Chapter 186 — Soul Gathering

Zhou Yixuan was frantic, sweat beading all over his head, yet he dared not disturb Xiaowan; he could only pace the ground in circles, sighing and groaning. As for the figure in the dark shadows—though all around him was ghostly gloom, he seemed utterly unconcerned; on the contrary, the ghostly qi itself seemed to fear him, keeping its distance. Now the man in black fixed his gaze unblinking upon Xiaowan, and found himself nodding despite himself. After a long while, a voice came softly, so low that only he himself could hear: "How can this be? This young woman's gift for the ghost path is so extraordinary... even in such straits, she still holds on. If she had a true master of the ghost path to guide her—give her time, and what might she not become..."

Even as he spoke, a strange hesitation inexplicably showed upon his face.

Just then, across Xiaowan's black-qi-ridden face flashed a sudden look of joy. Her right hand, still steeped in the blood array, rose abruptly and seized at the empty air, then dropped swiftly and grasped the Wild Wolf Daoist's right hand. Hard upon that, she lifted her left hand from the blood pool as well, and as she made to grasp at the air in the same manner, all at once the ghostly qi and wandering spirits of the whole sky broke into a great howl, as though plunged into irrepressible fury. The ghostly air turned grim as iron, and in an instant black qi came surging in to wrap Xiaowan's whole body round.

Beyond the array, the trees within three zhang withered on the spot, as though they too could not endure that boundless, baleful malevolence.

Zhou Yixuan went pale with horror, at a loss what to do. He saw Xiaowan gasping for breath, trying again and again to set her left hand upon the Wild Wolf Daoist's right, but the endless black qi wrapped her thickly round, ghostly wails rang out, baleful winds blew gust on gust, and it was as though some mighty force held her hand from descending. Xiaowan's face grew uglier by the moment; her body shook, and threads of blood began to seep from the corner of her mouth.

Seeing that this array was about to destroy itself and all within it, Zhou Yixuan in his desperation was just about to rush forward heedless of all else and drag Xiaowan from the array—he knew not what would come of it, but to be far from those ghosts could only be better. To his astonishment, before he had even moved, a dark shadow suddenly barred his way. Zhou Yixuan started; at this moment the man in black looked much the same as the ghosts around him.

The man in black rasped coldly, "If you want your granddaughter to live, stand still where you are and do not move."

With that, the shadow flashed, and the man in black had appeared around Xiaowan and that strange array. Without another word he began to wave his arm again and again, and from his hand flew a stream of dark objects—thwip, thwip, thwip—

bursting through the earth and planting themselves around the array.

Those objects looked black, like iron yet not iron; what they were could not be told. But once they were driven into the soil of the array, the blood within it seemed at once to feel some outside force—its flow quickened to nearly twice its speed in an instant, as though boiling. A red radiance rose from the array and settled over Xiaowan.

This red glow seemed to work wonders upon the surrounding ghosts and spirits. In a moment they fell back one after another, and beneath the red light Xiaowan's color swiftly returned to normal. Her left hand, still poised in the air, came down at once and seized the Wild Wolf Daoist's left hand.

The instant Xiaowan grasped the wolf's arm, there came a faint crackling sound. A dull red light spread from the Wild Wolf Daoist's palm downward like lightning, and in a trice it had covered his whole body. Then his entire frame flared bright, and after a moment dimmed again and returned to normal.

At that moment Xiaowan forced her eyes open and stared hard at what lay before her: the Wild Wolf Daoist's head had suddenly lolled to one side—and slowly, he let out a breath.

Xiaowan was overjoyed. Her spirit relaxed—and then, all at once, her vision went black, and she swooned away.