Chapter Thirteen: Raising the Ghost Infant
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Gu Xian turned around, a faint smile appearing on his face.
“Lord Xia, what brings you here?”
The newcomer was none other than Xia Qinghe, a silver-badge demon slayer.
Seeing that he was alone, she could not help asking, “Where is your senior sister?”
“My master had other arrangements. Senior Sister left for another province this morning.”
“I see.”
“You still haven’t told me why you came looking for me, Lord Xia.”
Xia Qinghe’s expression grew solemn. “Something has happened in Yu Family Village outside the city. I suspect that demonic practitioners are still causing trouble within Nanyang County. I’d like you to come and investigate with me.”
“Doesn’t the Demon-Slaying Office have plenty of officials?” Gu Xian asked doubtfully. “Why did you come to me?”
“They escorted Chen Kai and the others to the capital last night. I remained behind to await the arrival of the next county magistrate.”
Gu Xian nodded. “There’s no time to waste. Let’s go.”
Outside Nanyang City, Yu Family Village.
It was the height of summer, the busiest season for the farmers. Yet not a single villager could be seen working in the fields beyond the village. Instead, the sounds of gongs and drums echoed from within.
After arriving with Xia Qinghe, Gu Xian did not enter the village immediately. He first examined the surrounding area and indeed sensed an unusual atmosphere.
He opened his True Eye. A faint golden light veiled his pupils as he gazed into the village.
At the very center of Yu Family Village, wisps of sinister energy rose skyward.
“This place truly is problematic,” he said in a low voice.
Xia Qinghe’s voice was cool and distant. “A villager from Yu Family Village came to the county office to report a case this morning. I sensed something amiss about him, so I decided to come and investigate. I never expected that we might have caught a really big fish.”
The Great Feng Empire had two principal offices: the Demon-Slaying Office and the Demon-Extermination Office. Their primary duty was to purge the demons, monsters, and various practitioners who committed evil throughout the empire.
Deeply trusted by the emperor, the chiefs of both offices were among the most powerful cultivators in all of Great Feng.
Seeing what lay within Yu Family Village, Xia Qinghe knew that another achievement had come knocking at their door.
The two of them walked toward the village. They saw no villagers along the way, while the sounds of gongs and drums grew increasingly clear.
Before long, they arrived at a square in the center of the village.
A dense crowd surrounded the middle of the square, packed so tightly that not even a drop of water could pass through. Judging by their clothing, they appeared to be ordinary villagers.
Yet every one of them wore a dull expression, their eyes empty and lifeless, their mouths murmuring incantations that Gu Xian could not understand.
Through his True Eye, he saw that the yang energy within their bodies was constantly flowing toward the center of the square. Though the villagers blocked his view, his senses told him that the sinister energy there was so dense it had nearly solidified.
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It seemed that some terrifying yin entity was in the process of being born.
Gu Xian pointed toward the rooftops around them and said softly, “I’ll go up and take a look.”
As soon as he finished speaking, spiritual energy surged through his body. He lightly touched the ground with his toes, and his figure soared gracefully onto a rooftop.
Looking carefully, Gu Xian saw a circular sacrificial altar roughly ten feet across at the very center of the square. All around it, strange runes had been inscribed in black blood.
A beautiful woman lay quietly upon it, her face pale and entirely devoid of color. Her lower abdomen was swollen high, as if she had been pregnant for ten months.
Nearby, a hunched old woman with a face full of wrinkles leaned on a cane. Her body was adorned with lavish silver ornaments as she circled the beautiful woman again and again, muttering under her breath.
Eight men and women stood at the eight positions beneath the altar, each with a different bearing. Their breathing was deep and enduring; they were clearly no ordinary mortals.
With every utterance of the old woman, the yang energy of the surrounding villagers poured ceaselessly into the beautiful woman’s womb.
The scene resembled some kind of ancient ritual.
Mysterious and grotesque.
Gu Xian leaped down from the roof and said with a deeply furrowed brow, “If I’m not mistaken, these people are performing a ritual to raise a ghost infant.”
He then briefly described what he had seen. After listening, Xia Qinghe’s brows rose sharply, and she said coldly, “They deserve a thousand deaths.”
Before her voice had faded, an eerie, harsh voice rang out from the very center of the crowd.
“Who is there?”
Xia Qinghe had been so furious that she had spoken too loudly, alerting the other side.
The woman gave Gu Xian an apologetic smile.
Gu Xian stared fixedly ahead. “Be careful. These people are no ordinary opponents.”
In the next instant, four figures burst from the crowd and appeared before them.
Gu Xian examined them one by one. There were two men and two women.
The man with the most powerful aura appeared to be around thirty. His face was dark and swarthy, and a long braid hung down behind his head, a copper coin dangling from its tip.
The other man was somewhat younger. He held a spiked mace, and his aura was ferocious.
The two women possessed alluring figures and seductive expressions. One wore a thin blue-green gauze dress, the other a purple one.
A small snake, green as jade from head to tail, coiled around the wrist of the woman in blue-green.
Faint purple radiance shimmered in the eyes of the woman in purple, making her utterly bewitching.
The old woman’s voice rang out again. “Since honored guests have come to visit, this old woman has a small favor to ask. I wonder whether the two of you would be willing to oblige?”
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Gu Xian replied in a clear voice, “Please, Granny. What is it?”
The old woman’s voice was dark and shrill like that of a vengeful ghost, with a hint of madness in it.
“My child is about to be born, but the mother’s womb has left it with an illness. I wish to use your lives to make up for it.”
Gu Xian answered unhurriedly, “You jest, Granny. At your age, how could you possibly still give birth to a child?”
As soon as he finished speaking, a chilling wind stirred, and the surroundings fell into deathly silence.
After a moment, the old woman’s enraged voice rang out once more.
“Tear this little bastard to pieces!”
The four people before them sprang forward as though obeying an imperial edict, launching a furious assault on Gu Xian and Xia Qinghe.
The swarthy man jerked his head, sending his long braid whipping through the air toward Gu Xian. The copper coin at its tip gleamed coldly as it shot forward with the speed of an arrow.
Gu Xian acted without hesitation, flinging out two Golden Bell Talismans to shield himself and Xia Qinghe.
Clang!
The copper coin struck the golden bell formed from gathered spiritual energy, producing a deep, muffled sound.
At the same time, the other ferocious man attacked. The energy around his body surged like a tide as he gripped the spiked mace with both hands, leaped high into the air, and brought it crashing down toward Gu Xian’s head.
Boom!
A thunderous roar erupted. Countless fine cracks appeared across the golden bell condensed from the talisman, spreading inch by inch like the crazing on ancient porcelain.
The ferocious man retreated several steps, then gathered his strength and charged forward once more.
The golden bell formed by the talisman clearly could not withstand many more of his attacks.
Gu Xian immediately said, “Two each. Finish this quickly.”
Xia Qinghe nodded.
The two of them shot forward at once, their long swords flashing from their sheaths. Sword light spread in every direction, and a fierce, murderous aura instantly filled the surroundings.
Gu Xian raised his hand and struck with his sword, slamming it heavily against the spiked mace. His opponent’s strength was astonishing, but his cultivation was not high enough. With a single sword stroke, Gu Xian sent him flying backward.
Gu Xian did not pursue the advantage. Instead, he suddenly bent low and dodged.
The next instant, a streak of cold light screamed past his back.
The swarthy man with the powerful aura had launched his attack.