Yin Soldiers

Tang Changsheng thought, This is bad. Ordinary people were one thing, but once a cultivator lit the Heavenly Heart, its spiritual radiance shone through, making it all too easy to attract wandering demons and ghosts and bringing all manner of unpredictable risks to cultivation.

That was why cultivating at such a time usually required various measures to ward off external demons.

But Tang Changsheng had forgotten. He was inside an abbey where a cultivation master like True Person Lü lived, so he had let down his guard and overlooked it entirely.

Just as he realized his mistake, a sudden chill rushed toward his face, making every hair on his body stand on end.

Without thinking, Tang Changsheng used Robe-Shedding Substitution and dodged to one side.

A gust of yin wind swept past, almost grazing Tang Changsheng. Though it had not struck him head-on, its lingering cold left one patch of his arm bruised blue-purple. The whole arm felt frozen stiff and numb...

“A Yin Soldier...” Tang Changsheng blurted out, his hair standing on end.

Ordinary ghosts, even demons and low-level Yin Soldiers, could at most invade a cultivator's Sea of Consciousness and stir up inner demons and illusions, until the cultivator was beset by visions and ultimately suffered cultivation deviation.

But something that could directly affect the body was no ordinary ghost or demon. This was clearly a high-level Yin Soldier!

At the thought, every hair on Tang Changsheng's body nearly stood straight up.

The yin wind lunged at him again, and Tang Changsheng instinctively felt around for something he could use to block it.

It was like a drowning man grasping for something to hold on to, even if it was only a straw!

Hiss... Tang Changsheng thrust something he had grabbed in front of himself. It stopped the yin wind, and a sizzling sound rose from it.

Stunned, Tang Changsheng looked over. A Yin Soldier in black armor had appeared and was flailing desperately.

But its struggle was useless. The Bagua Mirror in his palm rippled in layer after layer, drawing the Yin Soldier in like a whirlpool.

In his panic, Tang Changsheng had instinctively pulled out the “key” he carried and held it before him...

As the light from the Bagua Mirror swirled and spread once more, Tang Changsheng vanished from the room along with it.

A dozen or so meters away, a black-robed Daoist hiding in a large tree was baffled—and even a little afraid.

Strange! How did my Yin Soldier suddenly disappear? I can't sense it at all... Could Tang Changsheng really be strong enough to destroy it?

Terrified by the thought, the black-robed Daoist hurried down the tree. In his haste, he fell and landed so hard his head spun.

He did not dare linger. Limping, he hurried away...

By then, Tang Changsheng had returned to the General's Temple.

He stood in a daze, staring at the Bagua Mirror in his palm, unable to speak for a long while.

Tang Changsheng suddenly shuddered and came to his senses. “No wonder the sect said this key could unlock a tremendous secret that would shake heaven and earth...” he murmured.

"That's a whole world where you can cultivate, a world brimming with spiritual energy!"

Perhaps it could not quite be called the Immortal Realm, but to a cultivator like Tang Changsheng, it was paradise!

Yet the patriarchs of every generation had clearly known this secret. Why had they chosen to sit trapped in a city of sorrow rather than use the key to enter that other world?

Tang Changsheng could not understand it.

But he soon set the question aside. A familiar feeling washed over Tang Changsheng, and the wood in the Quiet Room gave off a faint, indescribable fragrance that calmed his heart.

Tang Changsheng knew unmistakably that he was back in the Quiet Room of the General's Temple.

That ineffable scent came from century-old Peach Heartwood that had undergone special treatment. It could steady the mind and ward off external demons!

Generations of disciples of the Primordial Yang Abbey had secluded themselves here to cultivate, keeping external demons at bay!

"Huh..."

Tang Changsheng glanced over in surprise. The pearl, which had gone dark, was shining again. Its glow even seemed a little brighter than before.

Of course, the difference was slight. It might have been nothing more than his imagination!

Joy rose in his heart. As long as the pearl still shone, it could keep the things beneath Dead Man Mountain suppressed!

Tang Changsheng sighed softly and placed the Bagua Mirror properly on the incense altar in the Quiet Room.

Then he went out and switched on the electric light. Its familiar brightness washed away the strangeness he had brought back from that other world.

The feeling was strange indeed!

But Tang Changsheng's attention was soon drawn to the time. Six days had passed in that world.

This is bad. There was such a huge disturbance outside last time. Did anyone die? If they did, what happened to the bodies?

With that thought, he strode out. Everything outside the General's Temple had been cleaned up so thoroughly that it looked as though nothing had happened.

Only when Tang Changsheng spotted the marks left by several helicopters did a faint smile touch his lips. "At least you people have some conscience!"

If a power had operated in one place for hundreds of years without interruption and still failed to put down tangled, deep-reaching roots, would that not be a joke?

With its extraordinary power, the General's Temple did not even need to cultivate such connections deliberately. A vast local network spanning both the lawful and criminal worlds would naturally form around it.

It was only that, as the General's Temple declined, it had long since stopped contacting those people.

The temple had even grown afraid that they would learn how weak it had become and turn on it...

But after Tang Changsheng lit the Heavenly Heart, his confidence gradually returned.

He was no longer as wary of those powers as he had been before!

"The thugs who came to cause trouble at the temple last time all had out-of-town accents... Hmph. I said it before: no thug from Lower River would dare come to the General's Temple looking for trouble!"

His thoughts turned, and he wondered, How will the three great Lineages of Lower River react? The ancestral rites are only a month or two away!

The three great Lineages had already seen what he could do. Presumably, they would no longer doubt his qualifications to preside over the rites.

In that case, they would surely no longer stand by while those out-of-town strongmen harassed him!

Tang Changsheng smiled coldly. A few days ago, he truly had few ways to deal with men threatening him with guns.

But things were different now. After three days apart, a man deserved a fresh look!

Tang Changsheng had lit the Heavenly Heart. Many spells were now within his power to learn and cast...

Mastering spells would not happen overnight, but this was the General's Temple. This was Tang Changsheng's territory!