Chapter 184 — Driving Ghosts and Enslaving Gods

The black mist grew ever denser; it was daylight now, yet it seemed as though night had fallen. Shen Mu and the others could still barely make out their direction, and looking up they could still see the sun — but that sun was not the least bit dazzling, only a round, pale halo in the darkness, far dimmer than the light of the moon. They looked all around and saw only green mountains turned to hazy black ones. From behind came a clamor of voices, and someone shouted, "A few got away — three men and three women, and a big lion.

.

. Don't you go!

Pick up my head!

Come back—" Shen Mu's heart stirred slightly, and he looked at Shen Wanyun. Shen Wanyun understood; the flying sword leapt from the sword case on his back, swiftly dug a long trench in the earth, and he laid himself down in it. This was his first encounter with such a strange thing as the dead coming back to life, and it had left him somewhat panicked and at a loss; by now, however, he had calmed.

Shen Mu flicked his sleeve, swept up the earth beside it, and buried Shen Wanyun beneath the soil.

The group walked on, and before they had gone far, several screams came from behind.

"Someone's hiding in the earth, ambushing us!

" "My head's been cut off — has anyone seen my head?

" "Shut up, idiot!

If your head's gone, how are you talking?

" "So that's it.

No wonder I searched so long and never found it.

" "Has any senior brother seen my leg?

I'd be endlessly grateful if you'd trouble yourself. " .

.

. Shen Mu halted the Dragon Qilin, and Shen Wanyun quickly caught up.

"There shouldn't be any pursuers left," he said.

"Let's hurry.

" Suddenly a faint singing drifted through the mist — stranger still than the singing that had come from the river earlier, utterly without rise or fall, stiff and flat.

Shen Mu had them halt for the moment and stole over in silence, and then he saw those singers who were chanting. It was several 'corpses' singing, casting spells, working the Soul-Drawing Incantation in the dark mountain forest.

Their bodies were tattered and broken; to be working magic in the darkness was eerie beyond words. "The dead casting spells?

" Shen Mu was briefly stunned, and then suddenly thought of the Nine Nether Sect's divine arts, which carried a distinct savor of breaking through the boundary between life and death.

If such divine arts were studied to their utmost, could one break the boundary of life and death and attain deathless immortality? The Nine Nether Sect's arts were still far from deathless immortality; they merely drew the souls of the dead back from the underworld and let those souls dwell temporarily in their own bodies.

They had to keep the Soul-Drawing Incantation working without pause; if they stopped, their souls would likely be dragged back to the underworld, and they would truly die.

"No wonder those corpses are working the Soul-Drawing Incantation too. " Shen Mu thought, "They must keep the Soul-Drawing Incantation going without cease to keep moving. These dead ones are not weak in cultivation; best to avoid them. " He did not disturb these dead, and quietly withdrew.

"Let's take another direction," he said. They had not gone far when they came upon another band of Nine Nether Sect disciples working magic; besides these dead Nine Nether Sect disciples, he also saw several disciples of the Corpse Immortal Sect, likewise manipulating corpses, hunting down on all sides the soldiers who had fled the city, flying zombies treading yellow talisman paper as they flew through the air.

Shen Mu frowned and changed direction again. "We'll go to Lu Mountain. The Nine Nether Sect's corpses were buried there, and they rose from there to kill their way into the county town — that place must be empty!

" Everyone was in a frenzy of alarm; the black mist was now full of Nine Nether Sect and Corpse Immortal Sect people everywhere. The Corpse Immortal Sect had been wiped out by Yuyuan Chuyu, and presumably its disciples' corpses had been buried nearby as well — this time the Nine Nether Sect had revived them along with the rest.

Clearly the Nine Nether Sect had come prepared this time and had caught Yuyuan Chuyu off guard; if things went on like this, Li Prefecture itself would be in dire peril. Shen Mu thought, "There must be a ruthless, vicious fellow behind the Nine Nether Sect, one who stops at nothing for victory — who would even sacrifice so many of the sect's own disciples!

" They came to Lu Mountain, and indeed there was hardly anyone about, and the black mist had thinned considerably.

Shen Wanyun, Yun Que, and the others gradually relaxed; once they crossed this mountain and left the region shrouded in black mist, they would be safe for the time being. Suddenly a chanting voice, rising and falling in cadence, came from the mountain, and alarm seized them again; they looked to Shen Mu.

Shen Mu frowned slightly and said in a low voice, "That chanting is wrong — it isn't the Soul-Drawing Incantation, but another kind of spell.

" Yue Qinghong and the others could not tell what was different about the singing; they had never studied the Nine Nether Sect's Soul-Drawing Incantation.

Shen Mu, however, had studied that divine art, and he had caught a note of something amiss. "Stay here, all of you.

I'll go take a look!

" With that order, Shen Mu stole noiselessly toward the chanting; as he drew near, his steps grew lighter and lighter, and he saw that in the mountain hollow ahead there was an altar, upon which a dozen or so male and female Daoists were working magic. The altar was built from one skeleton after another, square in plan, some three zhang six or seven in length and breadth, and its surface was paved with skulls; at the four corners, east, south, west, and north, stood a white banner apiece, each bearing runes written in blood mixed with cinnabar. At the center of the altar stood a statue of an eight-armed demon god: one leg crouched, the other folded across the bend of the crouching leg, its eight arms paired palm to palm, with four faces, and each face bearing three eyes.

Each of these Daoists, male and female, was driving a talisman artifact; the talisman artifacts floated in the air, each with many facets, and on every facet a rune. As the Daoists chanted, the runes on the artifacts' facets lit up one after another, and the illuminated runes shone precisely upon the body of the demon god statue; wherever the light fell, a rune on the statue kindled in answer. The talisman artifacts turned without cease, lighting rune after rune upon the statue.

By now, more than half the runes on the demon god statue had been lit. "The Talisman Command over Ghosts and Gods! " Shen Mu's heart gave a jolt.

"The arts of the Hongshan School! These are disciples of the Hongshan School, which was already wiped out!

" These dozen or so Daoists, men and women alike, were all divine-arts practitioners, and by the look of it they had been here driving the secret art of commanding ghosts and gods for some time. Plainly, after the Hongshan School was annihilated, they had plotted revenge and joined hands with the Nine Nether Sect and the Corpse Immortal Sect! And when Shen Mu considered the timing of the Nine Nether Sect's attack — it had come just as the Grand Academy scholars were passing between Li Prefecture and Lu County — it meant that someone had clear knowledge of the scholars' movements, even of the very hour they would arrive.

The Grand Academy scholars sent out for training this time had been chosen as the elite of every cultivation realm; in the future these scholars were to become officials of the Jingping Kingdom, succeeding the present crop of officials who had come out of the various sects and great clans.

Most of today's officials belonged to the old era, while the Grand Academy scholars belonged to the new.