Chapter 106

Chapter 106

Was he planning to drag us all down with him?!

“Xiao Jiu, look at me!”

Liu Junyan suddenly called out to me, and I immediately turned toward him.

Leaning against the wall, he raised his left hand, stuck up his middle finger, and bit through the fingertip.

I followed suit.

Fresh blood streamed down from my fingertip.

With my right hand, I formed a Sword Finger and pressed from the base of my middle finger all the way up to the tip. Then I thrust the Sword Finger out, aiming at the Skull Prayer Beads whistling toward the Black Cat.

The Water Ripple Mother Liu had given me shot out along with my Sword Finger.

The instant the Water Ripple surged forward, Liu Junyan cast another spell. “Water, come!”

This time, I saw it clearly. It wasn’t a real ocean wave, but a vast mass of pale blue water vapor.

The water vapor rushed over and wrapped around the Water Ripple. The Dragon-Shaped Water Ripple rolled once inside the mist, condensing all of it into itself. In an instant, that tiny Dragon-Shaped Water Ripple became as thick as a baby’s arm and two or three meters long.

It let out a roar, and the earth seemed to quake beneath us.

The Skull Prayer Beads, which had still been spinning at terrifying speed, were shaken into powder right there in midair.

“What the hell is that thing?!” The flesh on the Evil Monk’s face trembled as he stared in disbelief at the Dragon-Shaped Water Ripple that had suddenly grown enormous and released a heaven-shaking Dragon cry.

His legs were shaking. He was panicking.

But I didn’t stay idle. I shouted, “Fengwu, come forth!”

The next second, the Longbow was steady in my grip.

I drew the bowstring back with all my strength, aimed at the Human Skin Drum in the Evil Monk’s hand, and released.

A crimson flame shot out with a sharp whoosh, and the Evil Monk’s eyes flew wide.

Before he could react or defend himself, the flame struck the very center of the Human Skin Drum with perfect accuracy.

The Human Skin Drum gave a muffled thud.

The Evil Monk instinctively looked down. In the next instant, his eyes widened even further.

Boom!

Another explosion rang out.

Just like that, the Human Skin Drum blew apart in the Evil Monk’s hands.

The flame sank into the center of the Human Skin Drum, burning violently and swelling outward until it nearly blasted half the Evil Monk’s hand to pieces.

Clutching his mangled, agonizing hand, the Evil Monk collapsed to the ground, rolling and wailing.

The flames on his hand were still burning.

Li Qingying grabbed her Long Whip and rushed out. The crisp crack of the whip rang out again and again, echoing through all of Wufu Town.

As she lashed him, she cursed, “That’s for putting on airs! That’s for helping a tyrant do evil! I thought you were supposed to be so capable, but you’re nothing more than an Evil Monk who knows how to chant sutras! Just watch me beat you to death today!”

Over the past few days, this monk had been a shadow hanging over Li Qingying’s heart.

He really was powerful. He could use sutras and incantations to control the Black Cat even though its Cat Bone was incomplete.

If Liu Junyan hadn’t restrained the Black Cat with his very first move, none of us would have escaped tonight.

Fortunately, it was finally over.

I put Fengwu away and strode toward Liu Junyan.

I was just about to crouch down and check his injuries when he suddenly grabbed my arm. His amber vertical pupils contracted sharply. “What is this?”

Only then did I realize that at some point during the fight, my sleeve had been torn open, exposing the burn mark on the inside of my arm.

The burn mark was growing larger and larger. The broken skin at the center was bloody and raw, making it look rather hideous.

Originally, I had planned to tell Liu Junyan about it the next time he came out.

But now he was injured and weak. He urgently needed to return to the Black Coffin and go into seclusion.

At a time like this, I couldn’t make him worry about me, too.

I covered the burn mark, forced out a faint smile, and said, “It must have gotten scraped open just now. It’s nothing. Don’t worry.”

Liu Junyan’s brows knitted tightly. He had seen the burn marks on those children in Tafeng Village. How could he possibly fail to recognize this?
But he didn’t interrogate me by force. Instead, he said, “Xiao Jiu, take the Hexagonal Palace Lantern and go outside to collect your pet.”

Pet?

Only then did I finally dare to believe it. Liu Junyan really wanted me to take the Black Cat as my pet!

He had said he would give me a gift, and he had kept his word.

I didn’t dare delay. I picked up the Hexagonal Palace Lantern and walked out.

The Water Ripple had already returned to the base of my left middle finger. Freed from the Evil Monk’s control, the Black Cat’s eerie green eyes had regained their clarity.

By the time I walked over, Liu Junyan had already removed the Seal.

I set the Hexagonal Palace Lantern in front of the Black Cat and looked at it.

Its feline eyes stayed fixed on the tiny black dot inside the Hexagonal Palace Lantern.

And the tiny black dot was suspended in the lantern chamber, motionless, as if it were looking back at the Black Cat too.

I reached out and tentatively stroked the Black Cat’s little head. It immediately arched its back and, as if startled, bared its teeth and hissed at me.

I jumped, but I didn’t retreat.

Again and again, I gently smoothed down the fur bristling along its back, stroking from front to back, bit by bit. In truth, there wasn’t much real sensation beneath my hand. It was a spirit body.

But the fact that its spirit body had substance was enough to prove its cultivation was very high.

If it hadn’t been missing a piece of Cat Bone that contained scripture, it never would have been so easily controlled by the Evil Monk.

At first, the Black Cat kept hissing at me, baring its sharp black teeth.

Yes, the Black Cat was pitch-black from head to toe. Even its teeth and tongue were black. There was probably nothing else like it in the world.

But although it looked fierce, it never actually bit me.

That put me a little more at ease.

When its arched back slowly softened, sinking bit by bit into the hollow, and its eyes narrowed in enjoyment, I squeezed open the wound on the tip of my left middle finger and dripped blood onto its forehead.

Then I turned my hand over and pressed my bleeding finger against the lantern chamber.

Earlier, Liu Junyan had taught me to use this method to draw the cat spirit from the section of Cat Bone Jin Wuya had pawned to us into the Hexagonal Palace Lantern.

This time, I followed the same steps.

The Black Cat trembled a few times, then lifted its head and meowed at me several times.

Its voice was no longer as sharp and aggressive as before, but it wasn’t soft or sweet either.

Then its form flickered, and it slipped into the Hexagonal Palace Lantern.

The tiny black dot in the lantern chamber suddenly grew larger, wrapped in a layer of golden light, pressed closely against Fu Wan’s firefly glow.

For some reason, the sight felt strangely warm.

I put the Hexagonal Palace Lantern away and hung it back beneath the western corridor.

Li Qingying ran over and said, “Xiao Jiu, that Evil Monk is crippled. He lost one hand, one leg is lame, and he’s covered in wounds. I smashed all the evil artifacts on him too. It’ll be hard for him to come out and cause trouble again. Unfortunately, he was dragged away by the Bai Family members.”

I nodded. “He was a hired thug invited by the Bai Family. Even if he dies, the Bai Family should be the ones to collect his body. Let them take him.”

Li Qingying nodded. Then she stretched hugely and looked toward the horizon. “It’s almost dawn already. We won a complete victory tonight. That felt great!”

“Xiao Jiu, come here.”

Liu Junyan’s voice suddenly rang out. Li Qingying and I hurried over together.

But the moment I stepped across the threshold, I saw a section of flood-dragon tail exposed beneath Liu Junyan’s long robe.

The white tail’s Scale was already damaged and incomplete.

Yet at this moment, he was gritting his teeth and forcibly pulling off another piece, clutching it in his hand as blood dripped steadily from it.

My heart ached terribly. I walked over and had just been about to scold him when he took hold of my arm, lifted my torn sleeve, and pressed that Scale against the burn mark…