Having clarified the ins and outs of the whole matter, Lu Yang and his two fellow disciples stayed behind while Zhao Po took his living corpse to Baishui Village, catching Liu San just as he was packing up his valuables to flee.
Corpse drivers held a special status in Huangzhou, and Zhao Po was a corpse driver of the most orthodox lineage. It was most fitting for him to apprehend the culprit, as he would face few obstacles or questions.
"Hey, hey, hey! What are you trying to do?"
Lu Yang showed a standard eight-toothed smile. "Sending you to the magistrate's yamen."
"I already told you, I didn't kill anyone!"
"Who said only murderers get punished? Insurance fraud is a crime too. Not to mention turning the pool into saltwater and choking all the fish to death with salt—charging you with environmental damage wouldn't be an injustice in the slightest!"
"In Great Xia, you even pass sentence on ghosts?"
Lu Yang beamed with pride. "Never mind ghosts—even if the Sect Master of the Dao Seeking Sect or the Minister of Justice committed a crime, they'd still be locked up in the grand prison just the same!"
Zhao Po was thoroughly shocked; he had never heard of such things.
Didn't the Five Great Immortal Sects hold law enforcement authority? How could their Sect Master be arrested?
The Minister of Justice understood the law best of all, yet he knowingly broke it?
Was this a secret known only to disciples of the immortal sects?
Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu also stared at Lu Yang in astonishment; neither of them had heard of this either.
Aside from Emperor Xia, the entire Ministry of Justice, and Eldest Senior Sister, Lu Yang was the only one who knew.
"Pass sentence? Junior Brother Zhao Po, is this how you complete a mission assigned by the sect?"
A cold voice drifted down from above. A man hovered in the air with an arrogant look, flanked by a living corpse draped in black robes.
"Senior Brother Huang Ming?" Zhao Po recognized at a glance the man who had defeated him to claim the top spot in the sect.
Huang Ming and his living corpse slowly descended. He looked at Zhao Po with displeasure. "The sect's mission requirement is to completely eradicate the ghost. Why are you sparing its life? If you can't bear to take a life, your senior brother will gladly do it for you!"
With that, he pulled out a Soul Expelling and Scattering Talisman, intending to strike the drowned ghost with it.
Zhao Po reacted even faster. Taking a large stride forward, he stood in front of the drowned ghost, blocking Huang Ming from making a move. "Senior Brother Huang, ghosts also come in good and evil. This drowned ghost hasn't done anything heinous or cruel. His crimes do not warrant death!"
"Absurd! I care nothing for the good or evil of ghosts. All I know is that the sect demands the eradication of all ghostly perils!"
Huang Ming narrowed his eyes slightly. "Zhao Po, are you bent on stopping me?"
Just as a clash was about to erupt, Lu Yang stepped between the two. "Fellow Daoist, you are fellow sect brothers. Is there really any need to make things so tense?"
Huang Ming remained unmoved. "And who might you be?"
"This humble one is Lu Yang of the Dao Seeking Sect."
Huang Ming sneered. "And here I wondered who it was—turns out to be the Dao Seeking Sect disciple who overcame the strong at the Qingzhou Grand Ceremony. What, does someone from the Dao Seeking Sect want to meddle in our Corpse Driving Sect's internal affairs too?
"As a senior brother disciplining a junior brother, who are you, a mere outsider, to butt in!"
Hearing Huang Ming speak like this, Man Gu was about to flare up immediately, but Meng Jingzhou held him back.
Meng Jingzhou sensed that this fellow named Huang Ming seemed quite hostile toward them.
Lu Yang's expression didn't change, retaining that amiable, smiling facade. "We captured this drowned ghost, so naturally it's ours to deal with as we see fit. On the other hand, for Fellow Daoist to suddenly appear and try to snatch the fruits of our labor—isn't that rather lacking in manners?"
"Heh. Needing four Golden Core cultivators to join forces just to capture a mid-Nascent Soul drowned ghost, and you have the nerve to brag about it? If it were me, I alone would have been enough! Some claim you're the foremost among our generation, but to me, you're nothing special."
Lu Yang's smile didn't fade. "Oh? Is that so? It seems Fellow Daoist is quite confident in your own cultivation."
"A test will tell."
Before his voice could fade, Lu Yang unleashed an Arhat Fist, smashing a punch toward Huang Ming.
Clang!
The living corpse was a step faster. Like an iron tower standing erect, it crossed both arms and blocked Lu Yang's punch.
Lu Yang was slightly surprised. Although he hadn't used his full strength with that Arhat Fist, it was still not something an early Golden Core cultivator could block.
The living corpse roared, its body swelling as it went for a bear hug to tackle Lu Yang.
Lu Yang didn't clash head-on with the corpse. Stamping his right foot, his body merged into the earth with a whoosh, reappearing right behind Huang Ming!
Rather than fight the living corpse, it was better to deal directly with its master!
"Arhat Fist!"
"Yellow Springs Palm!"
As if anticipating Lu Yang's move, Huang Ming gathered power in his palm, turned around, and struck with a palm strike.
Fist met palm, generating ripples of force. Neither side could withstand the full brunt of the collision, and both were forced backward at the same time. The residual force of fist and palm rampaged through their bodies; making the exact same choice, both slapped backward, venting the colliding force into the empty air.
Lu Yang narrowed his eyes, a faint, intrigued smile playing on his lips. This was the first time he had encountered an opponent with such rich combat experience.
"How can this be?!" Zhao Po watched the scene in disbelief. The physical bodies of corpse drivers were always below average. He had seen Brother Lu's fist techniques with his own eyes, yet Senior Brother Huang Ming was actually able to trade blows with him palm-to-fist!
"You aren't at the early Golden Core stage, are you? You're at the mid Golden Core stage?" Lu Yang asked with a chuckle, recalling Zhao Po's earlier claim that both he and Huang Ming were at the early Golden Core stage.
"What makes you say that?"
"I put full power into that punch. If an early Golden Core cultivator could block it, my cultivation would have been for nothing."
Huang Ming gave a cold snort and did not answer.
He hadn't expected Lu Yang to be so difficult—or rather, so troublesome.
"My hair!"
Just as Huang Ming was about to unleash another technique, strands of hair drifted down like falling snow.
"Unity of fist and spell?!" Huang Ming quickly came to a judgment, stunned that someone at the Golden Core stage could achieve this level.
He didn't care about his hair; what mattered to him was Lu Yang's talent.
"What is unity of fist and spell?" Zhao Po looked completely bewildered; he had never heard of such a concept.
Meng Jingzhou stared at Huang Ming with furrowed brows, offering no reply.
Setting combat experience aside, the sheer breadth of knowledge this Huang Ming possessed didn't seem like something the Corpse Driving Sect could cultivate—not to mention he had only recently been accepted as a disciple by Sect Master Lu.
Where did all this knowledge come from?
Boom!
The two clashed once more, radiating an imposing aura that far exceeded their realm. Lu Yang attacked with Three-Flavor True Fire, while Huang Ming countered with Dingmao True Fire. The temperature skyrocketed in an instant, forcing the drowned ghost to retreat repeatedly.
"Six Ding and Six Jia True Fire!" Zhao Po gasped. Among the one hundred and eight True Fires, twelve formed a major category collectively known as the Six Ding and Six Jia True Fires, and Dingmao True Fire was one of those twelve!
Neither the Yellow Springs Palm that could contend with Brother Lu nor the Dingmao True Fire had ever been revealed by Huang Ming during the sect competition.
Zhao Po knew that Huang Ming hadn't gone all out in the competition, but he had assumed the trump card lay with his living corpse. He never imagined that Huang Ming himself possessed such hidden cards!
Lu Yang grew increasingly intrigued by Huang Ming's background. The gap between first and second place in the Corpse Driving Sect was quite enormous.
Outside of disciples from the Five Great Immortal Sects, Lu Yang had never met any outsider who could trade blows with him to this extent.
Their battle grew fiercer as they unleashed all manner of Daoist techniques and divine abilities. Fists and palms collided violently amidst rumbling thunder, clashing repeatedly without either gaining the upper hand.
Gradually, however, the outcome began to tilt. Lu Yang had a firmer foundation and remarkably enduring stamina. When it came to a war of attrition, no one in the same cultivation realm could outlast Lu Yang!
Huang Ming was infuriated. Ever since stepping onto the path of cultivation, he had never tasted defeat, yet today he was on the verge of losing here.
That was absolutely unacceptable!
Huang Ming's eyes widened like a tiger's, brimming with imposing majesty, as an invisible surge of mental power condensed into an arrow and pierced straight toward Lu Yang!
How immense was Lu Yang's mental power? Not to mention that the Immortal Fairy herself held court within his spiritual space—when it came to a battle of mental energy, he wouldn't even fear an expert at the Tribulation Transcendence stage!
A small shield materialized between Lu Yang's brows, blocking the arrow.
The Immortal Fairy had a sudden realization: "I know now! He isn't someone your age at all—he's a grand cultivator who dispersed his cultivation to cultivate anew!"
Chapter 427