Chapter Forty-Seven: The Black Fiend Array

At the entrance, a barrier had been set, making it impossible for anything inside to get out. From the floor below came Nakamura Taro’s startled shout, quickly followed by a string of avian-like curses. I shouted loudly, “Nakamura the Little Wolf! If you’ve got the guts, come in and show me what you’re made of!” I deliberately called him “Little Wolf” instead of “Taro,” just to infuriate him and provoke his anger.

Sure enough, the man was as simple-minded as I’d expected. Hearing me call him “Little Wolf,” he roared furiously, spitting out curses in his native tongue. His voice drew closer; it seemed he was about to charge upstairs.

From the entrance came continuous wails, like vengeful spirits tormented in a vat of boiling oil. I sighed inwardly—so Nakamura Taro could actually control the corpses of those who’d died from his Black Sha Array. These poor souls had died unjustly, and even in death, their bodies were manipulated. My Demon Subduing Seal was a secret Buddhist technique, containing supreme power. If the spirits weren’t released quickly after being struck, they would simply dissipate to nothing.

Suddenly, the entrance fell eerily silent. I grew alert, tracing the air before the door with my finger, redrawing the Eight Trigram Array I had placed earlier. Nakamura Taro was just behind the entrance.

Ren Tianxing and Yue Yue stood behind me, watching the door intently. All at once, with a boom, a blue flame burst from beneath the door, and the entire door ignited, reduced to ash in less than half a minute.

Ren Tianxing whispered in my ear, “Looks like your skills aren’t quite up to par—the barrier you set was broken. What now?” As Nakamura destroyed the entrance, a figure flashed inside the doorway. Three gunshots cracked—Ren Tianxing had decisively fired three times.

Nakamura Taro let out a faint snort, as if hit by the bullets, and stumbled back half a step. But then, with a slight twist of his body and a flick of his wrist, three bullets fell to the ground at his feet. We were shocked—he had caught the bullets barehanded at such close range. Even with a bulletproof vest, one would suffer greatly. Yet Nakamura had managed to stop them with his bare hands.

Nakamura sneered, “I’ve long heard you Chinese are devious and cunning, always attacking from the shadows.”

“Not as much as you,” I shot back. “We may attack from the shadows, but we only harm one person at a time. You, on the other hand, have claimed dozens of lives single-handedly.”

Nakamura’s face darkened. I pressed on coldly, “With sins as deep as yours, it’s time you paid the price. I’ll send you as a guest to the Hell of Saws and Knives.”

Enraged by my words, Nakamura wanted to retort, but his tension and poor command of Chinese left him stammering insults, repeating himself in frustration. The Hell of Saws and Knives is the eighteenth level of hell, reserved for those who committed grave evils in life. There, the condemned are sawed into eighty-one pieces, their wounds exposed to the sun for seven days and nights, torn by myriad insects, then doused in saltwater, their torment repeated endlessly. For ordinary folk, only those who abducted or lured others’ wives or children, or cheated in business, would be sent here after death. But for practitioners of the occult, this is the place of nightmares.

Hearing me mention this hell, Nakamura gnashed his teeth in hatred. He drew a small cloth doll from his pocket with his left hand, grasped a needle in his right, and glared at me with venomous eyes. He began stabbing the doll, muttering incantations under his breath.

Suddenly, the wind howled atop the building. Ren Tianxing edged closer to me, while Yue Yue clung tightly to my sleeve. I remained unmoved, waiting for this precise moment.

Without warning, a horde of walking corpses surged from the entrance—at least thirty of them, all former diners from the main hall. Their faces had turned black; some had rotting flesh hanging from their cheeks, their eyes glowing with a sinister red light. Under Nakamura’s command, these corpses hopped toward us in unison.

I shouted fiercely, “For someone who claims to study the Dao, you’re using the living for your Black Sha Array—aren’t you afraid of shortening your lifespan? Tonight, Heaven will see to your punishment!”

Nakamura chuckled wickedly, “Even if it costs me years, I’ll drag you all down to keep my junior brother company!” He chanted a few more spells, and the little cloth doll bristled with needles.

The corpses quickly surrounded us. Ren Tianxing fired several shots, each bullet striking a corpse squarely in the forehead. Yet, even when they fell, they rose again. Firearms were utterly useless against these things, and the horde pressed ever closer. Yue Yue, hiding behind me, flung her crucifix at the corpses. When it struck two of them, they immediately burst into flame, reduced to ash in seconds.

Seeing our helplessness, Nakamura Taro burst into wild laughter behind us.

Yue Yue clung to me desperately. “Brother Changfeng, do something!”

“Aren’t you eager to study formations and the art of control? Let me grant your wish.” Seizing my chance, I pulled both her and Ren Tianxing in front of me, using them as human shields and shoving them into the horde of corpses.

Neither of them could have expected this—Ren Tianxing’s face, in that instant, was one of utter disbelief. As they stumbled forward, Yue Yue screamed, and Nakamura sneered at my apparent cowardice and betrayal. He directed the corpses to press in on them, intent on having Ren Tianxing and Yue Yue torn apart.

Yue Yue cried out in terror, while Ren Tianxing, relying on his martial prowess, kicked the mindless corpses aside with left and right sweeps. But the horde grew thicker, soon engulfing them both.

After pushing them forward, I gathered my spiritual energy to its peak, silently reciting the secret Nine Syllable Mantra and forming seals with my hands at lightning speed.

“Rin, Pyo, Toh, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen—Break!” One by one, the mantra’s words left my lips as my hand seals shifted from the Unmoving King Seal to the Treasure Vase Seal. The word “Break!” unleashed the full power of the mantra.

Simultaneously, the Eight Trigram Array I had drawn on the floor blazed to life, radiating brilliant yellow light that shot skyward. In response, the second Eight Trigram Array I had inscribed in the air above also activated. Together, the two arrays formed a cage, trapping everything within.

Ren Tianxing and Yue Yue, caught in the horde and used as my shields, suddenly found their clothes glowing with dazzling yellow light. The corpses clutching at them were thrown aside by the radiance. As I shouted the final “Break!” a fierce wind arose within the array, sweeping the corpses into dust in an instant.

The little cloth doll in Nakamura’s hand, the tool he used to control the corpses, spontaneously combusted. A backlash of force hurled Nakamura against the courtyard wall. Blood trickled from his mouth as he lost consciousness.

Ren Tianxing and Yue Yue, still dazed, hadn’t yet realized what had happened. The corpses had all been destroyed by my secret mantra and the Eight Trigram Arrays. Nakamura, who had only just been gloating, now lay sprawled like a dead pig. I stepped forward, bit my fingertip, and sealed four key acupoints on his body: the brow, temples, chest center, and the base of the thumb. With these points sealed, he was as powerless as an ordinary man, stripped of all supernatural abilities.

Yue Yue, furious, ran over with hands on her hips to berate me for using them as human shields. “I trusted you with my life and you pull such a despicable trick!”

I laughed heartily. “But look at you, young lady—you’re perfectly fine, aren’t you? Not a scratch! So how can you call me despicable?”

Ren Tianxing shot me a look, his expression awkward. To be honest, my actions were questionable, but in that situation, it was the only way. If Nakamura had realized they were only a diversion, he wouldn’t have directed the corpses their way, and I couldn’t have used the formation to destroy them all.

I patted him on the shoulder in apology. Fortunately, men are quick to understand each other—even a glance or a gesture can say it all. Given the urgency of the moment, his initial displeasure faded, and he gave me a generous smile, letting bygones be bygones.

As for women—especially ones like Yue Yue—it’s best not to explain. The more you try, the worse it gets.

Ren Tianxing handcuffed Nakamura, exclaiming in surprise as he did so.

He had discovered a bullet wound on Nakamura’s right arm. Ren Tianxing kicked him and cursed, “You thought you were invincible, but you still took a bullet from me. Maybe I should give you a few more for good measure!”

Yue Yue, puzzled, asked, “Didn’t you aim for his forehead? How did you hit his arm?”

Ren Tianxing was also perplexed, as he prided himself on his marksmanship. He glanced at me, seeking an answer.

Examining Nakamura’s arm, I said, “So the man knows how to displace his image and body. Too bad his skill wasn’t up to scratch.”

With Nakamura in our hands, the two of them were relieved. But I warned them not to get complacent—there might still be two more down below. Nakamura was a mere third-rate opponent to me; it was his junior brother, a master of spells within spells, who was the real threat.

We descended the stairs step by cautious step, our footsteps echoing eerily through the building. I’d never heard such strange and heavy sounds come from my own feet.

The lower we went, the heavier my heart became. I sensed something was wrong—a premonition that, from experience, was rarely mistaken.

Ren Tianxing dragged Nakamura along, even letting half his body protrude outside, ready to use him as a human shield in case of ambush. Such underhandedness, and yet he did it without hesitation.

The whole building was eerily silent, as if cut off from the world. Occasionally, a stray phone would ring, adding to the atmosphere of dread.

Yue Yue, who had been so eager to study the art of power and formation, now showed not a trace of that enthusiasm. I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself—women truly are fickle, and Yue Yue was proof of it.

Still, caution was paramount. I was too young to want to drink with the King of the Underworld just yet. My tolerance isn’t great, and I’d hate to end up like the Monkey King, raising havoc in hell after one too many.

We slowed our pace as we reached the bottom of the stairs. I formed a hand seal for peace with my right hand and stepped into the main hall.

The place was in chaos. Earlier, the diners had been consumed by the corpse energy of the Black Sha Array, dropping dead in disarray. Nakamura had tried to use their bodies against me, but his methods were clumsy compared to his junior brother’s. The latter’s corpse puppets had been concealed within talismans, spells hidden within spells—a truly formidable technique. Even I had nearly fallen victim.

If only Old Gu Jing were here, things would be much easier. But the hall was deserted, tables and chairs overturned in every direction.