Chapter 79: Did You Bring the Malevolent Spirit Here?

While the entire city's Daoist cultivators were striving to purify the malevolent spirits, Feng Xue was at home extracting Yuan Qi—

Since learning the Yuan Absorption Technique, he had been consuming vast amounts of Yuan Qi daily to research power ratios; now, after eight days, he had not only activated all his known 【Hua-character】 spells using 231 different Yuan Qi ratios, producing a detailed table refining power, functionality, and specificity, but also, through deep study of the fundamental nature of 【Transformation】, designed several application styles for himself.

As more techniques and spells were passed down by Senior Li, his imagination naturally expanded further.

Yet design was one thing—actually using them in combat required endless practice, and since he couldn't directly absorb individual Yuan Qi types, he had to use the Five Elements Jade as an intermediary.

Although the Yuan Absorption Technique explained that all five Yuan Qi types must be drawn simultaneously to maintain Five Elements balance and minimize waste (which shortens lifespan), Feng Xue's mediocre spirit soul couldn't possibly control five threads at once, let alone each thread requiring a full ritual protocol.

Of course, Feng Xue had his own strategy: after locking his fate, he didn't care about Yuan Qi consumption at all, so he focused all his energy on a single organ node, extracting only one type of Yuan Qi at a time, and to prevent imbalance, simply expelled the rest from his body to feed Mo Ying.

As a result, he only needed to maintain one ritual protocol, and efficiency naturally improved dramatically.

The only problem was…

The subtle aura of a spirit ghost feeding on Yuan Qi—something ordinary people and even orthodox Daoists rarely noticed—was now continuously leaking out…

…

"Is this kid insane? Didn't I warn him to offer the Stove Sacrifice? Why is he still extracting Yuan Qi now?!"

Li Maolin, who was just mobilizing Sha Qi, nearly spat out a mouthful of blood; he truly couldn't understand Feng Xue's train of thought, but at this moment, he didn't care—he just wanted to cry.

Although he was a demonic cultivator, this time when he triggered the malevolent spirit, he truly had no intention of harming any good person!

But now, if that little ghost was truly drowned by the accumulated year's worth of turbid wishes and evil intent from hundreds of thousands of people, his human calamity would be utterly unmanageable!

"No!" Li Maolin immediately halted his current action and moved to help Feng Xue at his residence—but just then, the door was kicked open; sensing the thick Sha Qi inside, the lead priest roared:

"Someone really is practicing dark arts here!"

As a member of the Yishen Sect, patrolling on a foreign land during the worship of a foreign deity was already infuriating; constrained by being on someone else's territory, he could only suppress his anger and took a low-profile post.

Yet he never imagined that a place this likely to be safe was actually being exploited under the cover of darkness!

"No wonder we couldn't find it—turns out they were hiding behind residual Lei Ting energy!"

The priest glared, one hand unfolding the Bible, the other drawing a spiked mace engraved with a holy emblem from behind his back, and chanted loudly:

"Crush the lion and the viper, trample the young lion and the great serpent!"

As he recited the brief verse, a holy, blazing light burst from the opened pages, staining the priest and his spiked mace with the holy emblem.

He didn't turn around; his eyes locked on Li Maolin, who was trying to flee, and bellowed to the acolytes and nuns behind him:

"Deploy the exorcism barrier! Chant the holy hymn!"

Watching his escape technique blocked by the barrier of light, Li Maolin's face darkened further; he sighed inwardly:

"No wonder he's my human calamity! Kid, you'd better hold on!"

…

"Something's coming!"

Feng Xue, just holding the red jade against his heart meridian, jumped at Liu Yunxi's cry, hastily tucked the Jade Seal into his Hu Tian Bag, then stood up; Mo Ying, seeing this, sucked in the remaining Yuan Qi in the room and followed closely behind Feng Xue—then…

"What the 【bzzz—】 was that noise?!"

In his over-the-shoulder view, a black line surged from afar; houses stood like reefs, streets turned into rivers, and that black line reminded Feng Xue of the Qiantang River tide he'd seen before his transmigration.

Transparent golden light of wish-energy shrouded every house and courtyard, resisting the tide's assault; even if Feng Xue hadn't yet realized this black tide was the 【Chong】, he understood that the golden glow must be the protection from the Stove Sacrifice.

But his house had none!

"Run!"

Lucky he was used to carrying all his belongings in his pocket—he had no hesitation, leapt out the second-floor window, hooked his hand up, and pulled himself onto the third-floor windowsill.

Ten days of body conditioning, combined with the Alchemy Technique, had granted him physical attributes surpassing what even a bodybuilder who'd overdosed on drugs in his past life might achieve; his static stance training had improved his coordination beyond that of a professional gymnast.

Using hands and feet, he scaled the rooftop over ten meters high, but his expression grew darker; unlike his original assumption of a one-way surge, his house now resembled a lone island being submerged from all sides by black matter.

Neither Liu Yunxi nor Mo Ying recognized these things, but there was no doubt—they were definitely not good!

"How…?"

Liu Yunxi was about to ask, but Feng Xue spoke first:

"You look like a hot air balloon!"

With smoke and a familiar hiss, Liu Yunxi instantly transformed into a white hot air balloon; Feng Xue didn't hesitate, climbed inside, pulled out the jade tablet inscribed with the character "Fire," and began pouring in cultivation power.

Although the optimal ratio for Fire spells was two Wood and three Fire, his red jade storing Fire Yuan Qi had been interrupted before full charging, so he simply used full-power cultivation to activate the 【Call Fire Spell】.

Liu Yunxi knew the stakes well and pushed her demonic power to the limit, rapidly converting it into heat; the balloon swelled quickly, and the basket finally began to rise.

Since Feng Xue had Liu Yunxi as such a convenient "universal tool," he naturally considered escape options—flight was the top priority.

But attempts with giant birds, drones, or helicopters all failed: drones and helicopters because Liu Yunxi's mind couldn't adapt to the logic of propeller flight; birds or wind-winged dragons because their carrying capacity was too low—under 27 cubic meters, her wingspan couldn't exceed ten meters, her load capacity only dozens of jin, and she needed sufficient height to jump and glide on air currents.

Fortunately, Feng Xue thought fast and quickly recalled the first flight technique every transmigrator would unlock—the hot air balloon.

Thanks to his prior testing, he knew Liu Yunxi's balloon couldn't take off instantly—it needed time to fill with hot air; otherwise, they'd have been in chaos right now.

As the black tide drew near, the balloon finally lifted completely off the roof; watching the house below slowly engulfed by thick black sludge, Feng Xue exhaled in relief and tucked away the jade tablet inscribed with 【Escape】.

Although he'd learned the 【Escape Technique】 ritual under Li Maolin's guidance, his cultivation control was abysmal—beyond ten meters, he had zero precision; unless absolutely desperate, he'd never use this thing that might dump him anywhere.

Just as Feng Xue relaxed, Mo Ying's voice echoed in his mind—

"Watch out—another one's coming!"

"Huh?!" Feng Xue looked down and saw the endless black wave flooding his house—then, like a volcanic eruption, it violently spat a dark blob straight at him!

"What the hell! What did I ever do to you?!"

(End of Chapter)