Yin Soldier Command

Tang Changsheng had kept watch for anyone following him, but he was in no hurry to take out the Bagua Mirror. He had waited so many days at Primordial Yang Abbey. Could he not wait a little longer?

He made as though he were setting off on a long journey and followed the road. After more than ten li, he left the main road and turned onto a narrow path.

All the while, he kept an eye out for anyone following or watching him...

Though Tang Changsheng was already mostly reassured, caution made him see the act through to the end.

And it was a good thing he did. Someone really was tailing him!

With so many people in the city, Tang Changsheng had noticed nothing. Out here in the wilderness, anyone following him was much easier to spot.

Tang Changsheng's heart gave a thump. He had made a mistake. He should have stayed in the city, where there were too many eyes for most people to dare attack him.

But out here in the wild, they would have no such scruples!

Unease rose in Tang Changsheng's chest. Who was following him?

If True Person Lü had sent them, that would be simple enough... Against someone with his abilities, resisting would do Tang Changsheng no good anyway.

But if it was someone else, who could it be?

The sky was gradually darkening, and Tang Changsheng grew anxious.

The land ahead grew ever more desolate. It was an increasingly good place to strike!

At that thought, Tang Changsheng settled down instead. If I die, I die. If True Person Lü made a move, no matter how Tang Changsheng reckoned it, he had no chance to resist.

But if someone else wanted to deal with him, they were looking down on the heir to the General's Temple a little too much.

While he was on guard, he suddenly dodged on instinct. A streak of cold air shot past him from behind.

It wheeled through the air, sweeping dead leaves and dry grass into a ring that outlined a shadowy human figure.

"A Yin Soldier!"

Another Yin Soldier! Tang Changsheng's heart sank.

"So you know what it is... Heh, heh..."

After a few low, cold chuckles, a black-robed Daoist stepped out of the trees beside the road. Deep hatred flashed in his eyes as he looked at Tang Changsheng. "Tang Changsheng, you harmed my senior brother. You'll pay for his life with yours!"

He pointed. The gust of yin wind that had just rushed past Tang Changsheng rustled around in a circle, spinning like a small whirlwind and sending fallen leaves and weeds flying.

Tang Changsheng's heart sank further. This is bad. It was unquestionably a Yin Soldier, and no ordinary one. It had grown powerful enough to stir grass and leaves as it moved—almost powerful enough to move objects by sheer force!

Yin Soldiers were not unfamiliar to him. The General's Temple had a method for refining them, and a rather sophisticated one at that. But it required a very high level of internal cultivation. His current cultivation was nowhere near enough...

He knew all too well how formidable a Yin Soldier could be!

As the Yin Soldier lunged, Tang Changsheng suddenly shouted, "Wait... I remember you! Aren't you Wang Zhenming? There's no bad blood between us. Why do you want to kill me?"

The man was indeed Wang Zhenming, who had helped Master Chengyang and the others lure Tang Changsheng up to the Twilight Remnant Tower!

Wang Zhenming glared at him with venom in his eyes. "You harmed my senior brother, and you dare say there's no bad blood?"

Tang Changsheng put on a look of sudden understanding. "So Master Chengyang is your senior brother?"

"Nonsense! My senior brother is—" Before he could finish, Tang Changsheng's leg moved. A fist-sized stone hurtled toward Wang Zhenming's chest with a whistling rush, its speed almost unbelievable.

With a sharp crack, the black-robed Daoist flew backward and crashed to the ground, blood spilling from his mouth. "You... Your internal cultivation is this deep? Why? Why..."

He never finished the question.

Tang Changsheng rushed in and kicked, snapping his neck and cutting off his last words for good. "Fool. You just fell for that trick yourself. Did you think I would too?"

Tang Changsheng gave a disdainful sneer. Then the wind blew across him, and a chill ran down his back. Cold sweat had soaked nearly all of it.

With the Daoist dead, no one controlled the Yin Soldier. It merely spun in place.

Tang Changsheng thought for a moment, then searched the Daoist's body and pulled out several things.

"Found it. The Yin Soldier Command..." Delighted, he examined a wooden plaque that appeared to have been carved from willow.

The plaque looked unremarkable. A few talismanic strokes had been drawn on it, and a simple little figure carved into it. Vermilion dots marked the nine apertures at the crown of its head and elsewhere.

It was none other than the Yin Soldier Command used to control this Yin Soldier.

Tang Changsheng considered it. A Yin Soldier was undoubtedly a fine thing to have: perfect for travel, murder, arson...

No. Rather, it was an excellent assistant for a cultivator, guarding him during practice and answering his summons when he cast spells.

Nearly every Daoist school, large or small, kept at least a few Yin Soldiers!

And a Yin Soldier that had grown this powerful was rarer still!

"With a Yin Soldier, if those people dare come to the General's Temple to cause me trouble, they won't escape with their lives!" Tang Changsheng was overjoyed. Wang Zhenming had practically delivered him a gift!

Now that he had the Yin Soldier Command, he could control the Yin Soldier.

He did not know exactly how the Daoist had used the command, but drawing the Yin Soldier into the plaque was simple enough.

Tang Changsheng formed a hand seal and pointed at the crown of the figure on the plaque. The spinning yin wind turned into a stream of gray vapor and flew into it.

That pleased him even more. In his own world, never mind cultivation—he had not even seen a ghost of any real power in the past ten or twenty years.

Refining a Yin Soldier there would have been wishful thinking. Otherwise, how could a few desperate men have forced Tang Changsheng to open the last treasure his master's lineage had left behind?

Of course, there were ghosts sealed beneath Dead Man Mountain. Otherwise, he could not have dealt with those thugs that time. But the ones that had dealt with them were really no more than a great swarm of wandering ghosts, none with much power!

If those men had been hardened killers rather than thugs, men who killed without blinking and had wills like iron, a few wandering ghosts would never have tormented them so badly!

Tang Changsheng went through the Daoist's other possessions and found another command plaque.

This one was cast from metal and quite finely made, with intricate patterns and the two characters "Jianguang" engraved on it. Tang Changsheng naturally could not tell what it was for, so he set it aside.

The Daoist also carried a few talismans and some cinnabar, mercury, and other odds and ends used in spellcasting.

There was also a worn Daoist book bearing two large characters: Suppressing Death.

The Suppressing-Death Art!