The sharp scent of disinfectant mingled with a faint trace of sandalwood as Chen Jiuzhang slowly opened his eyes under the harsh light of the ICU.Shen Qingluan was slumped beside his bed, her face smudged with dust, blood dried on her hair, but her hand still clenched tightly around the fragment of the Imperial Jade Seal.On the nightstand, a phone screen kept flashing—Zhang Chengying had sent 99 unread messages, the latest a heavily pixelated video showing an eerie purple cloud rising over a Japanese shrine, captioned:
"Is Yamata no Orochi booting up?!"
"You've been out for three days. Meanwhile, the Daoist Council has gone into total chaos."Old Wu the Drunkard had somehow appeared by the window, his grimy Liberation Army boots propped on a Ming Dynasty porcelain vase, and the final page of the Tui Bei Tu rolled into a cigarette in his hand.He grinned, revealing a single gold tooth."Ever wonder why Liu Bowen deliberately left a flaw in the Heavenly Talisman?This game—it started the day Zhu Yuanzhang severed the dragon veins."
Before he finished, the hospital room shuddered violently. Shen Qingluan bolted awake as the bronze mirror on the nightstand reflected a formation of hundreds of drones forming a Bagua array in the sky—each drone emblazoned with sakura-patterned seals.Old Wu lit his Tui Bei Tu cigarette, and the smoke formed a character in midair: "赊" (Debt/Delay).
"Time to go to Sanxingdui, kids.Beneath that sacred tree… is the one thing that can decapitate the serpent."
That night on the Cheng-Mian Expressway, Zhang Chengying had turned his electric scooter into a full-blown armored vehicle, welding dozens of bronze mirrors scavenged from antique markets onto the exterior."This, my friends, is a mobile feng shui array!"He slapped the compass on the roof just before slamming the brakes.
Ahead, seven Daoist priests in ceremonial robes were slowly pushing a cart along the highway.Under the white sheet covering it was a serpentine corpse with eight heads.
"It's a fragment of Yamata no Orochi!"Shen Qingluan raised the Jade Seal, but its glow dimmed the instant it touched the corpse.
Chen Jiuzhang's birthmark burned again, and the fragment of the Heavenly Talisman levitated on its own, resonating with the magatama on the corpse's forehead.Suddenly, a long-sealed memory surged into his mind:
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, an ancestor of Celestial Master Zhang used the Bronze Divine Tree to forge a sacred weapon that sealed Yamata no Orochi at a geomantic node.
"So Tui Bei Tu's prophecy 'The Golden Crow falls, the Divine Tree rises, and the Eight Heads return to the Void'—that's what it meant!"
Old Wu jumped onto the cart and smashed the serpent's skull with his tobacco pipe.From inside, he pulled out a jade slip inscribed with the word "Fusang".
"Kid, take this to Sanxingdui.Just remember—don't trust anyone wearing a white lab coat."
Before he finished, helicopters thundered overhead.Chen Jiuzhang and the others ducked into a nearby cornfield just in time to see dozens of off-road vehicles bearing the logo of the Institute for Paranormal Phenomena roar past.Loaded in the truck beds were 72 mechanized corpses of Daoist disciples, grotesquely modified with metal implants.
Zhang Chengying gasped."This isn't research... they're building a ghost army!"
Moonlight bathed the jade slip, revealing a twisting star chart.Shen Qingluan compared it to a satellite map on her phone—her finger trembled.
"Sanxingdui's coordinates match the exact convergence point of the global dragon vein network.They want to use the Divine Tree's power to fully awaken Yamata no Orochi!"
Clenching the Heavenly Talisman fragment, Chen Jiuzhang looked up at the gathering mass of purple clouds on the horizon.
He knew—the coming battle beneath the Bronze Divine Tree wouldn't just decide his fate.
It would decide the fate of the world.