“Su Niang, you’ve already taken your revenge. Why add more killing?” Yun Jiao couldn’t help but speak, trying to persuade her. “If you kill us, the blood-soaked resentment around you will only thicken. You’ll end up like those mindless wandering souls beside you — and in the end you’ll simply scatter into nothingness. What’s the point?”
“Turn into a wandering soul? So what? I can’t turn back anyway.”
Su Niang let out a cold laugh, self-mocking in tone. The blood-choked miasma around her grew denser, swallowing her entire ghostly form. Her eyes, full of madness, locked fiercely onto the two of them.
“The Li family mother and son deserve to die — and everyone who helped them deserves to die too!”
Yun Jiao frowned slightly and slowly drew out a talisman.
“If you insist on being so stubborn, then don’t blame us for showing no mercy.”
“Hahahaha…” Su Niang laughed louder, utterly unafraid, her face filled with disdain.
“Spare me your empty threats. You think I’ll fall for your tricks again?!”
With another sneer, she finally lost patience and waved her hand.
“Die!”The ghost horde around them surged forward once more, claws bared, rushing at them.
Bai Yu’s face turned white with terror. He tugged at Yun Jiao’s sleeve.
“Girl, what now? The bluff isn’t working anymore — and we’ve got nowhere left to run!”
“Who said I was bluffing?” Yun Jiao glanced back at him.
“Huh?” Bai Yu froze.
Yun Jiao didn’t answer further. She only looked at the approaching ghosts as if confirming something. Then she suddenly slapped the talisman in her hand onto one of the pavilion pillars. A faint electric glow flickered across the talisman — Bai Yu recognized it. It was one of his Thunder-Summoning Talismans.
Before he could think further, a crackling blaze of lightning burst forth — but instead of striking the ghosts directly, it shot downward into the water under the pavilion. In an instant, brilliant white light flared and a deafening crackle roared out. The entire lake surface lit up like a vast white electric net, spreading in every direction. It hit the ghosts floating just above the water square on.
Piercing shrieks exploded at once — a hundred wails merging into an ear-splitting roar. The heavy, sky-filling miasma tore apart like rags under the thunder, shredding and fading. The evil spirits thick with bloody resentment flickered and turned insubstantial.
Bai Yu stood frozen in shock.
That… was one of his Thunder-Summoning Talismans, wasn’t it? Had his own talisman suddenly become this powerful?!
(⊙_⊙)
He knew well that although thunder was a nemesis of ghosts, his talisman was the lowest possible grade — usually only enough to scare or slightly weaken a single ghost’s aura. It was nothing compared to a true Heaven-Thunder Talisman that could summon real heavenly lightning. And one slip could at most affect one ghost. Here there were countless vicious spirits!
Yet Yun Jiao had just used one to hit the entire swarm — and they were all fierce ghosts!
He instinctively stepped forward, wanting to check the pillar to see if it was really his talisman.
Yun Jiao immediately slapped his hand away.
“What are you doing? Trying to die? Can’t you see the wire wrapped around it? It’s still conducting electricity!”
“G-girl?” Bai Yu looked at the faint smoke and burnt smell rising from the lake, then back at her. “What… what was that? How did you do it?”
Yun Jiao gave him a look — wasn’t it obvious?
“Water conducts electricity. One spark spreads everywhere.”
It was just a pity she hadn’t had time to build a simple generator — that would’ve made things easier. She patted the old man’s shoulder.
“That’s the power of science. Read more books.”
“Scie… what?” Science? Some kind of immortal art? Was this girl planning to join another sect? The Patriarch would never approve!!
Σ(°△°|||)︴
Meanwhile, the lake was quieting. Half the ghostly miasma had already dispersed, and the evil spirits’ forms were thinning and turning transparent under the lightning. Su Niang herself wasn’t badly hurt — she had kept her wits and dodged as much as she could. Still, the sudden turn shocked her. She stared at the now-incapacitated ghost horde around her, disbelief twisting her face.
“How… how could this happen?”
Then she looked back at the pavilion with even greater hatred.
“You filthy priest — you lured us here on purpose!”
Bai Yu now fully understood. The girl had planned this all along — to use the Thunder-Summoning Talisman here. But because there were so many ghosts and they only had two talismans, she’d pretended to hide in the library’s secret chamber just to lure the whole horde out.
All the talismans plastered along their escape route had simply been to buy time for them to reach this pavilion.
Seeing only Su Niang left, fuming and alone, Bai Yu suddenly felt no fear. Confidence surged. He stepped forward and snapped back boldly,
“You’re the filthy one — your whole family stinks!”
“You…” Su Niang was stunned that he dared retort, her face twisting with rage. She turned into a black mass of smoke and lunged at them.
“I’ll kill you!”
“You think we’re scared?!” Bai Yu snorted, looking fearless — though his body betrayed him as he instantly ducked behind Yun Jiao and jabbed a finger toward the lake.
“Girl, hit her with lightning again!”
“…” Idiot. Yun Jiao almost wanted to kick him into the water. She shot him a glare — don’t cause trouble, old man! There was only one talisman left. She quickly pulled out the final Thunder-Summoning Talisman.
Sure enough, Su Niang stopped short and retreated all the way back to the shore, no longer daring to come near the water. Her face was wary as she stared at the talisman in Yun Jiao’s hand. She must have guessed it only worked well over the lake’s surface. But with the pavilion in the lake’s center, she couldn’t approach.
If this stalemate continued, dawn would soon break. Once sunlight came, and with the temple being a place of pure energy, she wouldn’t last long even if they did nothing.
Fury blazed in Su Niang’s eyes, glowing red like fire. The blood-soaked miasma around her churned violently. After a long moment, she seemed to think of something — and suddenly she laughed. Her laughter was louder now, carrying a strange, tragic undertone. Her mouth twisted into a chilling, crooked smile. She spoke each word slowly and grimly:
“The Cave of Resentful Women… doesn’t only hold evil ghosts…”
Her voice had barely fallen when a sharp, piercing wail rang out — a sound so strange and deafening it stabbed straight into their eardrums. Though it was intangible, it felt like steel needles drilling into their heads.
Both of them winced and instinctively clutched their ears. The cry only grew louder — then came a thunderous rumble as something burst from the earth, shaking the ground itself. Behind Su Niang, a blood-red cloud erupted skyward like a crimson tide.
Looking closely, within that blood wave were countless twisted tiny faces… looking disturbingly like newborn infants.
(End of this chapter)