Chapter 504: Commanding Spirits and Dispatching Generals! Underworld Ghost Soldiers! Five Hundred Lightning Gods Held in the Palm! Push It Open, Even Heaven Will Split!

Then, that glowing divine talisman dragged out a wisp of phantom shadow from within the headless statue in the dilapidated mountain god temple. It was a burly military general, built powerfully and ferocious in appearance. Around his neck ran a thin line of blood, as if his head had been sewn back on by someone.

The general tumbled to the ground, his body bound by the power of the talisman. Panicking, he hurriedly begged for mercy, “Immortal, spare my life! I’ve not committed any evil.”

That burly general was none other than the mountain god of this temple. It was just that temples came in different sizes, as did the mountains they belonged to.

A mountain god like him, even at the height of his power, received very sparse incense offerings and was not the kind who could really hold his own in a fight.

The truly formidable mountain gods were often great demons who had been granted divine titles, like Cuihua’s mother, or the mountain god who had taken Feng Jiu as a disciple. Their divine rank might be low, but their cultivation realms were extremely high.

A god like him belonged to the category of incense gods. Once the incense dwindled, his own realm naturally declined along with it.

“You say you haven’t committed evil, then what about the bloodline on your neck? Who stitched your head back on?” the girl in the green dress asked.

“Well... well, I don’t know,” the burly general replied.

The girl in green shot him a glance. “You can’t even lie properly. If you hadn’t offered living sacrifices to those people, would they have helped you patch up your body?”

She couldn’t be bothered to continue talking to this seemingly honest but actually cowardly and cunning burly general, so she confined his soul into a pouch at her waist.

In truth, what she cared about wasn’t the matter of sacrificing living beings, but the fact that this mountain god had chosen the wrong master!

He’s just a fallen mountain god, perfect to take back and offer to the Old Ancestor.

“Let’s go, Goldie. We need to leave this place quickly,” the girl in green said with a smile.

The big yellow dog followed at her side. “So the hands of the Ascension Manor have stretched this far already?”

The girl in green replied, “At a time like this, everyone calls it an age of great contention. Those madmen who seek immortality naturally won’t miss such an opportunity.”

The girl and dog spoke as they walked outward.

But suddenly, they sensed a heart-palpitating aura descending from the sky. They lifted their heads slightly and froze in surprise.

A ferocious beast, brimming with killing intent and tyrannical might, hovered in the air. And standing upon its back was a mature, beautiful woman with exquisite features and flowing, expressive eyes, so beautiful it was enough to steal one’s breath.

“Such a beautiful woman!” The big yellow dog’s eyes lit up as he said excitedly.

“Watch your mouth. Do you see what she’s riding?” the girl in the green dress snorted coldly.

Only then did the big yellow dog tear his gaze away from the exquisitely beautiful, mature woman and turn it toward the divine beast in the sky.

“This is... a Suan Ni?!” the big yellow dog exclaimed in surprise.

At that moment, the ferocious beast slowly descended to the ground. The alluring, graceful woman looked down at the girl in green and the big yellow dog from above.

“Where did this little brat come from, barging into my territory and causing trouble?!” the innkeeper said coldly.

“Your territory?” the girl in green replied.

“A Xuanhuang[1] Skyhound? Those things still exist? But your bloodline is quite mixed,” the innkeeper said, glancing at the big yellow dog.

The big yellow dog felt as if he had been struck by lightning, and a chill instantly rose from the depths of his heart. Even if ordinary people saw him, they would at most think he was a demon dog. Yet this woman had seen through his origins at a single glance.

“Miss, earlier I was the one at fault. I merely wanted to see whether you were the person I was looking for,” the girl in green said.

“So it really is you people. Heh, do you truly think humans can triumph over Heaven? Do you even know what you’re doing?” the innkeeper sneered coldly.

The girl in green’s expression was solemn. “Someone still needs to step up and do it, right?”

The innkeeper gave another cold laugh. “Fine. Since you already know, then don’t leave.”

She lightly extended a finger, and the surrounding heaven-and-earth primordial qi wove itself into a vast net, like a snare cast by the skies, enveloping the girl in green and the big yellow dog within it.

Crackle! Crackle!

Lightning sparks flashed incessantly.

However, the girl in green remained calm. She raised two slender, jade-like fingers and traced a few strokes through the air. A half–human-height divine talisman with a cyan glow appeared, instantly expanding outward!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The talisman collided with the heavenly net, shattering it in an instant!

The corners of the girl in green’s lips curved slightly as she was about to speak, but the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth condensed once more, forming an even more terrifying heavenly net.

“Goldie!” the girl in green called out.

The big yellow dog’s body instantly transformed into a massive hound over two meters tall and more than four meters long, ferocity blazing forth. As his body expanded, he forcibly propped the heavenly net apart. Only, the crackling lightning sparks left streak after streak of marks upon his body.

“You really aren’t afraid of being struck by lightning,” the innkeeper said with a smile.

“Woman, you know nothing of my power!” the big yellow dog roared in fury.

He liked beautiful women, and the woman before him was practically a celestial maiden descended to the mortal world. That alone successfully stirred the big yellow dog’s desire to show off!

“Very well!” The innkeeper then pulled out a yellow talisman from her bosom. On it surged a pure-yang, domineering Five-Lightning aura that made one’s heart tremble.

Seeing this, the big yellow dog’s pupils contracted sharply, his expression changing in an instant.

“How does the Palm Thunder Technique incantation go again? Let me think. Ah, I remember.

“Five hundred lightning gods dwell within the palm, one push splits the earth and shatters the sky. Any vile spirits or demons that meet it are reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye!”

As soon as the innkeeper finished the incantation, a bolt of lightning suddenly exploded from her hand and struck the big yellow dog directly!

Boom!

The big yellow dog’s vision turned into a vast field of white as he was blasted backward. Before such domineering lightning arts, the physique he had always taken pride in was utterly worthless!

This Five-Lightning Talisman had been given to the innkeeper by Li Yanchu. She did not consume the talisman’s stored power, but instead used its pure-yang qi to cast Palm Thunder Technique, yet the effect was still overwhelmingly tyrannical!

The girl in green was in shock as she looked toward the big yellow dog. When she saw that, though charred black and lying in a deep pit, he still had a breath left, she finally let out a sigh of relief.

At the same time, anger flared across her face.

“You dare injure Goldie! You’re courting death!” the girl in green shouted coldly. From a delicate cloth pouch at her waist, she took out a handful of beans and scattered them.

The soybeans instantly multiplied into hundreds, filling the air in a dense swarm. When they hit the ground, they transformed into one cold-faced underworld ghost soldiers after another. Expressionless, they stared up at the innkeeper in the sky.

“Seize her and bring her down!” the girl in green barked.

At her command, the underworld ghost soldiers surged forward in unison.

“Calling for backup, are you?” The innkeeper was unconcerned. With a flick of her hand, she tossed out several wooden tokens.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Deafening roars shook the heavens. In addition to the Suan Ni she was already riding, three more ferocious beasts, brimming with killing intent and tyrannical might, manifested. She had taken out her divine wooden tokens!

The moment these beasts appeared, their momentum was nothing short of earth-shattering. The four great ferocious beasts surrounded the ghost soldiers and lunged at them head-on!

Just like that, the ghost soldier after another was swallowed in an instant, unable to pose the slightest threat. No matter how the girl in the green dress reinforced them with spells, they were simply no match for those ferocious beasts!

When it came to using these wooden tokens, the innkeeper seemed even more adept than Li Yanchu himself, so familiar with them that it was as if they had originally belonged to her.

1. “Xuanhuang” is a traditional Chinese term. It primarily refers to the colors of heaven and earth, black for the sky and yellow for the land, and by extension to heaven and earth themselves. It can also denote the primal, chaotic vital energy that existed before heaven and earth were separated. In a broader sense, it may further allude to turmoil in the world, warfare, or even multicolored silk textiles, among other meanings. The most famous occurrence of the term appears at the very beginning of the

Thousand Character Classic

: “Heaven and earth, xuan and huang.” ☜