The atmosphere at Qingxu Temple grew increasingly strange. The blazing sun hung high in the sky, yet the temperature was frighteningly cold. Not a single breath of wind stirred across the entire mountain — not even the tips of the grass and trees moved, as though time itself had frozen solid. A malevolent energy seemed to erupt from beneath the earth, so powerful that even the Yang of the midday sun could not suppress it.

Even the junior disciples with the lowest cultivation had begun to sense this uncanny change. Yet everyone in the temple remained composed when faced with trouble. Following Rong Chen Zi’s instructions, Qingxuan gathered every person in the temple into the Hall of the Three Purities. Lingxia Mountain was protected by a grand formation array, and the hidden restrictions concealed throughout Qingxu Temple were too numerous to count.

Rong Chen Zi had put considerable thought into protecting his disciples.

Now that trouble had arrived, the purpose of these formation arrays and restrictions became apparent. Without a word, he activated every array formation guarding the temple complex, then sealed off Lingxia Mountain — a measure meant to prevent passersby from wandering in and being accidentally harmed. He Bang the Great Clam followed close at his side, and a faint fishy smell began to drift through the air. As the sun tilted westward, the smell grew heavier and heavier.

Visible to the naked eye, shadowy malevolent energy erupted from beneath the earth. As the sun sank lower, miasma rose and swelled throughout the mountains, and between the forest leaves one could faintly make out the movements of poisonous creatures — sand mites, serpents and vipers. Every bird and beast on the mountain vanished in an instant, and the forest fell into a dead silence.

The Daoist priests gathered in the Hall of the Three Purities. Once Rong Chen Zi had finished activating the mountain-protection formation, he drove He Bang into the hall as well. Facing his disciples, his expression remained calm and composed. He went through the formation mnemonics one by one with Qingxuan — the Three Wonders and Eight Gates, the Six Protocols and Eight Spirits — then instructed everyone: “While your Master has not yet returned, defer to your Senior Brother Qingxuan in all matters. This place is very safe. Do not leave before daybreak.”

None of the disciples dared object, and they all answered in unison. Rong Chen Zi gave a slight nod, picked up his treasure pouch, and made to leave. Qingxuan followed after him: “Master, your disciple wishes to accompany you. If something were to happen—”

Rong Chen Zi stopped him before he could finish: “Take care of your junior brothers.”

His decisions brooked no argument. The moment his left foot crossed the threshold of the hall, He Bang had already chased him to the doorway. Rong Chen Zi turned back. Seeing her long hair flowing freely and her robes fluttering like wings, something softened in his heart, and he unconsciously lowered his voice: “You stay here too.”

The Great Clam was surprisingly obedient. She nodded, then after a long pause said: “Zhiguan, be careful.”

Rong Chen Zi gave a slight nod, turned, and strode away. Fearing that He Bang might cause trouble, Qingxuan could only reassure her: “Master’s Daoist cultivation is profound and mysterious — dealing with these malevolent creatures is nothing to him. Let us wait here for him to return.”

“I believe that,” He Bang turned and walked back into the Hall of the Three Purities, “your Master’s character is such that without some genuine ability, he would never have lived this long…”

The disciples: “……”

The sky turned completely black. From the mountain forest first came a clamor of rustling sounds, then gradually the crack of snapping branches, the howl of mountain wolves baying at the moon, and the voices of men, women, and children speaking and singing rose from every direction. There were men bursting into wild laughter, women weeping softly, and wild beasts crying out loud.

The earth began to tremble, as though something was breaking through the soil to return to the surface.

Some of those footsteps were heavy as pounding drums, others light as cats and mice. The junior Daoist disciples in the Hall of the Three Purities, witnessing this scene for the first time, felt no small measure of apprehension. Yet the effects of their daily cultivation practice manifested now — some chanted sutras, others drew talismans, and none fell into confused panic.

Qingxuan had placed the Clam Spirit among the disciples as a protective measure. He Bang sat on a meditation cushion in the middle, looking left and right with the air of someone watching an entertaining spectacle. The hall doors had not been closed, and from where she sat, she could see a surge of deep green malevolent energy rising into the sky from deep within Lingxia Mountain.

This celebrated mountain, once so beautiful and spiritually vibrant, now looked sinister and menacing as the underworld itself.

He Bang was fascinated by the sorcery of the southern frontier as well, watching with evident interest. Without warning, the floor of the hall shuddered, and He Bang looked up to see a half-decomposed corpse crawling out from beneath the earth behind the hall. Goodness knows how many years this thing had been dead — the color of its clothing was entirely unrecognizable, its eyes had become two black holes, and it emerged from the soil without a sound, with both hands reduced to mere bone, while its cheeks still bore clinging rotted flesh.

The stench of decay overwhelmed the sense of smell, so that paradoxically its odor could not be distinguished.

Most of the young disciples had their eyes closed as they chanted, unaware of the corpse that had just broken through the ground. He Bang, wicked creature that she was, saw it but said nothing — she simply let the rotting corpse wander freely through the hall. When the corpse shambled past her, she quietly stuck out her foot and tripped it. The thing stumbled forward and tumbled straight into Qingxuan’s arms opposite her.

Qingxuan found himself suddenly clutching something unexpected. He opened his eyes and his soul nearly left his body in fright. A commotion erupted throughout the hall. He Bang covered her mouth to muffle her laughter, while Qingxuan shot her a furious glare.

The creature moved sluggishly, yet was extraordinarily difficult to destroy. Talismans proved useless against it — it seemed to have no soul driving it. A group of junior Daoist disciples bombarded it with every manner of magical instrument for a long while and could not manage to destroy it.

It lost a leg and still hobbled along, intent on injuring someone.

Qingxuan had some experience with such things, and simply severed both its legs: “That sorceress has stirred up the mountain qi of Lingxia, using the power of the mountain range to animate these corpses. If the formation array is not broken, the malevolent energy will flow endlessly, and these corpses will likely be beyond our ability to suppress.”

Without its legs, the corpse still scrabbled wildly at the ground with its hands. Fearing it might injure someone, Qingxuan simply severed its hands as well.

Under Rong Chen Zi’s influence, he too was a person of fastidious cleanliness. Now that his robes were splattered with fragments of the corpse’s flesh, he could not sit still for a moment. He desperately wanted to go change his clothes, but Rong Chen Zi had given orders that no one was to leave the hall. Bound by his Master’s command, he did not dare act rashly.

He Bang naturally perceived his thoughts — he truly was in an unpleasant state: “Perhaps I can accompany you to change your clothes?”

He Bang sidled up to Qingxuan. Qingxuan gritted his teeth: “Master ordered that we must not leave. Changing clothes is a minor matter — a Master’s command is not to be trifled with.”

He Bang’s voice was warm and smiling. She looked into Qingxuan’s eyes, her tone gentle: “Qingxuan, let me accompany you to change your clothes.”

Qingxuan paused for a moment, then suddenly felt it was entirely necessary to change his clothes. His expression remained perfectly ordinary — even with the entire hall of junior brothers watching, not one of them could detect anything amiss: “Yes, changing clothes — I really should change my clothes.”

He rose, instructed all the junior disciples to remain in the hall, then took He Bang and went outside. Qingyun grew somewhat concerned: “Senior Brother, Master gave orders — is this… really alright?”

Qingxuan suddenly felt there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. He replied lightly: “It’s fine. I’ll be back shortly.”

He strode out of the Hall of the Three Purities, and He Bang waved her hand slightly, skipping and hopping along behind him. In quite a few places throughout the temple, wandering corpses could be seen, yet they seemed unable to find any living person and had not located the Hall of the Three Purities — they simply shambled about the temple at random. Some occasionally triggered the hidden restrictions, being reduced to wisps of ash and smoke.

Qingxuan went to his room to change his clothes. He Bang naturally wanted to go watch Rong Chen Zi’s magical duel with Fuya. Soul-capture arts were her specialty — let alone Qingxuan who had absolutely no defenses up, even if he were reciting the Three Purities incantation and forming golden light seals with his hands, controlling him would have been child’s play.

However, Rong Chen Zi was extremely perceptive — no traces could be left on Qingxuan, so He Bang simply let him change his clothes first. Going along with someone’s own inclinations made control more natural and less likely for the person to perceive.

She waited at the doorway for Qingxuan to finish changing. Suddenly two corpses came staggering toward them. He Bang casually formed an ancient and archaic hand seal, and the corpses reacted as though scalded, veering far away to avoid her.

Once Qingxuan had changed his clothes, He Bang bounded up to him: “Qingxuan, that formation array looks incredibly powerful — let’s go help your Master in the mountain!”

Qingxuan felt it genuinely quite necessary to go help his Master. The ghostly chanting was enormous in scale and force — Master might be in danger. He took up his treasure pouch and slung his sword across his back: “Yes, let’s go!”

A hazy new moon hung in the sky. Rotting corpses were frequently encountered along the mountain path — human ones, and even animal ones. There was even one creature with a duck’s bill and a long neck, with short four limbs and sharp spines along its back, so thoroughly decomposed that only a skeleton remained, with no telling how many years it had lain there.

Qingxuan walked in front, completely severing the limbs of these corpses. For the more formidable ones, a subtle application of He Bang’s arts was enough to drive them away. He Bang handled things with just the right measure — his spiritual sense had not been completely controlled, and one could even say he retained a degree of autonomous thought, so he was still capable of his own reasoning: “Are you an inner cultivator?”

The people of Daozong divided cultivation into two kinds — inner and outer. Inner cultivation referred to training in the magic arts, while outer cultivation referred to strengthening the body and training in the martial path. There were those who cultivated both, like Rong Chen Zi, but dual cultivators also faced disadvantages — when encountering someone who cultivated purely in the martial path, they would certainly lose in a contest of physical force. When encountering someone who cultivated purely inner arts, they would fall short in a contest of magical techniques.

The advantage was that against martial path cultivators one could use magic arts, and against inner cultivators one could use physical strength…

And so most people of Daozong sought an external protector — meaning inner cultivators sought outer cultivators to travel alongside them, each supporting the other. In battle, the outer cultivator engaged at close range while the inner cultivator kept back at a distance, making them impervious to attack.

He Bang nodded candidly: “I don’t like practicing martial arts.”

Qingxuan moved closer to her — inner cultivators had weaker bodies, and once an evil creature got close to one, the danger was extreme. But regardless of whether one was an outer cultivator or a dual cultivator, bringing along an inner cultivator would make exorcising evil and subduing demons an effort doubled in effectiveness. Seeing this, He Bang only laughed: “It’s not that dramatic — quickly, look for your Master!”

The deeper they went toward the mountain’s interior, the more intense the malevolent energy and the more agitated the corpses became. He Bang was, after all, a demon and was not particularly afraid, but she found the corpses filthy and malodorous. They had just rounded an ancient pine when suddenly a wild boar burst out from the side — goodness knows how many days it had been dead, its entire body crawling with maggots, and the moment it saw He Bang it charged!

Qingxuan swung his sword in defense, and as the blade’s light swept past, maggots scattered in all directions. He Bang felt somewhat nauseated and kept well clear.

Just as this commotion was unfolding, a sharp shriek pierced the air ahead. A figure that looked like a shaman appeared among the trees with an expressionless face — he wore a small pointed hat, a soul-scattering bell hung at his waist, and he carried a corpse-herding staff, his eyes radiating a grey-white deathly aura.

Qingxuan abandoned the wild boar and immediately charged forward with his sword. This shaman moved with extraordinary speed — though a corpse himself, he possessed a lingering spiritual awareness and could even formulate tactics.

The shriek earlier had been a summons to the mass of corpses, and now dozens came rushing in from all directions, including several corpses of raccoon-dogs and wild wolves among them.

Qingxuan also cultivated both inner and outer arts, but though his foundation was stable, his cultivation was not yet fully developed — now that he was beset by corpses on all sides, he was completely overwhelmed. He Bang held a blood-red pearl in her cupped hands — it did not look like an inner core, but more like a magical instrument. She murmured an incantation, and several corpses were instantly encased in ice.

Only then did Qingxuan remember she was an aquatic creature — evidently her magical arts were of the Water element among the Five Elements. The shaman quickly realized that He Bang posed the greater threat to him. He abandoned Qingxuan and came at He Bang. Qingxuan’s sword light swirled around him, trying to engage him, but the shaman clearly would not take the bait and broke through Qingxuan’s sword-flower, taking several strikes in the process.

He Bang had just raised her hand when the shaman toppled to the ground — his head at his neck was gone. Qingxuan immediately severed his four limbs.

Rotting corpses surged in from every direction. This was a mountain range of a thousand years — who knew how many fierce spirits had been buried here, all now awakened, seemingly without end. He Bang periodically channeled magical power into Qingxuan’s body, circulating it through twenty-four full cycles to relieve his fatigue.

It was Qingxuan’s first time working alongside an inner cultivator, and he too perceived the wondrous subtlety of magical arts — what he himself had learned was no more than the surface. He Bang meanwhile kept glancing left and right, and taking advantage of the moment when Qingxuan was engaged with enemies, she used a secret technique to communicate with someone in the forest: “Chunyu Lin.”

In the shadow beneath the trees, a man flickered in and out of visibility — red-robed with black hair, his bearing graceful and refined: “Your servant is deeply concerned for you, my Majesty.”

He Bang, while helping Qingxuan dispose of the ever-multiplying corpses around them, spoke aloud: “Leave at once.”

The red-robed man gave a faint smile, made a slight bow of courtesy, and vanished into the night darkness of the mountain.

He Bang then resumed her lighthearted demeanor: “That Fuya is truly foolish — she’s summoned so many things, but if Rong Chen Zi can’t hold out and gets torn to pieces, would there even be anything left to eat!”

Qingxuan was furious: “Stop cursing my Master!!”