Chapter 268
Chapter 268
The golden Light of Merit from the Soul-Guiding Lantern illuminated the path ahead. Every time I passed an anchor point, I felt suffocated for a split second, but I quickly forced the sensation down.
I pressed onward with unwavering determination, no longer sure how many mine tunnels I had passed through.
The tunnels all looked almost identical. Aside from a narrow path running through the middle, heaps of coal were piled everywhere.
My throat gradually grew parched. There was no movement around me, but I could sense fighting taking place overhead.
From the moment I came down here, everyone would have begun converging on the burial pit to cover me.
The longer I remained underground, the more dangerous things would become up above.
I was beginning to feel anxious. Logically speaking, the Merit within the Soul-Guiding Lantern should have held an immense attraction for them. On top of that, going home had been their dying obsession. There was no way they would remain completely unresponsive.
Could the Nine Heavens Soul-Trapping Formation be so powerful that it prevented them from sensing any changes in the outside world?
Just then, the antique chime of a Copper Bell drifted over from behind me. It was immediately followed by the howl of the Corpse Fiend and a burst of croaking from a toad.
But the sounds vanished as quickly as they had appeared, and the fighting soon became even more intense.
It seemed the enemy was also doing everything possible to find an opening and summon the eighty-one zombies below.
Evidently, they had failed as well.
But why?
The Nine Heavens Soul-Trapping Formation had been set up by them in the first place. If it was the Formation suppressing the eighty-one zombies, then while I might be unable to summon them, it should have been effortless for them.
Yet they could not do it either… Could someone else be suppressing the eighty-one zombies down here?
Other than the miner zombies, who else was beneath the Nine Heavens Soul-Trapping Formation?
In a flash, something clicked in my mind. I immediately shouted, “Hui Xiaotiao, it’s time to go home… Hui Xiaotiao, your grandmother sent me to bring you home…”
I continued calling out as I walked. After barely a dozen steps, a gust of Yin Wind poured in from farther down the tunnel, and my heart stirred.
The next moment, a chill swept across my back.
That icy, sinister aura was far too distinct to ignore.
I did not dare look back.
Anyone accustomed to traveling at night knew that if they sensed something behind them or heard someone calling their name from the rear, they must never turn around carelessly, much less answer. That was an easy way to lose one’s soul.
I kept moving forward with the Soul-Guiding Lantern in hand.
This time, I walked even more slowly. With every step, I carefully sensed whatever was behind me and discovered that it really was following in time with my footsteps.
I silently took a deep breath, then returned to the list and picked up where I had left off before calling Hui Xiaotiao. “Wu Yongchang, it’s time to go home…”
The moment I finished speaking, the icy aura behind me grew even stronger.
And so I continued down the tunnel, calling out names as waves of Yin Wind swirled behind me.
The Light of Merit within the Soul-Guiding Lantern flickered, while the features of the ghost heads on its housing began to twist and contort.
I knew I had succeeded.
The ones following behind me were the zombies whose names I had called.
One after another.
Although excitement surged through me, I also noticed that as more zombies answered my summons, the ghost heads on the Soul-Guiding Lantern grew increasingly ferocious, and my steps became heavier and heavier.
By the time I had called more than forty names, a sheen of cold sweat covered my forehead. Both my calves felt as though they had been filled with lead, and every step forward took tremendous effort.
Another anchor point was just ahead. I stepped across it, only to find myself rooted in place, unable to move no matter how hard I tried. I stood there, gasping for breath.
Even the hand holding the Soul-Guiding Lantern was trembling.
It seemed that, with my current abilities, guiding more than forty zombies was already my limit. But there were eighty-one zombies down there in total!
What was I supposed to do?
I had already come this far. There was no way I could give up halfway. I had to lead every last one of them out.
Not a single one could be left behind!
Even if I had to inch forward at a snail’s pace, I had to keep going.
I rested for half a minute, then circulated my energy and drew upon the True Qi I had accumulated below my abdomen through my recent cultivation. Some of my strength and focus finally returned.
Just as I was about to call out the next name, a chill swept over me from behind, and a hand settled on my right shoulder.
It was so cold it chilled me to the bone. I glanced at it from the corner of my eye and saw pitch-black nails and coarse black hair. What else could it be but a zombie’s claw?!
More than forty zombies had already gathered behind me. I could sense their presence. I could even feel the currents of air stirred up whenever they hopped on their toes.
But none of those zombies had a hand on my shoulder.
Every person had three flames of Yang Fire: one above the head and one on each shoulder.
With such a vicious creature pressing down on my shoulder, the Yang Fire on my right shoulder would probably be extinguished.
I couldn’t turn around and confront it head-on, either. There were more than forty zombies behind me. If they were all startled into action, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The only thing I could do was raise the Soul-Guiding Lantern and bring it down over the claw on my right shoulder to force the creature back.
But the moment I lifted the Soul-Guiding Lantern, a young yet slightly hoarse voice came from above and to my right.
“Get to the back of the line!”
The zombie claw instantly withdrew from my shoulder, and the crushing pressure on me eased considerably.
Puzzled, I looked toward the source of the voice. Perched atop a pile of charcoal was an enormous Giant Rat, gaunt to the point of being skin and bones. A pair of misty blue eyes stared fixedly at me.
I called out his name almost instinctively. “Hui Xiaotiao?”
“Who are you?” Hui Xiaotiao asked warily. “Who sent you down here?”
I hurriedly answered, “I’m Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu of the Wufu Town Pawnshop in Jiangcheng. Your grandmother asked me to come down and find you. She’s been waiting for you to return. Listen carefully. Our people up above are fighting the enemy to buy me enough time to get all of you out. Your grandmother is up there too.”
How could Hui Xiaotiao not have heard such a massive commotion?
He must have known the moment the Corpse Fiend leaped out of the burial pit. He was the one who had kept all eighty-one zombies under control.
His warning just now made it obvious. During the century or more he had spent trapped beneath the Nine Heavens Soul-Trapping Formation, not only had he survived, but he had also successfully taken control of this entire horde of zombies.
He might have been frighteningly thin, but there was no question that he was powerful.
“You can’t defeat the Corpse Fiend,” Hui Xiaotiao said. “It has a Three-Eyed Golden Toad, and a Golden Scale has been affixed to the toad, greatly increasing its power. I’ve tried countless times, but I could never break through…”
“The owner of that Golden Scale is up there too,” I told him truthfully. “He’ll find a way to take the Golden Scale back and keep the Corpse Fiend occupied. The faster we move, the less pressure they’ll be under.”
Hui Xiaotiao still seemed hesitant, his scrutinizing gaze fixed on me.
After thinking for a moment, I added, “Oh, right. Besides the people from our Pawnshop and your grandmother, someone else you may know very well is leading a group in battle outside. Her name is Hui Yumo. She’s the younger sister of Hui Moqiong, the Gray Immortal of our Pawnshop…”
Before I could finish, Hui Xiaotiao murmured, “Yumo… is here too?”