Chapter 21: Who Can Keep Their Cool

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I moved a short distance forward, and the passage suddenly opened into a vast space before me.

Though the secret tunnel ended underground, the scene beyond was like a paradise of immortals, filled with birdsong, fragrant flowers, and drifting auspicious clouds. A Taoist temple nestled among the blossoms appeared especially quiet and serene, stirring a yearning within anyone who saw it.

The sight before me seemed capable of suppressing the fear and agitation in one’s heart, making people instinctively want to approach the temple and discover its secrets.

I took a step forward without realizing it, then forcibly halted myself. As I fixed the distant temple with a murderous gaze, my right eye suddenly filled with a profound darkness. At first glance, it seemed capable of sucking evil spirits into its depths; yet the savage aura churning within it was enough to send a chill through anyone’s body.

The Fierce Eyes of the Yellow Springs.

One of the few secret arts in the Horse Scout Formula that could be activated without chanting an incantation. Whether intimidating enemies or breaking through illusions, it was unfailing.

The instant I activated the Fierce Eyes of the Yellow Springs, everything before me transformed into an entirely different scene.

There were no birds singing among fragrant flowers in the depths of the secret tunnel. There were only crisscrossing chains, coffins bound from every direction, and countless dried corpses hanging from the chains.

The blue birds that had been circling through the air moments before gradually transformed beneath the gaze of my Fierce Eyes of the Yellow Springs. Beginning with their heads, they became ghostly flames, drifting up and down around the coffins.

As my gaze followed one of the chains toward a coffin, I saw layer upon layer of congealed blood coating the links.

Back then, countless living people and wild spirits must have been pierced through by iron chains and suspended in the air. Their screams and wails had been left to echo as their blood was slowly funneled through the chains into that coffin.

Perhaps those dried corpses had not died quickly at all. They had been used as blood bags, screaming through countless days and nights before gradually losing all signs of life. Otherwise, the resentment in this place could never have become so dense that it seemed almost liquid.

What immortal destiny? This was clearly a trap someone had laid here, luring those who sought a chance at immortality to their deaths so they could continue nourishing the monster inside the coffin.

That was it!

The highest pursuit of a cultivator was immortality and ascension into the ranks of the immortals.

Yet immortality could be interpreted in many ways. If a cultivator used forbidden arts to transform himself into a jiangshi, he would still have achieved immortality—and might even escape the restrictions of certain laws.

Throughout history, countless people had refused to cultivate step by step and instead chosen crooked and unorthodox paths. In their eyes, power and eternal life were the true goals of cultivation.

With enough power, one could subdue everything. With enough time, one could naturally enjoy the authority that power brought.

Compared with the ethereal and uncertain realm of immortals, dominating the mortal world was far more tempting.

Of the three Taoists from Three Dao Ridge, one of them was probably already lying inside that coffin.

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The instant my Fierce Eyes of the Yellow Springs fixed upon the coffin, I unexpectedly saw the hilt of a knife protruding from its top.

Judging by its length, it should have been a dagger driven into the coffin.

Had someone been here before?

The thought had barely crossed my mind when I heard the sound of wind moving through the secret tunnel behind me, as if someone were riding the wind toward us.

Qin Yun had discovered the secret tunnel.

That sound of wind must have been made deliberately by one of the immortal beings from Three Dao Ridge, secretly warning me that Qin Yun was on her way.

The condition set by the immortal beings of Three Dao Ridge for cooperating with me was that I must not touch the immortal destiny.

Now that the so-called immortal destiny lay right before them, who would listen to my explanation? Who would believe that the thing inside the coffin might be a jiangshi?

As thoughts raced through my mind, I drew out a spirit talisman and stuck it to my body. Then, moving as nimbly as a spirit rat, I slipped through the crisscrossing chains and quietly hid behind the coffin.

I had barely concealed myself when someone rushed in and cried out, “The immortal destiny! It’s the immortal destiny!”

“So the immortal destiny has been beneath Plum Blossom Temple all along!”

The wild spirits who charged in were able to maintain their composure at first. But only moments later, someone—no one knew who—lunged toward the coffin, and all the immortal beings swarmed forward at once.

Countless currents of wind converged into a gale so fierce that it blew the coffin suspended in midair half a foot to the side.

As the coffin shifted, fire erupted throughout the underground cavern. Hundreds of fire basins embedded in the stone walls simultaneously flared with eerie green flames, casting the true forms of the immortal beings onto the walls.

For a time, the cavern was filled with bizarre and otherworldly shadows. The rustling wind sounded like the cries of ghosts, filling every corner of the chamber.

“Run!” Elder Hu shouted.

At that moment, the iron chains wrapped around the coffin began snapping one after another. The broken links lashed through the air like whips, striking toward the wild spirits above with thunderous winds.

The immortal beings who had charged into the cavern naturally refused to wait for death. In an instant, the two sides collided in a chaotic battle.

Snake forms and fox shadows twisted and darted between the chains that whipped down from every direction. More and more chains broke loose from the coffin, gradually sealing off the space in which the immortal beings could move.

When I stole a glance into the distance, I saw Qin Yun standing there, watching coldly. Even when splattered blood rained down over her head, she did not move an inch.

Qin Yun was watching me. She could sense where I was.

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At the same moment that I glanced toward Qin Yun, the coffin shielding my body suddenly trembled.

My heart leapt into my throat—the thing inside had awakened!

I merely glanced at the coffin when a creaking sound came from beneath its lid. The coffin nails, which had already been driven firmly into place, began inching out of the wood under the force exerted from within.

In only a few moments, the lid had opened by roughly an inch, and a thick corpse aura seeped out through the gap.

I hurriedly stuffed two antidote pills into my nostrils and held another between my teeth, remaining motionless behind the coffin.

I still had no idea how powerful the jiangshi inside was. If I acted rashly, I would only create an opportunity for Qin Yun to launch a surprise attack.

By remaining still, I was gambling on whether Qin Yun would make a move.

If what she had said was true—if the entanglement of fate between us was truly because of our betrothal—then she would not stand by and watch me die.

Only moments later, every chain around the coffin snapped. The wooden coffin, its lid hanging ajar, crashed to the ground, sending dust billowing in all directions. Within a radius of several yards, the air instantly became so thick with dust that it was difficult to see anything.

Yet the coffin lid began opening again. The coffin nails, each five inches long, had been pulled out more than three inches, leaving only a small portion barely attached to the wood.

From my position, I could just make out a pair of pale, bloodless hands beneath the lid. Their ten fingers were black as ink as they pushed upward with tremendous force.

Just as I thought the thing inside was about to fling the lid aside, those hands suddenly thrust through the gap. They seized an iron chain and yanked it violently backward.

A wild spirit entangled in the chain was dragged bodily into the coffin amid a terrified scream.

In the next instant, the scream inside the coffin abruptly ceased. Blood sprayed outward. The droplets that landed on the coffin’s exterior flowed downward for only half a foot before seeping back inside.

The jiangshi within had probably not yet fully recovered. It needed a vast amount of fresh blood before it could break free of the coffin.

For me to act now would be unwise, whether I reached my hand inside or simply lifted the lid.

If I reached in, I might lose an entire arm.

If I opened the coffin, I would be releasing the ghost within.

But if I remained still, the moment the jiangshi escaped, I would inevitably be the first one it attacked.

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