Chapter Twenty: Guiding the Soul (Supplementary Chapter)

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"Xiaochen, take this gray wolf's head and use it as a stool for now. Watch and see if my marksmanship has declined recently!" Xu Weiyang looked at the red fox, towering a full ten feet high, without the slightest hint of fear. Instead, he laughed heartily, gun in hand, speaking over his shoulder to Zhuang Xiaochen.

After so many years in the Prison of Bìzhèn, at last, an escape attempt had occurred.

"Alright!"

Zhuang Xiaochen hefted the wolf's massive head, as large as a lantern, and set it on the ground. Wolf blood spattered all over his scale-patterned silver armor, but he showed no hurry to wipe it away. Brandishing his phoenix-headed axe, he responded loudly.

"Foolhardy mortals."

The fox demon replied in a low voice. A sinister wind gathered in its upturned, pointed muzzle, forming into a swirling vortex with a stench of rot, and blasted toward Xu Weiyang, who only laughed in the face of danger.

"A mere two-tailed fox demon dares to boast? This bone-stripping wind of yours can hardly scratch my golden helm and silver armor!"

Xu Weiyang sneered. He had already noticed the two tails swaying behind the fox demon—a clear sign it had cultivated for less than three centuries. Judging by its mottled fur, it looked more like a wild fox than anything else.

After all, he himself had once slain a five-tailed fox demon in the Mist Demon Forest!

But before Xu Weiyang could raise his gun to slay the fox demon and test whether his own skills had dulled, the azure sky above suddenly gathered a dense mass of thunderclouds.

The oppressive clouds rolled in, flickering with lightning.

"Is this a tribulation?"

Zhuang Xiaochen looked up, surprise in his voice.

"A tribulation? It is not worthy, nor am I."

Xu Weiyang let the swirling demon wind lash against him. As he had claimed, the foul wind could not harm him in the slightest; it only made his scale-patterned silver armor gleam, the dragon motifs on his golden helm seeming to move.

"Then what is happening..."

Zhuang Xiaochen was puzzled by the change in the heavens, when suddenly he felt a hand rest on his shoulder from behind.

Sizzle.

Without hesitation, he swung his phoenix-headed axe backward, the blade scraping against something as hard as armor. Sparks flew in a bright arc, and Zhuang Xiaochen felt a heavy foreboding.

Whoever had appeared behind him was surely formidable.

"It's me."

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A calm voice sounded behind Zhuang Xiaochen. It belonged to a languid, fair-faced man, whose lazy blinking gave him a touch of boyish charm. Yet the way his left hand, clad in a gold-threaded bamboo-pattern glove, easily gripped the phoenix-headed axe, dispelled any notion of harmlessness.

"Your reflexes are quick. You nearly took off my head, made it just like that wolf head under your seat."

"I did not realize it was Deputy Warden Shen!"

Zhuang Xiaochen hastily kicked aside the wolf's head, dropped to one knee, and bowed his head to the tall, indolent man stepping from the dungeon.

"No harm done. I am, after all, unlike this wolf."

Deputy Warden Shen yawned, his phoenix eyes narrowing as if he had just woken. He released Zhuang Xiaochen's axe, raised his right hand lazily, and snapped his fingers.

"Fall."

With his word, lightning that had been brewing in the black clouds above suddenly crashed down on the fox demon, whose limbs were bound by fresh green bamboo that had sprung from the earth.

A bolt as thick as an arm flayed the demon's back open, smoke and the stench of charred flesh rising, the fox howling in agony.

Lightning is destruction to all living things.

"Deputy Warden Shen, why not let Xiaochen sever its head with his phoenix axe? That would save you the trouble of calling down lightning again and again."

Xu Weiyang turned to the deputy warden, who stood at the dungeon entrance, his clothes drenched through, and bowed deeply.

"His axe may cleave flesh, but it cannot break a demon's soul. My lightning may be troublesome, but it reduces them to ash, leaving no chance for reincarnation."

Deputy Warden Shen's narrowed eyes opened a little. At his waist now hung a pale yellow gourd, its mouth half open, drawing in wisps of gray smoke.

Within that smoke flickered the shadow of a wolf's soul.

"But how did this Bì'àn die?"

Deputy Warden Shen strode forward, dragging the body of a Bì'àn beast, fully twenty feet long, out from the black dungeon into the daylight.

The thunderclouds overhead dispersed.

The green bamboo retreated into the earth, releasing the fox demon.

"Deputy Warden Shen is right, how did this Bì'àn die?"

Atop the black wall of the death row cell, a figure suddenly appeared. He cradled a paper banner in both arms, his airy tone giving the impression he might drop dead at any moment.

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At the sight of this man, Zhuang Xiaochen and Xu Weiyang became instantly alert, raising their phoenix axe and red-tasseled spear toward him.

For behind the frail-looking, handsome man loomed more than a dozen vast shadows, each one shackled.

"Xie Miu'an."

Deputy Warden Shen's phoenix eyes narrowed again, a smile flickering across his languid face as he simply called the man's name.

"Deputy Warden Shen, I too wish to know how this Bì'àn died."

Behind the fox demon sprawled on the ground, Deputy Warden Lin had appeared at some point, flanked by two rows of jailers—four in each row. Each bore armor with golden thread embroidery on their shoulders, not mere white stitching.

From the end of one row stepped a man holding a faintly glowing yellow iron chain and a wooden shackle, which he tossed into the air.

In an instant, the shackle swelled to dozens of times its size, clamping down on the wounded fox demon. The iron chain spun in midair, extending itself until it bound the demon fast.

As the iron chain shackled the fox, its body shrank until it was no bigger than a kitten. The grim-faced jailer tied it to his waist by the chain.

"Is it just the two of you?"

Deputy Warden Shen did not rush to reply. He folded his arms behind his head and glanced toward the distant Temple of the Prison God, waiting a moment before asking.

"No, it's just him."

Xie Miu'an adjusted his white cap, the paper banner in his arms fluttering gently. Black, ancient script appeared on the blank streamers—five characters to a line.

On the left: "In Mourning, No Return." On the right: "The Banner Leads the Way."

Above the banner appeared a row of blue-glowing words: "Taiyi, Lord of Azure Splendor, Savior from Suffering."

The wolf demon's soul, which had already entered Deputy Warden Shen's gourd, now flew out, drawn by some uncanny force. Gray smoke gathered behind Xie Miu'an, forming the headless ghost of the wolf demon.

From the fox demon hanging at the jailer's waist, wisps of red vapor drifted out, gathering behind Xie Miu'an into a wan, listless image of a fox demon.

Yet the fox's phantom was insubstantial, as though it might vanish at any moment, while the real fox demon at the jailer's waist hung limp and lifeless.