Chapter 418: She Qian

Faced with my questioning, Lu Chen did not respond. At this moment, silence was the best answer.

He didn't need to say it. Everyone present knew that no matter how far out of line Lu Jin stepped, he was ultimately a Profound Truth disciple—the favorite student of the Profound Truth Sect's Dao Zheng. Based on that alone, Lu Chen couldn't let a single hair on his head be harmed.

"The Heart-Slaying Dao Inquiry uses a special gu poison from our ancient texts, and the Profound Truth Dao has no record of an antidote." Lu Chen pulled a jade bottle from his robes. "I have a bottle of Life-Sustaining Powder here. Take it for now. If you rush to Miaojiang within a month and find the current master, Granny Qing, you might still have a glimmer of hope."

"Lu Chen, the Life-Sustaining Powder is a life-saving item for our own disciples! How can you easily hand it over to a shameless scoundrel who shakes the very foundation of our sect!" Humiliated and enraged, Lu Jin dropped the respectful title of Senior Brother entirely. He felt wronged and furious; his surefire Heart-Slaying Dao Inquiry had failed, and now his senior brother viewed him as a despicable villain settling a personal score. "Senior Brother! He's tricking you! This Gao Jian has endless tricks up his sleeve—something must have gone wrong somewhere!"

Lu Chen ignored him and offered me the jade bottle.

I accepted it without hesitation and tucked it away in my clothes. Right now, under the full-strength expulsion of the Plum Blossom Gu, the black lines on my chest had not only stopped spreading but were actually beginning to fade.

But a good act required full commitment. To avoid exposing the ruse, I threw my coat over my shoulders, picked up Wang Yu, and turned to walk out of the Laboratory Building.

"Once we leave here, I'll have Wang Yu take the Life-Sustaining Powder. Hopefully, it can save his life. That should be enough to do right by the Ghost Mother." My legs were weak. I had been hit by the King Yama Notice, fought a brutal battle to the death with Zhong Jiu, taken multiple strikes of yin energy, and swallowed the Mother-Child Gu Poison. To anyone watching, I had half a foot through the Ghost Gate and wasn't far from death.

Covered in blood, I staggered out of the Laboratory Building. When Er Gou and the others outside saw my condition, their eyes turned red.

I waved a hand at them, signaling that we needed to get out of here first. After all, I had saved Wang Yu; my goal was already achieved.

Behind me, Lu Jin shouted shrilly in resentment, trying to stop me from leaving. But Lu Chen, who was actually controlling the yin energy, remained unmoved and had no intention of striking again.

"Senior Brother! You're being foolish!" Lu Jin stomped his feet in panic. "If you let the tiger return to the mountain, there will never be an opportunity this good again!"

He sprinted out of the Laboratory Building after me. Watching me regroup with Er Gou and the rest, his face abruptly darkened.

He glanced back at Lu Chen, who was resting his mind with closed eyes, and gritted his teeth. Hardening his heart, he shouted to the black-robed Daoists, "Fellow Daoists of the Three Yin Sect! This Gao Jian is guilty of the Ten Unpardonable Evils and has incurred the wrath of both men and gods! Our two sects ought to be sharing the same breath and branches and execute him! If you fellow Daoists are willing to step in, I promise that upon my return to the mountain, I will beg my master, Lu Yuan, to bestow a copy of Marquis Wen's Talisman Book upon you all!"

"Lu Jin, cease your nonsense! Marquis Wen's Talisman Book is the Profound Truth Dao's golden decree of amnesty! It can only be bestowed upon righteous cultivators of great merit! How can it be rewarded to evil cultivators who strip souls and refine ghosts?" Lu Chen barked out a reprimand. His junior brother's behavior was growing more absurd by the second.

"Stay out of this! If anything goes wrong, I'll bear the responsibility! This Gao Jian harbors malicious intentions—he must die here today!" Lu Jin's face was twisted in malice. To kill me, he was willing to openly clash with his own senior brother.

"I truly admire your righteousness, fellow Daoist," She Qian said smoothly. "Although our Three Yin Sect refines ghosts and cultivates evil, our methods are dark, but our hearts are not. This Gao Jian has caused a catastrophic disaster by releasing Infant Spirits with malicious intent. Naturally, our Three Yin Sect will not stand idly by!" She Qian had been struggling to find a reason to intervene, and Lu Jin had just handed him a way out. He seized the opportunity, leading the other four black-robed Daoists over to trap Er Gou, the rest, and me at the entrance to the Laboratory Building.

Having just escaped the wolf's den, I stepped straight into the tiger's lair. I narrowed my eyes. The Three Yin Sect was going to be much harder to deal with than the Profound Truth Dao. They were evil cultivators; if they captured me, it would definitely be a fate worse than death.

"I have a feud with the Jiang family, and the Three Yin Sect is the sect backing them. They must have disliked me for a long time now. By releasing the Ghost Mother and destroying the Qicun Maternity and Children's Health Center this time, I've essentially severed the roots of the Ghost Infant Lineage of the Three Yin Sect. It's no wonder they're flying into a rage and rushing over to fight me to the death." My grudge with the Three Yin Sect was already impossible to resolve, with absolutely no room left to maneuver. So, I decisively drew my saber and said to the men around me, "These five Daoists are ruthless. In ancient times, they'd be the kind of demons who ate live infants and drank fresh blood. Don't hold back! If we want to survive, we have to carve out a bloody path!"

I was weak and covered in wounds. Now that we were out of the Laboratory Building, I didn't need to hide the plum blossom wound on my wrist anymore. I let the toxic blood soak my clothes as I shielded Wang Yu behind me, leveling my saber with one hand.

"Jian Ge, us brothers followed you here and haven't been able to help with a single thing, leaving you to suffer such grievances. It's utterly pathetic. Today, even if I have to risk my life, I'm getting you and the kid out of here!" Er Gou stood in front of me, gripping the Deer Cutting Saber with both hands.

"One look is all it takes to know these black-robed Daoists are no good! Let's charge out together, brothers, and chop them to pieces!" Peng Qiu and Peng Dong flanked my sides with their machetes, and the rest of the men tightened their grips, all fully prepared for a fight to the death.

"Tsk, tsk. A bunch of street thugs actually think they can challenge us cultivators?" She Qian sneered. "Ever since the nation was founded, Daoist arts have vanished and ten thousand sects have gone into hiding. It's time to broaden your horizons." She Qian waved a hand to the accompanying Daoists. In unison, the five of them reached into their robes, pulled out handfuls of damp white rice, and scattered it before them. Then, they drew handfuls of joss paper and tossed it into the air. "Weren't you relying on your numbers? If there's one thing our Three Yin Sect doesn't fear, it's competing in numbers."

The five black-robed Daoists began to chant in unison: "Waters of Heaven, Waters of Earth, Waters of Gold, three waters merge into one. Call the big ghost, invite the second ghost, four Little Ghosts push the life away. Push forward and spin, push backward and turn! Six Lords of the South, Seven Stars of the North, by the decree of the Supreme Lord Lao, act with haste!"

With money, even ghosts can be made to push grindstones. As the joss paper scattered, a full twenty dark figures materialized like shadows behind the five Daoists. Ghostly silhouettes blanketed the ground, and whenever a stray beam of light swept past, the ghastly faces of those who had died tragic deaths were faintly visible within the gloom.

"What are those?"

"Are there really ghosts in the world?"

"Those shadows came alive!"

Er Gou's brothers were momentarily terrified by the ghosts and didn't dare to act rashly. Anyone normal would react this way when suddenly confronted with so many incomprehensible things.

"Don't panic! Leave the ghosts to me! Go kill those black-robed ghost Daoists!" With my bloodstained hand, I twisted the Ghost Ring Jade Bead, using yin energy to summon the Filthy Ghost and the Desire Ghost. The tyrannical auras radiating from the two ghostly figures far surpassed those phantom shadows.

Seeing the appearance of two Lesser Vehicle ghosts, She Qian's expression shifted. "I didn't expect you to be a Ghost Cultivator, nor that you had subdued such powerful ghosts. It seems I underestimated you before."

Although my body was physically weak right now, the yin energy inside me was abundant, reaching an unprecedented peak state. I completely ignored She Qian and shouted loudly, "Three Yin Sect, and the Jiang family, everything you've given me, I will pay back bit by bit! Today is only the beginning! Yin-Yang Has an Order! Wandering souls seeking salvation shall ascend to immortality! Those who defy this command shall be cast into the netherworld, your bones ground to dust!"

Words connect yin and yang; words spoken and law follows. The Filthy Ghost transformed from Tian Teng and the Desire Ghost transformed from Number Nine lunged forward like two starving wolves.

In contrast, the twenty ghost shadows summoned by the Three Yin Sect now hesitated, showing faint signs of slipping out of control.

"What kind of spell is this? Someone in Jiangcheng can actually surpass our Three Yin Sect in the ghost arts?!"

"Unheard of!"

The several black-robed Daoists exchanged glances, all seeing shock and greed in each other's eyes. "A spell this powerful is wasted in his hands, like a precious pearl covered in dust. It rightfully belongs to our Three Yin Sect!"

"To think I, She Qian, would encounter such an opportunity! Everyone, capture Gao Jian alive! Once we force the incantation out of him, we will become the greatest contributors of our sect!"

The twenty ghost shadows couldn't hold back the Desire Ghost and the Filthy Ghost at all, and more than half were quickly torn to shreds. However, the Daoists of the Three Yin Sect weren't anxious in the slightest. It seemed that using joss paper to invite the four ghosts had merely been a probe.

An ominous premonition rose in my heart. I glanced at my watch. There were still two minutes left until midnight, the time when yin energy would surge to its absolute peak. "Er Gou! There's no time to lose, lead the brothers and charge out right now! Go!"

Wang Yu and I were shielded in the center as the several men swung their blades and sprinted wildly forward.

"Gao Jian, you've brought us a lot of surprises. I almost feel reluctant to kill you now." She Qian struck a pose, a hint of a feminine smile playing across his effeminate face. "It's a pity that you first messed with the Jiang family in an attempt to destroy our Three Yin Sect's secular foundation, and then released the Infant Spirits to ruin the plans of the Ghost Infant Lineage. Your crimes are unforgivable. You truly deserve to die!"