Chapter 28: Intimidation

Boom—!

The huge thunderclap echoed before the small shrine.

Crimson lightning directly locked onto the beautiful woman who was primping.

Caught off guard, the woman was instantly struck by the Thunder Talisman.

"Aow!"

Accompanied by a painful howl, yet seen under the crimson lightning, "its whole body scorched black", and at the same time a hoarse, rough voice sounded out.

"Damned cultivator!"

And in that instant, a nauseating stench welled up from deep in the beautiful woman's throat, and a huge tongue shot through the air, sweeping toward Zhang Jian.

"Revealed?"

Zhang Jian activated the Wind Movement Technique with his spiritual power, his form appearing like a phantom a hundred steps away, but the huge tongue swept across the sky again, accompanied by the sound of tearing cloth, the beautiful woman's body continued to mutate, countless blue hairs burst from its surface, and he faintly transformed into a giant ape.

Seeing this huge ape-like monster, Zhang Jian faintly furrowed his brow.

This is very like the mountain goblin of folk legend; such spirits excel at transformation, often turning into handsome men and beautiful women to bewitch the populace, taking pleasure in plundering living beings!

As for the fate of those abducted, no need to say more.

"You dare hurt my wife? Courting death!"

At that moment, the swordsman flew into a rage, his eyes blood-red, his long sword leaping from his hand, a fierce blade light shooting toward the spot where Zhang Jian stood.

He also appeared to be a body-refining martial artist, strong and healthy, having completed the tendon-changing stage of body refinement, stepping into the marrow-washing stage; martial artists at this stage are extremely powerful.

This is even stronger than the third stage of internal martial artists, the nurturing yuan stage.

Seeing him charge at him like a madman, Zhang Jian was somewhat speechless.

He also glanced at the terrifyingly thick-waisted blue-furred giant monkey; this swordsman's taste surprised him greatly, especially since this mountain goblin was male.

But he soon guessed that the swordsman before him might have been bewitched by that mountain goblin.

That mountain goblin had just been like "bewitching" with him.

Gathering spiritual power in his hand, crimson thunder struck the swordsman like a flood, slapping him and sending him flying ten-odd meters, directly knocking him unconscious to the ground.

Fortunately, his control over the Thunder Technique in his hand had gradually become subtle; otherwise this strike could have killed the swordsman, but it only caused an electric stupor.

Meanwhile, the mountain goblin quickly moved, its two furry giant claws lashing out ferociously at Zhang Jian.

Zhang Jian noted that although the previous several bolts of heavenly thunder had given the mountain goblin some injury, its destructive power was not as strong as imagined.

The mountain goblin's whole body was covered with a layer of hazy blue spiritual energy, that layer of blue spiritual energy was as tough as ancient mountain trees, extremely resilient.

Only some parts were somewhat scorched black.

Zhang Jian was still encountering for the first time a demonic creature with some resistance to thunder.

"Looks like we'll have to put in more effort from now on!"

Zhang Jian's brow furrowed slightly; fortunately, the Thunder Technique was not completely ineffective.

His form moved like the wind, dodging a hundred steps, that huge palm came down from above, booming as it smashed into the ground, the hard ground actually being pierced by that giant hand like tofu.

At this moment, Zhang Jian still felt something odd in his eyes; as he operated the Thunder Technique, a gold bead in his sleeve suddenly jumped abnormally at the sound of thunder, faint threads of invisible spiritual energy emanating from within.

It seemed to resonate with the crimson thunder within his body, as if there were signs of overflow.

Zhang Jian felt something odd in his heart; after that gold spiritual bead came into his hand, he had studied it quite a bit, but even stimulating it with spiritual power had little effect, yet now the heavenly thunder power of the Thunder Technique within his body had undergone a change.

He casually took out six more Thunder Talismans from his hand, infused them with spiritual power again, and the six talismans flew out; this time they were not meant to directly envelop the mountain goblin, but aimed at its eyes.

He did not believe that the eyes of this great mountain goblin before him could be as hard as its body; even if he could not injure the mountain goblin's eyes, he wanted to blur its vision, causing its spiritual perception to become confused.

But the idea was good; when the six bolts of crimson heavenly thunder fell, that mountain goblin had already used its arms to shield its head, the six thunderbolts struck its arms, although it made its whole body scorched black and it flailed about, it still appeared not to have suffered much harm.

But that mountain goblin was clearly slowed for a few moments.

But that was exactly the opportunity he wanted; seizing the moment, he picked up the ring-pommel longsword dropped by the swordsman on the ground, this longsword extremely sharp, still emitting a faint glow in the night.

He activated the Wind Movement Technique with his form, appearing in an instant behind the mountain goblin; taking advantage of the moment when the mountain goblin's reaction to being struck by thunder was delayed, he thrust a blade deep into its reddish buttocks.

The longsword entering the body, although it only broke through a layer of skin, also made the dazed mountain goblin howl in pain.

And at the moment the longsword entered the body, Zhang Jian already knew that he had won half of this battle.

Even if the mountain goblin's thick skin and flesh could withstand a frontal thunder strike, it was still doomed.

At the extreme of the mountain goblin's arms retracting and sweeping outward, his form appeared above the mountain goblin's head, with another six Thunder Talismans manifesting in his hand.

A grim light flashed in his eyes; extreme yang spiritual power activated, six bolts of crimson thunder like red light cleaving the dark forest, accompanied by the mountain goblin's despairing wail, the layer of circulating blue spiritual energy all over its body finally burst apart with a boom.

The heavenly thunder followed the position encircling the tiger-head longsword, violently pouring in, as if directly scorching its entrails five or six parts.

At this moment, the mountain goblin raised its head; the ferocious furred face finally showed its instinct, fear in the eyes, a pleading expression, Zhang Jian without hesitation took out two more Thunder Talismans and slammed them onto its Six Yang Crown.

Deprived of that special layer of blue spiritual energy protecting it, its eyes instantly became two black holes, its breath extinguished.

This mountain goblin was finally felled by him.

This change did not make Zhang Jian feel overly delighted.

Activating these Thunder Talismans is not that easy; after two rounds, his spiritual power has already been depleted somewhat.

This inevitably made Zhang Jian feel some anxiety; in the mountains and forests, it was not only this mountain goblin, he had already seen on the wall at the edge of the Earth Shrine that those Purifying Soul Talismans showed a trend of spiritual energy fluctuation, as if other mountain wild anomalies were approaching the Mountain God Shrine.

Many ants can fell an elephant.

His expression turned somewhat solemn; who knows what happened in Phoenix Nest Mountain, just two phoenix cries, and yet the surrounding mountains and forests are actually overrun with such anomalies.

He had previously been quite certain that there were no anomalies around the Earth Shrine.

"Young Master!"

At this moment, the brave and healthy Xiao Xie at the Earth Shrine's gate trembled, pointing with both heads toward the darkness; Zhang Jian followed his gaze, but saw that the swordsman had at some point completely vanished into the darkness.

His spiritual sense detected a strong, gloomy qi flashing past the surroundings of the mountains and forests.

Zhang Jian's face turned grim, and he shouted: "Retreat into the shrine, do not come out!"

He noticed that although the shrine, covered with Purifying Soul Talismans, also had some dark qi seeping in, those dark beings never dared to enter the shrine.

He immediately took out another stack of yellow talismans from his sleeve and gave them to Hu Shan and all the brave and strong, ordering everyone not to wander about.

He himself stood at the entrance of the earthen shrine.

He could only hope that his thunder technique would be able to intimidate these yin beings.

As long as he doesn't encounter another monster like the mountain sprite, he can still get through the night.