Chapter 992: Yin-Yin Bone Pagoda Suppressing Immortals

In the wasteland near Qinghua Temple at the West Gate of Zhigu City, there was a vast expanse of graves of all sizes. Grave pressed against grave, piled up, squeezed, and crushed together; no one knew how many mounds were crammed into this single spot.

This was precisely the mass grave west of Zhigu City, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of souls in the city—commoners, porters, and the sailors of the Salt Transport Gang coming and going from the south and north.

Just the floating corpses washed down from the Jiuhe to the Haihe every year numbered in the hundreds that had to be buried here!

Floating corpses from the Haihe, passing merchants, refugees fleeing famine, the destitute who died without heirs, ruffians killed in brawls, the road-dead who starved, the nameless victims of robbery—any corpse without a path or kin to claim it would be buried here.

Because there were too many graves, there was no room left to bury them!

Hundreds of years ago, a monk and a Daoist persuaded the magistrate of the time to build two tall pagodas to collect those scattered bones.

Then, the wealthy merchants and various guilds of Zhigu City raised funds to hire people to collect the exposed bones from everywhere, enshrine them in the pagodas, and handle the funeral rites for these remains, as well as for the widowed, the lonely, and the destitute families without support.

For this purpose, a Bone-Covering Society was specially established, holding the "Ten Thousand Ghosts Assembly of the Bone Tianhou Niangniang" on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month every year, "summoning souls and pardoning the lonely," and "resolving grievances and releasing hatred" before the Bone Pagoda!

During the day, pedestrians and merchants passing through the West Gate would take a detour; at night, no one dared to come, and there wasn't a single household within a radius of ten miles.

Today, however, a group of ginseng seekers from the north, wearing deerskin coats and dog-fur hats with earflaps, marched in a line through the graveyard and arrived at this place.

The old man in the lead kept his hands tucked in his sleeves, hunched over. On his face, full of wrinkles and the marks of wind and frost, a pair of eyes were exceptionally bright, watching the path of the canal from the south. At the edge of the sky there, a remnant of the sunset's afterglow seemed to linger, long refusing to dissipate, as vibrant as fresh blood.

The old man's expression was solemn as he whispered, "The Ghost Carriage drips blood; an omen of great misfortune!"

A sturdy man beside him took up the conversation: "Second Master, in such a bustling place with so many people, how bad can the misfortune be? Can it be worse than the old forests in our Northeast? There isn't even a single bear around here. Those ruffians who invited us, acting tough and brawling, winking and posturing for half a day without moving—can they be as fierce as the bandits in the forest who kill at the drop of a hat?"

"Those Ghost-Faced Bears, wearing coats and hats, coming down the mountain to knock on doors and eat people—which winter do we ginseng seekers not encounter that once or twice?"

"The bandits in the forest, they shoot the moment they meet someone, coming down the mountain to rob money and women, slaughtering villages at will. The mountain caves even eat human flesh, neither human nor demon..."

"Old Seven..." The old man turned his head to look at him. "Do you want to stay here?"

The young man called Old Seven opened his mouth. Thinking of the joy of watching plays, juggling, and visiting brothels these past few days, he nodded fiercely. "This Zhigu City has so much more fun; I don't want to go back to the old forest anymore!"

The few young men beside him didn't dare to speak, but there was no lack of agreement in their eyes.

"Second Master" took a deep breath of white air, watching it dissipate in the night sky. He whispered, "I know it's fun here too. In past years, when we searched the mountains for treasure, a single hundred-year-old ginseng could only buy a few acres of land, enough to live comfortably for a few years at most."

"Zhigu is good!"

"A hundred-year-old ginseng is worth several hundred taels of silver; how joyfully one can spend that! Going to restaurants, the list of dishes I've never even heard of; listening to plays, storytelling—wow! Real skill! Truly wonderful. Crosstalk, that's real talent, and listening all day isn't expensive. Good things from the south, trinkets from the capital, and the curiosities sent by foreigners from overseas... how good it is!"

There was light in Second Master's eyes too, but he changed the subject: "But this is also a place that eats people without spitting out the bones!"

"The storytellers and crosstalk performers, the actors with painted faces, the medicine sellers, the jugglers, the wrestlers, the thieves and burglars, and those martial artists!"

"How much skill must these wanderers have to make it in this Zhigu!"

"We ginseng seekers know the rules of the forest, but the rules here... do you understand them? That pair of hundred-year-old Yin-Yang Blood Ginseng cost us six lives; the entire ginseng gang was almost destroyed! But that was just a precious medicine raised by the nobles of the capital. We just wanted to live a few good days, and didn't the Shaman Sect come knocking? When their sect leader sits down, even our household immortals have to kowtow."

"We sent the Blood Ginseng up, but they didn't want it..."

Second Master patted his chest: "They scattered silver like water, but what they wanted was our lives!"

"Yet even such a fierce Shaman Sect leader almost lost his life on the first day he entered Zhigu. Five Great Immortals, not one survived!"

"These days they've been supplying us with good food and drink, spending nearly three thousand taels of silver, just to have us deliver a petition, enter this mass grave's Bone Pagoda, and kowtow when we see the Tianhou Niangniang! Child, how could it be that simple?" Second Master said earnestly.

At this moment, someone behind them came running up, panting.

It was a four-eyed Daoist priest wearing Western-style glasses, with a satchel slung over his shoulder, one hand holding a compass of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, and the other leaning on a chess banner. Out of breath and pale, he ran over: "Go... let's go! The Yin qi is heavy, don't linger!"

Second Master, the ginseng seeker, saw him recover his breath in the blink of an eye, revealing a powerful foundation in breath-cultivation. Moreover, ginseng seekers from the old forest had much taboo and reverence for monks and Daoists, so he cupped his hands: "Sir, take it slow. Are you the Daoist priest Four-Eyes from South Maoshan who is here to meet us for the ritual?"

Four-Eyes seemed somewhat distracted and urged, "Hurry, let's go! The Dragon Gate in the south has opened, alarming many ghosts and gods. This thousand-year-old mass grave has countless vengeful spirits and fierce ghosts. We'll talk after we get to the Bone Pagoda."

Once these words were spoken, everyone had no choice but to quicken their pace.

Ahead, several shadows flickered in the mist, seemingly all watching them.

The young men of the ginseng gang were somewhat nervous, but they still headed toward the direction of a six-story pointed pagoda that had appeared in the mist that had risen from nowhere.

The grayish-white mist in the air rose in curls, dry and white, not like a damp mist, but more like a kind of smoke emerging from the cracks in the ground. As the white mist shrouded this space, the world became chaotic and murky, as if a light illuminated this place, and one could not tell if it was night or day.

Four-Eyes lit a bundle of sandalwood incense and handed it to everyone: "This mist is Yin qi mixed with Heavenly Corpse malevolent qi. The Yin qi is one thing. Don't let the Heavenly Corpse malevolent qi enter your bodies. A major illness is a small matter; if you get corpse poison and turn into a zombie, it will be troublesome!"

The faces of the few young men turned white.

At this moment, Siyan slapped his forehead and called out, "Forgot! Zombies are a small matter; just the day before yesterday, I lost a Corpse King in Zhigu! That Corpse King had been refined by the White Lotus Sect's Saintess into a Nine-Eyed Fire Drought Demon. Logically speaking, Zhigu should have suffered a severe drought for at least three months, but it rained just a few days later."

Daoist Four-Eyes chatted idly, one sentence after another, while observing them intentionally or unintentionally from the corner of his eye.

"I had a few little disciples collect a few buckets of rainwater. The rainwater in Tianjin Port is fishy, the rainwater of the Jiuhe is yellow, the rainwater of the South Canal is strangely heavy, the rainwater of the North Canal is cold, and the rainwater at this West Gate has extremely heavy corpse qi, with earth qi hidden within."

The grayish-white corpse qi gathered toward them, but the sandalwood incense circled them, pushing the corpse qi away.

Occasionally, a few wisps fell, but they were countered by a faint medicinal fragrance on the ginseng seekers, failing to enter their bodies.

Siyan glanced at them: "Even the Nine-Eyed Fire Drought Demon couldn't disperse the clouds here, which means there are quite a few things around Zhigu that can compare to that Drought Demon. There is one at the Ximen mass grave, also a Corpse King, and furthermore..."

Second Master, the old ginseng seeker, already had a solemn expression when he heard the words "Corpse King."

He stopped in his tracks!

At this moment, the other half of Daoist Four-Eyes' sentence was spat out from between his teeth: "Moreover, it is most likely an Earth Immortal!"

Daoist Four-Eyes gripped the copper coin magic sword on his back with a backhand. The white mist in front of him was already as thick as a curtain. Behind the white curtain, a shadow ten feet tall, with long arms and long legs, was standing in front of everyone.

Just looking at the shadow, it was almost as tall as the Bone Pagoda. Its hair was tied in a bun on its head, and its hands were like those of a divine statue, pinching a seal with fingers together. As the wind blew, the magic robes on its body fluttered.

Daoist Four-Eyes shook the Yu Sansheng Exorcism Bell urgently. The sharp ringing pierced the white mist, causing the ginseng seekers, whose consciousnesses had fallen into silence with the appearance of that figure, to wake up suddenly. Second Master, the old ginseng seeker, hurriedly took down the package from his back, opened his hands to drape it, and it was a white deerskin robe.

"I'll cover the immortal!"

Second Master gave a sharp shout, and the white deerskin robe in his hands shrouded toward the tall figure.

The mist was sliced open by the bell ringing, and a pair of claws with strangely long fingernails reached out from the white mist.

Its left hand's thumb, middle finger, and little finger were gathered in the palm, pinching the Yu Sansheng Seal. The fingernails were nine inches long, growing on fingers as withered as tree branches, like small daggers.

Its right hand, five daggers, clawed toward Second Master's heart...

The bronze magic sword slashed onto those fingernails, emitting the sound of metal clashing, and even sparks collided and burst forth. Daoist Four-Eyes retracted his sword and retreated rapidly. The talisman paper in his hand struck out like lightning, turning into three orange-red fireballs that landed on the figure.

The white deerskin robe wrapped around the figure like a living thing. The fireballs landed on the white deerskin, instantly burning into a man of fire, and the scorching Yang qi rushed toward them.

Second Master's face showed joy, and he shouted: "Samadhi True Fire!"

He pulled out a red thread in his hand and flew forward, intending to strangle the figure's neck, but Daoist Four-Eyes behind him shouted: "Retreat quickly!"

Hearing this, Second Master flew up and shrugged his body. His feet stepped on the grave mounds on the ground, leaving two deep footprints, and his whole body turned rapidly, flying backward. However, he saw the figure's sleeves flying and turning, long sleeves fluttering, sweeping away the white deerskin that was like a living thing.

The long sleeves rose from under the claws, wrapping around the magic sword.

At this moment, the ginseng seekers finally saw clearly: those were no sleeves at all, but clearly strands of white hair like feathers and threads. Dense white hair like a horsetail whisk wrapped around the bronze magic sword, instantly dragging the sword into the white mist.

The figure bit the magic sword, and the sound of metal grinding clearly came from the mist. It lowered its head to gnaw on the magic sword, and in just a moment, it bit the Maoshan magic sword to pieces and swallowed it.

Daoist Four-Eyes took down the box from his back, and four bronze mirrors shot out light. He held one in each hand, and two more hands extended from under his ribs, each grasping one. The mirror light of the four magic mirrors converged on one spot.

"Lesser Yin, Lesser Yang, Old Yin, Old Yang. Four Symbols Converge, Avoid Demons and Suppress Evil! Qin King Bone-Illuminating Mirror, Appear!"

The mirror light pierced through the white mist and shone on the figure's face.

It could be seen that most of its face was already covered by white hair a foot long, with only a pair of purple eyes revealed. There was not a bit of the turbidity of a zombie or a dead person, but a sense of non-human alienness!

The white hair fluttered in the wind, like fluttering sleeves, making it look as if the Corpse King was wearing a tattered yet clean and elegant crane cloak.

Its head was pointed, like a high crown, and in the vast mist, it looked like an immortal from the ancient times standing alone in the world...

The faint light in its eyes was still dazzling under the convergence of the four mirror lights!

"Earth Immortal!"

Daoist Four-Eyes' eyes revealed a sense of horror. Even though he had guessed several times, witnessing this ten-thousand-year-old Corpse King at close range, an existence equivalent to an alternative longevity realm, still shocked his heart, and the glasses on the bridge of his nose slipped off in a panic.

"Senior, since you have already become an immortal, why make things difficult for us juniors!"

Daoist Four-Eyes bit his fingertips and pressed them against his temples on both sides of his forehead. Bloodshot eyes burst out, and red veins pierced his pupils. However, he saw the pupils suddenly squirming and splitting into two, sliding toward the left and right sides of the whites of his eyes. Within the four pupils, divine light surged, staring at the figure in front of him.

The figure reflected in the four pupils suddenly raised its head, and the Earth Immortal's entire face filled the iris.

"You... are... also... an... immortal..."

As if the strings of an instrument were pulled, the hoarse corpse language, which could not be distinguished as wind or human voice, clearly fell into Daoist Four-Eyes' ears.

"Four... Eyes... Double... Pupils... Your... past... life... has... also... already... become... an... immortal!"

"Then..."

"Why... are... you... still... coming... back?"

Daoist Four-Eyes' pupils trembled, and the two black irises collided constantly in his eyes, as if they wanted to merge into one again. The bloodshot eyes also became more and more numerous, until the two eyeballs rolled and rotated under the eyelids, even drilling toward the depths of the eye sockets.

The white deerskin robe that fell on the ground gradually became full. Under the fur coat, it seemed as if countless rabbits and mice were drilling. Gradually, a white deer raised its head high and stood up from the ground. The mist above its head surged and split into a crack, and a wisp of moonlight fell.

Daoist Four-Eyes suddenly raised his head, staring at the moon above his head.

In his pupils, the silver moon occupied everything.

In those eyes, the shadow of the Earth Immortal gradually faded, and finally, the bloodshot eyes retracted behind the eyeballs bit by bit.

In the bright moon within the double pupils of both eyes, a laurel tree gathered from flesh and white bones grew silently. The laurel branches stretched out like countless arms and fingers, clawing at the iris from the deep pupils and drilling out.

Those arms grabbed the shadow of the Earth Immortal reflected in Daoist Four-Eyes' eyes bit by bit.

One, two, palms with seven or eight fingers pressed onto the Earth Immortal's face. As four, five, or six hands slowly covered the Earth Immortal's face completely, the shadow of the Earth Immortal reflected in Daoist Four-Eyes' pitch-black pupils was gradually dragged into the bottomless pupils by those countless arms, like the crown branches and leaves of a laurel tree stretching out!

Opposite, the Earth Immortal in the heavy mist fell into silence. Even though wrapped in mist, the ginseng seekers could still feel its indifferent gaze like that of an immortal god.

In the distant Bone Pagoda, the sound of a chime rang out suddenly.

The Earth Immortal disappeared into the mist in an instant, or rather, it merged directly into the mist. Immediately, the mist parted, and the Bone Pagoda in the moonlight appeared abruptly before everyone's eyes.

"Praise the Lord of the Yin Mirror!"

Daoist Four-Eyes, who had come to his senses, wiped the cold sweat that didn't exist on his forehead, called everyone, and stepped onto the Bone Pagoda. ===== CHAPTER 993 =====