Chapter 1 The Release

Ye Yang pinched two fingers together and swept them across the seam of the saber box. The seal affixed to the box instantly snapped, and baleful aura surged out from within.

A moment later, the saber box seemed unable to withstand the aura, and it exploded into fragments with a loud bang.

Dense black mist filled the air, like the sound waves of thousands of ghosts screaming in unison, shooting out in all directions like sharp arrows.

The glass in the room shattered simultaneously, and countless figures, driven by a gust of yin wind, rushed out of the house.

Zhang Chengye exclaimed, "The ghosts are escaping, Mr. Ye..."

Even Zhang Chengye himself hadn't expected that the souls of the death row inmates slain by the ghost-head saber would be attached to the blade. By the time he wanted to suppress the ghosts, it was already too late.

As the family in charge of that ghost-head saber, if the Zhang family allowed the ghosts to escape, causing a monstrous disaster, they would inevitably bear the karma. Even if they weren't punished in this world, the Zhang family wouldn't escape the blade on the Ghost-Slaying Platform in the underworld.

As for Ye Yang, as the one who opened the seal, the sins he would bear would be even greater than those of the Zhang family.

Amid Zhang Chengye's panic, Ye Yang calmly raised his hand and grabbed into the surging black aura.

"That's baleful aura! You can't touch it!" Zhang Chengye was scared half to death by Ye Yang's action, but he was already overwhelmed, so how could he have the ability to care about Ye Yang?

Zhang Chengye watched helplessly as Ye Yang's palm turned as pale as snow in the baleful aura, and the color drained from his face as well.

The way of术 (shù – arts) says: When baleful aura enters the body, all blood energy is lost.

Ye Yang's hand had lost its blood energy, wasn't that a sign of baleful aura entering his body? After a while, Ye Yang's mind would be eroded by the baleful aura, and he would completely lose his reason.

The only thing Zhang Chengye could do was to take Zhang Qiang and escape from the house as soon as possible, before Ye Yang went mad and started killing people.

Before Zhang Chengye could reach Zhang Qiang, he heard Ye Yang let out a roar: "Open!"

The baleful aura that had been entangling Ye Yang's body was like dark clouds scattered by thunder, rolling back from all around Ye Yang's arms.

With one hand, Ye Yang held a wide-backed ghost-head saber, three chi long and hung with nine iron rings, blade facing the sky.

As Ye Yang's gaze moved forward along the back of the blade, he pressed his right thumb against the blade. As a drop of blood flowed forward along the blade, Ye Yang suddenly roared angrily, "Saber locks the wronged souls,收 (shōu – receive)!"

A moment before, the ghosts that had just escaped from the window flew back in the opposite direction at Ye Yang's roar, one by one submerging into the blade.

The black iron ghost-head saber, which had almost lost its luster, was once again covered with a layer of eerie light, and it returned to being the evil saber that exuded a baleful aura.

Ye Yang gently twisted the hilt of the saber, and the nine rings on the blade immediately made a terrifying strange noise. Zhang Chengye, the original owner of this saber, even fell to the ground, his eyes vacant, amid the strange noise.

"Get up!" Ye Yang roared and threw the saber back to the awakened Zhang Chengye: "Now you can perform the斬法 (zhǎn fǎ – severing ritual). But, don't move yet. You can only move when I tell you to!"

Zhang Chengye caught the ghost-head saber and stood aside respectfully. Ye Yang took out his phone and called Lao Liu Tou: "Lao Liu, someone may be trying to harm you. Take Xiao Chun and leave the pet store immediately. Find a place to hide for a while, and we'll find you after Li Po and I return."

Ye Yang finished speaking in one breath, but all that came from the other end of the phone was a busy signal – Lao Liu had hung up!

Ye Yang turned around sharply and said, "Sever! Quickly!"

Zhang Chengye, who had been waiting for this moment, raised his saber and slashed down at the top of Zhang Qiang's head. Ye Yang suddenly stepped forward, grabbed Zhang Chengye's wrist, and twisted it outwards with a sudden movement. The blade, which should have been slashing towards the top of Zhang Qiang's head, swept across his eyelids.

Zhang Qiang, who had been unconscious, suddenly sat up and slammed his head into the ghost-head saber.

"Quickly retract the saber!" Zhang Chengye wanted to retract the saber, but his arms were under Ye Yang's control and he couldn't break free. He could only watch Zhang Qiang touch the steel saber with his head.

At the critical moment, Ye Yang suddenly twisted the hilt of the saber and slapped the back of the blade on Zhang Qiang's head, knocking him to the ground again, before releasing Zhang Chengye's arm. The ghost-head saber, filled with baleful aura, fell to the ground.

Zhang Chengye didn't even care about his family's treasured saber. He threw himself on Zhang Qiang and pressed down on his philtrum: "Qiangzi, Qiangzi..."

Zhang Chengye called out for a long time but Zhang Qiang didn't respond. He asked Ye Yang with red eyes, "What's wrong with Qiangzi?"

"His soul has left!" Ye Yang said in a deep voice, "Zhang Qiang must have not told you something. The person who cast the spell on him is extraordinary. Although I made amends for the fact that your saber strike wasn't in the right place just now, it was still a step too late. His soul has come out."

Zhang Chengye subconsciously retorted, "Mr. Ye, you must be mistaken, right? How could there be a living soul in this house?"

Before Zhang Chengye could finish speaking, the corner of his eye caught sight of Zhang Qiang standing by the window.

He was wearing a set of white clothes for the dead, and his eyes looked like they had been cut open horizontally with a knife, with blood flowing straight down his cheeks.

Just now, didn't Ye Yang's saber strike sweep across Zhang Qiang's eyes?

Was Zhang Qiang coming back to claim a life?