Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Lou Qianqian hung up the phone and burst into loud, wracking sobs.

Everyone else immediately crowded around her in alarm.

“What happened? Did something happen to Qiao Moyu?”

Lou Qianqian shook her head through her tears, then nodded.

“They’re not going to make it. She said they were going to protect us to the very end and take out the other evil ghosts at the entrance. Waaah-”

Jiang Yan started crying too.

“It’s all my fault. I should have come up and said something earlier. Then she wouldn’t have mistaken that doll for me and chased after it. She did it to save me. It’s all my fault!”

Lou Qianqian sobbed, “Yeah. Qiao Moyu is always so noble, and I was such a bitch to her before. I’m not even human-”

Ling Ling said, “Waaah, me too. I was biased against her before too. I deserve to die!”

Several of them broke down wailing. Then, all of a sudden, they heard a chaotic rush of footsteps coming from the entrance.

Everyone immediately swarmed to the window.

Lou Qianqian covered her mouth in shock.

On the road outside the entrance, one side was packed with a dense, seething mass of dolls, while the other side was a horde of evil ghosts. Black clouds pressed down overhead, and sinister ghostly energy filled the air. Just one glance was enough to scare the soul out of a person.

Hua Yuling and I stood back-to-back at the entrance. Our thin figures were like a tiny skiff adrift in raging waves beneath the night sky, ready to capsize at any moment.

Lou Qianqian’s heart clenched with grief. Crying, she opened a livestream and sent it to the group chat.

“Qiao Moyu is about to die. Everyone, come see her one last time.”

Jiang Haoyan: “Impossible. Where are you? What are those things around you? Stuffed dolls?”

“Tell me the address. I’ll come over right now!”

Class monitor: “Everyone, calm down. That’s Qiao Moyu we’re talking about. I believe she can definitely take down those evil ghosts.”

Lou Qianqian wailed.

“There are too many of them. More than a hundred evil ghosts, and so many moving dolls. It’s just her and Hua Yuling.”

“Waaah, we’re all going to die here.”

Outside, the wind howled. The ghosts gathered, and waves of yin wind blew so fiercely that people could barely keep their eyes open.

Hua Yuling and I were covered in wounds and utterly exhausted.

Luring over this many ghosts had been a truly perilous journey. Several times, we’d been hanging by a thread.

I leaned my weight against Hua Yuling’s back.

“Ready?”

Hua Yuling nodded.

“Do it.”

We clasped each other’s hands tightly, and I silently recited the Golden Light Mantra.

“The Mysterious Ancestor of Heaven and Earth, root of all qi. Cultivated through countless kalpas, bear witness to my divine power. Golden light within my body, shine forth and shield my form.”

A layer of golden light rose from Hua Yuling and me, piercing through the gray fog.

Sand and stones whipped through the air. Yin energy pressed in from every side. The horde of ghosts and dolls surged toward the center together, swallowing the two of us whole.

Everyone at the window let out a scream of despair.

“No-”

Hua Yuling smeared the blood from earlier across our overlapping wrists. Then she murmured an incantation under her breath, and countless red bloodlines suddenly shot out from our bodies, wrapping around the dolls.

I shouted, “Within and beyond the Three Realms, only the Dao reigns supreme.”

“By urgent order, as law commands!”

The next instant, bang! Bang! Bang!

Countless dolls exploded in the darkness, like a dazzling, magnificent fireworks display.

Overhead, the thick black clouds churned layer by layer, roiling as they retreated.

A full moon hung high in the sky, its pure white light spilling over the earth.

The wind stilled. The clouds cleared.

Hua Yuling and I were knocked to the ground by the violent shockwave from the explosions.

Under everyone’s stunned gazes, I patted the dust off myself, stood up, and said calmly, “That wasn’t as hard to deal with as I thought. Scared me for a second.”

“I almost thought I was going to die here.”

Hua Yuling nodded, even calmer than I was.

“Everything’s fine now. You can come out!”