Why Aren't You Leaving?

"Ya Yu."

Zhao Liangchen's face darkened like still water, as if he were facing a great enemy.

Blocking their path was a giant ghost covered entirely in red hair, with a human face, an ox body, horse legs, and enormous bronze-mirror-like eyes reflecting chilling sharp light.

Legend said that Ya Yu had originally been a Heavenly God in the Archaic Era, but had been murdered and fallen into the Weak Water, where it transformed into a Ghost Clan fierce beast.

From then on, this bloodline had existed only in the underworld.

And in the Yang World, there was only one place where descendants of Ya Yu might still remain.

"This place is actually connected to the Human World Ghost Country?"

Cold sweat slid down Zhao Liangchen's ugly face. Anything associated with those words was enough to make a young cultivator like him shudder inwardly.

But there was no need to consider distant matters yet. The problem before him was escape.

A Ya Yu whose cultivation had reached Great Accomplishment possessed power that gods and ghosts alike could scarcely resist. In Ancient Times, when Ya Yu emerged from the Ghost Kingdom, it had taken the Great God Hou Yi himself to slay it.

The remnant species before them, left here to guard the door, naturally could not possess such strength.

But Zhao Liangchen was not Hou Yi either.

Thinking more was useless! A flash of sharp light crossed Zhao Liangchen's eyes.

A hundred ghosts watched them like tigers from behind, while Ya Yu blocked the way ahead with overwhelming force. They had no choice but to carve out a bloody path.

"Wind, Rain, Thunder, Lightning, Haste!"

If he did not act, so be it—but once he did, he immediately unleashed his current strongest method!

When he had failed to become the Chief Disciple, his master had given him a Thunder Department Evil Extermination Talisman to comfort him. Heavenly thunder was the Righteous Path of the world, and this thing was the bane of evil spirits.

Rumble—heavenly thunder rolled!

Although he had later learned that Junior Brother used more than a dozen Thunder Department Evil Extermination Talismans every time he expelled evil, piling them up until his opponents died, which had lowered this talisman's value in Zhao Liangchen's mind.

Its power itself would not diminish.

In an instant, brilliant ink blue light illuminated the entire Ghost Building. Countless ghosts above let out terrified shrieks and retreated three steps away!

And Ya Yu, which guarded the door, was bombarded in turns by the Twelve Heavenly Thunders triggered by the talisman, and it too let out a wary howl.

Now!

Zhao Liangchen suddenly soared into the air. Though the flying sword stained with Infant Spirit Blood had suffered damage to its spirituality, it could still unleash his strongest killing move—the secret sword passed down through the Flying Crane Sect, from men to women alike.

"Flying Crane One Sword Secret!"

Zhao Liangchen could not help shouting, as though doing so might add to the sword strike's might.

A bucket-thick rainbow light descended from the heavens. One sword came from the west—an Immortal From Beyond the Heavens!

A flicker of tension seemed to flash through Ya Yu's enormous pupils. With a boom, the red hair all over its body suddenly stood on end! It looked as though it had caught fire! No—it truly had caught fire!

Flames blood red!

Hiss— Sword light pierced Ya Yu's body, while enduring the searing heat of those blood flames at the same time.

Three feet.

Zhao Liangchen clenched his teeth in bitter frustration.

The flying sword had only pierced three feet into Ya Yu's back before the rainbow light upon it was completely worn out, leaving the sword embedded inside.

If it had been Divine Sword Night Dragon, which the sect had bestowed upon Junior Brother, then with his cultivation, he would surely have pierced through Ya Yu's ghost body and killed it completely!

If his flying sword had not been tainted by Infant Spirit Blood earlier, it could at least have advanced another three feet. If it reached six feet, it could inflict heavy damage upon this ghost!

Alas, time and fate.

A sword penetrating three feet was enough depth for Ya Yu to feel pain. More or less, it was just right to enrage it, yet insufficient to affect its combat strength.

It was just right in the worst possible way.

As a man, Zhao Liangchen experienced an anxious yet melancholy emotion for the first time.

If only it could go a little deeper!

But Ya Yu did not see it that way.

It had originally thought that this sword could only rub against the outside.

It had not expected it to actually break through its Body Protection Blood Flame and bring it pain. That left it surprised—and furious!

Its pupils became bloodshot, and the blood flames all over its body erupted.

It went berserk.

An intense death threat instantly engulfed Zhao Liangchen and the younger brother and sister behind him. Zhao Liangcai was completely paralyzed. He had never imagined that one reckless thought of his would lead to something like this.

How could such a tiny Yuhang Town contain an evil spirit that even his cousin could not deal with? He could not understand it.

Zhao Xiaomiao simply burst into tears. "I want to go home."

Zhao Liangchen could feel his younger brother and sister's despair, but at this moment, he was helpless as well. In truth, he still held a trump card that could allow him to escape, but using it would amount to abandoning everyone else.

But.

The Ya Yu before him definitely possessed Ghost General-level strength. He truly could not deal with it, and as for the others...

The Buddha had said.

When father died and mother remarried, everyone looked after themselves.

Sorry.

Once I return, I'll definitely bring people from the sect to avenge you!

Just as he secretly formed hand seals and chanted an incantation, preparing to use an escape technique, a calm voice suddenly sounded behind him.

"Why aren't you leaving?"

Zhao Liangchen turned around and saw that Li Chu and the others had caught up.

Li Chu's question made Zhao Liangchen freeze for a moment. Li Chu's expression as he asked it was far too serious, utterly earnest. The instant Zhao Liangchen heard it, he was somewhat dazed. Was something wrong with him... or was something wrong with me?

Hm?

Why wasn't I leaving?

Yeah, why the hell weren't they leaving?

There was such a huge Ya Yu right in front of them. Did Li Chu not recognize it? Even if he did not, surely he could tell that this thing was vicious, right? And he was still asking? Go on, walk past it and let me see! Eh, wait?

As he grumbled inwardly, Li Chu really did stroll forward at an unhurried pace, as if he had not seen the berserk Ya Yu at all!

At that moment, Zhao Liangchen could no longer tell whether Li Chu was a liar or a fool.

And Ya Yu, wreathed in blood flames, bared its cruel fangs at him! Its silhouette vaguely carried the majesty of its ancestors from the Archaic Era!

"Roar—"

Ya Yu roared in rage.

Before Zhao Liangchen's eyes, it was as if he could already see Li Chu being torn apart by Ya Yu. Thinking of that impossibly handsome face being chewed in Ya Yu's mouth, he even felt a strange flicker of satisfaction.

So what if your face is handsome? It won't taste any better, will it?

But in the next second, all his emotions were replaced by stunned disbelief.

Li Chu held his sword, raised it, and brought it down. A vast, tyrannical sword qi swept forth.

What kind of sword strike was that?

Zhao Liangchen suddenly thought of his master, a powerful cultivator at the Spirit Fusion Realm Peak. When his master had taken him to slay a Two-Headed River Dragon, he had unleashed the strongest sword qi Zhao Liangchen had ever seen. With one strike, he had destroyed one of the flood dragon's heads.

From that moment on, Zhao Liangchen had decided to choose a flying sword as his core magical artifact, all so that he could become a powerful sword cultivator like his master.

He recalled this not because Li Chu's sword was equally strong as his master's.

It was because, after seeing this sword, he suddenly felt that his master was trash.

For some reason, in that instant, he wanted to point at his master's nose and curse, You call yourself worthy of teaching others how to use a sword?

Pah.

Ya Yu's body could not withstand such powerful sword qi and instantly shattered.

Once a ghost's incorporeal body suffered excessively powerful damage, it would shatter on the spot.

But achieving such a thing was actually difficult. When Zhao Liangchen had slain that Infant Spirit, he had merely cut it apart.

And this Ya Yu might have been a hundred times stronger than the Infant Spirit. As a Primordial Remnant Species, even after becoming a ghost, its body remained astonishingly tough.

Yet beneath Li Chu's sword, it was as fragile as something that would burst with a single poke.

This could only be described with four words.

Terrifying beyond measure.

Zhao Liangchen watched Li Chu's departing figure as he walked out of the small building without another thought. Even from behind, Li Chu exuded the elegance of a jade tree facing the wind.

Handsome, and powerful.

Without realizing it, two streams of clear tears flowed from the corners of Zhao Liangchen's eyes.

Wait, why was he crying?

Three hundred li northwest of Yuhang Town stood White Bone Mountain.

On White Bone Mountain was Corpse Hiding Cave.

Inside Corpse Hiding Cave, two hoarse, muffled voices suddenly rang out.

"Something happened at the Ghost Building. Someone went in—and left alive."

"What? Our King's seal is about to break. Nothing can go wrong with the arrangements there!"

"They probably did not discover much."

"But what if they did? Didn't you release Ya Yu?"

The other voice fell silent for a while before sounding again.

"I did. It got one-shot by a sword. What else is there to say?"

"What?"

"It was some Little Daoist Priest from who knows where. He was terrifying. If I had personally acted to stop them, I might not have returned either."

"This... In any case, we must keep a close eye on Yuhang Town. Once Our King returns to the world, no one will be able to stop our advance again!"

"Let's hope so."

The night was deep, secluded, and empty.