Chapter 210
Chapter 210
My heart jolted as I stared at the dark-red spirit money in Old Cao’s hand.
“Am I finally going to see Old Cao’s spirit-paper arts again?”
I recalled how, when I first arrived in Lianghe Town a year and a half ago, Boss Duan’s daughter had transformed into a corpse–one of a vicious mother-and-child pair!
Only after Old Cao used his spirit-paper arts to create a flaming blade had I been able to destroy her…
Would he use the flaming blade again this time?
Like the Qimen Dunjia formation I had cast, spirit-paper arts required a relatively long period of preparation. For now, he could not join the battle.
Big Bull, Ergou, Flat-Top, and Silent Gourd had already surrounded the corpse fiend. Wielding their Dog-Blood Daggers, the four fought it at close range…
Humans and corpse alike were now exhausted and weakened.
Four men and one corpse tangled together.
The battle entered a feverish stalemate.
Swish! Shnk!
The blood fiend’s sharp claws swept just above Ergou’s scalp and shaved away more than half his hair.
Fortunately, he was agile. He ducked and rolled away across the ground.
Then he felt his hair.
“Good grief! I’m Flat-Top now too. How is anyone supposed to tell me apart from that fellow?”
Even seated beneath the distant tree, I could not help laughing.
That Ergou!
At a moment like this, when he had nearly been killed or gravely wounded, he still found time for wisecracks?
I looked back at Old Cao.
Using his Yin-Kun Shears, he had cut the red divine paper into a perfect circle–about the size of a human head and flawlessly round.
It looked like… a red full moon!
Old Cao carefully held the circle of divine paper in both hands. Then he bit the tip of his tongue and sprayed a large mouthful of blood essence across it.
Pfft!
The divine paper was already dark red. Stained with blood from Old Cao’s tongue, it became even more vivid, took on a peculiar quality, and began to emit a faint red glow.
“Spirit-paper arts, of the Lower Nine… Crimson Ghost Moon!”
Old Cao raised both hands and shouted.
The circle cut from divine paper left his palms and swiftly rose into the sky.
Higher and higher it climbed.
It finally stopped more than ten zhang above the ground, directly over the center of the backyard.
Most wondrous of all, when I looked up, the round sheet of red divine paper perfectly covered the moon!
Illuminated by moonlight, however, the paper appeared hazily translucent. It did not block the moon completely; it was more like a veil of misty red paper drawn over it…
Even the moonlight turned red!
I blurted, “What an incredible art! These spirit-paper arts are completely different from the flaming blade last time. You’ve actually covered the moon!”
Of course, I knew Old Cao’s art could not truly obscure the moon.
It was merely a visual illusion. Since the paper hung directly above the Bai family’s backyard, it fell within our line of sight whenever we looked up at the moon.
After absorbing the moonlight, the red divine paper turned the light falling from it a faint red!
Everything around us was veiled in crimson.
Judging by the name Old Cao had just shouted, this spirit-paper art seemed to be called the Crimson Ghost Moon.
“The name sounds sinister, but what does it do? Old Cao suffers even more damage from using spirit-paper arts than I do from wielding the ritual blade, so it must help destroy the corpse fiend.”
Curiosity filled me.
The next moment, I learned exactly what the Crimson Ghost Moon did!
The instant its red moonlight filled the backyard, the corpse fiend released a hideous, shrill howl. Wisps of bloody mist uncontrollably rose from its body and drifted away…
Although I sat beneath a tree far from the battle, I could sense its power weakening further–and by a considerable degree!
At the same time, as I bathed in the red moonlight, the soreness in my muscles rapidly eased and the qi in my dantian recovered much faster.
While I marveled, Big Bull and the other three fighting the corpse fiend also noticed the change!
As usual, lively, talkative Ergou was the first to cry out in delight.
“Damn! What’s happening? This corpse fiend feels weaker, but I feel stronger! My muscles don’t ache as much either.”
Big Bull kicked the corpse fiend in the chest and sent it staggering back, then took the opportunity to bark, “Less chatter! Focus on fighting. This is obviously Coffin-Bearer Cao’s spirit-paper art.”
The blood-red “full moon” overhead cast down red moonlight, producing the wondrous effect of weakening our enemy while strengthening us.
Realizing the danger, the corpse fiend tried to flee again.
But Flat-Top and Silent Gourd, guarding the iron gate, forced it back together. It could only resume fighting the four coffin carriers…
Cough, cough, cough!
Old Cao walked weakly to my side, coughing as he came.
Blood still trickled from the corner of his mouth, and he wiped it away.
Then he sat against the tree trunk beside me.
Huff…
He exhaled deeply. I could smell a faint trace of blood on his breath, showing that his injuries were serious–clearly much worse than after his battle against Miss Duan, the “vicious corpse” at Duan Family Manor!
Before I could ask about his wounds, he grinned.
“Well, Xiao Wu? My Crimson Ghost Moon isn’t any worse than your Five-Element Eight-Gate Binding Formation, is it?”
I did not know whether to laugh or cry.
“Old Cao, at a time like this, you still feel like joking with me? Besides, you’re a renowned coffin bearer, while I’m only a middle school student. Of course you’re much more formidable!”
Old Cao laughed proudly.
“Ha ha ha ha… cough, cough.”
He spat out a little more blood.
I looked at him anxiously.
“Are you all right? What’s the origin of this spirit-paper art? Neither of us can fight for now. Can Big Bull and the other three handle that corpse fiend?”
Old Cao waved a hand.
“You stabbed the corpse fiend in the chest with your ritual blade, aiming for its heart. Then my paper figure with spiritual resonance and Silent Gourd’s Dog-Blood Dagger stabbed the wound you left. That has already injured it badly. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have tried to flee.”
“After the bitter fight since then, the corpse fiend is already at the end of its strength. Big Bull and the others expended less than we did and should still be able to fight.”
“Most of all, heh…”
He looked up at the “red moon” floating in the sky, visibly pleased.
“This spirit-paper art is called the Crimson Ghost Moon. It simulates the ghost moon from folk legend. You know about ghost moons, right?”
I nodded.
Of course I did!
The so-called ghost moon was a folk belief from the countryside.
Sometimes, despite clear weather at night, a thin layer of mist would specifically veil the area around the moon, making it appear hazy and indistinct.
As the name suggested, ghosts were especially likely to appear beneath a ghost moon!
Here, “ghosts” meant ghosts in the narrow sense–spiritual entities.
But because the thin mist blocked the moonlight’s essence, corpse-fiends and most demons were weakened.
Moonlight essence was especially important to corpse-fiends!
In burial grounds late at night, faint moonlight could often be seen flowing like mist or water toward old, abandoned graves or decaying coffins.
Beside lonely, deserted waters deep at night, floating corpses and upright drowned corpses could be seen drifting on the surface as they absorbed moonlight essence.
That was the reason.
A ghost moon, however, completely blocked moonlight essence, weakening the activity of corpse-fiends to some degree…
Simply put, beneath a ghost moon:
All corpse-fiends and most demons grew weaker!
All spiritual entities grew stronger!
Old Cao’s Crimson Ghost Moon drew upon the imagery of this rural folk phenomenon and reproduced it through spirit-paper arts!
The difference was that under the Crimson Ghost Moon, ghosts and spiritual entities did not grow stronger… the caster’s companions did.
That was why all of us could feel our stamina and qi recovering faster.
Its effect was even better than my Qi-Restoring Talismans!
After hearing Old Cao’s explanation, I nodded in realization.
“Impressive! If your divine-paper flaming blade was a powerful attack against a single target, then the Crimson Ghost Moon is an incredible weapon in a group battle. Why didn’t you use it earlier?”
Old Cao rolled his eyes.
“You saw the miserable state it left me in, didn’t you? If I’d used it early, I would have lost my ability to fight much sooner. That might not have helped.”
“Besides, the Crimson Ghost Moon wouldn’t have been nearly as effective before we battered the blood fiend to the end of its strength. This is a corpse fiend! If one spirit-paper art could defeat it, why would anyone fear the thing?”
That made sense…
The Crimson Ghost Moon was wondrous, but like my ritual-blade attacks and Five-Element Eight-Gate Binding Formation, it could only hinder the corpse fiend, not kill it with certainty!
Now was the best time to use it.
In the center of the courtyard, Big Bull and the other three had already covered the corpse fiend in wounds. Dark-red, putrid blood flowed from injuries all over its body.
A corpse fiend might not be as incomparably hard as a jiangshi, but ordinary swords and blades still could not wound it–not even a Dog-Blood Dagger!
Yet cuts now opened easily across the blood fiend’s body, showing that it had weakened to the verge of destruction.
Huff…
I drew a deep breath and slowly stood again.
“What is it, Xiao Wu? Are you going back into the fight? From what I can see, Big Bull and the others can handle it. The corpse fiend’s corpse qi will be exhausted in another minute at most.”
Old Cao looked up at me.
I smiled.
“It’s fine. I’ve rested for quite a while and recovered some strength. I’ll help Big Bull and the others deliver the killing blow. I don’t want to wait even one more minute and risk something going wrong.”
With that, I charged forward…