Chapter 59: Advancing to Soul Restraint! (Part Two)
How could it be like this?
His eyes reddened instantly—only two remained... Of the ten great vengeful spirits he’d cultivated over a century, just two were left! In today’s world, where could he find so many souls shackled by deep obsession? He had sifted through countless candidates to select these few. He dared not leave the city, for he knew all too well: elsewhere... was even more perilous.
Now, in one fell swoop, he was back to square one.
Why?
He’d already ceased his hand, clearly sparing the other, shouldn’t he now stop immediately and thank the heavens for mercy? Shouldn’t he thank Shangguan for sparing his life and then flee without a trace?
Why... are you like a rabid dog? The world is so wondrous, yet you are so irascible? Have you considered how I feel?
Boom! A gentle tremor in his mind—the soul in the fourth hunting zone, laden with resentment, vanished in an instant.
The fourth hunting zone was broken.
At one thirty in the morning.
Silence.
Within the Yulan Club, a dead silence reigned.
A few seconds later, Cao Youdao’s voice, seething with hatred, resounded through the room: “You heartless little beast!”
“As a warden of the dead... you actually sneak into the living’s ranks to eke out an existence... Where is your dignity as a warden?!”
“A warden never walks alongside the living—didn’t your mentor ever teach you that?!”
“Disgrace of the wardens! Shame of the underworld! Utterly shameless!”
Cao Youdao’s venomous curses no longer reached Qin Ye.
As he dashed through street after street, every regiment of the living who saw Ultraman made way for him. His advance was many times swifter. At the same time, he realized that in this battle declaring sovereignty, with the arrival of the provincial inspector from Luan Mountain, the realm of the living had not only preserved its territory but was slowly pushing outward!
Cao Youdao had achieved his goal of probing the living’s strength—but the cost was unbearable!
Ba’an City, Binhu Park—the most desolate park of all. Even during the day, no one visited. Rumor had it that every evening at six, a portly man would stand here, holding a damp cigarette, asking passersby for a light.
This tale was well known. Ten years ago, the target company’s CEO’s mother-in-law fell gravely ill. The CEO sold the company to save her, and his wife’s family was deeply grateful. Two years later, the CEO suffered an accident and lost a limb, condemned to live out his days in a wheelchair. In exchange, his wife betrayed him, and his in-laws divided his estate.
Three months later, he tied stones to his wheelchair and pushed himself into the depths of the river.
He loved to smoke, especially Yuxi cigarettes. It was said that on that final day, he bumped into someone, hoping that person would help him up. Instead, the person turned and fled. His last words were: “Got a light?”
“Got a light?” Qin Ye stood behind a portly man. Looking closely, the ground beneath the man’s feet was void.
He was very fat, his entire body damp. Yet Qin Ye knew—it was not fat, but bloating.
A corpse swollen by water always looked like this.
He could even see murky river water trickling from the man’s ears. In front of him lay the riverbank.
“Yes.” Qin Ye slowly drew the Ghost Head Blade, its green flames blazing.
“You... shouldn’t... have... agreed...” The man’s head twisted with a crackling sound, rotating a full one hundred eighty degrees. His eyes had become hollow pits, the flesh on his face gnawed away by river fish, exposing the sinister white bone beneath. With a piercing shriek, his tongue shot out like a serpent, darting toward Qin Ye’s heart.
Boom!
A wind-swept slash—the wild green flames cleaved the tongue, splitting the ugly head behind it clean in two.
Swish! A blast of ghostly wind, the man’s form dissolving into countless wisps of yin energy amidst his screams. This time, instead of sinking into Qin Ye’s chest, the yin energy whirled madly around him, and seconds later, coalesced into a three-meter-wide vortex.
The warden’s badge flew out, emitting a strand of golden light. The characters on it were no longer pitch black, but scarlet.
“Vengeful spirit slain, merit: twenty points.”
“Current merit: two hundred points. Shortfall to Soul Collector rank: zero points.”
Rustle... The badge flipped rapidly, landing on the first page, continuing to write.
Name: Qin Ye (childhood name: Dog Egg).
Place of origin: Liu Er Tuozi Village, Gazi Valley, Tang’an County, Qingguang City.
Family members: Grandfather (deceased); parents (deceased).
Date of birth: October 1, 1938.
Term of office: eighty-four days, three hours.
Rank: Soul Collector.
“Heh...” Qin Ye let out a long sigh. The endless night was finally coming to its close.
Boom!
Before the thought had settled, his warden’s robe suddenly billowed upward, the yin energy in his body boiling, even bubbling audibly.
Vaporization...
He discovered, to his astonishment, that his own blood was vaporizing!
It remained blood, yet it was no longer liquid, becoming a gaseous presence within his veins, rapidly transforming his physique. At the same time, the whites of his eyes turned pitch black, his pupils pure white as the moon. All his hair shifted in an instant to snowy white.
Within his body, a force transcending himself threatened to burst forth. He resisted, and resisted again, but in the end... he could resist no longer!
“Ah!” He howled skyward. Beside Binhu Park, countless petals of yin energy blossomed like a black otherworldly flower, blooming in the world of the living! A power far beyond the warden swept across the northern city!
Buzz...
All the ghosts in the north froze for a second, then turned in terror toward Binhu Park.
The last orthodox warden in history.
Suppression by bloodline, transcendence by rank—though they were all new ghosts, it felt as if a towering, pitch-black portal wreathed in yin energy was slowly opening before them.
The Gate of Fengdu opens, Soul Collector ascends!
“Hiss... hiss hiss!” Cao Youdao’s last hunting zone was in the north. At that moment, the vengeful spirit in the form of a middle-aged man let out a cry of terror. Then… he prostrated himself, banging his head toward Binhu Park in frantic worship.
Yet, with the promotion to Soul Collector, even the fragments of the Yanluo Seal could not suppress the tidal surge of yin energy. Those who witnessed this scene were not only ghosts.
North City Snack Street.
It was still a battlefield. A hundred-man regiment, already exhausted, but arms remained straight, crossbows trained ahead.
Hundreds and thousands of ghosts, carrying blood-red lanterns, ceaselessly sought to cross the forbidden zone woven of copper coins. Countless had fallen, but they pressed on, tireless.
“Company commander!” a soldier cried anxiously, “Second platoon can’t hold on! They’re spent! Request reinforcements!”
“No replacements!” A one-bar-three-stripe officer seized a crossbow, rushed to the front, and shouted, “Comrades, as you protect Ba’an City, your families and your hometowns are facing the same supernatural disaster! There are people just like you protecting them!”
“Perhaps no one knows, but this is our duty!”
“No retreat until reinforcements arrive! Fire!”
At the moment the word dropped, his gaze went rigid.
Not just him—everyone stared in astonishment at the sea of ghosts before them. They... had ceased their attack!
One lantern after another, one phantom body after another, all at once, they turned as one to look in a single direction. Then… the flames inside the blood-red lanterns flickered and died.
With Soul Collector ascended, Cao Youdao had no real warden’s badge! The ghosts felt a command in their very souls!
They abandoned Cao Youdao.
Now, their true master appeared.
Rustle... A ghost knelt.
Then a second, a third... The hundredth! The three hundredth! The five hundredth!
Within ten seconds, the ghosts who had just been charging madly at the regiment now bowed their heads, all in worship.
“Company commander…” the signaler nearly popped his eyes out, trembling as he pointed toward Binhu Park, “Look... look…”
No need for words.
Every person saw it.
A twenty-meter-tall flower of pure yin energy, its spectral branches stretching fifty meters wide, was blooming in Binhu Park.
“Holy hell…” For three seconds, the company commander was stunned, then grabbed the communicator: “This is the Guard Company! Get me the Inspector immediately! Something huge has happened in the north!”
But his report was already late.
In the west of the city, the aged Inspector flicked his finger, and the dozens of corpses following him thudded to the ground, then bounced back up. Before him, hundreds of ghosts filled the amusement park.
“Hm?” Just as he was about to act, he paused, then looked north in disbelief. “This…?”
He blinked several times, incredulous, then took a deep breath: “Such powerful yin energy... Is this... a breakthrough to Soul Collector?!”
“A ghost breaking through to Soul Collector on site? Could it be Ba’an City’s Dragon Head himself?”
“That… seems to be towards the seventh hunting zone?”
As the last word fell, he leapt back into the car, barking at the driver: “Immediately! Head north! Notify all practitioners—proceed to the north at once!”
Yet, none were as shaken as those in Yulan Club beneath Hui University—Cao Youdao above all.
He stood in the room like a block of wood, staring blankly at the ceiling, his eyes full of bewilderment.
The instant Qin Ye’s yin energy erupted, he sensed it. His first thought was: What is this? Impossible! This isn’t real! The world is deceiving me!
Boom... The whole clubhouse shuddered softly. His body trembled, finally regaining his senses.
“This... this can’t be…” His hand shook like the wind, he habitually tried to grab a wineglass, only to grasp air.
The Yulan Club was already a wreck from his earlier fury; not a wineglass remained, golden liquor spilled everywhere.
He clawed at empty air, finding nothing.
It was as if he’d lost his soul. Then, suddenly deranged, he rushed downstairs, roaring at the yin-soaked pit: “Impossible!! The Underworld Register is in my hands!! How can he ascend to Soul Collector?!”
“I don’t believe it… It’s fake! Fake!!”
If the collapse of the hunting zones had been an unbearable pain, then Qin Ye’s ascension to Soul Collector was a fatal blow!
Throughout the night, he dared release all the ghosts for only one reason.
That was… even if Qin Ye earned two hundred merit, he could never be promoted to Soul Collector!
But reality slapped him hard.
“This isn’t real…” He gritted his teeth. With a roar, his warden’s robe materialized, billowing without wind, as he crouched by the pit and thrust his right hand deep within.
Seconds later, a plain, ancient book was in his grasp. He opened it frantically, dizziness sweeping over him.
“Soul Collector: Qin Ye. Term: about to commence.”
His name was absent.
He possessed the power of a warden, but... he lacked the genuine badge bestowed upon Qin Ye by Granny Meng!
“No me… but you!!!” He kneaded the book in hatred, but no matter how he abused it, it remained pristine.
Rustle... He drew the long sword from his back, the blade clinking as it touched the ground.
He understood.
He knew clearly.
Now that Qin Ye had become Soul Collector, his first task would be to claim Cao Youdao’s life!
They were alike—if the other lived, their hearts could never rest.
This was a battle between wardens.
He waited for his adversary at his own lair.