Chapter Ninety: Strength

At that moment, both Li Yue and I were already at the end of our strength.

The gate of the compound stood right before us.

Yet the struggle in my heart was greater still.

Li Yue bit her lower lip, her face paler than before. A flash of clarity suddenly crossed her eyes.

Along with it came disappointment.

She said nothing more. Then, all at once, she raised her hand and tapped the center of her palm.

On that nearly dislocated hand, the Azure Mirror appeared without a sound.

Sweat stood in great beads across Li Yue’s forehead as she pressed the mirror into my chest.

Then she turned and walked straight into the courtyard.

I froze.

I had never expected her response to be so direct, so severe.

Only after her figure vanished from my sight did my heart give a sudden jolt, and regret rose up in me. Along with it came another feeling: disgust.

Disgust at my own weakness, disgust at the cowardice buried in my bones.

Only then did I understand why there was no longer any edge in my heart.

Not even the faintest trace of it remained.

Such sharpness could not be born overnight.

One must not be timid. One must have a fearless state of mind, and believe deep in one’s bones that one is strong.

Only then can sharpness exist.

Otherwise, I would never be able to draw the Combat Talisman again.

It took only a single stroke, yet it was also the most demanding, the most difficult of all.

Putting aside the fact that if Li Yue died here, I would have no way to answer to Li Cangshui, and the promise he had made me would likely be voided at once, there was also this: Li Yue had saved me before. During these past few days, she had spoken with me without the slightest suspicion or doubt, without any guard at all. If today I were the one determined to go in, she would absolutely have followed me without a word.

At that thought, I clenched my fist so hard it trembled.

If I left here today, then for the rest of my life I would never be able to draw the Combat Talisman again.

And if so, what right would I have to be that person?

What right would I have to protect Chan Shu, to save Chan Shu?

A coward who fears death will never become strong.

Those thoughts flashed by in an instant. By the time Li Yue stepped into the courtyard, only a few breaths had passed.

I suddenly lifted my leg and followed her in.

Li Yue had just reached the well. She turned back warily, and when she saw it was me, her face twitched, though she said nothing.

I forced a smile and said hoarsely, “How can you take back something you’ve already given? At any rate, we’ve both walked through life and death together. How could I possibly run away in fear?”

At last, a glimmer of joy appeared on Li Yue’s face.

I quickly walked to her side and handed the mirror back to her.

My gaze also fell on the mouth of the well.

Li Yue bit her lip lightly and murmured an apology.

At once my face flushed hot.

“How do we kill it?” I asked, changing the subject.

The courtyard was so cold it was frightening. Even the well gave me the illusion that I might fall into it at any moment.

Though I was standing on level ground, I kept feeling as if the floor were slick. As if I would slip and fall.

Li Yue put away the Azure Mirror. This time, she did not need several minutes as before; in an instant, it disappeared into her palm.

“She still can’t get out. Earlier, the old Daoist had Wang Gongming come and pull her because this place is a very special point in the Judge’s Hat geomantic formation.”

“Every geomantic layout has a place where filth is discharged. That place is also called a dead ground, where all the impure qi gathers. Likewise, within the formation there is bound to be a living ground.”

“A geomantic site where yang qi gathers will have abundant life-force.”

“A geomantic site where yin qi gathers will be pure yin.”

“She’s definitely the ghost the old Daoist has been raising here. Nourished by yin qi, and fed by the old Daoist’s constant capture of ghosts.”

Li Yue took out the remaining two Ghost-Suppressing Talismans and stepped up to the well.

My eyelids throbbed violently. I immediately moved closer as well.

The ground still felt slippery beneath my feet, yet I remained standing very steadily.

Once I leaned over the well and looked down, a fine layer of gooseflesh rose all over my neck.

A face as white as paper, utterly unlike that of a living person, was looking up at us.

Her features were strange.

She had single eyelids, and her eyes were not large, but long and narrow.

They looked almost like a fox’s eyes.

Her curved eyelashes were lifted high. Her nose bridge was straight and prominent, and her face was small and thin, shaped like an upside-down triangle, not much bigger than a palm.

Her lips were tiny and red.

Rather than beautiful, the face gave off a ghastly chill.

No matter how I looked at it, that face seemed like a fox’s face stripped of its fur.

Especially the two loops of bone beads around her neck, which made my skin crawl even more.

Each knuckle-sized bead looked about as large as a hickory nut, like miniature skulls.

She stared at us with terrifying malice.

I could faintly make out a wound at her shoulder, and it was healing before my eyes.

While Li Yue and I were speaking just now, she had been listening from the well beside us, secretly spying on us.

Li Yue gritted her silver teeth. With a flick of her hand, a Thunder Talisman swept down toward the ghost’s face.

The ghost gave a sharp, piercing howl. Her hair suddenly lengthened, the black strands surging straight toward Li Yue and me.

My expression changed drastically. In the next instant, the hair shot out of the well.

Amid a burst of blood-red light, the Thunder Talisman severed every strand.

The remaining blood glow still wounded the ghost, and part of the flesh on her face rotted away.

“She’s too thoroughly fused with the living ground here. Without a Ghost-Suppression Talisman pulling her out, she can’t easily emerge! Give me your Thunder Talismans too.”

I drew out the remaining three Thunder Talismans and handed them to Li Yue.

She used a length of red thread to string all four Thunder Talismans together.

A faint crimson light flickered across them. Their originally fierce presence instantly strengthened several times over, as though the linking had brought about some qualitative change.

“My talisman drawing is not very good. But my master taught me a method for linking talismans. It can trigger several talismans at once and strengthen their power. With the talismans you gave me, this ghost has only one possible end.”

Li Yue’s voice was solemn. Gone was any trace of childish innocence.

Yet I did not think her cruel in the slightest.

The ghost in the well had devoured who knew how many souls. It was not a being that could ever be turned toward kindness.

The next moment, Li Yue gave a low shout and formed a hand seal.

The red thread immediately plunged toward the mouth of the well.

The ghost suddenly lifted her hand, her fingernails lengthening to more than a foot in an instant.

She raised that hand abruptly and pierced straight through the Thunder Talisman.

Li Yue’s eyes turned cold. Her hand seal shifted again.

The four Thunder Talismans erupted almost at once in a burst of blood-red light.

That crimson light was so intense it seemed almost like blood itself, thick and viscous.

Before my eyes, there was nothing left but red.

The mouth of the well seemed to have exploded, and the ghost’s shriek pierced the whole night sky.

After completing the seal, Li Yue looked as though she had been drained of strength. Her body swayed, and she nearly fell.

I hurried to steady her.

My heart pounding furiously, I stared at the well.

The screams weakened, but did not stop.

At last, the blood-red light of the Thunder Talismans faded away.

The well itself had not been shattered.

Inside it, the ghost’s entire face had been blasted away, leaving only half a face in a bloody mess of torn flesh.

Her whole body was trembling. Her hair began to lengthen, wrapping around her head.

I was shocked beyond measure.

Even a Thunder Talisman of this strength could not kill her?

Li Yue’s expression changed as well. Trembling, she said, “How is that possible? How can she be this powerful?”

A great mass of yin qi surged up from the well. Black mist spread outward, and the ghost suddenly let out a miserable laugh.

“You... killed him... I’m going to kill you all!”

Her shrill voice was soaked in venom, exploding in our ears.

Had the ghost discovered that Daoist Zhou was dead?

I pulled Li Yue aside several steps. The black qi began spreading through the courtyard, though not yet at a very fast pace.

“She’s very weak right now. She’s drawing in the yin qi from here, and that black mist is only a cover! Do you still have any talismans? Stronger ones!”

Li Yue gripped my sleeve tightly.

My heart gave a start.

I did indeed still have one talisman...

But after I used it last time, Elder Wang sacrificed himself to save me, and in the end my mother entered my soul...

I bit my lip and said in a hoarse voice, “I do have one. I’ve used it once before. I nearly died, and two people died to save me...”

“One of them was my mother. The other was the corpse you saw in the little hut.”

Li Yue’s face changed slightly. “Then there’s no choice. We can only leave.”

I exhaled shakily and said, “There may be one way. It might work.”

“What way?” Li Yue asked quickly.

I still needed a ghost with a very powerful soul. If I could catch such a ghost, then perhaps I would be able to kill this ghost.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the courtyard.

In the next moment, more than a dozen villagers and Daoists rushed in.

The Daoist in front pointed straight at us and shouted with hatred and fury, “It’s them! Daoist Zhou was chasing them just now! They’re the murderers!”