Blade - Unbound

Inside the old ancestral hall of the abandoned village, Sha Lifei could not stop praising him. "Daoist, your craftsmanship is incredible!"

The porters nearby also clicked their tongues in admiration.

Sha Lifei had set out early in the morning, making several trips back and forth to bring back bamboo strips and paper. Meanwhile, Wang Daoxuan had cooked up a pot of paste and worked nonstop from dawn till dusk. Only then did he finally finish all the paper offerings.

Naturally, he couldn't accomplish much alone. But whether it was the tall and exquisitely crafted soul-guiding banners, the Golden Bridge, or the paper wreaths, everything was present. The quality was no worse than what one would find in a proper shop.

"It's only a little knowledge." Wang Daoxuan looked visibly exhausted and shook his head. "Compared to true paper-craft masters, what I've made amounts to nothing."

"You're being modest, Daoist." Li Yan looked over the prepared funeral items and said, "Everyone, eat and get some rest early. We'll need to get up before dawn tomorrow."

Wang Daoxuan nodded wearily. "Little Brother Yan is right."

The porters had participated in countless funerals. Although the one they were about to conduct was somewhat unusual, they were familiar with the process. Moreover, they had spent the day hauling sand, stones, and earth up the eastern mountain, driving stakes, and securing ropes. They were all exhausted. After eating a simple meal of dry rations, they all turned in early.

Night gradually descended, leaving nothing but faint firelight flickering in the center of the village.

Ten li away, beside a wooded hillside, Zhao Kui and over forty men lay hidden. All wore constable uniforms and carried sharp weapons. Serving under Qiao Sanhu, they had long become accustomed to what they did.

Wearing official uniforms meant representing the law. Even jianghu gangs had to step aside when they saw them. Though not armor, these robes were often more useful than armor.

"Any news from the city?" Zhao Kui asked as he stared at the distant firelight in the village.

A one-eyed man replied quietly, "Our people haven't seen any trace of Lu San. As for the Wind Rumor Hall, they claim to know nothing."

"Hmph!" Zhao Kui sneered. "Those jianghu bastards don't know what's good for them. One day I'll get angry and drive every one of them out of Fengyang!"

Then he turned respectfully toward the man beside him. "Mister Lu, the magistrate has business in Capital Passage City tonight. He said everything here is under your command."

"Mhm." Mister Lu grunted and stared at the village. "When the time comes, you'll move out. Stop one li from the village and do not get any closer. I'll perform a ritual and engage whoever is inside. The moment you see a signal from me, rush in. If anyone inside is alive, kill them. I don't care who they are, just ensure no one in there lives."

Zhao Kui cupped his fists respectfully, though suspicion flickered in his eyes. "Yes, sir."

They still hadn't confirmed whether Lu San was even inside, yet Mister Lu already seemed certain. Not only that, he intended to engage in a battle of rituals.

Zhao Kui could tell the corpse-faced man was definitely hiding something; but though he had his suspicions, he wisely kept silent. If he angered the dead-faced freak, Qiao Sanhu likely wouldn't care even if he were killed.

Just like that, everyone continued waiting.

Time slowly passed and before long, some men were yawning. Boredom and dissatisfaction showed on their faces. All of them lived comfortably under Qiao Sanhu's protection, and never worried about food or money. Normally they spent their nights drinking, gambling, and chasing women.

They had expected this to be a simple killing. Instead they had been forced to wait for hours. Of course, nobody dared complain.

A little later, the forest grew colder still. Only then did they notice a layer of white frost had formed on the ground. Far away, several eerie green ghost fires drifted through the darkness.

"C-chief..." One constable gulped nervously. "Something feels wrong."

Even Zhao Kui felt chills creeping up his spine, only to turn to look behind him.

Mister Lu had already opened the black cloth bundle on his back, and had scattered items required to hold rituals everywhere, including willow-wood poles wrapped in white paper streamers.

Seeing everyone's uneasy expressions, Mister Lu sneered. "Tonight is the Hanyi Festival. Naturally, more of my old friends are out.

"Go. And remember, secure every path they might take."

Zhao Kui drew his blade. "Move! Do exactly as ordered! If anyone screws this up, I'll skin him alive!"

"Don't worry, chief, not even a rat will get through!"

The men shouted loudly as they rushed out of the forest. Though they were little more than thugs and scoundrels, many had blood on their hands. They carried a certain murderous aura.

The sudden commotion startled countless birds into flight.

"Idiots!" Mister Lu cursed from behind them. He had deliberately positioned them far away to avoid alerting anyone inside the village.

Ritualists possessed countless strange methods, and a careless disturbance might warn them. Yet those fools had chosen to announce their presence before leaving.

Still, there was no time to scold them. Looking up at the night sky, hatred gradually filled Mister Lu's eyes as a trace of madness flashed. "Junior Brother Wu, after all these years, it's time to settle our accounts."

One by one, he planted the twelve poles into the ground, representing the twelve earthly branches, around a pit dug three feet deep where a coffin rested.

"Begin."

Mister Lu gave the order and climbed directly into the coffin. Several constables had remained behind to assist. Seeing such a bizarre scene, the hairs on their necks stood on end, yet none dared disobey.

Trembling, they sealed the coffin lid before shoveling dirt into the pit, rapidly burying the coffin.

Cold winds started to howl through the forest. More and more ghost fires gathered overhead, swirling above the buried coffin before drifting toward Wu Family Gully.

***

On the eastern mountain, Lu San was sleeping beneath a tree.

Rustle!

A flock of birds suddenly crossed the night sky and landed in the branches above him as they chirped urgently. More birds rose from the forest in the dead of night, their chirps filling the air.

Lu San's eyes snapped open, and he instantly sat upright.

Understanding animal speech did not mean literally conversing with animals. Rather, his hearing divine ability allowed him to interpret the information they exchanged.

The birds had conveyed a simple message: “Opposite mountain. Many people. Yin beings. Danger.”

Lu San stared into the distance, uncertainty flashing across his face. Suddenly he seemed to realize something.

Smack!

He struck himself hard on the head and without another word, he sprinted downhill.

He had finally understood. He had fallen into a trap. Normally his cautious nature would never allow such a mistake, but seeing the desecrated ancestral graves of Wu Family Gully had clouded his judgment.

The people in the village were good people. He couldn’t let them die because of him.

Lu San ran faster and faster, and soon, he was moving on all fours like a beast, leaping through the darkness. At the same time, he blew into a bone whistle hanging from his neck. A desolate, ancient melody echoed through the mountains.

Beast-taming was not as simple as it sounded. There was no spiritual energy in the world, nor were there bloodline contracts. Controlling animals with absolute obedience was almost impossible.

Generally, beast taming followed two paths.

The first was force. Using whips, punishment, and drugs, they would force the creatures to listen to them. Monkey handlers, snake charmers, and Beggar Sect dog tamers all relied on such methods. However, it came with the drawback of backlash. At the mass grave, Li Yan's group had disrupted the enemy's snakes through the use of rituals, causing several evil beggars to die to their own snake formation.

The second path was gentler. It was building trust over time, or using techniques to communicate goodwill. Ancient shamans could sleep in the wilderness while beasts guarded them throughout the night. That too was beast-taming.

Lu San had chosen the second path. His master had been the village fool who served as the temple guardian. No one knew who that fool had once been. No one knew where he learned his martial arts or rituals as he never displayed them publicly.

Only Lu San had inherited them. Raised by a guardian who alternated between madness and clarity and blessed with animal speech from birth, Lu San gradually became unlike ordinary people.

Wang Daoxuan had been right. Lu San was like an old dog within the small Wu Family Gully. But everything there, the sights, the smells, the memories, made him feel safe. Collecting the villagers' bones wasn't just because he loved them deeply. His home had been destroyed and he was lost. All he wanted to do was something for them.

Even his feud with Qiao Sanhu stemmed from the same reason. The whistle's strange melody drifted through the night, waking up the entire mountain. Wherever Lu San passed, venomous snakes slithered from cracks in the earth as badgers and foxes emerged from their dens.

They were like spirits dancing beneath the moon.

***

In the darkness, Li Yan suddenly opened his eyes and yelled, "Everyone wake up! We have a problem!"

His shout startled everyone sleeping in the ancestral hall.

"What is it?"

"Did wolves enter the village?"

The group was still groggy, but they soon sensed something wrong. Though winter had only just begun, the cold should have been manageable with the bonfire. Yet the chill was growing stronger and stronger.

It was pitch black outside, and it was unnaturally silent.

"There are many unclean things outside." Li Yan stared toward the entrance and muttered, "Daoist, find a way to protect everyone. Everyone else, close your eyes. No matter what you hear or see, don't be afraid."

His warning only frightened them further. Still, they obeyed and shut their eyes.

Wang Daoxuan immediately ran to the altar where he had prepared a box of seeds. They were originally intended for the funeral rites, and Sha Lifei had unknowingly purchased several extra jin.

Now, the white rice, yellow millet, red sorghum, green mung beans, and black soybeans were proving useful. They represented the Five Elements and were known collectively as the Five Grains.

As Wang Daoxuan recited incantations and stepped through ritual patterns, he scattered the grains to the northeast and southwest. Those directions were known respectively as the Outer Ghost Gate and Inner Ghost Gate.

His technique was called the Five Grains Warding Rite.

Even after scattering the grains, he wasn't reassured. He immediately produced the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman and Evil-Averting Talisman gifted by Luo Mingzi. After activating them with hand seals, he attached them to the two pillars of the ancestral hall.

He understood perfectly. If Li Yan was this vigilant, the threat was no ordinary one.

Li Yan was equally busy. He immediately brought out the Thundercloud Divine Drum and placed it upon its stand. Taking a horse stance, he prepared himself.

At that very moment, an abnormal scene unfolded outside. One by one, green ghost fires appeared beyond the ancestral hall gate. They floated aimlessly through the darkness.

"Someone is controlling ghosts!" Wang Daoxuan cried out as his expression turned grave. "Tonight is the Hanyi Festival, and yin energies are especially strong. Temples and Daoist shrines perform rituals tonight to pacify wandering spirits, but evil cultivators often take advantage of the occasion. Who has set their sights on us?"

Li Yan shook his head. "No idea."

He had offended quite a few people recently. This might be the remnants of the Maitreya Sect from the mass grave, or perhaps associates of You Laosi.

Who knew?

Wang Daoxuan had no time to speculate. Calling Sha Lifei over, he quickly began constructing a simple altar. His ghost soldier had been destroyed and could no longer scout. All he could do now was support Li Yan with basic techniques.

Li Yan would have to be their main force against something like what they were now facing.

The yin wind intensified, and Sha Lifei pointed toward the southeast while crying out, "Daoist, l-look!"

Frost was spreading across the ground as the grains Wang Daoxuan had scattered began changing. Some suddenly blackened while others crackled and burst apart.

"So many..." Even Wang Daoxuan inhaled sharply. His divine ability only allowed him to discern information through taste. He couldn't directly perceive the number of spirits.

But judging from the reaction of the grains, the amount vastly exceeded expectations.

It was then that...

BOOM!

Li Yan struck the drum. At the same time he unleashed the sacred chant. "Hong!"

Astral qi surged into the drum as the sound exploded like thunder across the night sky. The ghost fires outside instantly scattered and even the grains stopped reacting.

Sha Lifei exclaimed, "Little Yan is amazing!"

Though he knew little of sorcery, he had learned enough from traveling alongside Li Yan and Wang Daoxuan to understand what he was seeing.

"Close your eyes and shut up." Wang Daoxuan immediately warned him. "The emotions of the living alter their life force. That makes them easier targets for spirits. They possess people by exploiting those fluctuations."

Sha Lifei hurriedly shut his mouth, but curiosity got the better of him. He secretly cracked one eye open. Sure enough, the spirits outside began gathering again.

The ghost fires were only the visible manifestation, but Li Yan could clearly smell them. They smelled like rotting coldness and savage bloodlust. Countless clusters of yin entities circled outside the hall, and their numbers continued growing.

Thus, Li Yan stopped holding back.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Hidden force surged through his body, empowering the Thundercloud Divine Drum with every beat. It was slow, then fast. The drumbeats became thunder itself as the countless spirits outside scattered like startled rabbits.

Yet something continued driving them forward. Unable to leave the village, they darted wildly through the darkness, whipping up howling yin winds. To those inside the hall, the wind sounded like countless people crying and wailing.

Wang Daoxuan's face darkened. "It's a Soul-Hooking Curse. No matter whose voice you hear, do not answer!"

As expected, the wind changed as it entered each person's ears. It became the voices of their loved ones calling for help.

Fortunately, Wang Daoxuan had warned them. The porters knew many funeral taboos, and so kept their mouths firmly shut. Still, they were terrified.

Anger finally rose within Li Yan. "You're really pushing it..."

He took out the Three Talent Demon-Suppressing Coin tassel and hung it from the dragon-headed bronze nail on the drum.

This time, activating it proved exceptionally difficult. The two artifacts complemented one another. One embodied icy killing intent while the other embodied the transformations of yin and yang.

The drum amplified the technique's range, and their combined effect was far greater than simple addition. When Shopkeeper Wan had forged the drum, he had warned Li Yan that with his current cultivation, he wasn't yet capable of combining them. Even if he forced it, his soul would suffer severe damage.

What he didn't know was that such damage wasn't truly a problem for Li Yan. The energy stored in his body through Spirit Visualization surged as the rhythm immediately changed.

The Three Talent Demon-Suppressing Coin tassel swayed gently as cold killing intent poured forth. The trace of lightning essence hidden within the thunderstruck wood was fully awakened.

A single thunderous beat shook heaven and earth as the blast rolled outward. Every weak spirit in its path instantly dispersed into nothingness.