Chapter 138: Swallowing a Mouthful of Ice and Snow

The *Ma Yi Splash-Ink Sword Art* that Mo Lao Er practiced was an exquisite technique passed down within the Ma Yi Daoist Sect.

This martial art integrated physiognomy; once mastered, it could be used on oneself to alter one's fortune, resulting in a full forehead, eyes like polished lacquer, a dignified face, and thick earlobes.

Once the physiognomy changed, the aura changed as well, and as he moved through the wind and snow, he was even less noticeable than a malevolent spirit.

By the time this strike was unleashed, the sword light was as swift as shattering waves, and even as the tip was about to pierce someone's face, the killing intent remained extremely faint.

It felt as if it were merely a touch of chill unexpectedly arriving in the natural world.

Feng Jianhua hadn't even seen clearly who was wielding the sword.

But he held a sheathed long saber in his left hand, and there was a long strip of red cloth on the hilt.

In this flash of lightning, he moved his internal energy, and the red cloth on the hilt suddenly snapped straight upward.

*Clang!!! *

The moment the red cloth moved, it was as swift as a dragon or python striking, piercing diagonally upward and hitting the sword blade with precision.

The light, sharp sword light was struck by this impact and sprang upward.

The Tang-clad swordsman retreated rapidly, holding his long sword horizontally in front of him to block.

Thanks to his quick reaction, this strike even had a hint of anticipating the enemy's move.

At the same moment he retreated to defend, a golden arc of light burst forth violently.

Feng Jianhua drew his saber, sweeping it in a full, wide arc.

The sword blade happened to be grazed by the edge of this arc of saber light, causing the swordsman to retreat even more urgently, back over twenty meters.

"Mo Wuyi?!"

Feng Jianhua's face was filled with astonishment. "How could it be you? Are you being coerced, or..."

Having seen much of the world, in the half-second it took to speak, the astonishment on his face had already turned into a mixture of heartache and firm killing intent.

Mo Lao Er still maintained his auspicious appearance, smiling kindly.

"You guessed right. We three brothers rebuilt the Ghost Market."

"Back when we first broke into the Ghost Market, we pocketed a small batch of inventory. It wasn't until we sold it that we realized how fast money could be made with these things."

Mo Lao Er whispered, "With money comes enjoyment, and with enjoyment, you realize there are even more pleasures in this world."

"And now, I've even experienced the joy of expanding our kind. Old Feng, if you're willing to become one of us, I'd welcome you unconditionally. Otherwise, you'll die here."

Listening to these words, Feng Jianhua's hand remained as steady as if it were frozen in mid-air.

The red cloth fluttered, and the golden saber remained motionless.

The entire saber was charged with a sense of threat—that it would not move unless necessary, but once it did, it would shake the heavens and earth.

"Just you? It seems your Ma Yi Heart Method has indeed reached mastery; the moment my saber aura touched your sword blade just now, it became significantly dulled..."

Feng Jianhua spoke to this point, his eyes flickering slightly as if he had realized something, and he changed the subject. "But talk of killing me—you should let your eldest brother say that for it to carry any weight."

*Hum!!! *

The golden saber suddenly vibrated, and within the surrounding air, hundreds of tiny insects no larger than sesame seeds were shaken to death, falling onto the snow-covered ground.

Feng Jianhua cast his gaze into the distance, seeing Mo Laosan on the rooftop of a high-rise several hundred meters away.

Mo Laosan held three incense sticks in his left hand, the tips already lit, while his right hand continuously formed seals and chanted.

The Gu insects were merely a lure.

What had truly surrounded the area where Feng Jianhua stood were cold, sinister silhouettes.

With Feng Jianhua's cultivation, although he lacked the perspective of spirit communication, he had enough internal energy to sharpen his senses, allowing him to outline the three-dimensional images of the malevolent spirits in his mind.

Moreover, the yin energy was now coalescing into a sheet.

Those malevolent spirits all showed signs of actively manifesting.

The spirit directly in front wore tattered monk's robes; its body was fair-skinned yet flabby and sagging, sitting there like a giant elephant.

Among the spirits on the left, a skeleton wearing iron armor was particularly striking, with rat-like black energy crawling in and out of its eye sockets and mouth.

There was no need to look behind him; he could feel a spirit wearing a white dress, its long hair hardened and spread out like the eight legs of a spider.

That thin, small body had only a quarter of the presence of its hair.

There were fully a dozen malevolent spirits surrounding the vicinity.

All of them were fierce and evil beings specifically lured by Mo Laosan.

"My eldest brother has gone to find that other reckless fellow."

Mo Lao Er said leisurely, "But look, these malevolent spirits sent to reality by the Mirror Ape won't attack me for the time being."

"I've joined forces with them—is that enough weight for you? Since they move without regard for physical obstacles, if you want to break out of this encirclement, you'll have to dissolve them all. Is your internal energy enough for that?"

Mo Lao Er laughed loudly, his expression suddenly turning gloomy.

"By the way, your internal energy actually has a flaw, doesn't it? You get drowsy when you reach your level, and if you exert yourself too much, you're desperate for sugar water. In front of us, do you still have the chance to find that sugar water?"

"With so many disadvantages, you still dare to look down on me?!"

Feng Jianhua's expression remained unchanged; he simply looked at a malevolent spirit to his front right.

He wasn't clear on the species of all these spirits.

However, the attire of several of them belonged to the era he had lived through.

And the spirit to his front right looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, dressed in rags, holding a large iron-blade saber in its right hand.

The large ring on the saber hilt was also wrapped with a small piece of red cloth.

The appearance of a malevolent spirit is closely tied to their obsessions before death.

This ghost holding the saber had completely white eyes with no pupils, and its mouth could only chant the word "kill," yet the clarity of that saber was higher than the spirit itself.

Feng Jianhua didn't recognize him, yet in an instant, he could be certain of the youth's identity before death.

He had once heard that some ghosts could only survive the journey into the Spirit Realm because they had suffered so much in life that their resentment was strong enough to endure it.

However, after being targeted by powerful beings in the Spirit Realm, or surviving there for too long, their will eventually died completely, and they were transformed into another kind of creature.

"I get drowsy, I drink cola like a madman—these rumors are known throughout the school. Anyone could have found them out. Have you ever wondered why?"

Feng Jianhua walked two steps, placing his hand on the wall of the fireworks shop, his gaze lowered.

"Because my cultivation method does indeed have a flaw that is hard to conceal, so I simply created a layer of camouflage for it."

Mo Lao Er's face changed slightly.

Feng Jianhua slapped the wall with his left hand, and the door wall shook slightly.

Large patches of heavy snow slid off the roof, like a dozen curtains of flying snow dust.

"Attack!!!"

Mo Lao Er had wanted to wait for the spirits to strike first, but he had no choice but to roar and charge forward.

He changed his auspicious appearance to a sinister one: his eyebrows hung down like triangles, his glabella turned green, his nose bridge showed broken lines, and his lips were scarlet.

For a split second, those dozen spirits felt that Mo Lao Er was also a fierce and violent spirit, competing for food.

The ghosts grew agitated and shrieked as they charged.

Feng Jianhua grabbed with his left hand, compressing three or four catties of ice and snow from mid-air into a solid, large snowball, then, with wind swirling around his body, he raised his saber with his right hand and moved in a wide circle.

*Boom!!! *

Seven or eight afterimages appeared abruptly in the arena.

Violent air currents swirled and circled; the golden saber in each afterimage moved differently.

This was the most common set of Bagua saber techniques from the Xingyi Bagua school.

Feng Jianhua had learned it from a street performer in his village when he was twelve, but after cultivating the *Hate Heaven Skill*, he had integrated the essence of the saber techniques he learned in his youth, achieving a state of great skill appearing clumsy and returning to simplicity.

Bagua Saber: Fighting the Wind and Rain in the Night!

The circle was completed in one breath, his body like a fleeting flower in a crack, his heart like a dream returning in an instant.

He executed all eight chopping motions with the most powerful internal energy he had ever possessed.

More than half of the dozen fierce spirits were sent flying backward.

The largest spirit in monk's robes suffered the most, slashed across the belly, almost cut in two.

Mo Lao Er had charged the earliest, but his internal energy was pure, and his body naturally decelerated in mid-air, so he only struck with his sword toward the end of the move.

Yet even this strike was struck directly by the golden saber.

The two sides faced each other.

Mo Lao Er could see that Feng Jianhua's face and neck skin had developed several dry, fine cracks, and his lips were split so badly that blood seemed visible.

He had unleashed too much internal energy in one breath, and the moisture in his body seemed to have vanished into thin air.

However, Mo Lao Er had no time for further observation before his body was shaken back by the force reflected from the sword.

The spirits floated in the air; the swordsman slid backward.

Feng Jianhua tilted his head back to swallow snow.

His mouth opened as wide as possible, the snowball pressed into his mouth, and with that swallow, not only were his teeth and jaws exerting force, but his internal energy was pulling as well.

In almost one gulp, he swallowed a catty of ice and snow.

The moisture was rapidly converted by his internal energy; though it remained icy cold in his stomach, it felt merely refreshing as it circulated through his body.

His drowsiness was never that severe, and what he needed wasn't sugar water, but simply water.

The world was frozen, and snow piled up on the roofs.

Now, all of Guangling was his water source.

All the spirits became even more ferocious from the previous stimulation and pounced back.

Mo Lao Er no longer dared to wait for an easy victory; he assessed the situation and coordinated his sword strikes, charging forward.

"So cold!"

Feng Jianhua's gaze shifted, locking onto the ghost that had parried his strike with a large saber.

In the corner of his eye, he saw several others he had deliberately not forced back, now charging at the front.

The snowball remained, and the golden saber danced with his body.

With this mouthful of ice and snow, I shall send you on your way to purity!

(End of Chapter)