Soul-Snatching

They truly couldn't hold their breath any longer. A few people couldn't help but let their guard down and gulped in air.

Huff, huff—the sound was completely swallowed by the howling wind.

But the hundred or so vengeful spirits drifting through the air suddenly stopped and turned to stare in unison.

Before the unlucky few could even enjoy two full breaths, the vengeful spirits surged toward them in a wave and crashed straight into their heads.

Pfft! The three Life Fires on their bodies went out at once.

Who would dare step in and stop them in this situation?

To the onlookers, after the vengeful spirits burrowed into their ears and noses, the few people stood dazed for two or three breaths, then clutched their heads and screamed without end. Their eyes were bloodshot, saliva dribbled from their mouths, and they looked as if they had rabies. But unlike puppets possessed by Three-Corpse Insects, they didn't attack the people around them. Instead, they ran about in every direction, heedless of north, south, east, or west; some rolled on the ground, while others crashed into walls.

Dozens of vengeful spirits brawling, tugging at one another, and attacking one another in the same sea of consciousness—it was like dozens of firecrackers exploding inside your head all at once. Who could endure that?

In just over ten breaths, the people fell to the ground and died, blood streaming from all seven orifices.

Everyone watched, their hearts leaping into their throats.

The trouble was, the faster their hearts beat, the less time they could hold their breath. Most people were beginning to reach their limit, their faces swollen and purplish-blue, yet vengeful spirits were still erupting without pause. When would it ever end?

They would either suffocate or die with vengeful spirits burrowing through their brains. Just a few breaths later, another five or six people had no choice but to choose the former.

He Lingchuan and Nian Songyu were all right. A martial artist's lung capacity was strong to begin with. But He Chunhua's face had turned a deep purple, and he looked close to collapsing.

He Lingchuan had no time to worry about anything else. He grabbed Sun Fuping by the sleeve and mouthed, "Find a way!"

He had trained in martial arts, but none of the tricks at his disposal were any use against vengeful spirits.

Perhaps Sun Fuping also felt the moment had come. He swept He Lingchuan's hand aside with his wide sleeve, walked into the middle of the army, and raised his staff.

He stuffed something into the monster's mouth, then held up his staff and drove it into the ground!

Centered on the beast's head, a yellow-glowing barrier appeared, covering everyone inside.

A barrier!

Sun Fuping shouted, "You can breathe now!"

The crowd was granted a reprieve. They bent at the waist, and some sucked in air so forcefully that they couldn't stop coughing.

This time, even He Chunhua was a little angry. "Why did the State Preceptor wait until now to act?"

If he had acted a dozen breaths earlier, those five or six people wouldn't have had to die.

Sun Fuping's expression was grave. "My Void Barrier lasts only a short time, and its effect is inferior to Life Fire. I wouldn't use it unless there was no other choice. Can you predict how much longer the vengeful spirits will keep erupting?"

No one could.

He Chunhua had nothing to say. The soldiers looked at Sun Fuping with complicated expressions.

But he paid them no mind.

"Keeping most of them alive is what matters most," said Sun Fuping.

"What now?" Nian Songyu asked.

"We wait." Sun Fuping kept his eyes fixed on the pool. "We can't take the next step until the vengeful spirits stop coming out."

The crowd had only just recovered from their fright, and now they finally had time to observe the vengeful spirits drifting through the sky.

Situ Han exclaimed, "The ones coming out now are mostly human-shaped vengeful spirits. There are also loads of armored riders."

These ghosts galloped on horseback, waving their blades and roaring as though they were still fighting endlessly on a battlefield.

"There are more dead soldiers from battlefields than anywhere else, and their resentment is stronger, too." He Lingchuan was startled. "Look at this!"

The vengeful spirits surging out of the pool had started out all sorts of strange shapes. Then human souls became the majority. Now they were growing enormous. Though vengeful spirits had no weight, the one He Lingchuan saw looked like a combination of seven or eight spirits. It had seven hands and eight feet, with pairs of eyes on its chest and shoulders.

An ordinary vengeful spirit standing in front of it looked like an ordinary person standing before an ancient banyan tree. There was simply no comparison in size.

The pressure it put on the living was on a completely different level, too.

At the sight of the monster, Sun Fuping seemed to relax instead. "Just as I thought."

"Just as you thought what?" He Lingchuan said. He was always leaving half his sentences unfinished. At this rate, he'd be up all night pissing.

"After spending a long time inside the pot, some vengeful spirits begin devouring and merging with one another, forming new, powerful individuals—like raising venomous creatures to fight one another." Sun Fuping pointed at the monster. "As expected, the vengeful spirits emerge in order from weakest to strongest. That means our time holding out is almost up."

The seven-handed, eight-footed monster had crawled out of the pool and was about to follow the main group upward. Just as Sun Fuping finished speaking, it suddenly turned its head. All sixteen eyes blinked at once, and it stared straight at the barrier!

He Lingchuan felt his hair stand on end under its gaze. This thing's stare was far more frightening than Nian Songyu's. "Can it see us?"

"Shh!" Sun Fuping hurriedly cut him off.

But it was too late. The Sixteen-Eyed Monster clearly made a sniffing motion, then moved out of the pool and crawled toward the barrier.

The Sixteen-Eyed Monster moved comically, its limbs awkward and uncoordinated. It even stumbled a little. But Sun Fuping knew this was only because it had just entered the human world and hadn't fully adjusted yet.

The Void Barrier had no real defensive power—and it couldn't, or it would only provoke the vengeful spirits to attack. It merely concealed the living, so the dead couldn't smell the scent of blood and flesh.

But among all the bizarre vengeful spirits, there were always a few with unusual abilities who were difficult to fool. From the Sixteen-Eyed Monster's actions, it hadn't seen through the Void Barrier completely, but it had grown suspicious and was determined to come closer and investigate.

In its eyes, there was no sign of the living within the area covered by the Void Barrier. Still, it could faintly sense a trace of vitality, like a few scattered fireflies flickering in the night. Whenever it tried to look more closely, the trace blurred.

This had undoubtedly piqued its curiosity, making it want to draw near and get a better look.

Just as it was about to hit the barrier, Sun Fuping barked, "Baishan, Qingshui! Raise the Soul-Fixing Banner!"

Two attendants behind him darted to the very front of the group and stood at the edge of the barrier. From somewhere, they produced a huge white banner and waved it at the Sixteen-Eyed Monster.

The banner was covered in densely packed black-and-red sigils. As the white cloth fluttered against the wind, the sigils rose from its surface and slowly revolved. Faint chanting could be heard in the air.

The banner looked like nothing more than an ironwood pole with a piece of white cloth attached, swaying back and forth. Yet the attendants struggled to wield it, needing all four hands between them just to hold it up.

The way they waved the white banner was like drawing an "∞" in the air at an even, repeated pace.

At the same time, Sun Fuping moved to the front of the crowd and signaled for them to close their eyes.

But the order came a little too late. As soon as the white banner appeared, everyone's gaze naturally followed its movements. After it swayed past them twice, several people's eyes went blank, as if drawn in by a magnet. They lifted their legs and began walking toward it.

One of them passed He Lingchuan. He pressed down hard on the man's shoulder and closed his eyelids for him.

The man struggled twice, then went still.

The others followed suit, holding back the companions who had been robbed of their souls.