Feng meditated atop the city god temple''s broken stele, Annals of Folk Mysteries open on his lap. Dried blood smudged the "Soul Disorientation Array" diagram''s corner — the mute girl''s fingerprints. The blind man tapped his cane: "Her wall-phasing comes from Lord Grey sealing her earth soul in those bronze vessels."


    "Humans have three souls — earth soul binds physical form." The cane pointed toward the living-burial troupe''s ruins. "With hers imprisoned there, her flesh became spectral mist."


    The girl toyed with lightning-jujube wood, suddenly plunging it into her chest. Her body dissolved into fog, phasing through temple walls before reforming. Feng tore a page corner: "Use this wood as conduit. Draw the nine-grid disorientation array within the lightning circle."


    At 11:45 PM, she floated toward western hills. Rodent hordes swarmed at the jujube scent. Deliberately steering the umbrella''s butcher phantom, she smashed it against a withered tree. Lightning-wood debris showered like metallic rain. As rats chased the illusion, she phased through cliff faces repeatedly, coercing the black tide into self-consuming ouroboros.


    Underground, Feng''s boots ground across floor tiles marked "Kan 5, Li 3, Zhen 7". Gears rumbled as the third coffin exploded open — Lord Grey''s true form: a calf-sized rat with bronze longevity lock fused to its tailbone, every hair glistening with corpse-oil.


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    "A glorified vermin." The blind man sneered, jabbing his cane at coffin-bottom vessels. Lord Grey''s whiskers twitched. Tar-like mucus spewed from wall-mounted bronzes: "Zhang the Blind, should''ve gnawed your legs clean last..."


    Feng''s Yin Breaker talisman silenced the threat, disintegrating upon mucus contact. He slammed his palm, channeling the Earth Vein Severing technique from the Annals through his palm lines into the cracks. The chamber tilted like storm-tossed skiff. Lord Grey''s claws scraped stone as coffins slid toward escape tunnels—


    "Mirror array activate!" The blind man struck his cane. Blood-lit shards oozed rodent saliva instead. Feng''s sword arm hovered frozen mid-swing, the peachwood blade''s final charge crackling at its tip.


    The girl materialized abruptly through the ceiling, translucent body crackling with residual lightning. Lord Grey''s longevity lock glowed white-hot. Feng''s scar and sword erupted in blinding arcs. His mudra transformed the girl into living lightning rod, dragging celestial fury underground—


    "Heavenly Master thunder arts..." Lord Grey''s shriek died in the maelstrom. Violet dragons of electricity ravaged the chamber. The shattered lock released hundreds of luminous specks — stolen lifespans escaping through temple eaves. One drifted into a farmhouse window, rousing a comatose child.


    Dawn pierced stormclouds as Feng helped the blind man exit. Paper-Chen''s phantom sedan listed beside the pavilion, its nail-curtains bleached grey. The girl perched on the Chaofeng beast, carving "1998" into its head — the bronze shard missing from its right socket.


    "Time to hunt the next." The blind man rubbed his cane''s fissures, sunglasses mirroring dew on temple eaves. Feng studied his lightning scar, still throbbing with distant thunder''s echo.