Chapter 137
Chapter 137
The Female Ghost was locked tight in the paper figure’s embrace, and the flames spread onto her body as well.
The Female Ghost had cultivated for a hundred years and devoured who knew how many women’s hearts. Her cultivation was extremely high, and she should have feared no flame at all.
Yet for some reason, this ghostly blue fire burned straight into the depths of her soul. The pain made her shriek nonstop as she desperately tried to shove the paper figure off her.
But at some point, the thing had transformed into a long chain that bound her tightly. No matter how she struggled, she couldn’t break free of the paper figure’s restraints.
Furious and frantic, she jumped into the water, trying to put out the fire that way.
But the flames didn’t go out in water. No matter how wildly the Female Ghost thrashed, there was no sign of the fire disappearing.
Li Ziheng was hiding behind a nearby tree. When he saw what was happening, he was momentarily dumbfounded.
What was going on? Hadn’t the Water Ghost here already been destroyed by him? Why was there suddenly another Female Ghost he had never seen before?
While he was still dazed, he saw Xia Sheng strolling casually toward the Female Ghost.
Li Ziheng frowned and immediately pulled Xia Sheng back. “What are you doing walking out in front like that when you’re a woman? Get to the back. Vanquishing demons and subduing monsters is men’s work!”
As he spoke, he raised his peach wood sword and charged straight at the Female Ghost.
Xia Sheng simply continued strolling slowly toward the reservoir.
Li Ziheng was impatient by nature and prone to acting on impulse. Letting him suffer a little here wasn’t a bad thing. It could count as tempering his character.
After failing to struggle free in the water, the Female Ghost was dragged back onto the shore by the paper figure clinging to her.
In agony, she rolled across the ground and howled. Li Ziheng seized the moment and viciously drove his peach wood sword toward the Female Ghost’s heart.
Earlier, he had pierced that Water Ghost’s heart with a single strike, so he had assumed this time would be no different.
Who would have thought that when his peach wood sword stabbed forward, it was like hitting a wall of bronze and iron? It was knocked away instantly.
The peach wood sword flew straight out of his hand, spun several times through the air, and embedded itself in a tree not far away.
Li Ziheng was horrified. He hadn’t expected this Female Ghost to be so powerful.
Her cultivation was far beyond that of the Water Ghost they had seen that afternoon.
Now that he had lost his weapon, Li Ziheng didn’t flee in panic. Instead, he pulled out the Ghost-Suppressing Talisman he had spent a long time drawing and slapped it directly onto the Female Ghost.
However, the Ghost-Suppressing Talisman’s power was extremely weak, and it did little against the Female Ghost. Not only did it fail to injure her, it completely enraged her.
The Female Ghost was already suffering under the searing flames, and now she had been struck again. Her fury instantly surged as she swung her sharp claws at Li Ziheng.
There was no way for Li Ziheng to dodge. His shoulder was raked hard by those sharp claws, leaving behind a vivid red gash.
Fresh blood mixed with black smoke poured from his shoulder. Li Ziheng instantly broke out in a cold sweat and staggered backward again and again.
“You stinking Taoist! Did you set these flames on me? Put them out right now, or I’ll take your life!”
The Female Ghost shouted furiously. Li Ziheng didn’t know who had set the fire, but after being wounded by that claw strike, he was burning with anger too. “So what if I did? You’re a ghost who has plagued and slaughtered the people here. This bit of pain is exactly what you deserve! Just wait to be burned to death by those flames!”
Hearing that, the Female Ghost grew even more enraged. With another swipe, she tore open his arm and sent his entire body flying.
Li Ziheng crashed into a nearby tree and snapped the trunk clean in half, even though it was as thick around as half a person.
He coughed up a mouthful of blood. His mind was buzzing, and after he hit the ground, he couldn’t even stand back up.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Xia Sheng walking this way and immediately shouted at her, “What are you doing here? Hurry back and get Master Quede and the others to come help! If you come over now, you’ll just be throwing an egg against a rock!”
Xia Sheng still ignored his shouting and strolled over at an unhurried pace.
Li Ziheng was furious.
Was this woman deaf?
Why wouldn’t she listen no matter what?
Wasn’t coming over now just courting death?
He wanted to yell again, but the Female Ghost had already grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground.
The Female Ghost’s grotesque face loomed larger and larger before his eyes, her gaze filled with vicious malice. “Since you refuse to put out this fire and even want my life, then we’ll die together! If I die, don’t think you’ll live either!”
As she spoke, the hand gripping Li Ziheng’s neck began to tighten, as if she wanted to rip his head right off.
His throat was locked tight, and he couldn’t breathe. His whole face turned red from suffocation, and he felt like he could suffocate to death at any second.
Then, just one moment before he was about to die from lack of air, Xia Sheng walked up beside the Female Ghost.
Li Ziheng struggled, wanting to warn Xia Sheng to run, but instead he saw her calmly pull out a sheet of Talisman Paper from her bag and lightly slap it onto the Female Ghost’s forehead.
“Break.”
The instant Xia Sheng’s voice fell, the Female Ghost exploded right in front of Li Ziheng.
Blood and chunks of flesh splattered all over Li Ziheng’s face, while Xia Sheng had already used a Teleportation Talisman to appear more than twenty meters away.
Freed from the Female Ghost’s grip, Li Ziheng’s legs gave out and he collapsed onto the ground. He wiped the foul, reeking ghost blood and flesh from his face and stared in disbelief at Xia Sheng standing twenty meters away.
What had this woman just done to that Female Ghost?
How had it suddenly exploded?
And how had she gotten that far away in such a short time?
Had she used one of the Teleportation Talismans issued by the Association?
But weren’t those things supposed to be used to save your life at a critical moment? Xia Sheng had just wasted one so extravagantly???
His mind was full of questions, along with a trace of unwillingness.
He had never imagined that the person who would save him in the end would be the very person he usually looked down on most.
Li Ziheng clenched his fists and tried to get up from the ground, only to realize his legs had no strength at all.
He glanced at Xia Sheng not far away and asked, “Could I trouble you to come help me up?”
Compared to his earlier mockery and indifference, Li Ziheng’s tone was obviously much more humble now.
But Xia Sheng showed not the slightest softening because of his sudden change in attitude. She merely tossed him two cool words: “No.”
Li Ziheng choked on the spot, like a breath had gotten stuck in his throat and refused to go up or down.
In short, he was furious.
He silently pushed himself up from the ground. When he saw Xia Sheng picking up the burned Paper Figurine from the ground, he asked uncertainly, “You made that thing?”
“Are you blind? Can’t you see?” Xia Sheng pinched a clean corner of the Paper Figurine, rinsed it in the water by the shore, and washed all the bloodstains off it.
Li Ziheng nearly choked again from her words and said irritably, “Can you speak like a normal person?”
Xia Sheng replied at the same unhurried pace, “I only ever speak properly to people.”
“You’re saying I’m not human?” Li Ziheng was mad enough to explode. He still wanted to keep arguing with Xia Sheng when Master Quede, Shen Zhuoyang, and the others finally rushed over.
Li Ziheng immediately went to complain to Master Quede. “Master, you’ve finally come. You have no idea, this woman just said I’m not human…”
Master Quede shot him a sidelong look. “You are a stupid donkey to begin with. What did Little Fellow Daoist say that was wrong?”