The Coming Storm

In the middle of the night, a dark cloud shrouded Flag Mountain, and a hazy drizzle fell amid the gloom.

A party of six came riding on horseback, and the procession was also driving five large wagons.

The Zhang family's monster-slaying team was much smaller than last time, but it was not because the family had no one; rather, they knew that Shen Leling had already lost her Daoist cultivation, and a debtor does not worry about having too many debts.

No matter how many mediocre martial artists came, they would only be walking to their deaths in vain.

Therefore, this time, they were all elites. Every single one of them was a top-tier martial artist of the Three Essences Body Tempering, a force cultivated by the Zhang family using massive resources amid the troubled times. It could almost be said to be the Zhang family's entire savings.

Zhang Quan asked the ghost shadow, Mr. Feng: "Is the Water Woman definitely in this mountain?"

Mr. Feng carefully observed the qi for a while before saying, "She is right in the mountain. However, a monster once lived in this Flag Mountain, too."

Zhang Quan let out a hearty laugh. "It doesn't matter. Since the Water Woman is hiding in Flag Mountain, she is simply seeking her own death."

"Flag Mountain is the immortal cave of Old Daoist Wulong. His true form is that of a wild dog, and he has eaten countless people, possessing formidable magic power. A few years ago, he disguised himself as a cultivator and went about practicing deception, his reputation spreading far and wide. He intended to sneak into the Tuolan Gathering on the banks of the Yishui River to discourse on the profound and debate the Dao with a gathering of celebrities."

"Yet who could have expected that that session of the Tuolan Gathering invited a wandering cultivator of profound Daoist cultivation? Thus, Wulong was exposed by him and suppressed on the spot."

"However, this old dog turned misfortune into fortune and became the mount of a high personage, receiving teachings in Daoist arts. He can be considered a righteous path monster cultivator."

Mr. Feng turned his head and said, "Is that so? But he is not in his immortal cave. The demonic aura in this Flag Mountain was all left behind by him a long time ago."

Zhang Quan uttered an "oh" and immediately gave a few instructions to his subordinates.

That retainer rode away on horseback on the spot, and judging by the direction, he was heading for Fei County.

"No matter, I know where he is. I will send a message telling him that his immortal cave has been occupied; perhaps he will rush back."

Mr. Feng chuckled. "That being the case, this battle will not require me to meddle in other people's business either."

With that, he made to drill back into the bronze contract.

"Hey, hey!" Zhang Quan quickly stopped him. "That won't do. Whether Wulong comes or not is still up in the air. He has already become someone's mount and lost his freedom. If the high personage does not permit it, he cannot come either."

"Mr. Feng, you just went through the motions last time without putting in real effort. If you had merely helped me block the Water Woman's demonic arts, I wouldn't have suffered such heavy internal injuries."

"This time I've brought fewer people, so I must ask the master to manifest a hand of the Corpse Soldier Technique."

With that, he waved a hand, and his subordinates lifted the covers of the large wagons. Four of them were startlingly laden with the corpses of elderly villagers, and one was fully stocked with weapons and armor.

"Mr. Feng, I've prepared the corpses. Raise them as soldiers."

"..." Mr. Feng took one look and saw that these were all fresh corpses, his expression one of astonishment. "What is the need for this? I can just use Daoist arts. That Water Woman's Daoist arts are crude and she must be self-taught. Under the same realm, how could she possibly be a match for me!"

Zhang Quan let out a cold laugh. "So the master still remembers your own Daoist arts!"

Mr. Feng's face turned dark. "Even for the Corpse Soldier Technique, having skeletons as a foundation is sufficient; there is no need for fresh corpses."

"Fresh corpse soldiers will have higher strength," Zhang Quan said.

"Heh, as expected of someone of Zhang Tong's clan. Truly ruthless. I am impressed, highly impressed!" Mr. Feng clapped as he sneered. If not for the constraints of the bronze contract prohibiting him from harming its holder, he would have wanted to slap Zhang Quan to death.

Zhang Quan sighed. "Mr. Feng, it is not that my heart is ruthless. In these troubled times, we old folks are useless, and human lives are like grass. The ones brought this time are all top-tier experts cultivated by my Zhang family; the family head does not wish for any casualties."

"Yes, yes, indeed!" Mr. Feng laughed, casting a sideways glance. "How could anyone not say that your Zhang family produces heroes generation after generation!"

Zhang Quan's face stiffened. Their family was growing increasingly in decline, and this was something he could not refute. Otherwise, they wouldn't have reached the point where, the moment the old ancestor died, there was virtually no one left in the cultivation world to prop up the pillars.

"Enough. If you truly are unwilling to work for my Zhang family, then please return!" Zhang Quan said in a deep voice.

Mr. Feng hastily plastered on a smile. "This monster is very formidable. How about this—I'll risk my life to deal with her! After the matter is settled, give me another catty of jade marrow!"

"We agreed on a total of five catties, and it's impossible to add any more, Mr. Feng." Zhang Quan smiled. "If you don't want it, then so be it. Actually, as long as we keep a close watch on this female demon... Once the family head invites True Person Shen Wuxing over, you can rest."

Mr. Feng was struck dumb, dumbfounded. To sum it up, he was nothing more than a sentinel?

"Shen Wuxing... Why does that name sound so familiar?"

Zhang Quan recalled for a moment before saying, "The year you died, he should have just become the Prefect of Pingyuan!"

"What! It's him? Doesn't he lack immortal bones?" Mr. Feng was utterly astonished.

Zhang Quan explained, "This is the legendary part about True Person Shen. He became the Prefect of Pingyuan at the age of twenty and was already the designated successor of the Shen family. As a result, one day someone discovered he possessed the Heavenly Spirit Immortal Bone! It turned out that when he was young, his elders had been negligent during the bone-touching check and missed his head... Thus, he resigned from officialdom and entered Mount Cangwu to cultivate the Dao, and fifty years have passed since then."

Mr. Feng pondered, muttering, "He came out to eliminate demons; could it be he has already reached the Calamity Tribulation Stage?"

Many families and sects demanded that cultivators not slay demons and eliminate devils unless they reached the Calamity Tribulation Stage... Otherwise, it was extremely easy to incur the killing tribulation without even realizing it.

Moreover, once someone in the Calamity Tribulation Stage faced danger or was locked onto by someone's malicious intent, the Heavenly Dao would issue a warning, allowing them to judge whether or not they should proceed with eliminating a demon.

"Yes! He reached it a few years ago," Zhang Quan said.

Mr. Feng was incomparably depressed. Shen Wuxing was fifteen years younger than him, yet he had already reached the Calamity Tribulation Stage, while he himself remained trapped within the bronze contract as an old ghost of the Mystical Stage.

"What did this female demon do to make a Calamity Tribulation Stage cultivator willing to make the trip in person?"

Zhang Quan said with agitation, "For these past few decades, the Shen family has not been thriving with male offspring. Ever since Shen Wuxing, the direct lineage has been a single seedling generation after generation..."

"Twenty years ago, this female demon killed the direct descendant of the Shen family—the only descendant of Shen Wuxing in that generation. Why do you think True Person Shen wants to stick his neck out?"

Mr. Feng curled his lips. "No wonder... So your Zhang family hopes I will kill this demon and use it as a tribute to present to Shen Wuxing, is that it? Damn it, you're only giving me five catties of jade marrow? Have some humanity!"

"I really cannot add any more, Mr. Feng." Zhang Quan shook his head firmly. Resources that increased one's Daoist cultivation were something he refused to give more of, no matter what.

Mr. Feng felt stifled with vexation. The last time he had absorbed two catties of jade marrow, his Daoist cultivation had begun to increase from that very day, and it would continue to grow for the entire coming year.

After the matter was successfully concluded, there would be three more catties, which was equivalent to a total of two and a half years' worth of Daoist cultivation in the future.

Having been stuck in the Mystical Stage for fifty years, he was by no means comparable to ordinary Mystical Stage cultivators. With these two and a half years of Daoist cultivation, if he pushed hard, it was not entirely impossible to break through.

Once he reached the Spiritual Sense Stage, this bronze contract would no longer be able to trap him! He would do it! If he truly waited for Shen Wuxing to come and resolve this demon, then there would be no role left for him at all.

"Hmph..." Mr. Feng silently recited three incantations, ghost qi swirling dense and baleful all over his body.

Suddenly, he split fifty wisps of ghost qi that shot into the corpses. The corpses stood up one after another, their eyes flashing with a pale green, eerie light.

They consciously walked down the carts, one after another donning armor and weaponry.

Immediately following that, Mr. Feng pointed at them in rapid succession, wisps of black mist winding outward to make this band of corpse soldiers look like evil ghosts crawling up from hell.

"Into the mountain!" Zhang Quan waved a hand.

Five formidable martial artists dismounted and entered the mountain, while the fifty corpse soldiers bounded forward as swift as flight, treating the mountain paths as level ground.

Pairs of green-lit eyes emitted an ice-cold, spine-chilling aura amidst the night.

Within the mountain forest, upon seeing this, Huang Banyun turned his head and bolted. While running, he also used his true qi to stimulate the water bead inside his body.

As long as he discovered the martial artists entering the mountain, he had to notify Shen Leling. Although he desperately wanted to flee right then and there, he was also afraid the water bead would claim his life, leaving him with no choice but to obey.

"The female demon told me to wait for a group of martial artists... This—these aren't martial artists, they're clearly a pack of evil ghosts!"

Huang Banyun was both terrified and furious. What infuriated him was that magnates slaying demons was supposed to be a matter of course, yet fifty villagers had been slaughtered for this purpose.

What terrified him was that, judging by their agile postures, the strength of that group of corpse soldiers was probably even greater than his own.

What kind of concept was that? The corpses of a group of ordinary villagers instantly transformed into fifty first-rate experts! And that was without even factoring in whatever terrifying properties that black mist possessed; he probably couldn't even win a one-on-one fight against a single one of them!

Huang Banyun ran for his life, hurriedly arriving at the mountainside.

He saw that the area was shrouded in mist, and the large open space outside the immortal cave had long since been deployed with over three hundred Vine Armor Soldiers, their spears standing like a forest.

"Hiss!" Huang Banyun felt his scalp tingle slightly. Was this a magical duel or a full-scale battle?

Yet it didn't end there. As he walked forward, through the water mist, he vaguely discerned eight Vine Armor Soldiers behind the military formation, carrying a square platform made of birch wood.

Shen Leling stood upon the platform, her sleeves fluttering, her expression and bearing stern and dignified.

Her hands were crossed in front of her like picking flowers, her eyes tightly closed as she silently recited incantations.

For a radius of several hundred zhang, water vapor lingered. From the soil, upon the trees, and within the streams, mist continuously rose.

Meanwhile, the dark cloud overhead grew heavier and heavier, the drizzle turning into a steadily thickening rain.

"So the dark cloud in the sky was condensed by her..."

Amidst such a cycle of water vapor, Huang Banyun was soaked through to the skin, feeling as though even his very breaths were made of water.

This moisture clung to his body, gloomy and icy cold, causing Huang Banyun to shiver involuntarily.

Yet that group of Vine Armor Soldiers, bathed in this water, instead grew increasingly robust and towering, their vines twisting and knotting together.

One could imagine that their vine armor had become even tougher, and their brute strength even greater.

Huang Banyun did not dare to linger, hastily hurrying through the military formation and running up the mountain, coming to a high vantage point to silently observe.

"Swish, swish!"

The Zhang family martial artists arrived extremely fast. Before the Flag Mountain immortal cave, one expert after another stood upon the treetops like wraiths.

"The Water Spirit Physique truly is extraordinary! To actually possess so much magic power..."

Mr. Feng hovered in mid-air. Observing the continuous drizzle and moisture-filled environment, he sighed with emotion, "Right here, my ghost fire will have a hard time taking effect."

Zhang Quan frowned. "Can it be destroyed?"

Mr. Feng curled his lip. "These Vine Armor Soldiers are protected by marvelous water; it is practically impossible to break them using restraining methods anymore. Let's just kill them through sheer force! Although their numbers are great, my corpse soldiers are even stronger!"

"I will cloak you all in ghost qi armor, so you needn't worry about her Essence Absorption Secret Art."

Zhang Quan immediately drew his sword and surged forward. The martial artists and the fifty corpse soldiers all launched themselves into a ruthless slaughter, every single one of them also wreathed in black mist.

"Slay the demon!"

"Kill!"

The two armies immediately clashed with swords and blades. The Vine Armor Soldiers advanced in a military formation, every single thrust powered by brute strength.

Conversely, the corpse soldiers were indeed stronger. They dispersed, and amidst the flashing lights of swords and blades, ghost qi took tangible form, slaughtering the Vine Armor Soldiers and sending wooden splinters flying.

It was glaringly obvious that the combat prowess of the corpse soldiers exceeded that of the Vine Armor Soldiers by a wide margin.

Thus, fifty first-rate martial artists, plus five top-tier martial artists, formed a wild-geese-flying formation that was truly unstoppable.

A mere single encounter was all it took for the frontline Vine Armor Soldiers to be hacked to pieces.

"Hahaha! Female demon, no matter how well-prepared you are, you are nothing more than this!"

"To think you didn't even flee, and dared to stay and fight a battle?"

Zhang Quan sneered derisively. His sword qi was the strongest; with a single sword stroke per enemy, he chopped down several Vine Armor Soldiers in succession.

The other martial artists were no different. They were like a sharp blade piercing right through the defense line of the Vine Armor Soldiers, heading straight to take Shen Leling down.

"You still dare to come seeking death!" Shen Leling abruptly opened her eyes, divine light shooting forth.

Then a booming sound was heard as a massive torrent of water descended from the sky, looking just like the dark cloud overhead pouring out a waterfall.

The water current was extremely fast, carrying with it a torrential, overwhelming force as it smashed down right upon their heads!

"Oh? Used it all up in one breath?" Mr. Feng was somewhat surprised. He had long since noticed the dark cloud overhead accumulating a torrential mass of water vapor, which was bound to be the medium for Shen Leling to execute her water-elemental Daoist art.

Yet what he hadn't anticipated was that Shen Leling would unleash all the water in a single breath, instantly erupting and rushing downward.

Saving no magic power at all? Wasn't this wasteful? Did she really think he was unprepared? That she could smash them all to death in one go?

Virtually without any preamble, Mr. Feng immediately pointed a finger at the mountain and let out a loud shout: "Ha!"

A rumbling explosion rang out as the mountain body directly split open, layers of earth churning and rolling as a gigantic gravel rock rose up from the ground.

That giant rock acted like a massive umbrella, propped up right above everyone's heads. It stubbornly withstood the waterfall-like impact of the water current, shielding the martial artists and spirit puppets below.

The rolling dark clouds poured down great volumes of water, resembling the Heavenly River pouring backward as it battered the stubborn boulders and whipped up countless splashing sprays of water.

Viewed from afar, the scene was utterly spectacular.

p.s: Apologies.