Chapter 104
Chapter 104
In the end, Deaf Granny had Zhao Aiguo carry Zhao Fei’s empty shell of a body into the side room, then gave him careful instructions.
“Neither of you husband and wife are to sleep tonight. You must keep your eyes on the Soul-Guiding Incense in your son’s mouth!”
“That incense can’t break, and it can’t go out. If it does, that chubby boy Zhao Fei’s soul won’t be able to return to its place!”
Zhao Aiguo nodded again and again. “Don’t worry, Old Auntie. I’ll watch it closely.”
In the blink of an eye, only Deaf Granny was left standing amid the vast, snowy ground.
Set against the Little Pine Tree behind her, she looked indescribably desolate.
Meanwhile, when Hua Jiunan and the others arrived at the ancient tomb, they saw Li Guang leading the Hundred-Battle Warrior Spirits in repeated charges through the ranks of countless Yellow Turban Ghost Soldiers.
The young Daoist Hu Ping was protecting the wounded Professor Ma, fighting as he retreated under the pursuit of more than a dozen Yellow Turban Ghost Soldiers.
Old Daoist Zhou stood atop a high ritual altar, holding a Copper Coin Sword. His hair hung loose, and he was chanting under his breath.
Hua Jiunan listened carefully. It was the Grand Supreme Ghost-Slaying Incantation:
The Grand Supreme Elder Lord teaches me to slay ghosts and grants me divine prescriptions.
Above I call to the Jade Maidens to seize and contain all ill fortune.
When I climb mountains, stones split; I wear the sacred seal.
A canopy crowns my head, my feet tread the Kui-Gang; to my left the Six Jia support me, to my right the Six Ding guard me.
Before me stands the Yellow God; behind me, Yuezhang.
When the divine master strikes, not even the mighty are spared. First slay the evil ghost, then cut down the night-glow.
What god would not submit? What ghost would dare withstand me?
By urgent command, as by law!
As Old Daoist Zhou chanted, the Yellow Turban Ghost Soldiers around him began showing looks of agony.
Many who heard it for too long clutched their heads, collapsed to the ground, and howled without stop.
A moment later, their heads burst open with a bang, turning into streams of black smoke that vanished from sight.
Unable to endure it any longer, the mass of ghosts’ eyes went blood-red. Together, they charged toward the altar, ready to fight Old Daoist Zhou to the death.
The ritual altar was octagonal, faintly embodying the meaning of the Eight Trigrams.
Yellow cloth hung all around it.
Upon the yellow cloth, Daoist evil-warding talismans had been drawn in blood-red cinnabar.
Most of the Ghost Soldiers who rushed near the altar were forced back by the green light shining from the yellow cloth.
On the rare occasion that a Ghost Soldier broke through the defenses, Old Daoist Zhou immediately bit the middle finger of his left hand and swiftly wrote a talismanic charm in the palm of his right hand.
Then he struck out with his palm, the sound as deep as muffled thunder.
Any Ghost Soldier that reached his side and was hit by the blow was immediately sent flying backward, turning into black qi in midair and disappearing.
Hu Family Patriarch Hu Qingshan watched with a sharp gleam flickering in his eyes.
“What an excellent Pure Yang Palm Thunder!”
“Without several decades of bitter cultivation, no one could use a technique like that!”
Chen Daji’s curiosity was instantly roused.
“Holy shit! So that’s what the legendary Palm Thunder looks like?”
“I thought it was the kind where you just wave your hand and ten thousand bolts of lightning come crashing down, the heavens collapse, the earth splits, the seas dry up, and everything goes crackle-boom-rumble!”
Old Sixth Hui chuckled and said, “Daji, the kind you’re talking about may truly have existed in ancient times.”
“But ever since Emperor Zhuanxu ‘severed earth from heaven,’ cutting off contact between humans and gods-especially after the Battle of Investiture of the Gods-such things have been impossible.”
Chen Daji clearly didn’t understand either of those allusions, especially the first one.
He stared blankly and asked again, “Why?”
Hemp-clad Grandmother let out a cackling laugh and gave Chen Daji a heavy knock on the head with her long-stemmed pipe.
“You little brat, you’ve got the most to say!”
“You’re both grandsons, so how come you’re such a stupid one?”
Chen Daji clutched his head, grimacing in pain. As he snuck a glance at Hua Jiunan, he complained, “Grandma, go easy on me!”
“You can’t blame me for being stupid. Blame my dad!”
“My mom said that before I was born, my dad smoked and drank every single day without stopping, so the quality was already bad when I left the factory. It’d be weird if I wasn’t stupid!”
Hemp-clad Grandmother thought of Chen Fu’s boorish, reckless manner and felt Chen Daji’s words did make a certain amount of sense.
As the saying went: plant melons and you won’t harvest beans; plant beans and you won’t harvest melons.
If what you planted was a shriveled eggplant, the most you could harvest was a cartload of giant pumpkins.
It seemed she really should hit this unlucky child’s head less in the future. Otherwise, the more she hit him, the stupider he would become…
As they were speaking, the Hundred-Battle Warrior Spirits led by Li Guang suddenly let out a unified roar.
“Hoo! Hoo, hoo!”
Forty spearmen strode forward in one powerful step, instantly skewering the Yellow Turban Ghosts blocking their way into a string.
General Li Guang rose upright in the saddle, his great blade pointing into the distance.
“Change formation. Smash through!”
The Hundred-Battle Warrior Spirits answered in unison. Black smoke flashed, and beneath each of them appeared a warhorse covered in scars.
Some even revealed stark white bone.
But that did nothing to hinder them from galloping across the battlefield!
“Where the battle blades point, none can stand against us! Kill! Kill, kill!”
Under the leadership of Flying General Li Guang, the hundred-man unit struck the Yellow Turban Ghosts before them like red-hot iron dropping onto cream. With unstoppable momentum, they annihilated every enemy in their path.
On the other side, Old Daoist Zhou saw more and more Yellow Turban Ghosts charging up the altar and unleashed his sect’s secret technique, the Big Dipper Five Thunder Curse.
He struck his own chest hard, then spat out a mouthful of hot heart’s blood.
Then he grabbed with one hand, mixing the bloody mist with a handful of yellow Talismans and flinging them out.
“Heavenly Fire Thunder God, bring thunder from the five directions. Earthly Fire Thunder God, subdue demons and banish spirits. Wicked spirits, depart at once; obey my imperial command. By urgent command, as by law!”
With the ritual altar at the center, a green mist rose over an area more than ten meters wide.
Within the mist, thunder rumbled faintly and flames flared on all sides.
The Yellow Turban Ghost Soldiers screamed again and again, yet no matter what they did, they could not escape the area covered by the mist.
About a minute later, the green mist dispersed.
And along with it vanished several hundred Yellow Turban Ghost Soldiers.