Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia had traveled a great distance to lend a hand, but when all was said and done, it was only to secure a foothold in Siming County for their own benefit. They cared nothing for Chen Hui's life or death, cared little whether the Five Dragons Gang suffered losses, and cared even less about Zhou Wuji's fate.
Yet now, Zhou Wuji had stormed right to their door. Not only had he broken their Hundred Ghosts Soul-Locking Array, but he had also slaughtered the numerous disciples they had painstakingly cultivated.
Those disciples were originally meant to serve as prime nourishment to feed their ghost soldier. With any luck, they would have been enough to elevate a sixth-rank ghost soldier into a fifth-rank ghost general.
Now, everything was ruined!
Neither Xue Feihua nor Xue Feixia was magnanimous by any stretch. On the contrary, both were volatile and narrow-minded, notorious for repaying the slightest slight with bloody vengeance—which was how they had earned the moniker of the Cold-Blooded Twin Fiends.
Both women loathed Zhou Wuji to the bone, yet they had to weigh the risks. Outside stood not only the seventh-rank Daoist Wuzheng, but very likely the seventh-rank martial artist Yang Shuling as well.
Against Zhou Wuji alone, they might have relied on their ghost soldier to put up a fight. But against so many foes, all their fighting spirit evaporated.
No matter how furious and resentful they were, the two old women swiftly reached an accord.
"Use the ghost soldier to hold him off first," Xue Feihua said. "We leave."
Xue Feixia nodded.
Together, they shook their Soul-Calling Banners. Billowing black qi rapidly coalesced into a towering ghost soldier.
Guiding it with their divine intent, the two Heavenly Ghost Sect female cultivators drove the ghost soldier to charge straight at Zhou Wuji outside the door.
Earlier, the ghost soldier's form had been effortlessly torn apart by Yin Thunder. Fearing it would fail to stop Zhou Wuji, both women bit the tips of their tongues and spat a mouthful of vital blood onto the phantom.
The runes condensed from yin spirits within the ghost soldier flared with dark red light as they rapidly absorbed the two cultivators' vital blood, coating the ghost soldier's outer surface in a bizarre, crimson sheen.
Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia had cultivated for decades; spitting out a mouthful of vital blood cost each of them at least two to three years of cultivation.
Such a steep price granted the ghost soldier an immense boost. Most directly, it gained thirty percent more yang qi, vastly enhancing its resistance against lightning arts and other spells, while rendering its frame sturdier and far swifter.
Through the vital blood empowerment, Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia also tightened their divine intent connection with the creature.
One controlled the ghost soldier's physical movements, while the other focused on circulating yin qi throughout its body.
Having cooperated in this manner for years, they acted as a single mind.
It was precisely this seamless rapport that allowed them, despite being only seventh-rank cultivators, to easily command a sixth-rank ghost soldier.
Under their guidance, the crimson ghost soldier lunged straight for Zhou Wuji. Before the creature even closed the distance, the six-foot dark-red saber in its grip slashed down violently.
A straightforward downward chop could hardly be called blade technique, yet it triumphed through sheer ferocity and speed.
The descending saber whistled sharply through the air, cleaving the thick night in two.
Such momentum took Zhou Wuji somewhat by surprise; this strike from the sixth-rank ghost soldier already carried the might of a seventh-rank martial artist.
Fortunately, his Five Tigers Fist had attained grand accomplishment, and his physique was forged to be extraordinarily resilient.
Fierce as the ghost soldier's saber was, it lacked versatility. In the end, the demonic cultivators pulling its strings possessed too shallow a foundation in martial arts.
Rather than backing away from the blade, Zhou Wuji accelerated straight ahead, bringing the Seven Stars Sword up to parry the slash.
The clash of steel ground out a spray of sparks, illuminating Zhou Wuji's handsome countenance. Reflected against the ring of crimson flames deep in his eyes, the light only made his gaze seem all the more profound.
Empowered by vital blood, the sixth-rank ghost soldier already possessed tremendous strength; paired with the weight of the heavy saber, it held an obvious, overpowering advantage in the direct collision.
Sensing an opening, Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia unleashed their divine intent in full, driving the ghost soldier's power to its absolute limit.
Though Zhou Wuji could not see the two women, he could perceive the shifts in the ghost soldier's aura through his sword intent.
The moment the force behind the saber peaked, the Seven Stars Sword in Zhou Wuji's hand vibrated with a low hum. The strike's raw power was modest, yet it was remarkably nimble and fluid, striking the exact fulcrum of the saber's momentum with pinpoint precision.
Deflected by the blade's guidance, the ghost soldier's saber drifted slightly off course against its will, grazing past Zhou Wuji's shoulder.
Seizing the chance, Zhou Wuji stepped forward and thrust his sword—the swiftest stance, Descending Goose Sword, piercing straight into the ghost soldier's glabella.
Though bolstered by vital blood and hard as iron, the ghost soldier could not withstand such a sharp, blinding thrust, and its head was impaled through by the blade on the spot.
The demon-slaying runes across the Seven Stars Sword blazed in unison, instantly obliterating the runes deep within the ghost soldier's head.
Zhou Wuji had seen clearly that the runes clustered thickest at the head, marking it as the core hub controlling the creature.
While this strike could not truly destroy the ghost soldier, it cleanly severed the demonic cultivators' direct control.
Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia immediately sensed the disruption. Both were appalled by the sheer perfection of Zhou Wuji's swordsmanship—to shatter a sixth-rank ghost soldier in a single exchange!
A sixth-rank ghost soldier's foundation resided within the Soul-Calling Banner; so long as that root remained intact, it would never truly perish.
However, they had just infused it with their vital blood. Having it dispersed so easily meant it would be nearly impossible to re-condense within a short period!
The two exchanged a glance, reaching an unspoken consensus in a heartbeat, and decisively triggered the Soul-Burning Lamp.
The Soul-Burning Lamp was an esoteric art of the Heavenly Ghost Sect that consumed divine souls, yin spirits, and other spiritual essences as fuel to unleash Mysterious Yin Ghost Fire, capable of melting through solid iron and stone.
At their command, the sixth-rank ghost soldier detonated into a colossal blast of emerald-green fire.
The Soul-Burning Lamp spell had long been carved into the ghost soldier via runes; even with its spirituality temporarily snuffed out, the explosion remained unhindered.
Sensing the danger through his sword intent ahead of time, Zhou Wuji pulled back his blade and retreated without hesitation. His left palm thrust forward with a pulse of true qi while he simultaneously commanded the Heavenly Puppet to wrap him in protective heavenly robes.
Gifted with exquisite martial arts and formidable divine intent, his instincts in the face of sudden crisis were extraordinarily swift.
In a fraction of a breath, he executed the optimal counter.
Struck by the blast of true qi, the surging emerald ghost fire—which would have scattered in every direction—was blown back toward the main house instead.
Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia were terrified. The ghost fire released by the Soul-Burning Lamp was vicious and tyrannical; while they could cast it, they possessed few means to withstand it.
Fortunately, they had set up a Profound Yin Net within the room beforehand to protect themselves.
The Profound Yin Net was woven from the hair of corpses buried underground in yin conditions for years, combined with Ghost King spider silk and other materials. As fine as silk and as translucent as gauze, it formed a protective ward on all sides when erected.
It was only thanks to this net that they deflected the brunt of the ghost fire.
Narrowly escaping the flames, Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia did not dare linger to check on Zhou Wuji. Gripping their Soul-Calling Banners, they smashed through the rear wall of the room and fled in panic.
Zhou Wuji retreated several tens of feet to avoid the detonating ghost fire. When the flames subsided, he found dozens of charred holes burned into his Daoist robe.
Fortunately, unleashing layers of true qi had blown away the clinging embers, sparing him the indignity of having to strip off his clothes to put out the blaze.
The main house, however, was already engulfed in roaring emerald ghost fire.
Even specks of flame scattered across the ground burned relentlessly atop the blue courtyard bricks.
Such tyrannical ghost fire left Zhou Wuji with a touch of lingering dread. Fortunately, his Heavenly Puppet had transformed into heavenly robes to shield his entire body, keeping him safe from burns.
Otherwise, flames capable of incinerating earth and stone would have been immense trouble had they clung to his flesh.
Zhou Wuji activated his Six Yang Dharma Eyes once more; within the blazing house, not a single trace of life remained.
Having come so close to being burned alive, Zhou Wuji felt both deep hatred and acute wariness toward the two demonic cultivators' methods.
He could not allow them to get away.
Sword in hand, Zhou Wuji skirted the burning house and darted toward the rear.
Relying on sword intent, he locked onto their lingering presence. Aided by the Six Yang Dharma Eyes, which could pierce the darkness to detect vital auras, he quickly caught their scent despite the gloomy chill of their energy.
Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia sensed Zhou Wuji closing in as well, and genuine terror seized them.
This eighth-rank Daoist possessed vast true qi and peerless swordsmanship; with a single blade, he had shattered all their spells and formations. He was terrifying to the extreme!
In all their years roaming the martial world, they had never encountered so formidable a Daoist.
Their sixth-rank ghost soldier had already been spent on the Soul-Burning Lamp; though its core spirituality survived, ninety percent of its vitality was depleted, making it impossible to manifest again anytime soon.
Seeing Zhou Wuji gaining on them, Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia gritted their teeth and cast the Ghost Shadow Escape.
Both of their bodies blurred into dark silhouettes, seemingly vanishing entirely into thin air.
Pursuing right behind, Zhou Wuji watched helplessly as their shadowy forms cut through the air and fled, disappearing from sight in an instant.
Such a bizarre technique left Zhou Wuji momentarily stunned. The spells of the Heavenly Ghost Sect grew more sinister by the minute!
No wonder so many reviled the sect, yet it managed to endure down the generations; they truly possessed terrifying craft.
Zhou Wuji quickly regained his composure. Two seventh-rank demonic cultivators could not possibly cross the void to escape across great distances; their cultivation simply wasn't high enough to support such heaven-defying feats.
To cast it so swiftly, they had undoubtedly made preparations beforehand and relied on array reinforcement.
Instead of rushing blindly, he used his Six Yang Dharma Eyes to carefully examine the traces of true qi lingering in the air.
The two old women had employed some secret method to shield themselves, severing the resonance with his sword intent.
Even so, he did not believe they could slip out of Siming County in the blink of an eye.
An escape technique of this sort could never take them very far.
The Six Yang Dharma Eyes at perfection possessed remarkable clarity, and they were specifically suited for observing yin qi and foul entities.
The true qi cultivated by Heavenly Ghost Sect disciples belonged to the likes of Mysterious Yin and Lesser Yin, and their daily communion with ghosts and spirits tainted their energy with chilling ghostly malice.
Examining the surroundings carefully, Zhou Wuji spotted the faint drift of yin qi in the air, picking up a long trail left in its wake.
To his eyes, the trail resembled a wisp of faint smoke, swaying and floating through the air as it slowly dissipated.
Following the smoky trace, Zhou Wuji reached the depths of an alley, coming to a halt before a corner wall.
The ground was strewn with refuse and filth; despite the cold weather, a repulsive stench hung heavy in the air.
Zhou Wuji pointed his finger and unleashed the Golden Light Incantation. Radiant golden brilliance illuminated the shadows of the corner, revealing the two female demonic cultivators lurking within.
The Golden Light Incantation was a divine Daoist art; though its grade seemed modest, its power scaled alongside one's cultivation.
The Ghost Shadow technique cast by Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia cloaked their forms in shadow and masked their scent, but under the glare of the Golden Light Incantation, their camouflage shattered, exposing them completely.
Only now did Zhou Wuji get a clear look at their appearance.
Both wore coarse white hemp robes and held five-foot-tall white cloth banners, looking for all the world like mourners in a funeral hall.
Their faces were hideous and their frames gaunt, their pupils circled by pale green rings and their eyes glinting with cruel, sinister malice.
One glance was enough to know they were thoroughly vile.
Xue Feihua barked harshly, "We are fellow cultivators! Do you truly intend to exterminate us to the last?"
"Not exterminate to the last," Zhou Wuji replied, shaking his head slightly.
Hearing this, the expressions of Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia softened a fraction. So long as there was room to talk, they could agree to whatever terms he demanded for now.
Endure this humiliation first, then hire someone to take Zhou Wuji's miserable life later!
Zhou Wuji continued at a leisurely pace, "I am simply eradicating evil completely."
Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia flew into a rage.
Before their fury could erupt, Zhou Wuji had already closed in with his sword.
Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia raised their banners simultaneously and thrust violently at Zhou Wuji. The shafts of their Soul-Calling Banners were forged from pure steel, and the white cloth was a specialized fabric impervious to blades, water, and fire.
They employed the Seven Yin Soul-Seizing Spear, a secret martial art of the Heavenly Ghost Sect.
Paired with the hundreds of ghost yin spirits bound to the banners, the technique unleashed the wailing of a hundred spirits to rattle the soul and bewilder the senses, serving as a lethal fusion of martial technique and sorcery.
As the white banners thrust forward, sheets of fluttering white cloth manifested into snarling fiends, screeching shrilly.
Zhou Wuji's mastery of spells was modest, and the two Heavenly Ghost Sect women's sorcery was bizarre and unpredictable; he had no desire to engage them in a magical duel.
Facing the howling spirits, Zhou Wuji directly visualized the Heart Tiger and barked low: "Break!"
His voice was not loud, yet it struck like an invisible sledgehammer. Imbued with the all-shattering momentum of the Heart Tiger Thunder Roar, it slammed into the shrieking ghosts and the two women.
The illusions of a hundred spirits conjured by the banners shattered first. Many of the streamers could not endure the violent strain of spiritual power and true qi, bursting into countless fragments like falling snow.
Wielding the Soul-Calling Banners, Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia shuddered violently. Their facial muscles twitched uncontrollably, their white mourning robes billowed wildly, the white caps flew off their heads, and their loose hair buns burst apart.
Even the refuse and debris beneath their feet blasted outward in all directions.
Worse still, the thunder roar penetrated deep into their sea of consciousness, rattling their acupoints, throwing their true qi into disarray, and striking their minds with violent shock.
In their daze, they seemed to see a colossal tiger pouncing forward, swallowing them whole.
The boiling blood-qi of a martial artist combined with Tianshu true qi allowed Zhou Wuji's Heart Tiger Thunder Roar to unleash its peak might, shattering the sisters' spells and rupturing their circulation in a single stroke.
Xue Feihua and Xue Feixia were gripped with utter horror—this was clearly the most incandescent martial divine intent! This kid was actually a seventh-rank martial artist!
And an exceptional seventh-rank martial artist at that!
Though they realized the depth of his martial power, they were already cowed by the thunder roar; their divine intent was thrown into chaos, their true qi roiled wildly, and they even lost control of their physical bodies.
Seeing the two demonic cultivators in disarray, Zhou Wuji seized the opening and advanced with his sword.
Channelling the Evening Snow Sword through the Seven Stars Sword, he executed the stance Snow Straddling the River, sweeping his horizontal blade across their throats.
Amid a piercing whistle of the sword, two heads flew into the air alongside the flashing blade light.
No matter how many secret arts and foul tricks a demonic cultivator possessed, they simply could not hold their ground against a martial artist of equal rank in frontal combat.
Zhou Wuji had not only perfected his fist technique, but his physical attributes had also reached five hundred, and he had seventh-rank true qi infused into his martial arts; he was far more formidable than Zhang Xinhu had ever been.
Thus, the two demonic cultivators crumbled upon first contact in a straight fight.
Zhou Wuji glanced at the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment. Confirming that the two formidable demonic cultivators were dead, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Cunning and vicious, these two had proven harder to deal with than the sixth-rank Yin-Yang Dao cultivator he had faced before.
He cast a glance at the two corpses. Lying amid the pile of garbage, covered in filth, and lacking heads, they made for a rather grotesque sight.
Still, two seventh-rank demonic cultivators were bound to carry valuable spoils.
Suppressing his distaste, Zhou Wuji searched the bodies.
They carried quite a few miscellaneous items: various bizarre medicines and several minor magic implements.
Zhou Wuji could not make much sense of them, but what he found genuinely useful were silver banknotes worth over four thousand taels.
In addition, he uncovered a worn, ancient tome, which seemed upon brief inspection to be someone's personal journal.
Finally, Zhou Wuji found a palm-sized yellow jade gourd.
The yellow jade of the gourd was smooth and lustrous, resembling a natural gourd while carrying an archaic, weighty grace.
Two seal-script characters were carved into the base, which Zhou Wuji did not recognize. Yet the moment he picked it up, he knew it was an extraordinary treasure—
—even if he did not yet understand what made it so remarkable!
Opening his Five Yin Pouch, he tucked the gourd inside first.
Only then did Zhou Wuji raise his sword to shred what remained of the white cloth on the two Soul-Calling Banners. The sixth-rank ghost soldier hiding within drifted into view as well.
Having suffered consecutive heavy blows, the ghost soldier could no longer even condense into shape, reduced to a wisp of faint black vapor.
Zhou Wuji slashed his sword in swift succession. The power of the Seven Stars Demon-Slaying Sword coursed through the blade, completely eradicating the lingering yin spirits within the drifting smoke.
Chapter 82