Entering the Tower

Seeing them stop at the entrance, Steward Ding turned back and asked, "My lords?"

Wang Qilin smiled. "I find this painting by your entrance rather interesting. What does it depict?"

"Just the usual door gods, Shentu and Yulü," Steward Ding said. "If you like them, Lord Wang, I can give you a few paintings once today's business is finished."

Wang Qilin waved a hand. "Looking is enough. No need to give me any."

High, fortified walls surrounded the rear courtyard. Thick blue bricks paved the ground, and something unknown had been poured into the joints, making the whole thing as solid as an iron plate.

There were also two hardwood windlasses built in the southeast and northwest corners. Thick iron chains, each as thick as a child's arm, wound around their centers. Whatever maintenance they normally received, there was not a trace of rust on them.

Huang Huaji directed several burly men to turn the windlasses, drawing heavy iron chains up from underground.

A section of blue-brick paving in the center of the rear courtyard split down the middle and slowly rose upright.

It was as though giant hands beneath the ground had pushed open two great doors pieced together from blue bricks!

Xie Hama's expression grew grave. He extended a hand and worked his fingers in divination.

Xu Da asked, "What did you divine?"

Xie Hama shook his head. "I didn't."

"If you weren't divining, what were you doing with your fingers?"

"Relieving stress."

Huang Huaji walked toward the underground palace's entrance and beckoned them over. Wang Qilin transferred the demon saber to his left hand. "Let's go! Time to get down to business!"

The entrance to the underground palace was a square a little over ten feet on each side. A flight of stone steps spiraled down into darkness, its end nowhere in sight.

Steward Ding clapped his hands, and men came forward to hand them oil lamps.

Xu Da asked, "Why not use torches?"

"The air below is too thin," Huang Huaji said. "Torches would compete with us for air. Oil lamps are more suitable."

Wang Qilin asked, "Then shouldn't we wait a while and let the underground palace air out?"

Huang Huaji froze, then slapped his forehead. "Yes, we must let it air out. I was so impatient I nearly caused a serious mishap."

After the wind had blown for a while, the three judged it sufficient and carried their lamps into the darkness.

The stone steps were hard and icy.

After Wang Qilin had taken just a few steps, the chill penetrated his soles.

His feet grew cold.

He circulated the internal energy in his dantian, only feeling somewhat more comfortable once a warm current flowed through his limbs and body.

There was something very wrong with this underground palace!

Wang Qilin's home had a basement. Basements should be warm in winter and cool in summer. Even if they were not warm, they should not be this cold.

The oil lamps swayed, their flames flickering.

Once they left the entrance behind, the light quickly grew dim and feeble, barely illuminating the stone steps beneath their feet.

Someone prodded him from behind.

He turned, and Xie Hama silently pointed at the wall.

Wang Qilin raised his lamp to look.

A savage, vicious, pale human face was grinning at him with ill intent!

The entire wall was covered in stone faces like it.

They were lifelike.

"Images of Zhong Kui," Xie Hama said quietly.

Wang Qilin nodded.

The farther down they went, the larger the underground palace became.

It was also surprisingly deep. They descended a full hundred stone steps before reaching level ground.

Leading the way, Huang Huaji smiled. "Stay close behind me. We're about to enter the tower."

After a pause, he added gravely, "The ghost of that deputy general of mine is still inside. Be careful. He has now become vicious by nature. If you notice anything unusual, my two lords, please show no mercy!"

Wang Qilin gave a meaningful smile. "Don't worry. He won't get away."

Unfortunately, no one could make out his expression.

They had now reached the bottom floor of the Wuji Pagoda, which was also the floor closest to the surface. Inside were spiral steps, and following them downward would take them to the second floor, then the third, all the way to the top.

The top floor lay deepest underground.

Huang Huaji intended to take the evil-suppressing scripture to the top floor and enshrine it there.

They now approached the Wuji Pagoda. Wang Qilin raised his lamp and stepped closer to inspect it. He found nothing remarkable about the stone tower's exterior. It was just like an ordinary tower, built from nothing more than stone slabs, stone blocks, and blue bricks.

The stone tower's doorway was so low that the three had to bend down to enter. It had no actual door, only a black curtain.

Wang Qilin reached out and touched it, discovering that it was not a curtain either, but countless fine strands hanging down.

He instinctively felt the strands. Their texture seemed like-

Hair!

At that moment, Huang Huaji chuckled quietly. "Do you know what this is, Lord Wang?"

"Dragon Day Children's Hair!" Xie Hama said heavily.

Dragon Day was the Dragon Boat Festival, the day when yang energy was strongest throughout the year.

Children's hair referred to the hair of young children. Boys who had not lost their virginity possessed abundant yang energy.

And hair grew from the very top of the human body, closest to the sun, making its yang energy even stronger!

"We're very safe here," Huang Huaji said. "No ghosts or evil spirits dare approach this place. Dragon Day Children's Hair is to ghosts what raging flames are to people."

After entering, Wang Qilin realized his guess had been wrong.

The hair had not been made into a curtain. There was a passage inside, and this hair hung down throughout it!

Dry, icy hair brushed against their bodies...

Wang Qilin felt as though countless little hands were tickling him.

Goosebumps rose instantly.

Fortunately, the passage was only two steps long. As soon as Wang Qilin felt the space above his head clear, he instinctively exhaled in relief, only for that breath to catch forcibly in his throat!

He instinctively tried to hurry forward to leave the passage of Dragon Day Children's Hair behind, but as he took a step, a cluster of heads suddenly appeared indistinctly in the darkness before him!

He raised the oil lamp.

They were all Buddha statues!

Buddha statues hung upside down from the ceiling-

No, Wang Qilin immediately realized. They were the ones standing on the ceiling. The Wuji Tower had been built downward, so the floor was above their heads, and the Buddha statues were standing normally on it.

Some of the many Buddha statues looked solemn and majestic, others glared like wrathful vajra guardians, and still others laughed heartily. Whatever pigments had been applied to their faces made them extraordinarily lifelike.

Their bodies were covered in Sanskrit. As Wang Qilin focused on them, he faintly heard chanting beside his ears.

Rising and falling...

Lingering and lingering...

Hazy and dreamlike...

The demon saber was so cold it was difficult to hold.

Wang Qilin instinctively tightened his grip on the hilt and came back to his senses.

Turning his head, he saw Xie Hama beside him, eyes half closed and mouth spread in a smile, utterly absorbed.

He hurriedly shook Xie Hama, who gave a muffled grunt. "What a formidable Buddha Formation!"

Huang Huaji raised his lamp and smiled. "You truly are an expert, Lord Wang! But the farther down we go, the more powerful the formation becomes. My lords, you must be even more careful!"

The dim yellow flame cast its uncertain light around them, making Huang Huaji's aged face look somewhat lifeless.

After walking a few more steps, Wang Qilin caught sight of a dark shadow floating behind Huang Huaji in the faint light of the bean-sized flame.

It was utterly silent.

There was none of the supposedly vicious assault.

Seeing this, he pressed his hand against his saber's hilt. "I noticed a detail. General Huang, you're extremely talkative when you aren't with your family, but once you're with them, you barely speak. Why is that?"

"What do you mean, why?" Huang Huaji said. "That's simply my temperament."

Wang Qilin asked again, "You said your Black Yao subordinate died from an evil spirit, but a Mountain Puppet tore open his coffin a few days ago. Why did I find that he died of poisoning?"

"And as a second-rank general, you should have plenty of people at your disposal if you need someone to accompany you down into this Wuji Tower. Why insist on coming to a mere Minor Seal like me? Did that Black Yao subordinate discover something that made you afraid to approach the powerful people you know?"

"What exactly is wrong with you?" Huang Huaji snapped.

"What exactly is wrong with you, General Huang? You were certainly agitated at my post station today, but before that, even when your granddaughter was dying, you were never this agitated!" Wang Qilin slowly drew his saber.

Huang Huaji's expression soured. "I felt it was unfair to that subordinate general of mine..."

"I never said what you were agitated about. Why did you immediately think of that subordinate general?" Wang Qilin began to smile.

"Look behind you!"

Huang Huaji turned.

A dark shadow swayed indistinctly behind him.

"Now this is the real General Huang, isn't it?" Wang Qilin said coldly. "My dear subordinate general, you've given yourself away far too many times!"

Ever since Huang Huaji had driven him away last time, he had suspected something was wrong with the old general. But the matter was too serious for him to raise it lightly. Only when Huang Huaji came looking for him again today and behaved strangely when mentioning the subordinate general did he finally understand.

The soul within the old general's body was no longer Huang Huaji's. Another ghost had possessed him.