Chapter 169
Chapter 169
“Excellent!”
Delight surged through my heart, but my body never stopped moving.
I immediately executed a martial arts move called the Sparrowhawk Flip, spun to his side, and drove a vicious kick into his abdomen.
Thud!
The rogue occultist went flying backward and crashed to the floor.
But that burst of effort had nearly exhausted my strength for the moment as well.
Forcibly wielding the ritual blade had consumed more than half the qi in my body in an instant! My stamina also needed time to recover after such a ferocious clash.
Li Miao was already charging in, however. He had also noticed that the rogue occultist’s close-quarters combat skills were somewhat lacking and figured his own powerful build might give him the advantage.
Perhaps that was what you called unspoken coordination!
By the time he arrived, the rogue occultist had just taken a slash from me and been kicked to the floor.
Li Miao stomped down hard on the man’s wrist. At the same time, he thrust the shortened, broken bamboo pole in his hand fiercely downward, straight into the rogue occultist’s thigh.
Squelch…
Once again, the pole pierced clean through the man’s thigh, spraying blood.
Our combined assault had probably left the rogue occultist completely dazed.
From the moment my ritual blade struck his chest, his defeat had been inevitable…
I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment!
Barely half a year ago, I could only support the others from the rear when facing this man. Now I had gone head-to-head with him and won.
Of course, that didn’t mean I was stronger than Old Cao.
Nor did it mean the combined fighting strength of Li Miao and me surpassed that of Old Cao, Yuan Fei, and me together.
Our victory came mainly from having timing, terrain, allies, and superior weapons all on our side!
During the battle of magical arts beside the Killer Demon Tree, we had been in the open while the rogue occultist hid in the shadows. His sudden ambush forced us onto the defensive and caught us unprepared.
Tonight, in this riverside cabin, the situation was exactly the opposite!
Honestly, if I had known the rogue occultist was this powerful, I probably would have hesitated for a moment and then accepted Old Cao’s offer to help…
Even so, I had no regrets.
No matter what, we had won!
The ritual blade had split open his chest, Li Miao’s bamboo pole had pierced his thigh, and the battle had drained both his stamina and qi. Surely he couldn’t cause us any more trouble now, right?
Li Miao flicked his wrist and gave the rope a sharp cast.
Like an agile snake, the black-dog-hair rope wound around the wounded rogue occultist’s hands and feet. Bound like a silkworm cocoon, he couldn’t move an inch.
Only then did the two of us finally breathe a sigh of complete relief.
Now we could relax a little, uncover this bastard’s true face, and interrogate him.
“Hmph! You twisted rogue occultist, let’s see what you really look like.”
As I spoke, I crouched beside him.
I reached out, preparing to remove his mask.
Li Miao kept the bamboo pole embedded through the man’s thigh, while one foot firmly pinned down the writhing black-scaled snake. He watched curiously at the same time.
Rip!
I tore off the man’s mask.
Unexpectedly… another mask appeared underneath!
Huh?
I froze for a moment, but quickly understood.
Li Miao spoke from beside me.
“This man can breathe fire, so he clearly specializes in the old-school conjuring branch of the eclectic arts. Sichuan Opera face-changing itself evolved from certain old-school conjuring techniques.”
The rogue occultist we had subdued finally spoke. His voice sounded weak, but his tone remained vicious and cold.
“Who exactly are you? You don’t appear to be disciples of those sects that fancy themselves guardians of righteousness, nor do you share any deep hatred with me. Why fight me to the death like this?”
I snorted coldly.
“You talk too much!”
My hands never stopped as I continued peeling masks from his face.
Only after stripping away nine full layers did I finally reveal the rogue occultist’s true face and see what he actually looked like.
Li Miao and I both sucked in a breath of cold air!
The man’s face was truly… How should I put it? Hideous? Frightening?
Scars of every shape and size covered his entire face.
Some looked as though they had been inflicted by sharp weapons, while others seemed to have been caused by poisonous creatures. A single glance chilled the heart and made one’s skin crawl.
No wonder he kept his face hidden behind masks!
His appearance would make anyone uncomfortable, even an esoteric practitioner.
Yet I also found it a little strange.
If an ordinary person had been disfigured like this, nothing could be done.
But judging by all the methods this rogue occultist had displayed, removing these horrific scars might have been difficult, but certainly not impossible.
“He probably kept them on purpose. He’s already devoted himself to twisted, evil practices, after all. The more terrifying he looks, the more formidable he seems.”
I pondered silently as Li Miao and I studied the rogue occultist carefully.
Apart from the dense mass of horrifying scars across his face, his natural features were not actually ugly.
His eyes were bright and piercing, though the cold, chilling look within them resembled a venomous snake staring at its prey.
His medium-length hair fell to about his shoulders.
Li Miao deliberately mocked him.
“A man wearing his hair that long? You look like a woman.”
The rogue occultist fixed Li Miao with his cold, serpentine gaze and sneered.
“If you hadn’t ambushed me and relied on that powerful ritual blade, how could you possibly have defeated me?”
As he finished speaking, his gaze shifted to the ritual blade in my hand, his expression filled with greed and envy.
“Boy, a treasure like that isn’t something you should possess. Your master must have passed it down to you, correct? Even a great Daoist sect would probably hesitate to let someone so young use such a weapon. In your hands, it cannot display even one-tenth of its true power.”
What?!
The rogue occultist’s words instantly startled me.
The ritual blade’s power… I couldn’t bring out even one-tenth of it right now?
It already felt incredibly powerful to me!
Not only had it practically killed the bizarre corpse-fiend made from little Xia Mi’s body at the Xia Family Hamlet with a single slash, but now it had severed the rogue occultist’s gray-mist ghost hand and wounded him too.
Something this fierce wasn’t even displaying a tenth of its power?
Master truly was extraordinary!
The rogue occultist spoke again.
“Boy, who is your master? Give me a name. I might even know them. When the time comes–”
“Shut up!”
My voice was ice-cold.
“My master is like an immortal banished from heaven. How could a practitioner of twisted evil arts like you possibly claim a connection with her? Answer me. Half a year ago, did you murder a woman named Zhou Min, then use evil arts to forcibly transform her into an extremely powerful vicious corpse?”
Huh?
The rogue occultist stared blankly for a moment. Surprise appeared on his face, and then he burst out laughing.
“So that’s it! You’ve come to take revenge for that yin-born woman? Heh… I was wondering why you would fight me when we had no quarrel. What are you to her?”
A yin-born woman?
Only after hearing the rogue occultist’s words did I understand why Zhou Min had caught his attention.
A so-called yin-born woman was someone whose bazi placed her birth in a yin year, yin month, and yin day, while her destiny pattern also belonged to yin. Combined, these factors gave her soul an even stronger yin affinity.
Generally speaking, such people were more likely to see ghosts and tended to have weaker constitutions.
Of course, this was now a civilized society in a peaceful age, and the country was growing stronger and more prosperous. Fewer people died, so ghosts and corpse-fiends were far less common than in ancient times…
Even a yin-born woman had fewer chances of encountering a ghost than one might imagine.
Yet women like that were the most likely to be targeted by rogue occultists!
Their unusual souls had unusual uses.
This rogue occultist had clearly wanted to create a corpse fiend to serve as some kind of puppet corpse servant. That was why he ordered Zeng Qingfeng to find a yin-born woman for him.
Poor Zhou Min had simply been the unfortunate one Zeng Qingfeng happened to find…
“I had Zeng Qingfeng investigate that woman’s circumstances and relationships. Everyone around her was from an ordinary, poor family. I never heard of her having a relative or friend like you.”
“And if you only met her by chance, why go to such lengths to uncover my whereabouts and risk your life fighting me for her sake?”
The rogue occultist couldn’t understand it and remained fixated on my identity.
He wasn’t stupid, apparently. Before harming someone, he knew enough to have his lackey investigate the victim’s identity and background first…
I couldn’t be bothered to explain that because he had rapidly transformed Zhou Min into a vicious corpse, she had become quite powerful. Occasionally, she could break free of his suppression and emerge from beneath the Chuan River…
Then she happened to run into me and forced me into a deal through a nether covenant, whether I wanted it or not.
This was simply the wicked retribution a villain like him deserved after committing so many evil deeds!
“Heh. You really want to know? Then I refuse to tell you. A villain like you has probably harmed countless innocent people besides Zhou Min. You can die without ever understanding why.”
Shing!
I drew another dagger from the sheath strapped against my calf. Its edge gleamed coldly beneath the dim incandescent light.
I had wasted these extra words on the rogue occultist only to confirm once and for all that he truly had killed Zhou Min. Even if he was an evil man who deserved death, I couldn’t kill the wrong person.
Now that I was completely certain, it was time to send him to hell and avenge Zhou Min!
That would also bring my nether covenant with Zhou Min more or less to completion.
Gripping the sharp dagger, I slowly moved its point toward the rogue occultist’s heart…
My heart began to race, and my breathing grew heavy.
I tried to steady the hand holding the dagger and keep it from trembling.
I had to drive it straight into his heart and kill him cleanly with a single thrust!
To be honest, though, I was extremely nervous.
No matter how mature I might be for my age, I was still only a teenager!
Besides, how many adults these days had ever truly killed anyone?
Most who had were probably arrested, thrown into prison, and executed!
I kept telling myself that the man before me was a monster who deserved to die.
When I handled Miss Duan’s affair, I had deliberately slowed down for a few seconds so that Miss Duan, after becoming a vicious corpse, could personally kill her enemy. In a sense, I had already brought about one scumbag’s death indirectly.
But now that I had to kill someone directly with my own hands, I couldn’t help feeling afraid!
Li Miao seemed to notice my nervousness and hesitation. He smiled and said,
“Killing is killing. If we kill this rogue occultist, we’ll be avenging that poor woman. It also counts as vanquishing evil and defending justice. Our hands might be stained with blood, but we’ll actually earn karmic merit. If it’s inconvenient for you, Young Mr. Wu, let me do it for you. You’ll be giving all that merit to me, though. Heh heh.”
He deliberately cracked a few jokes to ease the tension.
Without waiting for my answer, he snatched the dagger from my hand and plunged it fiercely toward the rogue occultist’s heart!