Lang Jiuchuan and the transformed Old Master Huang stared each other down — she looking at him, he looking back up at her. She watched as his body wriggled free from the heap of clothing and reared up to its full height: it barely reached her shins.

She suddenly understood.

Both she and Feng Ya had overlooked one very important matter. They had spoken of a rat’s passage — and if a yellow weasel had managed to dig one out, it would naturally have dug it to fit its own dimensions. There was no reason it would have gone to the effort of excavating a man-height tunnel.

So the rat’s passage was, in truth, a genuine rat’s passage.

And both she and Feng Ya had simply forgotten this most elementary piece of common sense.

Lang Jiuchuan’s fingertips tapped frantically against the small Jiuta Pagoda. Had she gotten excited over nothing?

Feng Ya, feeling rather guilty, feigned a stern front. “Dead for ages and achieving great cultivation — I seem to have forgotten I’m really just a dead ghost, ha.”

He had cultivated the ghost path, cultivating it to full mastery, and been received into one of the Five Schools to become a minor Ghost Immortal. Yet the fundamental nature of a Ghost Immortal was nothing more than a spiritual ghost that had attained enlightenment. He remained, ultimately, a spirit form. Even if he could walk among mortals as an ordinary person and fool people into not seeing through his true nature, the simple truth was — he possessed no genuine physical body.

So when he had accompanied Old Master Huang into the rat’s passage before, it was because he had entered in spirit form, which naturally posed no obstacle.

But what of Lang Jiuchuan?

She, too, could send her primordial spirit out of her body, but that carried risks. Handled poorly, she would once again lose her physical form. Moreover, they still needed to excavate the burial — and if they came into direct conflict with Tantai Wuji, her magical instruments could not be carried within her divine spirit. What reserves could she draw on to contend with him?

One’s divine spirit could indeed fight, but bereft of the physical body as a foundation, it would grow more depleted, and time would be critically short.

Old Master Huang, seeing Lang Jiuchuan standing there in a stupor, felt he had reclaimed the upper hand. He declared smugly, “You see? This is the difference between us. My rat tunnel can only accommodate a body of my size. Do you also know bone-contraction techniques?”

Lang Jiuchuan: “…”

It was one of the rare occasions she had been left completely speechless!

Feng Ya let his presence bleed through, and said coldly, “Enough useless chatter. If this tunnel won’t work, then find us another way.”

Old Master Huang startled. Eyeing the familiar presence emanating from the small Jiuta Pagoda, he asked with some hesitation, “Benefactor?”

“It is I.” Feng Ya’s voice carried out from within the pagoda. Following Lang Jiuchuan’s arrangement, he had fused with the pagoda as its artifact spirit, so as to evade the grinding annihilation of the Dao’s laws.

Of course, a portion of his primordial soul force still remained within the Seven-Treasure Soul-Nurturing Lotus Lamp in the Void Realm, as a precaution.

“Ah, a friend! Why didn’t you say so earlier — come, come, let’s talk inside!” Old Master Huang let out an exclamation, darted into the room, and did not forget to clamp down on the clothing on the floor with his mouth on his way — these were freshly made brocade robes, worth a pretty sum!

Lang Jiuchuan trudged despondently into the room, the very picture of a frost-bitten eggplant, utterly deflated.

Feng Ya could not stand the sight of her looking so wretched. “Enough. Why are you wearing that face like you’ve just lost a teacher? If your physical body can’t enter, then your primordial spirit goes in. Once inside, you resolve things swiftly. In any case, the main objective is the skeletal remains, yes? As for how to move those bones away — don’t I handle that? And that scheme of yours — has it been abandoned?”

Like a bucket of cold water thrown over her head.

Lang Jiuchuan smiled sheepishly. “I was just feeling a little vexed — I didn’t think of that point.”

“And when did I think of it? It’s a minor issue, not worth hanging your head over. Pathetic!” Feng Ya berated her. “At all times, composure must be maintained. Do not let trivial, inconsequential matters vex and trouble you. It serves no purpose.”

“Understood.” Lang Jiuchuan looked over at Old Master Huang, who had already dressed himself again. “My oversight. Whether or not my physical body enters, my primordial spirit must go in to take stock of the situation.”

Old Master Huang looked at the small pagoda. “What are the two of you going into the Imperial Mausoleum to do?”

“We’re going to the main tomb to dig up a grave.” Feng Ya spoke on Lang Jiuchuan’s behalf. “You’ll show the way — to the same place you brought me last time.”

Digging up Tantai, that old ghost’s, skeletal remains — it was graverobbing, pure and simple.

Digging — digging up a grave!

Fear crept into Old Master Huang’s small eyes. “Benefactor, is that the tomb with the great formation array laid over it? To breach that formation… even a divine spirit might be torn to shreds.”

The Imperial Mausoleum was covered by a great formation, and the main tomb within it had formation upon formation layered atop one another. The energy within was terrifying — even it had not dared to approach, fearing it would be mercilessly ground apart by those arrays.

“No matter. Since we dare to breach it, we are not afraid of the formation.”

Lang Jiuchuan asked Old Master Huang, “Do you know what lies within that main tomb?”

Old Master Huang shook his head. “I am only a yellow weasel. To have managed to steal a sliver of vital fortune energy right under someone’s nose and use it for my own cultivation is already a great blessing. I would never have dared out of sheer greed to go prying into the main tomb. But I know there is something terrifying within — something utterly beyond my ability to contend with.”

“Oh? You can actually sense it?”

“It’s not exactly that I can sense the main tomb directly — it comes through the dragon vein energy.” Old Master Huang said. “Dragon vein energy flows and connects in all directions. I have been cultivating by tempering my body with that energy, quietly and stealthily drawing in vital fortune. But within that dragon vein energy, there is another strand of presence — and it grows stronger with each passing day.”

A ray of hope emerges from the darkness.

Lang Jiuchuan had not expected to hear news of this kind from Old Master Huang. She pressed urgently, “That presence — can you describe it? What is it like? And it keeps growing stronger?”

“It’s difficult to say.” Old Master Huang thought for a moment. “It’s rather like a slumbering great dragon preparing to awaken. The entire Imperial Mausoleum was built atop a dragon vein, after all, and the main tomb was built specifically over the dragon’s spine — perhaps there truly is a dragon within! So after I was enlightened by Benefactor and took on human form, I have not dared to venture near that place again. Cultivation is not easy to come by, and I am fond of the human world.”

For a spirit or creature to take on human form required the right opportunity — for Old Master Huang, that opportunity had come in two parts: first, his own audacity in daring to steal vital fortune energy to fuel his cultivation; second, encountering Feng Ya’s enlightening guidance, which had brought him to become the Old Master Huang spoken of by everyone around.

He had not enjoyed this good life for many years. He truly had no desire to throw it away!

Lang Jiuchuan laughed coldly. “There is no dragon — what lies there is an old ghost!”

It seemed Tantai Wuji’s skeletal remains were indeed concealed within that place. The presence growing stronger with each passing day meant he had nearly finished nourishing himself and was on the verge of “awakening.”

This Imperial Mausoleum truly had to be breached — there was no other option.

“Out of deference to Benefactor above, if you truly wish to enter the rat’s passage in spirit form, this Huang will escort you through.” Old Master Huang’s small eyes darted back and forth. “But entering in your physical body is not entirely impossible either. This Huang has a devious stratagem — so long as the Celestial Master dares to bear the karmic consequences, I offer it freely.”

“I would hear the details.”

“Blast open the Imperial Mausoleum!” Old Master Huang chuckled. “I have observed that your cultivation is profound and vigorous, Celestial Master. If you are indeed Lang Jiuchuan, then are you not the Female Bodhisattva Immortal Lang — that female Daoist who cured the plague in recent days? The merit and virtue you have accumulated is enough to blind a person. With such power, you could call down a ‘natural’ heavenly fire and blast it in the direction of the main tomb within the Imperial Mausoleum. That would certainly throw everything into great chaos and upheaval. And would you still worry about finding a way in?”

A single word, and it was like a pour of ghee clearing the mind.

Lang Jiuchuan fixed her gaze on Old Master Huang, her mood lifting in a way she could not quite explain. She tapped the small Jiuta Pagoda lightly. See — the most unassuming game piece often brings the greatest surprise.

She and Feng Ya had only been thinking along the lines of Tantai Wuji’s own logic — guarding and acting in accordance with his plans, hoping to dig up a grave quietly and secretly, dreading any disturbance. But with the sealing restrictions in place, some disturbance was inevitable. If that was already the case, why did she need to creep around at all? He would be drawn out regardless.

She could declare war openly and aboveboard!

A straight punch, with no tricks behind it — it would simply be a matter of seeing how he chose to receive it.

Lang Jiuchuan smiled and cupped her hands in grateful salute toward Old Master Huang. “This devious stratagem pleases me greatly. My thanks!”