When the Panguan writing brush was released, it rendered impartial judgment — and also suppressed malevolent souls.

Ou Miaonan had already been anxious, and she had not guarded against the fact that her opponent had yet another magical implement — and this implement was unlike the ordinary things that common Daoist practitioners carried, such as copper coin swords. When it struck a person, it was like being beaten with a funeral rod, carrying a thunderous electrical intent capable of scorching the very soul — burning hot as the fires of hell.

Ou Miaonan let out a scream of agony. The evil soul nearly broke free of the body, and she was overcome with terror.

Ever since she had become a great ghost, it was not as though she had never encountered those monks and Daoist practitioners who constantly boasted of vanquishing evil and upholding righteousness. She had fought with them before — but every single one had been defeated by her, becoming part of her host of resentful souls.

Those people amounted to nothing more than chanting a few incantations, throwing around a couple of paper talismans — utterly useless.

But this brush was different. It was a genuine magical implement, capable of wounding her spirit soul — perhaps even capable of destroying her entirely.

Ou Miaonan — no, she should more properly be called the Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch. She had devoured ten thousand ghosts, and thus had crowned herself with that title. Her eyes were blood-red, ghost energy overflowing from her entire body, rendering Ou Miaonan’s small, delicate face utterly sinister, like a vicious specter.

“Do you truly not care whether this young woman lives or dies?” The Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch’s gaze turned venomous as it shot toward Ou Luozhong. “What about you? Have you given up on your daughter?”

Ou Luozhong opened and closed his mouth, then turned his eyes away, unable to look at her. Tears rolled down the corners of his eyes.

Unless the evil ghost was eliminated, his daughter was no longer who she had been — if he truly let this evil ghost walk about wearing her body, that would be worse than death!

Ou Luozhong closed his eyes and held his wife tightly in his arms.

Seeing him remain unmoved, Ou Miaonan seethed inwardly, and her gaze fixed on the small, trembling soul within.

How infuriating — this young woman actually had great karmic fortune. A monk or Daoist practitioner had willingly used their own merits to strengthen and protect her soul. If she were to forcibly devour it, it would certainly bring down heavenly tribulation upon her.

And heavenly tribulation could destroy evil and the wicked.

She, the Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch, aspired to become the Ghost King — she had worked so hard for it, and she had not done all of this in order to die. Most importantly, her son had to be reborn. The child about to come into the world in the Ou Family’s estate was a critical opportunity for her son’s reincarnation.

She had to endure a little longer. She could not ruin her son’s path to reincarnation.

That short-lived ghost was truly a nuisance — ah!

The Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch watched that divine writing brush, which seemed to have grown into a pillar reaching the sky, come crashing down at her once more. The scorching thunderous energy burned and sizzled all over her body, her spirit soul already growing unstable.

“Have you no conscience at all? Aren’t you afraid I’ll actually kill this young woman? Strike after strike — and don’t forget, she is also inside this physical body.” The Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch dodged and evaded, raging furiously. Sky-reaching ghost energy pervaded the air, causing the lesser ghosts in the surrounding area to flee in all directions, terrified of being seized by the great ghost to replenish her soul.

Lang Jiuchuan controlled the Panguan writing brush, her voice ice-cold: “If it cannot distinguish between a good soul and an evil soul — if it strikes them indiscriminately — what right does it have to call itself a divine writing brush?”

The Panguan writing brush: “?”

I quit.

Deep below the earth, nine thousand feet down, the Panguan Judge: Is she being polite?

The Panguan writing brush was a magical implement, but for a magical implement to exert its full power, cultivation was also required. Lang Jiuchuan’s Dao energy flowed continuously into the Panguan writing brush in an unbroken stream. If not for her fear of harming the original soul while striking the ghost, she would have loved to destroy that evil ghost in a single blow.

As her spiritual power drained away, Lang Jiuchuan’s face turned deathly white.

The Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch saw this and felt greatly relieved. A savage smile crept onto her hideous face — the opponent was running out of strength.

She had been panicking for nothing, she now realized. The opponent was nothing but a short-lived ghost — no matter how formidable her abilities were, what did it matter? She was too frail in body!

Had no one ever said it? Even fighting ghosts requires strength!

It was now time for her to strike back.

What she did not know was that Lang Jiuchuan, despite appearing to be in poor condition, had in fact been watching the changes in her expression the entire time. Her eyes flashed coldly, and her hand had already moved to the Dizhong Bell.

Inside the room, a yin wind suddenly arose — bitterly cold killing energy condensed into needles of energy and shot at Lang Jiuchuan from every direction.

Boom — the energy needles slammed into the space before her, and yet it was as though they had struck a wall of raging fire. With a sizzle, they dissolved into nothingness.

The Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch: “!”

Dong.

A wave of sound carrying supreme will-energy struck the Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch before she could react. At the same moment, the Panguan writing brush surged toward the spirit altar between her brows, forcibly hooking and dragging out the Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch — whose spirit soul had been stunned by the impact of that will-energy.

The Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch: This is bad!

The thought had barely formed in her mind when her spirit soul was struck with a devastating blow.

She let out a howl — screaming like ghosts crying and wolves howling, sharp and piercing beyond measure.

The evil soul, already burdened with a multitude of sins, was now stripped of the physical body’s concealment and faced the divine Panguan writing brush directly — like the condemned standing before the Panguan Judge itself: subject to judgment, subject to punishment.

It was divine retribution capable of obliterating the very soul.

The Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch’s features were battered into something terrifying, and she dared not linger. The ghost energy wrapped around her remnant soul as she fled outward.

If she did not flee, she would likely meet her end here — and then mother and son would forever be separated by the boundary between the living and the dead.

But as she fled from the main room and was just about to break free of the courtyard, she slammed into an invisible wall of golden light that burned her spirit soul into scattered fragments, drifting apart like sparks.

A formation — the courtyard had somehow been enclosed in a formation.

That treacherous and vicious short-lived ghost!

Lang Jiuchuan pressed a talisman onto Ou Miaonan’s body and told Ou Luozhong: “Lay her on the bed. Do not remove this talisman.”

Ou Luozhong gave a sound of assent and carefully lifted his daughter’s light, frail body onto the bed. He stared at the talisman — wait. Hadn’t she said it was the last one?

Lang Jiuchuan ran out of the courtyard and said to Jiang Che, who was urgently calling out to her in the spirit altar of her mind: “Whatever method you use — block it. If you don’t, today’s work will all have been for nothing.”

She took up the Panguan writing brush, no longer holding anything back, and brought it down upon the Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch’s remnant soul, which was staring at her in terror.

“Wait — spare a line for survival, and we’ll meet again in better days. You followers of the Way — don’t you advocate for mercy, for leaving a sliver of life?” The Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch’s remnant soul was trembling uncontrollably.

“With a soul steeped in sin — you dare ask for mercy? Begone from this world!” Lang Jiuchuan drove the Panguan writing brush and slammed it down with full force.

Boom.

The Ten-Thousand-Ghost Matriarch’s agonized screams rose again. Countless resentful ghosts wailed alongside her as they were struck by divine retribution and reduced to ashes.

The shattered main soul floated and swayed toward Lang Jiuchuan — a ghost face, its original appearance now unrecognizable, radiating venomous malice. Lang Jiuchuan raised the brush in her hand.

Sizzle.

Without even glancing at the remnant soul burning in what seemed like hellfire, she turned and ran at a small trot toward the southern courtyard.

The worried Ou Luozhong followed her out and witnessed this scene. His heart lurched. He looked in the direction she was running — the southern courtyard?

Was that not the direction of his second daughter-in-law’s courtyard?

He had a terrible premonition. It couldn’t be — no sooner had one wave subsided than another rose?

“Is Heaven determined to destroy the Ou Family?” Ou Luozhong stamped his foot. Seeing no one nearby, he raised his voice and called out. Several servant women came running at the sound.

“Watch over Madam and the Young Miss — and quickly send for a physician.” Ou Luozhong called out his instructions in rapid succession and, bracing his aching back, shuffled at a quick pace toward the southern courtyard.

His daughter mattered, but his little grandchild mattered too — nothing terrible better happen, or knowing his in-laws’ fiery tempers, they would probably tear him apart.

In the southern courtyard, Jiang Che was cursing and grumbling, too preoccupied to attend to the woman in labor. His fierce and domineering royal killing energy was barely holding back that black-eyed little ghost — would it ever end?

The little ghost let out a shrill, cackling laugh, its ghost energy dense and chilling. It had shrouded the entire birthing room and was crawling toward the birth canal.

“You little ghost — how dare you!” Lang Jiuchuan charged into the birthing room and stamped one foot down hard. “Divine light illuminates, the Great White Star brings auspiciousness — break!”