Chapter 41: Contending

However, you don't need to worry; I have a way. As long as you can hold off these bugs for a while, I can burn these broken things with a single flame. Pangzi was full of confidence, pulling out a small gourd from his body like a conjurer.

Seeing that small gourd, my eyes lit up; I eagerly said, "Hurry up, I'll do my best to hold him off."

Pangzi hesitated no longer, pinching the Seal Finger and began chanting the Invocation Chant.

"I humbly invoke Great Emperor Huaguang, Marshal of the Heavenly Horse, whose divine power reaches heaven and earth, with three eyes on his forehead seeing the three realms, holding a golden brick to vanquish evil spirits, surrounded by samadhi fire, from his pouch he sends forth fire crow soldiers, a thousand miles of favorable wind following my body, the wind and fire generals follow my steps……"

What Pangzi had prepared was Great Emperor Huaguang's Earth Fire Technique.

The five manifestations of Great Emperor Huaguang were originally the lotus lamp wick before the shrine of Shakyamuni Buddha; although he later became the Marshal Ma of the Divine Palace of the Daoist Sect, his true nature remains an innate fire spirit. Apart from his profound eyes, ear reports, and martial methods, the fire technique left by Great Emperor Huaguang is also overbearing extreme yang.

At this critical moment, I unhesitatingly chose to trust Pangzi, trying every means to delay.

Without the command flag, I cannot dispatch troops. Surrounded by so many bugs, I also cannot engage in melee with the flower-word technique. Now, I can only try the Soul Locking Technique.

The Soul Locking Technique exists within my Yin Mountain Ghost King Method, but it is not exclusive to my Yin Mountain Sect. Other Daoist sects also transmit some soul-locking arts, which they call Soul Capturing Technique. A sorcerer, if he wishes to harm someone, does not necessarily need the victim's birth date, fingernails, or hair. Some highly skilled sorcerers can, merely by having you stand before them and gazing at you, seize one of your souls at any moment and lay a curse upon you.

And you, unaware, will only grow more unfortunate after returning home, with major and minor illnesses, major and minor disasters all rushing in together.

However, this art is rather useless. Leaving aside karmic retribution, moreover, this technique can only be used in the place where a sorcerer cultivates or at the ancestral home where the deity altar is enshrined. Once you go out into the world, after passing a market, this face-to-face soul-capturing technique may lose its efficacy.

Because the sorcerer's soul-capturing draws upon the power of the local yin deity, and such local yin deities usually do not follow the sorcerer far afield—just like the horse-riding immortals, they are efficacious in one place, but when you go elsewhere you may not truly be able to summon the immortals to act on your behalf.

However, this uselessness is only relative to others. In my Yin Mountain Sect, this problem does not exist at all. Why? Because my Yin Mountain Sect itself emphasizes yin, having cultivated with ghosts year after year, accumulating yin energy not inferior to that of ghosts, so we can still perform soul locking without borrowing the yin deity's power, and its power is even greater than the ordinary sect's soul-capturing technique.

The fierceness of the Yin Mountain Soul Locking lies in attacking a person's soul; depending solely on the caster's control, the harm can be great or small. Severe cases will instantly become souls with damaged spirit, immediately faint, and upon waking immediately turn into fools.

I pinched the Five Ghosts Finger, tightly stared at Ou Yaofeng standing not far away, and began chanting the Soul Locking incantation.

"Heaven's lock, earth's lock, I beseech the Yin Mountain Ancestor to release the golden lock. Golden lock, silver lock, spirit offering begins, golden lock locks the primordial spirit, lock……" Having chanted to the end, I stamped my foot and grabbed forcefully.

Strange…… how is it empty. After a long while, I released my hand, finding it utterly vacant, without a trace of sensation.

Could it be…… that Ou Yaofeng has no soul, but…… that's not right?

At that moment, the poisonous insects had already crawled up beside us.

Everything Ou Yaofeng has done is strange; he seems not at all eager to put us to death, but rather deliberately delayed time to let us prepare. Is he overconfident, treating us like monkeys?

No time to think further; since soul locking won't work, I have only soul bewildering left—even if Ou Yaofeng lacks a soul, these poisonous insects surely must have one.

I hastily plucked a leaf, placed it in my mouth, blended the incantation into a folk song in the manner of singing, and blew on the leaf.

The Soul Bewildering Technique also resides within the Yin Mountain Ghost King Method; its primary focus is the character "bewilder"—to bewilder people's minds and the minds of all beasts, insects, and spirits.

When I moved the leaf to activate the Soul Bewildering incantation, Ou Yaofeng also staggered slightly, hiding within his black robe he also began chanting the scripture to drive the poisonous insects.

Initially on the ground appeared this peculiar scene: those poisonous insects writhed in disorder, moving back and forth; a moment forward, a moment backward. Eventually, as time passed, they all moved forward in unison, only their pace slowed by more than a half beat.

I am ultimately not an expert in handling gu insects; I can only delay their advance, unable to fully control them.

Gradually, cold sweat broke out all over my body, I could barely breathe; in my heart I could only silently pray that Pangzi would hurry.

Just as I clenched my teeth, on the verge of collapsing, I finally heard Pangzi's angry roar.

"Heaven's heavenly light, earth's earthly light, sun's spiritual light, moon's essence……"

"Hai Sheng, step aside."

Next, a great force came from my waist; Pangzi pulled me behind him. His whole body was crimson, veins bulging, as if he had just taken a bath in magma, even the hand holding mine steamed with heat.

"Gurgle." Pangzi took out the wine gourd, gulped two mouthfuls of wine, then with a "whoosh" spewed scorching flame from his mouth, burning a large fire ring around the two of us.

Those poisonous insects, burned by the flames, emitted a foul stench.

I don't know why, standing behind Pangzi, I began to feel dizzy, began to feel unable to breathe; touching my face, it felt as if my bones and tendons were protruding, and looking at my hand…… good heavens, it had turned a bluish-purple.

Instantly, a horrifying thought rose in my mind…… that…… I had been poisoned by gu.

How could it be? I never even got close to the poisonous insects; how could I have been poisoned? Perhaps……

Could it be the spider web that tangled me while climbing the stairs just now? A bad premonition rose in my heart; Ou Yaofeng's composure, my unease at the stairwell—all signs indicate this is a trap set by Ou Yaofeng. No wonder he is so unhurried; he originally waited for me and Pangzi to exhaust our mana, letting poisonous parasite erode our bodies and minds.

Right, Pangzi walked ahead; if the spider web stuck to me, it must have stuck to Pangzi as well.

I silently muttered "oh no," then hurriedly shouted at Pangzi: "Pangzi, stop quickly, don't spray anymore."

But just as my words fell, Pangzi let out a muffled groan and collapsed to the ground.

"Cough cough…… how could this be?" Pangzi's face flushed red, he coughed up two mouthfuls of black blood. He pointed at my face, shouting as if seeing a ghost: "Your face, how did it become like this?"

"It's poison; the spider web on the stairs is toxic, both I and you have come into contact with it; Ou Yaofeng is deliberately waiting for us to exhaust our mana." I propped myself up on the ground, speaking weakly.

"This bastard, truly damn despicable." Pangzi loudly cursed.

"But how did he know we were coming to the art studio?" A flicker of confusion crossed Pangzi's flushed face.

He looked at me, I looked at him: "We both shook our heads at the same time."

Shaking our heads does not mean we have no answer in mind; it's merely that we cannot convince ourselves to believe this possibility. Pangzi and I came to the art studio; the only person who knew was Pangzi's sister, Xiao Mengxue.

Pangzi and I shook our heads simultaneously, feeling this possibility too absurd. Given Xiao Mengxue's nature—she cannot bear to step on even a tiny ant, she is so kind and pure—how could she possibly harm us, this pair like biological elder brothers?

"Hahaha, what's wrong with you two heroes? Just now you were shouting you'd cut me down; now you're mute, not speaking."

On that side, Ou Yaofeng no longer concealed his arrogant aura, freely berating us.

"Do you know how long I have waited for this day? You ruined my plans, nearly drove me to imbecility; to reassemble an intact soul, I have endured how much torment."

"Originally, I couldn't find you two, planning to put a love spell on that little girl, making her my female slave for my amusement. But when I last night personally saw her frightened into fainting by that female ghost, I changed my mind. I know she will certainly come looking for you two, the elder brothers who are Daoists."

Ou Yaofeng played with the spider in his hand in the deep night, not in a hurry to strike us; it seems he is bestowing his self-righteous sympathy, letting us be an enlightened ghost.

"I personally set up this trap, placing the precious toxic plant at the stairwell entrance; I know it is the necessary path to the art studio. The spider webs in the abandoned small building—who would notice them? You tell me, am I not clever?"

Ou Yaofeng laughed heartily, his expression utterly undisguised in its delight.

"But rest assured, I truly like that little girl. After you die, I will attend to her well. Oh, no, I mean let her be my female slave to attend to me……" Ou Yaofeng finally revealed his ferocious visage, a hint of cruelty flashing in his eyes: "Now, you all go die for me!" With a roar, he waved both hands, and poisonous insects swarmed forth from hill to hill.

"You bastard, you dare mess with my sister; even as a ghost I will not let you off." Pangzi's eyes bloodshot, disregarding his injuries, he rushed forward to fight Ou Yaofeng to the death.

But we are now spent arrows, unable to muster even a fraction of strength. Before taking half a step, Pangzi had already collapsed to the ground.

The poisonous insects over hill and dale arrived in an instant, their speed more than double the former. Although the surrounding insects had mostly been burned by Pangzi's Earth Fire Technique, yet from Ou Yaofeng's body sprang more than double the insects; in a moment they had crawled up before us.

Could it be that Pangzi and I are truly destined to perish here today? My heart turned cold; watching those poisonous insects advance step by step upon us, I could even smell their foul odor, the nauseating stench.