Chapter Ninety-Two: The Doom Begun by the Underworld King

I vomited blood, and it soaked my clothes crimson. Golden stars flashed before my eyes, and my whole body went weak and limp. Even trying to stand was difficult.

The others hurried over. I waved them off. “Don’t worry about me. Get the things in the yard cleaned up.” After that burst of thunder from my palm, the ghost soldiers had already been scattered to the winds. Dealing with them now would be easy.

Li Danian led the yin-yang masters into the yard, where they cut through the ghost soldiers as effortlessly as slicing vegetables. Shangguan Waner came over and supported my arm. “Brother, are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Go help Master Li and Wei Qi.”

“No. They’re doing fine. I want to stay with you.” She pouted, looking utterly aggrieved, and clung to me without moving away.

In just a few minutes, all the ghost soldiers in the yard had been dealt with. The ground was a ruin, littered with bones and gore too horrible to look at.

Li Danian came over and said to Shangguan Waner, “Take good care of him. We’re going to the graveyard right now to chase down Zhao Laosao. No matter what, we have to stop Yueyue from mastering the Dark-Inhaling Art.” With that, he and his people rushed off.

“Waner, help me outside. Master Li and Wei Qi may not be Zhao Laosao’s match, and there will definitely be ghost soldiers guarding the formation there.”

“No. You can’t go. You already vomited blood after using your Thunder Palm just now. If you use it again, you’ll probably lose your life.” Her voice had begun to choke with tears.

“Waner, if I don’t go, there’ll probably be even more dead. Only my Thunder Palm can deal with Zhao Laosao, and he’s already terrifyingly strong.”

I was full of questions about Zhao Laosao. Wasn’t he dead? How had he come back to life? What was going on here? But no matter what, I couldn’t think about that now. What I had to do was go help Li Danian and the others.

“Th-then all right. I’ll go with you. Let me carry you.” Shangguan Waner bent down, wanting me onto her back.

“Master, Sister Shangguan, let me.” At that moment, Xuan Li suddenly appeared in front of me. A gust of wind passed, and I found myself lifted into the air. His light, agile body bore my weight and carried me along.

By the time we reached the graveyard, things were even worse than expected. In front of the burial grounds stood a mass of ghost soldiers, far more than the ones at Yueyue’s house. Li Danian and the others were already surrounded on all sides.

And on the grave mound, Zhao Laosao stood beside Yueyue. Yueyue sat there in the same posture as that night, but the situation had changed. A faint blue mist had already gathered over her body. It looked as though she was very close to mastering the Dark-Inhaling Art.

The scene before me made me forget everything else. If I did not act now, everyone would likely be finished, and Yueyue would soon complete the Dark-Inhaling Art as well.

“Xuan Li, put me down quickly.” I patted his shoulder.

Xuan Li descended. I climbed down from his back, gathered every ounce of strength in my body, and struck toward the place where the ghost soldiers were thickest. After a deafening crash, the formation of ghost soldiers was thrown into chaos. The area was wide and the soldiers were scattered, so one strike could not injure them all. I gathered my strength again, determined to unleash a deadly second blow.

Even as I endured the pain in my chest and forced myself to gather what strength I had left, Zhao Laosao lunged at me.

“What a pity, Wang Dachuan. A once-in-a-thousand-years talent, and now—what a pity. What a pity.” As he spoke, his hand shook. With a single slash of his palm, a fierce gale swept toward me. Within that gale, a black blade shot straight for my chest, carrying the force of wind and thunder.

I wanted so badly to block it with my Thunder Palm, but I knew clearly that if I struck now, with my body in its present state, I would not be able to muster a second blow. So I had to dodge. I could not waste this strike.

But Zhao Laosao’s magical weapon was too powerful. I did not know what it was, only that its speed was terrifyingly fast. My body was already exhausted, and I doubted I could evade it.

“Ah!” Just as I was beginning to feel powerless, a figure flashed like lightning in front of me. With a sharp crack, Xuan Li used his body to intercept the attack of Zhao Laosao’s weapon. He fell to the ground like a wounded bird.

Zhao Laosao apparently had not expected such a sudden turn. With a vicious sneer, he shot another black blade at me. This time it was far larger than before, wrapped in a cloud of dust and mixed with a piercing howl as it charged straight for my face. I had no choice left, and I was even more worried about Xuan Li lying on the ground. I raised my palm abruptly and, with the last shred of strength I had, unleashed the Thunder Palm in my hand.

The moment the Thunder Palm flew out, my ears began to ring. It was as if a violent wind had roared past, and all the scenes before my eyes slowed down.

The Thunder Palm and Zhao Laosao’s weapon crashed into each other. A dazzling blue light burst outward, then a wave of force threw everyone away. As for me, my vision went black, and I knew no more.

I do not know how long passed before I finally woke again.

Dim yellow lamplight surrounded me. I was lying in a bed.

I still had no strength in my body. I felt strangely light, as though I might rise and fly away. My heart sank. What was going on? Was I dead?

I struggled to sit up, and Shangguan Waner’s familiar face appeared before me.

“Brother, you’re awake?” Seeing my eyes open, Shangguan Waner asked in delight. Then she shouted, “Brother’s awake! Brother’s awake!”

At her cry, seven or eight faces appeared above me. Wei Qi, Li Danian, and several other yin-yang masters looked down at me, and when they saw that I had awakened, smiles spread across all of their faces.

“Uncle Qi, am I dead or alive? Am I dreaming?” My lips trembled; even speaking felt difficult.

Wei Qi gripped my hand. “Dachuan, you’re not dreaming. This is real. It’s real.”

“What about Yueyue? And Li Danian and those ghost soldiers?” I remembered that I had unleashed my final palm and then knew nothing else.

“You passed out then. Zhao Laosao was injured by your Thunder Palm, but he still commanded the ghost soldiers to fight us. At the critical moment, Master Xingyun appeared. He defeated the ghost soldiers and took Zhao Laosao and Yueyue away,” Wei Qi explained.

That was a relief. As long as Master Xingyun had intervened, this matter would be easier to handle.

Seeing that I was awake, everyone told Shangguan Waner to take good care of me, then left, saying they would come visit another day. Once they were gone, the room became quiet. Shangguan Waner made me something tasty, but I had no appetite at all.

“Waner, where is Xuan Li?” I struggled to sit up and looked into my soul jar. He was not inside.

A trace of sorrow crossed Shangguan Waner’s face. “Xuan Li scattered. Master Xingyun said he used his body to block Zhao Laosao’s Black Yin Flowing Sword. There was no saving him, so he scattered.”

My heart was filled with grief. How had he just scattered like that? I still had a Blood Linglong pill on me. If I had fed it to him, perhaps his soul could have been gathered again. It was a pity I had been unconscious at the time.

Thinking of Xuan Li, I remembered that although we had not known each other for long, we had survived life and death together. Now he had given me up in order to save me. He was not my servant, but my brother, even if he no longer existed.

Besides missing Wang Ying, I also missed Xuan Li. After thinking of them both, I recalled the events of the previous night. Why had Zhao Laosao died and then come back to life? Why was he determined to protect Yueyue in cultivating the Dark-Inhaling Art? What connection did he have to it? The ghost soldiers were from the underworld, so how had they come to the human world to aid Yueyue? What link tied all of this together?

I thought it over half the night, but still could not make sense of it. In the end, I guessed at one possible answer: perhaps all of this was connected to the underworld. Perhaps the King of the Dead wanted to use Yueyue’s power as a bearer of extreme yin to absorb yin energy? It seemed plausible enough, yet somehow it still did not quite hold.

The next morning, Wei Qi and Yingzi came to see me. Yingzi had specially made chicken soup for me. Shangguan Waner helped me sit up and fed me some of it, and I felt much better.

“Uncle Qi, come with me to Mount Fulai today. I want to see Master Xingyun.” I finished the last spoonful at the bottom of the bowl and spoke to Wei Qi.

“Your body is very weak right now. You should rest at home.”

I shook my head. “No. I have to see Master Xingyun. All of this is tied to the King of the Underworld in the netherworld. I have a vague feeling that Wang Ying’s soul and body were taken by him too. Master Xingyun was right. He did all this to stop me from interfering with Yueyue’s cultivation of the Dark-Inhaling Art.”

Wei Qi clicked his tongue habitually. “Dachuan, you think all of this is connected to the King of the Underworld too?”