Midday at Its Peak, a Towering Achievement (Third Update)

The wheels crunched over the gravel road, jolting everyone until their insides shook.

Two black-lacquered carriages left North City, one behind the other, and headed northwest along the official road.

It was three quarters past noon, when the sun burned fiercest.

The sun hung overhead, baking the ground until pale heat seemed to rise from it. Even the crooked willows beside the road had wilted, their leaves curling at the edges. Cicadas shrieked from the branches, setting everyone's nerves on edge.

Lin Zhengde sat in the first carriage, lifting the curtain now and then to peer outside. Sweat beaded his plump face, whether from heat or nerves, no one could tell.

"Fifth Master, do we—do we have to go into the mountains now?"

Lin Zhengde wiped the greasy sweat from his neck with a handkerchief, his voice trembling. "By the time we get there, the midday sun will have melted us."

Qin Geng sat opposite him with his eyes closed, resting.

At that, he did not even lift his eyelids. "That's Yin Mountain."

Those four words shut Lin Zhengde up at once. He even felt a chill creep into the sweltering carriage.

Yin Mountain was Tianjin's largest burial ground for the unclaimed dead, and an ancient battlefield spanning centuries.

More people lay buried there than lived in Jinmen City.

On an ordinary day, it was no place for the living.

Forget going there at night; no one dared approach it even on a cloudy day.

"The Dragon Vein is leaking energy, and the Earth Veins are churning."

Qin Geng slowly opened his eyes. They shone unnervingly bright in the dim carriage. "Every ghost and monster in Yin Mountain has woken up. Only the supreme yang energy at three quarters past noon can hold down the baleful yin covering the mountain.