Chapter 156

Chapter 156

I had no arrows for Fengwu, so all I could shoot were flames.

Before this, it had never occurred to me to find an arrow for Fengwu. In my mind, Fengwu was a Spiritual Artifact, and no arrow could ever be worthy of it.

But against an unusual opponent like Feng Lishu, perhaps nocking an ordinary arrow to Fengwu would be more effective.

I didn’t have an arrow, though, nor did I have time to search for a suitable branch nearby. The only thing I could think of was taking off the Copper Coin Liu Junyan had given me and shooting it like an arrow!

The Golden Copper Coin traced an arc through the air and hurtled toward Feng Lishu.

Feng Lishu froze for a moment when she saw the Copper Coin. Then she thrust out her palm, gathered her inner force, and prepared to blast it away.

Her face was full of disdain. She clearly thought I had run out of tricks and was merely making one last futile struggle.

But the instant her palm met the Copper Coin, a Red Thread burst out of it and wrapped itself around Feng Lishu’s hand.

Feng Lishu froze again.

She stared at the tangled Red Thread wound haphazardly around her hand, utterly baffled.

The next moment, the Red Thread suddenly constricted, slicing through her skin and digging deep into her flesh.

Blood immediately welled out. Feng Lishu shook her right hand violently and screamed, “What the hell is this thing?!”

She kept shaking her hand and tugging at the Red Thread, but it only tightened further, as though it meant to crush her bones and tear her right hand to pieces.

Unable to untangle or pull it off, Feng Lishu had no choice but to try burning it.

But the Red Thread had already dug into her flesh. Her flames could only burn her own hand, not the Red Thread.

Cradling her right hand with her left, Feng Lishu finally broke down completely.

Meanwhile, the Copper Coin returned to my hand.

When I shot it, I had never expected anything like this to happen.

The result was completely unexpected, but astonishingly effective.

I snatched up a rock from beside me and charged toward Feng Lishu, raising it to smash into the back of her head.

Feng Lishu abruptly snapped back to her senses. At the critical moment, she let out another sharp whistle.

Countless black crows flapped in and surrounded her, completely blocking her from view.

A surge of black mist erupted the next instant. By the time it dispersed, Feng Lishu and the crows had vanished without a trace.

Everything fell silent again, leaving Hu Yulin and me staring at each other.

The blades protruding from the ribs of Hu Yulin’s fan were covered in blood.

My right hand was bleeding too.

He glanced at it, took a step toward me, and called, “Xiao Jiu…”

I turned and walked away.

Hu Yulin wasn’t a bad person. He was just blind to the truth.

He had saved me more than once, and he had hurt me more than once. This was neither the time nor the place to debate who was right or wrong.

I didn’t have time to get entangled with him.

Liu Junyan had been gone for a while. Even after all the commotion here, he still hadn’t appeared. That could only mean he had probably succeeded in breaking the formation.

But breaking it was only the first step. Every step after that would be fraught with danger. All I wanted now was to reach his side as quickly as possible.

After running some distance, I saw that the Yin Corpse Formation surrounding the Temple was indeed gone.

A crowd of people lay outside. Most had already fallen unconscious, while the few who remained awake were curled up and groaning in pain.

The moment I stepped through the Temple gates, I heard the grinding scrape of metal turning against metal.

Before I could follow the sound, two figures soared into the air from the direction of the Temple’s main hall. One of them was so familiar that I recognized him instantly.

Who else could it be but Liu Junyan?
The other figure was a hulking monk in robes, barefoot and draped in a yellow shoulder cloth.

He gripped a prayer wheel in one hand.

As the prayer wheel spun, the monk muttered ceaselessly under his breath. Countless sutra verses poured out in every direction, drilling into my ears like demonic chants until my head buzzed.

Hu Yulin had caught up as well. The moment he looked up and saw the magical battle raging above the Temple, he leaped into the air and joined the fight.

No matter how blind Hu Yulin had been when it came to Ah Li, his childhood friendship with Liu Junyan was genuine. He had gone to help Liu Junyan.

That monk had to be the Fake Ascetic Monk. He had already suffered a backlash and was badly injured. Now that he was facing Liu Junyan and Hu Yulin together, his chances of winning were slim.

Somewhat reassured, I ran toward the main hall.

I had to use this opportunity to find Guo Zhen and get her out.

My right hand was still bleeding. The blade had pierced straight through my palm, and every time I moved my hand, the wound split open again, keeping the blood from clotting.

Once inside the main hall, I tore a strip from the cloth draped over the Altar Table and wound it tightly around my right palm to staunch the bleeding.

I never stopped moving as I did this, calling Guo Zhen’s name while I searched.

I went through the entire main hall but found no sign of her.

As soon as I headed into the rear courtyard, I heard Guo Zhen’s faint cries for help.

A light was on inside one of the meditation rooms, but the door stood wide open. A Great Lama lay at the entrance, though I couldn’t tell whether he was dead or merely unconscious.

I stepped over him and entered the room. At last, I found Guo Zhen.

She had been bound hand and foot and tossed onto the floor. A Formation had been laid around her, but it had already been destroyed.

Several patches of blood remained inside the Formation, most likely coughed up by the Fake Ascetic Monk when the backlash struck him.

Guo Zhen’s face was deathly pale. Her chin was blackened and bore clear burn marks.

Her skin had turned dull and lifeless. Though she had only just turned eighteen, she had developed quite a few wrinkles. It was as if she had aged forty or fifty years overnight.

She kept crying weakly for help, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes, but her gaze was unfocused and she was barely conscious.

Even when I crouched down beside her, she didn’t notice me.

Her cries for help were pure instinct.

Nothing more than instinct.

At that moment, she possessed almost no sense of self.

I called her name over and over as I untied her.

After experiencing something like this, people could easily be frightened so badly that they lost their Souls. If not much time had passed, repeatedly calling the person’s name would most likely bring their lost Souls back.

Of course, if too much time had passed, other methods would be needed to summon them.

Guo Zhen gradually came around. The instant she regained awareness, she instinctively recoiled from me.

The only time Guo Zhen and I had ever crossed paths was at her house.

Back then, she had been too busy hugging, stroking, and kissing the golden Buddha. How could she possibly remember me?

It was only natural for her to be wary.

I tried to soothe her. “Guo Zhen, your father hired me to save you. Be good. I’m taking you home right now.”

Like a terrified bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring, Guo Zhen kept darting her gaze around the room. I had no idea what she was looking at.

Then she suddenly screamed as if she had seen something horrifying.

My body went rigid. Slowly, I turned to look behind me.

A figure stood in the doorway of the meditation room.

A man nine feet tall, his body covered in bulging slabs of flesh, several knife scars crisscrossing his face, and four long tusks protruding from his mouth…

A man…