Chapter 312: The Immortal’s Immobilization Spell, Infant Ghost, and Are the Fox Clan Juniors All This Hot-Tempered Nowadays!?

The young Daoist’s eyes gleamed with cunning, and beneath it, a trace of grit. His quick reflexes caught everyone off guard.

“Heh! So it’s just a little Daoist!”

“Damn it, this Daoist fooled us all. Hack him to pieces and boil him for stew!”

The crowd erupted in curses. One pair after another of red and green eyes locked onto Zhao Youwei.

“That damn Daoist!”

The demon tore free from the talisman on its arm and lunged straight at him. Its body moved as fast as lightning, and Zhao Youwei had no time to react, but his nature carried a streak of ruthless resolve. He drew a sharp dagger from his robe and stabbed straight out. Anyone could see that this was a desperate struggle before death.

The demon’s hide was thick, and its strength was great, plus its speed was unmatched. If it truly got serious, such an attack could be dodged with ease!

Suddenly, the crowd’s eyes all froze, and some even let out startled exclamations. The dagger had pierced directly into the demon’s eye socket, and blood sprayed everywhere. Even Zhao Youwei’s face showed surprise.

So weak!?

Why had the demon suddenly stopped moving!?

Without hesitation, he twisted the blade hard, stirring until the demon’s brains were completely churned to mush.

But, strangely, that demon-in-human-form never moved a muscle from start to finish. Even with a sharp dagger driven into its eye socket and blood gushing everywhere, it made not the slightest sound!

This sight was eerie enough to make everyone’s scalp tingle!

Haunted!?

But what kind of place was this!? Out of ten people here, nearly half were already ghosts!

“Kill him!” Mr. Hua’s voice was cold.

At this time, the pig-faced man, the fiercest of them all, threw a punch. The ground beneath his step caved half a chi deep!

Bang!

The explosive force cracked like a sonic boom, making everyone’s eardrums sting.

Crash!

The ancient jade pendant on Zhao Youwei’s chest shattered. His whole body was blasted away, and his chest wracked with pain. His face was drained of color, but the very first thing he did was look mournfully at the broken jade. Protective talismans were exceedingly rare, and just like that, his was gone!

The pig-faced man, though bloated in form, moved with shocking speed. He seized Zhao Youwei’s throat in one hand and lifted him effortlessly into the air as his face twisted with feral menace.

“I hate you damn Daoists the most. Every one I see, I kill!”

Zhao Youwei’s face flushed purple, and his breath was cut off. That massive hand on his neck clamping down like an iron vice and was impossible to break free.

Clang!

There was a flash of blade light. The head of the arrogant, overbearing pig-faced man flew high into the air. Blood sprayed like a fountain, quickly pooling across the floor, forming a thick, dark-red mire.

The hall fell utterly silent. A young Daoist with sword-like brows and starry eyes stood there with the blade in his hand gleaming coldly.

With a single stroke, he had severed the pig-faced man’s head.

“What if I’m a Daoist? Did a Daoist steal the rice from your household?” Li Yanchu’s gaze was icy cold.

Hu Jinbao’s expression shifted slightly.

Since when are the fox clan juniors so hot-tempered!?

“You little fox demon, do you truly take yourself for a Daoist!?”

Hu Jinbao frowned, scolding in anger.

Fox demon...?

The long-bearded old man furrowed his brow. “This one is clearly a ghost. Why do you call him a fox demon?”

The crowd was stunned.

“I say he belongs to my corpse-herding lineage!”

“Nonsense, he’s clearly a wolf demon!”

“Rubbish! From the moment he entered, I noticed that he’s the same as me, a mountain fiend!”

Voices rose in dispute, and the twenty-four outcast cultivators all were convinced Li Yanchu was of their kind, especially since he possessed the Sun Veil and was able to shield his fate from heaven’s sight. For those of weaker cultivation, the deception would last quite some time.

Even Mr. Hua’s heart tightened at this moment. He, too, thought the youth was some soul-cultivating heretic.

Still, Li Yanchu’s expression remained stern. Earlier, he had cast the Immobilization Spell, aiding that young Daoist in slaying the demon.

He had intended to remain in hiding, but faced with this hall full of demons and monsters, he could no longer suppress the killing intent boiling within!

“You wretched fiends and murderers, open your eyes wide and see clearly who I am!”

His voice cracked like thunder. From Li Yanchu’s body, qi and blood surged skyward like a blazing inferno, as if he himself were a roaring furnace.

The gathered demons and outcasts felt their very souls scorched and wracked with unbearable agony.

Shhh!

With a flash of blade light, the butcher-turned-fiend was instantly cut down, and his soul scattered to nothing.

A demonic cultivator shrieked, and from his sleeve surged thick black smoke, within it writhed a wailing infant ghost!

Li Yanchu’s saber cleaved downward, and in one stroke, both the infant ghost and the demonic cultivator were split in half. The saber’s momentum did not stop; it severed the thigh of another demon and gouged a deep trench into the floor.

Clang!

The shaven-headed monk with a monk's knife suddenly flared with demonic qi, swinging a strike that aimed to bisect Li Yanchu. The air then rang with demonic chants!

Clang!

The Jiaoslayer met the monk's knife head-on. The crash of iron echoed like thunder with sparks exploding outward.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The monk staggered back four steps under the shockwave, each step stamping a deep pit into the ground. Veins bulged across his arms, and the web of skin between the thumb and index finger seared with pain.

His eyes widened in shock at Li Yanchu as the words slipped from his lips, “A Grandmaster of Martial Dao!?”

That strike was clear and decisive, domineering and fierce. It had already reached the realm of returning to simplicity and restoring the true nature[1] in Martial Dao.

A Grandmaster! Half his body still tingled with numbness,and demonic qi coursed wildly through him just to counteract that overwhelming, blazing inner force.

“How can this be!? Weren’t those

jianghu

grandmasters supposed to be hidden from the world, moving rarely as they seek ways to prolong their lives!?”

The monk’s heart quaked in terror.

Li Yanchu’s gaze gleamed like cold lightning. Once again, his saber struck down.

Clang!

The shaven-headed monk met the strike with his blade, yet was once more blasted backward by the towering force surging from the Jiaoslayer! Agony shot through his arm, and the flesh at the web of skin between the thumb and index finger tore open.

“Hm? You can actually withstand two of my strikes?”

Li Yanchu arched his brow, while the monk flushed crimson with fury.

“Damn you, go to hell!”

He swung the skull hanging from his chest, which instantly burst into streams of black light, coalescing into hideous faces that howled and lunged forward.

Shing!

Li Yanchu gripped the Jiaoslayer in both hands, and with a savage downward sweep, a dazzling arc of blade energy erupted, tearing the very air apart. That swarm of ghastly skull-faces was an insidious artifact, and it was shredded in an instant beneath the saber qi.

The monk’s face drained of color; such saber arts were utterly earth-shaking!

The long-bearded old man, Hu Jinbao, and the sludgelike shadow all struck at once. An ancient suit of armor flickered into being upon Li Yanchu’s body, and a tide of pure yang energy roared skyward.

It was the Daoist talismanic armor!

BOOM!

BOOM!

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Explosions thundered out, and smoke and dust billowed everywhere. From within the storm, a blood-soaked half-corpse was hurled into the air, with its severed hand still clutching a broken blade. It was none other than that same shaven-headed monk from before!

His eyes bulged wide in rage, and his death was grisly beyond comparison!

“Cut down that Daoist!”

“Everyone, attack!”

“Kill him!”

These outland heretics were vicious and ruthless; they were not cowed in the slightest, and instead whipped into a frenzy of bloodlust.

The scholar Cao Xing and the Daoist Zhao Youwei were petrified by the murderous aura surging to the heavens. The two shrank back into a corner and stared blankly in shock.

Suddenly, a black shadow shot forward, unfazed by the furnace-like masculine qi blazing from Li Yanchu’s body, darting silently toward his back. It was trying to possess him swiftly and soundlessly!

1. Daoist teaching and practice aim to cultivate oneself so that life can return to the original state of the Great Dao (achieving unity with the Dao) and revert to the simplicity and authenticity of one’s earliest being (aligning with supreme virtue). This process is called 返璞归真 'returning to simplicity and restoring the true nature'. ☜