"Sigh, matters like these are far beyond the reach of small folks like us. Quentin, you really overestimate us, sigh."
The strange old man said this, and Quentin Kue burst out laughing.
"But then again, even if you wanted to meet King Yama, it would be nearly impossible. Still, the Twin Reapers under him are trustworthy. I just fear that when something big happens, this secret will be kept from the Emperor, and those heartless scoundrels will cause trouble. I've been friends with him for many years."
I nodded, recalling the first time I met the Twin Reapers. Even though I tried to stop them from taking Rachel Lan's soul, if they had wanted to kill us then, it would've taken just a finger to wipe us out. Back then, they showed restraint only to make us back down.
Quentin Kue's tattoo slowly rotated, the chains inked onto Lord Shenyan's body rattled, and then Quentin's face returned to the front of Lord Shenyan's chest, motionless.
"Ugh, that old man is so annoying, always chattering on about so much nonsense." Tammy Blade looked extremely impatient, twisting her neck as everyone turned to look at her.
"What are you looking at? All that stuff you Han Chinese worship—we don't buy into it."
I laughed, and then Lord Shenyan reached out his hand again. I saw the dead leaves on the ground in front of him burst into flames.
"Desire as fuel, let the karmic fire burn it all away..."
The rattling sound continued, and I saw white smoke rising from the space before me. Then, like a melting wall, the air began to drip and dissolve, revealing a dazzling, multicolored hole.
"Let's go. The Corridor of Desire is open—hurry up."
Old Ray began to change, growing as tall as a horse. He gripped my stone-transformed right foot in his mouth and crouched down. I climbed onto his back.
Lord Shenyan entered first, stepping onto the dazzling, multicolored ground. He turned and spoke.
"Be careful as you go in. After all, you're only human. Don't let some overwhelming desire consume you."
As Old Ray carried me into the corridor, the moment we entered, my mind felt as if it would explode—overwhelmed by every kind of desire: hunger, lust, greed...
Clutching my head, I cried out in shock. Old Ray trembled all over, and the five who followed us looked just as uncomfortable. The corridor seemed endless.
Lord Shenyan walked ahead on his own, while Old Ray struggled forward, carrying me after him.
"Hurry up! My karmic fire has burned open this world and created a passage, but it won't last long. If you keep dawdling, desire will crush you."
Lord Shenyan called out as I struggled to withstand the constant assault of desire on my body.
"Hold on, even if it hurts. The way behind is vanishing." Oddball Moe said, and suddenly I felt something wrap around me. In a flash, Oddball Moe had leapt ahead of Lord Shenyan.
I saw the corridor behind us slowly vanish, turning into a world of shifting colors.
The scenery flashed past on all sides. I felt something squeezing my ribs painfully, even as we sped forward.
"Hurry, we're almost there," Lord Shenyan said, then with a boom, transformed into a ball of flame and smashed into the multicolored wall ahead. A large opening appeared, and the asphalt road outside was clearly visible.
With a cry, I burst out of the corridor. Sunlight—the first thing I felt was the warmth of the sun. It was midday, and the light was blinding.
My head was spinning as I lay on Old Ray's back. The other five sprawled in the middle of the road. Only then did I see we'd emerged at the spot where Lord Shenyan intercepted me that day. Now, the surroundings were empty—no one in sight.
"Ethan, are you out?" Chief Stone's voice came from a nearby building.
I lifted my head in a daze and looked over. Time led Howard Lee out of the building, and members of the Ghost Burial Squad gathered around to greet us.
"Who are these folks?" Chief Stone came up to me, and instantly, the Ghost Burial Squad members' faces changed—they all turned black-faced. Everyone saw it.
I hurried to explain and introduced them. Only then did Chief Stone finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"Ethan, you'd better get home quickly. There's a big problem outside your apartment building. Hugh Thompson is trying hard to calm things down—he said to wait for you to resolve it. If things go wrong, there could be a fight, especially with your family's ghost. Hurry back."
We each got into a few black vans. The five newcomers were amazed by everything in the human world, constantly asking questions. Luckily, the Ghost Burial Squad members explained things to them.
All I could think was that the Renegade Monks must be coming to reclaim their Buddha Statue of Visions. I sat in a car with Vincent Swallow and explained the trouble caused by the statue.
Before leaving, I made arrangements with Lord Shenyan. He would come tonight to help dissolve the Buddha Statue of Visions that had merged with my cousin, so his body could recover.
"The Buddha Statue of Visions, huh? For us monks, it's truly an unparalleled treasure. Who would've thought Lord Wraith got hold of it? But karma always comes full circle. Years ago, our Renegade Monks snatched it from a deceased master, and now Lord Wraith took it, only for you to end up with it again."
I let out a surprised sound and asked,
"So you stole the Buddha Statue of Visions?"
Vincent Swallow took a sip from his gourd, nodded, and looked a bit melancholy.
"I was there when we took it. I tried to dissuade my uncle and senior. See, monks like us—who've killed, lied, and broken major vows—are renegades, unable to even dream of Buddha. So, we could only snatch it."
After driving for over an hour, Vincent Swallow suddenly called for a stop. I looked at the road ahead—we were almost at my apartment building, just a few hundred meters away. The nearby houses were all vacant, and the street was deserted.
"Master, is something wrong?" Chief Stone turned and asked.
"It's the Renegade Monks—they've set up the Three-Poison Array. It's fully deployed now. If a fight breaks out, the ghosts will be at a disadvantage."
The cars behind us all stopped. Vincent Swallow got out and walked over, immediately taking out his prayer beads. He tossed them, and the beads glowed gold, flying through the air.
"What should we do?"
"The so-called Three-Poison Array uses a snake, centipede, and toad as its core. If you find and destroy these three, the array will be harmless. Sigh, after all these years, the Renegade Monks' Three-Poison Array still exists in the world."
Vincent Swallow sighed, and I asked him why.
"Of course it can kill, Ethan. Once the Three-Poison Array is activated, anyone inside is doomed." The strange old man walked over, muttering.
We got back into the cars, following the slowly floating prayer beads. Vincent Swallow explained that the Three-Poison Array is made by refining three poisonous creatures and burying them at three points, then painting the array with traceless spirit water. After seven days and nights of power gathering, it forms. Once triggered, it's deadly.
"With such a distance, the array must be huge. Just the preparation probably took a month or two."
I gasped in surprise at Vincent Swallow. A month or two—I hadn't expected the Renegade Monks to be so devious, setting up the array so far in advance.
"They probably want to capture all the ghosts there in one sweep." The prayer beads had already flown into the alley. From a distance, I could see my apartment building, three or four hundred meters away.
After Vincent Swallow got out of the car, he pointed ahead. Tammy Blade came over and shouted in surprise.
"Zhang Qingyuan, why are there so many ghosts at your place?"
The other three noticed it too, including Old Ray.
"Not simple at all, Ethan. The ghosts in your place..." Old Ray said, and I gave an awkward smile.
"No wonder they went to so much trouble, making such a big scene. The ghosts in that building aren't ordinary. Even from a few hundred meters away, I can clearly sense four Soul-Stealing Ghosts inside—stronger than the five of us put together. One of them could take us all on alone."
"Could it be Ji Yuner is back?" I muttered as we climbed a small staircase. It was strange—why was there no sign of life for hundreds of meters around my place? Most houses were empty. Had the ghosts eaten everyone, or just scared them off?
My apartment building was on the southern outskirts, near the university town. It used to be lively. Behind the building was a large area of rental units—low but crowded. Beyond that was the road out of the city, and a mountain shaped like a razor blade. They'd carved away a huge chunk of the mountain for development, but for some reason, the project was abandoned.
The divided land was left alone. I heard that many locals seized the land, built low rental units, and rented them to university students.
"We're here," Vincent Swallow said. We stopped, and the prayer beads hovered in an overgrown, abandoned mini soccer field.
"Be careful," Vincent Swallow said. As he spoke, the strange old man walked over, reached out, and with a single motion, a green character for 'greed' appeared in the sky.