"Mountain Fiend Ghost King? How is that possible?"
I could clearly feel Zhang Dabiao's hand, which was supporting me, tremble. The impression the Mountain Fiend Ghost King had left on us was too profound. Especially for Zhang Dabiao, he had been on the brink of death back then, just a step away from the underworld. If it weren't for the Heaven Retreating Seal suddenly transforming into a dragon at the last moment, none of us would have survived Qingfeng Mountain.
To this day, I still haven't figured out why the Heaven Retreating Seal transformed into a dragon.
The sleeping Daoist, with his half-closed eyes, emitted a glint of sharpness and asked, "Are you sure it's the Mountain Fiend Ghost King, and not some other evil spirit?"
His words left me unsure how to answer. When I had mentioned the Mountain Fiend Ghost King, I had confidently stated that it had been annihilated by Li Zuoquan, a fact I had witnessed firsthand. Now, for the Mountain Fiend Ghost King to reappear would be to slap my own face.
Furthermore, the sleeping Daoist had also said that evil creatures like the Mountain Fiend Ghost King were born of heaven and earth, requiring exceptionally harsh conditions to form. Qingfeng Mountain nurturing one was already a rarity; the possibility of a second one appearing was slim.
Less than a day after he said this, I had already broken it. This not only made me lose face but also the sleeping Daoist.
I desperately wanted to say that I might have misread and offer to cast another divination.
However, my pride as an Yin Gua Master wouldn't allow me to say that, nor could I. What's right is right, and what's wrong is wrong. If I lied here, not only would I fail to overcome this trial, but my ancestors would also cease to offer me their protection.
"Daoist Master, I wouldn't mistake it. The Mountain Fiend Ghost King's eyes are crimson, emitting a red glow, and its entire body is shrouded in a dense fog of black Yin energy... You were watching nearby just now, so I presume you saw the scene in the iron bowl clearly..."
"The Mountain Fiend Ghost King almost killed me back then, so the evil entity in the image must be the Mountain Fiend Ghost King, no mistake," Zhang Dabiao chimed in to support me.
"Hmph... Just a Mountain Fiend Ghost King, is there any need to make such a fuss? With so many of us, are we afraid of it?" Hu Sixi snorted, clearly displeting my description of the Mountain Fiend Ghost King's terrifying nature.
His words startled me, and I inwardly wondered why he had changed his tune and was speaking in my defense.
I opened my mouth to explain that the Mountain Fiend Ghost King also had Ghost Mountain Fiend subordinates, but as the words reached my lips, I felt a sharp pain in my arm and my intended explanation turned into a muffled groan.
I glanced sideways at Zhang Dabiao in confusion, not understanding why he had pinched me. He spoke first, "Esteemed Daoist Masters, my younger brother is injured. I'll take him back to expel the congealed blood. As for dealing with the Mountain Fiend Ghost King, we leave it to you all."
My spitting blood was real, and they had seen it. The backlash could be minor or major. At its worst, it could cripple my cultivation, and at its best, it could lead to common ailments like colds.
"Very well... Young Friend Song, you should go down and rest. The remaining matters will be handled by us old fellows. Since that evil spirit wasn't killed last time, we absolutely cannot let it roam free again this time," the sleeping Daoist declared fiercely.
I cupped my hands in respect to the old fellows and then, leaning on Zhang Dabiao for support, walked away.
After returning to our resting vehicle, I finally asked Zhang Dabiao why he hadn't let me mention the Mountain Fiend Ghost King and its Ghost Mountain Fiend army. While these old fellows were powerful, even a strong tiger couldn't withstand a pack of wolves. Ants gnawing at an elephant would eventually wear it down.
"It wasn't that I didn't want you to speak, but she didn't want you to," Zhang Dabiao said, pointing to Yue'er, who was curled up in the passenger seat.
If he hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have noticed. Yue'er was completely covered by a black robe, and with the dim interior light, without Zhang Dabiao's reminder, I wouldn't have realized there was someone in the passenger seat.
"Yue'er, what is this..."
"I am the Mountain Fiend Ghost King."
"Pfft... You... What did you say? You are the Mountain Fiend Ghost King? What kind of joke is this?" I was initially shocked, then I immediately assumed Yue'er was joking. I specialized in Yin Gua, calculating fortunes for the deceased and finding bodies for spirits. The image displayed in the iron bowl was undoubtedly that of a Ghost King. If I couldn't even distinguish between a living person and a ghost in an image, I might as well throw away my eyes and forget about casting divinations.
"You don't believe me?" Yue'er straightened herself and looked directly at me.
I shook my head and said, "Don't just say I don't believe you; Zhang Dabiao won't believe it either. Right?" The last two words were directed at Zhang Dabiao.
"Don't drag me into this! I believe she is the Mountain Fiend Ghost King."
"Brother Zhang, you..." Before I could finish asking, I felt the temperature in the car drop sharply. A slightly dazzling red light emanated from Yue'er's eyes. Her entirely black robe billowed with black mist, identical to the Mountain Fiend Ghost King I had seen in the iron bowl.
Yue'er revealed a glimpse of her true form and then quickly retracted her "ghostly appearance."
"You... You..."
I pointed at her, then looked at Zhang Dabiao, completely bewildered by what they were up to. Wasn't this a blatant attempt to ruin my reputation? Mistaking a living person for an evil spirit. If my ancestors found out, they would surely be so angered they'd crawl out of the underworld to find me.
"Heh heh... Don't get agitated. Listen to Yue'er's explanation. This matter is quite amusing," Zhang Dabiao said, patting my back.
At this point, Yue'er also removed the equipment she was wearing. It turned out she was wearing a pair of red sunglasses, with infrared emitters attached to the sides of the lenses. At first glance, they resembled the red glow emanating from the Mountain Fiend Ghost King's eyes. Her black robe was an ordinary robe lined with dry ice, which produced smoke upon contact with water. Under the cover of night, it looked quite ghostly.
After Yue'er's explanation, I looked at her with confusion and asked why she had done this. Also, my divination indicated Hu Yuan, so how could it possibly point to you?
This point was crucial for me. Everyone's birth date and time have different destinies. Therefore, there are no two identical birth dates and times in the world, just as no two fingerprints are alike.
I still had to rely on this for a living. If I messed up a simple divination to find a spirit, wouldn't I be undermining my own livelihood?
"I'll explain this!" Yue'er took off all her equipment, put it in her bag, and explained, "Because Hu Sixi gave you a fake birth date and time."
"The birth date and time he gave me is fake? Impossible! I watched him write it with my own eyes. And why would he give me a fake birth date and time?" I was confused by Yue'er's words. His grandson died right before his eyes, so wouldn't he seek revenge?
"It's true that he wrote the birth date and time himself, but it wasn't Hu Yuan's," Yue'er emphasized again.
"Then whose birth date and time was it?"
"Mine."
"You... Yours? How did he have your birth date and time?"
In ten years, I had cast thousands of divinations and had never suffered a backlash. I had thought it was due to the Mountain Fiend Ghost King's immense power, but I never imagined I had cast a divination for a living person and suffered a backlash. Wasn't this like lifting a rock only to drop it on my own foot?
"There was no other way. If I didn't do this, Hu Sixi would have acted against you."
"Acted against me? Why?"
"Because of the Mountain Fiends."
"Mountain Fiends?" His words made me even more confused. The Mountain Fiend's night raid caused Hu Yuan's death, but the root cause was Hu Sixi and Wu Yun's slaughter of Mountain Fiends for their own ambitions. What did this karma have to do with me?
"Hu Sixi wanted to monopolize the Half-Yin Realm and used your life to threaten me into cooperating with his scheme. He intended to lure the Mountain Fiends to disperse everyone else, but he didn't expect his own grandson to unfortunately become the one who died..."