A'jiao flew forward to catch Zhong Yu and bring him back onto the ship, while Huan Jiujun immediately deployed a protective barrier. A hole the size of a bowl had been blasted through Zhong Yu’s chest; black energy seethed from the wound, accompanied by a nauseating stench.
"It is the venomous saliva of that foul flood dragon," Huan Jiujun said, helping Zhong Yu sit upright to regulate his breathing. He began channeling true qi into him while A'jiao stood guard to protect them.
The river water churned violently, and the ship rocked. After a brief moment of panic, the crew resumed their duties with disciplined order. A guardsman carrying a spear ran to Huan Jiujun’s side, thinking to himself that this lord certainly had a strange temperament to be meditating at a time like this. "Lord Huan, the weather is turning for the worse. Would you like to return to the cabin to continue your cultivation?"
Huan Jiujun dared not lose focus and did not answer. The guard asked twice more, and seeing no response, he could only give up, glancing back three times as he returned to his post.
A'jiao leaned over the railing and looked down. The river water was as thick and dark as ink. A shadow flickered beneath the surface; startled, she jerked to the side just as a water arrow grazed her cheek.
"Get back!" Zhong Yu’s voice was low and strained. "Why hasn't the backup arrived yet? By the time I sent the signal, they should have been here."
A'jiao clutched her face and retreated. Though mist rose from the wound, she felt the acquired power within her body flow toward the injury, and the black energy slowly dissipated.
"No wonder," Zhong Yu said, placing a hand on A'jiao’s shoulder. "I was wondering why it stayed lurking at the bottom of the river, afraid to surface. I thought it was wary of something else, but it turns out it fears you. I recall you study under Master Shen; do you possess some specialized technique?"
A'jiao pondered for a moment, her hand still over her face. Though her cheeks stung with a rare sensation of pain, it only served to sharpen her focus. She said, "My magic is derived from the divine power of Empress Houtu. Could that be the reason?"
Seeing A'jiao’s serious expression, both Huan Jiujun and Zhong Yu were stunned. As far as they knew, in both the mortal and spirit realms, only the two Great Sovereigns of the Underworld inherited their divine power from Empress Houtu. Could this girl be a successor to those two deities?
Remembering that the Lord Yunhe was also said to be a disciple of the two Sovereigns, they couldn't help but start calculating.
Zhong Yu spoke up, "It must be wary of the Houtu divine power within you. When heaven and earth were first divided, Sovereign Heaven and Empress Houtu evolved all things, creating the world we have today. No other magic can rival the power of Houtu. This is for the best... though I don't know why reinforcements haven't arrived, we cannot simply wait for death. Lord Huan and I will support you; you must attack that foul dragon."
A'jiao nodded. Lightning and fire techniques dealt the most damage to malevolent entities, but being on the river, fire magic would be weakened. It was better to strike directly with lightning seals.
She formed hand seals, her ten fingers dancing in a blur. Lightning crackled and flashed within her palms. Huan Jiujun and Zhong Yu pressed their hands against her back, channeling their strength into her. The lightning surged, drawing the thick clouds even lower, and the wind turned wild.
The black flood dragon circled in the water. Sensing a powerful presence rising above, it prepared to surface to see what was happening. However, before its head could break the water, it saw the female ghost official at the prow holding a massive orb of lightning. The man in green with loose hair was feeding her power, while the male official it had previously wounded stood by.
The lightning orb was not particularly large, but with the augmentation of Houtu’s divine power, it was enough to strike a sense of primal dread into the dragon’s heart. A'jiao held the orb, feeling it strain to dissipate. Her face grew paler; she knew she couldn't hold it for long. Water conducted electricity; the dragon would be caught in the blast even if it stayed submerged.
A black shadow surged toward the sky.
As the giant flood dragon emerged, the fleet fell into chaos. Even Liu Che, who had been staying in his room, couldn't help but lean out the window. Huan Jiujun was at the prow, so A'jiao had to be there too. He clutched the protective charms, but he could see nothing of the spiritual battle.
As it soared, the black dragon prepared to coil around a smaller boat nearby. However, just as it began to swing its tail, it felt itself unable to move. It instantly remembered the male ghost official—he was still standing! A miscalculation!
Time did not allow for further regret. With a sharp *crack*, A'jiao thrust the lightning orb forward with all her might. For a moment, the black dragon was engulfed in endless lightning, with bolts of light dancing wildly across its body.
A'jiao nearly collapsed to the deck, only managing to stay upright by gripping the mast. Huan Jiujun was also exhausted, but someone caught him. The Commandant led a formation of guards to the prow, and an armored soldier supported Huan Jiujun.
"Careful, Lord Commandant," Huan Jiujun whispered, allowing the soldier to help him sit cross-legged.
Seeing this, A'jiao also sat down, circulating her breath while keeping a close eye on the dragon. As a breeze swept past, everyone smelled the scent of cooked meat.
Liu Che: "..."
He turned to head downstairs, but Guo Tun prostrated himself on the floor. "Your Majesty, you mustn't! A man of great worth does not sit under a crumbling roof, let alone Your Majesty’s sagely person!" The attendants on either side also moved to block him.
He kicked one eunuch aside, drew his sword, and forced his way down. What a joke. He was the Son of Heaven; it was fine to show a symbolic amount of fear, but how could he hide behind his subjects forever? Besides, Huan Jiujun looked severely injured, and he had no idea how A'jiao was faring.
Striding onto the deck, Liu Che approached Huan Jiujun and asked, "Is it dead?"
Huan Jiujun shook his head and closed his eyes again.
Liu Che gripped his precious sword. Realizing the distance was too great, he barked orders to his men: "Ready spears and arrows! While it is pinned down by Lord Huan, find a way to kill it!"
The guards loosed their arrows in unison. Although the black dragon had centuries of cultivation, its defenses had been shattered by the lightning. In its weakened state, it could not focus on fending off the rain of projectiles. Scales began to tear away and fall into the water.
It let out a roar like the lowing of a bull, deafeningly loud.
Seeing the method was working, Liu Che’s confidence surged. He personally took a spear and hurled it at the dragon’s eye. With a wet *thwack*, thick, near-black blood gushed from the dragon’s socket.
The attendants cheered. The Commandant offered another spear, and Liu Che took it. Suddenly, the giant dragon lashed its tail. Amidst the flashing scales, a fierce wind cut like a knife.
"Watch out!" Zhong Yu spat out a mouthful of blood. The dragon had broken free, and its bloodlust had been ignited. It no longer cared for anything else; its massive head lunged toward the ship. Knowing there were many mortals on board, Zhong Yu hurriedly raised a shield.
The dragon roared, and the shield was nearly stained red with blood as fine cracks appeared on its surface. A'jiao opened her eyes just in time to take over from Zhong Yu, supporting the shield, but she knew she couldn't hold it for long.
Though the dragon had been careless, it had still managed to wound Zhong Yu first. While the blow wasn't fatal, its saliva contained a toxin that prevented cultivators from gathering their qi.
Zhong Yu gasped for breath. Seeing that arrows and spears could no longer harm the dragon, he knew that if this continued, everyone present would become a meal for the beast. He suddenly lunged upward, pressing a hand against the dragon’s head as his entire body began to emit a silver light.
Huan Jiujun watched him, dazed for a moment before snapping back to reality. He cried out shrilly, "Zhong Yu, stay calm!"
A'jiao opened her eyes in panic, only to see the light explode. A very faint sigh reached her ears. Her entire body began to tremble; her ghostly form, which usually felt nothing, now seemed to undergo wave after wave of spasms.
The black dragon was shredded into chunks of meat that fell from the sky into the water. Under the glow of the sunset, the river stretched for miles, its waters dyed a hazy red, floating with fragments of flesh and scales. A foul stench radiated from the dragon’s remains, making the mortals retch and the fish flee.
The soldiers all breathed a collective sigh of relief. The Emperor immediately ordered the ships to pull over to the nearest bank and find a way to dredge up the remains.
The ships had only moved for a few moments when massive waves surged again. Everyone turned back in terror to see another giant flood dragon leaping into the air. In an instant, it capsized two ships.
"Loose arrows!" There weren't many arrows left on the ship, and Huan Jiujun had already fallen unconscious. There was no one left to resist the foul beast.
As the dragon thrashed, a thick mist rose from the river, heavily enveloping the fleet. A'jiao finally regained her senses. How could Lord Zhong Yu have had his soul scattered so suddenly?
Where were the patrolling ghost officials of the Underworld? Even if they hadn't received the previous message, they should have felt the shattering of an official’s plaque upon his death in the line of duty! She looked at her palm and formed another lightning seal, but the dragon dodged it with a simple turn of its body.
She seemed to hear the dragon’s sneering laughter. People were falling into the water all around her, their cries for help never-ending. Despair suddenly rose in her heart—she had left the Underworld this time without even saying goodbye to her mother. If her mother found out, she would be so angry.
An arrow pierced the air!
She turned at the sound and saw Liu Che had wrapped the protective charms she gave him around an arrow and fired it.
Seeing the dragon’s attention was fixed on A'jiao, Liu Che gambled that it wouldn't notice a mere mortal. Sure enough, as the beast dodged, it couldn't avoid having its scales grazed, exposing bright red flesh to the air.
Liu Che readied another arrow. A'jiao flickered her form and finally grabbed the small horn atop the dragon’s head. This dragon’s horn was more beautiful than the previous one, even showing signs of branching.
The dragon tossed its head violently, trying to throw A'jiao off, smashing several more boats in the process. Liu Che’s next two arrows missed. He knew A'jiao must be doing something, but he was frustrated by his inability to see her.
The surrounding attendants were terrified. Ignoring the Emperor’s struggles, they hauled him into the cabin for safety.
Flying high up, A'jiao discovered a thin membrane covering the sky, isolating the fleet from the outside world. Her heart sank as she activated her official plaque.
If she let the dragon continue its rampage, not a single mortal would survive—especially Ah Che. He was old; he couldn't even swim to the shore. It was her presence that had dragged them into this. She was no hero, but she refused to hide behind others just to survive. After all, hadn't she spent those many years in misery because she, a living person, had been treated as a discarded tool?
Now, she could be considered to have lived a good life, though it was a pity she wouldn't see the end of it...
The technique for soul detonation seemed to be etched into the official plaque. As A'jiao’s magic guided it, the method naturally surfaced in her mind.
The dragon hadn't expected to encounter two ghost officials in one day who would fight to the death. It thought that with one dead, the remaining two with low cultivation would be easy to handle. Furthermore, its master had instructed it to capture this female official alive, so it didn't dare deal a killing blow, only wanting to shake her off.
As the spell reached completion, Liu Che caught a faint glimpse of light rising from the dragon’s head. It was just like before, and within the halo of light, the silhouette of a woman was outlined.
"A'jiao! Don't!" He didn't know what she was doing, but the unease in his heart was overflowing. His eyes nearly split with strain as he shoved everyone aside and rushed out.
He was drenched from head to toe in blood and gore.
***
*"Ah Che, don't always be so heartless to women, alright? I heard you threw someone out a few days ago and broke their bones."*
*"Tsk, don't you hate it most when there are others around me? Why are you pleading for them instead? Don't you want me to only like you and love you alone?"*
*"Because... I don't want you to become the person I heard about... Besides, the love I want from you isn't us being surrounded by a flock of beauties while you use hurting them to show how different I am. I want it to be just the two of us, just you and me. Do you understand? I don't think someone who is too heartless and cold to others, who hurts them at will, can truly be a good person. If you treat others like this today, will you treat me like this in the future? Besides, I was once someone you hurt."*
*"What's the difference? In the end, I'm best to you."*
*"I think you still don't understand me. Think about it yourself. I'm going to try this twenty-five-stringed se!"*
*"Then I shall play the qin. This is the harmony of qin and se! Hahaha!"*
***
He stared blankly at the empty space before him. If not for the flesh and blood floating on the river, he could hardly believe a great battle had just taken place.
"Your Majesty!" Guo Tun ran out after him. Seeing Liu Che’s wretched state, he hurriedly took a handkerchief to wipe the Emperor’s face.
Liu Che turned his head woodenly and grabbed Guo Tun’s hand. "Where is she?"
"Your Majesty... who?" Guo Tun felt the Emperor’s condition was wrong. His gaze was fixed and hollow, and even his hands were shaking.
"I saw her!" Liu Che seemed to lose all strength and slumped to the deck. "I saw her!" His voice grew faint. "I saw her."
"It was her."
Just a moment ago, A'jiao had been learning to play the *se* while he accompanied her on the *qin*. How could she be gone in the blink of an eye? Just a moment ago, she said he didn't understand her, and they hadn't even clarified the issue... how could she be gone?
Gone!
The Emperor lost consciousness.
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
后土神力 | Houtu Divine Power | Divine energy derived from Empress Houtu, the deity of the Earth.
雷诀 | Lightning Seal/Arts | A specific type of offensive magic involving lightning.
魂魄自爆 | Soul Detonation | A suicidal technique where a spirit or cultivator explodes their own soul to deal massive damage.
官牌 | Official Plaque | A talisman or badge of office for ghost officials of the Underworld.
中尉 | Commandant | A high-ranking military officer (likely the Commandant of the Capital/Guard).
琴瑟和鸣 | Harmony of Qin and Se | A metaphor for a harmonious marriage or relationship.
瑟 | Se | A traditional Chinese plucked zither, similar to but larger than a guzheng.
凫水 | Swimming | Literally "duck-water," a traditional term for swimming.
万乘之躯 | Body of Ten Thousand Chariots | A formal way to refer to the Emperor's person.
千金之子，坐不垂堂 | A man of great worth does not sit under a crumbling roof | A proverb meaning a person of high status should not put themselves in unnecessary danger.
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The Han Dynasty Empress is a Ghost | Chapter 144 | Sacrifice on the Xunyang | Novela.app | Novela.app
