UCS Chapter 109.1

The moment the Ghost King saw the two fruit trees that had borne fruit for Gao Gusheng, he knew the strength of Gao Gusheng’s spirit-attracting constitution was even more frightening than he had imagined.

 

The Ghost King was arrogant by nature and did not fear the little insects who came looking for trouble, but he did not like having what belonged to him coveted by others.

 

So along the entire wedding procession route, every living thing with any spiritual awareness had been swept clean. Even the escort party sending off the bride was made up entirely of paper figures.

 

Because of this, there was no one to stop Gao Shi and Ying Bujie, and not a soul noticed even when Gao Shi climbed into the palanquin.

 

At this point, Ying Bujie took Gao Gusheng to scout the surrounding area and investigate the Ghost King’s arrangements. If their guess was correct and the Ghost King was a true immortal, there should be a place of ritual sacrifice somewhere nearby used to gather extreme Yin energy.

 

Along the way, they heard ghosts and people saying that the ritual had been moved up to celebrate the wedding. They had to go and rescue the innocent women being used in it.

 

Beyond that, there was no need to worry about Gao Shi storming the enemy stronghold alone. Gao Shi knew that his constitution was the natural bane of ghosts and monsters. It had taken Ying Bujie drawing seven or eight talismans in a row just to get him smuggled into the ghost city. To a ghost city, Gao Shi was what a blazing sun was to a field of snow.

 

And so the wedding procession went on its merry way, horns blowing and drums beating, cheerful and festive, carrying one very formidable guest right into the bridal chamber.

 

What the process of a ghost wedding actually looked like, let alone one personally orchestrated by the Ghost King himself, Gao Shi had no idea. He suspected no one else did either. In any case, Gao Shi sat himself down on the ceremonial wedding bed and found a marriage contract waiting there. Cigarette hanging from his lips, he watched through the smoke as two red threads extended from it: one stretching far off into the distance toward some unknown destination, and another attempting to draw closer to him.

 

The marriage contract bound two people through their birth characters, and the red thread had clearly detected that the person before it was not the true bride. It was trying to retract itself. But Gao Shi grabbed it without ceremony and wound it around a small cloth doll that Ying Bujie had given him.

 

The marriage contract emitted a reluctant red glow, signalling that the ceremony between the two parties was complete. Within a few breaths, the Ghost King pushed open the door and walked in.

 

At the sight of his bride sitting so obediently on the wedding bed, the Ghost King felt a rare flicker of anticipation stir within him. “My bride is being very well-behaved.”

 

The bride sitting beneath the red veil was dressed in a wedding gown the likes of which was priceless: the fabric was Yunjin brocade worth its weight in gold inch for inch; the embroidery was Suzhou silk work of a quality that took ten years to produce a single bolt; golden and silver threads served as the embroidery thread, with gemstones as accents. Every thread of it was worth a fortune.

 

Magnificent as it was, such a lavish gown would ordinarily risk overshadowing the bride’s own appearance. Yet on the person before him, it fit just right.

 

Those hands, though lacking the delicate bonelessness of a woman’s, had knuckles that were defined and refined, like bamboo carved from jade, and right now they were…

 

The Ghost King’s appreciative gaze paused. He suddenly understood the source of the wrongness he had sensed the moment he stepped into the room.

 

His bride, who should have been sweet and demure, was currently sitting on the wedding bed with both legs spread wide apart, each hand resting on a knee, looking for all the world like the boss of a bandit gang.

 

The Ghost King was stunned. Was his bride really this rough around the edges?

 

Though perhaps the little darling was just trying to work up some courage?

 

The Ghost King stepped forward, a trace of amusement rising in his chest despite himself. He reached for the red veil over the bride’s head and said in a suggestive tone, “My bride, once tonight passes, you and I will be husband and wife, acknowledged by the laws of heaven.”

 

“Oh? Is that so?”

 

The voice that responded was rich and pleasant to the ear, but it was absolutely not Gao Gusheng’s voice.

 

The Ghost King sensed something was wrong, but it was already too late to dodge. The instant his hand made contact with the red veil, both the illusion and the talismans concealing Gao Shi’s Yang energy shattered together, and the bride became the bride’s father.

 

The father-in-law, furious enough to set the sky on fire, looked at the deranged old ghost before him who had tried to forcibly take his son as a bride, and drew his axe.

 

“You wretched creature, prepare to meet your end!”

 

The Ghost King shot backward in a flash, but the long axe swept out carrying Yang energy as fierce and overwhelming as raging flames, and still managed to burn off a length of the Ghost King’s hair.

 

How many years had it been since anyone had managed to wound him?

 

Anger ignited in the Ghost King’s chest as well. Not only had this person dared to steal his bride away, he had dared to injure him!

 

The Ghost King sneered. “A mantis trying to stop a chariot!”

 

He spread both arms wide. A torrent of surging Yin energy came screaming outward, black fog thick as quicksand coiling toward Gao Shi. An ordinary person who made contact with even a trace of it would suffer misfortune after misfortune, fall ill and frail, and might even drop dead on the spot.

 

In the dream, he had used this same Yin energy to contaminate the people around Gao Gusheng, earning Gao Gusheng the reputation of a cursed star who brought disaster to all.

 

Unfortunately, this Yin energy was useless against Gao Shi.

 

Gao Shi swung back with a single blow. The heavy long-handled axe moved in his grip as if it weighed nothing, and wherever the faint golden light passed, the Yin energy dissolved like snowflakes under a blazing sun.

 

The Ghost King’s expression turned grave. He knew he had met a genuine opponent this time. He fixed his gaze on Gao Shi. “Are you someone of the Xuanmen path? An old ghost who has seized a body?”

 

Gao Shi grinned, all teeth and no warmth. “I’m your grandfather!”

 

His temper had always been explosive. In ordinary times he kept it reined in out of consideration for Gao Gusheng. But now, faced with someone who had tried to forcibly take his son as a bride and appeared to be the ringleader of what amounted to a human trafficking operation, his fury exploded without restraint.

 

The long-handled axe seemed to feel his rage, and grew with the wind: what had been only an arm’s length before now extended to half a zhang, its entire body wreathed in blazing golden light. Even standing several zhang away, the Ghost King could feel the terrifying heat rolling off it.

 

In Gao Shi’s hands, the long-handled axe moved with astonishing agility: cleaving, hacking, thrusting, stabbing, hooking… a relentless, unstoppable offensive, every strike surging with a Yang energy that made any ghost’s courage crumble.

 

When the Ghost King moved to block, the sleeve on his arm was burned clean off.

 

Who on earth was this person?!

 

His eyes shifted from pitch black to crimson as they locked onto Gao Shi, and then went wide.

 

“Impossible. You are nothing but a mortal who cannot even absorb spiritual energy?!”

 

In the Ghost King’s vision, Gao Shi’s meridians were dim. The spiritual energy within his body, though marginally more than that of an ordinary person, did not even meet the threshold for entry-level Xuanmen cultivation.

 

How could someone like this possibly be capable of wounding him?

 

The Ghost King’s gaze moved to the long-handled axe in Gao Shi’s grip.

 

Could it be… the weapon?

 

For it to be capable of wounding him, it had to have reached the level of an immortal artifact!

 

Could it be a relic from a thousand years ago?

 

The Ghost King looked at the long-handled axe with naked, acquisitive hunger in his eyes. An immortal artifact of this caliber rightfully belonged in his hands!

 

A child wielding a spear: there is power in it, but it is limited. It cannot be brought to its full potential.

 

The man before him had no spiritual energy. He would run dry. Once the immortal artifact’s own spiritual power was depleted, it would naturally lose its effect. At that point, whether this man ended up round or flat would be entirely up to him.

 

With the Ghost King’s discerning eye, he could of course tell that Gao Shi’s Yang energy was stronger than an ordinary person’s. But shrouded as it was by the long-handled axe, he naturally assumed the man was simply borrowing the weapon’s power.

 

The Ghost King flung out one long arm. A sound like ten thousand horses thundering to battle rang out, and Yin soldiers numbering in the millions came pouring in, filling every corner of the ghost city in the blink of an eye.

 

Ghost energy and Yin energy crashed over everything like a wave, with sickness and calamity close behind. The Ghost King flicked his wrist, his voice light and unhurried. “Capture him alive if you can. Kill him if you can’t.”

 

Casual as if he were commenting on the day’s weather.

 

Heaven and earth give birth to Yin and Yang. The two energies engender and overcome each other, ever paired, ever in pursuit. The might of a million Yin soldiers was enough to erode the Yang energy of an entire nation’s living souls.

 

Spiritual energy was scarce in this place, making it hard for ghost souls to retain their consciousness. This man had blazing Yang energy in life, which meant his ghost energy after death would be no small thing. Once this insufferable wretch died and his soul fell into his hands, it would make for a magnificent tonic.

 

Better still if he could be taken alive. His eye had already noted long ago that this man shared a blood connection with the bride he had chosen. With him as a hostage, the bride would fall in line and do as he wished whether he wanted to or not.

 

The Ghost King let out a vicious laugh, watching the countless Yin soldiers surge toward the tiny golden point of light at the center of the ghost city.

 

When the time came, he would make sure to savour his bride over and over right in front of this reckless fool’s eyes, and only then would his rage be satisfied.

 

The Yin soldiers surged forward like a tide, swallowing the golden point of light whole.

 

“Nothing more than…”

 

The Ghost King’s smile froze on his face.

 

That speck of light, minute as a mote of dust among the Yin soldiers, suddenly detonated. Ten thousand zhang of golden radiance erupted skyward, bathing the entire ghost city in a terrifying blaze of gold.

 

The lone figure at the center slowly drew in his long axe, straightened to his full height, looked toward the Ghost King’s direction, and let out a cold laugh.

 

“Nothing more than this.”

 

Yang energy radiating outward, merit protecting the body: around Gao Shi, warm golden light condensed into mysterious golden script that dazzled all who looked upon it. His Yang energy bore down like the Golden Crow itself had descended here. Any Yin energy that drew near vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

 

More terrifying still: after dissolving such a staggering quantity of Yin energy, his own Yang energy had not weakened by even a fraction.

 

“Eight characters of pure Yang, merit carried on the body… with a fate like that, how can you possibly be a mortal?!”

 

“Who in the world are you?!”

 

Gao Shi raised his head. His eyes had turned entirely gold, as though a blazing sun had taken up residence within his pupils.

 

“The person who is going to take your miserable life.”

 

***

 

The place of ritual sacrifice.

 

Yun Zhiyi had been bound tightly and was lying on a frame, transported here.

 

The cold was bone-deep. She struggled upright and found the space around her was vast beyond measure. Standing here, a person felt like an ant that had crawled into a mansion, acutely aware of its own insignificance.

 

At the center of this space was a great pit. The pit, too, was enormous, its depth impossible to gauge at a glance.

 

From within the pit, countless sharp spires of ice jutted upward: some as massive as peaks piercing the heavens, others as slender and keen as spear tips. Atop every single one of those ice columns was skewered a human skull.

 

Some of these skulls had long since become bare bone. Others were midway through decay, their features still faintly traceable.

 

Yun Zhiyi’s pupils shrank.

 

The skull directly before her belonged to the female classmate who had once been left alone in City A by her boyfriend.

 

Half flesh, half bone, her face was coated in a layer of frost. On her lashes, tiny crystals of ice had formed, whether from tears shed in her final moments, it was impossible to say.

 

Yun Zhiyi’s nose stung. She had not expected that the girl she had once searched for so desperately and painstakingly would be found here, like this.

 

Rage welled up inside her. She swept her gaze around. Several hundred people were already lying nearby, and yet the perpetrators were still ferrying more girls in, an unending stream.

 

Most of the girls were unconscious. Only a handful, like Yun Zhiyi, had come to.

 

Perhaps it was fate. Her eyes landed immediately on Tian Mian, who was just blinking open her eyes in confusion.

 

“Mianmian!”

 

Tian Mian had not regained consciousness since being abducted. Her memory was still at the moment she had fallen asleep on the film set.

 

She searched about in bewilderment for Yun Zhiyi’s face. “Zhizhi? Am I dreaming?”

 

She looked around. She saw the ice pit. She saw the heads.

 

All colour drained from Tian Mian’s face.

 

Yun Zhiyi immediately shuffled toward her, positioning herself to block her line of sight. “It’s alright. It’s alright.”

 

Tian Mian was timid by nature. She buried her face in Yun Zhiyi’s neck, her whole body shaking. “Zh, Zhizhi, is this… are we filming something?”

 

Yun Zhiyi pressed her cheek against Tian Mian’s. The warmth of skin and the familiar scent of her closest friend gradually settled Tian Mian’s nerves. From Yun Zhiyi’s silence, she understood the answer.

 

Tian Mian drew a deep breath and forced herself to lift her head, taking stock of their surroundings. Yun Zhiyi spoke quietly to comfort her. “Do you see that person over there in the Northeast floral padded jacket? He is a police officer. Backup is coming soon. We are going to be fine.”

 

But unease continued to gnaw at Tian Mian. Her sixth sense was sharp, especially when it came to Yun Zhiyi, and it was almost never wrong.

 

She said softly, “Zhizhi, let me see if I can get the ropes off you.”

 

The two of them searched for a while but could not find the knot anywhere.

 

It was as though the rope were a single seamless loop, like a rubber band, drawn snug around a person.

 

But Yun Zhiyi had been conscious when they tied her up. She clearly remembered it had been an ordinary rope.

 

The unease in Tian Mian’s heart grew heavier and heavier. She simply bent down, took the rope in her teeth, and began trying to gnaw through it.

 

Tian Mian had exceptional teeth, neat and strong and pretty. There was no snack packaging she could not bite open.

 

Yun Zhiyi watched with worry and tried to stop her. “Mianmian, stop. There is something wrong with this rope.”

 

Tian Mian gnawed away in stubborn silence until the corners of her mouth were rubbed raw and bleeding, yet the rope showed not the slightest sign of wear.

 

Just then, the ferrying of girls finally came to a stop, and two men walked in.

 

One of the men had a woman tucked under his arm.

 

The other frowned. “This one is not a virgin. What did you bring her in here for?”

 

The man holding the woman laughed and ran a hand over the woman’s face. “The ones who aren’t get dealt with by us anyway, don’t they? I bought this one.”

 

The man’s hands grew bolder and bolder, moving from her face toward the inside of her clothes. “A big celebrity… and affordable!”

 

The woman seemed to finally reach her limit. She gave a sudden violent struggle, and in that moment her face turned toward Yun Zhiyi’s direction. It was Yun Wan.

 

Clearly Yun Wan had spotted Yun Zhiyi too. Her eyes went red in an instant. “Zhizhi! Zhizhi, save me!”

 

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