Chapter 335: Ghost Festival

Something was wrong. Very wrong. Yan Ping did not see the stars move. Everything was still as it was predestined. Yet, when she received news that the Mystical Qilin Sect had been raided by the ghost army, even the calm and collected sage panicked.

Yihao was still stabilising his Enlightened Core’s inner world. The tribulations were over, but his rapid enlightenment and progress still meant he needed more time.

Entrusting Hong Nian Niang and Liu Guiya to watch over that child, Yan Ping made the final touches to her trap formation. Anji’s star wavered, but it was still unclouded. Having enough faith in her successor, Yan Ping departed that night at full speed to save her sect. How did the enemy infiltrate their barrier? She must have missed something critical.

From Hong Nian Niang’s information about the ambush and travelling troupe of entertainers, Yan Ping matched it with Elder Shen’s description of the mysterious man with red spider lilies on his sleeves who killed Pu Jiannming. Many things did not add up until the mention of a ghost army infiltrating their sect.

Among the many prophecies passed down within the Mystical Qilin Sect, there was research on souls and differing life energies. Although uncommon in the murim world, scholars of the Mystical Qilin Sect were aware that qi was not the only energy that existed. Resentment and negative yin energy from those in the afterlife also existed alongside natural energy.

The barrier the sect founder created was inscribed in ancient runes that they had long suspected were connected to this mysterious yin energy. After all, nobody could truly understand some of the symbols used. It was recorded in the archives, but nobody has successfully managed to replicate, isolate or activate it. There was a prediction passed down from the second generation of sect leaders that the Mystical Qilin Sect was hiding in seclusion, not from the murim world but from the Gods. Yan Ping held her scepticism until now.

If there was one thing Yan Ping learned from being the sect leader for two centuries, it was how the soul dimension was more dangerous than anything in the physical world. Due to her range limitation, even if she could enter her astral body, Yan Ping was unable to reach where trouble brewed.

Accelerating high above the sea of clouds, Yan Ping felt the sting of hair whipping her cheeks. Yet, she did not stop. If she travelled at top speed, she would reach her sect in half a day. It was presently night. She should be able to reach before the crack of dawn and pray that everyone would evacuate instead of fighting the unknown.

While ghosts were incapable of physical destruction, powerful ghosts could harvest life energy through possession and corrupt the mind. There were a few ways to avoid becoming prey to the otherworldly. Apart from special cases like Yihao with his extreme yang energy that made possession impossible, soul cultivation arts were the only way to counter ghostly contact and corruption. Salt did absolutely nothing contrary to folk beliefs, unless they were blessed salt imbued with spiritual energy by monks.

Only those with the minimum of Heavenly Core could activate the basics of soul arts in the murim world. None of the senior researchers knew what soul arts were. Even among the Elders, only Elder Kun and Elder Zhu knew how to use soul arts. Yet, neither of them attained Yan Ping and Anji’s level of producing an astral body for actual combat.

The Mystical Qilin Sect was greatly outmatched.

Despite her top speed, Yan Ping regretted not having a fixed teleportation point from the Mystical Qilin Sect to Chang’an. While fixed-point teleportation arrays worked flawlessly, she did not have the materials to build one in Chang’an. The number of spiritual stones required to power an array this far from spiritually dense lands would be ten times more than the number of yang energy-charged gems Hong Nian Niang had in her possession.

Appearing like a comet through the blanket of a moonless night, Yan Ping’s arrival at her sect brought hope to the struggling cultivators.

Scanning the energy in the area, Yan Ping noticed a faint trace of someone else’s energy that radiated a similar signature as the main barrier. Thanks to the mysterious source, the situation was contained as cultivators sought refuge in the inner districts where ghosts could not break in. The Elders must have created an exception to allow non-sect members in during the emergency, and Yan Ping briefly let out a sigh of relief.

"The Sect Leader is here!" someone announced from below as she descended. "Sect Leader, what is going on?"

Analysing the ground situation, Yan Ping did not answer. She called for Elder Kun and Elder Zhu and gave everyone instructions to hold out until daybreak. There were too many ghosts to fight, even in her astral body. The barrier worked well, but it was weakening with their incessant pounding. Something else more sinister was approaching, and Yan Ping did not know what it was.

Armed with prayer beads, light talismans, yang-charged gems, and mass chanting of the Heart Sutra, the cultivators entered the formation Yan Ping dictated. Although their understanding of soul arts was low, as long as everyone held their positions in the Eight Trigram formation and chanted the Heart Sutra in synergy, it would repel weaker ghosts from approaching. Yan Ping would sit at the centre of the formation and enter her astral body to fight the stronger ones when the barrier fell.

It did not take long for the barrier to crack. With the last defence down, Yan Ping launched a fierce first strike in her astral body, cutting down a dozen ghosts who lunged forward. Their souls disintegrated and melted into nothingness, making the others pause.

Only two more hours until daybreak. Yan Ping stood her ground, pouring her focus into manipulating the Eight Trigram formation and converting regular natural energy into soul energy.

Like an automatic ghost purifying machine, any ghosts that touched the living formation disintegrated immediately. Without their mighty leader, the ghosts grouped together based on self-interest.

For a while, the formation worked. However, all it took was one person’s concentration to falter for the fragile formation to break.

At the first sign of cracks, the ghosts who had been patrolling attacked. Unable to withstand the full barrage of an army numbering hundreds, Yan Ping suffered damage from the backlash of holding them back.

Forced back into her physical body after taking damage to her astral body, Yan Ping could no longer sustain the barrier. Chaos broke loose as ghosts chased the weaker cultivators who showed the most fear.

As the ghosts feasted on cultivators who chose to run instead of fight, Yan Ping could only order an evacuation notice. Not everyone listened to her. Not everyone remembered to calmly maintain a layer of solidified yang energy aura around their body. Only those from the Mystical Qilin Sect did as they were told and watched helplessly as martial artist cultivators from other sects succumbed to ghosts like a ghost festival gone wrong.

Things worsened when possessed cultivators began attacking allies. Screams of terror and the scent of blood filled the air. No matter what Yan Ping said, it quickly turned into a battle royale for survival.

Just when she thought things could not become any worse, she finally met him — the man with the red spider lilies embroidered on his sleeves. Although she could not see him, she knew he was the mastermind from the same corrupt energy in the Imperial Ancestral Hall.

Without a word of warning, Yan Ping lunged forward and attacked.