When the two words "Hundred Years" were struck through, distant thunder rumbled on the horizon. Flashes of purple light hid behind black clouds, lightning burst forth, bright as snow, and raindrops as big as soybeans instantly began to pour down.
Kong Xuyang raised his face and laughed madly. He wiped the rainwater off his face, holding up the imperial edict in joy. "The time hasn't come; this imperial edict truly is still effective! Wait and be struck by heavenly thunder, you pathetic rabble!"
The Daoist zombie at the gate of Yinshan Village remained calm and unhurried. He shook his bell with his right hand, raised his gaze, and slowly said, "Array the formation to meet the enemy."
Rainwater slammed down on the scattered spirit money, the red and white ritual candles, and the burning incense, extinguishing them in an instant. Inside Yinshan Village, every household lit dim, flickering oil lamps, casting fragmented and incomplete human shadows onto the windows.
The silhouettes of these human shadows looked like righteous, mature young men. Some were missing an arm or leg; some had half their heads blown off by explosions. They moved slowly from inside their houses, staggering outward. Just as the rainwater was about to drench their bodies, yellow oil-paper umbrellas suddenly opened above each of their heads, shielding them from the downpour that symbolized divine retribution.
Wearing white funeral clothes, a woman with her head shattered from crashing into a bridge pier silently followed behind a man, never leaving his side. She held the umbrella for him, their hands tightly clasped together underneath.
The bride, dressed in a red wedding gown and wearing a bridal veil, waved a double-happiness cloth in one hand and held red scissors dripping with blood in the other. She was carried on the back of a hunched matchmaker, swaying as they walked out of the forest. From beneath the veil, a joyful, delicate laughter was emitted.
"Red Demons enter formation on the left." The Daoist raised his hand, and a yellow talisman flew out of his cuff, sticking onto the veil of the leading bride.
The matchmaker beneath the bride lifted its eyeless black sockets, giving an eerie laugh. Lowering its head, it swayed, then positioned itself on the left side, motionless.
The elderly, soaked all over, climbed out of the pond. Their pale, swollen faces were covered with green duckweed, and as they opened their mouths, black mud and silt continuously flowed out."White Demons enter formation on the right." The Daoist raised his arm and formed a hand seal. The elderly immediately stopped moving, their bluish-black eyes, like black holes, staring intently at the area outside the village gate.
The downpour grew heavier. Kong Xuyang looked at the two peachwood swords glowing with golden light, stabbed into the ground before the village, and felt anxious, as if his heart were on fire. He clenched his teeth and cursed under his breath.
These peachwood swords had blocked the village gate a hundred years ago. Neither he nor the yin spirits behind him could break through. They could only wait for the heavenly thunder to strike.
A buzzing sound came from the clouds, and purple lightning flashed brightly. A sudden thunderclap, over a chi wide, crashed down, ruthlessly striking the Daoist standing at the gate of the village.
In that blinding flash of lightning, the talismans on the Daoist's body were instantly reduced to ash; the peachwood swords were shattered into sawdust in the blink of an eye; Yinshan Village's memorial arch, struck by heavenly thunder, teetered on the edge of collapse.
The Red and White Demons positioned on both sides were forced to their knees by the might of the heavenly thunder. In the mud, they straightened their spines, struggling to rise.
Several hundred resentful ghosts mournfully shouted, yin energy overflowing in every direction. Wedding dresses and burial robes fluttered in the frigid wind and cold rain as ghostly figures and eerie voices filled the air:
"Heaven and earth are heartless!"
"The heavenly law is unjust!"
Kong Xuyang let out a long sigh of relief, unable to contain his joy. In an even louder voice, he read out the words in the imperial edict: "The people of Yinshan Village have recklessly used dark sorcery, causing countless innocent deaths and injuries. Their crimes are too numerous to record. Do you admit your guilt?"
As the heavenly thunder dissipated, the Daoist's face—struck clear of the yellow talismans—was completely revealed. That face was exactly the same as Bai Liu's. His expression was indifferent, his tone equally so. "I plead guilty."
"Even if you don't admit it, it doesn't matter…" Kong Xuyang's smile grew even wider, but he suddenly snapped back, looking over in shock. "What did you just say?!"
The Daoist, whose face looked as if it had been carved from the same mold as Bai Liu's, calmly repeated, "I plead guilty."
The Red and White Demons on the ground all raised their heads in shock. The sacrificial bridge ghosts dropped their umbrellas, and the zombies also stiffly stared at the Daoist.
The Daoist looked at Kong Xuyang. "Over the past hundred years, your ancestor, in order to protect the souls of the people of Yinshan Village, used tombs to gather yin energy. They raised vengeful spirits and stole the vitality of future generations to forcibly alter reincarnation, causing countless descendants of Yinshan Village to die unjustly."
"This tomb array has been maintained until today, and only now has the yin energy become sufficient for us spirits to reunite our souls and regain consciousness—while also clearing out all of Yinshan Village, allowing us condemned souls to avoid the punishment of soul annihilation decreed in the imperial edict."
"But these past few hundred years…" The Daoist slowly raised his gaze. "Back then, I turned the people of Yinshan Village in the tomb into vengeful ghosts. Their souls were split, and they had no consciousness. All they remembered was the order I gave them—to guard Yinshan Village to the death and let no outsider enter. Because of this, they ended up killing many innocent passersby."
"What you said is indeed correct. I recklessly used dark sorcery, causing countless innocent deaths."
The Daoist in yellow robes stepped forward, crossing the main gate of Yinshan Village. Lifting the front of his robe, he knelt on one knee in the downpour. With neither humility nor arrogance, he reached out and accepted the imperial edict from the stunned Kong Xuyang. Raising his head, he looked straight at him and calmly said:
"Regardless of whether it was a hundred years ago or now, all the evil brought by dark sorcery and bloodshed was caused by me alone. I alone should bear the consequences. It has nothing to do with the people of Yinshan Village."
"I am willing to submit to execution, to be struck by heavenly thunder until my soul is shattered, in exchange for a hundred years of peace for Yinshan Village. I wish for the safety of all living beings—that the living may walk the path of the living, and the dead may enter the path of the dead."
"But before that…" The Daoist took the imperial edict from Kong Xuyang's hand and drew back his knees to slowly stand up. The fierce night wind howled, swaying the three golden pins in his crown left and right.
A flash of purple lightning lit the area between heaven and earth, as bright as daylight.
In the bright lightning, the Daoist raised his rain-soaked face and slowly turned to look towards Bai Liu, who was in Yinshan Village. "You are my descendant?"
"From our faces," Bai Liu's tone was respectful, "I should be, Venerable Elder."
The two near identical faces, separated by Yinshan Village's weather-beaten, about to collapse memorial arch, stared at each other.
One wore a white shirt and western-style pants, his posture relaxed, seeming like he was passively watching a play. One wore standardized, neat Daoist robes, his expression calm with a sense of righteousness within the murderous aura. One tall and one short, one inside and one outside. Behind them were vengeful ghosts howling mournfully, in front were skeletons of foreigners wielding guns and cannons, and beside them were Kong Xuyang and Yang Zhi, who were both stunned and frozen in silence.
The Daoist suddenly smiled. That smile was relaxed, radiant like the sun and moon. If Mu Sicheng were still clear-headed, he would have been scared by that smile on Bai Liu's face. Bai Liu would absolutely never smile like that.
"Venerable Elder? I was just over thirty when I died. The way you're addressing me…" The Daoist couldn't stop laughing, his facial expression gentle as he looked down, "You, young man, your personality's rather mischievous. Borrowing Yin wealth? Want this Venerable Elder to help you?"
Bai Liu shook his head honestly. "Not yet, but if you could help, that would be ideal."
"I can help you." The Daoist smiled softly, "You are my descendant. I've saved up quite a large amount of yin energy these past hundred years, no harm in letting you borrow some easy wealth before I go."
He lifted his foot, with movements like a soaring dragon flying on the wind, in almost the blink of an eye helanded in front of Bai Liu. His Daoist robes fluttered open in the air and emitted an immense surge of yin energy from his body.
The three golden pins on his crown dangled; the bluish-black yin energy that had lingered on his face for so long dispersed, revealing a refined, handsome face, full of vitality. The black fingernails on his hand retracted, turning clean and round, like a living person's.
He half lowered his eyes, leaning close to Bai Liu's war, and muttered faintly. His words were barely audible amidst the immense surging yin energy, carrying what seemed like a pitying kind of gentleness:
"A hundred years ago, when Yinshan Village was about to fall and be handed into enemy hands, I had no other options. With no way out, I made a deal with an evil god who suddenly appeared. They promised to protect Yinshan Village for a hundred years, not allowing any foreigners to invade, and bestowed upon me this book of evil sorcery. Upon completing the deal, I have to give them my soul and endure a hundred years of suffering in this place."
"But a hundred years have already passed. The evil god who promised to come and end everything never came. However, Yinshan Village's time suddenly stopped, freezing at the moment I was about to be trapped for a hundred years. Once it reaches that moment of that hundred-year period, it'll return to seven days prior."
"Yinshan Village is trapped in a seven-day loop that can no longer move forward. At the same time, unusual strangers begin to continuously enter Yinshan Village on the first day of this seven-day cycle."
"So many people came to Yinshan Village, yet none dared wake me. I could only watch as these living people came and left, only playing and slaughtering with the village's vengeful ghosts. These villagers under my protection had their grudges stirred up by these hostile living intruders, becoming increasingly uncontrollable. They began killing more and more innocent people, neither human nor ghost. I want to end all of this, but I do not have the means."
The Daoist's slender, well-defined fingers extended from his Daoist robe, his fingertips lightly tapping Bai Liu's forehead. The yin energy from his body flooded madly into Bai Liu's body like a crashing wave. His eyes had a smile as he gently said:
"Many thanks."
"From entering the tomb without harming any of the villagers to waking me up, I thank you."
Bai Liu watched the Daoist. "You don't hate that evil god who played and tortured you?"
The Daoist with the same appearance as Bai Liu closed his eyes, his face recalling memories, and mumbled to himself softly:
"…So what if I feel hate, so what if I feel no hate? It was originally me who sought them out. Things having reached this stage, I have never regretted it. I only remember kneeling in front of them back then, betraying the faith of the founding master, saying—"
"Oh, for the Winged General at the Dragon City, that never a Tartar horseman might cross the Yin Mountains—[2]."
The clouds in the sky surged and rolled, parting to reveal a crack of purple light gathered together. Thunder rumbled with the force of mountains collapsing and the earth splitting. Rain surged like crashing waves. Within the crack, light flashed twice, merging into a spherical mass of thunder light. Aimed at the faintly visible Daoist in yellow robes on the ground, it struck down fiercely with the weight of a thousand jun [3]!
The Daoist in yellow robes suddenly opened his eyes, turning around to face the thunder directly, swinging his sleeves and spreading his robes, protecting the vengeful spirits of Yinshan Village and Bai Liu behind him, sharply shouting three last words:
"—Cross through Yinshan!"
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[1] A chi is about a third of a meter or about 1.09 feet
[2] A line from the poem Over the Border by Wang Changling; it expresses a wish that if a strong general were still alive, northern invaders wouldn't be able to invade
[3] 18000 kg and about 19.8 (US) tons