Chapter 1: The Haunted Yōlin (Part 1)

  Guo Mohan just glanced at the situation in the cave and immediately trembled all over, subconsciously throwing away Ding Lingxiu's mask, turning his head to vomit violently, his whole body shaking like a sieve. But Ding Lingxiu actually continued to shine his flashlight towards that nauseating corpse pit, seemingly wanting to retrieve something from inside.

  After a while, Ding Lingxiu seemed to have found what he was looking for, washed his hands with mineral water, and then put the thing into a small porcelain bottle.

  He only then discovered Guo Mohan's miserable state, he slowly picked up the mask that she had thrown on the ground, dusted it off, and smiled wryly at Guo Mohan:

  "Now you know why I hugged you."

  "You... vomit..." Guo Mohan glared at him with difficulty and continued vomiting.

  The little creature also crawled out of the bag, and it was unclear what it was saying to Guo Mohan in a series of high-pitched squeaks. Then, it jumped onto Guo Mohan's back, its small hands gently patting him, as if comforting its owner.

  It wasn't until a while later that Guo Mohan finally calmed down, with tears welling up in his eyes.

  "This... is also too disgusting." Guo Mohan said with indignation.

  "You've traveled far and wide, how could you not have seen this kind of scene before." Ding Lingxiu's face was smiling, although his tone was very relaxed, but as soon as he thought about the situation earlier, he still had a lingering fear.

  "I've seen dead people, I've seen corpses, but I've never seen so many disgusting things piled together."

  Guo Mohan's already pale face turned even paler, and he looked at Ding Lingxiu with a bitter expression. He slowly pulled out a bottle of water to rinse his mouth, then used an embroidered handkerchief to wipe his lips.

  "This must be what the giant bear did, and this should be the food bowl for feeding the giant bear." Ding Lingxiu kept fanning away the flies in front of her eyes, pursing her lips as she spoke, because if she opened her mouth too wide, these dense flies might fly in.

  "Food trough?" Guo Mohan looked around, "I understand, so this huge space is used to raise this giant bear, no wonder it looks like it's been simply renovated."

  Ding Lingxiu nodded and said:

  "That's right, if all goes as expected, the lair of these two monsters should be somewhere nearby, so they can easily keep an eye on this watchdog."

  Guo Mohan tied up his disheveled hair and turned on the flashlight again, sweeping it around him.

  The flashlight shone on the pitch-black walls, making them appear particularly dazzling. Suddenly, they discovered that just behind the deep ditch not far away from the mountain wall, there was a dark green door with a stone platform in front of it that could hold a person. This door looked like an ancient mansion's sliding door from afar, but the door panel wasn't the usual crimson color because crimson had some deterrent effect on evil spirits. It seemed that the strange color of this door was likely chosen by the two monsters on purpose, and this place was very likely to be their hiding place.

  "How did they get up so high?" Guo Mohan asked involuntarily.

  Ding Lingxiu didn't answer, he shone his flashlight around the door and found that the surrounding rock wall was extremely steep and smooth. The entire door was embedded in the rock wall, making it almost impossible to climb up. And there were no visible pulleys or ladders around, it was unimaginable how they had freely entered.

  Ding Lingxiu reached into his bag to grab the Hundred Ghosts Painting, but suddenly had an epiphany and gritted his teeth in anger. He only now realized two extremely serious things that he hadn't considered beforehand, and these two things put him in a very passive and awkward situation.

  The first thing is that the person beside him now is Guo Jia's thousand gold miss, Guo Mo Han, a cold and elegant girl who hates the Ding family to the bone. If he uses the Hundred Ghosts Picture in front of her, it would be equivalent to telling her that the son of your father's killer is right in front of you, what do you want to do? And the second thing is even worse, even if he has the opportunity to use the Hundred Ghosts Picture now, he can't summon any monsters because his dove blood was spilled when he subdued the corpse-eating ghost and broke the porcelain bottle, and he forgot to refill it with new dove blood.

  Ding Lingxiu didn't make a sound, tightly biting her lip.

  "What's wrong?" Guo Mohan also shone his flashlight on the rock wall beside the door, looking at Ding Lingxiu in surprise.

  "Ah, nothing, I just can't think of a way up, it's a bit frustrating." Ding Lingxiu echoed with a smile.

  "About this matter, haven't you subdued even a single flying demon up until now?" Guo Mohan's clear and cold eyes sparkled under the moonlight, his mouth curled up high, revealing a triumphant smile.

  Ding Lingxiu didn't know how to respond and licked her lips.

  "Ah, watch me." Guo Mohan said with an air of arrogance.

  She took out a lantern from her handbag and put it on her shoulder, then fished out something like a table lamp from the bag.

  Ding Lingxiu fixed his gaze, and in an instant, he was stunned, simply not daring to believe his eyes. Because he discovered that the lamp Guo Mohan took out of his bag was actually the Spirit Vulture Palace Lamp.

  The Lingque Palace Lamp is an ancient, primordial divine artifact. Legend has it that it is the Human Lamp of the three lamps of Heaven, Earth, and Man used by the lamp-wielding Taoist, capable of subjugating and refining ghosts and demons below the level of a Ghost King, as well as greatly increasing the magical powers of gold-attribute ghosts and demons. Although she had heard her father mention that some demon hunters could use the Lingque Palace Lamp to exorcise demons, this was still Ding Lingshu's first time seeing with her own eyes this divine artifact that only appeared in books. Upon seeing it, she discovered that the lamp was indeed breathtakingly beautiful. The golden body and jade top of the lamp in Guo Mochan's hand were surrounded by a crystal lantern, with peony-patterned edges hanging from the outer rim of the lamp stand. The carvings on the lamp post above were of phoenixes in flight, supporting the dark, mysterious, and cold lamp body that shone like a night pearl. On the front of the lamp's base was engraved countless Taoist talismans, while the back was adorned with magnificent jade buildings - the legendary Lingque Palace. The entire divine lamp radiated a brilliant light, emitting an enigmatic yet unobtrusive glow as it rested in her hand.

  "Is this lamp you're holding the Lingyue Palace Lamp?" Ding Lingshu blurted out.

  Guo Mohan's eyes sparkled as he glanced at Ding Lingxiu with disdain and said:

  "That goes without saying, a genuine Lingyin Temple lamp."

  "It shouldn't be." Ding Ling's heart was filled with doubt, "Although I've always heard that the Spirit Swallowing Palace Lamp still exists in the mortal world and has been used by a certain demon hunter, but according to the records of demon history, it says that this Spirit Swallowing Palace Lamp no longer exists."

  Guo Mohan gazed at Ding Lingxiu with a seemingly smiling yet not quite smiling expression, her beautiful and icy face appearing somewhat mysterious and enchanting in the dim light.

  "I've also read the You Shi, how come I don't know?" Guo Mohan raised his tone and gently stroked his temples, with a hint of sarcasm in his words.

  Ding Lingxiu lit a cigarette and said seriously:

  "In the records of the demon history, the lamp head of the Lingyin Temple is called Ma Shan. It's a ghostly monster that relied on the spiritual energy of Mount Lingyin to cultivate itself into a spirit. Later, it took advantage of the sleeping people and left Mount Lingyin, becoming a carefree mountain bandit king. After King Zhou of Shang became tyrannical, Ma Shan surrendered to him and followed him in battle, making great contributions. However, when King Zhou became cruel and slaughtered many lives, Ma Shan did not adapt to the situation and insisted on going against heaven's will, assisting King Zhou in his cruelty. As a result, he was captured by the Western Qi during the Battle of Muye. Even after being captured, the Western Qi army had no way to deal with him because he possessed divine powers - his head could regrow immediately after being cut off, and his body could re-condense after being scattered by a magic staff. The true fire of samadhi also had no effect on him, and instead, his demonic energy grew stronger. In the end, only Erlang Shen Yang Jian went to Mount Lingyin to invite the Lamp Lighting Taoist, who used the crystal lamp to retrieve the lamp head, finally putting an end to it."

  Guo Mohan nodded, she also knew about the legend of Ma Shan. Ding Lingshu continued to speak with a mysterious tone:

  But later, the lamp holder obtained twenty-four Dinghai pearls and devoted himself to Buddhism, becoming the ancient Buddha of the lamp. The spirit lamp was sealed within the temple. However, as time passed, the seal on the spirit lamp weakened with time, and one day, Ma Shan, who had cultivated into a demon emperor, broke free from the seal and escaped into the human world. The remaining glass lantern was eaten by a small snail from the Spirit Vulture Mountain. This small snail itself had a deep understanding of the Tao, and after eating the spirit lamp's body, it gained the ability to swallow all things, becoming another demon emperor, one of the legendary ancient demon emperors - the Glass Ghost Mother. The Glass Ghost Mother was later subdued by the Buddha and converted to Buddhism at Spirit Mountain, transforming into a glass cicada. From then on, the spirit lamp disappeared from the human world.

  Guo Mohan gently stroked the patterns on the lanterns of Lingyue Palace with his hand, and a subtle expression appeared on his cold face:

  "What you said is all correct, the records of the demon history are accurate, and this Spirit Vulture Palace Lamp indeed split into two demon emperors, Ma Shan and Liu Li Guimu, seemingly disappearing without a trace." Guo Mohan paused for a moment before continuing: "But what you don't know is that afterwards, there was a legendary figure who single-handedly subdued both demon emperors and re-refined the lamp into a Demon-Suppressing Spirit Instrument."

  "Legendary god? Could it be..."

  Ding Lingxiu's hand holding the cigarette paused in mid-air, staring blankly at Guo Mohan, hesitating for a moment before speaking.

  "Is that person Guo Pu's predecessor?"

  Guo Mohan raised his face and nodded proudly.