Within the imperial city, blood mist spread thickly, cold air rising fiercely.
On the frozen surface of the great lake, one by one, masters froze into crystals of ice, while Daoists turned into dried corpses.
Upon countless magic altars, the statues of gods exploded with ‘pop pop’ sounds.
Various talismans and banners, countless spell papers and magical tools, were all torn to pieces by the swirling blood mist.
Qi Fei’s laughter grew more and more piercing, like steel needles stabbing into countless ears.
Just one long laugh caused the eavesdroppers, palace maids, and eunuchs along the lakeshore to bleed from both ears, each clutching their heads in pain, collapsing to the ground, writhing and convulsing nonstop.
Inside Xianyu Pavilion, Liu Wu, Qi Shen, He Jun, and the others wailed and cursed together.
The blood mist didn’t immediately kill them—rather, it crept forward inch by inch, closing in from all sides around Xianyu Pavilion.
Inside the thick blood mist, faint silhouettes of Green Sparrow and some other women flickered vaguely.
Behind them, thousands of human shadows rolled up and down like waves.
Liu Wu and the others were so scared they wet their pants, nearly losing their minds, shrieking in hysteria.
The more terrified they became, the more invisible auras—undetectable to ordinary human eyes—merged into the blood mist from their bodies.
The Green Sparrow and the female shapes gradually became a little more solid.
Along the lakeshore, one Buddha statue and divine image after another crumbled and shattered.
The great monks and elderly Daoists collapsed one after another.
Little monks and junior Daoists, imitating their predecessors, fled in panic toward the surrounding woods, only to be mercilessly struck down on the spot by waves of arrows howling through the air.
Le Wu’s roar shook much of the lake’s surface with a deep buzzing sound: “No one is allowed to run! No one! Either kill these female ghosts or die with me!”
Amid his wild laughter, Le Wu threw down the magnificent sword at his waist, inlaid with gold and jade, and pulled out from his robe a slaughter knife more than a foot long, sharpened to a terrifying edge.
The blade glowed red as if soaked in blood, shining with the brilliance of a precious gem.
With a mighty yell, Le Wu charged out from under the wind-blocking canopy.
Amid the Empress Dowager Le’s startled cries, he was as fast as a racing horse, in two or three strides reaching the edge of the blood mist.
He raised his arm and brought down the blade onto a shadow just emerging from the mist.
‘Puchi!’ That vague, flickering figure was split into two pieces with one slash.
A frenzied dog’s howl came from the slaughter knife as the shadow burst into fragments, scattering like specks of bloodlight before returning to the mist.
Le Wu danced with excitement: “Haha, Lord Lancang was right! Some ancient beasts truly have great power against these ghosts. Sister, who would have thought that our family’s ancestral nine-generation dog-slaying blade is actually an artifact!”
The Empress Dowager Le flushed red in anger, pointing at Le Wu, trying to scold but unable to find the words.
She came from a humble background—a butcher family that had sold dog meat for nine generations.
Ever since she ascended the throne as Empress Dowager, no one dared to mention this in her presence.
Even the word ‘dog’ was taboo around her.
Her own brother, in front of countless ministers, openly declaring “ancestral nine-generation dog-slaying blade” almost made her spit blood on the spot.
Gritting her teeth, the Empress Dowager fixed Le Wu with a cold glare and glanced at the bloodstained, threatening blade.
Suddenly, she felt a new surge of confidence: “A grand general like you—how can you charge onto the battlefield yourself? Hurry back this instant!”
Le Wu’s big belly shook as he happily trotted back to the Empress Dowager’s side, clutching the slaughter knife proudly in his right hand, eyes sweeping the blood mist that was closing in: “Sister, don’t worry! As long as I’m here, no one will harm a single hair on your head…
As for Qi Fei—ah, I told you before, let me go to the Cold Palace to pacify her. But you never allowed it! “Tell me, tell me!
When women have nothing to do, they stir up trouble.
If I, a burly man, comforted her, maybe she wouldn’t have taken her own life.” Yin Yuan looked back at the Empress Dowager and Le Wu. Yin Xing clenched his fists tightly, staring at Le Wu with hatred, quietly snarling through clenched teeth,“You beast!
If you dare set foot in the Cold Palace, I’ll never let you live… This kind of business isn’t for you.” The Empress Dowager’s face darkened.
She slapped heavily on Le Wu’s plump head and angrily scolded,“Nonsense! You’ve been frightened by ghosts and lost your mind… The Son of Heaven’s uncle always had no filter.”
Yin Yuan grabbed Lu Quan’s arm tightly and said quietly,“As long as the Grand General doesn’t enter my Jiuqu Garden’s gate… Hmm, these ghost things grow closer.
General, please help us sweep them all away.” The Empress Dowager shot Yin Yuan a sharp look:“Nonsense! Where’s the sense in a general leading the charge?
The palace guards should hold the front line… And Son of Heaven, didn’t you bring so many—?”Yin Xing suddenly looked spirited. He also grabbed Lu Quan’s other arm, loudly commanding:“Pour out the demon-exorcising holy water I prepared!
Those black dogs, use their blood on the spot—beat them hard!” Row after row of large vats emitting pungent odors of boy’s urine were lined up in front of the canopy.
Squads of palace guards and archers ran over, dipping their arrows into the vats and stirring viciously, then narrowing their eyes with disgust before nocking the arrows on their bows. Each fat black dog let out a chilling howl.
They too were pitiful, cut up badly by the imperial guards’ blades, their blood dripping into the vats, strengthening the power of the boy’s urine. At that moment, countless arrows tainted with boys’ urine and black dog blood turned into a whirlwind, whistling fiercely toward the advancing blood mist.
‘Ssssh ssssh’ sounds filled the air.
Piercing shrieks of women came from within the mist as the arrows tore large holes—bucket-sized—in the fog, forcing the ghosts to retreat dozens of steps.
“Good!”
The Empress Dowager and Le Wu shouted in unison. “Yugonggong, every soldier from today’s palace guards and imperial guards will be rewarded.
Later, prepare a detailed list of rewards!” The Empress Dowager smiled brightly, her eyes sparkling with delight as she decreed this to Yu Sandou. Yu Sandou nodded seriously.
From the corner of his eye, he glanced behind the Empress Dowager’s throne at several large objects covered in purple brocade. Lu Quan followed Yu Sandou’s gaze and looked briefly at the concealed objects. He instinctively infused a trace of spiritual light into his eyes and glanced that way.
Under the purple brocade, the items emitted a rising murderous qi, thick and fierce. Lu Quan’s body trembled; his eyes stung. He faintly heard the roars of billions of soldiers fighting in battlefield frenzy and saw countless heavily armored figures charging headlong with clouds of killing intent.
What a fearsome array of weapons! Lu Quan took a deep breath, hastily shifting his gaze elsewhere. To ordinary people, these large items showed no oddity at all.
But to Lu Quan’s eyes, their destructive power was terrifying. Clearly, this was the Empress Dowager’s real trump card for tonight. Yin Yuan and Yin Xing’s use of black dog blood and boys’ urine might work to some degree, but compared to the Empress Dowager’s trump card, they were like children playing a game.
“Qi Fei little sister, come out.”
The Empress Dowager stood and smiled gently at the hesitant blood mist ahead.
“We two sisters haven’t been close for a good many years…”
“Heh, nineteen years without seeing each other, right?”
“Come out now.
Let me see just what kind of shape you’ve taken after nineteen years apart.” Arrows flew relentlessly at the blood mist, tearing it into shards. The Empress Dowager’s smile grew brighter, her expression more confident.
As the Empress Dowager, holding countless elite troops, with endless resources at her disposal, she had once crushed Qi Fei when she was alive, leaving her trapped with neither life nor death. Now Qi Fei was dead and transformed into a vengeful ghost—could she still pose a match? A few days ago, the Empress Dowager had still felt unsettled.
One, she feared she couldn’t defeat the vengeful spirit Qi Fei had become. Two, she worried the civil officials might exploit this matter.
But now, watching tens of thousands of elite palace guards assault so fiercely—even the female ghosts couldn’t advance through the rain of arrows—the Empress Dowager suddenly understood a profound truth: ‘He who holds the gun has the right!’ This is true for man. And the same for ghosts.
“Military power, huh…”
The Empress Dowager glanced at Le Wu, then slapped his thick head again,“Ah Wu, you’re the family’s youngest.
You must manage your duties seriously, don’t let things slide.” At the northwest corner of the imperial city, outside the corner gate, lay a densely populated residential area. The imperial city was home to countless nobles, and their daily consumption was enormous.
Each day massive supplies had to be brought in from outside to support the city. Therefore, on the northern side, in that northwest corner, there was this residential area filled with people serving the nobles inside the imperial city.
Water carriers, firewood haulers, latrine cleaners, corpse collectors… all sorts of lowly jobs in the imperial city, but through these humble labors, the residential area supported tens of thousands of people from old to young.
When Qi Fei gathered her immense blood mist and was driven back by the palace archers with no inch to spare, she howled frantically toward the sky in despair. Several red lanterns suddenly appeared floating above this residential area.
A group of people dressed in dull gray robes, carrying various weapons, belonging to the“Worship Ghost Mother”cult, emerged stealthily from the shadows like a host of death-seeking demons, their eyes glowing scarlet as they stared at the quiet neighborhood.
An elderly man, fragile and emitting the deathly aura of one near the grave, gasped as he pointed at the residential cluster. “The Ghost Mother descends, to ferry my fragmented soul… I, follower of the Ghost Mother Sect, see our millennia-old wish soon fulfilled.
“As long as we wholeheartedly serve the Ghost Mother, we will achieve immortal ghost bodies and true ghost enlightenment.
“My children, kill! Kill! Kill! Offer the blood and souls of these lowly humans as sacrifices to the Ghost Mother… Once we succeed, the entire Dayan Kingdom will fall with but a flick of the wrist!”
The cultists, nearly mad with frenzy, shouted in unison, brandishing their weapons as they charged toward the residential area.
In the air, the red lanterns trembled lightly.
Flames and blood mist erupted from all directions below, engulfing the entire neighborhood within their circle.
(End of Chapter)