Chapter 79

Chapter 79

Under my astonished gaze, Old Cao spat.

Swish!

A cold gleam flashed.

Something shot from his mouth at tremendous speed.

An invisible force seemed to catch the Blinding Talisman I had cast and drive it violently toward the ground.

Only after it landed did I see clearly.

It was a long, slender silver needle.

Old Cao had fired it from his mouth. It struck my talisman, knocked it down, and pinned it to the concrete.

“Spitting silver needles!”

I stared in surprise, then shouted indignantly, “Old Cao, you’re cheating! That isn’t a coffin bearer’s technique or a funerary-paper artisan’s technique. It looks more like the hidden-weapon methods of the martial branch of the eclectic arts.”

Old Cao laughed triumphantly, waggling his eyebrows at me in delight.

“Who said a magical contest limits us to the fixed methods of a single profession? Naturally, we can use anything. You used your newly learned Qimen glamour spell. Why can’t I use my newly learned skill of hiding a needle in my mouth?”

Uh…

His argument was so reasonable that I had no response.

Only after his explanation did I learn where the technique had come from.

During our battle with the mysterious rogue occultist beneath the Killer Demon Tree, Old Cao had been astonished and inspired by the man’s ability to throw three silver needles over a long distance.

He began practicing a similar method.

But a silver needle was light and tiny. Sending it over such a distance with enough force to injure someone required years of grueling training.

So Old Cao settled for an easier method and practiced hiding a less sharply pointed needle beneath his tongue.

That turned it into a short-range concealed weapon, one that required far less force and precision.

Old Cao smiled.

“People in the esoteric world primarily study and master the craft that supports them. But every additional method provides another measure of security. I never expected to use my newly mastered trick on you first, Xiao Wu.”

I had joked that he cheated, but learning that he possessed a useful new skill made me happy for him.

“How powerful is it now?” I asked.

“You saw for yourself. Within one or two meters, it can pierce a concrete floor. That means it can injure someone. Beyond two meters, it no longer works.”

That was already quite good.

Hiding a silver needle beneath the tongue was meant to conceal the attack and catch an opponent by surprise.

At a distance of less than two meters, it could be extremely effective.

Once he finished explaining, Old Cao chuckled. “All right, Xiao Wu. Now it’s my turn to attack. Prepare your defense carefully.”

I immediately tensed.

Every part of me became alert.

A coffin bearer should possess few long-range attacks suited for use against living people. The main danger, then, would come from funerary-paper arts.

That discipline resembled talisman arts.

Perhaps I could defend with Body-Warding Talismans.

A Body-Warding Talisman resembled a Protective Talisman, but it was slightly lower in rank.

The former defended one’s physical body from harmful offensive magic. One could understand it as an invisible shield.

A Protective Talisman, on the other hand, affected the unseen fortune surrounding a person. It helped him avoid dangers, disasters, and ill luck, allowing him to remain safe and successful for a certain period.

For that reason, Master told me that anyone capable of creating a true Protective Talisman possessed extremely advanced cultivation.

Most of the ones sold for money at temples or Taoist monasteries in tourist destinations were the work of charlatans.

For example, the little wooden plaque that the wandering Taoist gave my father when I was born–the one I wore around my neck–was a true Protective Talisman.

It had allowed me to escape the ghostly claws of the river-log when I was nine.

Otherwise, I would probably have died.

As these thoughts passed through my mind, I placed a Body-Warding Talisman between the fingers of each hand and waited for Old Cao’s attack.

He chuckled. “Your qi really has grown dense, Xiao Wu. Every time you use talismans, you cast two at once. How extravagant.”

“I’m only afraid of losing too quickly.”

I waited in full readiness.

At last, Old Cao attacked.

But instead of using funerary-paper arts, he clasped his hands and stamped the ground in a strange rhythm.

His head bobbed as he muttered an incantation.

What kind of technique was this?

While I wondered, a strange sound came from overhead.

I looked up.

Three enormous black coffins were falling from the sky.

If one struck me, I would be killed or seriously injured.

My body instinctively dodged aside, but my mind went cold.

This was some kind of illusion.

Anyone who remained rational would realize that it could only be an illusion.

Old Cao was no immortal. How could he truly summon three enormous coffins from the sky?
Such power would be absurd.

If Old Cao truly possessed it, he would have crushed the vicious corpse Miss Duan and the mysterious rogue occultist into scraps with ease.

So the coffins could only be an illusion.

But the human body and brain did not always react together.

Often, when danger appeared, one’s nerves made the body dodge instinctively before the mind understood what was happening.

That was precisely what happened now. By the time my mind realized the three coffins falling toward me were false, my feet had already carried me aside.

This is bad. There must be a trick.

The thought flashed through my mind.

Even during a formal contest, Old Cao would not use an illusion merely to frighten me.

It might have worked on an ordinary person, but it could startle me for only an instant and make me dodge slightly.

Therefore, the danger had to lie in the act of dodging.

Almost as soon as these thoughts crossed my mind, something lightly tickled my ankle.

I looked down.

A skeletal hand formed from white vapor had closed around my ankle.

Its color was so faint that I probably would not have noticed without looking carefully.

An equally invisible, slender white thread ran along the ground from the skeletal hand to where Old Cao stood.

I stirred my dantian. A stream of qi rushed into my lower leg and easily shattered the pale, illusory hand.

Relieved, I looked at Old Cao with a smile.

“You’re rather devious, Old Cao. You prepared this trap in advance, then frightened me with an illusion so I would step into it voluntarily, didn’t you?”

He smiled back. “You’re allowed to use a Qimen glamour spell, but I’m not allowed to use a funerary-paper illusion?”

So this too was one of the funerary-paper arts.

“Unfortunately for you, my qi is still quite powerful. I shattered that spectral bone hand with a single pulse.”

I sounded rather proud.

Old Cao only smiled without speaking.

When I tried to return to my original position, I discovered something was wrong.

My body would not move.

“What’s happening?”

For a moment, I was completely confused.

I tried again, but still could not move.

My legs and torso felt as though invisible chains bound them tightly.

“I understand!”

I slapped my forehead.

“That spectral bone hand wasn’t meant to restrain me directly. The instant it touched me, it temporarily immobilized my body. Impressive.”

Old Cao chuckled. “You’re very clever, Xiao Wu.”

“Then why didn’t it freeze my whole body? My hands can still move. Did you hold back?”

I found that strange.

At the question, Old Cao scratched his head in some embarrassment.

“No. This technique is called the Corpse-Bone Ward. It’s a secret art of the coffin bearers, gained through years of carrying coffins and communicating with the netherworld. I simply haven’t mastered it.”

“Against an ordinary person, contact with the spectral bone hand can immobilize the entire body for two or three minutes. Against another practitioner of the esoteric arts, both the effect and duration are reduced. Someone like you will have only his legs and torso immobilized for about two minutes.”

“Against someone roughly equal to me, it succeeds only half the time and freezes a random body part for a few seconds.”

This was a friendly formal contest, essentially a senior feeding moves to a junior and offering instruction.

We could therefore stop after each technique and explain it in detail.

In a true battle against an enemy, naturally, each of us would keep such information strictly secret.

His explanation also made me understand why he had not used the technique against the mysterious rogue occultist near the Killer Demon Tree.

It would have had no effect.

That rogue occultist was clearly somewhat stronger than Old Cao. The Corpse-Bone Ward would have been completely useless.

Now it was my turn to attack and Old Cao’s turn to defend.

Being unable to move my legs or torso limited my options.

Many magical techniques required proper footwork and positioning.

Old Cao’s funerary-paper illusion and Corpse-Bone Ward had both relied on such cooperation.

Some of the methods Master taught me had similar requirements. Old Cao had effectively forbidden me from using them.

But…

I still had another way.

Outwardly, I feigned helplessness mingled with stubborn determination.

“Old Cao, talisman arts require only the hands. This is the strongest talisman I can draw at my present level. It took me three hours yesterday to produce three successful copies. Now I’m going to use one.”

As I spoke, I took a talisman from my pocket.

The red cinnabar incantations seemed to flicker and dance in the late-afternoon sunlight slanting across the courtyard.

“Oh?”

Surprise flashed through Old Cao’s eyes.

He did not know much about talisman arts, but his senses were extremely keen where the aura of a talisman itself was concerned.

“Xiao Wu, this talisman of yours is a full level higher than a Headache Talisman, Blinding Talisman, or Evil-Suppressing Talisman.”
“Your eyes are sharp, Old Cao. That’s exactly right.”

I looked at the talisman in my hand and explained, “This is an Unconsciousness Talisman. Anyone struck by it immediately loses consciousness and can be awakened only by the caster or someone far more powerful.”

Old Cao stared at me in aggrieved disbelief.

“You’re rather ruthless, Xiao Wu. Using this old man to test your new talisman again?”

I chuckled. “You suggested the contest yourself. I didn’t even want to fight. Besides, you’re so powerful that it certainly won’t hit you.”

I attacked before finishing the sentence.

After infusing the talisman with qi, I cast it violently.

The paper streaked across the courtyard like a meteor toward Old Cao’s chest.

Once again, he reached out to catch it.

But just as his hand was about to close around the paper, it split in two.

“Again? Another Qimen glamour spell? Wait–both of them are real!”

Old Cao started in alarm.

That was right.

This time, I had used no glamour spell. I had stacked two Unconsciousness Talismans together and cast them simultaneously, separating them only an instant before they reached the target.

“That still won’t stop me.”

Old Cao pulled the long pipe from his waist and swung it in a semicircle before him, blocking both talismans as they separated.

He focused every bit of his attention. He could not allow either paper to slip past.

I had watched his eyes throughout. The moment I saw his concentration fix completely on the two talismans, I knew the time had come.

Now!

With my mind, I reached out to Roundy, called upon its power, and borrowed its strength to cast a technique.

As my household familiar, Roundy still could not remain beside me in the waking world because my own strength was insufficient.

But the amount of its power I could sense and borrow had greatly increased.

“Household-spirit empowerment–Flying Feather Acupoint Strike!”

I shouted, pressed my palms together, then flung them apart.

Three spectral feathers suddenly appeared behind Old Cao and shot toward separate acupoints on his back.

If all three points were struck, he would be completely immobilized.

“What’s happening?”

Startled, Old Cao tried to turn and defend.

It was already too late.

All his attention had been fixed on the two Unconsciousness Talismans in front of him. He knew my own qi had been heavily depleted and assumed I could not cast another technique immediately.

But household-spirit empowerment did not consume my strength.

It used Roundy’s.

So there was no problem at all.

Old Cao was formidable nonetheless. After smashing the two talismans with his pipe, he bent his arm behind him.

Without even turning around, he swept the pipe backward and down.

He destroyed two spectral feathers. But the final one struck an acupoint on his back.

Thump!

Old Cao’s body froze completely.

He remained in the awkward posture of reaching behind himself and swinging his pipe.

The immobilization had not come from magic, but from a strike against a physical acupoint.

“Th-this… Xiao Wu, you even know the acupoint strikes of the martial arts? Immortal Lady Qin truly is unfathomable. This skill has been lost even among pure martial artists, yet the Immortal Lady knows it.”

Old Cao could not move, but he could still speak.

His astonishment was obvious.

This form of immobilization acted through the muscles and nerves.

Master had explained it to me in scientific language. By striking certain neural synapses in the muscles, one temporarily interrupted the flow of bioelectric signals. The electrical connection between the body and brain failed, like a short circuit in a machine.

It was a biological phenomenon and produced an even stronger effect than immobilization by pure magic.

But I was only in my first year of middle school and had barely studied biology.

I understood almost nothing of Master’s explanation about neural synapses and bioelectric signals.

Still, I was profoundly impressed.

In the language of the later internet, I did not understand it, but I knew it was awesome.

I also better understood Master’s statement that a cultivator who wanted to reach true heights had to master scientific knowledge.

“Xiao Wu, you won this formal contest.”

Delight filled Old Cao’s voice.

He had probably intended only to instruct me. He never expected me to win, even if I did rely on a few tricks.

“Yes! I won! I actually beat Old Cao? Oh my God! Ha ha ha!”

I jumped, shouted, waved my arms, and danced with excitement.

Uh…

Old Cao stared at me speechlessly.

Frozen with one hand twisted behind his back and still holding the pipe, he looked like an elderly man trying to scratch an itch with a backscratcher.

“Get over here! You rotten boy, release my acupoint at once. This is miserable.”

Pretending to be angry, Old Cao laughingly cursed at me.