Chapter 144.2

Xiong Shan could admit defeat, but his own Little Yuanhou never would. So in the end, the matter here would still have to be solved by them.

If Xiong Shan could change his mind, or even just show a little more initiative, that would be a major help to their side.

Of course, he knew perfectly well that talk alone would not persuade anyone. The key was still letting merit move people’s hearts.

The eunuch finished inhaling the incense, looking utterly intoxicated.

Then he pointed at Runsheng and Tan Wenbin, then pointed ahead.

Tan Wenbin said, “Does that mean he wants to arrange for us to go to the front and act as leaders?”

The eunuch repeated the gesture.

But Tan Wenbin had no interest in being any kind of leader. They would much rather hide at the very back of the corpse retrievers’ party, the less noticeable the better.

Still, it gave him an idea.

“Runsheng, give me some more incense. I’m going to have a proper chat with the eunuch.”

After taking the incense Runsheng handed him with his right hand, Tan Wenbin slapped the back of his own head three times hard with his left. His brain was already buzzing from it, and on the fourth slap, he finally succeeded in Walking the Shade.

The eunuch, who had originally been half-transparent and taciturn, suddenly looked oddly imposing in this state. His expression had become much more vivid too, restrained but tinged with arrogance.

“My respects to you, Eunuch. There’s something I’d like to trouble you to arrange. After the banquet ends, we plan to collect three people. Those three need to be received by us personally. Please do us this favor.”

The eunuch stood there with a face full of disdain.

Tan Wenbin took out the incense. One stick, two sticks, three sticks, four sticks.

The eunuch nodded.

Tan Wenbin ended his Walking the Shade and grinned in delight. Damn, once your thinking opens up, miracles are everywhere.

He absolutely had to tell Little Yuanhou about this trick and have it recorded in The Zhuiyuan Secret Scroll.

Just then, Tan Wenbin noticed the eunuch looking toward Xiong Shan.

Binbin turned his head too and saw that although Xiong Shan was still watching him, streams of gray and white were now swirling in his eyes.

This guy was Walking the Shade too. Damn it, he had just eavesdropped on the conversation between him and the eunuch.

Xiong Shan stretched out a hand and said to his wife, “Lihua, get me some incense.”

Lihua pulled out a bundle of incense from the pack and handed it to her husband.

But unexpectedly, the eunuch immediately took several steps back. He ignored Xiong Shan completely and just kept staring at Tan Wenbin.

Tan Wenbin crouched down at once and stuck the four incense sticks into the ground, lighting them one by one.

This time, the eunuch simply dropped to the ground and began inhaling in huge gulps, blissful like a wriggling maggot.

Xiong Shan looked at the large handful of incense in his own hand, then at the simple four sticks on the ground, and asked, “What kind of incense do you have there?”

He had already become suspicious earlier when the eunuch crouched down to inhale it. When he copied the bribery attempt himself and failed, he became certain that the incense in their hands was no ordinary thing.

There were not many people in Old Lady Liu’s household, and their way of life seemed simple enough, but the cups she smashed when angry were prized antiques in collectors’ eyes. And the “rations incense” Aunt Liu made for Runsheng could truly make ghosts turn millstones.

That was what real depth looked like. No deliberate display, but even what slipped casually from under their fingernails was enough to make outsiders burn with envy.

Xiong Shan continued, “Could you lend me two sticks? I’ll owe you a favor.”

Tan Wenbin resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

A favor, a favor. Your family’s favors are wholesale goods, aren’t they? Since we met, you’ve already racked up three.

“No problem, no problem. I’ll smooth things over with the eunuch for you. Leave it to me.”

“Many thanks!”

At that moment, white lanterns rose one after another into the air like fireflies, illuminating the whole area brightly.

Gusts of Ghost Wind blew out from the banquet hall, mixed with hair-raising howls and shrieks.

But what Tan Wenbin saw when he once again entered Walking the Shade to help Xiong Shan smooth things over was countless large red lanterns hanging high overhead. Thunderous cheers and applause came from the banquet hall, and the whole place looked boisterous and festive.

The banquet had begun.

…

When the armor in the seat of honor slowly rose upright, the temperature in the banquet hall began to plunge rapidly, literally as though they had fallen into an ice cellar.

Li Zhuiyuan deliberately glanced at the child at the neighboring table and found that the child was still sound asleep.

It seemed that afterward, he really ought to borrow that swaddling cloth and study its material carefully.

Li Zhuiyuan activated Walking the Shade.

Then he discovered that even after entering that state, he could still see the child.

That meant the child... was also Walking the Shade.

The child’s spiritual perception was astonishingly sharp.

But Li Zhuiyuan did not consider this some kind of prodigy. On the contrary, he felt sorry for the child.

The child must have traveled the jianghu with his parents after birth and been steeped in those sinister influences, which had stimulated his spiritual perception.

That also meant that even though he was still little and could not yet talk, his future path had already been decided.

He did not even have the right to become an ordinary person. An ordinary person who could see ghosts at any moment would have no way to live a normal life.

Li Zhuiyuan shifted his gaze to the main platform.

That Qin Clan Dragon King naturally was not there. It truly was only a statue.

And Yin Meng was not on the platform either.

But Li Zhuiyuan did see the general.

He was gaunt as a mummy. Though he had managed to prop up that set of armor, he could no longer truly control it. He seemed more like a white macaque hiding inside ill-fitting armor for comfort and a sense of safety.

His whole body gave off the air of decay and decline. He did not have much time left.

Compared with him, the one under the peach tree back home who had shouted for him to suppress and kill him while waiting for death could practically be called vigorous and full of life.

He had begun with the burial suppression of the Triple Heavens, finally found a chance to turn things around, only to be jointly suppressed by the Dragon King and the four families of the old Tianmen. Then during the late Qing, when the heavenly order fell into chaos, he tried to make one final attempt, only to be forced back down by the descendants of those same four families.

The general was at the end of his oil and the drying of his lamp.

But that was precisely what puzzled Li Zhuiyuan. The general had already deteriorated to this point, so who exactly was it that granted those unseeable beings such power?

Things seemed completely different from what he had originally imagined.

No wonder Xiong Shan had said that the last time he came down here, he had had a chance to seal the general again.

Yes, a general in this condition could indeed be sealed if one seized the timing well. At the distance Li Zhuiyuan currently stood from him, he himself could even try it.

But the problem was that the general was not the key here.

And the Xie Niudao corpse-driving Taoist priest Li Zhuiyuan had seen in Ah Li’s dream was nowhere to be found either.

The general laboriously raised a wine cup and directed it toward the place where Yin Meng was seated.

At last, Yin Meng succeeded in Walking the Shade again.

She appeared at the banquet table with a ghastly pale face, her chest heaving, looking as though she had been forced into it against her will.

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his head and saw that exquisite food and wine had indeed appeared on his own table. He casually picked up the cup of wine that did not exist in reality and turned it in his hand.

The general looked at Yin Meng with gentleness in his eyes, waiting for her to raise a cup to him.

In an even more strained manner than the general, Yin Meng struggled with all her might to lift the wine cup before her, finally completing the gesture of a hollow clink.

The general was satisfied and drank a cup of wine.

From the crowd seated below came a unified shout:

“To The Great Emperor of Fengdu!”

Before the cup in Yin Meng’s hand could even reach her lips, she vanished. She could not maintain the state even a moment longer.

Li Zhuiyuan could not help sighing inwardly. If Yin Meng had not inherited Aunt Liu’s teachings in the use of poison, the Yin Clan would truly have declined into something disgraceful.

Back then, no matter what else could be said of the Yin Clan ancestors, they had at least been able to get to the table and mooch a meal. Now even getting to the table had become this difficult.

The general was not angry. He almost seemed to smile, and remembrance surfaced in his eyes.

A maid poured more wine. The general raised his cup again and toasted toward the other side, toward that statue.

There was not the slightest trace of hatred in his eyes, only admiration and approval.

Yin Meng could sit in that position purely because of Yin Changsheng’s reputation. In truth, on this main platform, the only one who could stand on equal footing with the general was that Qin Clan Dragon King.

Because he was the man who had once defeated him.

Below, a shout rose up in unison, even louder than before:

“To the Qin Clan Dragon King!”

Li Zhuiyuan had been quietly watching this scene, but when the general raised his cup to the statue, Li Zhuiyuan noticed that the general’s pea-green eyes suddenly shifted aside. It was as if they slipped past the statue and landed on Li Zhuiyuan himself, who happened to be seated directly beneath it on that side.

The general had seen him.

The general maintained the toasting posture, his thin arm trembling.

Li Zhuiyuan lifted the wine cup on his own table and returned the toast.

So he had seen him. Fine. At a moment like this, the young man actually felt no panic.

Bringing the cup to his lips, Li Zhuiyuan took a sip.

Because he knew this wine was an illusion conjured from nothing rather than some strange substitute served up by the maids and eunuchs, one sip was no great issue.

The wine was not strong, but it carried a fragrant aroma. Once it slid down his throat, it quickly dissipated and vanished.

Li Zhuiyuan set down the cup.

The general withdrew his gaze as well. He looked over the noisy, lively crowd below. A sense of weariness could be felt from him, but he soon forced himself to rally, raised his cup once more, and toasted toward the surroundings.

Below, two waves of cries rose up. The first was the loudest:

“To the Xie Niudao family, who sacrificed themselves for righteousness, offering the bloodline of their own kin to seal away evil and protect all living beings, guarding our righteous path!”

The second was much quieter, as though only a quarter of the people had joined in.

“To the four Tianmen families, united in purpose, banishing demons and defending the Dao, protecting our homeland and restoring peace!”

Even though the “evil” and “demons” they shouted about referred to the general himself, he still raised his cup with them and drank that wine.

So everyone seated here was one of the ancestors of the four Tianmen families, those who had died in battle alongside that Qin Clan Dragon King when suppressing the general.

But then where had this strangely harmonious atmosphere come from?

Had old enmities really turned into friendship?

Or had former enemies come to acknowledge one another, even developed a kind of mutual respect?

It did not look like an act. The aura surrounding the general could not be concealed, and there was no reason for him to put on this whole performance just for Li Zhuiyuan alone.

But then another question followed. If they had truly all come to terms with the past, if even the great devil himself had let go and was quietly waiting for final extinction, then who exactly was the villain?

This fourth wave of his—he had deliberately sought it out and stepped into it ahead of time.

But Xiong Shan and the others had already been here long before that. So what exactly had they been busy doing here?

Or rather, what was the true guidance the river water had given Xiong Shan?

All at once, the doors of the banquet hall were pushed open.

The general looked toward the entrance, complicated emotions surfacing in his eyes.

Li Zhuiyuan could not turn around to look, because behind him now sat a whole swath of unseeable beings. He could only wait for the newcomer to come up onto the main platform before he could make out who it was.

Soon, Li Zhuiyuan saw him.

It was a man about the same age as the woman from the Wang family on the antiques street, though by now that woman was likely already buried in the sea of Ghost Eye fire.

The man looked about thirty. After stepping onto the platform, he walked straight up to the general.

The two locked eyes.

Even a dead tiger still has its power, much less the general, who had not yet completely perished. But the general avoided meeting the man’s gaze, as though in compromise, or perhaps helplessness.

A smile appeared at the corners of the man’s mouth. He turned around to face the crowd below.

Only then did Li Zhuiyuan realize that the man was blind.

Not naturally blind either. Judging by the wounds around the eye sockets, it looked more like he had gouged out his own eyeballs by force.

Without eyes, he could not see, and so he could openly face so many “unseeable beings” below.

The man shouted:

“Seniors, do you still remember the oath the four Tianmen families swore here before suppressing the general all those years ago?”

The crowd below shouted in unison, “The four Tianmen families, living and dying together, suppressing evil!”

The man shouted again:

“And do you remember the oath all of you swore when my great-grandfather sacrificed the blood kin of my Xie Niudao family and entered the palace to seal the general?”

“We of the Wang clan swear that we shall coexist with the Xie Niudao family for generations and never betray them!”

“We of the Bu clan swear that we shall stand with the Xie Niudao family through wind and rain, supporting one another hand in hand!”

“We of the Yan and Xie clans swear that between us and the Xie Niudao family there shall be no distinction, living together and dying together!”

The man spread his arms and shouted:

“For a hundred years, the Wang clan, the Bu clan, and the Yan and Xie clans have suppressed my Xie Niudao family, killed my clansmen, seized my inheritance, and sought to swallow us whole and wipe out our line.

“Seniors,

“What should be done?”

The man raised a command flag in his hand and pointed it overhead.

Below,

a furious roar rose in unison:

“They should be exterminated! They should be exterminated! They should be exterminated!”

A black vortex rose into being above the banquet hall.

At that moment, Li Zhuiyuan finally understood why every corpse retriever party had one person whose feet never touched the ground. He also finally understood why none of the ancestors of the four Tianmen families present here could be looked at directly.

Because they were all curses!

Their power did not come from the general. They had turned themselves into part of the curse.

Each of them was one fragment of the curse, and through them one could glimpse the whole curse.

And for some unknown reason, these curses had been accumulating all this time. From that enormous ring overhead, only a tiny stream was flowing out, while the overwhelming majority remained stored here, held back by sheer force.

Who could look directly at a curse of such immense scale?

To see it was to be devoured!

So in the real world at this very moment, the Wang clan, the Bu clan, and the Yan and Xie clans were all suffering under a curse.

And the ones cursing them

were precisely the ancestors of those three families, who had died here back then while fighting to suppress the general.

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