A Fierce God on His Back

It wasn't just the underworld officers who fled.

The Zhong family fled too.

The room was full of little ghosts!

Even the underworld officers had been scared off!

Heaven gave them time to escape. After emerging, the infant spirits did not attack anyone, but charged straight at the bright red coffin, flung off its lid, and tore the corpse inside to pieces.

Shreds of clothing, hair, and flesh flew everywhere, leaving a mess inside and outside the coffin!

Destroying the corpse and erasing all trace.

This was an irreconcilable blood feud!

The Zhong family scrambled out, with Zhong Youshou's grandson leading the way.

Whoever brought up the rear was a real bastard. They actually pulled the door shut, and judging by the click, locked it too.

Zhong Youshou, hampered by his legs, had been left behind. Standing inside the door, he shouted, "Fuck our ancestors! Never mind outsiders, you won't even look after your own? The clan head is still in here!"

Chill winds gusted through the ancestral hall. Even Wang Qilin's scalp broke out in goose bumps.

Zhong Erniu's wife had warned them before. She had said she saw lots of ghost babies; in fact, she had seen all these infant spirits.

Unfortunately, the three of them had thought she was babbling nonsense and hadn't given it much thought.

Du Cao fell into self-doubt, muttering, "Impossible, impossible. Where's Zhong Youfu's soul?"

Wang Qilin asked calmly, "Master Cao, what if Zhong Youfu didn't wait until seven days had passed and the underworld officers stopped searching for his soul before entering an empty fetus? What if he went in earlier?"

Du Cao cried, "Impossible! It takes some effort for a soul to enter an empty fetus, and for seven days after a person dies, the underworld officers come to seize their soul every night. When would he have had time?"

"What if he entered the fetus during the day?"

Du Cao shook his head. "A soul needs powerful cultivation to emerge in daylight. Zhong Youfu, some country bumpkin? Absolutely impossible!"

The young woman hesitated.

Wang Qilin abruptly turned toward her. She said timidly, "I rang the bell at noon the next day. The clan head told me to before he died."

Du Cao froze.

"I should have thought of it sooner." Wang Qilin slapped his forehead. "These infant spirits were sealed inside the Vajra Bell. How could Zhong Erniu's wife have seen them? She must have stumbled upon Zhong Youfu's soul leaving his body and sealing the infant spirits that day! An infant spirit wasn't haunting her-one used her body to escape!"

"Only now you figure it out?" Xu Da shouted. "The baby's dead and now you show up to nurse it! The snot's reached your mouth and now you think to wipe it! What were you doing before?"

Wang Qilin ignored him. An even more terrifying conjecture had occurred to him:

"Zhong Youfu's soul could enter a fetus at noon and seal infant spirits. He had powerful cultivation! So, the Zhong family's clan heads alternated between geniuses and fools, and all those genius clan heads, including Zhong Youfu, were reincarnations of the same person!"

"These infant spirits were formed from little ghosts who failed to reincarnate in the past. They were normally suppressed inside the Vajra Bell, which is why they were so furious when the underworld officers released them and went to destroy his corpse!"

Du Cao understood too. He blurted out, "So that's it! Little Seven, this isn't some minor village haunting. It's a major case for the dynasty..."

He was about to say more when the infant spirits crawled out of the coffin, clinging to its rim like a pack of black dogs and staring at them.

Every infant spirit had once been pitiful.

But once they became infant spirits, they were terrifying.

Now the people inside the room were the pitiful ones.

And once the infant spirits left the ancestral hall.

Everyone under heaven would be pitiful!

Without any visible movement of the infant spirits' mouths, crying rose from every direction. "Waaah, waaah! Waaah, waaah!"

Some cries were weak, some shrill, some hoarse and desperate.

Some sounded like a dull blade chopping bone, some like nails scraping jade, some like an old cat wailing.

They poured into the ears and reached straight into the heart.

Wang Qilin immediately felt nauseated. He hurried beneath a window and drew the saber at his waist.

Clang!

Bright moonlight shone on the blade, coating it like a layer of frost.

Xu Da drew his saber too. Clang!

Only half the saber remained.

Holding the half blade, he stared blankly. "Old Seven!"

Wang Qilin said gravely, "It was no use on you anyway. Better to let me use it."

An infant spirit jumped off the coffin. The features on its indistinct face twisted and twitched incessantly as it fixed a venomous, sinister stare on the pregnant young woman.

Du Cao tossed his saber to Xu Da and took off his own shirt.

Xu Da drew the blade and said, "Why use an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken? Why should Master Cao summon a god for a few little ghosts?"

He strode toward the infant spirit that had jumped down, a savage grin and bloodlust on his face. "Let your grandpa see what you're made of!"

The infant spirit on the floor remained still, but another suddenly shot out of the coffin!

It shot straight to the ancestral hall's roof, shifted position with lightning speed, and pounced on Xu Da, sending him flying backward with a swipe of its claws.

Wang Qilin hurried forward to catch him. The infant spirit landed and sprang up like a rat, still intent on pursuing its kill, but the Lunar Soul-Severing Saber pressed forward in a spiraling assault. Saber light flew everywhere, like surging waves crashing against the shore and throwing up a thousand drifts of snow!

The slashes drove the infant spirit back again and again. With a piercing howl, it retreated beneath the coffin in a trail of red mist.

Xu Da's face filled with grief and indignation. "Your grandpa got ambushed!"

Du Cao pulled his clothes aside, baring his upper body.

On his bronze back was a blood-red tattoo of a humanoid figure, with ox horns on its head, eyes like bronze bells, blood dripping from the corners of its mouth, and a human heart cupped in its hands. Flames burned over its body, and heaps of white bones lay beneath its feet!

A fierce god on his back!

Du Cao formed a Buddha seal with his right hand and supported his right elbow with his left. Blood surged into his lean face, and his eyes instantly turned blood-red. "Your visage is fearsome, your heart is just! Green forests and dark frontiers, all obey your command!"

The blood-colored tattoo grew clearer, and the fierce god's huge eyes gradually gained a sheen. Its figure swiftly began to take physical form, as though it were about to step out of Du Cao's back.

This was Wang Qilin's first time seeing Du Cao use his demon-subduing methods. He was startled. "What is that?"

Xu Da said gravely, "That's Master Cao's life-bound fierce god. Just watch. Even a resentment fiend is no match for Master Cao, let alone these little infant spirits."

The infant spirits seemed to know how powerful the fierce god was. Unlike when they had dealt with Xu Da, they did not let down their guard. All of them leaped out, sweeping toward Du Cao like a whirlwind and circling him.

Du Cao groaned in pain. The fierce god's upper body gradually emerged from his back, flames coiling around its arms. With a broad sweep, it caught an infant spirit and stuffed it into its mouth.

The other infant spirits showed no fear at the sight. They surrounded the fierce god and began tearing at it. Some climbed onto Du Cao's calves like water rats, ripped open his trousers in a few bites, and began gnawing his flesh.

Something was wrong. Wang Qilin told Xu Da, "Look after yourself!"

He slapped a hand against the floor and sprang into the air. His saber had a long hilt, and he gripped it with both hands, slashing down from above-

A cold gleam rose, its chill light spanning nineteen provinces!

The wind from his saber raged like a storm, driving the infant spirits brazenly besieging Du Cao back again and again.

Two infant spirits charged at him, whipping up howling cold winds that tore at his skin like knives.

Wang Qilin advanced instead of retreating. The warm current formed by the Heavenly Official's Blessing Pill surged from his dantian and flowed through his extraordinary meridians like a mountain stream, neither hurried nor slow, endlessly replenishing itself.

Supreme Yin Moonlight flowed over the blade. Facing enemies on both sides, he unleashed Night Battle in Eight Directions. Several streaks of saber light carrying moonlight slashed through the infant spirits, raising trails of bloody mist!

For a moment, saber shadows crisscrossed and killing intent swept in every direction.

The two infant spirits evaded the blade sweeping across them, only for two more flourishes to gouge upward. Unable to dodge in time, they immediately bloomed with bloody wounds on their chests.

The infant spirits attacked several times but could not break through. When they tried to retreat, there was no way out.

The Lunar Soul-Severing Saber grew faster with every stroke, its continuous light like rolling water, impossible to sever or cut apart.

Caught in the pattern of swift strikes, the infant spirits were like cattle and sheep trapped in a flood. How could they reach shore?

Behind the gleaming saber light came scarlet mist. As great quantities of bloody mist streamed away, both infant spirits let out piercing wails and turned into two columns of red smoke.

The Furnace of Creation flew out with a roar.

Du Cao, meanwhile, was in terrible shape. The infant spirits surrounded him, biting without pause. His face twisted in unbearable pain, and his once lean but sturdy body had become as thin as skin stretched over bones.

Yet the fierce god on his back grew ever more ferocious. Its whole body was now aflame, and it seemed about to break free of the confines of Du Cao's body, emerging farther as it grabbed ghosts!

Xu Da shouted, "The fierce god is coming out!"

Wang Qilin landed and pushed off toward Du Cao. Xu Da's eyes widened, and he moved to help too, but it was already too late.