast lunged toward her, only to be caught in her grip and instantly torn to shreds!

Both Uncle Hai and Lin Feiyu sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

"Xijun! Tear that mountain spirit out of Zhao Qian's body!" I bellowed my command to Xijun.

The mountain spirit on the opposite side frowned slightly as well. However, rather than idling, she retrieved various items from Zhao Qian's person—warding talismans, soul-fixing talismans, and a variety of ritual artifacts.

Selecting the last of them, she picked up a string of soul-summoning bells, a charming smile playing across her face.

"Jingleling, jingleling, a gust of wind, a chime of bells. Someone speaks, someone murmurs: the thunder rolls deep, the rain is pitch-black, the gibbons chirp sadly, the macaques wail at night, the wind sighs bitterly, the trees rustle bleakly, yearning for my lord, leaving only empty sorrow..."

The song was mournful and haunting. Stirred by the melody, the ghostly beasts grew restless, and the chiming bells drove Xijun into a frenzy. She flew about snatching and tearing at any phantom beast she could find, completely ignoring the mountain spirit dancing and shaking the bells.

Uncle Hai was surrounded by several ghostly beasts, repeatedly beating them back with his yin-yang paper figurines. But as a spent force, he could no longer sustain it; as he chanted his incantations, a frothing spray of blood erupted from his mouth, impossible to stem.

Lin Feiyu could only rely on his iron nails and white powder to deal with such entities, and now that Uncle Hai was wounded, he could barely protect himself, let alone drive away the mountain spirit.

The crisis deepened by the second. Under the joint siege of the ghostly beasts, Xijun's yin energy steadily withered, bringing her perilously close to the state of a shattered urn and a destroyed soul.

Amidst the mountain spirit's song, my focus shattered completely, and a crushing despair welled up within my heart.

Zhao Qian had her body usurped by the mountain spirit for rebirth, Xijun was about to have her soul scattered into nothingness, and a pack of ghostly beasts swarmed around me. I collapsed onto my knees, my fingers clawing at the mud and stones until they bled, a single word echoing relentlessly in my mind: *Death*.

"Courting death!" At that exact moment, a light, crisp shout shattered the deadlock.

The mountain spirit's singing abruptly ceased at the sound of that voice.