Chapter 1694 - 858: Night Patrol of Hundred Demons (Part 2)

At that moment, the female ninja suddenly opened her eyes.

The rebellious fierceness in her eyes shattered completely, replaced by deep-seated fear and despair!

She could clearly "feel" that a very important presence deep within her blood, the ancestral spirit that upheld her family’s honor and power, was being slowly extinguished by the terrifying lightning.

"No... stop! Stop it!"

She squeezed out a hoarse moan from her throat, her body limp against the chair back.

The previous toughness was completely gone, leaving only trembling on the verge of collapse.

"Then speak."

Li Yan’s voice was cold as iron, the Thunder Rope suspended above the soul body fragment, its lightning flickering unpredictably, "Is Zhao Changsheng hiding within the Imperial Palace?"

With each burn of the fragment, the female ninja’s face turned paler.

"I will... I will..."

The female ninja gasped for breath, sweat mixed with blood sliding down her forehead, "Lord Zhao... Zhao Changsheng... left Kyoto the day before yesterday... heading to the Korea battlefield... he said... Great Xuan’s Qi Fortune... would be crushed there..."

The crowd, upon hearing this, exchanged glances, each one’s face as dark as water.

Kong Shangzhao pondered, "It seems Zhao Changsheng has learned of our arrival, decisively heading to Korea, surely leaving behind contingencies. Who did he send?"

The female ninja was somewhat surprised; she hadn’t expected Kong Shangzhao to infer so much from just a few words, but she could no longer care about anything else at this moment, and directly said:

"Chasing you... is the Earth Immortal from Jianmu Sacrifice... these two are old monsters from the Central Plains... their Taoist skills are sinister... their power... unfathomable..."

Enduring the excruciating pain of soul pulling, the female ninja spoke intermittently, "They... cooperate with our ’Longye Group’ operation... at... at the High Heaven entrance... planted the ’Thousand Soul Locking Evil Array’... moreover... Snow Woman, Shuten Seven Ghosts... are leading the array... just waiting... for you to step in... it’s a death trap..."

"How to save the altered ones?"

"Just need to... find the source, those are scattered Demonic Qi suppressed by the Demon God... as long as the core Demonic Qi is found and extracted... fragments... will be drawn out..."

"But the trap is set... if you enter... you will surely die!"

As soon as she finished speaking, faint yet densely packed gold gong sounds came from Kyoto direction!

That was the signal for city defense alert!

"Damn it, they’re fast!" Sha Lifei spat.

Tanui Nagashige immediately went out to investigate, and then returned, looking grim as he said: "The Kyoto crackdown has started, soldiers, monk soldiers, and Onmyoji’s Qi mixed together, patrolling the streets day and night, we’re trapped."

The atmosphere in the cellar instantly became as heavy as lead.

Outside, the wind sounded threatening, inside there were strong enemies setting up a deadly trap, High Heaven was within reach yet like a dragon’s lair or tiger’s den, still in a foreign land, everyone exchanged glances, unable to think of a countermeasure for the moment.

Just as everyone was at their wit’s end, the large object disguised as a stone slab at the cellar entrance was knocked lightly in a specific rhythm, three short and two long.

Tanui Nagashige’s eyes flashed, signaling everyone to be cautious.

For secrecy, he only brought two trusted subordinates to help.

How could someone find this place?

Sha Lifei silently slid to the shadow, raising the firearm.

The stone slab shifted a crack open.

What slipped in was not an enemy but a lean man drenched in water, exuding a faint sea smell.

The marks of wind and frost etched his face, a thick-backed chopping knife hung at his waist, its sheath wrapped in non-slip fish skin.

"Young Hero Li, everyone, it’s been a while!"

As he appeared, he greeted with a familiar smile and clasped fists.

It was Hai Qiao from the Hai Cang Team, with whom they had once crossed paths!

Li Yan showed slight surprise, quickly bringing him in.

Seeing the Hai Cang Team did not surprise him given their long-standing mission to infiltrate Japan, but finding them did catch Li Yan off guard.

Hai Qiao wiped the rainwater from his face, his voice extremely low, carrying a raspiness interwoven with fatigue and delight, "The wind outside is tight, let’s cut to the chase."

"We have received the Divine State’s ’Qingfu Letter’, instructing us to spare no expense and fully cooperate with your ’Twelve Primordial Spirits’!"

"You?" Li Yan raised an eyebrow slightly.

Hai Qiao sidestepped to let the entrance open, looking outside.

Before long, three more people jumped into the courtyard, entering one by one.

The leader was an exceptionally tall old monk, with an ancient face, holding a peculiar Zen stick, neither gold nor wood, roughly a zhang long.

The top of the Zen stick was not a usual Buddha Treasure, but embedded with a fist-sized, ghostly blue spiral shell within a bone-white shade.

The Zen stick landed silently, and it was the captain of the Hai Cang Team, Sea Moon Monk.

This person is rumored to be a disciple of Jianzhen, having a notable name in the Japanese Buddhist sects.

Behind him followed a short-statured elderly woman dressed in a dark blue indigo short coat.

Li Yan had also heard of this person, named "Ruan Amo."

Her white hair was tied in a bun, adorned with a worn silver hairpin, her eyes cloudy yet extraordinarily sharp, and in her withered hands, she tightly held a chain of divination made from peculiar seashells.

When her gaze settled on the Night Crying Man’s coffin, a trace of hatred emerged in her eyes.

The last one was a medium-built man.

He wore a somewhat old and new Wu clothing of a Japanese merchant, appeared efficient, but instead of a Wodao at his waist, there was a well-maintained flintlock short gun with a distinctly Red-haired Barbarian style, slung over his shoulder was a bulging deer hide pouch, exuding a bold yet cautious streetwise air.

This person was named Lin Feng, an undercover agent of the Maritime Trade Office, considered an informant for the court.

"Namo Amitabha."

Sea Moon Monk raised a single palm to his chest, his voice deep and resonant like a bell, naturally carrying a rhythm that calms one’s heart, "Poor monk Sea Moon, accompanied by Damen Witch Mr. Ruan, Maritime Trade Office interpreter Mr. Lin, sent to assist Master Li and his group."

Ruan Amo didn’t exchange pleasantries, her aged fingers rubbing the divination chain, her voice hoarse, carrying a strong Min Province accent, her gaze once more sweeping over the Night Crying Man’s coffin, "My son... was made into a Sea Zombie by pirates..."

The rancor in her words made the temperature in the cellar plummet.

Lin Feng quickly grinned, clapping his flintlock short gun at his waist: "Lin Feng, previously dealt with Red-haired Ghosts in Guangdong, picked up some tricks. I also learned a bit about black magic from over in Java. We followed the line of pirate smuggling Sea Zombies and found a connection, intertwined with Kamo Old Dog."

With strong reinforcements, everyone’s spirits lifted slightly.

Wang Daoxuan immediately recapped Night Crying Man’s current condition, the High Heaven trap, and the present predicament.

Sea Moon Monk listened, closed his eyes, and pondered for a moment.

The low sound of tides from the Tide Sound Zen Stick faintly echoed around him.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes, a hidden brilliance gleaming within, "Everybody, to break the deadlock, unconventional measures may be needed. High Heaven is a place where Japanese Divine Path sacrifices to ancestral Heroic Souls and suppresses Ancient Demon Evils, it harbors many Ghost Gods, with some renowned figures from Japanese mythology, all receive Human World incense worship and Earth Vein nourishment, subtly connected with the ’Daluo Law Realm’, like an underground reflection of Kyoto."

He scanned the crowd, throwing out surprising words, "Rather than forcefully attacking the entrance surrounded by Ten Sides Ambush, why not... throw Kyoto into chaos altogether!"

"Let the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade reappear in the Human World!"

"Hundred Ghosts Night Parade?"

Tanui Nagashige was uncertain and suspicious, "Master’s meaning is..."

Ruan Amo continued, the divination chain in her hand jingling, "The old woman understands~"

"Cut off their roots, disturb the incense of the rituals! Unworshipped City God Land will starve, let alone those ghostly things relying on sacrifices and resentment to live?"

"Their lair is in High Heaven, but the roots are entrenched in the thoughts and incense of Kyoto’s common people! Uproot these roots, pry open the lid, can the things inside still sit tight?"

Wang Daoxuan twirled his beard, a flash of realization in his eyes, "Burn the boat while concentrating forces? Daoist means forcibly agitating Kyoto’s sedimented centuries-old Yin Sha resentment, invoking those worshipped Ghost Gods to sense, forcing them to manifest, even agitate and leave their nest?"

"That’s exactly what I mean!"

Sea Moon Monk nodded, "The foundation of Japanese Divine Path lies in ’fear’ and ’worship’. Kyoto’s thousand-year Royal City, underground it’s unclear how many white bones are buried, how much Resentful Evil accumulated. Simply pinpoint a few critical ’Resentful Evil nodes’, use Buddhist Secret Technique to amplify and guide, supplemented by Danzu communication Witchcraft with the Yin Sea, akin to tossing ice cubes in boiling oil..."

"At that time,"

Sea Moon Monk’s eyes sparkled intensely, "Kyoto will inevitably be filled with sky-high resentment, Yin Sha will be pervasive, and the entire Kyoto City will fall into the chaos of Night Patrol of Hundred Demons!"