But she had simply appeared just like that, without warning. Rain poured down upon her, soaking through her clothes and outlining her curvaceous figure. In that instant, her entire aura changed; her usual poise had an extra hint of seductive charm. Her eyes seemed to captivate the soul, filled with a faint smile as she looked at Li Yanchu. The wind and rain raged around them. From another direction, a gaunt young man appeared. He was so emaciated he looked like a living skeleton. His clothes were in tatters, hanging off his frame ill-fittingly, as if he had just crawled out of a grave. His eyes glowed an eerie green, and he had vertical slit shaped pupils. He had the kind of eyes that beasts had! One glance was enough to tell he wasn’t from any orthodox path and was clearly something sinister. Upon seeing Li Yanchu, he bared his teeth in a grin, revealing rows of ghastly white teeth. It was the kind of twisted, morbid smile that made one's skin crawl. Then came the appearance of a third figure, an old woman clad in a burial shroud[1]. Her hair was entirely white, her back hunched, and her feet were bound in tiny shoes. She shuffled along unsteadily, as if she might fall at any moment. Under the cover of night, her face was shriveled, grotesque and utterly horrifying. It was unmistakably a cat’s face. The middle-aged swordsman Li Yanchu had seen previously at Wangjiang Pavilion had yet to appear. It was unclear whether he wasn’t part of this group, or if he was already lurking somewhere in the shadows. As soon as the three showed up, they began to form a loose encirclement, subtly closing in on Li Yanchu. A deafening boom tore through the night, reverberating through the air. It wasn’t the Baxia stone statue, as rumored among the townspeople, coming to life. The sound had come from the river. From the heart of the river, a massive black shape rose into the air, rising higher and drawing closer to the shore. It seemed to stride upon the waves, bearing an uncanny resemblance to a yaksha from the mythic Dragon Palace. And the direction it was heading was exactly where Li Yanchu had been planning to go. They were encircling him, and they were clearly working together. Li Yanchu focused his gaze on the dark figure and saw that it was a man covered in bluish-green scales with a long, swaying tail behind him. “A human-dragon?!” Li Yanchu was a bit taken aback. He hadn’t expected to encounter such a legendary, rare creature. Four terrifying auras locked onto him, and in this pitch-black, hollow silence by the river, the pressure was suffocating. Li Yanchu’s voice boomed like thunder. “You cowardly vermins, hiding in the shadows and using such sneaky tricks... What a joke!” A grim expression immediately appeared on the faces of the four. Clearly, they were quite wary of Li Yanchu’s strength. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent all four of them, choosing to strike right when the Baxia stone statue had lured Li Yanchu here. Of course, there were many others eyeing the Baxia statue and coveting the Blissful Land of Wei City. It was also possible these four had been lying in wait here all along, and only acted on impulse when they saw Li Yanchu appear. Li Yanchu, however, remained calm and composed. His gaze swept coldly across the four of them. At that moment, Li Yanchu had already employed the Sun Veil along with Daoist breath-concealing techniques to suppress the pure yang qi and blood coursing through his body. The aura of the Five-Lightning Talisman was also hidden and masked. As a result, these people didn’t shy away from meeting Li Yanchu’s gaze. On the contrary, their expressions showed hints of provocation. Especially the last one to appear, the human-dragon man, his eyes carried a trace of hatred. By the riverside on this rainy night, an old Daoist holding an umbrella slowly walked into Wangjiang Pavilion, his steps neither hurried nor sluggish. Because of the distance, and with the yellow paper umbrella obscuring his face, it was impossible to make out what he looked like. Only glimpses of snow-white hair could be seen as he approached. His Daoist robes were not luxurious at all. Instead, they carried the worn, weathered feel of someone who had journeyed through wind and dust. The moment the old Daoist appeared, the four surrounding figures immediately melted into the night, as if they had never been there. Even the dozen or so hidden eyes that had been spying on Li Yanchu vanished without a trace. Li Yanchu met the old Daoist’s gaze from afar. Though the man's face was hidden behind the yellow paper umbrella, Li Yanchu could still feel the piercing sharpness in his stare. The old Daoist extended a finger and pointed faintly in the direction of Wei City, but said nothing. Li Yanchu couldn’t tell whether the man was signaling for him to leave this place, or if he meant something else entirely. Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he remembered someone. Back when the imperial court had requested aid, they had sent a Celestial Master from Mount Longhu. But ever since that Celestial Master had arrived in Wei City, he had never shown himself, nor had anyone heard of him slaying demons or exorcising spirits. Li Yanchu had nearly forgotten the existence of that Celestial Master. “Could this old Daoist be him?” The thought flashed through Li Yanchu’s mind. He activated his Qi Sight to take a closer look at the old Daoist. A surge of clear spirit qi soared to the heavens, and faintly, the Three Flowers[2] could be seen atop the head, this was clearly a highly accomplished Daoist cultivator. However, after his experience exorcising demons in the great tomb, Li Yanchu had witnessed so-called eminent monks and Daoists backstab their companions, even joining the Bare Body Sect. So he no longer placed absolute trust in what the Qi Sight revealed. Even so, Li Yanchu stood in silence for a moment, cast a deep glance at Wangjiang Pavilion, and then turned to leave and headed back to Wei City. Along the way, his figure flickered across the air, leaving afterimages. He was so fast he was nearly invisible to the naked eye. His finely-honed martial instinct was faintly telling him that the old Daoist's gesture toward Wei City carried some deeper meaning. Concealing his aura and presence, Li Yanchu began using the Qi Sight within Wei City to search for any unusual signs of demonic qi, deadly yin qi, or wandering ghosts lingering in the city tonight. He searched one location after another. It was now the dead of night, and with the heavy rain pouring down, the cold was biting. If he had used astral projection, it would have been affected. This was the so-called killing force of Heaven and Earth, a natural hostility that severely damages a cultivator’s spirit form. The source of thɪs content is novᴇlfire.net But since Li Yanchu was moving in his physical body, this danger didn’t apply to him. The spirit qi within his body was abundant, and his Qi Sight had advanced significantly. Before long, he located a corpse inside a residence in Wei City. It was a sturdy, middle-aged man, collapsed on the floor in agony. His death was horrific. His mouth had been sliced open with a sharp saber, pulled into a grotesque, horrifying grin. All the organs inside his body—heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, the five viscera and six bowels—had been completely removed, vanished without a trace! He had been hollowed out. Li Yanchu's gaze turned icy. The room was still steeped in lingering demonic qi, and blood and resentment filled the air. He stepped into the inner quarters, and what he saw made him pause. Inside was only a mother and child. The child looked no more than seven or eight years old. All three members of the family had died in the same horrific manner; their mouths had been cut open into grotesque grins, and their internal organs had been completely hollowed out. Li Yanchu’s breath grew cold, and a sharp, murderous aura surged from his body. “Damn it!” A powerful killing intent toward the murderer welled up within him. His Qi Sight had improved greatly by now, allowing him to track even faint remnants of demonic qi. Ordinarily, at this hour deep in the night, when yin qi was at its peak and yang qi at its weakest, such evil qi should have lingered for a long time. However, the pouring rain made the investigation more difficult. Li Yanchu activated his inner technique, a halo of clear light swirling in his eyes. He followed the faint traces of evil qi and soon arrived at the southern part of the city. 1. A shroud is an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to burial sheets, mound shroud, grave clothes, winding-cloths or winding-sheets that the body is wrapped in for burial. ☜ 2. There is a well-known saying in traditional Chinese culture: “Heaven has three treasures: sun, moon, and stars; Earth has three treasures: water, fire, and wind; Man has three treasures: essence (jing), energy (qi), and spirit (shen).” In Daoist cultivation, there is a concept known as “the Three Flowers gathering at the crown.” Simply put, the immortals’ “Three Flowers” correspond to the human “essence, energy, and spirit.” ☜