The White Jade Capital in the Heavens

"Holy shit!!!"

The instant Ye Qianfan looked up, he saw the Mountain God Hag hanging from the cave ceiling open its gaping, bloody maw and bite down at him!

The Mountain God Hag's mouth was enormous, like a black hole that could swallow a person whole...

And because the Mountain God Hag's slime was fluorescent, Ye Qianfan could even make out the thousands upon thousands of teeth packed inside that bloody maw, like a seaside reef encrusted with shells!

If that mouth caught him and ground down even slightly, Ye Qianfan could imagine himself being effortlessly crushed into pulp, like pork in a meat grinder!

Run...

It was already too late!

The Mountain God Hag's bloody maw was already descending over Ye Qianfan. All he could do was reflexively cross his arms above his head to protect it!

"ROAR!!!!"

But...

A deafening beastly roar rang out!

The sound shook his very soul. Ye Qianfan felt as though that hellish cry was about to blast his soul clean out of his body!

He couldn't help covering his ears!

But...

When he lowered his hands from his head...

Ye Qianfan discovered that the Mountain God Hag before him had vanished. The bloody maw that had been about to swallow him whole was gone too, leaving only faintly glowing slime across the cave ceiling, as though proving a monster really had been there moments ago!

"Where's the Mountain God Hag?"

Ye Qianfan couldn't help asking.

The Daoist seemed equally stunned and took a long time to react. Only after several seconds...

Did he finally speak again. "I don't know?! Just now..."

"Just now, I saw it was about to bite you, and then you froze. After that, it disappeared!"

"It was like it vanished into thin air!"

"Vanished into thin air?"

Ye Qianfan looked bewildered. Was this some fucking magic trick?

Or...

Was the Mountain God Hag actually something like a ghost, able to dissipate at will?

But that made no sense, did it?

Why would the Mountain God Hag leave prey already at its lips uneaten?

For a hunter to abandon prey already at its mouth, something would have to hurt it, or something it feared terribly would have to appear!

"Then what scared it?"

Ye Qianfan recalled his movements just now. All he had done was cross his arms above his head to block the attack.

Then...

Ye Qianfan noticed that the Bagua Mirror clutched in his hand was actually giving off a faint golden glow!

He hurriedly examined it and discovered that one of the six-line symbols on the Bagua Mirror had lit up. In the mirror behind that symbol, the image of a giant worm also seemed to flicker in and out of view.

"What... is going on?"

Ye Qianfan stared at the Bagua Mirror flashing with golden light, utterly baffled.

The Daoist, however, exclaimed in surprise, "This Bagua Mirror is a magical treasure! It captured the Mountain God Hag!!"

"The Mountain God Hag must be earth-aligned. Kun represents earth, so the Kun Trigram lit up!"

"This... this Bagua Mirror is that badass?"

Ye Qianfan was stunned by the Bagua Mirror in his hand.

Unfortunately, its golden light only flickered a few times before fading. It reverted to looking like an ordinary mirror, with nothing special about it!

"How could something used as the core of an altar's formation not be badass?" The Daoist started playing the armchair expert again, holding forth. "Besides, that altar could connect to the White Jade Capital, and even let people speak with righteous and evil immortals. How could it not be powerful?"

"Then should we take this and kill the Mountain God Lord too?"

After all, once he killed the Mountain God Lord, all the money in this cave, including the Patrol Soldiers' money inside the Mountain God Lord's belly, would be his!

How could Ye Qianfan not be tempted?

"Do you know how to use it?"

The Daoist's remark poured cold water on that idea.

Ye Qianfan began searching through the memories in Ye Fu's mind, and soon enough, he actually found some memories concerning this Bagua Mirror.

"The Mirror of a Hundred Demons!"

Ye Qianfan suddenly spoke. "This mirror is called the Mirror of a Hundred Demons. Some of Ye Fu's ancient book fragments mentioned it. It can not only devour a hundred demons, but even command them. Its power is boundless!"

"You actually know about it." The Daoist was somewhat dumbfounded, then asked, "So how exactly do you use this thing?"

"That, I don't know!"

Ye Qianfan shook his head. "Ye Fu only happened across it in an ancient book. Since he didn't own one, he merely skimmed a few lines. There's no method for using it in his memories!"

"Looks like it's time we went to settle the score with Auntie Fat!"

"And take back what should have been mine in the first place!"

Ye Qianfan had been human when he went to his death, but he was no longer human on his return.

As a result, no strange creatures attacked him along the way. Even the female corpse didn't come looking for trouble, probably because she had already found her child.

So she had chosen to retreat into the mountain forests, or seek people to devour.

That was none of Ye Qianfan's concern!

The outskirts.

By the following evening, Ye Qianfan had returned to the outskirts of Fog City.

At the boundary between the outskirts and Fog Forest, many women had brought their families along and were gazing into the mist, seemingly waiting for their husbands, fathers, or sons to return!

"Someone's there!"

"Someone's back!!"

The instant Ye Qianfan emerged from the mist, the women grew excited.

They immediately gathered around Ye Qianfan, but when they discovered there was no one behind him, confusion appeared in their eyes. "Young man... weren't you going to the Mass Burial Ground?"

"What Mass Burial Ground?" Ye Qianfan naturally didn't want to explain things to these people. The truth was too hard to accept, and he didn't want to be surrounded and questioned endlessly. Taking advantage of how drastically his appearance had changed, he simply said, "I don't know. I just came from another city, and I'm heading into town."

"Oh, so you weren't!"

At his words, disappointment spread across the women's faces.

"Didn't they say they'd be back yesterday evening? Why haven't they come back yet?"

"Could it be..."

One woman began to sob as she spoke. "Could it be they can't come back anymore? Boo-hoo..."

"Sister-in-law, don't say things like that." An older woman gave her a light swat. "Those Patrol Soldiers aren't back yet either. They probably went to a distant Mass Burial Ground again this time, not the nearby one at all. That's why they haven't returned! They should be back tonight. Don't worry. Let's wait a little longer."

As Ye Qianfan threaded through the crowd and prepared to leave...

"Stop!"

"You brat, stop right there!"

Ye Qianfan recognized Auntie Fat's voice and deliberately kept walking.

But the woman refused to let him go. She rushed forward and grabbed Ye Qianfan's sleeve. "If you're not a corpse carrier who went to the Mass Burial Ground, why are you wearing my Old Fu's clothes?"

PS: White Jade Capital also conveys the sense of something ethereal and elusive, and refers to the place one goes after cultivating to become an immortal.

Li Bai once wrote: "In the heavens stands the White Jade Capital, with twelve towers and five cities. An immortal strokes the crown of my head; with my hair bound, I receive everlasting life..."