Chapter 61: Playing God and Spouting Lies!

Li Yanchu’s tone remained calm, but a trace of mockery flickered in his eyes.

The City God statue bellowed in fury, “You insolent wretch! You’ve repeatedly slandered me. Such malicious intent is worthy of death!”

At once, a fierce wind howled around them.

“So many malevolent spirits roam Wei City, harming who knows how many innocents,” Li Yanchu said, voice sharp. “And yet you, the City God, claim to have known and did nothing? Then you must be one of the culprits!”

His gaze grew piercing, radiating pure yang qi, his presence rising steadily like a blazing sun.

“What demonic thing dares to pretend to be a god before me and masquerade as the City God! I have the Five-Lightning Spell, pure yang between Heaven and Earth... Anything that dares not meet my gaze is nothing but an evil spirit. Die!”

“How arrogant!” the City God statue roared, radiating golden light so intense it forced others to avert their eyes.

But Li Yanchu stood firm, unfazed. He began chanting incantations aloud, using the Deity Summoning Art to activate the Spirit Officer Summoning Talisman.

“I now invoke the divine might of Huo Luo General[1], the great Spirit Officer and Supreme Enforcer of Heavenly Punishment. Command the Five Lightning to issue their decrees, and reduce all demons, evildoers, and malevolent spirits to dust. I humbly beseech your descent, and grant me the power of lightning to shield and protect. Spirit Officer Summoning Talisman, activate!”[2]

As the chant finished, the talisman Li Yanchu had kept close to his body suddenly erupted in divine light, shattering layer upon layer of spiritual restraint. A mighty qi descended from the vast heavens, and the power of a true deity of the Celestial Court poured into Li Yanchu’s spirit.

In an instant, his primordial spirit surged to a height of two zhang. It was cloaked in golden armor while holding a shimmering golden rod!

He stood like a divine general of the Celestial Court’s Thunder Division, as if the divine officer, Spirit Officer Wang, himself had descended into the mortal world.

Spirit Officer Wang, foremost among the five hundred spirit officers of the Celestial Court, bore a crimson face and long beard. He was clad in golden armor and a red robe, and his three eyes were blazing with wrath as he raised a golden whip high in his right hand!

“Come out from hiding, now!”

The golden mace in Li Yanchu’s hand shot forth, blazing with mystic light, and slammed into the head of the statue.

BOOM!

With a thunderous crash, a translucent soul was blasted out of the statue. It was an image of the City God.

“Aaaah!” The City God clutched his head and tumbled from the central hall, his official robe crumpled into a twisted mess.

To his horror, he found that just standing several zhang away from Li Yanchu felt like standing before a roaring inferno. It was unbearably hot, and his spirit was scalded by the pure yang fire.

“Protect City God!”

“Seize him!”

“Who dares be so brazen as to defy the Underworld and the City God?!”

The statue of the City God trembled, and from beneath its base emerged figure after figure, like civil and military judges, ghost generals, and ghost officials.

But Li Yanchu’s voice boomed like thunder as he said, “You’re playing god and deceiving the people... If there truly were Underworld ghost officials and a righteous City God in this land, how could so many ghosts be roaming freely, killing at will? You dare use such petty tricks to fool the masses! You malevolent spirits... Your end is near!”

Spirit Officer Wang was a divine general of the Thunder Division, a Celestial Court legitimate deity.

Now, Li Yanchu’s primordial spirit carried both divine might and the blazing purity of Five-Lightning yang qi.

The civil and military judges, ghost generals, and officials who had moments ago shouted to seize him, now found themselves forced back, scorched by the searing solar flames radiating from Li Yanchu like the noonday sun. He had invoked divine power, and his primordial spirit was now infused with pure yang divinity.

“So, you’re the one in Wei City who’s been raising ghosts. No wonder you dared pose as the City God and impersonate the Underworld authorities! No wonder this city is overrun with malevolent spirits! I had long wondered why so many hauntings were happening here.

“Turns out, it was you, this fraud pretending to be the City God, playing god and deceiving the people! Whether you’re the real City God or not, today I will see your soul shattered into dust!”

Li Yanchu’s qi surged even higher, blazing with righteous might. With the golden mace in hand, he brought it down in a crushing blow.

Blinding light exploded, thereafter several of the so-called ghost generals, officials, and civil and military Underworld judges were instantly obliterated by Li Yanchu’s strike. He then felt the resonance of accumulating merit.

But right now, Li Yanchu had only one goal, to turn this City God Temple upside down and wipe out every last one of these false, demonic impostors!

At this moment, the eyes of the Wei City “City God” were filled with venomous hatred, locked tightly onto Li Yanchu.

“You brat! You actually possess authentic Daoist talismans? Damn you! You’ve ruined my plans again and again. I’ll have your life for this!” the false City God raged, his voice laced with fury and resentment.

“Come then!” Li Yanchu’s voice thundered. He was fierce and fearless!

“I’ll refine your soul until you’re cast into eternal torment, never to reincarnate!” the City God spat, his words full of malice.

The moment those words fell, a storm of sinister wind swept through the hall. One after another, ghost officials and Underworld judges bared their fangs and claws, lunging at Li Yanchu in a frenzied assault.

Boom

!

Li Yanchu’s divine eyes flashed like lightning. The golden mace in his hand burst forth with blazing mystic light, suddenly expanding to the size of a courtyard pillar. One ghost official after another was blasted apart on the spot, and their souls were completely annihilated!

Amid the chaotic assault on Li Yanchu, the Wei City City God made his move. A pitch-black token appeared in his hand, engraved with thousands of twisted, malevolent ghosts, whose gazes radiated venomous hatred.

To be housed within a City God’s primordial spirit, this object could not possibly be a mundane item. It was clearly a demonic artifact, an evil weapon.

There was no testing of the waters, no hesitation. From the very beginning, both sides had thrown themselves into a full-scale, deadly clash with nothing held back! They immediately unleashed their strongest techniques, each one aiming to utterly destroy the other.

The City God Temple transformed into a nightmarish realm filled with fanged, green-faced yakshas[3], evil spirits, and seductive demonesses wearing human skins. It was a vision of a terrifying hell.

This was a primordial-spirit-level duel. In a single thought, endless horrifying illusions were born.

But Li Yanchu’s divine gaze cut through it all, undaunted by any demonic trickery. “With a golden whip in hand, I scour the world. Armored in gold, divine might be revealed[4]! Evil shall be vanquished, die!”

The longer Li Yanchu fought, the more unstoppable he became. His voice thundered like spring lightning exploding beside the ears.

In the blink of an eye, the thick, ghostly illusions vanished, and clarity returned to his vision. The malevolent spirits that had been about to charge him screamed and shrank back, scorched by the divine qi blazing from Li Yanchu’s form. Now, they no longer dared approach.

“Die!” Li Yanchu swept his golden mace in a wide arc, thunder and wind rolling from its path like a surging storm.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The ghost officials, judges, and evil spirits before him were all obliterated. Their souls were utterly scattered, and their spirits were shattered beyond return! The Wei City City God had his spell forcibly broken and was now rolling on the ground in agony, letting out shrill, blood-curdling screams.

Primordial-spirit battles were the most perilous of all! The City God’s soul had taken a devastating blow and was now suffering from severe backlash.

Li Yanchu had summoned the fierce divine power of Spirit Officer Wang, a mighty and valorous god of thunder, and its force was overwhelming and majestic.

The so-called City God of Wei City had his spell shattered on the spot. Li Yanchu seized the opportunity to strike down this impostor once and for all, but just then, the black token in the City God’s hand unleashed a surge of howling wind.

A towering yaksha, standing several zhang tall with a green face and tusks, appeared wielding a massive three-pronged trident. Ghostly qi swirled around him.

In an instant, over a dozen vague, indistinct spirits from within Wei City surged forward and fused into the yaksha’s body.

“So this is your trump card?” Li Yanchu sneered coldly.

The yaksha let out a piercing, otherworldly shriek. It carried a strange force capable of tearing at one’s very soul.

“Who summons me?” The yaksha’s voice was heavy and commanding, reverberating throughout the temple. “How dare you show off before a master!”

Divine radiance flared from Li Yanchu’s body like a blazing sun.

“With this divine seal in my grasp, I subdue all demons and devils. Any who dare defy me shall be crushed to dust! By Heaven’s decree... I exorcize!”

A divine seal appeared in his hand, and the golden mace burst with dazzling light. As it swept through the air, the black token was annihilated on the spot! The yaksha, along with the remaining ghost officials and evil spirits inside the temple, were reduced to ashes.

Sensing the destruction of the demonic artifact, the City God's soul was consumed by uncontrollable rage.

“How is this possible!?”

“Impossible!”

Agony tore through his soul like a thousand blades. His eyes burned with unwillingness and venom as they fixed hatefully on Li Yanchu.

1. 豁落 is often seen as part of a title for certain powerful Daoist deities or spirit generals, particularly those associated with lightning, punishment, and exorcism. ☜

2. This is a real invocation mantra to the Spirit Officer in Daoism. ☜

3. 夜叉 Yakshas are powerful, supernatural beings that can be protective or fearsome, found in both Buddhist and Daoist traditions. Their role varies, from guardians of the faith to underworld enforcers who subdue evil spirits. ☜

4. The line “手执金鞭寻世界，身披金甲显威灵” is a rhymed couplet commonly found in Daoist ritual texts, folk religious chants, or descriptions of divine generals, especially those associated with thunder, protection, or exorcism. This couplet is poetic praise for a powerful divine general or spirit enforcer—likely a Daoist thunder deity or guardian spirit. ☜