Chapter 66: Don’t Blame Me for Taking the Kill

Li Yanchu was used to fighting demonic forces alone, and his battle at the City God Temple in spiritual form had been no exception. But today, with a young and capable cultivator like Bai Hongtu at his side, Li Yanchu felt completely at ease like a fish in water.

The battlefield quickly erupted into chaos, and the danger was intense.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The four of them leapt out the window one after the other, landing in the street outside. This time, Li Yanchu didn’t have to worry about Bai Hongtu being ambushed inside the room, so he drove his opponents out into the open street.

The Jiaoslayer in his hand was exceptionally sharp. Once infused with Six Yang Force, it became an unstoppable force, cutting through all resistance like a hot knife through butter.

Lady Jin’s prized paper effigies were completely useless before Li Yanchu’s might. In just a few short breaths, he shattered one of them to pieces!

Seeing this, Lady Jin’s eyes were filled with hatred. The paper effigies she had spent so much effort planting throughout Wei City had been almost entirely destroyed by Li Yanchu. To her, it was a crippling blow. Right now, her strength was at its lowest, but her hatred for Li Yanchu surged like a raging river.

Suddenly, yin qi exploded from her body, and a gray short sword condensed in her hand as she slashed it straight toward Li Yanchu.

“You’re courting death!” Li Yanchu’s eyes flashed like lightning as he swept his blade horizontally in a single devastating arc.

With one strike, he shredded another paper effigy to pieces, and the gray yin sword wielded by Lady Jin was instantly shattered. Along with it, one of her arms was severed cleanly!

But what was bizarre was that no blood flowed from the stump. Instead, what was revealed beneath the torn flesh was something that looked like a bamboo framework.

Bang

!

Li Yanchu shattered the chest of the final paper effigy that lunged at him. But just as he did, his gaze fell on the strange condition of Lady Jin’s body, and his expression subtly shifted.

Could it be... her body isn’t even human? Is she just a paper effigy herself?

The thought flashed through Li Yanchu’s mind.

But before he could examine her more closely, Lady Jin pounced again, her eyes filled with venomous hatred. In response, Li Yanchu swept his blade across his chest in a guarding stance, and the two of them passed each other in mid-air.

Crack!

In an instant, Lady Jin’s seemingly intact body suddenly split clean in half at the waist.

As Li Yanchu approached to inspect her, a phantom figure emerged from Lady Jin’s broken body. It was the primordial spirit of this sinister paper effigy maker!

Her spirit shot straight toward Li Yanchu’s spiritual sea, aiming to possess his body. If she succeeded in taking over his physical form, her strength would soar to new heights!

In the realm of spirit cultivation, paper effigy makers were especially dangerous, since controlling multiple paper effigies was already akin to spreading fragments of one’s soul. She wanted Li Yanchu’s soul to be destroyed, never to rise again for all eternity.

“How dare you!” Li Yanchu shouted coldly.

He pulled out a Five-Lightning Talisman and slashed it down. Lightning arts was the purest, most righteous force under Heaven, capable of cleansing all evil and corruption.

The moment Li Yanchu noticed that her body was not that of a living human, he had suspected she wouldn’t die so easily. More importantly, he hadn’t received any merit points just now.

The pure yang lightning aura on the Five-Lightning Talisman was a devastating force against a primordial spirit. Li Yanchu had long anticipated this moment; this move was akin to the Daoist Palm Thunder Technique.

Boom

!

Lady Jin’s primordial spirit was struck violently. Her spirit form turned partially transparent, and her gaze was dazed and hollow. She had taken serious damage to her core essence!

“Die!” Li Yanchu roared.

His arm muscles bulged with power, blood and qi surging through him like a roaring furnace. He channeled his Six Yang Force directly into the Jiaoslayer, a weapon steeped in murderous qi and karmic retribution.

Then, he brought the blade down in a single, ruthless stroke!

Shing

!

A shrill, ear-piercing sound sliced through the air. In that instant, Lady Jin, the long-time enemy of Li Yanchu and a sinister paper effigy maker, had her primordial spirit utterly annihilated by the edge of that deadly blade!

Nearby, Song Sanlang, who had been struggling under the pressure of Bai Hongtu’s talismans and Flying Sword, turned pale with shock.

Lady Jin’s primordial soul arts, not to mention her paper effigies, were so formidable that even he had trouble dealing with them. Yet in Li Yanchu’s hands, she hadn’t even lasted half an incense stick’s time!

Song Sanlang immediately took a step to the side, dodging one of Bai Hongtu’s talismanic strikes, and prepared to launch a close-range ambush. But Bai Hongtu smoothly shifted his hand seal, and the Flying Sword pivoted mid-air, shooting straight toward Song Sanlang’s back. This sword was exceptionally sharp, imbued with evil-purging properties, and posed a tremendous threat to Song Sanlang.

Suddenly, a half-corpse burst out from Song Sanlang’s body and charged straight into the path of the Flying Sword!

Clang

! The sound of metal striking metal echoed through the street.

Song Sanlang had fused the lower half of a two-part corpse into his body to strengthen himself. After refinement, such a corpse could significantly boost his power. However, the two-part corpse was too vicious and unruly, so he had lost control of the upper half when it escaped earlier. And now, with only the lower half remaining inside him, its effectiveness had been minimal.

In a gamble to kill Bai Hongtu, Song Sanlang cut off his connection to the corpse fragment and released it as a shield. With that opening, he lunged forward with a sharp dagger in hand, aiming directly for Bai Hongtu’s heart. He wanted to kill Bai Hongtu at close range.

Boom

!

The very next moment, Song Sanlang was engulfed in a brilliant flash of flame, and the intense heat instantly seared and split open his flesh.

Bai Hongtu sneered coldly, “You think I’m just some pushover?”

Though his Flying Sword was tangled up with the two-part corpse, Bai Hongtu’s talisman arts were incredibly potent. Remaining calm under pressure, he had unleashed a deadly counterattack that forced Song Sanlang back.

With that, Song Sanlang tumbled to the ground, frantically slapping at the flames still clinging to his body. His true strength lay in controlling corpses, not in manipulating yin or ghostly energies. Controlling such a monstrous and cursed thing as the two-part corpse had consumed all his focus and energy.

Now, with the upper half destroyed by Li Yanchu and the lower half severed from his control, Song Sanlang’s qi had weakened drastically. Had the two-part corpse still been fused with him, that earlier strike might well have been fatal for Bai Hongtu.

The ever-skilled “last-hitter” Li Yanchu swooped in out of nowhere. With a flash of blade light, he cleaved the lower half of the two-part corpse to pieces! The Jiaoslayer, steeped in karmic killing qi, was no joke.

Bai Hongtu formed a sword seal with his fingers and shouted coldly, “Flying Sword, exorcize evil!”

Shing

!

This time, even Song Sanlang’s heart-guard mirror couldn’t block Bai Hongtu’s sword, and a spray of blood erupted as the blade pierced clean through his chest.

It wasn’t that Song Sanlang wasn’t strong. Even with only half the two-part corpse inside him, he was still a terrifying practitioner of dark arts. But the two men he faced tonight were simply too powerful, and their killing techniques were too swift and merciless.

Though human in form, Song Sanlang had long become a half-human, half-corpse abomination, having practiced the forbidden Art of Corpse Fusion.

His vitality was monstrous, and even after being skewered through the chest, he didn’t die immediately. He fumbled inside his robes and pulled out a gray pill, preparing to ignite the baleful energy within his body and transform fully into a mindless corpse demon. This was his final trump card, but once triggered, he would lose all reason and become a creature driven solely by slaughter.

Shing

!

A saber flash split the air as Li Yanchu’s sword came down in a clean arc and severed his head. With that, Song Sanlang collapsed to the ground instantly.

Li Yanchu remarked, “Your swordsmanship is impressive as always.”

Then he added with a serious look, “Don’t blame me for taking the kill. I was furious about how that guy lied to us before.”

Bai Hongtu blinked, then gave a small smile. He wasn’t bothered at all. In fact, seeing Li Yanchu’s genuine expression made him feel... a little flattered.

This friend of mine... really has good instincts,

Bai Hongtu couldn’t help thinking that to himself.

The loud commotion from their battle had quickly drawn the attention of patrolling yamen officers, all armed with blades. At first, they assumed it was some foolish outlaw making trouble in the street.

But upon approaching, they realized the ones involved were none other than Daoist Master Yanchu, Wei City’s demon-subduing hero, and Young Master Bai.