CHAPTER 451: CHAPTER 445: PAYING HOMAGE TO THE GENERAL

They’re here?

At that moment, Hu Ma took a deep breath, instantly feeling the pressure upon him double.

As he kicked the Yin General a good twenty feet away, he looked up. Outside the town, the night was so deep it felt as if the sky itself had fallen. Within it, countless cries of ghosts and wails of spirits echoed, along with the chilling clang of chains.

The Yin General, sent flying by the kick, stood up rigidly, as if stupefied. Hu Ma then saw numerous semi-transparent shadows rapidly converging on it. One after another, they merged into its body, becoming the shadows that now surrounded it.

The escalating power and the vast aura of Ghosts made Hu Ma, who was close by, feel his heart clench, and he instinctively took two steps back.

The Yin General resembled a walking corpse—its body stiff, its claws sharp. But this was not its most fearsome aspect. Its greatest strength lay in its ability to conscript resentful souls as ghost soldiers, commanding them into battle as if they were living humans.

Any vindictive soul that drew near would be conscripted and transformed into a ghost soldier. If it were only surrounded by ordinary vindictive souls, like those from the previous night, it would be one matter. Although influenced by the Yin General and gaining formidable abilities—even capable of suppressing Magical Treasures—they were ultimately old souls, on the verge of dissipating.

But now, drifting towards the town were newly dead souls. Each one was tainted with the Yin General’s aura, their forms appearing much more solid, as if they had been summoned back from the underworld to the mortal world. They stood rigidly behind it.

Facing the surging baleful aura, Hu Ma felt as if he were confronting an entire army alone.

ROAR...

At the very moment these vindictive souls flew in, the Yin General’s earth-shattering presence seemed to make the entire town tremble.

Even Old Master Sun, who was eavesdropping from the wall, stumbled back a step, frantically clawing at his ears as if someone had shoved a piece of red-hot charcoal into them.

The others were equally shocked. They leaped up to gather under the swaying oil lamp, their hair standing on end. Even the cups, chopsticks, bowls, and plates on the tables developed fine cracks before shattering with a series of CRACKLING sounds.

On the streets, or crowded into narrow houses, the townsfolk felt their legs trembling uncontrollably. Their ears filled with a deafening clamor, as if they had accidentally stumbled into a military encampment, and their faces grew pale and dazed.

"What’s happening outside? What in the world is happening out there?" someone shouted in terror. "Could it be? Could those people surrounding us have broken in?"

But despite the shouts, no one could offer an answer. In an unnoticed corner, Calculation knelt before Master Ma, kowtowing repeatedly. Seeing Master Ma merely drinking leisurely from the trough, not even glancing at him, Calculation was overcome with anger and alarm, and he began to shout, "What do you all take this for? That’s a Yin General!

"Once this entity is refined, it becomes an artifact capable of forcibly seizing karmic fortune! Just one conscription of soldiers here, and the entire West Ridge Road will suffer misfortune for three years!

"Destiny, karmic fortune, and blessings are the three great taboos of the Path! Those lacking sufficient power wouldn’t even dare to divine them, resigning themselves to Heaven’s will. But why are more and more people daring to tamper with these things now?

"That thing outside is forcibly conscripting soldiers to seize the karmic fortune of West Ridge Road! Does it intend to make a bid for the imperial throne in the future?

"It had better be something like that, only then would it be worthy of your Meng family’s reputation!"

As the corpse qi surged, even faintly showing signs of overwhelming power, Hu Ma took a deep breath and managed to forcibly calm himself, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the Yin General before him.

He could feel the ever-increasing momentum emanating from the Yin General. In that instant, under the weight of its pressure, he also sensed the General Order hidden within his own body.

The General Order seemed to be enduring immense pressure; it trembled faintly, on the verge of being overwhelmed.

A vicious blade harms its master. This was essentially a curse, yet it was more damaging than any tangible harm.

Because the General Order was in his hand, the entity before him was restricted and suppressed by him. However, as its power continued to grow, more and more of that pressure was, in turn, transferred onto Hu Ma himself.

It was like trying to lift a great cauldron to smash an enemy. Naturally, the heavier the cauldron, the better. But if the cauldron’s weight suddenly increased several times, or even dozens of times, before one could even swing it, they themselves would be crushed into paste.

HEH HEH...

Feeling the torrent of Living Souls attaching to itself, the Yin General’s depleted frame seemed to fill out instantly. Just moments ago, Hu Ma had pinned it down, its belly had been sliced open, the Soul Summoning Talisman within it removed and torn. It had looked as pitiful as a tattered sack.

But now, with Living Souls possessing it, its flesh and blood began to mend at a visible rate.

Even the talismanic armor on its body seemed to undergo a subtle transformation, morphing into a complete, imposing, and strangely majestic suit of armor that symbolized its status.

In the next instant, new, sapphire-blue eyes seemed to grow within its empty sockets. Staring intently at Hu Ma, it leaped high, arms outstretched, its sharp claws plunging down towards Hu Ma’s chest.

Oh no...

Even Immortal Miaoshan, watching from the town behind, couldn’t help but feel a great shock at this moment. She frantically waved her horsetail whisk, intending to rush forward and help.

It was only at this moment, it seemed, that she suddenly realized this young man was indeed the one chosen by the Great Mighty Sky General Seal, the destined individual who had passed the Three Passes and Twelve Tribulations...

But he was just a young Shousui man who had only just pushed open a Mansion Gate! He hadn’t even formally begun to cultivate a Magic Body...

How could he possibly contend with such a malevolent entity all by himself?

However, just as she waved her horsetail whisk and was about to dash forward to his aid, the surging baleful aura emanating from the Yin General suddenly blasted towards her. The horsetail whisk in her hand was flung back against her face, leaving a red welt on her fair cheek.

Even before it had fully become a Yin General, the vindictive souls surrounding it already possessed the ability to suppress their Magical Treasures. Now that it had begun to take the form of ghost soldiers, it was even more terrifying. The mere force of the surging baleful aura was enough to repel her.

If that’s the case...

In Immortal Miaoshan’s terrified gaze, a horrifying scene unfolded. The Yin General leaped high. To her, it was no longer a mere Demon Corpse; it was like a vast expanse of deep night, carrying with it a roiling mass of yin qi, crashing down directly onto Hu Ma.

Everyone in the Path understood that an individual could not contend with a Guest. One was a single person; the other represented an entire clan or collective. An individual possessing the strength of a Thousand Jin might be a once-in-a-century prodigy, but a hundred people exerting a combined force of ten thousand jin was commonplace.

And now, Hu Ma was like a single person confronting a deity of a great hall, or rather, facing an old fire pit that a village had worshipped for many years.

The pressure from all those ghosts, marshaled by the Yin General, was about to come crashing down on his head.

HUFF...

At that moment, as the shadows woven from countless translucent figures threatened to completely engulf him, Hu Ma took another deep breath. He thrust all three sticks of the Three Column Tao into the incense burner.

Abruptly, he plunged the red Wooden Sword into the ground. Then, placing both hands on his ribs, he triggered the resonance of his Five Organs. But this was not all. He was no longer a Shousui who had merely undergone Ascension; he had entered the Mansion. His trump card, the Five Thunders Golden Toad Roar, now had an even more advanced application.

The Pure Yang Five Thunder Sound erupted from his mouth, a vibrating Thunder Sound. It was as if he had suddenly spat out a rolling inferno.

WHOOSH! This inferno surged forward, striking the lunging Yin General. The Pure Yang Qi momentarily scattered its seemingly inexhaustible ghost-soldier qi, like dissipating smoke.

But it was only for an instant. The Five Thunder Sound lasted but a moment. The Yin General’s surging yin qi was about to coalesce again immediately, much like how one could punch a waterfall, causing it to pause ever so slightly, only for it to continue cascading down.

Seizing the brief moment the yin qi dispersed, Hu Ma had already pointed one hand to the sky and the other to the earth. He then lifted his left leg and took a sudden, powerful step forward.

Brilliant light erupted from his Seven Apertures. This light surged out from his body, and above his head, it vaguely formed a semi-transparent projection of himself, imbued with divine radiance, appearing even more majestic and solemn.

This Divine Statue coalesced, also pointing one hand to the sky and the other forward, exuding an indescribable aura of being indomitable, fierce, and domineering. Most crucially, this Divine Statue had an additional arm under its ribs, clutching something that resembled a Token.

His expression solemn, Hu Ma slowly exhaled, his eyes focused. From this close proximity, he stared into the Yin General’s sapphire-blue eye sockets, his voice commanding from on high, "Kneel!"

THUD!

It was as if some invisible, terrifying force suddenly pressed down upon the earth, causing a heart-stopping tremor.

Immortal Miaoshan was some distance away, and amidst the cacophony of ghostly wails and divine howls, she couldn’t hear what Hu Ma said. However, she saw the posture Hu Ma slowly adopted, and comprehension finally dawned on her. Her spirit captivated, she blurted out, "Kui Star Kick?"

Is he... is he practicing the Dharma Form?

Confronted by this thunderous command, the Yin General—burdened by hundreds of Living Souls, or rather, hundreds of ghost soldiers—suddenly displayed an expression of terror, much like a human’s.

A faint talisman seal on its forehead abruptly shone with a brilliant light, creating a subtle resonance with the General Seal held in the hand of Hu Ma’s Divine Statue.

This talisman seal on its forehead was precisely the one Hu Ma had stamped on it the previous night.

At such close range, the Yin General seemed to feel an indescribable pressure. Its stiff, straight legs, as if made of wrought iron being bent, suddenly gave way, and it knelt rigidly upon the ground.

With the General Order before it, it could not *not* kneel.

But as it knelt, those vindictive souls under its influence—especially the newly attached ones—were also subjected to an invisible compulsion. They simultaneously knelt with it, all facing Hu Ma.

THUD!

Simultaneously, back in the town, Immortal Miaoshan also found herself sinking to her knees.