These gods were merely ghosts stuffed into stone idols—simple-minded, following only basic commands. Kill intruders. Refine Myriad Souls Pills. They couldn't tell Su Yan wasn't one of them.
But the white-robed master would recognize him. The master had seen Su Yan before. He'd seen the mask on Su Yan's back. If Su Yan presented himself as tribute, he'd be walking into his own execution.
Su Yan's mind raced. He palmed a Myriad Souls Pill from the bag and swallowed it. *If I die, we all die. I'll eat every pill in this bag and let the master rage at empty hands.*
He glanced around, stuffed another pill in his mouth, and slipped a few rocks into the bag to replace them.
The gods rampaged across the mountains, killing everything in their path. Su Yan marched among them, a tiny reaper in a parade of giants. When they attacked, he stood aside. When they collected pills, he held the bag open.
*This is power,* he thought. *Even if borrowed.*
The white-robed skin-figure controlled the temple, hunting Prefect Zhou Heng across the pocket world. The bull-headed gods around Su Yan suddenly took flight, leaping from the peaks toward the Shuikou Temple entrance to block escape.
They left Su Yan standing alone.
He almost wept with joy. Then two gods dropped from above, grabbed his arms, and carried him toward the temple.
"A-Yan, when you die, is it betrayal if I find another youth to drain qi from?" the bell whispered. "I'll build you a shrine. Though your soul will probably be destroyed. The master will flay you, dismember you, and scatter your spirit."
Su Yan ignored it. *Strange. I've eaten so many Myriad Souls Pills. Why do I feel nothing? Did this fraud mess up the recipe?*
The gods carrying him couldn't catch the temple. It charged after Zhou Heng, who had transformed into a fat bird, round and waddling, flying faster than the temple could pursue.
"The master doesn't have immortal-level combat strength," the bell murmured. "With his Inner Realm, even as just a skin, he should crush Zhou Heng easily. But he chases him endlessly. He might not even have one percent of his peak power."
Su Yan slipped away when the gods paused. He crept toward the temple gate. "Forget him. Once we're through that door, we're free. I'm never coming back to this ruin."
At the gate, gods stood guard. Su Yan walked among them, hands on hips, blending in. He inched toward the exit.
A bull-headed god patted his head. Another tugged his tongue.
The bull-headed god pulled too hard.
*Pop.*
The tongue came off—mask and all.
The bull god stared at the mask in his hand, then at the shrinking youth who turned and sprinted through the gate.
"Poh-yee-hroo!" the bull god roared. *He's a fraud!*
Yuan Qi waited outside, keeping his distance. He saw a figure burst from the gate—and froze.
Sixteen gods poured out behind Su Yan, swords of incense qi forming in the air.
Yuan Qi turned and ran. *What did A-Ying do this time?*
Su Yan sprinted, the gods gathering their flying swords above him. He raised the black bag high. The gods froze, redirecting their swords—those pills were tribute. They couldn't risk them.
Su Yan hurled the bag far away. The gods swarmed after it. Su Yan and Yuan Qi ran.
"What did you do?"
"Stole some pills. The bag's empty. I have them all. Run!"
Behind them, the gods discovered the truth and roared in fury.
* * *
Night had fallen. Darkness swallowed the landscape. If they could escape far enough, the temple gods wouldn't find them easily.
Then ghost fires swarmed toward them in waves. Massive figures stood in the darkness, wielding long whips that cracked against the ghost fires. Each strike made the fires scream.
The fires contained people—villagers, yao, escaped nuo masters from the temple world. They were herded like cattle by bull-headed demons.
A nuo master took a whip-strike. No wound appeared, but he screamed as if his soul were tearing.
"Magistrate Xue!" Su Yan stared. The Lingling City God cowered among the ghosts, trembling at the bull demons.
"Those are Bull Demons of the underworld," Yuan Qi warned. "They were yao who became spirits, then descended to the underworld as ghost gods. They absorb incense and nether energy. Their whips strike the soul directly. Called soul-lashing whips. One hit and your spirit screams."
Su Yan changed direction, running against the herd. "Be careful, Yuan Qi!"
The Bull Demons lashed at Su Yan. He dodged one, then another—then a whip caught him square across the back.
He felt it strike his soul. His spirit shuddered.
He waited for agony.
Nothing.
He looked at the screaming victims around him, confused. The Bull Demon struck again. Other demons joined, lashing Su Yan repeatedly.
Su Yan examined the whip. It was made of human spines—white bone segments, clacking together. At its tip, a skull grinned, jaw chattering with glee.
But when the whip struck Su Yan, the skull frowned. It didn't enjoy hitting him.
Yuan Qi charged to rescue Su Yan. A whip caught him. Pain tore through his spirit. He screamed, body twisting.
Su Yan grabbed a whip mid-strike. The Bull Demon roared and pulled. But Su Yan's strength—refined by the Titan-Ox Demon Fist, amplified by his breakthrough to the Gate-Breaking stage—overwhelmed the demon.
He swung the demon and whip together, smashing them into other Bull Demons.
The demons screamed, tears streaming, even the whip's owner writhing in soul-agony.
Su Yan lashed out again. The demons rolled, howling.
The bull-headed temple god who had unmasked Su Yan arrived, roaring, lunging from above. Su Yan whipped him without thinking.
*Crack!*
The god's spirit tore. Pain beyond description—worse than being drawn and quartered—wracked him. He fell from the sky, screaming, fingers clawing at nothing.
Su Yan whipped him again. The god's divine power scattered. He couldn't focus, couldn't fight, couldn't do anything but scream.
The other Bull Demons rose, whips in hand. Su Yan tensed—then watched in amazement as they stood beside him, raised their whips, and struck the downed god.
*Crack! Crack! Crack!*
The temple god howled.
Su Yan lashed him again. The Bull Demons followed. They had decided Su Yan was their leader.
Yuan Qi watched, stunned. "A-Ying makes friends so fast... If I had a whip, I could join them."
More temple gods approached. Su Yan and his Bull Demon squad whipped them down. The demons followed Su Yan's every target.
"We can't stay here!" Su Yan shouted.
Yuan Qi reluctantly stopped. They ran.
Su Yan, Yuan Qi, and their demon squad sprinted twenty miles without finding Mount Wuwang. Then Su Yan saw it—a willow tree by the River of the Dead. A green lantern hung from its branches.
Beneath the lantern: one person, one table, two chairs, a teapot, two cups, and a green paper umbrella.