"A Yayu."
Zhao Liangchen's expression turned grim, as if he was facing a great foe.
What stood before them was a huge ghost with red hair, a human face, a bull's body and a horse's legs. It had a pair of bronze mirror-like eyes that reflected a ghastly, cold gleam.
Legend had it that Yayu was originally a god but was framed and killed by someone. It had fallen into Ruoshui before turning into a ghost beast.
And since then, this bloodline had only existed within the underworld.
And there was only one place in the mortal realms that a Yayu would be left.
"This place is actually related to the Ghost Realm on the mortal plane?"
Cold sweat slipped along Zhao Liangchen's ugly face. As long as something had anything to do with those words, it was enough to make a young cultivator like him feel fear.
However, he did not need to think about that yet, as the problem before him was to escape.
A Yayu that had fully completed its cultivation was nigh invincible, and back in ancient times, the Yayu appearing from the Ghost Realm was personally killed by the Great God Hou Yi.
And of course, this descendant of the beast from times long past was nothing but a guard dog, so it would not have such strength.
But Zhao Liangchen was not Hou Yi.
It was useless to dawdle on this! A glimmer of light flashed in Zhao Liangchen's eyes.
There were hundreds of ghosts behind him, and a powerful Yayu blocked his path, so he had to fight a bloody path out.
"Windstorm Thunder!"
Without any hesitation, he struck with his strongest move!
When he was unsuccessful in his attempt to be the chief disciple, his master gave him an Evil-Banishing Thunder Talisman to comfort him. Divine Thunder was of the righteous path in this world, and it was best at fighting evil.
BOOOM!!! As thunder struck.
Although the value of this talisman had reduced in his eyes when he learnt that his junior brother had used dozen of it to pile the opponent to death every time he cast out evil spirits, its power would not decrease.
In an instant, the bright dark blue light lit up the entire haunted building as countless ghosts above roared in fear as they retreated one after another.
And the Yayu blocking the doorway was bombarded by the twelve divine thunder, letting out a fearful howl.
The time was now!
Zhao Liangchen suddenly leapt into the air. While his flying sword had been stained with the Botchling blood and its spirit was damaged, it could still perform its strongest ultimate move—the Feilai Sect's secret sword technique that had passed down to both male and female disciples.
"Feilai Sword Gambit!"
Zhao Liangchen yelled subconsciously as if this could increase the power of his strike.
A rainbow light as thick as a barrel descended from the sky, as a sword came charging from the west, like the Flying Fairy Beyond the Horizon technique1."
A flash of nervousness appeared in the eyes of the Yayu's huge eyes. And with a roar, all the red fur over its body suddenly stood up as if the Yayu was on fire. No, it was on fire!
The flame was as red as blood!
DUSH!!
The sword light stabbed into the body of the Yayu, and at the same time, it was immolated by the blood fire.
Three feet.
Zhao Liangchen gritted his teeth bitterly.
The flying sword had only pierced three feet inside the Yayu's back before the rainbow light was extinguished and the blade sank into its body.
If it was the divine blade Dusk Dragon that his master had given to his junior brother, with his current cultivation, he would surely be able to pierce through this Yayu's ghost body and kill it completely!
If the Botchling's blood had not contaminated his flying sword, the sword would be able to pierce at least another three feet in, reaching a total of six feet, and cause considerable damage to the ghost.
Unfortunately, such was fate.
For the sword penetrating three feet into its body, for the Yayu, it was a depth that could cause pain. However, that extent was only enough to provoke it, but not enough to affect its combat power.
It was terrible at just the very right point.
As a man, Zhao Liangchen felt an anxious and sorrowful emotion for the first time.
How nice would it been if he could stick it in deeper!
But the Yayu did not think so.
It had originally thought that the sword could only scratch it.
But unexpectedly, the sword had pierced its protective blood fire and caused it pain, making it feel both surprised and furious!
As a result, blood filled its pupils as the flames of its blood fire erupted throughout its body.
And it went straight into a rampage.
A powerful threat of death instantly enveloped Zhao Liangchen and the younger cousins behind him. Zhao Liangcai was completely paralyzed, not expecting that his brazen move would court such trouble for him.
How could there be an evil presence in a small town like Yuhang that his cousin could not deal with? He simply could not understand.
Zhao Xiaomiao cried right away. "I want to go home."
Zhao Liangchen could feel the despair of his younger cousins, but at this moment, he was helpless too. In fact, he still held a trump card that could help him escape, but if he used it, that meant abandoning the rest.
But...
The Yayu before him definitely had the power of a Ghost General, and he was certain he could not deal with it. As for the others...
There was a saying by Lord Buddha.
This is a dog eat dog world.
'Sorry.'
'Once I go back, I will definitely find someone in my sect to avenge all of you!'
Just as he secretly formed a mudra and chanted a spell to use his divine technique to escape, a faint voice suddenly rang out behind him.
"Why aren't you guys running away?"
Zhao Liangchen looked back and saw Li Chu and the others catch up to them.
The words Li Chu asked had Zhao Liangchen stunned for a moment as the way he had asked was way too serious and deadpan. So much so that the moment Zhao Liangchen heard it, he was in a daze.
'Is it him or me who has a problem?'
'Hmm?
'Why aren't I running away?
'Yeah, why the hell aren't we running away?
'Don't you recognize the giant Yayu standing before us? Even if you don't, you can still see that this thing is straight-up ferocious, no? Why are you even asking? Runaway and let me see then!
'Eh, wait!?'
And just as he was roasting Li Chu in his heart, Li Chu really just walked over casually, as if he had not seen the raging Yayu at all!
'Is Li Chu a fraud or a fool?'
At this moment, Zhao Liangchen could no longer figure that out.
And the Yayu burning with blood fire was baring its ferocious fangs at him! Its form still vaguely bore some of the majesties of its ancestors in the primordial times!
RAWWRRR—
The Yayu roared.
The image of Li Chu being ripped apart by the Yayu seemed to have appeared in Zhao Liangchen's mind. While thinking of Li Chu's extremely handsome face being chewed on by the Yayu, he felt a weird sense of elation.
'So what if you have a good-looking face? It won't taste any better, right?'
But the next second, all of his emotions were replaced by astonishment.
He saw Li Chu hold his iron sword in hand. And as it rose and fell, a magnificent and tyrannical sword Qi blasted out.
'What kind of sword strike was that?'
Zhao Liangchen suddenly thought of his master, a powerful cultivator at the pinnacle of the Shenhe Realm. When the latter had brought him to fight against a two-headed river dragon, his master had unleashed the most powerful Sword Qi he had ever seen and cut off one of the dragon's head with just a single stroke.
From that moment on, he had decided to choose the flying sword as his core weapon, just to become a powerful swordsman like his master.
The reason he thought of this was not that Li Chu's sword strike was as strong as his master's.
Instead, after seeing this strike, he suddenly felt that his master was a piece of trash.
For some reason, at this very moment, he wanted to point at his master's nose at yell at him, 'You think someone the likes of you is worthy enough to teach someone else swordsmanship?'
'Pah!'
The Yayu's body could not withstand such a powerful Sword Qi, and it shattered instantly.
Once a ghost's incorporeal body suffered too much damage, it would collapse on the spot.
But to achieve that sort of level of damage was very difficult, just like when Zhao Liangchen killed the Botchling, it was only cut into two.
But this Yayu was probably a hundred times stronger than the Botchling, and especially when it was one of the primordial species, its body was still surprisingly powerful even when it had turned into a ghost.
Yet, before Li Chu's slash, it was as brittle as something that would break with just a poke.
This could only be described in one word.
Terrifying.
Zhao Liangchen looked at Li Chu's back as he casually walked out of the building on his own. Even from the back, he could see the latter's composed temperament.
He was both handsome and powerful.
Without him noticing, two clear lines of tears came streaming down from the corners of his eyes.
'Wait a minute, why am I crying?'
...
Three hundred miles northwest of Yuhang Town, there was a Mount Whitebone.
Inside Mount Whitebone was The Barrow Cave
And inside The Barrow Cave, two hoarse and dull voices suddenly rang out.
"Something happened in the haunted building, someone went in and left alive."
"What? Our King's seal is about to be broken, there must be no trouble with the deployment there."
"They shouldn't have found much."
"But what if? Didn't you release the Yayu?"
The other voice was silent for a moment before speaking again.
"I did. But it was killed in an instant. What else can I say?"
"Ah?"
"It's a Daoist Priest that came from who knows where. He's terrifying. If I were to show up myself to stop them, I might not be able to come back at all."
"This... in short, we need to keep a watchful eye on the happenings in Yuhang Town. Once our king once again reappears in the mortal realms, no one can stop us anymore!"
"I hope so."
The night was deep and silent.