Chapter 252

Black smoke flowed from the mouths and noses of the Ghost Mother Sect captives. The black smoke was heavier than air; it did not drift upward but trickled downward, spreading out like a layer of viscous black oil at the bottom of the boat.

Witnessing the soldier's hand wither and shrink along with the captive, the martial artists closest to them scrambled to jump into the river, fearing contamination by the ominous energy.

Amidst the widespread fleeing, only Liang Qu moved against the black smoke, grabbing the collars of the cultists and throwing them into the water, unafraid of the black smoke's eeriness.

And indeed, the eerie black smoke had no effect on Liang Qu. Upon contact, it seemed like melting snow, hissing and sizzling, only causing a slight burning sensation in his palms.

It had become lighter.

Throwing the first cultist had felt normal, but by the time Liang Qu threw the last few captives, they were nowhere near the weight a normal martial artist should have.

At least one-third lighter.

By the time all dozen captives were thrown into the water, the river water was covered in a layer of black.

The martial artists who had jumped off the boat scrambled to swim to the other side and climbed back up, dripping wet.

"Torches, torches!"

Xiang Fang Su reached out and roared.

Several soldiers further away reacted quickly, using fire starters to ignite torches soaked in kerosene; the flames flared up instantly.

Xiang Fang Su took a torch, stood at the bow, and held it high, the orange firelight illuminating the surroundings.

As the source was cut off, the black smoke at the bottom of the boat faded rapidly, and instead, a viscous black liquid dissipated in the water, as if someone had poured a large amount of ink into it.

The ink was formless, spreading in all directions, except that it parted three feet away from the wide-bellied boat, revealing a circle of clear transparency; something invisible was preventing the black mist from spreading.

Without a doubt, this was Liang Qu's doing.

The martial artists on the boat were safe, but the finless porpoises that had been sticking to the sides of the boats were out of luck; they let out dissatisfied howls and swam further away to avoid the spreading black mist.

The two small boats nearby were not so lucky; without Liang Qu's help, the martial artists had to jump into the water.

At this moment, the entire boat was filled with black mist, which overflowed and flowed down the hull, like a pot of hot water brought outdoors in winter.

"A-Shui!"

Xiang Fang Su shouted.

Liang Qu actually practiced an evil-warding technique, and it seemed he had achieved some results; at his age, it was truly rare to see.

"Understood."

Liang Qu understood immediately.

He leaped onto the other two boats and threw the captives who had lost their life force far away.

At this point, the difference in weight was even more obvious; they were lighter by a full half. Something had flowed out of the Ghost Mother Sect members' bodies along with the black mist.

The black mist on the boats stopped spreading and gradually dissipated over time; the martial artists around the boats grabbed the gunwales and climbed back on board.

That such ominous black mist could not affect the other party in the slightest—a trace of inexplicable awe appeared in everyone's eyes.

Liang Qu stepped on the gunwale and returned, asking what exactly that black smoke was.

"The 'residue' left behind after a Wu Sheng dies."

Xiang Fang Su was concise.

"Evil?"

Liang Qu recalled what Ran Ran Zhongshi had once said to him.

The Wu Sheng realm is profound and mysterious; even if the physical body is destroyed, it is possible for the will to linger and survive. However, a will that has lost its physical body is easily disturbed by external objects, and the strange things formed in the end are collectively referred to as 'Evil'!

Ran Ran Zhongshi nodded upon hearing this: "The function and strength of 'Evil' are mostly related to the strength and degree of obsession during one's lifetime.

The 'Evil' of the Ghost Mother Sect has a very wide range of spread, encompassing almost all cult members, but it usually remains hidden.

We previously thought it was because a certain key condition had not been triggered."

"Key condition..." Liang Qu looked at the island under the night sky, "Perfected Form or Hunting Tiger?"

Ran Ran Zhongshi nodded in silent agreement; clearly, ordinary cult members were not enough to trigger the special condition.

Xiang Fang Su took a pole and poked at the corpses of the Ghost Mother Sect members floating on the water, using the tip to hold one side and flipping a person over with a jab.

The face was withered, the cheeks sunken, and a pair of eyeballs were shriveled and atrophied, completely devoid of moisture, as if they had been sucked dry.

He then grabbed the hand of the soldier who had first come into contact with the cult members; it was cracked, full of wrinkles, and lacked any luster.

If one didn't look at the thick beard on his face, it was simply the hand of an old man, at least seventy or eighty years old.

"The blood and Qi are very weak; the life force in his hand has been drained."

A layer of fine oily sweat appeared on the soldier's forehead; having one's life force drained was by no means a good thing.

Xiang Fang Su waved his hand: "It's fine, go back and take two bottles of Blood-Qi Pills and you'll recover; it didn't damage your foundation."

The Ghost Mother Sect people were too deeply involved and were severely affected; they were dead beyond dead.

It was different for the soldiers; if they were slightly contaminated, they could take some healing medicine and rest well, and recovering their vitality wouldn't be difficult; he estimated they would be fine in a month or so.

Ran Ran Zhongshi cupped his chin: "Such a large-scale draining of life force must have flowed somewhere else..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the boats trembled, ripples stirred on the water surface again, and violent roars erupted from the island chain, verifying Ran Ran Zhongshi's conjecture.

The battle was not over!

"Will my master and the others be alright?"

Xiang Fang Su patted Liang Qu's shoulder.

"Rest assured, when we borrowed the Wu Sheng's mysterious weapon, we considered that there might be accidents. No matter how eerie the 'Evil' remaining from the Ghost Mother Sect is, its instigator is at most a Jiang Zongshi; the gap in quality is insurmountable!"

Surging power crisscrossed the night sky again, and the tremors lasted for a full quarter of an hour.

Previously, as a participant, he only felt like a drop in the ocean; now, as a bystander, he could better feel the power of the surging waves, and the invisible wall of energy made everyone unable to breathe.

The entire island became calm again.

"Row the boats over!"

Xiang Fang Su stood at the bow and held the torch high, issuing the order. Under the soldiers' manipulation, several wide-bellied boats rushed toward the other side of the island.

As the long oars swayed, the ink-like black waves were pushed aside; the entire area around the island looked as if an oil spill had occurred, and the water had turned completely black-brown.

Moving along the island, Liang Qu saw many martial artists encountering the same situation.

Captive corpses lay inside the boats, black energy flowed out, and the entire boat was affected.

They were not as lucky as to have an "Evil-breaking" martial artist like Liang Qu, and at this moment, they were all soaking in the water.

Only in a few places did things end late, and they hadn't had time to clean the battlefield, so they escaped a disaster and huddled on the boats.

"Ke Ko Wenbin, how did you become a drowned rat?"

Xiang Fang Su stepped on the bow and mocked Ke Ko Wenbin in the water.

Ke Ko Wenbin spat out a mouthful of water, swam to the side of the boat, grabbed the gunwale, and flipped onto the boat. He wrung the water from his hair and said with disheveled hair: "Damn it, why are you guys fine? Didn't you bring captives onto the boat?"

Ran Ran Zhongshi pointed to Liang Qu beside him: "Thanks to A-Shui."

Ke Ko Wenbin saw the black water that couldn't invade the surroundings, and once his thoughts turned, he understood what was going on and slapped his thigh hard.

"Damn, if I had known, I would have let A-Shui be in my team!"

Cultivation techniques with evil-warding attributes were few and far between, and even if they existed, they were quite difficult to practice.

The most critical thing was that the cost-effectiveness of practicing them was not high; who would spend all day dealing with the "residue" of Grandmasters and Martial Saints?

But they were especially important when needed.

At this moment, Liang Qu was simply the most dazzling person on the scene, a torch illuminating the darkness, a whole piece of hot cake.

Everyone wanted to be closer to him, lest they be contaminated by that eerie black energy.

By the time everyone had successively brought on the martial artists who had fallen into the water, the fleet had expanded to twelve ships, and they finally reached the mountainside of the entire island chain, witnessing an extremely spectacular scene.

A black high cliff plunged straight into the Great Marsh, and the waves crashed against the cliff, rolling back.

In the center of the entire island, a straight passage capable of letting boats pass had appeared out of thin air; the cliff walls on both sides were as smooth as mirrors, and occasionally wisps of black energy drifted down.

Countless broken logs floated on the water, pushed aside by the fleet.

Liang Qu looked up at both sides: "Was this passage here originally?"

Xiang Fang Su took out the map from his waist, thought for a moment, didn't unfold it, and put it away again.

With such a conspicuous terrain, he could be certain it was definitely not on the previous map.

In other words, it had just appeared.

The boats entered the passage for a distance, and Xu Xu Yuelong and a total of eight Hunting Tiger martial artists came to the cliff in a rather sorry state; five were standing, three were lying down, and all had Qi lingering.

Liang Qu saw Yang Yang Dongxiong among them, covered in blood and with disheveled hair, but he was standing, and he let out a sigh of relief.

It was good that he wasn't lying down; there was no major problem.

Seeing Liang Qu on the small boat, Xu Xu Yuelong and the others carried their companions and leaped, jumping onto the boats one after another; Wei Lin and the others waited a moment before jumping onto another boat.

"Damn it, really bad luck. Originally those two Grandmasters were already dead, but I don't know how, they came back to life!"

Sui Sui Hongyan, the Deputy Commander of the Demon Suppression Division, took off his blood-stained clothes, revealing his robust upper body, leaned against the gunwale, panting and complaining.

Resurrection from the dead?

Everyone present held their breath.

Xiang Fang Su and Ran Ran Zhongshi hurriedly asked: "And then?"

"We had no choice but to kill them again."

Xu Xu Yuelong cursed.