Chapter 207: A hundred ghosts in a frenzied dance
The ability to set up a formation that could seize the wonders of the heaven and earth using the mystical rules of nature and a few special ingredients, was a secret skill that all magical cultivators could grasp.
Han Shuo was no longer content staying passive after digesting all of Chu Cang Lan’s memories. Even if his current cultivation level wasn’t up to par, he’d be able to take a more active role by using some magical formations.
Using a strategy of acting first and reporting later, Han Shuo took over the shop with the place of extreme water. He used Florida as an excuse to fob off Harris when he came by later.
The Cairo mercenary band was in charge of everything in the Valley of Sunshine, so they weren’t afraid of Han Shuo getting up to any tricks. The shop would unconditionally be returned over to Han Shuo anyways, once Florida was dead. Han Shuo was just taking possession of his property earlier.
A storefront wasn’t the same as other items, capable of being taken away and easily stored. If that had been the case, Harris probably wouldn’t have been willing to hand over the store that early, since he would’ve been concerned that Han Shuo would’ve taken the items away. But since the store was immobile, this concern didn’t exist for Harris. Not to mention, the deed was still in his hands. Thus, Harris didn’t say anything after listening to Han Shuo’s explanations, tacitly approving of what Han Shuo had done.
The storefront rumored to be cursed was larger than Han Shuo had imagined. It was roughly four hundred square meters and had an eighty square meters courtyard. There were many small and large rooms, including various tables, chairs, beds, lamps, and assorted furniture. It was because this was an ill omened place that all of the items inside had become unlucky after the owner had died. No one would take anything from this store and potentially bring trouble down on their heads. Apart from lacking blankets and other daily necessities, as well as a thick layer of dust due to lack of occupants for a long time, there wasn’t much that the storefront was missing.
Han Shuo had already explained the peculiarities of this storefront earlier when talking about forming the mercenary band. Although Emily and Phoebe didn’t quite understand his explanation, they understood that Han Shuo had already cleaned out the unclean thing within this store. Out of their trust for Han Shuo, although the two girls were a bit uncomfortable with this place, they didn’t protest and allowed Han Shuo to take up residence within.
Since he’d decided to set up a formation, he had to make the necessary preparations. Han Shuo made a list and put Emily and Phoebe in charge of collecting some necessary items of cold to form the foundational materials.
Due to consideration of their safety. Han Shuo had Gilbert follow behind them. With such a strong and extraordinary dark dragon following behind, and the two girls being an archmage and a swordmaster respectively, they likely wouldn’t come off worse for the wear if they ran into Edwin.
Once everyone had been sent on their way, Han Shuo chanted a necromancy magic spell and summoned ten skeletal warriors. He gave an order, and they all picked up brooms and dustbins and started sweeping from room to room.
The “Shura Soul Formation” was a formation that trapped victims in a realm of illusions. This formation needed the death auras from a hundred ghosts to support it, as well as the bones from lands of cold to form six Shura pillars, and the blood of virgins as ink. Once magical glyphs were written onto the pillars, a piece of floating rock infused with five drops of blood essence from the caster would form the eye of the formation and complete it.
Once the formation was formed, any enemies who didn’t understand formations would be attacked by the death auras of a hundred ghosts as soon as they walked in. They would become disoriented and see illusions, discovering a spectral clone of themselves that wanted to kill them at all costs. Fear would cause him to sink into madness in an instant. Furthermore, no matter how strong their heart was, it was a very difficult thing to triumph over one’s heart.
The well in the middle of the place of extreme water had been slightly modified by Han Shuo so that he could make full use of it. He was using the well as the eye of the formation and had added some of the materials he’d picked up these days to form a small scale “Kelpie Possession Formation”. Each wraith had been planted with a jellyfish and had been transformed into a kelpie in the well through use of secret arts. Anyone who neared it would be possessed by the kelpies and dragged into the well.
After setting up the two formations, Han Shuo suddenly reflected that he’d been wise alright, to combine the use of Chu Cang Lan’s magical cultivation and the necromancy magic of this world. It seemed that they did indeed give rise to unforeseen effects when combined.
The “Shura Soul Formation” ghosts could be replaced by wraiths, and the bones of cold could be replaced by ordinary skeletal warriors. The “Kelpie Possession Formation” also made use of wraiths. If Han Shuo hadn’t known necromancy magic, he’d have to collect all the materials himself from cemeteries.
However, with the identity of a necromancer, he merely needed a few chants to collect all the materials. It’d saved him no end of effort.
After busying about for a day, Emily, Phoebe, and Gilbert were quite surprised by what they saw in front of them when they returned to the shop late at night.
Six stark white bone pillars were stuck in six different corners of the courtyard. Cold aura wafted from the center of the courtyard. There were clouds of foggy wraiths in the air, posturing and making faces as they danced through the air. A sinister feeling filled the surroundings.
Several white, foggy clouds were floating intangibly around the well in the center, forming leering and grimacing faces. A blood red stone was placed within an indentation next to the well. Some of the wraiths floating through the air were circling around the stone, with their bodies dyed red as a result.
Han Shuo was sitting down cross legged in front of the stone, with beams of black splendor emitting from the palms of his hands. His hands had turned into an inky black as hazy light circulated around his body, making his entire being appear quite evil.
The doors to all the rooms around the courtyard had been opened, and all the dusty rooms had been thoroughly cleaned. The light within them was cozy and inviting, with none of the cold air in the courtyard drifting into the rooms. “Oh, my gosh, what did you do?!” Emily exclaimed in surprise as she turned on the spot. Curiosity filled her eyes and she reached out a hand to touch one of the Shura pillars.
“Don’t move!” Han Shuo suddenly opened his eyes and called out softly to Emily.
Emily’s jade hand had been about to touch the pillar when she hastily yanked it back, as if she’d been frightened. Phoebe and Gilbert were still a bit flabbergasted at the moment. They’d never have thought that this place would’ve been transformed so utterly within the span of a day.
A strange presence suffused the courtyard, making them instinctively uncomfortable. They’d never seen this setup of straight things, and had no idea what they were for. Their minds were full of questions at the moment.
Smiling faintly, Han Shuo stood up from his cross legged position and dripped a drop of bright red blood into the stone. The breezy courtyard whipped up even stronger winds as the wraiths danced and howled with the addition of the blood. Bouts of cold air of death made everyone feel incredibly frightened.
“Did you get everything I wanted you to purchase?” Han Shuo smiled faintly.
“Ask him, he was the one who collected the most important thing!” Phoebe pointed at Gilbert with a reddened face.
“Gracious master, why are you collecting the blood of virgins? You are too shameless and dirty!” Gilbert griped and looked at Han Shuo with a disdainful expression, yet he appeared quite excited.
“Oh shut up, did you get it?” Han Shuo glared angrily at Gilbert.
“Heh heh, I did I did. There’s nothing that can’t be settled without gold coins! I spent only fifty gold coins and took a spin around the small alleyways of the valley to get what you needed.” Gilbert took out a bottle the size of a palm as he spoke.
Emily and Phoebe both snorted coldly when he took out that bottle, splitting off into two directions and heading for the rooms.
Original and most updated translations are on volare. If this is being found anywhere else, it has been stolen. Don’t support theft. 🙁
“Why are you two snorting at me? I wasn’t the one who wanted to do so, it was all master’s orders! Did you think I wanted to? All those stupid women inside looked at me like they were looking at a huge pervert! If I hadn’t taken out the gold coins, I probably would’ve drowned from them spitting at me!” Gilbert appeared quite aggrieved when he saw that both Emily and Phoebe were looking down on him, and couldn’t help but complain loudly.
There were some crudely wealthy customers within the red light district who liked to be waited upon by virgins. In order to lure these customers, those in charge would spend a great deal of money to purchase virgin slaves. Han Shuo had sent Gilbert there precisely because he knew this.
Although Han Shuo had a thick enough skin, he still couldn’t set aside his face enough to purchase these things. After all, if someone with no idea of what was going on saw his actions, they would think his actions were dirty enough indeed.
“Alright alright, go about your business, don’t bother me!” Han Shuo rather understood Gilbert’s complaints, but didn’t bother comforting him.
Han Shuo had used the Demonslayer Edge to carve various complicated drawings on the six Shura pillars. He now hauled a bucket of spirit water from the place of extreme water and diluted the bottle of virgin blood within it.
He used a spoon made from the wood of a peach tree to stir it, then picked up the bucket and flew upwards, landing on top of the first Shura pillar, and poured the liquid on top of the pillar.
Emily and Phoebe exited their warm rooms when they saw Han Shuo start his work. Their clear eyes were full of curiosity about Han Shuo’s actions.
The reddish liquid flowed down the pictures that Han Shuo had carved earlier. Amazingly, none of the liquid dripped to the ground. They filled the cracks within the pictures as if being tightly attracted by a surge of power.
Han Shuo threw the empty bucket away to the side after he poured the liquid over the six pillars. He then flew to the blood red stone next to the well and sent black sparkles soaring up from his palm, forming a magical formation and branding it into the center of the blood red stone. The six pillars suddenly glowed with a red light as the faces of all sorts of howling and wailing ghostly faces appeared in the pictures carved onto the Shura pillars. The hundred wraiths that had been flying around the courtyard sped towards these pictures as if sparrows returning to a nest.
The originally intangible wraiths melded with the twisting shapes of the ghosts as they sank into the Shura pillars. The ghosts seemed to come alive as they started thrashing and dancing on the Shura pillars, revealing fanged and bloodthirsty mouths. Successive bloodcurdling wails of desperation rang in the night sky, terrifying the nearby people.
This is bad! Han Shuo was greatly startled. He hadn’t thought that such frightening screams like the cries of ghosts and hows of wolves would sound after the formation was complete. He immediately formed another spell and threw it into the floating rock that had absorbed five drops of his blood essence.
In that instant, all the wraiths were sucked into the Shura pillars, and the pillars that had hundreds of ghosts dancing madly over them became lifeless, as the wraiths within seemed to be frozen in the drawings of the ghosts.
“Give me the rest of the materials. The formation should be completed first. Even if that old monster Edwin pays a visit, I’ll make sure he doesn’t get off easily!” Han Shuo laughed madly as he spoke to Emily and Phoebe.
Their two faces were full of shock at the moment. When they heard Han Shuo’s words, they handed over the items of cold that they’d purchased in a morass of confusion. When all the materials had been collected, Han Shuo started flying rapidly around the courtyard amidst the three people’s befuddled gazes. It was then that the three discovered that many large and small ditches that could perfectly hold all of the items in Han Shuo’s hands.
Han Shuo retreated from the courtyard when all was ready and summoned Gilbert to his side, where he was standing next to Phoebe and Emily.
He gave a mental order and a beam of red light soared to the sky from within the courtyard. Wind howled in the courtyard for a moment as an extreme feeling of cold from the hundred dancing ghosts on the pillars suffused the other three’s hearts.
The three understood that a simple courtyard had turned into a place of lethal danger after Han Shuo’s preparations!
“Everything will be flawlessly perfect as soon as we erect a soundproof forcefield around the area!” Han Shuo turned to look at Emily with a mysterious smile.
“Leave that to me!” Emily understood his meaning and released a dark magic. Magic ripples suddenly appeared over the courtyard, coming down like a formless dome.
“What happened, did the curse of the evil god flare up?” Harris’ call suddenly sounded from outside as hoofsteps echoed. Harris and others of the Cairo mercenary band appeared in front of the store on horseback, with Harris knocking on the door and calling out.
As the eye of the formation, the floating rock also had five drops of Han Shuo’s blood essence on it. Therefore, Han Shuo could easily control the entire formation through the floating stone with a simple thought.
When he heard Harris’ shout from the outside, Han Shuo slightly changed the formation and made it revert back to normal. There were no other changes apart from the six Shura pillars.
“Nothing much, has Mister Harris come by to tell us of some news?” Harris opened the door to let Harris in as he responded easily, beaming widely.
Harris looked around with his sharp eyes after entering, sweeping them through every corner of the shop. He asked Han Shuo with a bit of confusion, “Why have six strange pillars suddenly appeared?”
“Oh, we plan on making this a long term residence, and created this six pillars for support because there’s no place to hang anything out to dry. What brings Mister Harris by?”
“A bloody light flared just now, and others in neighboring shops heard frightening wails come out from here. They said that they were terrified and wanted us to come over to look at the situation. I was also worried that something had happened to you, so I came by to take a look!”
Laughing easily, Han Shuo joked, “These people are quite cowardly. We were just practicing magic just now. We’ve several people here and wouldn’t be afraid even if the curse kicked in. Don’t worry!”
“Eh, the fellow collecting virgin blood is also your friend?” Harris nodded and was about to leave when he suddenly discovered Gilbert. He couldn’t help but ask Han Shuo.
“Eh… you could say that!” Han Shuo felt a bit awkward as he turned back to glare at Gilbert. The latter was about ready to erupt in anger, when Han Shuo indicated for him to be quiet and then turned back to explain to Harris.
“Why do you have this kind of friend? He’s so disgusting!” Harris looked at Gilbert with extreme disdain and seemed unwilling to stay longer as he hastily took his men and left.
“The hell! It’s all master’s orders, what the hell does it have to do with me!?” Gilbert finally couldn’t keep it in after Harris left and roared, smoke coming out of his orifices.