Chapter 126
Chapter 126
The moment the Pawnshop’s doors opened, Li Qingying and I stood frozen on the threshold for a full thirty seconds.
Outside, it seemed as if the whole world had changed.
The sky was black. The ground was black.
All of Wufu Town was shrouded in a haze of black moisture.
Aside from the Pawnshop and the West Street Entrance, every building and tree seemed to have vanished.
Under the eaves to the west, the Hexagonal Palace Lantern swayed ceaselessly. Its golden Light of Merit flickered erratically, extremely unstable.
The ghostly green fireflies bobbing inside the lantern were equally restless.
Looking out from the West Street Entrance, our gazes fell on the river nearby, and we were stunned once again.
Nine Human-Skin Red Coffins floated at different points across the river. Nine iron chains stretched taut, and at the exact center of them lay the Black Coffin.
It was too far away for me to make out what was on the Black Coffin. All I could see was an ominous red glow enveloping it, as though blood were streaming down its sides.
Yin Wind spiraled over the river. With the Black Coffin at its center, the Formation drew in an endless stream of Souls from the surrounding black miasma, while indistinct shadows churned beneath the roiling water.
Above the Black Coffin, layer upon layer of dark clouds had formed a massive, slowly turning vortex, with faint flashes of lightning flickering within.
On the riverbank stood an enormous White Hedgehog, Yellow Weasel, and Giant Rat. Aping human manners, they held their forepaws together before their chests and bowed devoutly toward the Formation.
Even more surprising was the sight of Second Master Liu standing at the edge of the darkness to the north.
My gaze instinctively swept over every visible corner once more, searching for the Fox Lord.
The ritual on the Zhu Pan River clearly wasn’t a matter involving only the Bai and Huang Families. It concerned something far greater… but what?
The ground was still trembling. The low roars beneath it, like the growling of bulls and tigers, had never stopped. Every roar was accompanied by crashing thunder and bolts of lightning.
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind. Could it be… Could there really be something beneath Wufu Town?
Was everything they were doing meant for whatever lay underground?
“No. We can’t let this Formation be completed,” I said grimly. “Once it is, we’ll all die!”
With that, I charged out. As I raced toward the Riverside, I summoned, “Fengwu, come forth!”
The Longbow appeared in my hand. I drew it to full draw and fired shot after shot at the Formation on the river. Blazing projectiles tore through the darkness and hurtled toward the Black Coffin.
But an invisible barrier had formed around the Formation. The instant the flames struck it, they shattered into pieces.
Soon, another woman’s figure came into view.
She wore a red-and-black archery outfit and held a bow in her hand.
She drew the bowstring taut. A sharp whistle split the air, and I felt the air itself turn into an arrow shooting straight at my face.
It was Feng Lishu.
I wasn’t surprised to see her here. After all, I had already discovered that she was working with the Bai Family.
I had always been her target.
Li Qingying raised her Long Whip and charged, but before she could lash out, an enormous falcon suddenly appeared behind Feng Lishu. Its long, sharp beak stabbed toward Li Qingying’s eyes.
The falcon was far too agile, its attacks swift as lightning. Li Qingying dodged left and right, yet she was no match for it.
In the blink of an eye, Feng Lishu was already standing before me.
She advanced one step at a time. When she was less than three meters away, she abruptly tossed aside the Longbow. Raising her right hand, she pressed it to the spot between her brows, traced it down the bridge of her nose, and formed a hand seal before her lips.
Then she commanded sharply, “Linu, kneel!”
The three sharp syllables rang out with steely force, like a muffled thunderclap splitting my skull apart.
The name “Linu” swelled endlessly in my mind, growing larger and larger until it threatened to drive me mad.
Who was Linu?!
“Linu, kneel!”
Those three syllables, laden with endless humiliation, burst from Feng Lishu’s lips once more and struck directly at my soul. My legs turned to lead, refusing to move no matter how hard I tried.
A dull ache throbbed in my knees. No matter how desperately I fought to stay upright, it felt as though a pair of invisible hands were pressing down on my shoulders, forcing me toward the ground.
The moment Feng Lishu came to a steady stop before me, I finally buckled under the pressure and crashed heavily to my knees at her feet.
She bent down and leaned close, whispering, “Surprised? Have you remembered yet? Who is Linu?”
I gritted my teeth and glared at her.
She only smiled. “Don’t look at me like that. Hu Yulin won’t make it out of Yin Mountain today, and Liu Junyan won’t make it through the doors of the Pawnshop. I don’t have to put on an act for anyone anymore. Linu, no one can save you.”
She reached out and patted my cheek. Her soft, pale fingers slowly traced the contours of my face, her eyes brimming with greed and resentment. “I was clearly born to a nobler lineage, so why has everyone always favored you? Linu, are this face and this body of yours really so wonderful?”
I raised a hand to slap hers away, only to realize that I couldn’t move at all.
Feng Lishu seemed to have cast some kind of spell on me, leaving me completely immobilized.
She gripped my chin with her right hand and moved behind me, pressing her face close from the rear. Tilting my chin up, she forced me to look at the Formation ahead.
“Do you know what that is?”
“That is the Nine-Yin Spirit-Gathering Formation.”
“Someone is going to become a god tonight!”
Her lips almost brushed my ear as Feng Lishu enunciated every word. “Look, Linu. Becoming a god is actually this easy. All you need to do is find a body that was destined to ascend, use the Nine-Yin Spirit-Gathering Formation to gather enough Souls to withstand the coming Calamity, and you can successfully ascend.”
She let out two low chuckles before continuing, “And even if it fails, it doesn’t matter. There are hundreds, even thousands, of Ghost Soldiers beneath the water, all bound by a Seal. Once so many Souls are fed into it, the Seal is certain to break. Even without becoming a god, that person can slaughter their way to a realm of their own. Someone like that deserves to become one of the supreme rulers of heaven and earth, don’t you think?”
Horror surged through me.
So the Black Coffin had contained nothing but a puppet all along.
The person who intended to use that puppet and the Nine-Yin Spirit-Gathering Formation to ascend was someone else entirely?
“It’s almost time,” Feng Lishu said, a crazed gleam in her eyes. “Linu, you’ll be free soon. Once I become you, I’ll reclaim everything I lost because of you, exactly as it was.”
“Perhaps I can even use this opportunity to achieve Nirvana and ascend as well. Yes, we’ll ascend together!”
As she spoke, Feng Lishu seized the nape of my neck with one hand. A pair of fiery red wings suddenly unfurled behind her, beating hard as she carried me straight into the Nine-Yin Spirit-Gathering Formation.
Souls were being sucked into the Nine-Yin Spirit-Gathering Formation in an endless stream, brushing past my body as they went. My hair had already fallen loose, and amid my helpless panic, I saw it rapidly turning white.
One strand at a time, one lock after another, until great swathes of it had turned white and streamed wildly in the Yin Wind…