Chapter 352: The Miraculous Ghost Doctor

The ruler of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom suddenly died, and the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace immediately led palace experts to the ruler’s palace to both steady the many ghost gods of the kingdom and seize military command, lest other ambitious spirits take advantage and seize power.

Crown Prince Xiang Kun had long harbored ambitions. He had gathered a large number of powerful ghost gods in the Eastern Palace as his base, all in preparation to remove the old ruler and ascend to the throne himself.

But this time, the old ruler’s sudden death was not something he had expected.

He had many rivals in the Heavenly Pool Ghost Kingdom, all coveting the throne. With the old ruler gone, those rivals would surely move to strike.

In the ghost kingdom, moral constraints from the mortal world meant nothing; here, strength ruled. Xiang Kun’s Xiangfang ghost tribe was the largest clan, with many ghost gods; while the old ruler lived, he could suppress other clans. But with the old ruler gone, if Xiang Kun failed to seize supreme power quickly and win enough support, the Xiangfang tribe might not be able to secure the throne!

Xiang Kun felt both alarmed and elated, and hurried into the palace. The chancellor of the Heavenly Pool Ghost Kingdom hurried to meet him and bowed, saying, “Your Highness, accept my condolences.”

Xiang Kun could not waste time on formalities. “My father was always in robust health, with ample longevity. How did he suddenly die?”

The chancellor hesitated, then said, “A few days ago His Majesty led several of the great clan elders out in haste. They said they would return before the Fog Moon, but only came back on the night of the Fog Moon, and after returning he was no longer well.”

“Returned on the night of the Fog Moon?”

Xiang Kun’s heart jolted. The Fog Moon was extremely dangerous. The ruler had always been cautious and wise. Why would he choose to risk returning to the capital on the night of the Fog Moon?

“Where are those great clan elders?” he asked urgently.

The chancellor hesitated again. “Only His Majesty returned. The other great clan elders could not be found…”

Xiang Kun’s heart sank. His present aim had been to secure the support of those clan elders; to arrive at the palace first and have them back him. If those elders were already dead, Xiang Kun’s Xiangfang tribe might lose the throne!

He steadied himself. “Chancellor, this matter must remain between you and me. No one else can know. Otherwise chaos will arise!”

The chancellor grimly nodded.

Xiang Kun hurried into the palace and finally saw the corpse of the Heavenly Pool ruler.

The kingdom’s strongest ghost god lay half intact, but covered in numerous bite marks and ghastly wounds, while the other half of the body was only a stark white skeleton, utterly devoid of flesh.

Xiang Kun’s pulse raced as he examined the place where the two halves met. The cross-section was unnaturally neat, as if precisely cut, yet oddly none of the bones were harmed. Only the flesh, organs, and tissues had been removed.

From the fleshless cross-section flowed strands of strange light, like drifting auroras, shifting irregularly and eerily captivating.

“Your Highness, do not touch!”

Seeing Xiang Kun reach out toward the radiant light, the chancellor hastily intervened. “This light is extremely dangerous!”

He summoned a castrated little yaksha from the palace and ordered him to touch the glow.

The little yaksha dared not disobey, and cautiously reached out. His fingertip brushed the radiance.

Whoosh!

The glow suddenly surged. The little yaksha froze, then slowly collapsed.

Xiang Kun was horrified. The left side of the little yaksha’s body remained flesh-covered, while the right side was reduced to stark white bone!

The strange radiance had split him cleanly along the midline, cutting his body into two perfectly divided halves.

Not even the most meticulous executioner monks in the Heavenly Pool Ghost Kingdom could make such an immaculate incision.

“What kind of attack caused this?” Xiang Kun asked in a low voice.

The chancellor hesitated. “Your Highness, I cannot comprehend it. But before His Majesty died, he said one thing.”

Xiang Kun pressed, “What did he say?”

“In the fog there is an immortal.”

Xiang Kun’s complexion changed.

Was the ruler saying that on the night of the Fog Moon some immortal appeared in the mist?

But why would an immortal appear in the fog?

Ancient legends in the Heavenly Pool Ghost Kingdom said that their world once had the sun, the moon, and stars. In those days they possessed tremendous power and could cultivate to ascend to another world. They called such ascenders immortals.

Immortals could descend from that other world to impart profound knowledge.

At some point, however, the sun, moon, and stars all vanished. The immortals disappeared too.

Only once a month did the Fog Moon sweep across the ghost kingdom.

When the mist rolled in, only huge weapons, crumbling walls, and ancient buildings remained to guard the people of the Heavenly Pool Ghost Kingdom.

“Could it be that immortals never truly vanished?”

He recalled the lowly ghost of Peng Ju, imprisoned in the Eastern Palace, and suddenly his mind burned with desire.

Peng Ju was merely a messenger in his house. When he needed to contact distant ghost gods, he relied on flying messengers like him. Each message required seven or eight messengers to fly different routes to the same destination, because the Yin Mountains were perilous; the Fu Bird are fast but weak, easily captured and eaten by other monsters or dying from mysterious causes.

Yet Peng Ju had uncanny luck. He survived over a year in the Eastern Palace and still received wages; the palace administrators could not even pinch a month’s pay from him.

Xiang Kun considered that a curiosity.

The last time Peng Ju went on a mission he did not return for many days, and Xiang Kun had assumed he’d died. But astonishingly he returned alive to report.

This time Peng Ju’s return was different; he revealed the Blood Lake Sutra, shocking the entire Eastern Palace and nearly causing upheaval. Fortunately, Xiang Kun reacted quickly, captured Peng Ju, and executed the loose-lipped ghosts who knew of the matter, leaving only his own people.

“If I can pry Peng Ju’s mouth open and learn the Blood Lake Sutra, I’ll be invincible. Who would dare covet the throne?”

The Eastern Palace was built relying on a huge bronze plate thrust into the ground, towering like a mountain, with a square hole in the center, left by unknown hands.

This bronze coin would glow on the night of the Fog Moon, its light repelling the mist. The Eastern Palace just happened to sit within the coin’s radiance, keeping the fog at bay.

The Eastern Palace was now under strict guard. Two ghost gods stood at the gates, one on each side.

These two big-bellied guardians stood at the portal, about four zhang tall, neckless and headless, their huge chests exposed. They wore small vests and opened their bellies.

Their eyes were set at their two breasts. Their mouths sat at their navels, wide and filled with sharp teeth, their bellies wrinkled.

Each held a hammer-headed spear, an iron shaft four to five zhang long topped by a hexagonal long hammer – extremely heavy.

They wore python-skin belts from which hung several baskets filled with small yakshas sitting properly and offering incense.

One big-bellied guardian rotated his belly and stared at three little ghosts approaching on the street. One was a skull dressed in garish finery, swaying like a willow when she walked, her slender waist twisting and her skirt billowing.

Another was a Fu Bird wearing a hooded cap like a tiger-head axe, her beak protruding from beneath the hat. Her wings shone gold, like they had been gilded.

The third little ghost was another skeleton, clearly wearing only a tunic that left thighs exposed, without any shorts.

The three little ghosts stopped in front of the Eastern Palace gate.

The finery-clad skeleton stepped forward and giggled, “Your Lords, Princess Jiao is ill. Please ask Ghost Doctor Chen to treat her. Our Ghost Doctor Chen is famed for miraculous hands that bring the spring back; he treats all manner of baffling ailments. Please show us some favor.”

“No can do!”

The bellied guardian boomed. “Step forward and you’ll die without a grave!”

“Sir, I have incense money…”

The guardian guffawed. “You skeleton cultivators always say money makes ghosts turn the mill. Today it will not. Put your stinking coins away!”

“Wait a moment!”

The other bellied guardian chuckled. “If these three barge into the Eastern Palace and we kill them, we get their coins and we’ve not disobeyed the prince’s orders. Win-win!”

“What a clever plan…”

As the two bellied guardians prepared to act, a sudden blood light pulsed. A blood lake bloomed behind Ghost Doctor Chen’s head, and two blood-red sword beams zipped forward, piercing their mouths and impaling the two big-bellied guardians through and through!

They hadn’t even had time to react before they were dead, their souls dragged into the Blood Lake Hell behind Chen’s head.

They felt unimaginable agony in their spirits, as if their whole bodies were bleeding, and cried out in torment.

Their screams echoed, and other spirits in the Blood Lake shrieked as well, though the sound could not escape the lake.

Chen Shi rushed forward, channeling his power to lift the two bodies and toss them into the small temple.

The yakshas who had been burning incense tried to flee, but Peng Yan’er leapt forward ready to strike them. Chen Shi blocked her and shook his head. “Don’t kill the little ghosts.”

The yakshas bowed to Chen Shi and vanished in a flash.

Chen Shi pushed open the Eastern Palace gate. “The ruler’s palace is not far. The prince will return fast, so we must rescue Peng Ju faster than him. Killing is saving lives. No hesitation.”

Sang Xixi vaulted over the half-zhang-high threshold, Peng Yan’er close behind. Chen Shi entered the Eastern Palace and shut the gate.

This was the palace’s front hall, the place for parking steeds. Many ghost servants were here: some sweeping the hall, some sitting in the corridor. Seeing them burst in, they all rose and stared.

Chen Shi flung the two bellied guardians’ corpses into the front hall. The sight of the dead sent the servants fleeing in terror.

Chen Shi led Sang Xixi and Peng Yan’er through the hall, moving quickly into the Eastern Palace.

“Kill the ghost gods!” cried the servants.

Chen Shi, the two women, and the fleeing ghost maids and servants rushed deeper into the palace. A fanged ghost god with a blue face ran at them, swinging a wolf-tooth club and smashing the fastest runner into the air. “What are you ghosts shouting?”

Shush!

A blood-red sword beam pierced the fanged ghost god’s forehead. He froze, his body rapidly withering.

The blood sword beam spun and returned into the Blood Lake behind Chen Shi’s head, adding another wronged spirit to that hell.

Two blade-armed ghosts rushed from the sides, their arms like knives, spinning and whirling. Their blade-light sliced buildings and palace maids to pieces wherever it passed!

Chen Shi and Peng Yan’er engaged them left and right. Chen Shi moved like a phantom, evading the blade-light. A sword qi pierced one blade-armed ghost. Its corpse tumbled and crashed dozens of zhang away, finally slamming into a wall.

Peng Yan’er spread her wings, becoming a dazzling weapon of countless golden feathered blades. She hovered, her wings hissing as she darted and flashed like sudden golden light, clashing blade-for-blade with the blade-ghost.

Suddenly their forms crossed; the blade-ghost fell to the ground, withered and defeated, its dual blades broken and its life essence drained completely by her attack.

Chen Shi surged forward. Two thunder ape ghosts hiding in the clouds leaped down, swinging heavy iron clubs at them.

At the instant they descended, Sang Xixi hurled head-sized projectiles that detonated on impact. Blazing lightning-fire blasted the two thunder apes into pieces.

The three of them dashed across a long corridor bridge. Six or seven ghost gods had just turned the corner ahead, only to be pierced by Chen Shi’s flaring blood-sword beams.

Peng Yan’er flapped and cut from the air, her wings slashing through and impaling a ghost god trying to escape Chen Shi’s strikes.

Sang Xixi spotted many ghost gods pouring from a building ahead and raised a man-tall iron caltrop, hurling it.

A ghost god inside caught it, but then a flash of lightning and the caltrop exploded. The building, an ancient remnant, stood firm through the thunder fire, but the ghost gods within could not withstand the downpour of lightning and were pulverized!

Especially the sharp fragments from the caltrop spun and sliced on detonation. Even if one could endure the thunder-fire, one could not stop those blades!

Sang Xixi had not expected such fierce power and was startled.

Chen Shi cleared the path up front. In a short moment his blood-sword beams split into over a hundred rays, like red fish floating up, down, left, and right. Whenever a ghost god dashed out, they were instantly shredded.

He dealt with the ghosts ahead while Sang Xixi and Peng Yan’er handled the ones he missed. They carved a bloody path forward.

Chen Shi observed the ghosts’ movements. Some charged toward them, while others fled toward two other directions.

“Which way is the harem?” Chen Shi asked.

Sang Xixi pointed east. “That way!”

Chen Shi did not go east. He rushed toward the ghosts heading to the other direction.

The three of them slew several ghosts, terrifying those around.

Although they looked like lowly skeletons and Fu Birds, their strength was outrageously powerful!

The ghosts fought while retreating and reached a great hall. The last ghost was pierced by Chen Shi’s sword and fell.

Hundreds of blood sword qi lit up the courtyard, bathing the hall in a red glow.

At the hall entrance stood an armored ghost god radiating tremendous force.

His face darkened, and his body trembled, revealing his true form hundreds of zhang tall!

Chen Shi did not hesitate. He summoned the small temple and shouted, “Stone Ji!”

Stone Ji Your Ladyship rushed out and unleashed her divine ability. A skyfull of auspicious clouds descended, golden and brilliant. Several Yellow Turban Warriors bowed down from the clouds, reached out, and seized the armored ghost god, lifting him into the air.

Stone Ji Your Ladyship withdrew her power and the terrifying ghost god vanished.

She was about to return to Chen Shi’s small temple when she froze, staring at the giant bronze coin standing between heaven and earth in front of the great hall.

Chen Shi had no time to spare and dashed into the palace. Inside hung a birdcage, and inside that cage was Peng Ju.

Chen Shi split the cage, freed Peng Ju, and charged out of the palace toward the exit.

Stone Ji Your Ladyship still stood there stunned, gazing at the enormous bronze coin, not following him.

Chen Shi was surprised and shouted back, “Stone Ji, move!”

Stone Ji came to her senses and hurried after him. “Envoy, I have seen that bronze coin before! It could never appear here!”