Chapter 82: The Six Paths (I)

Qin Ye did not make a move. When it came to spirits, he was still a novice; so far, the only soul-binding ghost he had encountered was Cao Youdao. He was keen to observe what other ghosts might be like, curious about their habits.

One second, two seconds, three. The other’s foot remained planted on the ground.

At the fourth second, Qin Ye seemed to realize something and suddenly looked up. Under the dim yellow light, he saw a disheveled, grotesquely twisted head of a corpulent woman staring straight at him from above the partition!

Any ordinary person’s heart would have stopped at that moment.

The head was held aloft by a hand, the fingers barely visible beneath it. It met Qin Ye’s gaze, and the mouth tore into a strange smile: “I… found… you…!”

The shredded features twisted together, like a rag doll sewn together haphazardly.

Boom!

In the next instant, Old Huang lunged, but Qin Ye’s Ghostblade was faster, slashing straight for the wooden door.

With a thunderous crash, the door splintered into fragments. Outside, a headless corpse in a nurse uniform, white high heels clicking, held an old-fashioned tape recorder in one hand and her own head in the other. With one swing, she was slammed against the wall.

“Damn it, scared me to death!” Qin Ye roared furiously, swinging his blade again. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you to be a good ghost?!”

“Being ugly isn’t your fault, but scaring innocent plants and flowers—can you take responsibility for that?!”

Boom!

Another deafening crash. The nurse screamed as she was smashed against the wall. Though not tall, her body struck hard enough to crack the wall, chunks of bloody plaster raining down.

“You… naughty…” Yet the nurse seemed oblivious, her crimson eyes fixed on Qin Ye. With a sudden roar, she charged, swinging her own head by the hair like a meteor hammer: “I forbid you to eat!”

“Hm? You seem to have no reverence for the underworld agents. Are all native wild ghosts like this?” Qin Ye blocked with his blade; the head slammed onto the blade’s surface, shrieking as if stabbed by needles and flying away. Meanwhile, the nurse’s right hand claws lengthened with a click. Her body crouched, leaping forward like a leopard.

Fast—like a fierce wind, the air itself seemed to hiss. A torrent of claw strikes rained down.

“Interesting,” Qin Ye smirked. The pale blade whirled into a sphere of silver light, the clang of metal ringing without pause. The wall and floor beside him cracked, each fissure deep as several inches. But the sphere of blade light was like absolute defense; no matter how the nurse attacked, she could not break through.

“Just became a soul-binder, hasn’t learned to use her strength,” Arthas observed for ten seconds, yawning. “Stop wasting time—finish it already. Against a ghost of the same rank, you’re overwhelming. Is playing around really so fun?”

Qin Ye shrugged. The blade light suddenly shifted: from a storm of concentrated strikes to a dragon’s sudden surge from the sea. With a brittle crack, the nurse’s black claws shattered, forcing her to retreat, her right hand flailing madly. Yet even now, she did not let go of the tape recorder in her left hand.

Advance and retreat—the bathroom was small. After a few seconds and a heart-rending scream, a pale right hand was sent flying, and the Ghostblade pointed at the nurse’s nose.

In the next second, the blade flashed, descending straight down.

“Sss!” The ghost let out a blood-curdling scream, a surge of dark energy erupting as the blade pierced her head. But at the moment the blade was about to break through, a flowing melody suddenly rang out.

“A gentle breeze stirs the tranquil courtyard… Spring dances like a thread. Pause awhile, adorn the hairpiece… Steal a glance at the water’s reflection, half-hidden from sight, teasing clouds drifting by…”

It was Kunqu opera.

At some point, the ghost nurse had pressed the button on her left hand. With the hiss of tape turning, a piercing female voice echoed through the bathroom.

Buzz… As the music began, Qin Ye’s ears thundered, his mind spinning. With a muffled groan, he nearly collapsed.

“What is this…” He felt the world spinning, like being trapped in a cursed teacup ride at an amusement park, his legs trembling. Yet his combat instincts remained taut. He gripped his right hand tightly, only to realize he had somehow let go of the Ghostblade’s hilt.

Not good!

His first reaction—he retreated explosively, right hand guarding his heart, left hand shielding his head. All he could hear was the ghost’s hoarse scream, the sound of a violent strike cutting through the air.

—

Capsized in the gutter… He managed a bitter smile, now fully aware of what the tape recorder was.

A dark artifact.

And its quality was no less than Cao Youdao’s bone necklace, with a bizarre sonic attack that was impossible to guard against.

His ears buzzed, and just then, a furious bark sounded. In the spinning haze, a black shadow shot like lightning at the nurse. A crunch, and the music cut off abruptly.

“Sss!” The ghost howled at the sky. Qin Ye’s dizziness vanished instantly. In that moment, he leapt forward, seized his Ghostblade, and with all his might pierced the nurse’s head.

Thud!

“Aaaahhh!” The tape recorder crashed to the floor; the nurse clutched her head, screaming to shake heaven and earth. The blade pierced bone, and in her scream she dissolved into a cloud of dark energy.

Qin Ye shook his head and let out a long breath.

He saw Old Huang holding the tape recorder, wagging his tail proudly for praise.

“He bit off her hand,” Arthas said in a low voice. “A fine dark artifact. Sixty thousand merit points, earned. Even if you don’t find the thirty million dark energy, you’ve already made a profit this time.”

It was indeed a good item. Qin Ye slung the recorder onto his back, then suddenly realized: “Sixty thousand?”

He blinked, then crouched to open the recorder, extracting an old tape from inside.

It was ancient, likely from the early years of the century. Smeared with black-red blood. The transparent tape was patched with adhesive, bearing a line of writing: Peony Pavilion.

“You mean… this is also a dark artifact?”

“The recorder itself is one… and the tape inside is another?”

Profitable!

With the previous reward, he would soon have eight thousand soul stones to his name—a veritable fortune!

No… plus Cao Youdao’s bone necklace.

A ten-thousandaire!

“Little A, are eight thousand soul stones enough to build a soul-summoning platform?”

“Enough for the framework,” Arthas replied excitedly. “Every beginning is hard. Now we just need a favorable wind.”

To find the thirty million dark energy!

After a century of collapse, the underworld might finally see daylight again!

Qin Ye took a deep breath, smiled, and crouched to pat Old Huang’s head. “Old Huang, last thing—take me to see the core of this barrier. Don’t worry, I won’t send you on. When my underworld is established, I’ll grant you an imperial seal as the gatekeeper. Your full title: Cerberus. How does that sound?”

“…May I ask, why do your names always have such international flavor? And why do I feel like I’ve heard that one somewhere before?”

Old Huang seemed to understand, barking twice at Qin Ye. Then he jumped onto the sink and spat a mouthful of black blood onto the mirror.

Qin Ye immediately turned, and saw that the gray mirror behind him was now streaked with black blood, revealing six emblems.

These emblems were peculiar, as if painted on the mirror, yet also as if they grew from within.

One was an animal—a wolf head totem.

One was an asura, blue-faced with fangs, three heads and six arms.

One was human, but with a face full of misery, dressed in rags.

One was a fierce ghost, with a bloated belly, small head and oversized body.

—

One was a demon, engulfed in flames, savage and wild.

The last was human again, but ethereal, robes drifting, walking on waves.

The six emblems formed a circle: three bright, three dark. The two humans and the demon were dim, while the other three shone brilliantly.

“What is this…” Qin Ye drew a cold breath. That wolf head totem… he had seen it before!

It was the same blood-painted totem used by the puppet master in Qingxi County!

Another thorn in his side. In Xichuan, he had overturned a terrifying presence’s cauldron of curses, forcing him to come to Bao’an. Who would have thought that here, in a future stronghold of cultivation, he would see the wolf head totem again!

Just then, the six emblems seemed to activate, slowly rotating. In the next moment, three streams of powerful dark energy erupted!

Previously, even if a fierce ghost stood here, there was not a hint of dark energy in this hunting zone. But now, after he touched it, dark energy surged like a creek. Within ten seconds, the fourth hunting zone burned with darkness—just by sensing, the place was teeming with spirits!

The spirits huddled in the shadows, all trembling, silently fading into the depths. Qin Ye stood in the eye of the storm, his underworld agent robe billowing behind him, sweat pouring down his forehead.

Thud… His heart seemed to stop. At that moment, Arthas shouted, “Move!”

He didn’t need her warning; Qin Ye instinctively stepped back several paces, pressing against the wooden door of the partition, glancing uneasily at the emblem circle.

Vivid and lifelike, the three jets of dark energy were all soul-binders, but… each one was stronger than Cao Youdao!

If that were all, it wouldn’t have left him so unsettled.

What was more terrifying… was the emblems themselves.

Looking at them felt like… staring into hell.

“There’s actually such a thing…” Arthas’s voice came through gritted teeth. “They haven’t died yet!”

“This… is unimaginable!”

Qin Ye let out several deep breaths, his voice hoarse. “What are these?”

Silence.

A long pause, then Arthas’s voice squeezed out through clenched teeth: “Wrong…”

“We were all wrong…”

“We thought the barrier here was government-made. But it’s not… This barrier was set up by these people.”

Even the soul-sealing orb trembled, whether from anger or fear, as she spoke, word by word: “The Six Realms!”

“What is that?” Qin Ye clutched his chest, panting.

Just seeing the six emblems pressed a crushing, wicked pressure upon him.

Arthas spat, “The Six Paths of Reincarnation… Only those who reach the Judge’s position know this. Beneath the Six Paths, each realm is suppressed by a terrifying ghost. Every one is at the Lord-level! I didn’t connect the wolf head before—it represents the Animal Realm!”

“Asura for the Asura Realm, two humans for the Human and Celestial Realms, bloated ghost for the Hungry Ghost Realm, demon for the Hell Realm… The three dim ones mean the ghost kings of the Celestial, Human, and Hell Realms have been sent on by Ksitigarbha. The bright ones…”

Qin Ye drew a cold breath. “They… crawled up from the ruined underworld…?”