Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“Darling, I can’t get onto the altar!” Lu Changxue cried, panic sharpening her voice.

She had acted so brazenly before because she hadn’t considered these people a threat. Even if something happened, she could always manifest and deal with it herself.

But this was different. A power far beyond her own was present here!

Lu Changxue’s gaze fell on the Twin God, which was emanating black energy. A powerful intuition rose within her.

That overwhelming power was coming from those two chunks of black wood.

After setting Yun Jianyue down on the chair, the middle-aged woman quickly left the altar. The women moved with hurried steps, as though afraid that if they lingered for even a moment, they too would be trapped up there.

Hearing Lu Changxue’s warning, Yun Jianyue opened her eyes and pulled off the red bridal veil. Sure enough, something was preventing Lu Changxue from approaching.

From where she sat, Yun Jianyue could see the entire altar shrouded in rippling blackness, like the surface of dark water.

For some reason, however, she seemed to be the only one who could see this barrier. Even Lu Changxue, a powerful vengeful ghost, couldn’t perceive it.

“She’s awake!” someone in the crowd shrieked, apparently afraid she might escape.

“What are you panicking for? There are so many of us. You think she can get away?” someone else said.

Fifth Elder Zhou made an immediate decision. “Begin the sacrifice!”

Once the ritual began, there would be no escape for the girl.

More than a dozen villagers in strange ceremonial garb swarmed forward. Holding hands, they formed a circle and began chanting incantations no one could understand.

Another villager carried a piglet onto the altar, and the person beside him plunged a knife into its windpipe.

The piglet squealed and thrashed desperately, but its struggles gradually weakened.

Blood spilled across the ground. Beneath the firelight and moonlight, the winding trails of blood slowly and eerily seeped into the soil. In the end, not a single trace remained, as though the blood covering the ground moments earlier had been nothing but an illusion.

Outside the altar, Lu Changxue felt her scalp go numb. As a ghost, she shouldn’t have been capable of such a human sensation, yet as the blood seeped underground, she distinctly sensed something below absorbing everything on the surface.

Everything: the piglet’s blood and the life essence of every person present.

Yet all the villagers had fallen to their knees, bowing devoutly before the Twin God as they silently made their wishes.

No one knew what they wished for, but every wish they made was another step on their inevitable path toward death.

“Darling, can you get away?” Lu Changxue could do nothing but watch in frantic helplessness. She tried attacking with her resentment, but the instant it struck the edge of the altar, it was completely absorbed.

Most terrifying of all, she couldn’t see what had devoured her ghostly energy and resentment.

Yun Jianyue had already loosened the hemp rope around her wrists. She rubbed them and was about to stand when Fifth Elder Zhou suddenly shouted.

“O Twin God, this is the bride we offer to you! Please accept her and grant us your protection!”

The instant he finished speaking, a powerful suction erupted from the chair beneath Yun Jianyue.

Before she could react, a black vortex swallowed her whole, and she vanished.

“Darling!” Lu Changxue’s voice rose into a piercing shriek. Her eyes turned scarlet, her hair whipped wildly around her, and her fingernails grew uncontrollably long and sharp.

What had these people done to her Darling? She would kill them!

Any practitioner of the occult who witnessed this scene would have been horrified. Resentment gathered around Lu Changxue at a terrifying rate, its darkness so deep and impenetrable that it engulfed her entire spectral form.

But if a ghost failed to control its resentment, the resentment would consume the ghost instead.

Murderous intent poured from Lu Changxue. In a near-instant, she flashed across the distance and appeared before Fifth Elder Zhou.
Fifth Elder Zhou remained completely oblivious to the danger. A vacant, besotted smile filled his cloudy eyes. Despite his advanced age, he dropped nimbly to his knees and repeatedly kowtowed toward the altar.

“A miracle! The Twin God has worked a miracle! They have taken the bride…”

Lu Changxue viciously clamped a hand around Fifth Elder Zhou’s throat, but the instant her resentment touched him, an unknown force absorbed every last trace of it.

“Impossible. How can a human absorb my resentment?” Lu Changxue’s mind rapidly calmed. She could not lose control now. If she did, her Darling would truly be finished.

Could Fifth Elder Zhou and the others have become vessels for some kind of power, allowing them to absorb her resentment?

Lu Changxue’s mind raced. She fired another surge of resentment into the middle-aged woman in the floral blouse, only for the exact same thing to happen.

“This won’t work. I need backup.” Lu Changxue turned and cast one last, searching look at the empty black chair. Gritting her teeth, she hurried away.

Meanwhile, Zhou Benxin was walking home, utterly baffled.

“That thing wasn’t even heavy. Why’d he insist I help him carry it? What’s wrong with him?” he muttered.

When he arrived home, he discovered that the water in the pot had nearly boiled dry. He hurried over to put out the fire.

Just then, an eerie gust swept through the room. Every flame inside the stove went out, leaving not even a single spark behind.

Zhou Benxin shuddered. Pressing his palms together, he mumbled, “Grandma, I’m your own grandson. Please don’t scare me.”

Still muttering, he furtively turned around to go find Yun Jianyue.

The moment he did, a hideous ghostly face appeared before his eyes.

“Holy shit!”

Zhou Benxin let out a shrill scream. Despite being a six-foot-tall, one-hundred-and-eighty-pound hulk of a man, he somehow leaped nearly six feet into the air.

Adrenaline flooded his body, and he shot out of the house like a gust of wind. Even as he ran, he remembered to warn Yun Jianyue. “Senior, run! There’s a ghost!”

As Zhou Benxin sprinted for his life, Lu Changxue flashed in front of him.

The female ghost’s face appeared before him once more. Zhou Benxin nearly jumped out of his skin. He dropped to his knees with a thud and begged for mercy. “Great-Auntie, I’ve never done anything bad in my life! Please spare me!”

The resentment surrounding Lu Changxue had grown so dense that it was completely beyond her control. Forget needing the gift of second sight; anyone could see her in this horrifying state.

A piercing noise shrieked inside her head, clawing at her sanity and urging her to slaughter everyone in sight.

Yet at the same time, she knew exactly what she had to do.

Lu Changxue viciously smacked herself on the head and muttered, “Don’t get in the way of me saving Darling. Push me far enough, and I’ll kill myself!”

The blow cleared her head a little. She grabbed Zhou Benxin by the collar and hauled him to his feet. “Zhou Benxin, listen to me. Yun Jianyue is in danger. We have to save her!”

Hearing Lu Changxue speak like a normal person and say that Yun Jianyue was in danger, Zhou Benxin forced himself to calm down.

Once he did, he realized the female ghost looked vaguely familiar. It took him a long moment to place her. “You’re Yun Jianyue’s friend. Lu… something, right?”

Lu Changxue had no time for idle chatter. She grabbed Zhou Benxin and dragged him toward the village entrance, giving him a concise account of the situation as they hurried along.

By the time she finished, Zhou Benxin was furious. He seized Lu Changxue’s wrist and charged forward as though his legs had motors strapped to them, instantly overtaking her.

“They dare lay a hand on my senior? I’ll show them what a young man in his prime can do!”