Twin-Pupil World

"Nine Heavens' Immortals, comfort my form, cleanse my soul, illuminate my five organs. Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise..."

Thin wisps of smoke curled upward, and the incantation rang out, ethereal.

Inside a modern office building, an ancient Taoist temple lay hidden. Red walls and gray tiles gave it a rustic, mysterious air. The plaque above the temple's entrance read: True Immortal Temple.

Before the temple stood an incense table. Worshippers lined up solemnly, circling a kneeling man in the center.

A middle-aged Taoist priest in a golden-purple robe patterned with mysterious designs wore a lotus crown and gold-rimmed glasses. He chanted an incantation and formed hand seals as he stood before the kneeling man, carrying out some kind of ritual.

The incantation grew louder and louder, and the worshippers circled faster and faster. Pain twisted the man's face.

Suddenly, another Taoist priest stepped behind him and drove a talisman-engraved dagger into his back. The man's expression abruptly relaxed. With a smile, he stepped into death.

The room was dim, the ancient temple gloomy, and the air thick with sandalwood and blood... incense, the old temple, the building, the worshippers, the slaughter... together, they formed a bizarre and sinister sacrificial rite.

A hidden micro-camera transmitted the scene to the Taipei police station.

The footage caused an uproar.

"So it really was them. They were behind the recent murder of that foreign pastor..."

"Chief, I found their information." A policewoman beside them tapped rapidly at her keyboard and brought up two files.

"Lin Daosheng and Huang Yifeng, both from Kaohsiung. Founders of Overseas First Advanced Corporation. They abruptly sold the company and returned to Taipei a few years ago..."

The chief looked respectfully toward the young man in front of the computer. The man had pale skin, regular features, and long black hair.

He was their witness—and a benefactor to both the police station and its chief.

Half a month earlier, a financial investor named Huang Bai had donated twenty million Taiwan dollars to the police station. The chief had also received a private "donation" from Huang Bai.

Huang Bai had only one condition: help him solve the recent string of bizarre deaths, and accept his theory that they were the work of a serial killer.

The footage from the micro-camera had indirectly confirmed his suspicions.

Faced with such a generous benefactor—and a condition that also benefited the police station—the chief was naturally overjoyed. He immediately mobilized the station's best officers.

"Thanks to Mr. Huang's lead, we wouldn't have known how to solve this case otherwise... By the way, how did you know it was them?"

Huang Bai looked away from the screen and said:

"I worked with them two months ago, so I found some clues. Chief, this is a murder case involving an illegal civilian organization. They have numbers on their side, so you'll need to send in a large force of riot police, fully equipped with riot shields, sniper rifles, and submachine guns..."

None of this was a coincidence. Huang Bai had known about it in advance because he wasn't from this world.

Thinking of this, Huang Bai instinctively looked at the inside of his left forearm. A talisman was engraved there, invisible to everyone else.

The pure-gold talisman shimmered with flowing light. Its upper section bore the seal-script words "Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict," while its center read, "Heavenly Dao Demon-Extermination Order: Stop this world's demonic cultivators from attaining Corpse Liberation, and you may leave this world in fulfillment."

Huang Bai didn't know where the Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict had come from, but it was what had brought him here six months ago.

This was the world of the film Twin-Pupil World.

The film followed Huang Huotu and a foreign detective investigating a series of bizarre murders. During their investigation, they discovered that the killer was using a rare and ancient Taoist secret art to murder people.

The secret art came from the True Immortal Temple, unearthed in Jiaozhi. Its records described a method of attaining immortality through Corpse Liberation. One had to endure the trials of the Cold-Ice Hell, Fire-Pit Prison, Intestine-Extraction Prison, Heart-Gouging Prison, and Tongue-Pulling Prison—the Five Prisons—before surviving the tribulation and ascending to immortality.

Those seeking immortality needed natural double vision to identify the Human Fiends who had committed evil in the world. They had to send each one into the corresponding hell before they could complete the tribulation and attain immortality through Weapon Liberation.

According to the plot, Xie Yali was the woman with double vision and the mastermind behind everything. She was also the person the two Taoist priests served.

Huang Bai's goal was to stop Xie Yali from attaining immortality through Corpse Liberation.

"Riot police, submachine guns, snipers? They're just a bunch of civilians. Isn't that overkill..." The chief looked troubled, but for the sake of his benefactor, he still picked up his radio.

"All riot police, head to the Technology Building. This operation's codename is Demon Extermination! I'll go to the scene and take command myself."

"Huang Huotu! Stay with Mr. Huang and stand by!"

"Yes, sir!" A middle-aged man with a perpetually furrowed brow followed behind Huang Bai. He said nothing and gave no sign of what he was feeling.

Before long, one police car after another raced toward the Technology Building.

Huang Bai stood in the lobby, watching the scenes unfolding at the front line.

"With the firepower of the authorities against you, how could you possibly stand a chance?"

After arriving in this world, Huang Bai discovered that its history in 2002 was almost identical to that of his original timeline.

So he had used his foresight about the stock market and the World Cup to amass tens of millions of Taiwan dollars. Now, he had put it all to use.

The noisy surroundings fell silent. Huang Bai stared intently at the large screen.

He wasn't just trying to stop Xie Yali from attaining immortality through Corpse Liberation. He also wanted the Corpse Liberation Secret Art unearthed from the True Immortal Temple.

In the original story, Lin Daosheng only had to chant an incantation to wield a sword that could cut through iron as though it were mud. He had nearly wiped out the police.

In Huang Bai's view, the True Immortal Temple's people were using some kind of fungal powder, perhaps a Daoist External Alchemy. It could cause hallucinations and also enhance the body.

If he got hold of that secret art, he could open the door to supernatural power.

"Don't move!!!"

"Hands up!"

Everyone carried submachine guns, with the officers in front holding riot shields. They burst through the doors of the True Immortal Temple.

The man's corpse still lay in the courtyard, blood pooling across the ground.

The scene fell silent. The worshippers didn't panic. They simply watched the intruders with calm eyes.

Then Lin Daosheng drew his longsword. It rang out with a hum, sliced through a riot shield, and severed half of the officer's shoulder.

"Argh!"

Screams shattered the silence as the worshippers surged forward.

In the end, the officers had let their guard down.

"Open fire! Open fire!!" the chief ordered in a panic.

Fortunately, Huang Bai had warned them again and again in advance. Even though they had let their guard down, they still reacted in time. Lin Daosheng and Huang Yifeng were immediately gunned down in a hail of bullets.

The other worshippers were dead, wounded, or taken alive. Not one of them knelt and surrendered.

The fanatical atmosphere left a deep impression on everyone present.

Before long, they found a woman in white hidden in the basement.

The woman was pale, with short hair and a bloody wound in her abdomen. Some kind of fungus seemed to be growing inside it.

"The victim is named Xie Yali. She's had a severe brain tumor since childhood and claims she can see her dead older sister..."

They transferred Xie Yali to the hospital room Huang Bai had prepared for her in advance.

Huang Bai didn't reveal that Xie Yali was the mastermind. Instead, he let events unfold as they had in the original story.

"It's almost over."

Huang Bai breathed a sigh of relief. There had been a minor hitch, but overall, things had gone well. There hadn't been many casualties.

He had also kept the original protagonist, Huang Huotu, safe, avoiding any further surprises.

He turned and went to a teahouse outside the police station.

Creak.

Huang Bai brewed a pot of hot tea,

and the private room's door opened. The chief came in with several trusted officers, carrying a suitcase.

"Mr. Huang, these are the old books we found at the True Immortal Temple, along with several bottles of unidentified pills and the fungal samples taken from Xie Yali."

"Thank you, everyone."

Huang Bai handed over a thick envelope. The chief accepted it with satisfaction.

"It's our duty. If not for you, Mr. Huang, how could we have cracked a case this shocking?"

They exchanged pleasantries for a while, then the chief left with his men.

The door closed. Huang Bai's expression turned calm. There was just one last step.

"Scheming Corpse-Liberated Immortal, wait another lifetime."

He took a remote control from his pocket. A mocking glint flashed in his eyes as he pressed the button hard.

Six months of planning, all settled today.

Elsewhere, in a private hospital room,

the pale, short-haired woman lay on the bed.

Beep, beep, beep...

Suddenly, a series of rapid electronic beeps came from beneath the bed.

Whoosh!

Xie Yali opened her eyes. Each eye had two pupils. She had double vision.

Boom!!!

Flames exploded everywhere, swallowing Xie Yali in an instant.

"No!!"

Xie Yali's face twisted in disbelief. Distorted green light appeared around her body, blocking the first wave of flames.

Boom!

Another explosion followed.

The flames completely consumed Xie Yali's body.

Back in the teahouse,

Huang Bai rolled up his sleeve. The golden edict on his forearm shone brightly, and the writing in its center slowly faded away.

Demon Extermination complete. You may return immediately.

The Corpse Liberation Method required five human sacrifices. I'd interrupted it before the fifth. Looks like she failed.

The Corpse-Liberated Immortals were among the Taoist immortals. In the Twin-Pupil World, this method of attaining immortality by killing people must have been some heretical technique. The Corpse-Liberated Immortals it produced were probably of an even lower rank.

From the original story, Xie Yali's older sister hadn't been able to exert much influence on the real world, which was why Huang Bai had dared to make his plans.

Of course, the sisters hadn't been destroyed. They had merely begun another cycle of reincarnation.

But that was no longer Huang Bai's concern.

Huang Bai took the suitcase in his arms as his figure gradually faded.

Whoosh!

A gale blew the doors and windows open, and the room's temperature dropped by more than ten degrees.

Thud, thud, thud!!

Rapid footsteps approached from a distance. A teahouse waitress appeared, holding a kitchen knife. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she seemed to be possessed by something.

"That was fast. You really are a Corpse-Liberated Immortal. Until we meet again." Huang Bai smiled.

Whoosh!

The next moment, Huang Bai vanished.