Chapter 129
Chapter 129
The river continued to rise. Suddenly, a Black Coffin rose upright from the water. The ground began to shake more violently, and everyone’s attention was soon drawn toward it.
I didn’t dare linger, nor did I waste time standing on ceremony with Lord Xiao. I turned and ran toward Tang Xun and the others.
As I ran, I shouted, “Sister Qingying, get everyone back to the Pawnshop! Everyone!”
Li Qingying immediately called out to Tang Xun. Tang Xun rushed to take Senior Sister by the hand and summon the black-clad men.
But Senior Sister didn’t move.
Black mist swirled around the Thousand-Soul Banner. It was clearly struggling to absorb any more.
Sweat covered Senior Sister’s small face, and her complexion was deathly pale. The spell had taken too great a toll on her mind and spirit. She looked as though she wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.
Yet when she heard my voice, her empty eye sockets still turned toward me.
Even without eyes, I could still feel the intensity of her gaze.
Tang Xun tugged at her. “Yu Nian, we’re pulling out.”
Yu Nian shook her head. “No, I can’t leave. The Ghost Soldiers have formed ranks. This is when Junior Sister truly needs me!”
With that, she gripped the Thousand-Soul Banner and strode toward me.
She couldn’t see, yet her steps were uncannily steady.
It was as if she had measured every inch of the Riverside with her own feet countless times before.
I immediately broke into a sprint. Every extra step I took was one less she would have to.
But when only five or six meters remained between us, the sharp clatter of hoofbeats suddenly rang through heaven and earth. Then came the perfectly synchronized tramp of an army advancing across the water.
Thunder rumbled through the clouds overhead. Beneath them, ranks of Ghost Soldiers stretched from earth to sky, an immense black mass that extended beyond the horizon.
Yu Nian stopped advancing. She planted the Thousand-Soul Banner on the ground with one hand while the fingers of her left hand moved ceaselessly through divination signs.
Lord Xiao had already led his troops out to meet the ranks of Ghost Soldiers.
Zhao Zixun drew the saber at his waist, squeezed his horse’s flanks, and charged straight at Lord Xiao.
The people stationed at the Riverside suddenly wheeled around and swept in to encircle us.
They had come tonight intending to wipe us all out.
Li Qingying, Tang Xun, and the others fought as they retreated, anxiously calling for Yu Nian and me.
I had already reached Yu Nian’s side. “Senior Sister, we can’t keep this under control anymore. We have to retreat now.”
Yu Nian didn’t answer immediately. Her fingers ran through the calculations again and again. Her empty eye sockets turned north, then back toward the Pawnshop, as though she couldn’t make up her mind.
But soon, she faced north again and said softly, “Don’t be afraid. There’s still a way to turn this around.”
“A way?”
Confused, I followed her gaze. In the darkness, a small figure suddenly flickered into existence on the river.
He was barefoot and dressed in a dark-red long robe. A white sash embroidered with runes was wrapped around his waist, and all his hair had been gathered atop his head and secured with a wooden hairpin.
Blood pooled beneath his feet, and he held a triangular Red Banner in his hand.
“It’s the Red Banner Child!”
Even this little fellow had shown up tonight.
Back when I handed the Red Banner to the Red Banner Child, Li Qingying had also extended an olive branch to him.
But the Red Banner Child had politely declined, saying he needed to enter seclusion.
He hadn’t appeared once since then. I’d thought he would never have anything to do with us again.
Yet tonight… he had appeared at this life-or-death juncture.
Wherever the Red Banner Child appeared, war was sure to follow.
And the Red Banner in his hand was a ritual artifact capable of commanding Ghost Soldiers!
His tiny, bloodstained bare feet tapped rapidly across the river’s surface as he raced toward Lord Xiao. He swept the Red Banner through the air, and his childish yet ringing voice echoed over the river again and again:
“Dim and dark, obscure and unseen; Heaven and Earth are born as one. Scattered, they become qi; gathered, they take form…”
The Red Banner whipped through the air as the chant echoed. The Ghost Soldiers that had stood in perfect formation, poised to attack Lord Xiao’s group, froze rigid on the river’s surface as though their acupoints had been sealed.
Lord Xiao reacted just as quickly, spinning around to meet the Red Banner Child.
The instant they converged, the Red Banner Child tapped a toe against the water and leaped into the air. Lord Xiao lowered his entire right shoulder and caught him steadily.
The Red Banner Child landed standing atop Lord Xiao’s shoulder.
The Red Banner in his hand moved like a conductor’s baton, directing the ranks of Ghost Soldiers behind Zhao Zixun to reform and spread out in different directions.
The sight was both magnificent and eerie.
Everyone was stunned.
Amid the strange, deathly silence, Yu Nian’s calculating fingers suddenly stopped. She murmured, “It’s not enough. Nowhere near enough! There are still variables-major variables…”
Yu Nian seemed even more panicked than when the Ghost Soldiers had formed their ranks. Her empty eyes swept toward the Black Coffin before lifting skyward.
I looked up as well and saw flashes of lightning streaking continuously through the roiling black clouds above the Black Coffin.
At first, the flashes came sporadically. Then they merged into one continuous blaze.
A thunderbolt tore through the clouds and struck straight at the Black Coffin.
Before we had recovered from the shock, another deafening thunderclap erupted behind us.
I spun around just in time to see a ball of fire slam into the Main Hall.
“Liu Junyan!”
My mind went blank. I bolted toward the Pawnshop.
But before I had taken more than a few steps, the ground began to heave violently beneath my feet. The roar that sounded like both an ox and a tiger suddenly intensified. The Dragon’s body formed from black qi churned wildly, the river surged, and cracks split open across the ground. I nearly fell several times.
Another thunderbolt crashed down, this time striking the Black Coffin dead center.
The mass of black qi coiled around the Black Coffin suddenly erupted in a spray of blood. It thrashed and howled in agony, yet still refused to give up.
He wanted to break free of the Pawnshop’s control. He wanted to use whatever was inside the Black Coffin to survive the Calamity and ascend.
He wanted to become a god!
At some point, Second Master Liu, Bai Xian’er, the Giant Rat, and the others had all vanished.
They feared the heavenly lightning.
If they were caught in the heavenly lightning of this Calamity, they could lose over a century of cultivation. None of them dared take that gamble.
“He’s here!”
Yu Nian abruptly turned, her hollow eye sockets facing the Pawnshop.
I finally managed to steady myself and looked toward it as well.
A tall, familiar figure stood in the Pawnshop’s doorway. At his feet stood the majestic Black Cat.
“Liu Junyan…”
How had he gotten out of the Pawnshop?
Ever since he had gone into seclusion, one incident after another had kept me from completing many deals. The Merit stored inside the Soul-Guiding Lantern had not even reached halfway.
What price had he paid this time for the chance to leave the Pawnshop?
And who inside the Pawnshop could he possibly have made such a deal with?
Under my bewildered gaze, Liu Junyan strode toward the Riverside.
The Black Cat followed close behind him.
Just then, another bolt of heavenly lightning crashed down.
With a sharp crack, a fissure seemed to split open in the Black Coffin.
But before we could even see it, a string of Copper Coin came whistling through the air from the east. One piece after another embedded itself in the Black Coffin.
Like steel nails, they pinned shut the spot that had nearly split open.
That string of Copper Coin had been launched from Liu Junyan’s hand.
But since when had he started using Copper Coin as a weapon?
Why did I feel as though I no longer recognized the man drawing closer with every step?
And where had the string of Prayer Beads around his wrist come from…?