Chapter 568: Snake King's Coiled Corpse

The dense pine forest was at least several decades old, standing like a row of guards separating the inner and outer cemetery. Even from inside the woods, an ordinary person couldn't see into the burial grounds.

"Pine isn't one of the four great ghost trees, yet this place is heavy with ghostly energy." The tall trunks and thick, overlapping foliage completely blocked out the sun. Fallen pine needles blanketed the ground, giving off a faint smell of rotting vegetation.

This place had to have another entrance. Few people ever walked through this pine forest; my shoes sank deep into the needles with every step, making progress a struggle.

The deeper I went, the heavier the yin energy became. I felt my Yin Meridian throbbing. Uncontrolled, the yin energy began flowing through my major yin apertures, somehow growing purer with every cycle it completed.

This entire place seemed to be a massive Yin Gathering Array. For evil cultivators, it was a treasured land for refining malevolent yin energy.

"Once the Three Yin Sect is destroyed, this treasured land will be mine. I just don't know if this array was man-made or naturally formed." As I walked inward, something damp struck my shoulder. I initially brushed it off as a drop of dew, but after a few more steps, I suddenly realized—it was an autumn afternoon. How could there be dew?

Touching my Ghost Ring, I slowly turned and looked up.

A bright red tongue hung past purple-black lips on a swollen, bruised face. Bound to a thick pine branch, it stared straight down at me from above.

"A hanged ghost?" Yin-Yang Ghost Art detailed many different spirits. Comparing them, I found that the long-tongued corpse suspended from the tree perfectly matched the rumors of a hanged ghost.

These spirits harbored massive resentment and were notoriously difficult to deal with, making them one of the harder low-level ghosts to control.

The liquid that had just dropped onto my shoulder was actually malevolent yin energy gathered at the tip of the hanged ghost's tongue.

"Bound with hemp rope, tied in an Immortal-Binding Knot. This is the work of a Ghost Cultivator. It seems this ghost was subdued and intentionally tied here." I continued deeper. The pine forest wasn't large, but I successively spotted four or five more hanged ghosts. Ordinary people couldn't see them; only someone who had opened their ghost eyes or Heavenly Eye would know the true terror of these woods.

"They must be part of the grand array. Integrating ghosts into the formation—I should try that later. The stronger the array, the higher the requirements for its materials. If I can substitute ghosts, it will save a massive amount of resources." The Underworld Live Show had many tomes on arrays, and the ghost art I practiced was already several levels above the Three Yin Sect's. If I could master using yin souls and ghosts to set up arrays, it would be a complete transformation for me. My strength would skyrocket.

Likely because no one was presiding over it, the grand array was merely running on its own without fully activating, so it didn't proactively attack me. The gruesome hanged ghosts simply glared at me with pure resentment, none of them breaking free of their restraints.

Stepping out of the pine forest and vaulting the fence, I finally entered the cemetery proper.

At a glance, a scattering of solitary graves sat surrounded by trees, each piled with an exaggerated amount of offerings.

However, the place hadn't been cleaned in a long time. Most of those offerings had already rotted and spoiled, even giving off a foul stench.

"Leaving rotten offerings on the altar tables is a massive disrespect to the ancestors. With a century of history, the Three Yin Sect couldn't possibly be unaware of this—unless they really are overwhelmed and backed into a corner." I looked at the solitary graves. I didn't recognize the names on the tombstones, but they had to be prominent figures from Jiangcheng. After all, this was a high-end cemetery; ordinary people couldn't possibly be buried here.

Reciting a line of Daoist scripture, I calmed my mind, cleared away the rotten offerings from the solitary graves, bowed three times, and quickly walked away.

"Even in broad daylight, this place still feels weird. If I had come at night, the terror level would probably be on par with a livestream." Reaching the top of the mountain and gazing into the distance, I saw that the yin energy here had materialized into a layer of hazy gray fog.

I climbed a pine tree and looked down from above. The cemetery was built on the mountain's sunny yang side, while the dark yin side was completely shielded by several adjacent peaks, isolated from the world.

"If only I'd studied feng shui. With terrain this dramatic, there must be some deeper significance to it." After getting my bearings, I climbed down from the pine. "The fog is too thick. To be safe, I should summon a ghost to accompany me."

The environment here was uniquely advantageous for ghosts, so I didn't have to worry at all about them being scorched by the ambient yang qi.

Touching my Ghost Ring, I summoned the Filthy Ghost first. The big guy looked foolish and clumsy, but its senses were actually incredibly sharp. While its combat power wasn't as strong as the Desire Ghost's, its obedience and gentle nature made up for it.

Having the Filthy Ghost cover my back, I looked at the Ghost Ring's fourth jade bead. Ever since I brought Wang Shi's ghost out of the Yin-Yang Boundary, he had been staying inside it. By now, he was probably sick of it.

"It's dangerous here, but the materialized fog of yin energy will do wonders for stabilizing his ghost body." I touched the fourth jade bead. Amidst curling wisps of smoke, a tall, thin middle-aged man slowly appeared.

Wang Shi had stayed in the jade bead for a long time. Because I had constantly been in life-or-death crises, I hadn't had the time to look after him, and had long since completely forgotten about him.

Naturally, I wasn't going to tell him that. Once his body solidified, I walked over to him with a solemn expression. "I didn't let you down! I went through hell and finally found a suitable place for your cultivation. This is the forbidden ground of an evil cultivator sect; it's more than enough for you to stabilize your ghost body."

Wang Shi stared at me for a long while before finally catching on. "Your voice hasn't changed. Are you wearing a silicone mask?"

His reminder made me realize I was still wearing the Human Skin Mask, but since it was my hidden trump card, I didn't bother giving him the details. "Cut the nonsense and hurry up and absorb the surrounding yin energy. It's very pure here and will do you a lot of good. Oh, and remember our deal. I'm going all out to help you, so when I need you to pull your weight, you can't refuse."

"Of course. Helping you is helping myself." Wang Shi nodded, standing beside me and absorbing the yin energy on his own. He had originally been nothing more than a wisp of a lonely soul, barely even counting as a ghost; a single ray of sunlight would have scattered his soul. Now, inside the Three Yin Sect Grand Formation, his body was slowly turning solid. His combat power was still zero, but at least I could occasionally bring him out to help me strategize. Having a cunning old fox like him around would save me a lot of headaches.

With Wang Shi and the Filthy Ghost in tow, I walked all the way down to the foot of the mountain before I finally heard voices.

"Sounds like chanting?" It was an incredibly bizarre incantation; I couldn't understand a single word. "Both of you, fall back."

My gaze piercing through the dense fog, I finally made out a massive complex of antique-style buildings at the foot of the mountain.

It looked like a Daoist temple, with a scale roughly equivalent to six Qingtu Temples.

The doors to the temple's main hall were tightly shut. Seven Three Yin Sect cultivators dressed in black Daoist robes stood outside in a Seven Stars formation. Holding talismans covered in snake-like script, they chanted incessantly.

What really caught my interest, however, was the massive, multicolored snake coiled on the ground in the center of their formation. Its eyes had been gouged out, its scales were covered in blood, and it lay perfectly motionless.

"Lord Snake's Snake King!" During the final moments of usurping fate, when a hundred thousand wandering ghosts and wild spirits swept through the Underworld soldiers, Lord Snake had died. To protect his corpse, the massive serpent he raised had willingly absorbed the vicious attacks from the evil ghosts. Ultimately, its soul had been torn apart as well, leaving behind nothing but this lifeless husk.

"What are they doing?" Chen Jiuge would be arriving in Jiangcheng tonight, leaving me with very little time. As I observed the Daoists' actions, I pulled on a face mask, gloves, and shoe covers.

Compared to the robed Daoists, my outfit looked incredibly out of place, but this wasn't the time to care about that.

"There are seven men just standing outside the door, and there are probably even more inside the temple. I'm afraid it will be very difficult to cut the grass and dig up the roots." Stowing the Filthy Ghost and Wang Shi away, I released the most ferocious Desire Ghost. Then, staying strictly in their blind spots, I slowly approached the seven Daoists.

Drawing closer, I naturally saw things more clearly.

The seven Daoists finished their incantation and pasted their talismans onto seven different spots on the Snake King's body. At that moment, the temple's main doors slowly opened. Dressed entirely in black, She Qian walked out cradling a Spirit Altar.

Perfectly square and moderate in size, the Spirit Altar had the characters for Lord Snake carved into its top.

Expressionless, She Qian walked up to the front of the Snake King's corpse and dropped to his knees. Placing the Spirit Altar down in front of him, he opened the wooden lid with both hands and scattered the bone ashes from inside over the serpent's corpse.

An astonishing scene occurred. The moment the bone ashes touched the Snake King's corpse, the seven talismans began vibrating in unison, and from the massive serpent's long-gouged-out eye sockets, two trails of blood actually seeped out.