It was clearly daytime, yet the ancient temple was as dim as night.
The Cunning Ghost, its hair snowy white but its face like a young child's, wore a tattered white robe. Strips of cloth dangled from its hem, swaying slightly as it moved.
Qi Gu and the others had seized all the Glazed Bone. Presumably, they would soon gather it all together.
What it needed to do now was accumulate suffering for the Asura's return to the world.
According to the original plan, the powerful ghosts that received the Glazed Bone's "gifts" would grow stronger and become the finest nourishment for the Asura after its descent-but those scheming humans had ruined that plan.
The Cunning Ghost could only resort to the second plan, before all the Glazed Bone was gathered.
Inside the ruined temple, the enormous, solemn statue of a deity had been toppled to the floor, its compassionate eyes closed. One stone hand had broken off and lay not far from its body, as though it, too, could not bear to look closely at the hell on earth that was to come.
Countless wisps of gray mist drifted within the throne beneath the statue. The Cunning Ghost addressed the countless vicious ghosts inside. "Go. Turn this mortal world into hell. Spread suffering throughout the world."
Their faces hideous, the vicious ghosts surged wildly outward at the Cunning Ghost's command, flying from the ruined temple in every direction like swarms of locusts.
Terrified wails soon rose wherever they went, and the already gloomy, overcast sky grew darker still with the appearance of this horde of vicious ghosts, so numerous that they could almost blot out the sky and sun.
Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi stepped through the little door shimmering with golden light, one after the other. Beyond