The Cult of the Yu’er God

“HAH!” Gao Zhijian, naked from the waist up, swung his enormous halberd at the head of the village, a lone warrior holding the pass against a tide.

Thick veins bulged across his body, and a rising blood-aura, like smoke or mist, shrouded him completely.

His enemies were a crowd of men, women, and children, all with black cloth draped over their shoulders. If you judged by their appearance alone, they looked entirely like common villagers.

But now they were unnaturally frenzied, wielding all kinds of farming tools as they charged mindlessly at Gao Zhijian.

“Don’t be scared of the big guy! Charge!! We’re the Yu’er God’s people in life, and we’ll be the Yu’er God’s ghosts in death! Even if we die, we’ll be reincarnated as emperors!”

With a flash of cold light, the three men at the front of Gao Zhijian’s line were instantly cut in half at the waist. Guts and blood splattered across the white wall beside them.

But there were too many of them, and Gao Zhijian was starting to struggle. On top of that, the sneak attack at night had been so sudden he hadn’t even had time to put on Peng Longteng’s armor.

Sswish. A sharp stone flew from afar and struck Gao Zhijian on the forehead, leaving a bloody scratch.

“AAARGH!” Gao Zhijian arched his back, crouched slightly, and with a sudden burst of strength in both hands, hurled the giant halberd toward the direction the stone had come from.

The thousand-jin halberd spun with a whoosh, tearing through the crowd like a force of nature, and flesh and bone blossomed in the air like a crimson flower.

Gao Zhijian charged through the gore, chasing after the blood-drenched halberd.

These people were like madmen. The murderous aura of a military weapon did nothing to deter them. Their eyes were wild with fervor as they swung their weapons madly at Gao Zhijian.

In the middle of the chaos, a needle tipped with white fuzz flew over and lodged itself in the face of a man carrying a hoe.

As he cried out in alarm, his features slipped off his face like liquid, sliding down his skin into his clothes. He was suddenly blind and deaf.

“Blockhead! Hold on! We’re coming to help!” Gouwa’s voice made the cult followers turn to look at the dirt path leading into Niuxin Village.

When they saw a motley crew charging toward them, the crowd burst into roaring laughter.

Seeing the bodies on the ground, the fire in Chun Xiaoman’s heart could no longer be contained. She pulled out the Daoist bell Li Huowang had given her and shook it violently.

She bit a mouthful of mud from the ground and barked an order at the overlapping Wandering Lords in the air: “YUE QING ZHI QU!”

The constantly multiplying Wandering Lords nodded faintly, then swooped down like ghosts toward the cult followers. Every time one passed through a person’s body, that person stiffened and collapsed to the ground.

But that wasn’t enough. Chun Xiaoman tucked the Daoist bell into her belt, tore off her outer shirt to reveal the yellow paper vest beneath, and pulled out a serrated shortsword. Tapping the blade against her brow, she began to chant.

“The disciple raises his eyes to see the blue sky. All the masters are by my side! This body becomes bronze skin and iron bones. A head wears twelve iron hats. A body wears twelve layers of iron armor. Copper skin wraps three turns. Iron skin wraps three layers.”

Behind her, the five men, including Lü Xiucai, began the same ritual. The serrated shortswords broke the skin on their scalps. Blood ran down their faces from their brows, gathering at their chins and dripping to the ground.

“The dragging blade turns into goose down. The iron ruler turns into lamplight. The rolled-up heart-stone turns into bubbles! All you masters… Wusheng Laomu! Please aid your disciple and grant swift divine possession!!”

As the final incantation was spoken, Chun Xiaoman, Lü Xiucai, and the others’ eyes bulged wide and stopped blinking. They raised their serrated shortswords high and charged into the rabble ahead of them.

Clang! Clang! Clang! When saws and pitchforks stabbed into them, Chun Xiaoman, Lü Xiucai, and the others heard only the crisp ring of metal. Their confidence surged, and they swung their blades at the enemy.

Their swords could pierce another’s body, but the enemy’s weapons could not harm them. It was a one-sided slaughter.

With these Spirit-Invoked warriors joining the fray, Gao Zhijian’s situation eased considerably. A handful of people were now pushing back the massive cult.

Under their leadership, the people of Niuxin Village found their courage and grabbed whatever weapons they could, beginning to fight back.

In an instant, the entrance to Niuxin Village had turned into a battlefield.

Just as the cult followers were being slaughtered in greater numbers, an old woman in a tattered kasaya—small as a dwarf—suddenly emerged from Gao Zhijian’s shadow. She raised a black jade dagger and drove it deep into his side.

Gao Zhijian grimaced against the pain and looked down. The old woman’s face was covered by a black rag, and on the rag was a large “巫” (wu) character written in purple.

A raspy, bone-chillingly old voice came from beneath the cloth. “Hehehe… Burn the paper money, offer the gold and silver, pour the wine and incense, the year is ending, tomorrow a new spring…”

Gouwa, who had been peeking from the side, saw this and pulled a rotten wooden ruyi scepter from his robe. He swung it sharply at the old woman.

But she was short and incredibly fast. She yanked her weapon free and immediately vanished into the chaotic battlefield.

“T-t-t-take… c-c-care! There’s… there’s…”

Before Gao Zhijian could finish, the old woman’s figure appeared again behind a young woman who had just used the Spirit Invocation. With a swift slash of the black jade dagger across her neck…

The body that should have been impervious to blades and spears split open. The woman stared in disbelief as she crumpled to the ground, clutching her bleeding throat and making a gurgling sound.

“Hahaha! The Yu’er God brings good fortune! Three feet of gold bricks on the ground, treasures hanging from the money tree!”

“Nan’er!” Chun Xiaoman screamed the girl’s name in agony. But at that moment, she felt a cold chill on the back of her neck. Someone was behind her!

Just as Chun Xiaoman was about to share the same fate, a Wandering Lord swooped down from the air, forcing the elusive old woman to retreat.

But it was only a retreat. In an instant, the tables had turned. Faced with the phantom-like old woman, Chun Xiaoman and the others stood back-to-back, no longer daring to act with abandon as they had before.

“This won’t work! If this keeps up, the whole village is finished. No matter the cost, I have to kill that old hag!”

Chun Xiaoman shook the Daoist bell again with grim resolve. Following Senior Brother Li’s instructions, she shook her head vigorously, and the Wandering Lord in the air instantly multiplied from one to ten. “QING GUI YUE!”

At Chun Xiaoman’s command, an eerie wind swept through Niuxin Village. The Wandering Lords scoured heaven and earth, hunting for the hidden old woman.

The price of a full three years of Chun Xiaoman’s life was not for nothing. Under the Wandering Lords’ pursuit, the old woman was soon forced out of the crowd.

Just as she was about to slip into a patch of shadow, Gouwa raised the rotten wooden ruyi and swung it again. The Heart-Element’s tongue on the ruyi flicked lightly, and her mind was instantly flooded with bewilderment.

The massive halberd came whistling down from the sky, slamming heavily onto the old woman. The force of a thousand jin crushed her mortal body into a paste of mud and blood.