Chapter 81: This Is a Thunder Art Descending from Heaven

Brilliant Lei Ting, fueled by Feng Xue's full-power cultivation, began to boil—not only the qi within the Jade Seal, but also Feng Xue's ordinary cultivation energy was pushed to its limit; from afar, the silver-white cold light trailed blue electric arcs, instantly tearing through the evil spirits in the air, then exploding into blinding Bai Guang that illuminated the entire heavens and earth!

"Now is the time!" As the evil spirit disintegrated under the purifying golden thunder, Li Maolin, hidden in the shadows, seized the opportunity to activate the Earthly Fiends—

"Three Fiends Seal the Evil!"

The earth's energy churned, the fiendish energy taking the form of yin thunder, like a lightning rod drawing in the Lei Ting that had escaped from Feng Xue; the Lei Ting, which had been unable to sustain itself moments after leaving the body, retracted once more, coalescing into a single bolt of thunder that slammed into Feng Xue's house.

This thunder appeared mighty and fierce, but it was already spent—yet this was precisely the effect Li Maolin desired.

In the instant the thunder struck, countless fiendish energies vanished once more, everything seemed to return to normal, save for the house, now smoking with faint blue vapor.

To the eyes of the arriving xuan cultivators, it looked as if Feng Xue had unleashed a thunder art that reached from heaven to earth, annihilating both the evil spirits in the air and those within the house!

At that very moment, the purifying silver armor enveloping Feng Xue shattered abruptly; seeing Mo Ying, already strained beyond endurance, scalded by the purifying force and unable to maintain her form any longer—luckily, Liu Yunxi still had strength left; she spread her wings, flew to Feng Xue's head, seized him with her claws, and flapped her wings with demonic energy, barely slowing his fall before landing precariously on the roof.

"Phew…" Feng Xue, still shaken, slipped the 【Escape Technique】 jade tablet back into his pocket—he had nearly used it several times—and checked his 【Multi-Protocol Linked Spell Unit Prototype】; what he saw was alarming: the jade tablets engraved with protocols like shaping, sustaining, fixing, flowing… were cracked or shattered; the cloth serving as the carrier was riddled with holes, some golden threads melted straight through, others stubbornly solidified onto the fabric, leaving scattered golden specks.

"I previously tested full output, so the fracture wasn't due to cultivation overload… hmm, likely the golden threads melted and caused a short circuit, leading to cultivation blockage…"

Feng Xue unfastened the cloth—thankfully, it contained parts of the Call Fire Spell to resist high temperatures, or his clothes might have caught fire too.

"Gold is an excellent conductor of cultivation, but still carries a risk of melting—either find a more suitable carrier, or thicken the gold threads; also, the purifying silver armor's protection seems worse than I thought, and the trigger delay of the reactive armor spell is hard to time…"

Feng Xue mentally summarized the numerous issues revealed in this real combat, and as he saw spiritual light flickering in the distance, he couldn't help muttering, "Why do the police always show up after everything's over?"

But Feng Xue himself knew their delay was precisely out of respect for him—because no markers had been left near his residence, they couldn't use teleportation to arrive quickly—

Of course, it might also be that this world had unspoken rules against placing teleportation markers in wealthy districts.

"Shouldn't you turn me back now?" Liu Yunxi's weary voice came as Feng Xue was organizing his thoughts; Feng Xue, without looking up, replied:

"You look like a person to me!"

"Phew… I'll never get used to turning into a bird, no matter how many times!"

Liu Yunxi, now in human form, shook her arms vigorously, a trace of lingering fear on her face; Feng Xue could only shrug:

"What else could you do? You couldn't fight on the ground in that situation—after all, who'd have thought only the flying part was the real body, and everything below was just decoy?"

Feng Xue muttered as he stood up, intending to call Seeing Mo Ying—but found the ghost had retreated into the scroll; sensing the resistance transmitted through the spirit pact, he decisively abandoned forcing a command.

If affection were quantified, Feng Xue had painstakingly raised Seeing Mo Ying's affection from "indifferent" to "slightly fond" through painting tutorials—after this, it had plummeted back to "cold."

No, considering the scalding from the purifying armor and the shock from the purifying thunder, it was a miracle the ghost didn't immediately retaliate!

All one could say was, luckily Seeing Mo Ying wasn't the type with a hard temper—otherwise Feng Xue would have had to consider replacing the spirit ghost.

He instinctively tugged the lamp cord; seeing the light didn't turn on, he knew the electrical circuit had likely burned out, muttering about whether the county magistrate would reimburse him, he finally navigated the smoky darkness of his home by memory to the door.

"Feng Daoist, your righteousness! You used yourself as bait to utterly exterminate the evil spirits!"

"Was that the legendary Five Thunder Divine Weapons? No wonder you're the heir of the Shenxiao Sect!"

"I'd only heard of Feng Daoist's astonishing thunder arts—today I see, and realize how vast heaven truly is!"

"No wonder golden thunder is the most effective at suppressing evil and severing sin—its power is truly extraordinary!"

As soon as he stepped outside, a flood of praise engulfed him; Feng Xue didn't know whom to respond to first, so he awkwardly approached Chen Daozhang, who had praised him the most, and explained:

"I'm ashamed to admit this wasn't intentional—it was sheer coincidence. Everyone knows I came here to study; I grew up in the north, so I'm accustomed to offering sacrifices to the Stove God on the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month—but I didn't know the south observes it on the twenty-fourth, hence this misunderstanding…"

It wasn't that Feng Xue was noble—he simply couldn't accept the credit for being such a fool as bait, or it would create unwarranted expectations from this crowd.

Upon hearing this, the dozen or so xuan cultivators exchanged glances; an awkward silence spread—after all, even the Deng family, who had migrated from the north, had nearly forgotten the northern custom of the twenty-third; though everyone knew the saying "officials on the third, commoners on the fourth," only a few who had been invited to provincial capital ceremonies during full years ever paid attention to the "official" date.

But the county magistrate, who arrived a moment late, was a seasoned veteran; sensing the awkwardness, he didn't care about the reason and immediately stepped forward:

"Feng Mr.'s residence clearly needs repairs—why not stay at the county guesthouse for a few days? What do you say?"

"I'd be grateful for your kindness," Feng Xue nodded in approval and readily agreed.

With the awkwardness broken, the xuan cultivators began their serious duties.

Though Feng Xue's technique had appeared powerful, the sudden surge of evil spirits was indeed suspicious—yet just then, a young soldier in military uniform sprinted over, frantic:

"Bad news! Father Shi was attacked during patrol and is now unconscious!"

"What?" Everyone gasped in shock; Chen Daozhang couldn't help exclaiming:

"Where's that old monk?"

It wasn't that he cared for his neighbor—he simply knew the old monk, like the foreign priest, was unsuitable for the main Stove God ritual due to religious beliefs, so he'd been assigned patrol duty; now that Father Shi had been attacked, he naturally thought of the old monk—

At least, that's what Chen Daozhang assumed.

(End of Chapter)