A mountain ghost?!
Liang Qu's heart thumped violently.
The Annotated Miscellaneous Records of Haomu Hall contained illustrations of mountain ghosts; that bark-like, cracked skin had left an indelible impression on him!
Humanoid in shape, with brownish skin like withered bark, impervious to blade and spear.
When young, it feasts on livestock; it relishes human viscera!
How could there be a mountain ghost here?!
Pingyang Town was sixteen li away from Yixing!
Nine rapid gong strikes echoed over the wharf. The shaman waved his short staff, dancing slowly while chanting an unfamiliar hymn of worship. Over a thousand pairs of eyes gazed at Liang Qu, awaiting his ascent onto the sacrificial altar.
For a dazed moment, Liang Qu wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. But in the next breath, the dark silhouette darted out from behind the gable wall. Its sharp talons gouged through the bluestone bricks of the lintel; directly beneath it stood the densely packed crowd.
A child looking around in the crowd caught sight of the bizarre, horrifying creature and burst into wails.
Bystanders glared in irritation. The boy's mother apologetically covered his mouth, but when she followed her son's gaze, she froze as well.
A piercing shriek rang out.
It was no hallucination!
"Fall back!"
In an instant, a thunderous roar drowned out everything else.
As the shout exploded, more and more people spotted the mountain ghost perched on the roof.
Word of mountain ghosts prowling had long since spread from Pingyang Town to Yixing, and notices with portraits had even been posted warning everyone to stay alert. Over recent days, far fewer travelers ventured from Yixing toward Pingyang Town.
That cracked brown skin could not be mistaken!
A mountain ghost capable of slaughtering martial practitioners!
Shrieks erupted in waves. The orderly crowd descended into instant chaos, wails and shouts ringing non-stop. Yet ahead lay the marshy waters, leaving them nowhere to run—some people even jumped into the water!
It was the dead of winter!
The village elders rose to their feet. Terrified by the monstrous creature's demonic countenance, they screamed at the top of their lungs, attempting to restore order.
Startled by the commotion, the mountain ghost on the eaves leapt straight into the crowd. Just as it was about to tackle a woman, a stone ball the size of a fist came whistling through the air, striking true right into the beast's face. The blow sent the mountain ghost flying back through midair, while the stone ball shattered into fragments before hitting the ground.
Liang Qu advanced against the surging tide of people, his hand trembling, blood trickling from the ulnar styloid process of his wrist.
Without anyone realizing it, the stone lion behind him had lost its canines, and the stone ball inside its mouth was gone.
"Head toward me!"
His voice bellowed against the wind, momentarily overpowering the screams of the crowd.
Like a banner raised on open ground, it guided the panicked masses as they surged toward him.
The woman who had narrowly escaped being mauled collapsed to the ground in terror. The man beside her grabbed her hand, and the two scrambled away on hands and knees.
The village elders were equally frightened; most tossed aside their walking sticks and fled. Only Chen Zhao'an and a few others remained, rushing forward to calm the crowd and urge everyone to take refuge inside the large compound behind them.
The space beneath the eaves where the mountain ghost had lurked quickly cleared into an open expanse. The fallen beast shook its head and climbed back up.
That heavy strike with the stone ball had caused it no harm whatsoever.
Digitigrade lower limbs with reverse joints, emaciated upper limbs, sharp finger bones, an arid and gaunt frame, skin cracked like withered bark from head to toe, and yellowish pupils the color of festering pus from an infected wound—all locked squarely onto Liang Qu, the one who had attacked it.
Aside from the backward-bending lower limbs, the rest of its appendages differed little from a human's, which only made it appear all the more unnatural and unsettling.
Seeing it in the flesh was vastly more terrifying than any illustration in a book!
Liang Qu's heart hammered against his ribs. He had no idea where he had found the nerve to step forward, but the arrow was already nocked on the bowstring—there was no turning back now. The mountain ghost had set its sights on him.
A young mountain ghost, or an adult one?
It did not look like a young one—this beast was about as tall as him, and mountain ghosts did not grow that fast. But it did not look like an adult one either; an adult capable of killing a two-barrier martial practitioner would never have been knocked flying by a single stone ball.
Could it be a third mountain ghost besides those two?
That would explain why it appeared in Yixing. It had not crossed a dozen li; it was already here!
Damn it all, where were all these mountain ghosts coming from? Were they running a wholesale breeding farm?!
In the span of a flashing thought, Liang Qu could even deduce why this mountain ghost had shown up.
The heavy stench of blood in the wind, combined with the collective human aura of over a thousand people gathered in one place, had lured it here.
Sacrificing to the river god, sacrificing to the river god...
The river god did not come, but a mountain ghost did!
Liang Qu ground his teeth in frustration.
On the wharf, the shaman and ritual master had long since vanished. The villagers huddled inside rooms and ducked into alleys. The compound was packed to the brim, surrounded by a thick wall of people on the outside who dared not make a sound or move an inch, terrified of drawing the spirit creature's attention.
Within dozens of meters around, nothing remained except the desolate sacrificial altar and the bloody three major sacrificial beasts hanging to the side.
The mountain ghost possessed no small intellect. Sensing that Liang Qu posed a threat, it remained locked in a standoff with him, neither making a move.
Stared down by those yellowish vertical pupils, Liang Qu felt as if a serpent were coiling around his spine, silently watching and waiting.
He felt the joints throughout his body growing numb and limp, yet he dared not shatter the stillness of the standoff.
Blood gathered at the ulnar styloid process of his wrist, trickling down to his middle finger with an itchy sensation.
Liang Qu's fingers twitched faintly. A droplet of blood fell, rolling across the bluestone slab and coating itself in dust without bursting.
A moment later, the droplet split.
"Ah Shui, we're here to help you!"
Not good!
"Don't!"
Recognizing the voices of Li Libo and Chen Jiechang, Liang Qu took fright. In the next instant, he saw the mountain ghost take a single step forward, then vanish!
So fast!
Liang Qu threw his arms up to protect his head. The mountain ghost's skeletal talons raked against his tungsten gold armguards, sparking violently. A massive surge of force crashed into him, sending him flying backward.
He planted his feet and slid several meters across the bluestone slabs, cracking the stones underfoot. Another vicious gale tore in from his left. Liang Qu barely managed to shield his neck, feeling the razor talons graze over his forearm armor and plunge downward toward his waist and abdomen—only to be stopped dead in their tracks.
The beast's talons sank into the dog-bear hide cloak and were blocked by the mountain ox hide belt, failing completely to pierce through!
An opening!
Liang Qu's fighting blood surged. Rolling his cloak around his arm, he swept his upper arm upward, wrapping the fabric around the monstrous claw to trap it, then smashed his right fist straight down toward the mountain ghost's face.
As he struck, he felt a vicious blast of wind driving toward his chest. Even with one arm pinned, the creature's other claw snapped together like a steel blade, carrying a bone-chilling frost.
"Come on!" Liang Qu roared, half-twisting his torso to protect his vitals without slowing his motion in the slightest, bringing his fist crashing down upon the mountain ghost's head.
The punch landed squarely on the beast's face, feeling like striking solid granite.
Through the cloak, the talons pierced halfway into him, only to lodge against his ribs. Blood instantly stained his white robes crimson.
Agonizing pain tore through his nerves, yet Liang Qu did not budge an inch.
Veins bulged along his temples, his expression twisting into a ferocious scowl. He even had the strength left to tighten his left arm!
Veins swelled across his forearm, writhing like serpents as immense brutal power coalesced within. Strangling the mountain ghost's right arm, his left hand morphed like a ferocious serpent's jaws, wrenching forward to clamp hard onto the claw lodged against his chest!
With a single arm, he had locked both of the mountain ghost's arms!
A rapid-fire barrage of right punches rained down like a tempest onto the mountain ghost's face!
Everyone looking on was stunned.
That fierce, fearless valor stirred the villagers' hearts. With every hammer blow that struck home, their terror dissolved like mist, until shouts of encouragement nearly burst from their throats.
Lurking at Liang Qu's wrist, the Tianshui centipede seized the opportunity to scurry up onto the mountain ghost's arm crook. It spread its mouthparts and sank them into the flesh between the cracks in the brown hide.
Traces of crimson seeped from the centipede's mandibles—it had broken through the defense!
Its strike landing true, A-Wei injected all its venom in one go before swiftly darting back into the sleeve.
As venom seeped into its body, the mountain ghost sensed a mortal threat and kicked both legs violently into Liang Qu's chest.
Liang Qu took the full brunt of the blow. His chest felt as if struck by a massive warhammer; from his sternum to his ribs, ominous creaks rang out on the verge of fracturing. The horrific heave nearly drove him to his knees on the spot.
Footsteps sounded behind him. He dared not look back, but out of the corner of his eye, two figures darted past to his flanks, raising pointed blades to slash at the mountain ghost.
The pointed blades struck as though hitting solid stone and metal. Both butchering blades, used for bleeding pigs and oxen, instantly notched and chipped.
A mountain ghost!
Humanoid in shape, with brownish skin like withered bark.
Impervious to blade and spear!
Chapter 65