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Morning on the eleventh day of the seventh lunar month.
Su Yi circled Ziluo City’s walls with Cui Chang’an to accompany him.
Ziluo City had existed since antiquity, and its sheer scale boggled the imagination.
Cui Chang’an and Su Yi traveled quickly, only occasionally stopping for a brief conversation. Even so, traversing the full length of the city walls took a full eight hours.
In the end, the two of them stood atop the eastern city gate.
……
Twilight, the twelfth day of the seventh lunar month.
Po Suo returned the Heaven’s Writ Lotus Lantern to Su Yi.
……
The thirteenth day of the seventh lunar month.
When Su Yi awoke from his meditation, something stirred within him, and he wrote a line of text: “I call to the radiant moonlight filling the skies, reflecting a heart as pure as the ice and snow and ambitions as grand as the convergence of one hundred rivers.”
On the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, the Netherworld’s skies would have no moon. However, throughout its territories, countless Celestial Lanterns of the Grand Dao would illuminate the night sky, casting away the darkness and dispelling evil spirits.
However, were there a moon during the Lantern Festival, it would surely be the “brightest” lantern of all.
Su Yi’s calligraphy came straight from the heart.
……
The fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month.
Ziluo City was massive and ancient, but its streets were all but abandoned.
Experts of the Cui Family were stationed at the city’s four gates. The atmosphere was tense and oppressive, as if a dark cloud were hanging over the entire city.
There were Emperors keeping watch over each of the four gates.
Within the Cui Family estate, the atmosphere was similarly heavy and grim.
Regardless of age, worry was apparent on every face.
All of them knew that tomorrow’s Lantern Festival would bring unpredictable calamity to Ziluo City.
And the Cui Family would face a live-or-death trial!
Within a pavilion.
Su Yi sat leisurely in his wicker chair, examining a strange chessboard.
It was bronze and clearly round, but the grid was somehow comprised of perfect squares, as if it were round on the outside and square on the inside. It looked a bit like those ancient coins that were round and had a square hole in the middle.
This was a formation board.
This particular formation board depicted the layout of Ziluo City’s walls and the ancient formation protecting them. When circulating the formation, so long as one used this treasure, they could target their attacks to kill their enemies, much like when playing chess.
The ancient formation covering the walls of Ziluo City was called the Golden Crow Annihilating Misfortune Formation. The bricks of the thousand-foot walls were all forged out of Profound Yang Firegold using a secret method, making them practically impenetrable.
Generations of the Cui Family had further refined and strengthened them. Even without the formation’s power, the walls themselves were strong enough to ward off Spirit Dao cultivators’ attacks!
When circulating the formation, even Emperors would struggle to take even a step past the city walls.
However, the formation’s most important function was exterminating evil spirits and warding off disaster!
Throughout history, during the millennial Lantern Festivals, the Cui Family had relied on this formation to neutralize terrifying, calamitous attacks, again and again and again.
“That is to say, after circulating this formation, Ziluo City will remain safe so long as we protect the eastern gate?” asked Su Yi.
“Exactly.” Cui Chang’an nodded. “Ziluo City is enormous. A long time ago, our ancestors realized that when we placed a formation, we absolutely couldn’t leave our enemies opportunities to exploit.
“With the Golden Crow Annihilating Misfortune Formation, so long as we gather our forces at the eastern gate, not even Emperors will be able to force their way in through anywhere else.”
Cui Chang’an paused, then added, “The forces we have stationed at the other gates aren’t there to fight.”
They were just there to help maintain and circulate the formation come the Lantern Festival.
Su Yi stroked his jaw. “But if the eastern gate falls, won’t that make the rest of Ziluo City indefensible?”
“If it really comes down to that, I’ll have no choice but to gather up my clansmen, borrow the Tree of Ten Thousand Daos’ power, and flee,” said Cui Chang’an.
Su Yi laughed. “But what if we deliberately open the eastern gates and invite them in?”
Cui Chang’an thought it over. “In that case, the city might wind up heavily damaged, but… few are likely to die.”
Ziluo City was practically empty. There was no need to worry about the fighting implicating the innocent.
Su Yi immediately made a decision. “Tomorrow night, you and I will stand guard over the eastern gates. Have everyone else remain in the family estate.”
Tomorrow night was the fifteenth, the Lantern Festival!
Cui Chang’an’s eyelids twitched. “Uncle Su, isn’t that a bit… reckless?”
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“Do as I say,” said Su Yi.
It wasn’t an explanation. It was an order.
Cui Chang’an nodded.
Su Yi looked at him. “The heavens won’t fall. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”
Cui Chang’an was stunned, and waves of emotion coursed through his heart. He thought back to his youth, when his Uncle Su once smiled, patted him on the shoulder, and said, “Young people ought to have the courage to forge valiantly ahead. Don’t make trouble, but don’t fear it, either. Kid, so long as you’re not a coward, even if you poke a hole through the heavens, I’ll help you bear the consequences.”
It was just a few casual sentences. Perhaps Su Yi had already forgotten them.
But they’d planted a seed in Cui Chang’an’s heart.
After steadying his emotions, he laughed. “With you here, Uncle Su, I wouldn’t be afraid even if the heavens did fall.”
He really had been under unimaginable pressure lately.
Ziluo City was in dire straits, and it had been all but abandoned.
His clansmen were ill at ease, and external foes eyed them hungrily, rallying their forces for battle.
Furthermore, he still didn’t know whether Cui Longxiang was alive or dead, and the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow had re-entered the world… All manner of disasters would befall them simultaneously when the Lantern Festival began.
It was easy to imagine how much pressure Cui Chang’an was under!
Throughout the Netherworld, who knew how many eyes were watching to see just what fate befell the ancient Cui Family.
The Cui Family had overcome countless trials and bloodshed, but it had never been in such a dire predicament before.
Cui Chang’an admitted to himself that if not for Su Yi, he would have already used the Tree of Ten Thousand Daos’ power to lead his clansmen away and flee Ziluo City.
……
The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, the Zhongyuan or Ghost Festival.
Tonight was also the once-in-a thousand-years Lantern Festival.
During the Lantern Festival, the skies were overcast and oppressive even during the day. All of the Netherworld’s Six Territories and Thirteen Realms were suddenly empty.
Don’t go outside on the night of the Ghost Festival.
This was common knowledge in the Netherworld.
Because on this night, a strange power blotted out the Netherworld’s source, resulting in strange and inauspicious phenomena arising throughout the world!
Especially in danger zones like the City of the Wrongfully Dead, the Pool of Rebirth, the ruins of the Bureau of Adjudication, the Blood River of Sin, and the Sea of Bitterness. Numerous utterly terrifying lifeforms would appear there!
On the day of the Lantern Festival, the Netherworld’s cultivation factions, from peak orthodoxies to backwater sects, would make scrupulous preparations.
Because as night fell, strange and malevolent powers would blanket the Netherworld!
The entire Cui Family was as tense as could be. All of their hearts were heavy.
But to Su Yi, today was much like any other day.
He got out of bed, washed up, cultivated, and ate…
It was as if he had no idea what kind of disaster would unfold tonight, or what it would mean for the Cui Family.
“When the Lantern Festival is over, you can set off. But before you do, make sure to tell me so I can see you off,” said Su Yi. He’d changed into new blue robes and fastened his long black hair into a Daoist topknot with a wooden pin. As he examined his reflection in the mirror, he nodded in satisfaction.
“Alright.” The old blind man nodded. Back when they first arrived at the Cui Family, he told Su Yi he planned to visit the Ghost Lantern Sarcophagus Bearers’ ancestral ground.
He hesitated, then said, “Your Excellency Su, the Ghost Lantern Sarcophagus Bearers excel at exorcisms. My cultivation base might be a bit shallow, but dealing with evil spirits should be…”
Before he could finish, Su Yi turned around and said, “There’s no need for your assistance. Just stay here in the Cui Family estate and wait.”
With that, he walked outside.
Cui Chang’an was already standing there waiting for him. As soon as they met up, he and Su Yi left the Cui Family estate.
The skies were gray, overcast, and blanketed in dense clouds.
The streets of Ziluo City were completely empty, save for Su Yi and Cui Chang’an. The two of them were headed straight for the eastern gate.
“When the primordial chaos parted, it demarcated purity and impurity. Pure energies rose and became the heavens, while the impure sank and became the earth. Based on the natural cycling of the Dao of Heaven, the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is when the world’s impure energies are at their densest,” said Su Yi, hands behind his back.
He gazed up at the sky. “However, the Netherworld is different from other planes. In ancient times, it was an underworld, a realm of Yin energy. Throughout its countless years of history, countless immortals, gods, demons, and Buddhas have been buried here, and all types of energy—yin qi, resentment, baleful auras, and other malevolent energies—have long since accumulated within the world’s source.
“Thus, its territories are full of countless forbidden grounds, and it gives rise to endless malevolent powers.
“The crux of the matter is that there’s a problem with the Netherworld’s source,” said Su Yi. He couldn’t help but sigh.
Su Yi was just saying whatever was on his mind, but his words left Cui Chang’an stunned. “Uncle Su, what kind of problem has arisen in the Netherworld’s source?”
Su Yi thought for a moment, then said, “Unless I mistake my guess, the natural order of the Netherworld is missing a certain rule.”
“What rule?”
“Reincarnation.”
This answer left Cui Chang’an utterly shocked. Waves of emotion coursed through him.
But before he could wrap his head around it, they reached the eastern city gates.
Su Yi walked through the sky, appearing atop the towering, majestic city gates.
Gazing out from the gates, he saw that the surrounding area was shrouded in boundless darkness, as if the landscape had lost all light and color. All that remained was bleak, gray desolation.
It was an oppressive, stifling sight.
Su Yi gazed down from the city walls and looked at the two stone statues defending the city gates, the Xiezhi and the Bi’an.
It was then that dazzling streaks of light shot in over the horizon. They started off far away, but they quickly neared the city, stopping just a few thousand feet away from the gates and revealing several figures shrouded in monstrous auras.
Cui Chang’an furrowed his brow and muttered, “It’s still daytime. Why are they here before nightfall? Are they in that much of a rush?”