The car ahead also pulled over to the side of the road. True to being from the same village, Li Chenggong also stumbled out of his vehicle, trembling. However, these two had only been hired help at the funeral—they truly had nothing to do with the matter.
As for the other three, being relatives of the Zhang family, they had no choice but to steel themselves and continue forward.
One middle-aged man came over to help them with the car. Seeing Bai Xianxian take the driver's seat, he instinctively walked around to the passenger side.
The Six-Spirit Sword lay on the passenger seat, its jade-like blade translucent and pristine, seeming to radiate a holy glow in the night. The man's eyes went wide, and he asked cautiously, "I… can I touch it?"
First Elder: "No!"
Middle-aged man: "…"
Bai Xianxian reached over, picked up the sword, and held it in her lap. After he got in, she followed the car ahead and continued driving.
The middle-aged man introduced himself stiffly. His name was Zhang Chong, a distant cousin of the four unfilial sons. After what happened that afternoon, the eldest son's family had completely fallen apart, chaos erupting everywhere. Nearly all of them had gone to the county funeral parlor.
No one dared touch Old Mrs. Zhang's coffin. Zhang Chong had led people to cordon off the area with red string for the time being.
Later, the third son said the old lady's death was too horrifying to resolve peacefully, and they needed to invite a high-ranking Daoist from the city. But this town was remote and mountainous—even if the Daoist took a plane, he wouldn't arrive until tomorrow.
The group was frantic and terrified. It was Li Fugui who came running to tell them that three highly skilled old Daoists lived on the mountain by the village, and they could be invited to handle the matter.
Though the Zhang family was skeptical, they figured it was better than doing nothing, so they sent Zhang Chong with Li Fugui up the mountain to find them.
But after seeing the three elders, the ancestral temple, and the Six-Spirit Sword within it, Zhang Chong had become fully convinced of their abilities. He glanced at Bai Xianxian driving and asked with respect, "Is this young lady a disciple of the three Daoists?"
Bai Xianxian: "No, I'm just the driver."
First Elder: "…"
Hmph!!
The drive wasn't far. A few minutes later, the car slowly came to a stop in front of a rolling shutter door by the street.
During the day, Bai Xianxian had overheard passersby talking about how the four unfilial sons had thrown a grand, lavish funeral for the old lady—a two-day open-air banquet that was livelier than New Year.
But at this moment, not a single person was on the street. Pitch black everywhere. Though it was June, the temperature was strangely low. Bai Xianxian reached out and scooped at the air, as if grabbing a handful of damp, chilling cold. Her fingertips turned red from the frost.
Two white lanterns hung on either side of the rolling door, their light casting the black character "mourning" on the shades, exuding an eerie, sinister atmosphere.
Zhang Chong's teeth chattered: "Where is everyone? Why is it so quiet? Where did they all go?"
The three elders said nothing, each getting out of the car.
Bai Xianxian turned off the engine and was about to get out too when First Elder looked back and said, "Stay in the car. Don't come out. Hold onto the Six-Spirit Sword."
His tone was grave, his expression heavy. A deep unease rose in Bai Xianxian's heart, but she knew she couldn't do anything—going out might only cause trouble. So she obediently nodded.
Zhang Chong also shrank into his seat, too afraid to move, trembling as he asked Bai Xianxian, "Immortal Lady, you'll protect me, right?"
Bai Xianxian: "…Don't call me that."
First Elder still wasn't reassured. He took out two Evil-Expelling Talismans from his robe and stuck them onto the car body.
The Zhengyi sect excelled in talismans, and the Celestial Master lineage also favored talisman paper for warding off evil and capturing ghosts. But creating a powerful Spirit Talisman required extremely high cultivation from the one drawing it—succeeding once out of ten attempts was already impressive.
When the elders heard Li Fugui's account earlier, they knew the situation might be dire, so they brought every Spirit Talisman enshrined before the Patriarch's statue. Sometimes a single talisman could mean the difference between life and death, yet First Elder still unhesitatingly took out two to protect Bai Xianxian.
Second Elder said in a low voice, "She has the Six-Spirit Sword. She should be fine." He reached into the air, grabbed, and rubbed his fingers together. "The Malevolent Aura has condensed into physical form. Things inside don't look good."
First Elder snorted coldly: "What's there to fear!"
Bai Xianxian sat in the car, pressing against the window. She saw the three elders form hand seals with their fingers and chant in unison: "Heaven and Earth's primal energy, root of all laws, calm the heart and focus the spirit, gather the soul's essence, myriad spirits' root, to open the Heavenly Eye, spirit ancestors and patriarchs, commanding all deities, by decree obey! Body transforms into the Five Elements, spirit ascends to Supreme Purity, swiftly as the law commands!"
This was the Bai family's Heavenly Eye Opening Incantation—the traditional way of opening the celestial eye.
Once the Heavenly Eye opened, one could see yin and yang, ghosts and spirits. A flash of spiritual light passed before the three elders' eyes. With the Heavenly Eye open, they could now see the evil entities invisible to ordinary people.
The damp, cold mist Bai Xianxian saw was, in the elders' eyes, countless streams of black Malevolent Aura drifting out from the rolling shutter door and dispersing in all directions.
For ordinary people, encountering Malevolent Aura could cause fainting in mild cases, or death in severe ones. First Elder barked, "Third, seal the door!"
Third Elder acknowledged with a shout, pulling out several Spirit Talismans and sticking them around the rolling door. A faint golden light enveloped the exit. Wherever the Malevolent Aura touched the golden glow, it vanished as if burned by fire.
Bai Xianxian couldn't see anything, but she could feel the chilling yin energy around her suddenly dissipate considerably.
Zhang Chong stammered, "They… they went in…"
Bai Xianxian clutched the Six-Spirit Sword, staring at the direction of the rolling shutter door. For some reason, her heart was in turmoil.
The three elders charged straight toward the inner hall.
The other two who had come up the mountain earlier had entered ahead of time and had already been invaded by the Malevolent Aura, collapsing unconscious on the ground.
These past two days of funeral rites had left the Zhang family courtyard draped in white mourning banners everywhere, which now writhed menacingly under the stirring of the Malevolent Aura. Old Mrs. Zhang's memorial hall was set up in the middle of the courtyard. Since the coffin had already been carried out, only the spirit tablet and offering table remained, not yet cleared away.
A basin of fire burned before the hall, and three middle-aged men knelt before it, mechanically burning spirit money like puppets on strings.
The moment the three elders stepped into the courtyard, they heard a sinister, chilling laugh from within.
"I knew you would come."
In the brightly lit memorial hall, spirit money littered the floor. Old Mrs. Zhang's ghost sat atop the offering table, clad in white burial robes, wreathed in black Malevolent Aura, grinning at them with an eerie, bone-chilling smile.
There were many schools of Daoist practice. Apart from the officially recognized state Daoist sects, there were countless folk traditions not recorded in any registry. The Bai family was one such tradition, and the family Old Mrs. Zhang belonged to was another.
Folk traditions rarely interacted with one another, each keeping to their own territory—after all, in modern terms, they were competitors in the same trade.
Had it not been for the Yellow Immortal that once ran rampant and claimed the lives of several children, the Second Elder would never have joined forces with her.
The Second Elder looked at the three men kneeling on the ground—Old Mrs. Zhang's three unfilial step-sons. The eldest was at the county funeral parlor; the remaining three had been invaded by the Malevolent Aura, becoming her puppets on strings. Blood was now seeping from all seven orifices.
The Second Elder said in a deep voice, "We are both practitioners of the Dao. You should understand that life and death are governed by fate, and one must not commit evil. You have now taken human lives, rendering all your lifelong cultivation void. Why do this to yourself?!"
Old Mrs. Zhang let out a shrill laugh. "I have never cared about matters of my living years. My tradition believes in ascetic cultivation. To live a life without sons or daughters, dying alone in old age—that is my path! But these little beasts wouldn't even honor my dying wishes. I wrote in my will exactly when and where I was to be buried, yet they refused to fulfill my final request—all because someone mentioned that the ancestral home might be demolished in the future, they tried to bury me on Severed Mountain instead! Since they treated me as an outsider, don't blame me for wiping out the Zhang family line!"
By the final words, her voice was shrill like weeping blood.
Burial sites carried great significance, and Old Mrs. Zhang, being a believer in such arts, naturally held them in high regard.
Among burial grounds, Severed Mountain was an extremely inauspicious location. Where the mountain range was severed, the vital energy was also cut off, making it a place of utter death.
The Third Elder, quick-tempered as he was, roared, "They will bear the consequences of their sins in time! But you have turned to evil and taken lives—the Daoist path cannot tolerate you! Surrender now while you still can!"
Old Mrs. Zhang laughed heartily. "Don't try to fool this old woman. The Bai family's lineage has already been severed. Do you three old priests with your meager cultivation really think you can contend with me in sorcery?"
As fellow practitioners, each knew the other's measure. With the three elders' level of cultivation, dealing with ordinary ghosts was no problem. But facing a Vengeful Spirit like Old Mrs. Zhang, whose Malevolent Aura had condensed into solid form, was no easy task.
As her words fell, the three unfilial sons, controlled by the Malevolent Aura, rose to their feet and lunged at them, faces drenched in blood.
The surrounding Malevolent Aura was like quicksand, slowing the three elders' movements.
Dark clouds obscured the moonlight, and the night was terrifyingly black. Only the two white funeral candles in the memorial hall cast a faint, eerie glow upon Old Mrs. Zhang's sinister face.
Bai Xianxian sat in the car, straining to listen. The Spirit Talisman sealing the rolling shutter door seemed to form a barrier, cutting off everything within—she could hear nothing.
Zhang Chong was so terrified he was practically clinging to the Six-Spirit Sword. "Immortal Lady, how long have the three masters been in there? Why haven't they come out yet?"
When gripped by fear, time seems to crawl.
Bai Xianxian's fear was no less than his. The only reason she hadn't fainted by now was her desperate worry for the elders' safety, which kept her holding on.
She stared at the pitch-black doorway, her unease growing stronger by the moment.
She didn't know how long had passed when the Six-Spirit Sword in her arms suddenly let out a resonant hum, emitting a faint white glow.
Zhang Chong shrieked, "It's glowing! It's glowing!"
Bai Xianxian's eyes went wide.
She stared intently at the Six-Spirit Sword, whose light had flashed and vanished.
Two seconds later, she yanked open the car door and leaped out, clutching the sword as she charged inside.
Zhang Chong let out a miserable wail. "Immortal Lady! Immortal Lady, don't leave me alone!"
Bai Xianxian shouted, "Stay in the car! Don't come out!"
But her steps didn't stop. As she passed through the barrier formed by the Spirit Talisman, it was like suddenly barging into another world. Though she could see and hear nothing, her hairs stood on end.
Sounds of fighting came from within.
Bai Xianxian didn't have time to be afraid. She rushed forward desperately, and the moment she stepped into the courtyard, she saw people with blood seeping from all seven orifices swarming the three elders in a brawl.
These were all relatives of the Zhang family who had stayed behind to await news—over thirty people in total, all under the control of Old Mrs. Zhang's Malevolent Aura, throwing themselves at the three elders with reckless abandon. Among them were even a few children no older than five or six.
Malevolent Aura harms one's consciousness, and its damage to children is especially severe. Even if it were expelled, these children would never fully recover.
The attackers were people, not ghosts, so the three elders could only focus on driving them back. But wave after wave of Malevolent Aura poured endlessly from Old Mrs. Zhang, seeping through every opening, impossible to fully dispel.
The Spirit Talismans they carried were nearly spent.
Bai Xianxian heard the Third Elder roar: "You old hag! If you have a grudge, settle it! Killing your four ungrateful step-sons is one thing, but why drag innocent people into this?!"
She could neither hear nor see anything else—only the funeral candles before the mourning hall swaying wildly.
After cursing Old Mrs. Zhang, the Third Elder turned and saw Bai Xianxian standing there clutching her sword. He grew even more furious: "What are you doing in here?! Get out right now!"
The three elders were advanced in years, and under the physical assault of over thirty people, they had all sustained injuries. Bai Xianxian saw the First Elder coughing as he fought, and when he turned to press the last Spirit Talisman onto a young boy's back, he spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered to his knees.
Her mind buzzed, and her eyes instantly turned bloodshot.
The Second Elder barked: "Xianxian! Get out!"
Bai Xianxian's fingers trembled, her teeth clenched. Suddenly she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and gripped the hilt of the Six-Spirit Sword.
"Heaven and Earth's primal energy, root of all laws, calm the heart and focus the spirit, gather the soul's essence, myriad spiritual roots, open the Heavenly Eye, ancestors of the spirit sect, commanders of all gods, heed my command! Transform the body into the Five Elements, elevate the spirit to the Highest Clarity, swiftly and urgently as the law decrees!"
She was indeed the once-in-a-century genius of the Bai family.
Even without formal training, merely hearing the elders recite it once was enough for her to repeat it verbatim without a single mistake.
She didn't even form hand seals.
As her words fell, a flash of spiritual light passed before her eyes. When Bai Xianxian opened her eyes, she saw the courtyard filled with black Malevolent Aura.
And there, sitting cross-legged on the offering table, was the old woman, grinning eerily.