Ascension Day

Xu Ying had always been poor. Now, for the first time, he had a few pieces of broken silver. He planned to use it to flee to another region, as a bride price to marry a wife, and he didn’t want to give it up.

"You insolent peasant! What’s that in your sleeve?" Wei Chu sneered. "I have mastered the Eyes of Golden Flame; I can tell if you have silver on you with just one look! However, I cannot accept your silver. Your crime is too great for me to absolve you. The County Magistrate has ordered me to take your life."

Xu Ying breathed a sigh of relief, a hint of joy in his voice. "As long as you gentlemen want my life and not my money, we’re good. If you want my life, I’ll just have to kill you. But if you want my money... I really don’t want to part with it."

Wei Chu snorted and glanced at Huang Siping. "Stone Mountain God, do you want his life, or his money?"

"His money and his life. I want both!" Huang Siping said, his expression impassive. "The City God ordered me to take his life. Since I work for the City God, it wouldn’t be proper for me to demand money. I’ll kill him, then I’ll loot the cash from his corpse. I can’t be expected to work for free!"

Wei Chu’s eyes narrowed. He quietly slid a hand into his sleeve and smiled. "The ruffian Xu Ying murdered Landlord Jiang. That’s a case for the courts of the Mortal World."

The yellow fur on Huang Siping’s face quivered as his hand tightened around his Hundred-Refined Horse-Cutting Saber. "The Jiang Family God was a deity canonized by the Yin Court. For Xu Ying to kill a god is to violate the laws of the Underworld."

Wei Chu offered a smile that didn’t reach his eyes and withdrew his hand from his sleeve. "The Naihe River is passing through. If we work together, we both gain. If we fight, we both suffer. Stone Mountain God, let’s each take a step back. How about we settle this dispute after the river has passed?"

Huang Siping nodded silently.

Wei Chu sat by the bonfire and glanced at Xu Ying. "You were a Snake Catcher, so you must have some ability. Why turn to crime?"

Xu Ying stared at the Ghost Souls screaming as they burned in the bonfire, the corner of his mouth twitching. "The God Lords and the Officials left me no way to survive. A common man has no choice but to kill the God Lords and the Officials just to make a living for himself."

Huang Siping, sitting across from Wei Chu, showed a rare smile. "Mr. Xu, you seem to have a natural talent for getting yourself beheaded."

Wei Chu chuckled. "That’s his demonic Nature. Xu Ying, your demonic Nature is untamable. Even if you didn’t commit a crime today, you would have sooner or later. Look at the Stone Mountain God—he’s been tamed quite well."

Huang Siping said flatly, "Lord Wei, you’re a dog for the Zhou Family, and I’m a dog for the Yin Court. We’re two of a kind. It’s the pot calling the kettle black."

Wei Chu simply smiled, unbothered.

Xu Ying got up and looked outside the temple. The great flood was still surging and rising, having already reached the temple’s entrance. The water was rising more slowly now, but it wouldn’t be long before it submerged the ruined temple completely.

He looked all around. Other than the ruined temple, there was no higher ground to escape the Naihe River.

"Do you two gentlemen know what’s really going on with the Naihe River changing its course?" Xu Ying asked, turning back to them.

Huang Siping and Wei Chu sat before the ghost-infested bonfire, warming themselves. The light cast a sickly green glow on both of their faces.

Wei Chu’s smile looked somewhat sinister. "According to ancient legend," he said, "there is a river in the Underworld called the Naihe River. It’s the Long River that transports the souls of the dead. This river follows its own patterns within the Underworld and rarely changes its course. Only one thing can cause it to divert."

"And what is that?" Xu Ying asked.

Wei Chu’s eyes glowed green in the firelight. He grinned. "Mass death in the Mortal World."

Xu Ying was confused. "Why would mass death cause the Naihe River to change its course?"

Wei Chu did not answer.

Huang Siping spoke up. "The Naihe River is the Long River that receives the souls of the dead. Normally, tributaries of the Naihe River extend throughout the Mortal World. The number of people who die each day is more or less fixed, so the tributaries can handle the flow in an orderly manner. But if a mass death event occurs, and the number of souls far exceeds the usual amount, the tributaries become overwhelmed. When that happens, the main trunk of the Naihe River is forced to change its course!"

He paused, then added, "In other words, a mass death event has occurred in the direction the Naihe River is flowing."

Xu Ying looked in the direction the river was flowing—to the west.

’What on earth happened west of Lingling? Why would the Underworld’s Naihe River invade the Mortal World?’

Xu Ying continued his inquiry. "Isn’t there supposed to be an order to Yin and Yang? The Underworld is the Underworld, the Mortal World is the Mortal World, and each has its own operational Truth. So why has the Naihe River invaded the Mortal World?"

"Excellent question!" Wei Chu praised, but he didn’t answer because he didn’t know the answer either.

Huang Siping also fell silent.

Yuan Qi couldn’t hold back any longer. "The Underworld has been invading the Mortal World for a long time now. The Naihe River has changed course many times. It happened eight hundred years ago—the river diverted, and the Underworld invaded the Mortal World. Later, in the fourteenth year of the Tianbao era, it happened again."

Wei Chu and Huang Siping both turned to look at him, their eyes full of doubt.

The rebellion of Prince Dongping in the fourteenth year of the Tianbao era caused many deaths, which would certainly have caused the Naihe River to divert. But as for what happened eight hundred years ago, not even an old demon like Huang Siping knew.

’How could a minor Snake Demon like Yuan Qi know so much?’

"My family has many books, and I love to read," Yuan Qi said in a refined manner. "For three generations, my ancestors and I have loved books, collecting countless volumes over the past three hundred years. We come from a long line of scholars, a true scholarly family..."

Wei Chu cut him off. "What the hell good is reading? Can it make you an official?"

Yuan Qi looked aggrieved and said no more.

The Naihe River Water continued to rise, finally surging into the ruined temple. Xu Ying and the others immediately leaped up to the temple roof.

However, they all knew that if the water kept rising, it would inevitably submerge the temple, and the Naihe River Water would melt their very flesh and blood!

Wei Chu’s eyes flickered. He glanced at Xu Ying, Huang Siping, and the Snake Demon Yuan Qi. ’The Naihe River may devour flesh and blood,’ he thought, ’but it doesn’t seem to dissolve bone. If the water rises any higher, my only choice will be to kill them and use their bones as stepping stones!’

He suddenly noticed Huang Siping’s gaze flicker as the god secretly sized him up. A chill went down Wei Chu’s spine. ’The Stone Mountain God must be thinking the exact same thing!’

The water rose higher and higher, gradually creeping into the temple’s Great Hall. Naihe River Water also poured in from the rear courtyard, the flood about to reach the well beneath the Bell in the pavilion.

Just as Wei Chu was about to attack and make a corpse to stand on, a brilliant light erupted from within the temple, soaring into the heavens. It was so radiant that they could barely open their eyes.

The resplendent Divine Light shot into the sky and abruptly exploded!

BOOOONG—

An incredibly sonorous bell toll echoed out. The exploding light formed a gigantic, bell-shaped halo that clamped down around the ruined temple. The vibrations from the toll forced the surrounding Naihe River Water back!

On the temple roof, Xu Ying and the others looked on in astonishment. They saw that the great bell surrounding the temple was made of a tangible substance: a thick wall of light!

All sorts of strange patterns surfaced on the Bell Wall, constantly flashing, vanishing, and reforming into different designs.

Outside this great bell of light, the waters of the Naihe River surged ever higher. Fierce Ghosts with savage faces slammed against the Bell Wall, only to be disintegrated into wisps of green smoke by the bell’s vibrations.

Xu Ying and the others felt the air grow warm again, no longer piercingly cold as it had been moments before.

"It’s the Bell from the pavilion in the back courtyard!"

The realization hit Xu Ying. He looked toward the pavilion and saw a brilliant light shining from beneath it, emanating from under the rusted surface of the Copper Bell.

The group descended from the roof and gathered by the pavilion. Wei Chu asked, bewildered, "I never expected to find such a Heavy Treasure in a mere ruined temple. But why would a treasure like this be left hanging here for no one to take?"

Suddenly, the Stone Mountain beneath their feet began to tremble violently, shaking the very earth!

The three men—Xu Ying, Wei Chu, and Huang Siping—hastily grabbed onto the pavilion’s pillars to steady themselves, their faces a mixture of shock and uncertainty.

The light from the Big Copper Bell hanging in the pavilion grew even more brilliant and dazzling. Its glow shone down into the well, illuminating the dark depths. Xu Ying suddenly glimpsed massive, black-iron scales sliding around at the bottom!

It was the body of a behemoth!

He leaned over the well’s edge to get a closer look.

Suddenly, the black-iron scales stopped moving, parting to either side.

From the pitch-black well, a single blue eye with a slitted pupil stared up at him, filling the entire bottom of the well.

Innumerable whispering voices flooded Xu Ying’s mind, and in an instant, a thousand different thoughts raced through his head.