Chapter 269
Chapter 269
Ni Yang clapped his hands sharply.
“Of course! There was definitely something wrong. Brother Zhao, you’ve given us an extremely important clue.”
As he spoke, he even gave Zhao Xu a thumbs-up.
Uh…
The man certainly knew how to manage relationships.
If I were Zhao Xu and received such enthusiastic praise, I would probably feel pleased and develop a favorable impression of him too.
Yuan Fei stroked his chin. Looking thoughtfully at the corpse-fiend on the ground, he said,
“This proves the changes began while these corpse-fiends were still alive.”
Exactly!
Old Cao agreed in a grave tone.
“And judging by Little Zhao’s account, this Wang Xinren must have been well aware of the changes in his body. When others found them strange, he even had excuses ready, which he had clearly considered in advance.”
That was quite revealing.
He had known his body was changing, yet neither panicked nor sought help. Instead, whenever someone noticed, he invented excuses to conceal it?
Clearly, all kinds of changes had begun in Daling Village before it disappeared.
And the villagers likely knew about those changes!
At least some of them certainly had.
“This grows more mysterious by the minute.”
I sighed inwardly.
Sure enough, a huge reward amounting to over a hundred thousand yuan per person would not be easy to earn!
Old Cao spoke again.
“Since Little Zhao says this corpse-fiend feared fire while alive, we can test that now. How about a torch?”
Zhao Xu hurriedly ordered one of the bodyguards in black beside him,
“Light a torch, quickly.”
“Yes, Brother Zhao.”
He hurried into action…
For this expedition to investigate the truth behind Daling Village’s disappearance, the party included us cultivators of the supernatural, while the accompanying bodyguards were equipped with fairly advanced outdoor exploration gear.
For illumination, they carried not only high-powered flashlights but also modern torches with outer steel frames, insulating middle layers, and high-efficiency fuel inside!
No one had lit them yet.
Before long, a bodyguard in black ignited a torch and handed it to Zhao Xu.
Zhao Xu respectfully passed it to Old Cao.
“Coffin-Bearer Cao, here’s the torch.”
Old Cao turned his head toward me.
“Give it to Xiao Wu and let him test it. I need to keep the corpse-fiend suppressed with the hemp rope.”
I took the torch from Zhao Xu and, under everyone’s watchful eyes, pressed it directly against the corpse-fiend.
Sizzle!
As the flame touched the corpse-fiend’s skin, wisps of green smoke rose, and a strange scorched stench spread through the air.
I keenly noticed that the flames were burning away only the mold on the surface of its skin, the stuff resembling plant roots or threads. Its tough skin itself remained undamaged…
Hrrrgh! Hrrrgh!
The corpse-fiend lying on the ground suddenly released strange, hoarse cries from its throat. Then its blood-red eyes opened and fixed on me, emitting a cold, sinister ferocity.
Zhao Xu and the bodyguards who had been standing nearby were startled and instinctively retreated two steps.
Expressionless, I continued burning it with the torch. I deliberately moved the flame to places where the mold was thickest. The instant it touched the fire, it turned to ash and fell from the corpse-fiend’s body in a steady shower.
“The corpse-fiend seems to have weakened somewhat, although the change is subtle and hard to notice.”
Old Cao suddenly spoke.
The phoenix rope, used to secure coffins and bind corpses, was his ritual implement and connected to his qi. Since he was using it to suppress the corpse-fiend, he could naturally sense changes in the creature.
Just as I thought!
A smile touched my lips, and I explained my hypothesis.
“It seems my guess was right. These corpse-fiends differ from the ones we normally encounter, which form when dead bodies undergo corpse transformations. The mold inside their bodies is the source of their strength.”
“And the enhancements from this mold probably began while they were still alive! That was why Brother Zhao noticed Wang Xinren suddenly becoming much stronger and afraid of fire, or, more accurately, the mold was afraid of fire.”
When burned, the mold turned to ash, and the corpse-fiend weakened along with it.
But their internal organs were already gone, and their bodies were filled with large quantities of this mold. Burning a little from the surface therefore did not weaken them much…
Even so, at least it would make these corpse-fiends wary when they attacked.
“Excellent!”
Ni Yang clapped sharply and gave me a thumbs-up.
“Young Mr. Wu is so young, yet meticulous and exceptionally intelligent. From the magical battle inside the house alone, you thought to test the state of these corpse-fiends. Heroes truly do emerge young! Now, at least, we clearly understand their weakness.”
Zhao Xu and the bodyguards in black nodded along.
For them, this was indeed good news!
I had to admit that such praise embarrassed me a little. But actually… well, it felt rather satisfying too.
After thinking for a moment, Ni Yang asked,
“Young Mr. Wu, that was an ordinary flame weakening the corpse-fiend. Would you like to test the power of your Fire Talisman against it?”
I hurriedly explained,
“Uncle Ni, don’t tease me. I don’t know how to use advanced, powerful talisman arts like the Fire Talisman. I can only cast talisman fire.”
Talisman fire and the Fire Talisman were two entirely different things!
As its name implied, any method of using one’s qi to ignite talisman paper could be called talisman fire. It was merely flame produced by burning talisman paper, a basic technique that did not truly count as a specific talisman art.
The Fire Talisman, however, was the abbreviated name for a type of flame talisman art.
The path of talismans was vast and profound, encompassing an immense range of varieties.
Among the more advanced talisman arts were methods that used one’s sense of qi to invoke and incorporate the forces of the Five Elements between heaven and earth!
The Fire Talisman invoked the power of fire among metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
Although it resembled talisman fire in appearance, even the lowest-level Fire Talisman was far more powerful than the strongest Fiend-Blasting Talisman I could currently cast…
And unlike talisman fire, which could only harm demons, ghosts, and other evil entities, a Fire Talisman could attack ordinary people and all other things as well.
It was said that a powerful cultivator capable of drawing and controlling Fire Talismans could reduce an ox to ashes even with the weakest flame talisman! Or blow apart and incinerate a thatched cottage outright!
If I knew the Fire Talisman, I might not be completely invincible here, but I certainly would not need to proceed with such caution.
“Ah, my apologies. I know nothing about the path of talismans and got them confused. Please don’t take offense, Young Mr. Wu.”
Ni Yang hurriedly apologized.
I waved a hand, indicating that it was nothing.
Then I flicked my wrist, and a sheet of talisman paper appeared between my fingers. Qi instantly ignited it into a ball of flame, which I launched with perfect accuracy at the corpse-fiend on the ground.
Whoomph!
Flames immediately spread across the corpse-fiend. A tiny ball of talisman fire enveloped a large part of its body in an instant.
Sizzle!
The sound resembled water boiling in hot oil, accompanied by a thick, scorched stench and the corpse-fiend’s horrifying hrrrghs.
When the flames died, the already black corpse-fiend looked even more like charcoal. In places, its body had split open, exposing the masses of mold inside…
Old Cao told me the corpse-fiend’s strength had decreased by well over half!
I pondered this.
“So against these strange corpse-fiends, the most basic method of igniting talisman paper works better than actual talisman arts! That counts as good news.”
After all, talisman fire consumed very little qi.
As long as I had enough talisman paper, I could cast it almost endlessly.
Yet it worked better than Corpse-Suppressing Talismans, Evil-Repelling Talismans, and the like!
Unfortunately, I was the only cultivator here who knew the path of talismans…
Old Cao saw what I was thinking and smiled as he patted my shoulder.
“It’s already excellent that we’ve confirmed these sinister things fear fire. Ordinary flames may harm them less than talisman fire, but they’re better than nothing.”
“Exactly!”
Zhao Xu nodded in agreement.
“I’ll have the men hang their high-powered flashlights around their necks and replace the lights in their hands with fuel-burning torches. That should improve their chances of protecting themselves.”
I nodded.
“Mm. In any case, the mold inside and outside these corpse-fiends is the source of their strength. Burn the mold whenever possible.”
After discussing matters for a while, we prepared to continue onward.
We had barely entered the village and were still near its entrance.
The strange truth shrouding Daling Village remained far from revealed…
“What should we do with this corpse-fiend?”
“Destroy it completely, of course! What, Brother Zhao, do you want to keep it?”
“No, no. I was only reflecting on it. He was someone I knew before, and now he has become a terrifying monster.”
Zhao Xu sighed and turned his head away.
Old Cao muttered an incantation. He slid two fingers of his left hand down the hemp rope, and a fluctuation of qi appeared. The phoenix rope instantly tightened inward like a razor-sharp steel cable.
Slice! Slice!
The phoenix rope cut the corpse-fiend into many pieces.
I threw out another sheet of talisman paper. Roaring flames rose and burned it to ash.
Then we continued deeper into Daling Village!