Chapter Thirty-Three

“Anyone who tries to spend a night in Dalishan, that graveyard, must be mad.”
Such words once circulated within the Demon Suppression Bureau.
The teams sent to cleanse the mountain of beasts would always enter Dalishan at dawn and retreat by three o’clock in the afternoon.
This was a hard-earned lesson, born from heavy losses suffered in Dalishan.
But as a newcomer to the Bureau, Bai Li Feihong had never heard it.
He missed the best chance to leave Dalishan.

A mournful wailing rose—
A woman’s cry, drifting on the breeze.
As if a signal, murmurs and whispers began to echo, sometimes seeming to ring out right beside his ears, sometimes coming from all directions far and near.

“Dalishan—A hundred ghosts roam the night.”
Bai Li Feihong recalled the stories he had once heard as a dock worker.
At night, the wronged souls buried in Dalishan would appear and wander among the peaks.
Ghostly words and whispers, countless, endless.
Frightened, Bai Li Feihong looked about.
The stars were shrouded in mist, the darkness thick as ink.
And then, fireflies flickered all across the fog.
The eerie blue glow pierced the absolute darkness with the faintest light.
Yet Bai Li Feihong felt no relief; his expression grew even graver.
It was ghost fire.
Evil energy condensed into flame.
Each blue flame represented a wronged soul.

“How do the beasts survive here at night?”
With the scene before him, escaping Dalishan would not be easy.
Especially when the ghostly maze had robbed him of his sense of direction.

“Perhaps there’s still a way to last until dawn.”
Bai Li Feihong returned to the mountain of beast corpses.
Though the beast souls and demonic energy had been absorbed into the Black Soul Jade, the lingering scent of monsters was overwhelming.
The ghost fires purposefully avoided this area.
With his Blood Sea Blade, Bai Li Feihong skinned the wolf demon, slit open the giant serpent demon, draped the wolf’s pelt over himself, and crawled inside the serpent’s belly.
Living flesh, within the eyes of evil, his blood aura shone like a torch in the darkness—so vivid, so bright.
The other beast carcasses were piled atop the giant serpent.
Bai Li Feihong hid inside, letting the stench and aura of monsters mask his humanity.

Now, Dalishan—
It was as if the gates of hell had opened wide.
The dazzling Ghost Street descended, countless spirits and specters wandered aimlessly.
Bai Li Feihong kept his mind taut, not daring to relax for an instant, fearing discovery.

“So many spirits—does the Bureau only hunt beasts?”
“If all the ghosts of Dalishan left the mountain and entered the city, could the Bureau really withstand such an army of vengeful souls?”
Though wrapped in wolf skin and hidden inside the serpent’s belly, Bai Li Feihong still felt the chill to his bones.
The evil ghostly energy was so intense it altered the environment, freezing the air.
He could feel the serpent’s corpse growing stiff.

The blood essence flowing within him was suppressed by his will.
The cold was bone-deep.
Yet, if his blood aura leaked out, his presence would be revealed—
And he’d be beset by countless vengeful spirits.
If only he possessed the advanced martial arts methods—
Perhaps this place would be paradise for him.
Slay beasts by day, ghosts by night—
A perfect training ground.
But Bai Li Feihong dared not gamble.
He feared he’d be destroyed by powerful ghosts before he could even begin his battle-for-battle plan.
Those chilling, terrifying energies—he had felt such strength before, on the body of Ding Bo, a second-rank Demon Suppression Officer.

Meanwhile, in Dongbin City—
On the highest rooftop of the Bureau—
Gongyang Yan stood facing the fierce wind.
Her expression was grim beyond measure.
Silver eyes gazed at the silhouetted contours of Dalishan.

“Second-generation Inspector of the Divine Supervision Bureau.”
Gongyang Yan knew the fate of that man; even now, he remained imprisoned in the Bureau’s most secret Demon Suppression Tower.
To subdue him, her grandfather had sacrificed an arm.
Only when the six Martial Saints, newly titled, joined forces was he barely suppressed.

“The clan master sent me to Dongbin City not only because imperial order cannot be defied, but so I might find the Gate of the Yellow Spring, then locate the White Bone Flower, and restore Grandfather’s right hand?”
Gongyang Yan carried her own motives.
She understood that in her great clan, no matter how high her talent, there was one thing she could not decide—
Her marriage.
The royal family of Guliang chose their queens from only the greatest families of Yuan.
The Gongyang clan was a target for royal alliance; marriage was unavoidable.
Unless she could find two things: the blood essence of the Kun demon and the White Bone Flower of the Yellow Spring.
Her clan still possessed some Kun demon blood.
But the White Bone Flower was legendary—
Unattainable unless one descended into the Yellow Spring itself.

“Dalishan, a hundred ghosts walk the night.”
“Tonight, the gates of hell are open.”
The fourteenth day of the seventh month—the Festival of the Dead.
Unconsciously, she had already spent half a year in Dongbin City.
Yet she had accomplished nothing.
The clues about the vampire bat demon had dried up.
The night demon was missing.

“The Canal Guild.”
Did the Princess know the uniqueness of Dongbin City and begin her plan in advance?
Why did the second-generation Inspector say Dalishan was the dragon vein and treasure trove of Yuan? At last, Gongyang Yan had some inkling.

“Kun demon, Gate of the Yellow Spring, the abyss below—how many secrets does this city conceal?”
Gongyang Yan spoke suddenly,
As if conversing with the wind.

“Perhaps the Blade Saint knows.”
A figure in white appeared beside her.
Feather fan, scholar’s cap, white robes billowing, a divine sword at his back, bearing extraordinary presence—
It was Jiang Dongliu.

“Then it’s a pity. We can only wait for him to arrive, to learn the answer.”
Gongyang Yan placed her hand on her blade, the edge radiating a fierce intent.
“I fear that before he sets foot in Dongbin, this city may already be destroyed.”
Jiang Dongliu gazed regretfully at the bustling city.
He had visited the southern water towns, but none surpassed the prosperity of Dongbin.

“As long as I, Gongyang Yan, draw breath, Dongbin will not be destroyed.”
She answered coldly.
Jiang Dongliu laughed, “Such arrogance. But her prophecy—never wrong.”
Yes, he finally understood why Gongyang Yan had come to Dongbin to serve as the city’s guardian.

“What do you know? Who is she?”
Gongyang Yan’s voice grew colder, murder rising and falling.
Jiang Dongliu remained unfazed.

“The hundred ghosts’ night is only an omen.”
He shook his head, refusing to answer.

“Heaven and earth cleaved with a single blade!”
A saber light, sharp and unstoppable, tore through the world, splitting chaos, slashing toward Jiang Dongliu.
“The Yin-Yang Millstone!”
Threads of divine power wove together, forming a yin-yang millstone to block the blade’s light.
Gongyang Yan was hurled back by the tremendous force.
Her proudest strike, yet it was blocked by his divine power.

“Martial arts divine realm.”
So young, yet he had reached a height most practitioners never attain in their lifetime.
Such skill would have made him a grand guardian in the Bureau.

“She cannot be named.”
Jiang Dongliu smiled, hands clasped behind his back, the divine Yin-Yang millstone circling him, unconcerned about Gongyang Yan’s surprise attacks.
Here, in the Demon Suppression Bureau—
If they truly fought, who knew if the building could withstand it, or would be reduced to ruins.

“Jiang Dongliu, you are fated to be disappointed. Dongbin City will not fall.”
Gongyang Yan sheathed her blade, her gaze once more fixed on Dalishan.
Eyes cold—does the Gate of the Yellow Spring exist?
She would not analyze it now.
But the matter involved the second-generation Inspector.
Anything related to him must be destroyed.

“With your strength, you cannot withstand the merciless grinding of fate.”
Jiang Dongliu left one thing unsaid:
She would never allow her prophecy to be wrong. To preserve its truth, in the end, she might destroy Dongbin herself, destroy Yuan itself.