From Righteousness to Evil, Plant the Dao and Become a Demon

The ritual altar stood high in the room, the sandalwood incense so thick it was choking.

The candlelight was not its usual dim yellow, but a faint, eerie green that cast the entire secret chamber in a ghostly gloom. Even Zhong Jiu's already sullen face looked all the more terrifying beneath it.

He extended a hand and carefully lifted a talisman from before the altar.

Under the demonic candlelight, the talisman paper gleamed a dark violet. Layers upon layers of runes overlapped and faintly flowed across it. At a glance, one could tell it was no ordinary yellow talisman.

The Mount Mao lineage placed the utmost importance on talisman arts.

Talismans, too, were ranked by quality.

The finest were gold talismans, followed by silver talismans. Below those came purple, blue, and yellow talismans.

Gold and silver talismans basically existed only in legends. Anyone truly capable of drawing them was likely no longer a mere mortal, but an Immortal Master of the highest order.

Thus, among the spell lineages of the mortal world, purple talismans were considered the very pinnacle.

Naturally, Zhong Jiu did not possess such skill himself.

Forget purple talismans—even if someone gave him purple paper and he forcibly drew on it, the result would merely be a yellow talisman wearing purple skin.

The one in his hand had been personally drawn by a great Mount Mao ritual master of the previous generation. It had passed through several generations before finally ending up in his possession.

Now that the spell lineages were declining, something like this had long become a treasured lifeline kept at the bottom of one's chest.

"Corpse Refining Talisman..."

Zhong Jiu lowered his head and looked at the purple talisman.

According to his original plan, this talisman was meant to be saved for later.

Once the zombie had truly been refined, he would use it as a corpse shell to bear evil entities, then take the opportunity to refine a higher-grade Ghostling Smoke and extend his life by another great stretch.

But that was no longer possible.

Huang Bai and Chen You were pressing him step by step. If he did not deal with those two first, then even if he stole another ten or twenty years of life, someone would sooner or later cut it short with a sword.

At that thought, Zhong Jiu's eyes turned vicious.

Especially when he recalled Huang Bai's lightning spell from that night, a faint pain stirred in his chest.

The substitute technique had diverted most of that bolt, but the wound to his soul was not something Ghostlings could completely take in his stead.

Even now, a searing pain still lingered deep within his spirit.

If he took a few more hits like that, then no matter how many Ghostlings he had to trade for his life, they would not be enough to save him.

Zhong Jiu slowly closed his eyes. After a long while, he suddenly opened them again, looking as though he had made an exceptionally ruthless decision.

"Since I've come this far, I might as well go all the way."

"Enter the game with my own body, turn righteousness into evil, plant the Dao and become a demon."

"Huang Bai, Chen You, you forced my hand!"

He no longer intended to leave himself any way out.

His identity as a Daoist, Mount Mao's incense offerings, the honor of his patriarchs... he wanted none of it anymore.

Zhong Jiu bit through the tip of his tongue and mixed the blood with rooster blood, cinnabar, sulfur, and ink, then drew runes over his body stroke by stroke.

His chest, back, arms, lower abdomen, and neck.

Dense lines of talismans spread across his skin, like crimson insect patterns burrowing into his flesh.

The stench in the room also grew thicker and thicker. Rooster blood and sulfur mingled together, then were steamed by that yin aura until the smell was almost enough to make one vomit.

At the same time, gray mist silently crept up from deep within the public housing corridor.

Vaguely, a row of strange figures emerged from the fog.

Every one of them was tall and broad, wearing conical hats and holding oil-paper umbrellas. Their footsteps were so light that they made not the slightest sound.

The gray mist seemed alive, contracting and swelling with their steps as though it were breathing along with them.

When these strange figures reached Zhong Jiu's door, they suddenly stopped in unison.

A moment later, they silently retreated, disappearing once more into the depths of the gray mist.

The next morning, the first rays of dawn shone down.

This fast-paced city had only just awakened, but the public housing estate was already stirring.

Aunt Mei was hanging clothes downstairs, while Uncle Dong had been cursing beside her since early morning. His temper was so foul that the nearby neighbors all gave them a wide berth.

Meanwhile, over at Heavenly Dao Temple, A-You came knocking early in the morning.

"Hey, you're training this early? You're only making a few thousand a month. Do you really need to work this hard?"

The moment A-You entered, he saw Qian Hao in the courtyard holding a horse stance. He was drenched in sweat, his clothes soaked through.

A-You could not help teasing him.

Qian Hao wiped away his sweat, his breathing still somewhat uneven.

"With a great enemy at our gates, it never hurts to be careful."

A-You laughed at that and casually patted him on the shoulder.

"Good. You've got ambition."

"Next time something happens, you'll be the first one I send charging in."

As he spoke, he got a hand full of sweat. He frowned in disgust, then casually wiped it back onto Qian Hao's clothes.

"Bai!"

A-You shouted at the top of his lungs as he headed inside.

Yang Feng's voice came from behind the door.

"Mr. Chen, the Daoist is in the side hall."

"Alright, thanks."

A-You entered the side hall. The moment he looked up, his footsteps halted.

The side hall was quite cool, and an old television sat in the corner.

Huang Bai was reclining in a rocking chair, leisurely watching cartoons. Little Bai sat beside him, staring without blinking, watching more intently than anyone.

In front of them, a rubber ball was bouncing up and down through the air all by itself.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

A-You did not react at first, but in the next instant he realized something was wrong. He immediately wiped across his eyelids and opened his Yin-Yang Eyes.

What he saw made his entire body stiffen.

Two beautiful young women in white clothes and white skirts were tossing the ball back and forth in the side hall. Their figures floated lightly, faint smiles on their faces as they played in the courtyard.

A-You recognized them at once. They were clearly the pair of twin vicious ghosts from 2442.

"You..."

A-You's eyes widened, his voice filled with disbelief.

"You broke Zhong Jiu's setup already?"

The twin ghosts' aura had changed drastically. They no longer possessed that previous resentment and vicious balefulness, but he still recognized them.

Thump. Thump.

The twin ghosts continued playing ball by themselves, completely ignoring A-You's expression as though he had seen a ghost.

Huang Bai kept his eyes on the television and did not immediately answer.

After a moment, he finally spoke indifferently.

"Zhong Jiu's setup did have some substance to it, but it wasn't beyond breaking."

Watching this scene, the shock in A-You's heart would not subside for a long time.

Calling it heaven-defying was not enough to describe it.

He had only said last night that if Huang Bai could unravel 2442 within half a year, he would count as having truly entered the door.

Yet before a single night had passed, this man had not only dismantled the setup, but had even brought the ghosts under his command.

A-You sat down to one side. After a long while, he finally forced out a sentence.

"If you'd lived two hundred years ago, you might really have attained the Dao."

Huang Bai smiled.

"Attain the Dao? That's too far away. Spirit Pearl."

At his call, the slightly older of the twin ghosts floated over and obediently served him a cup of tea.

A-You froze again.

"Spirit Pearl?"

"Oh." Huang Bai accepted the tea, his tone casual. "Those are the new names I gave them. The older one is called Spirit Pearl, and the younger one is called Treasure Pearl."

"Now that they've joined my side, even ghosts need proper names."

After hearing that, A-You's mouth twitched.

But he did not dwell on the matter. He quickly returned to the main topic.

"Have you made preparations for Zhong Jiu? That guy has already become a demon. After suffering this loss, he'll definitely come back swinging."

"Of course." Huang Bai set down his teacup, his expression turning serious as well.

"A-You, move in."

"Come live at Heavenly Dao Temple."

A-You was taken aback.

Huang Bai continued.

"The incense offerings here are flourishing. Ordinary little ghosts won't dare approach carelessly. If you live here, we can all look out for one another."

"Once this is over, it won't be too late for you to move back."

A-You looked at him. After a moment of silence, he finally nodded.

"Alright."

This time, he agreed without hesitation.

Afterward, he got up and went back to pack his things.

Elsewhere, inside a room.

Qian Hao sat cross-legged bare-chested, a light sheen of sweat on his forehead.

Huang Bai circled around him once, as though inspecting an old machine awaiting repair, then finally nodded.

"Not bad. Your bodily functions have more or less recovered."

After saying that, he turned and carried over a box from the corner.

When he opened it, inside were the virus mutation strains he had brought back from the previous world.

Huang Bai took out a syringe, his tone calm enough to be frightening.

"A-Hao, this thing is a kind of virus."

"If it's used improperly, you'll die on the spot. If it's used properly, your body will be completely remade, granting you strength far beyond that of an ordinary person."

"It's not too late to back out now."

Qian Hao looked up at the injection without the slightest hint of retreat.

"I've made up my mind."

"When I was young, I dreamed of having this kind of power."

"Now that the chance is right in front of me, even if it kills me, I have to try it once."

At that, he actually smiled.

"At worst, I'll just die one more time."

Huang Bai looked at him for several seconds, then nodded.

"Then get ready."

The needle pierced his vein, and the medicine was slowly pushed in.

In the next instant, Qian Hao's entire body convulsed violently, and his eyes turned red.

"Aah!!!"

It was not ordinary pain. It felt as though his entire body had been thrown into boiling oil and deep-fried.

His skin quickly swelled red like a cooked shrimp. The veins on his forehead and neck bulged out one by one, as though they might burst at any moment.

Qian Hao trembled all over, his teeth grinding loudly together. He could barely maintain his human form.

Huang Bai stood at his side and shouted coldly.

"Hold on!"

"Guard your heart. Don't let your thoughts run wild!"

The virus was transforming his flesh, bones, muscles, and nerves inch by inch.

At the same time, Zhong Jiu was undergoing his own transformation.

One was planting the Dao to become a demon.

The other was planting the demon to attain the Dao.

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