Volume One: The King's Decree Chapter Ninety-One: The Ghost General of Mount Songfu

Around the many sarcophagi, the risen dead climbed to their feet and, beneath the spell’s encompassing light, shed the last traces of flesh and hide, emerging anew from the inside out. Armor forged from surging negative energy enveloped them all, sealing every figure from head to toe.

The foundations of Mount Songfu were more than the Iron Dynasty could ever imagine. A sect that had once been able to stand toe to toe with the Dragon Gorge Clan—how could it have been destroyed so easily?

Satisfied, Ouyang Yan looked at the assembled force before him. This was the accumulation of Mount Songfu after centuries of dormancy.

At its core lay the art of command over spirits and generals, from which Mount Songfu had extended an entire body of esoteric methods. These yin soldiers, cultivated through the bodies of the sect’s own disciples as living vessels, possessed power far beyond the ordinary.

Before death, they sealed all the power of their lives within themselves, planting the seed of resurrection. Now, awakened by Duan Ming, the cultivation amassed over centuries was released in a single instant, its might too vast to meet with the eye.

“Elders and disciples of Mount Songfu, heed my command! Duan Ming, sixty-seventh sect master, has been waiting here for a long time. The Iron Dynasty’s city lies just above us. Follow me and bring it to ruin!”

With a drawn sword, Duan Ming pointed upward. The ghostly generals let out thunderous howls, and a pure column of negative energy burst through the roof of the palace, causing this long-silent tomb to see daylight once more.

The difference in the strength they had possessed in life determined the size of the ghostly generals they had become. A few especially burly ones charged at the front, crushing everything in their path like dry twigs beneath a wheel.

“This move of Sect Master Duan’s is a brilliant strike at the root. If Dragon Gorge knew they had spent so much effort raising a mortal enemy, I wonder what they would think?” Ouyang Yan said with a smile, smashing open every sarcophagus with his hoe. The coffins, reduced to heaps of broken stone, were, under his exquisite control, gathered into the shape of a giant stone turtle.

“No sense wasting it. Sect Master Duan, I’ll borrow these sarcophagi. This stone turtle is really something!”

“You aren’t coming with me, old friend? There are enemies all around outside. It wouldn’t be safe for you to move alone.”

“No matter. I’ll go visit an old acquaintance. We’ll meet again in the capital.”

The old fox and the young fox each harbored his own calculations. Ouyang Yan leaped onto the stone turtle’s back and sat steady upon the crest of its shell, racing off toward White Jade Capital.

Only when the ghostly generals of Mount Songfu appeared was the commotion noticed by the soldiers and camp garrisons near Changle City. Layers of negative energy rolling in from the horizon blotted out the clear daylight. Just as Jian Yi had split apart the flying Mountain of Suppression, he turned and faced the thick gloom, his expression dark as water.

The sword cultivators of Dragon Gorge were born with a hatred of demons and evil things. Those who wield the sword should cut down all demons under heaven and protect the peace of the human race. In matters of righteousness, Jian Yi never hesitated. Forgetting Liu Xiaoyi, who had been fighting him, he released all his killing intent to draw the ghostly generals’ attention.

Liu Xiaoyi dared not pursue further. The Mountain of Suppression he had just infused with all his spiritual power had been cleaved open, and the difference in their strength was plain for all to see.

“So many ghostly generals, and not a single yin soldier clearing the way. That’s not normal. Is there some huge graveyard near Changle City?” Bai Yiting recognized these ghostly generals; they resembled those seen by the banks of the Clear Water River, and must have been the work of the same people.

But without yin soldiers to gather and sustain the negative energy, it would be impossible to support so many ghostly generals existing in the world for long. Where there is an omen, there must be a source of evil; there was surely something at the root around Changle City.

Cui Ran came running, drenched in sweat. “Disaster! Disaster! Out on the battlefield from Mount Songfu outside Changle City, monsters have come pouring out!”

“Mount Songfu? Ah, yes, yes—that sect that specialized in commanding spirits and generals, eventually wiped out by the Iron Dynasty and Dragon Gorge. General Cui, I advise immediate withdrawal. Their target isn’t us.”

Bai Yiting slapped his thigh and suddenly remembered that piece of history.

Cui Ran made the decision at once, abandoning all cumbersome supplies and withdrawing lightly armed. At last, he managed to pull his men out of the battlefield before the ghostly generals arrived.

In the other camps, however, there was no one as clear-headed as Bai Yiting, and they paid dearly for it. The eight thousand ghostly generals came on like a tide. Neither blades nor spears nor arrows could harm them in the slightest. Any soldier wounded or slain by weapons steeped in negative energy would quickly transform into a yin soldier, feeding the ghostly generals with still more negative energy.

The ghostly host swelled like a snowball. The first to react were the iron cavalry of Yongqing. Li Zai was widely experienced; after the slightest contact, he understood these were not beings that ordinary weapons could injure. He immediately ordered his soldiers to soak their sabers and spears in lamp oil and set them ablaze.

Negative energy fears fire; this was basic common sense. Tens of thousands of mounted troops thundered over the ground, their battle cries shaking the earth. Li Zai led the charge at the front, driving Yongqing’s cavalry straight into the ghostly generals.

Duan Ming saw it all clearly. Riding a paper horse at a leisurely pace in the rear, he laughed softly. “Today marks the beginning of the Iron Dynasty’s end. All of you will die!”

Though flame could wound the yin soldiers and ghostly generals, thunder soon rolled across the heavens. A downpour came crashing down and extinguished every fire. Thus the iron cavalry that had charged forth became fish on a cutting board, left only to be butchered.

Li Zai clearly had not expected his opponent to command wind and rain. Caught off guard, he was struck in the left shoulder by a spear and fell from his horse. More than a dozen yin soldiers immediately pounced. When he rose again, his eyes were glowing with a faint green light, his reason already eroded away by negative energy. He had become an inconspicuous ghostly general, remounting to raise his blade against his own men.

“So it was you behind this. Do you know the punishment Dragon Gorge reserves for traitors?” Jian Yi cut through layer after layer of obstruction and saw Duan Ming standing unharmed in the very heart of the negative-energy maelstrom. How could he not understand?

As one of the eight swordsmen assigned to protect the crown prince, Duan Ming had always been taciturn and disliked drawing attention. After coming to Central Province, he would often go out alone whenever he was idle, claiming he was traveling for pleasure.

In truth, he had been following the ancestral command to search for the exact location of Mount Songfu’s sect. So many years had passed that nearly all the clues had been buried by the turning of the ages. It had taken Duan Ming no small effort to finally uncover where Mount Songfu lay.

Only then, after gathering the objects needed to open the Gate of Yama, had Duan Ming spent away every coin he had, enduring humiliation and carrying this burden for so long, until he could open the tomb and release the ghostly generals.

It could be said that from first to last, Duan Ming had never wavered in the slightest. He studied under Dragon Gorge, served at the crown prince’s side for many years, and all along his final purpose had been to bring a blow across time for Mount Songfu.

“A traitor? So this is the lofty righteousness of Dragon Gorge!” Duan Ming pointed, and several ghostly generals instantly surrounded Jian Yi. “After centuries of accumulation by Mount Songfu, killing just one of you is almost a loss.”

For the first time, Jian Yi’s unmatched blade failed to sever its foe. His longsword was caught in a ghostly general’s arm and rapidly corroded by negative energy. Jian Yi hurriedly withdrew it, sword qi whirling around his body to dispel the darkness, but it was already too late. The blade had become so pitted and ruined that a slight movement sent it shattering to the ground.

“What a dense aura. Since Mount Songfu has returned to the world, I must report this to Dragon Gorge.” Jian Yi had intended to kill the traitor, but each ghostly general possessed enough strength to entangle him. Though none could defeat him outright, if they dragged the struggle on long enough and his true energy was exhausted, he would truly be unable to escape in time.

Duan Ming watched with satisfaction as Jian Yi struggled desperately to break free from the encirclement of the ghostly generals. Remembering the humiliations he had suffered in Dragon Gorge over the years—having no qualification to learn their supreme arts, only to be mocked by the elders—the bitterness of those memories surged up in his chest. He took out a small purple banner and waved it hard twice.

In an instant, thunder boomed. Two gray bolts of lightning, bearing overwhelming force, crashed straight down upon Jian Yi’s position. Smoke billowed everywhere, the ground turned black as charcoal, and before the surrounding ghostly generals could react, a white band of light shot out from the haze and flew into the sky.

“Senior Brother Jian Yi, since you met me today, even one with sword and self as one won’t escape!” Duan Ming waved the little banner again. The gray lightning followed the white streak all the way as it descended. At first it could still be endured by brute force, but after only a few collisions the streak of light plunged into the distant forest and blasted a pit fifteen feet across.

After sword cultivators of Dragon Gorge reached a certain level of cultivation, the move they would choose to train was precisely the one Jian Yi now used: the unity of man and sword. It fused body and longsword into perfect harmony, then let sword qi sweep across heaven and earth. With the slightest turn of thought, one could shift from place to place; among all of Dragon Gorge’s movement arts, it was the fastest.

Duan Ming had practiced it as well, and knew Jian Yi meant to flee while the smoke and dust blocked his vision. That was why he summoned yin thunder to forcibly stop him.

Only pure negation could fearlessly withstand thunder, the natural bane of evil things. Jian Yi was struck again and again by yin thunder, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth as he fell from the sky and was forcibly blasted out of his fused state. His vitality was gravely damaged.

“Dragon Gorge must know this news. Even if I must give up my life, I have to deliver it!”

Jian Yi drew a black pellet from his robes, crushed it between his teeth, and swallowed it. At once he seemed renewed, as if nothing had happened.

“Senior Brother, then you may as well obediently become my ghostly general. With your strength, you will surely be peerless, and help me sweep White Jade Capital clean!” Duan Ming urged the ghostly generals forward, following in pursuit.

“Dragon Gorge treated you well enough. Why did you still open Mount Songfu’s ruins? Duan Ming, you should not have done this!” As Jian Yi spoke, he forcefully pressed his left hand downward. In a flash invisible to the eye, a streak of red light sank into the ground.

A little while later, the earth behind Jian Yi suddenly trembled. From the loosened soil burrowed out a scorpion, a red scroll tube tied to its tail, which it swayed as it crawled up to Duan Ming’s side.

Taking the scroll tube in hand, Duan Ming opened it and glanced at the writing inside, then shook it at Jian Yi. “The tricks of Dragon Gorge don’t work on me. You’re not getting away today!”

If combined in their use, the supreme arts of Dragon Gorge possessed the power to overturn mountains and seas. Duan Ming did not wish to let Jian Yi return and create future trouble for himself.

“Then it depends on whether my junior brother’s ghostly generals are sturdy enough!” Behind Jian Yi rose a half moon of remnant silver. His entire aura changed dramatically, and Duan Ming hastily directed the ghostly generals to encircle him, not allowing him to continue gathering spiritual energy.

The more powerful the technique, the more force it required. When one’s own true energy was insufficient, one would draw upon the scattered spiritual energy in the surroundings to make up the difference.

“Enough to kill you—the Mystic Moon of Dragon Gorge!” Jian Yi raised his sword high. In only the briefest blur, the ghostly generals surrounding him were all cut cleanly in half, and though it was not a full moon, it still shattered the paper horse beneath Duan Ming.

But after unleashing this move, Jian Yi no longer had the strength to withstand the falling heavenly thunder. Looking at the chainmail armor on Duan Ming’s chest, split neatly into two, his eyes showed nothing but unwillingness.

“The other senior brothers will be treated the same way. Hahaha!”

Duan Ming laughed as he watched heavenly thunder pour down upon Jian Yi, shattering his soul.

Then, suddenly, another wheel of green moonlight rose into the air. Sword qi swept across the forest and blocked the thunder.