Killing and Negotiation

With no warning, the sight caught all three men off guard. Brave as they were, they instinctively reached for their guns. Then they saw it clearly. What monster? It was only the Divine General enshrined on the altar.

The big man had taken a step back in fright. Now, embarrassed, he cursed, "This place is cursed. Even the statue they worship is made to scare people. Damn it..."

Still cursing, he noticed that Chenzi had not answered. He turned and found Chenzi staring in terror, as if he had seen a ghost...

"What?"

He had barely opened his mouth when he felt a gust above his head. In the corner of his eye, he saw the statue come alive, step down from the altar, and bring its Steel Whip down on his head.

Crack! The big man's head burst like a rotten watermelon, spraying red and white across the floor.

"A ghost..."

Chenzi jumped and screamed, but he was vicious enough to fire at the Divine General, emptying his gun in one burst.

The Divine General stood there unscathed. Cold dread surged through Chenzi.

He hurled his pistol at it and turned to run, only to trip over the threshold. Scrambling to his feet, he fled into the rain.

But Chenzi made it no more than five or six meters before a gust of yin wind rushed out of the temple and landed on his back.

Chenzi screamed and fell. In the blink of an eye, he lay utterly still.

A wisp of mist, paler than before, rose from him. Chenzi was dead.

Only Daozi moved. He suddenly sprang toward the exit.

The yin wind gave chase, but Daozi shouted and slashed with his small knife. A sheen of blood seemed to trail the blade...

The wind stopped short. Daozi ran without looking back, stumbling and scrambling down the mountain!

The yin wind circled where it stood, seeming to hesitate before pursuing him again.

"Come back!" rang out a clear voice.

Tang Changsheng stood at the entrance to the General's Temple, his face slightly pale.

The Yin Soldier turned into a feeble whirlwind and slipped back into the Soul Jade.

It seemed that harming a living person had taken a heavy toll on the Yin Soldier.

That was because this Yin Soldier's rank was too low. A true Vicious Ghost or evil ghost could draw vitality straight from the living. The more people it killed, the stronger it became...

Tang Changsheng stood in the doorway, his face cold. Even with a man dead before him, his expression did not change.

Yet deep in his eyes, a trace of joy appeared.

A man lay on the floor with seven or eight bullet wounds, most of them in his torso. He lay twitching in a pool of blood. No matter how Tang Changsheng looked at him, he could not survive.

His head, however, was intact. No Divine General had smashed it...

Tang Changsheng watched in silence for a while. The big man tried to say something, but died without getting a word out.

"That was close... If I hadn't lit the Heavenly Heart and gained a Yin Soldier to protect me, I'd be the one lying here with bullets in me!"

Tang Changsheng spoke to himself.

He went to the altar and once more offered incense to the fierce-faced statue of the general.

He watched the straight column of smoke vanish into the statue's mouth and nose.

The eerie sight delighted rather than startled him. "The Guardian Divine General has regained a spark of spirit!"

What Tang Changsheng had used just now was no ordinary illusion or lowly art like the Soul Bewilderment Technique.

Such spells might work well enough on ordinary people.

But these outlaws killed without blinking.

Their wills were firm. Common spells of bewilderment would have no effect on them. The illusion Tang Changsheng had just cast, drawing on a spark of the Guardian Divine General enshrined in the temple, was another matter entirely!

The General's Temple was called that for a reason. What it enshrined was not a deity his lineage had served for generations...

Rather, it was the Guardian Divine General his lineage had refined and cultivated through the generations.

But when that calamity struck and the Daoist sects under heaven suddenly lost all their power, the Guardian Divine General enshrined here had also lost its divine power and fallen dormant.

If his lineage had not devoted itself to preserving the statue over the past century or two, even that last spark of spirit would have vanished long ago!

Tang Changsheng lit more incense and offered it to the Soul Jade. The smoke streamed straight into the jade, where it would slowly restore the Yin Soldier's strength.

The two who had come were ruthless outlaws. He did not know why they had targeted him.

The Blood Baleful Intent coiling around them told him they had killed far more than one or two people.

If they had opened fire without asking questions, Tang Changsheng would have been in danger, even with his Heavenly Heart lit!

Until cultivation reached the Pure Yang Realm, where one could scatter into wind and gather into form, flesh still could not withstand blades or bullets.

The thought sent a chill through Tang Changsheng, and a hard glint entered his eyes. The General's Temple had stood in Lower River for centuries, and not by relying on Daoist arts alone.

Zuo Xingfa had botched the job. He had failed to settle the matter cleanly, allowing the person behind it to come to his door today...

Fear gave way to anger. Tang Changsheng did not call Zuo Xingfa. Instead, he dialed another number!

"Dacheng, send someone to find out when this pack of outsiders who don't know the rules arrived. Be careful. They're all armed!"

Silence held on the other end for a long moment before a steady voice replied, "Rest assured, Master. Not one of them will get away!"

His voice brimmed with confidence, as though saying it made failure impossible.

Tang Changsheng hung up, clenched his fist, and felt a surge of excitement.

To anyone who understood what had just happened, those few simple words had been a negotiation fraught with danger.

Zhang Dacheng had long been a renowned figure in the local underworld, with power to match. His business was now thriving beyond Lower River.

Would he still obey the General's Temple? If he refused, how could Tang Changsheng deal with him? Would pressing him provoke a backlash?

All those questions had crowded into Tang Changsheng's mind during that brief silence.

While Zhang Dacheng had remained silent, Tang Changsheng had been tense to the breaking point. Now that he could relax, his back was soaked with sweat!