Hong Kong was a place where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold. Yet halfway up the mountain, a villa district had been carved out exclusively for the wealthy.
Lush forests and oddly shaped rocks surrounded Chinese wooden buildings that stood quietly in the depths of the grounds.
The buildings were quaint and elegant, without a trace of vulgarity. Their upturned eaves swept through the air like swallows' tails, and their carved beams and painted rafters were ornate without being ostentatious.
The pillars along the covered walkways were all made of old wood, their colors dark and their grain mottled. One glance was enough to tell that time had given them their character.
This was Moonlit Tower, built by Li Cheng, Hong Kong's richest man, in memory of his late wife.
The place was famous throughout Hong Kong.
But what made it truly famous wasn't its price. It was the inexplicable aura of yin energy that hung over it.
Seen from above, Moonlit Tower's layout clearly resembled a gigantic coffin.
Three fountains stood in front of the building, looking from a distance like three tall incense sticks. The main gate was made of the finest Liuzhou wood. Its dark color alone was enough to make people uneasy.
Tonight, Moonlit Tower was busier than usual.
Large numbers of armed men arrived from every direction, taking cover in every corner outside where a person could hide. Searchlights swept back and forth in the distance, sealing off the entire mountainside.
Deep inside the building, an old man sat alone in a grand armchair.
His skin was sallow and speckled with age spots. His eyes were so cloudy they could barely see the light, and his entire body gave off the lifeless air of a lamp running out of oil.
But no one would have guessed that this Hong Kong tycoon was actually a Vicious Ghost.
He had survived the late Qing dynasty and the years of war, then weathered decades of upheaval in Hong Kong. He had seen too many heroes rise, only to watch them disappear one by one.
So, in his eyes, tonight's ambush was nothing special.
He would simply kill another batch of fools who didn't know their place, then use their blood to make his power even more secure.
The old man slowly raised his head, a sinister smile tugging at his lips.
"This body's about due for a change."
"Huang Bai..."
"Your shell will do nicely."
The gunmen outside were only the first line of defense.
The real killing trap was the building itself.
Moonlit Tower wasn't just a residence. It was a feng shui formation. Anyone who dared to enter was walking straight into a coffin.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A dense volley of gunfire soon rang out outside.
The final battle had begun in earnest.
Helicopters circled overhead, their machine guns spitting fire that flashed vividly in the night. The Flying Tigers pressed in from the perimeter, engaging the Ghost King's men.
The battle raged for a full half hour.
More than a hundred Flying Tigers died before they managed to wipe out most of the Ghost King's visible forces.
Huang Yaozu's voice came over the loudspeaker:
"Don't touch any of the bodies! Put a bullet in each one! Leave no survivors!"
Gunshots rang out sporadically for a while longer, then the area outside Moonlit Tower finally began to fall silent.
Bodies lay scattered across the open ground in front of the building, and the earth was drenched in blood.
Huang Bai, Huang Yaozu, Zhi Gang, Li Guoqiang, and the others brought the survivors to the front of the building.
Huang Yaozu looked at the wooden structure before them, his chest rising and falling slightly.
"I bet the old ghost never dreamed we'd come back and hit him like this."
Though he said it, his palms were slick with sweat.
The real trouble was only just beginning.
"Don't rush."
Huang Bai raised a hand to stop the others, then walked up to the building and carefully studied its layout.
This wasn't an ordinary building. It was a complete feng shui formation.
Anyone outside who didn't understand its workings and tried to break it by force might be struck by the formation's baleful energy. The people outside could end up buried alongside those inside.
Instead, Huang Bai smiled. He formed a hand seal and softly recited:
"Seek the dragon, divide the gold, and read the winding hills. Each winding ridge marks another pass. If eight perilous gates block the way, the path must lie within the yin-yang and eight trigrams..."
As he recited the formula, Moonlit Tower's layout rapidly unfolded in his mind.
The doors, corridors, beams, pillars, baleful positions, life gates, and dead ends all peeled away layer by layer, until the true path he could follow finally emerged.
The next moment, his soul flickered, and he passed straight through the wooden door into Moonlit Tower.
Deep inside, the Ghost King had been resting with his eyes closed, waiting for the people outside to stumble into the formation on their own.
In the next instant, a beam of golden light suddenly flashed through the air.
"Not good!"
The Ghost King's eyes flew open, and he threw himself to the side.
Bang!
The golden light skimmed his shoulder and punched straight through the wooden wall behind him. Smoke curled from the charred hole.
Only then did the Ghost King see that a figure had appeared in the hall without him noticing.
Long hair, a Daoist robe, jade-green eyes, and a sword in hand.
Huang Bai.
For the first time, the composure vanished from the Ghost King's face.
"Who exactly are you?"
Moonlit Tower represented years of effort, and it was his surest trump card. Yet this man had walked right in as if nothing were wrong. Not even the formation could stop him.
Could this man really be Wong Tai Sin descended to earth?
The Ghost King needed only two glances to recognize that Huang Bai was in his soul form.
He knew better than anyone what that meant.
Possession had failed. Ambush had failed. The formation hadn't even managed to trap him.
Though shocked, the Ghost King had lived far too long to have lost his ferocity. He sprang to his feet with a low growl, and his face transformed into a ghostly visage.
His skin turned indigo, his hair crimson, and his fingers swelled into claws, wreathed in eerie green ghostfire. In the blink of an eye, the dying old man became a true demon.
"Now that you're in here, you're not leaving alive!"
The Ghost King lunged.
He was incredibly fast, bringing a gust of foul air with him.
But Huang Bai refused to meet him head-on.
His soul flickered, slipping beneath the Ghost King's claws. He raised his hand and fired several Solar Curses.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Golden light hammered into the Ghost King one blast after another. His shoulder, chest, and ribs were scorched open almost simultaneously, filling the room with the stench of burning flesh.
The Ghost King roared and charged, slashing wildly with both claws as ghostfire scattered in every direction.
But Huang Bai gave him no chance to get close. He darted back and forth, like a breeze winding through the building.
To Huang Bai, once the Ghost King had lost the feng shui formation's support, he was just an old ghost who had lived a long time.
Before long, Li Cheng's body finally gave out.
His chest had been blown open, half his shoulder was mangled, and his face was covered in scorch marks. The old man's body shuddered, then went limp.
Whoosh!
The Ghost King abandoned the corpse, turning into a blue-black shadow as he shot deeper into Moonlit Tower.
Huang Bai's gaze turned cold. He immediately gave chase.
"Still trying to run?"
As he pursued the Ghost King, he activated the Earth-Splitting and Acupoint-Fixing technique once more.
A continuous series of booms echoed through Moonlit Tower.
Those outside heard one explosion after another, and the entire building trembled with each blast.
"Will Daoist Huang be all right?"
"He'll be fine."
Huang Yaozu stared at Moonlit Tower, his face pale. He said the words, but inside, he wasn't sure at all.
This was the Ghost King.
Inside the building, the fight had reached its final moments.
The Ghost King had been driven into the depths of the rear hall, his face twisting more and more.
"What difference does it make if you kill me?" He glared at Huang Bai, his voice sharp. "Do you really think that killing me will free people from the control of ghosts?"
"You're not fighting me."
"You're fighting the world itself!"
With that, he lunged forward, his ghostly body swelling as if he meant to die with Huang Bai.
Rather than retreat, Huang Bai charged forward. He pushed off sharply, dodged to the side, and drove his magical sword into the Ghost King beneath the ribs.
Pfft!
The strike was fierce and sure, piercing the Ghost King's soul.
The Ghost King froze.
Then his soul cracked like porcelain, fissures spreading rapidly across it. Yet a strange smile suddenly appeared on his face.
"Huang Bai..."
"Come with me."
At his words, the Ghost King shattered with a roar.
A vast surge of luminescence and yin energy burst forth and flooded toward Huang Bai, only to be completely devoured by the Inner Elixir within him.
The Ghost King was dead.
But at that very moment, Moonlit Tower began to shake violently.
The last of the Ghost King's power hadn't dispersed. Instead, it had all poured into the building.
Boom!
Beams snapped and walls collapsed. Flames surged up as if someone had doused the place in an entire barrel of oil, then raced through the wooden building.
A blazing red light swallowed half the sky in an instant. Waves of heat surged toward them as Moonlit Tower began to collapse.
Worse still, the baleful energy of the feng shui formation exploded along with it. Like invisible chains, it wrapped around Huang Bai and pinned him in place.
This was the Ghost King's final act of revenge.
Even in death, he meant to drag Huang Bai down with him.
Walls of flame surged in from every direction, and the roof kept crashing down.
Huang Bai stood where he was and glanced at his left arm.
A golden light was slowly glowing along it.
[Go to The First Commandment and slay the Ghost King]
The line had turned completely golden.
It meant the task was complete, and he could leave at any time.
Huang Bai looked at the flames surging toward him and suddenly smiled.
"Too bad. I was never from this world to begin with."
Outside, everyone was frantic.
"Quick! Save him!"
"Where's the fire department? Where are the firefighters?!"
Moonlit Tower was collapsing faster and faster, the flames reaching skyward. Everyone knew that if they waited any longer, it would be too late.
"There! He's there!"
At last, someone spotted the figure in the center of the building through the raging inferno.
In the firelight, Huang Bai stood in his Daoist robe, his whole body faintly aglow with golden light.
He stood there, surrounded by flames and rubble on all sides.
Everyone outside was watching him.
Huang Bai looked back at them and gave a small, gentle smile.
The next moment, the golden light flared.
Whoosh!
The flames swallowed him whole.
Everyone outside was stunned.
Huang Yaozu opened his mouth, but it felt as if something had lodged in his throat. Not a word came out.
"Daoist Huang..."
The fire continued to burn.
But Huang Bai never came out.
Some said Daoist Huang had died with the Ghost King.
Others said he had never been mortal at all, and that he had fulfilled his merit long ago and ascended to heaven in broad daylight.
For many years afterward, no one saw Huang Bai again.
The Demon-Slaying Bureau took up his mantle and continued its fight against ghosts.
As for Huang Bai's name, it lived on in stories that grew more and more wondrous with each telling, passed down through generations in Hong Kong, Nanyang, and among the people.
A poem went:
An immortal guest from the Purple Firmament descended from three mountains, To save living souls, he came down to the mortal world.
From then on, he raised mortal bones to honor; Why should the road through the clouds to the Ninth Heaven be hard to climb?
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