Chewing Ghosts

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Within the government office, the sound of metal striking metal rang out without end, deafening enough to split ears.

Had there been any other living person present, they would have witnessed an utterly bizarre scene: a majestic giant of a man in a crimson official robe, his face painted in Zhong Kui's face paint, wielding a Ghost-Slaying Sword over four feet long. He roared like thunder, his sword-shadow swift as the wind.

Though the sharp treasured sword was clearly slashing through empty air, piercing clashes rang out all the same, sparks scattering like rain.

In Zhou Sheng's furious, tiger-like eyes was reflected the figure of the Chang soldier.

One strike, another strike, then yet another strike!

He stepped in tiger strides, his beard and hair bristling in rage. Every bone and sinew in his body crackled, faintly rumbling like thunder. He truly resembled a ferocious tiger that had become a spirit.

The Chang soldier, too, possessed battle-hardened martial skill, but it had twice been wounded by the Startling Hall Wood and was intimidated by Zhong Kui's fearsome reputation for eating ghosts. For a time, it was forced back again and again.

"Wah-yah-yah-yah—"

The fiercer Zhou Sheng fought, the more thunderous his operatic voice became. Two terrifyingly fierce lights shot from his eyes.

"Do not flee! Do not flee! Do not flee!"

"Within the Five Viscera Temple—my hungry guts are empty!"

The instant the words fell, a boom erupted from his belly, as though his stomach and intestines were violently churning, roaring like thunder.

The sword in his hand grew faster and faster, its Baleful Intent increasingly heavy.

Boom!

A flash of sword-light severed a thick paulownia pillar outright. Flying splinters shot in every direction like hidden weapons.

The entire yamen jolted violently, the eaves overhead trembling and swaying.

Dust fell like rain, only to be blasted away by the Baleful Intent soaring into the sky.

Zhou Sheng had already killed until his eyes were red. He sank deeper and deeper into the role, nearly losing track of who he was. He remembered only that hunger roared like thunder in his belly, and the evil ghost before him would make fine drinking fare!

"Steamed, you are too lean!"

"Braised, you are too fat!"

"How should I eat you? How should I eat you?"

Clang!!!

Amid that string of demands, the two struck downward with their swords at the same time. The shrieking crash of metal nearly shook the roof tiles loose, while blazing sparks illuminated two pairs of savage eyes.

One pair was blood-red, round as bronze bells.

The other boiled with ghostly phosphorescent fire, vicious and cold.

Clearly, the Chang soldier had recovered from the lingering force of the Startling Hall Wood, and its bloodlust had been stirred. Its fighting spirit was astonishing.

Neither yielded a single step in that clash of swords, as though locked in a contest of strength.

The ancient sword hummed. The Supreme Ghost-Slaying Incantation carved into it glimmered with flowing light, while the battle sword in the Chang soldier's hand was no ordinary thing either, refusing to fall at all behind.

"A mere fake Zhong Kui, and you think you can eat this general?"

"An actor will forever be an actor!"

The Chang soldier spoke for the first time. Its voice was hoarse and rough, as though grit were grinding in its throat.

Yet the response it received was a raging blaze.

Zhong Kui spewed fire!

In the classic Hebei Bangzi Opera, Zhong Kui, Zhong Kui's fire-spouting was one of the signature feats.

Though Zhong Kui was a ghost, he hated evil as bitterly as an enemy. Violent yet upright by nature, he could slay evil ghosts and spit blazing flames. He was the Hero of Ghosts!

This fire was no ordinary flame either. It was the fierce baleful fire of the Five Viscera Temple, made to burn every last demon and ghoul!

The Chang soldier had not expected its opponent to possess such a trick. It immediately let out a miserable scream as the flesh on its face melted like candle wax.

Even the phosphorescent flames dancing in its eyes flickered unsteadily.

Zhou Sheng pressed his advantage without mercy, stepping forward with sword in hand.

"Smells so good! Smells so good!"

"Roast you until three parts crisp—just right for drinking!"

His sword-shadow was a raging storm, hacking down upon the Chang soldier and leaving slash after slash across its ancient armor as yin energy leaked out without cease.

This Chang soldier truly deserved its reputation as an elite of the underworld. An ordinary ghost would have had its soul scattered by a single stroke from Zhou Sheng. Even a Fierce Ghost like Shen Jinhua could at most withstand three to five blows.

Yet this Chang soldier had taken more than a dozen strikes and still retained the strength to battle fiercely.

It had finally sensed danger. This man singing Yin Opera actually possessed three parts of Celestial Master Zhong Kui's bearing, and was gradually approaching the realm of Unity of Person and Role.

As an Underworld Soldier of the netherworld, it naturally understood that for a Ghost Opera Performer, the higher one's Dao cultivation and the deeper one entered the role, the stronger one's divine abilities became.

It absolutely could not let this brat continue sinking into the role, or it truly might meet its end here!

The Chang soldier had never imagined that the person Magistrate Zhu had provoked this time would be such a fierce figure.

Roar!!!

It suddenly unleashed a roar, like a warrior charging into a dead-end battlefield, bursting forth with its final fighting spirit while surrounded on all sides.

Its yin energy surged wildly, howling into wind.

Then its body, already as brawny as an iron tower, swelled even larger, even bursting apart the armor upon it to reveal sinews and muscles coiled like crouching dragons and twisting serpents.

In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a copper-armored giant more than ten feet tall!

Boom!

It smashed down with its sword, sending Zhou Sheng flying thirty feet away and even knocking the magistrate's desk aside.

The hand gripping Zhou Sheng's sword trembled slightly. His tiger's mouth split open, beads of blood rolling down.

At that moment, even his originally burly body after taking on Zhong Kui's role appeared small before his opponent.

"Actor, have you truly taken yourself for Zhong Kui?"

Phosphorescent fire soared in the Chang soldier's eyes like two blazing lanterns, and every breath it exhaled was like a gale.

"Eat me? Today, this general will eat you alive!!"

"To make up for my depleted Dao cultivation!"

It strode forth to kill, every step crushing the blue bricks beneath its feet until they exploded inch by inch, leaving behind enormous black footprints.

Before it even arrived, the howling yin wind had already blown Zhou Sheng's beard and hair straight upright, making his flesh quiver and leaving him barely able to open his eyes.

He raised his sword crosswise to block.

Clang!!!

Zhou Sheng was sent flying backward again, crashing into a beam pillar and cracking it. Hot blood poured from his tiger's mouth, while his sword hummed and shook.

"Weren't you going to eat me?"

Boom!

Another strike!

"Come on!!"

One sword after another, sparks flew in all directions, each blow carrying the force of ten thousand jun.

The situation had now completely reversed. Zhou Sheng retreated again and again, even coughing blood. His beard and hair were in disarray, yet as he was wounded and bled, the Baleful Intent in those crimson pupils only grew heavier.

On the seventh strike, the Ghost-Slaying Sword in Zhou Sheng's hand was sent flying from his grasp. It spun through the air and embedded itself in a pillar, its hilt trembling without stop.

He could no longer hold his sword. He had retreated as far as he could, his back pressed against the wall.

And at that very moment, the Baleful Intent and fury howling and surging through his chest finally boiled to their peak and exploded.

Green smoke rose from Laojun's Furnace.

Rumble!

He felt thunder explode in his mind, and once more reached that mysterious realm of Unity of Person and Role he had attained when singing Marquis Huan that day.

I am Zhong Kui, and Zhong Kui is me!

In a daze, he seemed to see that emperor seated high above, who had stripped him of his top scholar title merely because of his ugly appearance.

How could a true man endure such humiliation?

Rage rose from his heart. He rammed his head into a pillar and died within the Golden Throne Hall, his loyal heart and crimson blood like an indelible blot of cinnabar, staining the gilded bronze pillar red.

Zhou Sheng abruptly opened his eyes. Fierce, baleful energy rushed forth, streams of blood running down his forehead as though he had truly just dashed himself to death against a pillar.

He stared at the Chang soldier, whose expression had changed slightly, licked his lips, raised both clenched fists, glared with eyes wide, and let out a thunderous snort. He struck the opera pose of Subduing the Tiger.

The next instant, Zhou Sheng's figure vanished. Displaying extraordinary agility, he became a crimson bolt of lightning, dodging the Chang soldier's blade again and again before pouncing onto its back like a tiger descending the mountain.

He opened his blood-filled maw, his sharp teeth savagely tearing into the flesh of its neck.

Blood condensed from yin energy soaked his long, halberd-like beard.

He threw back his head and laughed, his voice rumbling like thunder.

"My intestines are the Yellow Springs Road, my stomach the Mirror of Sin."

"Today, I chew evil ghosts—"

"Exhilarating! Exhilarating!"