There were plenty of little ghosts upstairs, but they weren't our target.
To save time, I gritted my teeth, bit my tongue, and spat a mouthful of pure Yang energy onto the Buddha bone relic, using Buddhist scriptures to force the ghosts back. With one breath, I climbed from the 15th floor to the 35th floor.
Tang Quan followed closely behind, urging me to keep going.
When we reached the top floor, I was out of breath, my lungs feeling like they were about to burst.
But even in my exhaustion, I could tell that this place was unlike the others.
Unlike the chaos below, this floor seemed to be well-kept, as if someone cleaned it daily. The floor was spotless.
At the entrance of the hallway, there was even a large door.
It was an ancient-style courtyard door, and from the traces on either side, it looked like it had been transported here, wall and all.
Tang Quan looked at the door, his already pale face losing all color, his lips turning purple. He said, "This is the Holy Altar of the Three Yin Sect!"
The Three Yin Sect?
It was the first time I had heard of this name, but from Tang Quan's expression, I could tell that it wasn't his first encounter with them.
Tang Quan stepped forward and pushed open the door.
If bringing two ancient doors here was strange enough, what lay beyond them was even more incomprehensible.
Inside the door was a fully intact Daoist temple.
It had green bricks and grey tiles, and the floor was made of stone slabs. It looked like it had been built here, as if it belonged.
But the age marks on every brick and tile told me it wasn't from this place.
What I was seeing was incredibly bizarre.
Without lingering, Tang Quan quickly passed through the small courtyard and opened the door to the temple.
Inside, the air was thick with incense smoke, and there were offerings.
But instead of the usual Daoist gods like the Three Pure Ones and the Four Emperors, there was a coffin.
A transparent coffin.
Inside the coffin was a heart.
That heart was not connected to any flesh, and there were no advanced scientific instruments around it. It was just placed there, isolated, yet it was alive, beating strongly.
Tang Quan stared at the heart in fear and handed me the blood dagger, saying, "Little Daoist, if you want to live, destroy that thing quickly!"
I was shocked, but not dazed.
The reason he didn't act was because he was afraid. He wanted me to take the blame.
I had never heard of the Three Yin Sect, but anyone capable of moving a Daoist temple into a 40-story building and turning it into a haunted building was certainly someone with far-reaching influence.
Just the fact that such a place had been hidden for so many years indicated that the people behind it had unimaginable power.
Even if Laoshan had frightened me into fleeing my hometown, I wouldn't dare cross someone like that.
Moreover, the heart in that coffin was so strange that, even if I couldn't figure out the secret behind it, I knew it wasn't a regular Yin-Yang technique.
At this moment, Huang Jiu, who had been scared out of its wits, recovered and asked Tang Quan, "Why don't you do it yourself?"
I also nodded.
Tang Quan replied, "I have no background. If I destroy this, I'll be dead for sure. But you have the Buddha bone relic and the blood dagger—items that can protect you!"
His honesty made me speechless.
Just then, two streaks of blood light flew towards the blood dagger, quickly merging into it.
Tang Quan urgently grabbed my hand and said, "Your divine generals have been scattered. If you don't act now, it will be too late. Once she arrives, we'll be sacrificed!"
I hesitated.
More accurately, I was conflicted.
Because deep down, I knew I didn't have any backing either.
If the ten-thousand-mountain range was considered a backup, I knew nothing about it, so how could I trust it?
But if I acted, I at least had a chance of survival. If I didn't, I'd die immediately.
I couldn't rely on Tang Quan anymore.
His eyes weren't just filled with despair—they were resigned to his fate.
Looking at him, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pity.
Living in the realm of Yin and Yang, fate was truly unpredictable.
One moment you could be a grand master, revered by everyone. The next, you could face someone you can't challenge and find your soul torn away.
I sighed deeply, tightened my grip on the blood dagger, and walked over to the transparent coffin.
Just then, five more streaks of blood flew back into the blood dagger.
The fifteen divine generals had already suffered casualties from their confrontation with her. With fewer of them, they couldn't hold on for long.
"Your reward—I want 80%!" I gritted my teeth and said, "Because it's my life I'm saving!"
Tang Quan didn't hesitate and immediately agreed.
Since I had to act, I might as well get something out of it.
I turned around and injected all of my Daoist energy into the blood dagger, thrusting it fiercely into the transparent coffin.
The moment I touched it, I realized the coffin was made entirely of condensed Yin energy. It seemed the whole building had been turned into a haunted house to create this coffin.
The aura emanating from the blood dagger immediately shattered the Yin energy, and there was no resistance at all as it easily pierced the heart.
To my surprise, the heart wasn't made of just flesh and blood. Inside it, there were countless souls.
Once the blood dagger struck, the souls inside let out horrific wails.
These souls were likely the victims of people who had jumped to their deaths over the years.
One or two per month, over the course of twenty years, would add up to a huge number.
I steadied my soul with the relic and ignored the wailing souls. I twisted the blood dagger with all my strength.
Everything fell silent.
Even the terrifying aura downstairs disappeared without a trace.
Tang Quan slumped to the ground like a deflated balloon.
Exhausted, I also collapsed, asking Tang Quan, "Is it done?"
He nodded and said, "The woman in white was a spirit nurtured by that ghostly heart. Once the heart was destroyed, she disappeared with it!"
I looked back at the altar. The blood dagger was still embedded in the heart, and the once-red heart was now rapidly turning black, beginning to rot.
"Now, tell me about the Three Yin Sect!" Having narrowly escaped death, my tense nerves finally relaxed. I tiredly pulled Huang Jiu out of my clothes and let it pick something up to throw out the window.
After all, Huang Jiu was an animal, and its bloodline would be suppressed in the presence of a powerful being.
So I didn't blame it.
Moreover, it had never left me to escape.
That's what companions do.
Huang Jiu, still walking with a frightened gait, grabbed an ancient brick and ran to the staircase to toss it down.
Tang Quan took a moment to recover and then spoke, "The Three Yin Sect is a very mysterious organization with members all over the world. Most of them are influential people, and their doctrine is eternal life."
"Eternal life?"
That made sense now.
The poor trade their lives for money, while the rich use their money to buy life.
Such is the way of the world.
"The Three Yin Sect has many holy altars around the world. These altars enshrine human bodies cultivated through dark arts. In the past, Hong Kong and Xiang discovered a holy altar on the rooftop of a listed company's headquarters. The layout was the same as this one, but inside the coffin was a living hand."
"At the time, to destroy that altar, Hong Kong lost over a hundred officers, a dozen demon hunters, and several well-known masters. My master died in that battle. He left me with a piece of advice: Never get involved with anything related to the Three Yin Sect."
Tang Quan chuckled bitterly, "Who would've thought we'd run into them here!"
A hand, a heart?
I couldn't help but ask, "What's the purpose of all this? What do they want?"
Tang Quan replied, "They're creating gods."
"Immortal gods!"