Chapter 249: Mahayana Fate Ghost

The middle-aged driver had inadvertently blundered into the Nine Fiends Transforming Yin Feng Shui Formation. His taxi smashed through the sickle-sealing door hazard, rolled over the reflection hazard, and crushed the thousand-leg hazard.

Three hazard nodes broke in one fell swoop, stirring up the entire feng shui grand formation.

With the hazard nodes destroyed, the decades of yin energy accumulated underground spiraled completely out of control.

The skies shifted as the oppressive black clouds shrouding the Amusement Park fractured, allowing a single shaft of starlight to illuminate the space right in front of the driver.

Leaning his slightly stout frame against the blue and white taxi, he glared furiously. Letting the turbulent malevolent energy wash past him, he took a deep breath, pointed at the completely bewildered Lu Xing and Qiu Ren, and spat out three words.

"Sons of bitches!"

The Balding Uncle spoke with booming vigor. His trembling calves and deathly pale face could be ignored; none of those superficial details masked his piercing edge. Like a steadfast reef battling the surging Hukou Waterfall, he stood amid the roiling, out-of-control yin energy, exuding an aura of absolute invincibility.

I lay sprawled on the ground, the shrieks of yin souls flashing past my ears. As the physical suppression bearing down on me began to weaken, a faint smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. Planting my hands on the earth, I slowly pushed myself to my feet.

"Lu Xing! Tonight's business isn't over yet. I might not be one to hold a grudge, but I have my principles—like an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth!"

The yin souls scattered and fled, hiding within the nether winds as they rushed toward the gates of the Amusement Park.

With three hazard nodes broken in succession, the feng shui grand formation Lu Xing had spent years cultivating was temporarily disabled. Regaining my mobility, I first ran over to check on Tie Ningxiang. She was extremely weak from severe blood loss, but her life wasn't in danger.

The destruction of the three hazard nodes had completely altered the atmosphere within the Amusement Park. Without hesitation, I seized the chance while he was vulnerable and sprinted toward the Ferris Wheel's control room.

Meeting no resistance this time, I easily shut down the Ferris Wheel.

When the towering Ferris Wheel ground to a halt, it felt as though something had shattered across the entire Amusement Park, like a self-sustaining microcosm being forcibly ruptured. The underground yin energy soared upward like several black dragons, roaring wildly in the night sky. Breaking free from Lu Xing's control, it plunged into the deeper depths of the earth.

The dark clouds parted and starlight spilled down, spreading like a layer of silver frost across the ground.

Down the long stretch of street, not a single wandering ghost could be seen. There was only me, locked in a standoff with Lu Xing and Qiu Ren.

With the feng shui grand formation broken, Lu Xing and I were back on an even playing field. When it came to close-quarters combat, I wasn't afraid of him in the slightest. Besides, I still had another trump card.

The stagnant night wind within the great array began to blow once more. It carried a hint of chill that helped clear the mind faster.

Lu Xing's face twisted into a grimace. Obvious frustration lingered in the eyes glaring at me. He wanted to kill me; never before had he craved a person's death so intensely.

"Gao Jian, I take back what I said earlier. To just so happen to run into someone entangled in yin energy... your luck really is unfathomable."

"Heaven spared my life just so I could slaughter you! You've committed countless atrocities, and your hands are stained with blood. The resentful spirits of those you've murdered have long been waiting for you to go down and join them!" I stood up straight, my tone unyielding.

Lu Xing sneered. "Arrogant fool. Did you think I wouldn't be able to handle you just because you broke the feng shui formation?"

Lu Xing tucked the Compass into his robes and fished seven pure black ghost talismans out of his pocket. "I came completely prepared this time. I already accounted for the worst-case scenario. Each of these seven ghost talismans seals a Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost. With seven ghosts returning to life, what are you going to use to fight me?"

The ghost arts and talismans on his person were vast in number and diverse in type, making him a genuine menace. What's more, he had Qiu Ren's help right beside him. For this man to have stirred up such a storm five years ago meant he was an incredibly ruthless and difficult character in his own right.

"The feng shui formation is broken. Be careful, he might have other helpers. Finish this fast." Lu Xing and Qiu Ren closed in on me from both sides. Both of their cultivation realms were far above mine. The only reason they were acting so cautious, afraid to make any rash moves, was because they feared I possessed an Upper Vehicle Talisman.

Watching the two men rapidly close in, I took out the Embroidered Cloth Bag and poured the Black Eyeball into the palm of my hand.

Right now, the eyeball was completely empty, holding nothing inside. But I knew this was the main vessel where the Fate Ghost housed its spirit. If the eyeball was in danger, it would definitely sense it.

"The feng shui formation is broken! Fate Ghost, show yourself at once!"

I didn't know the incantations to command ghosts and monsters, nor had I ever treated the Fate Ghost as a servant. To me, it was actually more like a child that had just awakened to consciousness.

My loud shout made Lu Xing and Qiu Ren stop in their tracks. Both were evil cultivators and naturally understood the terror of a Fate Ghost. Yet, after they waited in silence for a moment, the eyeball in my palm showed no reaction whatsoever, allowing the two to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Playing tricks! Even if you had a Fate Ghost protecting you today, you still wouldn't escape death!" Qiu Ren glared at me viciously. The feng shui grand formation was mostly his life's work; he had been building it up here for the past five years.

"Gao Jian, I know you have a Fate Ghost. But it's nothing more than a remnant soul acting as a substitute life, obtained from a Death God. Even a true inheritor of ghost arts wouldn't be able to raise it to the Mahayana stage in such a short amount of time," Lu Xing declared confidently, his eyes filled with sinister cruelty and his words overflowing with killing intent.

My raised palm still yielded no response. The Fate Ghost seemed to have forgotten about me.

"The grand array was broken, so it should have escaped." I looked toward the Magic Mirror Maze. When the feng shui formation shattered just now and the yin souls scattered, only that place had remained as quiet as a pool of stagnant water.

The nether winds couldn't blow into it, and not a single yin soul had escaped from inside.

"Could something have happened to the Fate Ghost?"

Lu Xing must have caught sight of my frown. Sneering, he quickened his pace, feeling even more certain that I was just bluffing, using the Fate Ghost Eyeball to put on an act and buy time.

"Gao Jian, you die today!" Lu Xing let out a savage, manic laugh. He waved his hand, launching the seven ghost talismans. I had never seen Talisman Papers like these before; they were wreathed in yin energy, and as they sliced through the air, even the surrounding temperature seemed to drop.

The seven ghost talismans landed in front of me in a seven-star formation. Mournful weeping drifted out from the deep wells of their Talisman Cores. Then, accompanied by thick resentment, seven faceless malicious ghosts that had been refined and linked multiple times crawled out from within them.

"Crap!"

The resentment clinging to these ghosts was incredibly heavy. Let alone seven, I wouldn't even be able to handle one.

My time practicing the Dao had been too short. I relied heavily on talismans, and aside from them, I didn't know any spells to deal with ghosts and monsters.

"Fate Ghost! Show yourself at once!" Unable to worry about anything else, I bellowed toward the maze.

"Stop struggling. That Fate Ghost of yours is probably too scared to even show its face." Lu Xing pulled another three Black Talismans from his robes. It looked like he was sparing no expense this time, vowing to annihilate me.

"Before a Fate Ghost reaches the Mahayana stage, it isn't even as useful as an ordinary fierce ghost. The ghost you're raising has probably had its courage shattered and abandoned you as its master."

Qiu Ren and Lu Xing slowly closed in. Standing between me and them were the seven terrifying, hideous ghosts forged from pure resentment.

These resentment-entangled entities were entirely different from ordinary yin souls. Their absolute favorite thing to do was to devour a living person's lifeblood, snatch away their three hun and seven po souls, and torture them to vent their hatred.

Seeing the seven ghostly faces surround me, Tie Ningxiang tried to come over to help, but I yelled to stop her. If she came over now, she would only serve as a distraction.

"Every fierce ghost was once a living person who died an unjust death. Not only did you fail to fulfill their last wishes and help them cross over, but you intentionally refined them into ghost talismans. The path of ghost arts truly is cruel and heartless."

"Sympathizing with ghosts? Humans and Ghosts Walk Different Paths. It's nothing more than mutual exploitation. Cut out the hypocritical righteousness; acting like that only makes me sick!" Lu Xing bit his finger, flinging drops of blood into the air. After fighting over the blood, the ghosts became even more frenzied, their bulging eyes locking dead onto me.

"Is it really just mutual exploitation?"

Hearing Lu Xing's words, I glanced at the seven enslaved fierce ghosts, then looked back down at the Black Eyeball in my hand. A bitter taste welled up in my heart.

"You were shouting so arrogantly a second ago, why have you gone quiet now? Where is your Fate Ghost? Where is your Upper Vehicle Talisman?" The fierce ghosts were closing in on me, yet I still hadn't pulled out anything that could save my life. Lu Xing burst into laughter, thoroughly convinced that I was just putting on an empty bluff. "Gao Jian, today is your day to die! It's just a shame I won't get the chance to properly torture you to vent the hatred in my heart."

He splashed out more blood. The fierce ghosts went berserk, snapping their jaws at me like a pack of starving jackals.

Left with no other choice, I swung my arms to block them as the situation grew increasingly dire. But just as I was on the verge of collapsing, a strange noise suddenly echoed out from the distant Magic Mirror Maze.