Jade Spring Mountain lay to the north of Chang’an, separated from Wuniu Mountain by the better part of the city. By the time the group arrived, dawn was approaching.

From the carriage, Qin Yao gazed ahead at Jade Spring Mountain in the distance. By rights, at this hour the mountaintop should have been bathed in the first light of morning — yet Jade Spring Mountain appeared shrouded in an invisible black veil, deathly still and lifeless. Even the mountain’s once-distinct winding silhouette had been swallowed up in thick, heavy mist.

Qing Xuzi and Yuan Jue looked at the mountain’s condition, and both felt a chill.

Qing Xuzi said, “It is no wonder the Jade Corpse once stirred up the great masters of the Buddhist world. Just looking at the yin energy over this mountain, one can see how heavy the Jade Corpse’s baleful aura truly is.”

Everyone’s hearts sank at his words. They all understood that ordinary ghosts and apparitions had no power to alter the spiritual atmosphere of their surroundings. For something to transform the energy of an entire courtyard or compound from yang to yin was already a remarkable feat — but to affect an entire mountain required a malevolent force of a magnitude that appeared perhaps once in a century.

Chang Rong had suffered severely at Luo Cha’s hands not so long ago, and harbored a particular dread of such colossal malevolent entities, knowing they possessed limitless means and no one could say what horrifying spectacles they might conjure. The last time they had faced Luo Cha, he had nearly been driven to madness by a vision within an illusion of his mother dying a terrible death.

He had never thought much of ghosts and demons before. At worst, you got bitten or choked to death — and in twenty years you would be a stout man again. But after what Luo Cha put him through, he finally understood that such colossal evils had countless ways of making a person’s existence worse than death — not just the flesh, but the very soul ground to dust. Just recalling it now still made his blood run cold.

His mind churned with unease — then he turned his head and caught sight of Lin Xiao’s face, utterly calm and unmoved, clearly without a trace of fear. He remembered how, when they had faced Luo Cha’s illusions last time, the Young Lord had been equally steady as a mountain. By comparison, he himself seemed how petty. He straightened up immediately and forced himself to stop letting his thoughts run wild.

At the foot of the mountain, the monks of Dayin Temple silently descended from the carriages one by one, standing still in place, awaiting Yuan Jue’s instructions.

Qing Xuzi and Qin Yao also stepped down from their carriage. The moment they opened their Heavenly Eyes to look, they saw a dense coil of black energy encircling the foot of the mountain, laced with a bone-chilling baleful force. It was clearly set there deliberately by the Jade Corpse — the moment any person unknowingly touched this miasma, the Jade Corpse within the mountain would be immediately alerted.

For an ordinary monk or Daoist, merely dealing with this first barrier would leave them helpless — to say nothing of pressing deeper into the mountain to hunt down the malevolent force.

Yuan Jue looked at the black energy, then instructed his disciples to put on their prayer beads and take up their golden bowls. Chanting the Formless Incantation, they suppressed their spiritual energy, letting not a breath of it leak outward, and passed through the black mist without a whisper.

Qing Xuzi, not to be outdone, quickly produced a mind-stabilizing elixir and had Qin Yao, Lin Xiao, and the others place one in their mouths. He then swept out his horsetail whisk, intoning the Lotus-Birth Incantation, and guided Qin Yao and the others through the formation.

He repeated the same process for Chang Rong and his men, then lastly attended to himself.

By the time everyone had passed through the black mist safely and without incident, a good quarter of an hour had gone by.

Beyond guarding against detection by the Jade Corpse, they also had to be wary of that Tianyin Sect Master — who had willingly thrown in her lot with the undead — noticing their movements. The group did not dare relax their vigilance. Keeping their spiritual energy suppressed to its lowest, they continued chanting protective incantations inaudibly and made their careful way up the mountain.

The sky remained dimly dark throughout. Though dawn had well and truly passed, it felt as if they were moving through the twilight of a gloomy, overcast day.

Midway up the mountain, they began to hear the faint sound of trickling water — clearly a clear mountain stream was not far off.

The group knew they had reached the Jade Spring, and remembering how the walking corpses moved freely through water, everyone tensed immediately and halted, on guard for corpses that might emerge to block their path.

But they waited tensely for quite some time. The spring water continued to pour steadily downward — yet not a single shadow appeared.

The group then continued up the original path toward the summit.

After traveling for another quarter of an hour or so, the upturned eaves of a palace building became faintly visible ahead. Qin Yao had been here not long ago and recognized at once that they were nearly at the imperial retreat at the mountaintop.

At the same moment, the cold yin chill in the air intensified sharply. Most of those present had respectable levels of inner cultivation, yet all still felt wave after wave of yin wind sweeping along the ground, making them shudder involuntarily.

Yuan Jue and Qing Xuzi looked as though they faced a formidable enemy. They halted simultaneously, turned back, and reinforced the concealment technique applied to their disciples again and again, ensuring that the Jade Corpse and the walking corpses would not detect the presence of living auras and strike first.

Only when that was taken care of did they continue pressing forward.

The nearer they drew to the imperial retreat, the heavier the cold yin chill became. Never mind Chang Rong and the others — even Qing Xuzi and Yuan Jue were now having to continuously channel their inner energy to resist the encroaching baleful force.

Lin Xiao knew there was a hidden passage not far ahead that branched away from the main gate and led directly to the main hall of the imperial retreat. He stopped Qing Xuzi and the others and said quietly, “Just ahead is the summit. Beyond it lies nothing but the imperial retreat — there are no other structures. Since we have come up the mountain without encountering the Jade Corpse anywhere along the way, she is most likely inside the retreat at this moment. Rather than using the main gate and letting her spot us far too early, it would be better to enter from a side passage.”

Yuan Jue saw the wisdom in this at once. He gestured to Lin Xiao with an inviting bow. “Young Lord speaks with perfect reason. We trouble you to lead the way.”

Qing Xuzi had little patience for the way Yuan Jue was so openly and covertly flattering Lin Xiao. He said with contempt, “Shameless flatterer.”

Yuan Jue did not even bother to twitch an eyelid.

Lin Xiao could not well respond to this exchange, and simply guided everyone onto a small path. At its end stood a rocky outcrop — unremarkable at first glance — but rotating its base revealed a wide hidden passage behind it. The walls inside were smooth stone, and it could accommodate five people walking abreast. This passage had clearly been dug in the former Emperor’s day for the purpose of deploying troops.

Under normal circumstances, Lin Xiao would never have exposed such imperial secrets to outsiders. But Yuan Jue had been personally appointed by the Emperor to perform an exorcism at Jade Spring Mountain after Princess Kangping’s nightmares, and even if Lin Xiao did not report matters to his imperial uncle, Yuan Jue would be obliged to return to the palace and give a full account of events. Once his imperial uncle learned of it all, he would inevitably order Jade Spring Mountain sealed off — at which point the hidden passages on the mountain would naturally lose their original purpose.

The group came to a standstill. From within the imperial retreat not far ahead came a strange and extraordinary din — as though many people were crowded together speaking all at once, like being in the middle of a bustling marketplace. Yet the voices were mostly grotesque and shrill, half-human, half-bestial, stirring a creeping dread.

Qin Yao thought to herself in quiet bewilderment — Yuan Jue had once said that the Jade Corpse, because she had lived through a long and desolate period before her death, had after becoming a Jade Corpse developed a deep fear of solitude and a fondness for crowds and noise. Could it be that she had somehow conjured the atmosphere of an entire market within the imperial retreat?

Although the concealment formation laid down by Yuan Jue and Qing Xuzi could mask everyone’s aura, it could not hold for long — before too much time passed, the Jade Corpse would be able to sense them.

There was not a moment to lose. Qing Xuzi entered the hidden passage first. Lin Xiao pulled Qin Yao along and followed right behind.

Yuan Jue hesitated for a moment, then led his disciples in close behind.

After traveling a short distance through the hidden passage, a palace door appeared at the far end. Lin Xiao knew that beyond the door lay the eastern side hall of the imperial retreat; passing through it would bring them to the main hall.

Yuan Jue probed the spiritual energy outside the door, sensed no malevolent entities guarding it, and decided that he and Qing Xuzi would venture out first to assess the situation. He instructed his disciples to remain in the side hall and wait for word.

The moment they emerged, the clamorous sounds of voices surged noticeably louder — clearly the noise was coming from close by.

The eastern side hall was ablaze with lights and completely empty.

The group quietly slipped through the eastern side hall and peered into the main hall through the partition screens — then stood rooted where they were.

On either side of the main hall stood a great number of walking corpses; so many that a good number had already spilled out and stood upon the stone steps outside the hall. Although the ones at the front still had the blue-green faces and fanged mouths of the undead, their eyes now clearly held a murky, dim glow of awareness. All of them were oriented toward a figure seated upon the dragon throne at the upper end of the hall, their voices raised in a clamoring, jubilant din.

The figure on the throne was swathed in layer upon layer of black energy, surrounded by a deathly silence — their features and outline utterly obscured.

When Qing Xuzi and Yuan Jue recognized the few undead at the very front — those that had regained some degree of sight — a shudder ran through them. So this was why the Jade Corpse had needed the soul-lost individuals to collect the internal organs of the living: she intended to nourish the corpses with flesh and blood, causing their spiritual power to increase sharply in a short time so that they might gradually develop their own consciousness.

It seemed that for the Jade Corpse, commanding the walking corpses of the world was not enough — she also intended for these corpses to become more “human.” As for what she planned once they had become “human,” it seemed likely, on one hand, to help her deal with Buddhist and Daoist practitioners; and on the other hand — could it be, having endured such long isolation in life, she wanted to find more “people” to keep her company?

Kneeling in the center of the hall were several young men. One of them was bound hand and foot and was still struggling with all his strength. He said to the woman standing before him, “I — I am an orphan. I have no one dear to me. You cannot even meet your master’s first condition for me. I cannot become the Golden Corpse. Release me now.”

The woman slowly leaned down to look at A’Han. There came a soft tinkling from around her neck.

Qin Yao immediately widened her eyes. So that was why Senior Brother had not used the Soul-Devouring Bell against the Jade Corpse — it had already been seized by Chun Qiao. As a mortal, Chun Qiao had nothing to fear from the burning power of the Soul-Devouring Bell, and her fighting methods were peculiar beyond compare — making her exactly the right person to help the Jade Corpse deal with the ritual implements of the Buddhist and Daoist schools.

Chun Qiao smiled cruelly. “Who says you have no one dear to you? My master has already seen clearly — the person dear to you may not be easy to kill, but that does not mean it is impossible. As long as you are willing to kill that person, with your constitution, my master would not consider anyone else for the role of Golden Corpse. You should know that once you become the Golden Corpse, you will never age or die.” As she reached the last words, a trace of something that sounded almost like envy crept into her voice.

At hearing this, the faces of Yuan Jue and Qing Xuzi turned extremely grim.

A’Han’s mouth fell wide open. After a long moment, he stammered, “You — you are lying. I have no father, I have no mother — I was picked up by my master!”

Seeing him refuse to comply, doing nothing but arguing recklessly, Chun Qiao kicked him over. “Whether you are willing or not is beside the point. My master has already set her sights on you. Shortly, you will come with me and kill the person dear to you. By tonight when you return, my master will perform the ritual to help you become the Golden Corpse.”

At this point, a young man who had been kneeling to the side all along, his face ashen and his gaze never daring to lift toward the throne, suddenly spoke. “Chun — Chun Qiao, if this young Daoist refuses to complete the conditions put forward by the Jade Corpse, how can he become the Golden Corpse? Rather than forcing him, why not choose me? I have already killed my elder brother as a proof of loyalty, fulfilling the Jade Corpse’s first condition — my sincerity is beyond question. Furthermore, I have never been with a woman, and my primal yang energy remains intact. On top of that, I was born under the pure yang hour — perfectly suited to counter venom with venom and serve as the Golden Corpse, cultivating baleful power alongside the Jade Corpse.”

Qin Yao recognized with just one glance that this speaking man was the Military Commissioner’s senior adjutant who had been meeting secretly with Cui Shi — the one named Zeng Nanqin. She had not expected that he was indeed a Golden Corpse candidate.

Chun Qiao walked back to the side of the dragon throne, bent low, and listened to whatever the figure on the throne was instructing her. Qin Yao and the others could not understand the language of the undead — they only felt the sound was inexplicably strange, as if someone were continuously plucking at long-snapped zither strings, each note sluggish and hoarse and dark, unsettling to the soul.

Chun Qiao, however, nodded continuously. After a moment, she descended the steps and walked to stand before Zeng Nanqin. She gave a cold laugh. “First — although your birth hour is favorable, the year itself does not compare to the young Daoist’s. He has the year, the month, and the hour all aligned — a body of pure yang the likes of which appears perhaps once in a century. Second — yes, you killed your elder brother, but your elder brother and you were at odds for years, and in recent times your fighting over the family assets had grown fierce. Killing him was not a severing of your deepest bonds — it was merely taking advantage of the moment. Third — your heart is clearly occupied by another woman, yet here you are putting on an act in front of my master. Do you truly think my master does not know everything, that an ordinary mortal man can deceive and toy with her as he pleases?”

As she reached the end, her gaze hardened, and she struck without warning — her palm shooting toward the top of Zeng Nanqin’s skull. Yet Zeng Nanqin was no weak man in combat; he had been on guard and rolled aside on the ground to narrowly avoid Chun Qiao’s strike. He cried out urgently, “Jade Corpse, spare my life! Chun Qiao, spare me! That woman abandoned me early on and climbed to better prospects — I have not a shred of feeling left for her. I had no intention whatsoever of deceiving the Jade Corpse!”

With that, he pulled a dagger from his chest and looked at Chun Qiao with a resolute expression. “I will gouge out both my eyes right now, and fulfill the Jade Corpse’s third condition.”

He turned the point of the dagger toward his own eye, poised to thrust.

Chun Qiao watched him with great amusement, then suddenly asked, “Do you know why my master requires you to gouge out your own eyes?”

Zeng Nanqin hastily replied, “So that from this point on our eyes will see no other woman, and our hearts will hold only the Jade Corpse’s magnificent beauty — to be faithful for eternity and never fail her!”