A raspy laugh came from the dark corner. “I knew that you little cubs weren’t that easy to fool. As expected, you found me out. Rather than cultivating like good little girls and boys, you insisted on getting into my business. That being the case, then both of you should become vengeful spirits under my Yellow Springs Ghost Dao.”
An evil gust of wind howled.
The Yellow Springs Ghost Dao?
Tang Jie and Miss Xu both paled at these words.
Tang Jie snorted, “Sure enough, remnants of the Ghost Raising Sect. Even after several thousand years, they still haven’t been cleaned up?”
As he spoke, Tang Jie thrust out his palm, sending that evil wind back where it came from.
The abbot sinisterly laughed. “The Ghost Dao is eternal, and the Ghost Sect is undying. What do you juniors know? Just obediently hand over your lives.”
His sleeves curled up, and a skull emerged from that dark corner, its jaws clacking open as it took a bite at Tang Jie’s arm.
Tang Jie was presently drawing the wicked ghost from before back into the bells, and that skull moved so quickly that Miss Xu’s cry of “Watch out” only reached him when the skull had already bitten his arm.
The girl paled when the skull bit onto Tang Jie’s arm. “Oh no! A Bracelet Fiend Skull! Its teeth are venomous! Hurry up and cut off your hand, and you can still be saved!”
Daoist Fuyu chuckled. “It’s too late! The venom has entered the blood and traveled with blood energy. Unless you’re at Nine Revolutions and can resist poison, your death is certain! I really didn’t think that a single fiend skull would be enough to get rid of one of you. Basking Moon student, my ass! He was nothing at all!”
He loudly laughed.
What he had feared the most was Tang Jie’s status as a Basking Moon student. After all, Basking Moon signified a faction of extraordinary power, and many of the students that emerged from it were talented individuals. But to his surprise, he had poisoned one to death with a casual blow. He felt that he had been too focused on this detail and had been a little too scared of the Basking Moon Sect’s reputation.
Tang Jie laughed and threw the string of bells back to Miss Xu. “Is that so? But if the poison can’t enter the blood, it should be useless, right?”
He pulled the skull off his arm. There were tooth imprints on his arm, but the skull had failed to even break the skin.
“How?” Daoist Fuyu was dumbfounded.
Although Bracelet Fiend Skulls weren’t known for their offensive power, he was rather shocked that it had failed to even break the skin. Even Miss Xu stared at Tang Jie in shock, like she was looking at a monster. How strong is this guy’s constitution? Is he already at the Hundred Refinement Tier?
But judging by his age, he couldn’t be any more than a student who had spent about seven or eight years at Basking Moon Academy.
It hadn’t been that long, so how had he already reached the Hundred Refinement Period?
Tang Jie threw the skull to the ground and stomped it to pieces.
Daoist Fuyu threw something out of his hand. This time, it was a flying sword, and at the hilt of the sword was a skull.
This was clearly some possession of the Ghost Raising Sect connected to ghosts.
The flying skull sword shot at Tang Jie, and just when Tang Jie was about to strike back, Miss Xu gave a shout, raising her right hand. The golden bracelet on her wrist flew out, expanding in the air and crashing into the flying sword.
Clang! The flying skull sword was sent flying back. A rice-sized chunk had been chipped out of the blade.
Daoist Fuyu seemed to be in great pain. “You damaged my magic tool!”
He pointed a finger, upon which the skull sword turned around in the air. The skull aimed at Tang and Xu, opened its mouth, and began to spew out poison gas.
“Watch out!” Miss Xu hastily retreated, producing a silk handkerchief that she used to cover her mouth and nose.
Tang Jie shook his head and smiled.
He had spent one hundred thousand coins to refine his body, and his constitution had been strengthened from the outside to the inside. His body was like diamond and his organs had been tempered to be impervious to poison. Although they weren’t at the level where they could regrow after being pulverized, a puny poison like this would have no effect on him.
The Bracelet Fiend Skull had failed to bite through his skin, but even if it had succeeded, the corpse poison would have done nothing.
Just as Daoist Fuyu had said, a Nine Revolutions Period cultivator would be able to withstand it, and his body was actually even stronger than that of a Nine Revolutions cultivator.
In the face of this poisonous gas, he did not run. He formed a spell with his hands, and a jade-white light gradually began to form on one of his fingers.
This was a sign that the Jade Shattering Finger was about to activate.
He wasn’t very proficient in the Jade Shattering Finger, so it took him too long to cast it each time. It was simply no good against powerful foes. This Daoist’s poison techniques were obviously powerful, but they were of little use against Tang Jie. Thus, in this poison fog, he could take his time casting this spell.
Miss Xu and Daoist Fuyu were both dumbfounded by his actions. As he made various hand signs in the mist, he suddenly slapped himself and said, “Shit, mistake. Let me start over.”
They found themselves feeling rather dizzy from the sight.
Daoist Fuyu was alarmed, knowing that he had run into a tough enemy. Casting aside all his apprehensions, he began to cast a spell. A dark cloud appeared behind him, and from this cloud emerged a savage ghost, as large as an ape and possessing long arms and a crimson maw. It noiselessly screeched in the direction of the two, and when it opened its mouth, it actually completely concealed the rest of its head.
“A Hearteater Ghost? You even managed to raise a Hearteater Ghost?” Tang Jie gasped in surprise.
Unlike that wicked ghost from before, the Hearteater Ghost was a truly savage being. It was a ghost with a solid body, and it liked to eat human hearts. It was one of the cruelest kinds of ghost.
The refining process of the Hearteater Ghost required human hearts, and given the rather large size of this ghost, it must have consumed numerous hearts. It seemed that Daoist Fuyu had killed more than just a few people.
At this moment, the Hearteater Ghost lunged at the pair, two pitch-black claws reaching out at them.
Miss Xu waved her bracelet, striking the Hearteater Ghost’s sharp claws with a metallic clang. The Hearteater Ghost’s body was as tough as steel, and it was Miss Xu who was forced back this time.
“Use your bells!” Tang Jie shouted. He had decided to directly take the Hearteater Ghost’s blow. The ghost had managed to claw open his skin, but he had succeeded in pushing it back.
This meant that while the Hearteater Ghost wasn’t as strong as he was, it had the ability to wound him.
“The Soulfear Bells can only subdue low-grade ghosts, but the Hearteater Ghost has already reached the point of substantialization. I can’t subdue it!” Miss Xu loudly replied. A pennant appeared in her hand and flew toward the Hearteater Ghost. It seemed that she intended to use softness to conquer strength.
Daoist Fuyu strangely laughed, and he pointed at the skull sword in the air. The sword sliced at the pennant, forcing Miss Xu to take it back.
Still laughing, Daoist Fuyu produced a black banner that he waved in the air. A large number of ghosts surged out of the banner and swept toward the two.
“The Soulmass Banner,” Tang Jie grunted, not finding it strange.
The Soulmass Banner was one of the signature magic tools of the Ghost Raising Sect. In its prime, almost every one of its disciples had a Soulmass Banner that was used to gather up ghosts.
But ghosts gathered by the Soulmass Banner couldn’t grow and wouldn’t be able to develop ghost essences, and powerful ghosts like the Hearteater Ghost could not be collected. Thus, the banner’s strength was limited, and it relied purely on numbers for victory.
Even so, the dark mass of ghosts that emerged from the Soulmass Banner was truly frightening. In low-level battles, it was a very practical tool.
As a Spirit Platform Realm student, Tang Jie didn’t have any good large-area spells, so even he couldn’t do anything to this vast crowd of ghosts. And these ghosts were cunning and erratic. Rather than fighting Tang and Xu to the death, they hit and ran. The two of them soon had their hands full dealing with the ghosts.
Although Daoist Fuyu had average strength, he truly had a lot of evil spirits. After using the Soulmass Banner and releasing the Hearteater Ghost, he cast another spell, shouting, “Bluefang Ghosts, go!”
Five fanged ghosts with blue faces appeared. They were about the size of infants, but they held steel forks in their hands. Chattering incessantly, they thrust their forks at the two.
Daoist Fuyu was a sinister person. Seeing that Tang Jie had formidable defenses and wasn’t easily hurt, he decided to have his ghosts attack Miss Xu. For a moment, she was run ragged defending herself, and she couldn’t help but shout, “Hey! Hurry up and help me!”
Before this, she had appeared calm and self-assured, and only with this shout did she expose her nature as a young girl.
Tang Jie laughed and rushed in, moving up to Miss Xu’s side and blocking those small ghosts that were lunging at her.
At the same time, Miss Xu threw out that pennant, which made a long arc as it cleaved through several ghosts.
Their eyes lit up at the success of this attack. At this moment, the Hearteater Ghost lunged again. Tang Jie shouted, “I’ll deal with it!”
He once more placed himself in front of Miss Xu while she attacked with her golden bracelet. The bracelet curved around him and slammed into the Hearteater Ghost’s head. Even though the ghost had a body like steel, it was still dizzied from the blow and staggered backward a few steps.
The two of them smiled at each other.
Complementing each other perfectly, they began to turn the tables. Tang Jie used his body to fend off the small ghosts while Miss Xu attacked again and again. Her pennant was capable of sweeping through large groups while her golden bracelet could attack from afar and defend up close.
Daoist Fuyu saw the situation worsening. In shock and anger, he pointed at the skull sword, which flew around Tang Jie and shot at Miss Xu.
Tang Jie grabbed Miss Xu and placed her behind him. At the same time, he thrust his finger at the skull sword. Crack! The sword exploded into pieces, leaving behind a golden point of light.
“My sword!” the Daoist cried out in pain.
Already accustomed to these cries, Tang Jie reached out and grabbed the golden grain.
“What spell art is that?” Miss Xu asked in surprise.
Tang Jie turned around and went back to dealing with the small ghosts, at the same time pulling the girl back behind him. “It’s not a spell art, just brute strength.”
“Then what about your spell arts? Why were you making hand signs that entire time without casting a single spell?”
Tang Jie’s face reddened. “I’m still not that good at them yet.”
In the end, the Hearteater Ghost had interrupted him before he could finish casting the Jade Shattering Finger, and he hadn’t had any more opportunities to use it afterward.
The girl chuckled. Her smile was like the dawn across clean snow, or ripples across a clear autumn lake. Tang Jie was momentarily entranced.
Daoist Fuyu was even more enraged that these two still had the time to joke around while fighting with him. He threw out another item and roared, “Die! My nine children, take their lives!”
Nine skulls appeared in the air, black and red. All nine skulls opened their mouths and attempted to bite at the two.
“Nine Infant Ghost?” Miss Xu recognized this ghost, and her complexion turned ghastly pale.