Chapter 47

What a fine Eighth Master!

Although he was in the darkness, with countless dangers lurking and watching, he calmly stroked his beard and sneered:

"The affairs of the netherworld are naturally none of my business! But now that you are in the world of the living, causing chaos and confusion, this is something that the people of the living world must deal with. Although I haven't bowed three times and sacrificed to the four directions to seek your help, I have still followed the proper rituals and have not overstepped the boundaries of the netherworld. I only wish to take Young Master Qin Lu away from here—what do you mean by closing the door and blocking the spirit?"

"Ah?" The ghost was startled by the accuracy of Eighth Master's words, thinking that this person was actually a practitioner of the arts, who clearly understood the ways of the yin and yang, and might even be a member of a sect. At that moment, he carefully examined the three fires of Eighth Master in the darkness—only to realize he had misjudged him!

We have already mentioned that Eighth Master had a heavy karmic burden, and the three fires and the accumulated merit from his cultivation had long been worn down, making him appear less formidable than an ordinary person; as for Zunzhibao, who was half-human and half-ghost, he had no three fires and was merely a ghostly presence following Eighth Master...

The ghost thought that Eighth Master was just bluffing, and a wave of baseless resentment arose in his heart. With a shrill scream, he suddenly revealed half a ghostly face in the darkness!

Half-human, half-ghost, half-yin, half-yang; the soul leaving the body first terrified the spirit, and the heart and soul were shattered by the ghostly possession!

Amidst the shrill cries, Eighth Master calmly stood in the posture of the Yu step, his left hand forming a sword finger and drawing and pointing at his right palm several times, then closing his fist and pulling it back. He shouted:

"All the Vajras! World Honored Ksitigarbha!—Break!"

He suddenly thrust his palm forward!

At the moment his palm was thrust out, a sudden red light flashed, immediately revealing the wind and thunder pentagram seal, with its dazzling and bizarre light, lightning and thunder, as if the lightning from the sky had been summoned into his hand, instantly rushing toward the darkness like a dragon or a tiger!

"Bang!"

Instantly, the shrill scream intensified, carrying venom and hatred as it was brutally smashed into the depths of the cave!

"Go!" Eighth Master roared, "Bao'er! Locking Ghost Talisman!"

Before he could call out, Bao'er had already rushed out like a hare, responding as he reached several meters away, directly throwing the talisman paper!

In the darkness, Zunzhibao's shouts and the sound of his fists and feet cutting through the air could be heard, as if he was engaged in a fierce battle with the ghost. Eighth Master did not dare to be negligent, flipping his wrist to take out four or five talisman papers, lighting them and throwing them around his body—immediately, several flames burned on the ground, illuminating the entire inner room.

In the light, Zunzhibao could be seen standing in front of the stone wall, his arm pressing against it, the talisman paper in his hand stuck to the wall, and a shadow-like thing struggling below... The black smoke rolled, forming faces and claws, and with its shrill cries and wails, it tried to intimidate Zunzhibao into letting go.

Zunzhibao had probably seen no less than eight thousand ghosts in his life, so he paid no attention to them, firmly pressing the talisman paper. Eighth Master laughed and walked over, raising a nail about an inch long and driving it into the wall.

As the saying goes, "Willow branches can beat ghosts, and a whip can strike three inches," meaning that willow branches can make ghosts shrink when struck. This willow nail was made from the middle part of a willow tree during a yang year, then coated with condensed pearl tears and wrapped in red cloth, and hung in the scorching sun to absorb yang energy. It could control the soul with the red evil from the "Nine Yang Heavenly Fire."

Eighth Master's nail was exactly this kind, and with three nails, he firmly locked the ghost to the wall. He then pulled Zunzhibao to the side and watched the ghost struggle, just sneering without a word. The ghost, realizing it was locked by the willow nail, roared with rage:

"Willow nail?! Willow nail! It's really a willow nail!! How dare you use a willow nail to lock me?!!"

"What do I dare not?" Eighth Master replied, "Is a willow nail not enough to lock your ghostly soul?" He casually picked up a broken candle, lit it, and examined the coffins one by one.

The ghost gathered itself into a ball, then exploded into a bald woman's face, cursing with infinite venom: "If you don't remove this nail quickly, when I break free, I will devour your heart and drink your blood..."

"Good, it's this one!" Eighth Master suddenly interrupted the ghost, pointing to a coffin and said happily, "Bao'er, come over and help your master open this!" The coffin looked no different from the others, but there were several clear handprints in the accumulated dust, clearly indicating it had been opened...

Who else could it be but the Second Young Master?

The female ghost was immediately terrified, stammering several "you" words, but before she could think of an excuse, Eighth Master and Zunzhibao had already worked together to open the coffin lid. Inside, the Second Young Master Qin Lu was indeed lying unconscious, and next to him was a mummy!

The two lifted the Second Young Master and laid him on another coffin, then raised the willow nail high and thrust it down—immediately, the ghost let out an uncontrollable scream:

"Stop! Stop! Ah—"

The willow nail had already pierced through the rib and into the coffin board!

Eighth Master grunted, "You talk about breaking free and biting people, but it's only because your physical body can still move. Do you think I don't know? Now that I've found your physical body and locked your two meridians, what more do you have to say?"

"You, you, you..." The female ghost was so terrified that she dared not speak, finally realizing that the person in front of her was not just someone who knew about yin and yang, but a great talent from a sect, and her demeanor immediately wilted.

Eighth Master continued, "Although these two nails cannot pierce your internal organs and scatter your soul, if I pierce your vertebrae and nail your tail, expose your body to the scorching sun, and burn your physical body with pure water, restorative soup, and five-flavored seeds, you will certainly be burned to a thousand holes, leaking yin and losing your soul—now that there is no netherworld temple to enshrine your physical body, what will you use to fill it? I predict that within forty-nine days, you will inevitably fall into the Three Paths River and suffer for a thousand years!"

The ghost realized that Eighth Master's words were true and that he had indeed encountered a master, so he quickly begged bitterly, "Master, I am just a wrongfully dead ghost, confined here to guard the Qin family. Please have mercy on me, who has not been able to enter the cycle of rebirth for many years, and spare me!"

The female ghost was afraid, but Eighth Master was also uneasy. The ghosts enshrined in the physical body temple had died tragically, and their records in the netherworld were all of wrongfully dead ghosts. If these ghosts were truly dispersed, the accumulated karma would be too heavy, and Eighth Master's precarious karmic destiny could not bear it. So, hearing the ghost's plea, he found a way to back down.

His face remained solemn and cold, and he scolded, "If it weren't for this, why would I bother to say so much? It's all because you acted recklessly—how much better it would have been if you had been like this from the beginning! Since you are the guardian spirit of the Qin family, why did you confuse the Second Young Master Qin Lu and lead him here?"

Seeing that Eighth Master's tone had softened, the female ghost quickly explained the whole story, portraying her actions as if she were a celestial being, free of any evil or malice...

Kunshan Fort was originally a trading post for merchants in this area, near the ancestral village of the Qin family. After the Qin family's ancestor returned victorious from war, he found the area fraught with danger and built a simple wall to protect it. With this basic defense, the area attracted more mountain dwellers to sell their goods and game, and more merchants came—naturally, the Qin family built taverns, inns, warehouses, and curing workshops, accumulating much wealth.

One year, during a time of war and chaos, the conflict gradually spread to the remote Kunlun Mountains. The merchants of Kunshan Fort decided to build high walls and thick walls to prevent the chaos from entering. Not only that, but the major families in the mountains also sought help from the local Maitreya Sect, learning a method to protect themselves.

The elder of the Qin family found some tragically dead corpses in the wild and set up a physical body temple, which helped Kunshan Fort survive the chaos. However, in peaceful times, the karmic cycle of the temple began to manifest...

First, the major families of Kunshan Fort began to suffer, with some losing their sight or hearing, others losing limbs, and still others losing their descendants. The Qin family, seeing this, sought ways to resolve the issue. They eventually found a master from the Five Wheels Sect, who provided a solution.

The method of the Five Wheels Sect was to send the ghosts of the physical body temple into the cycle of rebirth. Since the ghosts had different karmic ties, the process took many attempts and was never complete—until now, only one ghost remained, needing to undergo trials before it could be sent away.

The physical body temple was never dismantled!

The yin-yang master set up a binding spell outside the temple, preventing the ghosts inside from leaving, and they could only wait for their transformation. The Qin family was reassured and simply blocked the path with wood and stone... Over time, fewer and fewer people knew about it.

After the Qin family matriarch fell ill, the Second Young Master Qin Lu heard about the physical body temple and, thinking it was an ancestral temple, secretly entered to offer incense and pray for his mother's recovery, only to encounter the ghost.

The female ghost, resenting the Qin family for breaking their original agreement, hid in the Second Young Master's shadow, making him come to the temple at midnight to give her physical body yang energy, hoping to one day break the seal and escape... But this was discovered by Zunzhibao, who brought another skilled yin-yang master.

Eighth Master knew that his predecessors had not forcibly transformed this ghost, so there must be a reason. After experiencing many things, he did not dare to act rashly and decided to leave the ghost for now... As for the Second Young Master being influenced by the ghost, he could simply use a spell to remove it.

So, ignoring the ghost's continued pleading, he sent Bao'er to find some things and began to draw lines with cinnabar on the Second Young Master's major acupoints.