High summer gradually faded, and a shivering autumn wind rose among the thousand mountains.
Black Heroic Pass stood at the far end of the mountains and rivers. A few cultivators gathered materials outside the pass to set up various barrier formations.
Xie Jinhuan stood before the Ghost Gate, both hands resting on the Heavenly Gang Mace, gazing out over the endless peaks. Under Zisu's meticulous care, his complexion had returned to normal. With the Ghost Festival approaching, his all-day, unrestrained merrymaking had abated somewhat, and a solemnity befitting an army about to arrive at the gates had settled between his brows.
"Gooji..."
As the guard with a mouth at his side, Coal Ball had absolute faith in the feeding officer. So long as A Huan was not dead, Coal Ball did not believe anything in the world could be difficult. At the moment, Coal Ball crouched atop the pass, nodding and bobbing, presumably reciting, "A hundred-foot stern pass bounds the western sky; campaigners from ten thousand miles away halt upon a bird-track trail..."
To facilitate communication, a temporary camp tent had been erected outside the pass. Inside was a map of the surrounding terrain surveyed over the past few days, marked with sentry positions and retreat routes, with an hourglass in the middle.
The hourglass had been made with Ghost Wife's help. When the pass opened at nightfall, it would start keeping time. The fall of the final grain would signify daybreak, when everything here would disintegrate and be reshaped by heaven and earth.
To make absolutely certain nothing went wrong, Zisu had also spent the past few days concocting all sorts of outrageous pills, such as "You Only Live Once Pills" and "Three-Second Tough Guy Pills." Nearly all were potent drugs that squeezed the body dry regardless of the