Ghost General

At first, Yu Chen had thought Chan Master Mirror Flower had come looking for him and would surely not let the matter rest.

Unexpectedly, she herself had not been particularly willing to get involved in this affair, and after Yu Chen provoked her, she chose to leave.

This is getting more and more interesting! Yu Chen smiled. One Wang Family trying to seize land, one acquiescing City God, one nun blocking the way, and one fox saving someone.

Yet upon closer inspection, everything seemed to revolve around the Dong Family's youngest son.

Just what is so remarkable about this Dong boy that he has drawn in the three greatest cultivation forces nearby? Countless thoughts ran through Yu Chen's mind. Smiling faintly, he returned once more to the graveyard hill outside town and lightly knocked on the ancient tree.

After a moment, there was no response. He knocked twice more, but still received none.

Yu Chen's pupils narrowed slightly, a trace of surprise surfacing in his eyes. Looking down, he saw that beneath the muddled aura around him, the demon qi had almost entirely dispersed. Clearly, no fox lived here anymore.

Yu Chen half-lidded his eyes and turned toward Little Fragrant Mountain.

Since he had already met the City God and Chan Master Mirror Flower, he might as well pay Daoist Wang a visit too.

Little Fragrant Mountain lay more than twenty li east of the town. It had never been well known, nor was it particularly high. Few people had passed through it in the past, until Daoist Wang established a Daoist temple there and it gradually gained some life.

As Yu Chen climbed the mountain, he saw a Daoist temple with white walls and black tiles, steeped in ancient charm. Its front hall had originally been a place for worshippers to stroll and linger, but now it was empty and desolate, without a trace of human presence. Only a large incense burner held sticks of sandalwood incense burning one after another, their curling smoke spiraling upward toward the unseen void, lending the temple a hint of mystery and sanctity.

Yu Chen glanced at it without lingering, then walked straight into the central hall. It presented an entirely different scene. Within stood an idol of a goddess, solemn and majestic, inviolable.

"Daoist friend, you have come?"

Beneath the idol, a Daoist sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion. Seeing Yu Chen, he said little, merely pointing to another cushion beside him with a smile. "Please, sit."

Once seated, Yu Chen bluntly asked, "You are Daoist Wang?"

"Indeed, I am. I know why you have come, Daoist friend, and I am also aware of what happened at the City God Temple today. Knowing you would come, I had the worshippers return home first."

"So the Daoist has been quite thoughtful. Shall you also say that you have been awaiting me for a long time?"

Daoist Wang paid no mind to Yu Chen's barbed words. Casually, he replied, "Indeed, I have been awaiting you for a long time! I only wonder whether Daoist friend would be willing to heed a word of advice from me."

"You want me to let you kill the Dong boy?" Yu Chen sneered. "I truly do not understand what that boy did wrong to make the three of you join forces and drive him to his death."

"Must Daoist friend know?"

"I must!"

"Very well." Daoist Wang nodded and said frankly, "Does Daoist friend know that there is a General's Temple not far from here?"

Yu Chen raised his brows. "The general who was buried alive by his sovereign five hundred years ago?"

"That is the one!" Daoist Wang nodded.

"Five hundred years ago, that general won glorious victories in battle and devoted himself wholeheartedly to his country, yet he was secretly harmed by his sovereign and buried alive alongside three thousand subordinates. After his death, that muddleheaded ruler accused his entire family of rebellion, confiscated their property, and wiped out their clan. His resentment soared to the heavens, leaving only one lingering obsession—to shelter the souls of his fallen subordinates."

"Originally, it was nothing much—merely one dead soul and three thousand military souls. Both the Buddhist and Daoist lineages had no shortage of people capable of suppressing them. But at that very time, a dynasty was being overthrown and another established, allowing this general to gain momentum. He gathered tens of thousands of dead souls, established an underworld domain, and cultivated the body of a Ghost General. If left unchecked, he would surely become a Ghost King someday."

"A Ghost General?" Yu Chen frowned. Ghost Generals differed from Ghost Kings; they were not a cultivation realm of the ghost path, but a special kind of ghost entity. The term referred to dead souls capable of commanding military souls and arranging battle formations. Such ghosts resembled cultivators of the military school and were far more troublesome than ordinary ghosts. With military souls under their command or without them, they were practically at two entirely different levels.

"So, after the previous dynasty was established, its founding ruler chose to confer a title upon him rather than suppress him?"

"That was a large part of the reason! With three thousand military souls protecting him, ordinary Buddhist and Daoist arts could do nothing to him. As for the truly formidable figures, they had either suffered grievous losses during the change of dynasties or gone into seclusion to digest their gains. For a time, there was not a single person in all the Divine Land who could reliably suppress him."

Daoist Wang nodded. "Thus, in order to placate that general, the previous dynasty spared no expense. Not only did it use national destiny to aid his apotheosis, it also assigned more than a dozen mountains to his name and had local officials offer him sacrifices every year. If he had not been so foolishly loyal, secretly aiding the remnants of the previous dynasty when the current one was founded, then in another hundred years or so, he might have become a great deity bearing a golden edict. What a pity..."

"What does this have to do with what I want to know?"

"Of course it does!" Daoist Wang gestured for Yu Chen to remain calm and continued, "Because of that general's choice, the current dynasty never stopped suppressing him. Twenty years ago, his divine power had already been exhausted. At that time, a band of roaming bandits came here and destroyed the last village that believed in him. This caused him to fall into the ghost path once more, and in the end, he was suppressed by the current Imperial Preceptor, Xuan Xinzi."

"As the sun and moon turned and time shifted, that general's power grew ever weaker. To survive, he chose to reincarnate."

By this point, how could Yu Chen fail to understand? The Dong Family boy was most likely that general's reincarnation.

That also explained why the City God, Daoist Wang, and Chan Master Mirror Flower had joined hands. What the City God wanted was likely the divine authority in the general's hands, to expand Its own power. It might even wish to set up a new establishment of Its own.

As for Daoist Wang and Chan Master Mirror Flower, what they wanted was likely the general himself, as well as the three thousand military souls under his command.

After all, whether in Buddhism or Daoism, a general was the finest seedling for a Dharma protector deity, while three thousand military souls were also superb material for Daoist soldiers.

"May I ask whether the Daoist wants the Ghost General or the military souls?"

Seeing that Yu Chen had already grasped the crux of the matter, Daoist Wang smiled as well. "The Ghost General is Chan Master Mirror Flower's choice. Before entering the Dao, her lineage possessed few methods of slaughter and battle, relying mostly on illusion arts that deceived the five senses. That is why she wishes to enshrine a Dharma protector deity to watch over her disciples. What I want, naturally, is the military souls."

"I thought it would be the military souls." Yu Chen nodded. "After all, military souls are what your lineage needs most."

With that, Yu Chen raised a hand. Yin-cold qi gathered, and a snakelike blade-light appeared in midair with the motion of his hand, transforming into a sharp blade that slashed toward Daoist Wang.

The blade-light came without warning. Daoist Wang had no chance to evade it. Watching it descend, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a tiny white lotus. It met the blade-light and shattered into falling petals.

Daoist Wang himself vanished from where he sat in the instant the petals drifted down, reappearing beside the goddess idol some distance away.

"What a White Lotus Calamity-Evasion Technique! Then take a look at this!"