Blade - Unbound

Steward Lu from the carriage guild was visibly surprised by Wang Daoxuan's actions. "Hm?"

He formed a hand seal, and a faint divine radiance seemed to flicker within his pupils. It was clear he possessed a sight related divine ability, allowing him to see through the wind and snow and observe the scene within the ruins.

Beside him, although Tie Shigu found Steward Lu rather disagreeable, he could not suppress his curiosity and asked, "Steward Lu, what's happening over there?"

Steward Lu nodded and explained, "According to the intelligence our guys gathered, Daoist Wang only had an average reputation in Xianyang. But from what I see now, that assessment was completely off. Snake Ghost Granny attempted to disrupt him using her gu snakes, but their intelligence must have been inaccurate. They didn't know Daoist Wang is also proficient in curse arts. If I'm not mistaken, that's the Secret Curse of the Seven Arrows.

"After obtaining the opponent's aura, he didn't rush to cast the curse. Instead, he calmly completed all his preparations first, proceeding steadily without haste. He already possesses the bearing of a true practitioner.

"In Daoist ritual duels, setting aside the superiority of one's techniques, remaining calm under pressure and keeping a clear mind are the true keys to victory."

"Excellent." Tie Shigu's eyes lit up. "So that means we've already won?"

Steward Lu shook his head. "Not necessarily. Snake Ghost Granny has a notorious reputation. She's an expert at concealing herself, and has escaped the Enforcement Hall several times. She is naturally no ordinary opponent. However, curses are the least reasonable of all techniques.

"It all depends on whether Snake Ghost Granny can destroy Daoist Wang's ritual altar before the curse takes effect..."

While he explained the situation to everyone, Snake Ghost Granny's expression changed slightly as she sensed something amiss. Abandoning her own ritual midway, she immediately took out a tortoise shell and stuffed several copper coins inside. She quickly formed a hand seal, chanted an incantation, shook it several times, and suddenly scattered the coins onto the ground.

Clatter, clatter!

She moved with astonishing speed, casting the coins six times in succession.

She was performing coin divination. When a coin landed face up, it represented yin. When it landed face down, it represented yang. By casting six times, one obtained the Six Lines, forming an ancient method of divination.

That was what a true ritual duel looked like. Mystic arts had originally been created to avert disasters and avoid calamities, and thus followed a standard sequence. First came divination, then came observing taboos and avoiding ill omens. Only afterward came rituals to dispel misfortune.

Ritual duels between sorcerers followed the same principle. Very often, the two sides established ritual altars far enough from one another that they could not even see their opponent. The moment something felt wrong, divination became the means of discerning the enemy's methods.

That night, the wind and snow were fierce. Coupled with the darkness and the ruined palace walls obstructing their vision, this was no different from fighting entirely across empty space.

Snake Ghost Granny's face darkened as she instantly concluded, "Marsh Over Water?! Oppression! That's great misfortune!"

The duel had only just begun. How was there already an omen of great calamity? If no outside force had interfered, then the only explanation was the flaw she had exposed earlier, the gu snakes! If her divination was correct, her opponent was using an extraordinarily vicious curse!

"Xiong Baodong, you've ruined me!" Snake Ghost Granny let out a furious roar before biting the tip of her tongue. Forming another hand seal, she spat a mouthful of blood onto one of the black jars before her. Instantly, yin winds howled around her.

In the distance, Xiong Baodong frowned upon hearing her shout, and he sneered. "Has that old hag gone senile? When did I ever ruin her life?"

Beside him, Liu Wenchen gave an awkward smile. "Perhaps the intelligence we collected was inaccurate. In ritual duels, a single mistaken judgment can place a sorcerer in grave danger."

Then he lowered his voice. "Chief Xiong, Snake Ghost Granny is vicious by nature and never forgets a grudge. You had best be careful in the future."

Xiong Baodong nodded expressionlessly. "Mhm."

Subconsciously, he rubbed the jade disc hanging before his chest as killing intent flashed through his eyes. Having lived in Chang'an while committing countless wicked deeds, he had never lacked blood on his hands. Many families had been ruined because of him.

Naturally, he had long taken precautions. He had leveraged his many connections to finally obtain this jade disc from the Shang Mountain Daoist lineage. It had cost him an enormous fortune, but no evil ghost could approach its bearer.

With this treasure protecting him, combined with his formidable external martial arts, once he closed the distance to a ritualist, he could crush them to death with his bare hands.

It seemed that Snake Ghost Granny couldn't be allowed to live after tonight.

While Xiong Baodong was still lost in thought, Snake Ghost Granny had already completed her ritual. The yin winds grew increasingly violent, swirling together with the blizzard into a miniature cyclone surrounding her ritual altar.

At the same time, the black jars before her began rattling violently. Then, tiny handprints and footprints appeared upon the snow-covered ground, as though countless infants were crawling across the earth.

Cold air surged and frost even began forming upon Snake Ghost Granny's ritual altar.

"Behave yourselves." Savagery flashed across her eyes as she grinned viciously. "My little ones, go devour that Daoist's soul. I'll feed you incense offerings afterward.

"But if you disobey... I'll burn you beneath corpse candles for three whole days.”

With a shrill scream, she thrust her hand forward while forming another hand seal.

"Go!"

Immediately, the yin wind merged with the snowstorm, raising wave after wave of snow that charged toward Wang Daoxuan from every direction.

Yet Wang Daoxuan remained perfectly calm. Using his peachwood sword, he struck the Wandering Soul Jar before him three times.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

At the same time, he waved his ritual banner. "My friends, protect my ritual!"

Several streams of black smoke instantly erupted from the Wandering Soul Jar. Yin winds likewise surged forth, colliding head-on with the incoming waves of snow. The gales howled and the cries of infants mingled with the wails of malicious ghosts.

Even the ordinary jianghu members from both sides could hear them clearly, and every face turned pale. Although Chang'an had many practitioners of the Daoist arts, they were scattered among the common people and rarely stood out. For many of those gang members, that was the first time they had ever witnessed a genuine ritual duel.

The eerie spectacle sent chills down their spines.

The spirit soldiers under Wang Daoxuan's command had all been collected from the ruined Cold Altar temples in Shangzhou. Each was an exceptionally fierce Cold Altar Soldier. The daily incense offerings had already completely subdued them. Strictly speaking, each was slightly stronger than an ordinary malicious ghost.

However, there were simply too many Infant Ghosts and the two sides quickly reached a stalemate. Neither could overcome the other.

Seeing her Infant Ghosts held back, Snake Ghost Granny finally grew ruthless. With obvious reluctance, she produced a tiny white porcelain doll from her robes. It was tied with a red cord, only the size of a palm, snow-white from head to toe, and exquisitely crafted.

That was a Calamity-Blocking Doll she had seized after murdering someone. It had been crafted by a hermit from another province and could block a single curse. Though she cursed inwardly, Snake Ghost Granny moved without hesitation.

Biting her fingertip, she dabbed a drop of blood onto the doll's eyes. The porcelain doll had been made according to the exact specifications used for divine statues. After its consecration, only the final touch of painting in the eyes had remained.

Now, with blood-red pupils, the doll appeared incomparably sinister, so much so that Snake Ghost Granny suddenly felt that the doll was looking back at her.

She cursed, "Bah! So what if you've developed a spirit? You'll obediently block this calamity for me!"

She quickly placed the doll at the southeast corner of her ritual altar. Though she had fallen behind because of faulty intelligence, her spellcraft was profound enough that she had already divined the direction from which the curse would arrive.

Having done that, she picked up a drumstick carved from human bone and began striking a wooden fish carved from a human skull, chanting continuously under her breath.

So what if it was a curse? If she destroyed the opponent's ritual altar, the Daoist would die screaming from the backlash of his own curse. Though neither side could actually see the other, the tension only continued to rise.

Meanwhile, Wang Daoxuan had also completed his preparations. The restraint ring had already been secured around the straw effigy.

He then stepped in the formation of the Big Dipper while chanting, "Dark are heaven and earth, hidden are sun and moon. Invisible shadows form the shroud. Let it cover all evil beings. Heaven covers, earth covers, gods cover, ghosts cover. Let the villain fall into confusion and be trapped within my shroud. Seven arrows above the crown, piercing the heart day and night. Move urgently as I command!"

After finishing the incantation, he picked up a small willow-wood arrow from the table and viciously drove it into the straw effigy's head.

Crash!

The white porcelain doll upon Snake Ghost Granny's altar instantly shattered.

Snake Ghost Granny roared in fury as her human-bone drumstick struck even faster. "You thieving Daoist, I'll never forgive you!"

Rattle!

As though some unseen resonance had been triggered, Wang Daoxuan's ritual altar began trembling violently as well. The candle flames flickered wildly and every ritual implement upon the altar shook uncontrollably.

This was how Daoists destroyed the opponent's altar!

Every ritual altar followed the same principle. It temporarily borrowed astral qi and killing qi from the earth to establish its own formation. Once disrupted and destroyed by hostile arts, every technique relying upon that altar would immediately fail. The spellcaster would likewise suffer severe backlash.

The means of resisting such attacks were equally straightforward. One must either possess an exceptionally powerful inner deity, or possess a treasure capable of suppressing and stabilizing the altar.

Only the orthodox sects and major Daoist lineages with deep foundations possessed such things. Snake Ghost Granny's method of breaking the ritual was undeniably ingenious. After all, she clearly wasn't a disciple of one of the great orthodox lineages.

Otherwise, no matter how much money she had been offered, she never would have accepted this job.

So what if he knew curses?

Surely... He couldn't possibly possess an altar-suppressing treasure?

Yet Wang Daoxuan did not hesitate in the slightest. He simply slammed the Summoning Writ directly onto the ritual altar. At that exact moment, Snake Ghost Granny's drumstick descended and the skull-shaped wooden fish exploded instantly.

The balance of qis upon her ritual altar collapsed as a tremendous force erupted upward from beneath the ground, instantly overturning the entire altar.

Snake Ghost Granny suffered immediate backlash. Blood sprayed from her mouth as she collapsed to the ground.

Terrified, she cried out, "Fellow Daoist, spare–"

Before she could finish speaking, her expression froze. Tiny black handprints began appearing across her neck and across her body, as though countless infants were clutching her tightly.

Wang Daoxuan cast the curse once more. Picking up another willow-wood arrow, he viciously drove it into the straw effigy's head.

The second it penetrated the effigy, the latter burst into flames as Wang Daoxuan finally let out a breath of relief. He could feel the killing qi surrounding him gradually dissipating.

Over the course of the duel, even his eyebrows had become coated in a thin layer of frost. The Secret Curse of the Seven Arrows borrowed the yin killing qi of the earth veins. Ordinary ritualists could withstand only three arrows and thus, he could only drive three arrows into the figure.

Only those with profound cultivation and extraordinary comprehension could drive a fourth, or a fifth. Each additional arrow became exponentially more difficult.

The burning straw effigy proved only one thing. The opponent had died.

Listening to the cries of infants carried through the snowstorm, Wang Daoxuan vaguely understood the truth.

He sighed softly before taking out another Wandering Soul Jar. "Souls, return home."

Waving his ritual banner, stepping in the formation of the Big Dipper, and forming hand seals, Wang Daoxuan employed the soul-summoning technique of the western mystic path lineage.

Though he possessed exceptional talent for the Secret Curse of the Seven Arrows, the arts he practiced most often were still those that soothed souls and dispelled calamities.

Simply put, he was someone blessed with astonishing aptitude for black witchcraft. Yet his temperament caused him to devote himself wholeheartedly to white witchcraft instead. Those techniques were as familiar to him as breathing.

Very soon, all the Infant Ghosts scattered throughout the storm were gathered into the Wandering Soul Jar.

Wang Daoxuan immediately tied a red cord around the jar and affixed a Soul-Suppressing Talisman to it before speaking solemnly, "Rest assured. I shall perform rituals for seven consecutive days. I'll free you from your prison and guide you across."

"Hahaha!" Outside the ruins, Tie Shigu had already received the news. Stroking his beard, he burst into hearty laughter. "Xiong, so what if you've gathered all these monsters and demons? They still died here today!

"Just you wait, after tonight, I'll personally report you to the Enforcement Hall for harboring demonic criminals!"

"What demonic criminals?" Xiong Baodong sneered without the slightest concern. "You must've gone senile, old fool."

Meanwhile, several of his subordinates had already rushed into the ruins and carried Snake Ghost Granny's corpse to the bonfire.

Tie Shigu's expression instantly darkened. "You!"

Xiong Baodong replied calmly, "Black Granny of Tianshui met an unfortunate end. I'm simply helping cremate her so her ashes can be returned to Tianshui.

"What demonic criminal? What does any of that have to do with me?"

Tie Shigu merely snorted and said nothing further. He knew perfectly well that the corpse of a demonic cultivator alone would never be enough to bring down the Fire Bear Gang.

Xiong Baodong was far too cunning, and had countless ways of escaping responsibility.

Though he had managed to win the verbal argument, having lost the first match still left Xiong Baodong in a sour mood. After a moment of silence, he turned toward someone beside him.

"Sir, It seems I'll have to trouble you."

The person he addressed wore white robes and a bamboo hat with a white veil concealing his face. Clearly, his identity was anything but ordinary. Even Xiong Baodong's tone carried a trace of respect.

"Mhm." The man seemed equally uninterested in speaking with Xiong Baodong. Without another word, he walked toward the ruins.

Steward Lu of the carriage guild suddenly seemed to recall something. In a low voice, he said, "Concede this round immediately. Don't fight."

By then, Wang Daoxuan had already returned. His face was pale, and he staggered with every step. Seeing his haggard figure, Sha Lifei hurried over to support him.

Hearing Steward Lu's words, he turned around in astonishment. "Why? Daoist Wang worked so hard to win us the first round. If we concede now, wouldn't that just crush our own morale?"

Steward Lu barked sharply. "What do you know?! That man's aura is so deeply concealed that even I can't perceive it. His movement techniques are also extraordinary. Also, he's proficient in close combat.

"I've heard that Yue Fachong from the Prince's Manor once had ties with the Fire Bear Gang. That man is most likely a disciple of the Shang Mountain Daoist lineage. He may even have already reached the third level of cultivation.

"Sending someone against him would only invite humiliation. They might even lose their life. The Shang Mountain lineage's techniques are no joke."

Li Yan's brows also furrowed. Since Yue Fachong backed Qiao Sanhu, Li Yan had deliberately investigated the Shang Mountain lineage long ago. It too was an ancient inheritance with a formidable reputation.

Its origins traced back to the famous Four Elders of Shang Mountain: Dongyuan Gong, Xiahuang Gong, Qili Ji, and Master Lu Li. Disgusted by Qin Shi Huang's burning of books and burying of scholars, they withdrew into seclusion upon Shang Mountain, leaving behind a legendary reputation that endured for centuries.

However, they possessed another identity as well. They had once served as Court Academicians. While retreating into seclusion, fearing that countless pre-Qin classics would be destroyed, they had secretly smuggled many texts out of the imperial collection, and concealed them deep within Shang Mountain.

The legend of the Scripture Cave of Shang Mountain had attracted treasure seekers since ancient times. After all, it supposedly contained innumerable lost pre-Qin classics. Finding even a single volume could fetch an astronomical price, let alone an entire hidden cave filled with them.

Yet throughout history, not a single person had ever found it. The Shang Mountain Daoist lineage, meanwhile, traced its origins to the disciples who had accompanied and served the Four Elders. Having themselves learned mystical arts, they had secretly preserved many of the ancient techniques once collected by the Qin imperial court.

Thus, a new Daoist lineage was born. Those pre-Qin mystical arts had descended from ancient shamanism before eventually giving rise to the Fangxian Dao. Even after a thousand years of refinement and disguise, their fearsome reputation had never diminished.

In short, they were extraordinarily difficult to deal with. Deep down, Li Yan also felt that conceding this round was the wiser choice. Yet just as he was about to speak, his nose twitched.

Looking behind him, he smiled. "Senior, you're late."

A pale-faced man carrying an enormous soul-summoning banner over his shoulder strode through the wind and snow. The person who arrived was none other than Shen Sanyou, the helper introduced by Luo Mingzi.

His footwork was extremely peculiar. Though he appeared to stagger with every step, he moved at remarkable speed, arriving beside Li Yan almost instantly.

He shook his head and sighed. "Couldn't be helped. Some bastards laid an ambush outside. A whole bunch of them were firing arrows everywhere. Their methods were truly despicable."

Tie Shigu's expression immediately darkened upon hearing this. Turning toward one of his disciples, he barked, "Didn't we already clear the area? Why are there still people left? Take men over there immediately!"

"No need." Shen Sanyou grinned mischievously. "I couldn't be bothered to dirty my own hands, but the other fellow Daoist has quite the murderous streak. He's busy killing people at the moment. Let's not spoil his fun.

"Oh, so someone's already gone in. I'll take this round."

With that, he casually shouldered the soul-summoning banner and walked toward the ruins.

"Senior, be careful. He's from..."

Li Yan had barely spoken when Shen Sanyou let out a strange chuckle. "Relax. Just another little brat from Shang Mountain. We're old rivals."

With that, He hoisted the soul-summoning banner onto his shoulder and began to sing, "Those who live rejoice beneath splendid halls, yet all return at last to lonely mounds. Cut off from the mortal world across ten lands, beneath a thousand years of empty snow... Ay yo hey..."

The soul-summoning banner swayed in the wind and snow as his mournful song echoed through the night.

Across the field, Liu Wenchen's face instantly turned deathly pale. "Oh no, it's the Night Crier!"