Chapter Fifteen: The Nine Fiends

On Phoenix Splendor Mountain, darkness enveloped everything, at least to the eyes of ordinary people. But to me, the world was awash in a murky yellow haze, as if it were a densely clouded dusk. Before us loomed two enormous white cocoons.

There was no doubt—within them were Chen Chuyi and Zhang Keqing.

Following the direction of the cocoons, I could see what were once temple halls adorned with Buddha statues. Now, however, the place had been transformed into a sinister and ghostly cavern. Though the sanctuary stood empty, the once-benign Bodhisattva and Buddha images had twisted into grotesque and fearsome visages, utterly unlike their usual compassionate countenances. I had rarely visited Phoenix Splendor Mountain myself, but I recalled seeing it once on the news during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a group of wealthy donors.

Back then, I hadn’t paid much attention, but later I heard many say that the mountain’s Bodhisattvas were exceptionally efficacious, which explained the steady stream of incense-bearers and the gathering of so many wandering souls.

In my memory, weren’t the statues in solemn temples always depicted with gentle brows and merciful smiles, delivering all beings from suffering? Why, then, did these Buddhas and Bodhisattvas now appear so monstrous?

Standing beside me, Zhao Fifteen, carrying the Coin Sword on his back, looked just as stunned. Clearly, he too was shaken by the sight before us.

I stepped forward and immediately felt something beneath my foot—a scattered string of copper coins.

“It seems things don’t bode well for Chuyi and the others. This Vajra Soul appears intent on forcibly shedding its form to create a diamond-hard body and become an unparalleled Vajra Corpse.”

“Grandpa Zhao, let’s tear open these ghostly cocoons and save Grandpa Chen and Sister Zhang first!”

Grandpa Zhao nodded, then cast another glance at the space before us, black as a yawning abyss. With a single stride, he reached one of the giant white cocoons, bit his finger, and drew an ancient rune upon its surface with his blood.

I had never seen such a rune before, but there was no time to inquire. I quickly sketched a Rending Talisman on my own palm and pressed it onto the cocoon where the blood rune had just been drawn.

Break!

With a resonant hum, the tangled white hair emitted a hissing sound, and at that moment I heard a voice echoing from within the dark cavern.

“You’ve come quickly, but if you think you can save them, you’re deluding yourselves. As it happens, I need to refine my body!”

As the chilling, hoarse voice faded, a wave of cold, sinister energy surged toward us.

In the instant that malevolent aura swept over, the yet-unopened cocoon beside us was seized by a ghostly hand and dragged into the cavern’s depths.

“Xiaodong, fall back!”

Without hesitation, I reached into the torn cocoon and pulled out the person within. In a flash, I retreated several paces. Even as I withdrew, a frigid chill seemed to envelop my entire body in frost.

As I moved, Zhao Fifteen had already drawn a blood talisman in mid-air and hurled it at the white-haired female specter standing at the mouth of the cave.

“Too weak!”

Her voice was tinged with disdain, and in a flash she appeared before Zhao Fifteen, striking him squarely in the chest with her palm.

A spurt of blood.

She was so fast—fighting these ghosts was like playing a game against a cheating opponent; there was no hope of victory.

Zhao Fifteen hadn’t even managed to rise when I realized I myself was paralyzed, unable to move.

Yet, curiously, I felt no panic. Instead, I bit through my tongue and spat a mouthful of blood at the approaching ghost.

A hiss.

The ghost recoiled, her eyes glinting as if she’d discovered a treasure.

“Your blood is superb. If I use it to forge my new body, I will truly become a Vajra Corpse.”

She sounded excited, stepping toward me with outstretched claws.

“Begone!”

Zhao Fifteen, just regaining his feet, pulled a crystal orb from his robe—the very same Seeress.

As the ghost lunged for me, a sudden warmth wrapped around me—not from cold, but from the comforting embrace of the Seeress’s power.

“Leave, now!” came the Seeress’s voice, familiar and kind.

Though the Seeress did not manifest her true form, the crystal orb spinning before me radiated dazzling light, sending forth luminous tendrils that coalesced into a great hand, striking at the ghost.

“You again, you accursed fox!”

The Seeress’s arrival enraged the female ghost. Her body shuddered, and began to transform in bizarre ways—leaving me aghast.

Her previously indistinct face flushed with life, as lovely as any mortal beauty, but from her body sprouted several infant heads, each bearing the features of a newborn child.

As each child opened its mouth, the surrounding baleful energy surged wildly into the nine heads, forming nine whirling vortices.

The Seeress’s spectral hand, reaching for her, was instantly swallowed and absorbed.

The Seeress withdrew a step.

“We must go—she intends to merge the nine Wraith Fetuses and use their baleful essence to forge her corporeal form!”

Zhao Fifteen stepped forward, spraying fresh blood onto his Coin Sword.

“We cannot leave. We must stop her. If the Vajra Corpse is completed, we will face utter catastrophe—countless lives will be lost!”

The Seeress nodded, soaring from the orb, which then flew to her brow and became a gleaming silver beauty mark.

“You think you can stop me?”

“If you’d tried before I collected the nine Wraith Fetuses, perhaps you could have stopped me. But now, the Wraith Fetuses are complete. Even if I’m not yet a true Vajra Corpse, you are no match for me!”

As she spoke, the ghost retreated, countless tiny vortices swirling around her. The nine Wraith Fetuses on her body opened their eyes wide and gaped their mouths.

“Yin and Yang shift, Heaven and Earth lend their power!”

“Ghostly soldiers, to me—strike!”

In a flash, Zhao Fifteen raised his sword, which erupted with dazzling beams of light.