Ghost Fire Enters the Body

I have finally taken revenge... Huang Banyun was bathed in tears, his whole body trembling with excitement.

The little monkey was also clapping and screeching on his shoulder.

Huang Banyun bowed deeply to the group. "Many thanks to you all for eradicating this demon. Banyun is endlessly grateful."

Yan Nu shook the ash off his body and said, "What's the big deal? He should have died long ago."

"Stop shaking! Put your clothes on first!" Shen Leling screamed, her small hand flicking to command the previously flame-resistant vine to slither over to her side.

The vine coiled around Yan Nu, forming a suit of vine armor.

"This garment has been infused with a vast amount of my wonder-water. Ordinary flames cannot ignite it, but if you want it to burn, I can make it secrete oils."

Yan Nu thought this was pretty good. Every time he entered his blazing state, his clothes turned to ash, and having this piece would make things much better.

Next, Shen Leling tried to use water to extinguish the blazing fire. However, the fire was too massive, and her sprayed water simply evaporated instantly.

Mr. Feng, on the other hand, manipulated earth to bury it, but the Blazing Fire Green Lotus was far too huge, and a small amount of earth and stone could not possibly put it out.

The two looked at each other in dismay, having no choice but to join forces to dig a trench all around and build a wall of dirt, isolating the burning area from the outside.

"Just wait for it to burn itself out," Shen Leling said.

Another vine burst out from the ground, writhed for a moment, and spat out several sundries.

Gold, silver, jade pendants, and a bronze contract—these were all scavenged from the corpses of the Zhang Family warriors.

Among them, the most important was naturally the bronze contract.

"The young miss is thoughtful. Feng shall serve the young miss at her beck and call from now on." Mr. Feng scurried over, beaming upon seeing that the bronze contract was undamaged.

"Your primordial foundation was heavily battered by Yan Nu, yet you still dare to help us?" Shen Leling's gaze was playful.

Mr. Feng cupped his fists in a salute. "The two of you should have already felt Feng's sincerity."

"I share an irreconcilable blood feud with the Zhang Family as well. They slaughtered my entire family and refined me into a Dharmic artifact, fifty years ago."

"You two, although there were some misunderstandings between us, as long as you deal with the Zhang Family, you are my benefactors."

Yan Nu stared at him. "What's the deal with the corpse soldiers?"

Mr. Feng smiled bitterly. "Don't look at me. Those villagers were killed by the Zhang Family simply because fresh corpses make stronger corpse soldiers. You know them? Then go ask in the village and you'll find out."

Yan Nu grew angry, looking towards the rows of white-haired corpses that had rolled down to the foot of the hill during the fierce battle, still feeling that the raging fire in his heart could not be calmed.

Shen Leling nodded slightly. "This old ghost completely stood by and watched the show the first time he made a move. The second time, although he got serious, he also showed you mercy."

Mr. Feng unhurriedly said, "Feng is eighty-five years old this year, and I have never killed a mortal."

"Exterminating demons is another matter entirely, however."

Shen Leling slanted a glance at him.

Mr. Feng hurriedly put on a smile. "I speak of monsters like Wulong, while an upright and beautiful female demon like the young miss is someone Feng admires far too much to ever harm."

"Hehehe... I hate scheming people the most!" Shen Leling said with a giggle.

"..." Mr. Feng hastily shut his mouth while mentally complaining: You're the most scheming person here, how do you have the nerve to say that to me.

He instantly switched to a serious face and pointed at Yan Nu.

"The old hound's master will likely arrive soon. This place is not suitable to stay long!"

In Yan Nu's hands, besides Wulong's demon bone, there was also a set of spell-depleted neck rings.

These neck rings had protected Wulong for a full two incense sticks' time and had even almost managed to spirit him away, which showed just how powerful the cultivator behind the scenes was.

"Mm, let's leave this place first!" Shen Leling thought so as well.

The group immediately sprinted down the mountain.

Originally, Mr. Feng only needed to burrow back into the bronze contract, but Yan Nu wanted to take the villagers' corpses along. Consequently, Mr. Feng had no choice but to float in the air while simultaneously manipulating the corpses to run down under their own power.

When they arrived back at the previous village, they could still see the blazing pillars of fire in the direction of Flag Mountain from far away.

"Wuwuwu..."

In the village, no one cared about the fire in the distance. Here, it was desolate, and many doorways clearly bore the traces of intruders violently kicking their doors in.

There were still many bloodstains amidst the dust, and the sound of weeping faintly drifted through the air.

"The ones who survived are mostly women." Mr. Feng swept his gaze around and knew that there were still living people in most of the houses.

However, they were mostly the old, weak, women, and children. The Zhang Family had chosen to slaughter the fifty oldest men.

Yan Nu followed the nearest sound of weeping to a household.

Inside the dark little hut, a dim oil lamp was lit. An old woman sat facing the light, holding a piece of clothing in her hands and weeping.

Feeling the commotion behind her, the old woman turned her head numbly, showing no fear upon seeing the demons and ghosts outside her door.

Suddenly, luster returned to her eyes because she caught sight of a familiar face.

Holding the lamp, the old woman walked out with a fixed gaze, passing right by Yan Nu and Huang Banyun, and came to a halt in front of an old man's corpse.

"Have you returned?" the old woman asked in a hoarse voice.

Yet although the corpse was being driven to stand, it could not speak, and deep bloodstains marked its neck.

A miserable look crossed the old woman's face. She had witnessed her old companion being killed with her own eyes, and just now she had merely been harboring a tiny sliver of hope.

At this moment, catching sight of the knife wound on the corpse's neck, she could no longer hold herself up and collapsed.

Yan Nu and Huang Banyun reached out simultaneously to catch her.

The old woman wept for a while before she began to ponder the origins of these people.

"You are..."

Yan Nu said, "My grandpa says falling leaves return to their roots. I killed the Zhang Family members and brought the bodies back for you all."

She wore a bitter smile. The group of people before her could be said to have a complex composition.

Huang Banyun was dressed like a wandering knight, while Mr. Feng was clearly a ghost, and it was by means of this ghost's corpse-driving techniques that the bodies had been transported back.

The old woman also recognized Yan Nu and Shen Leling, who had come during the day and been hunted down by the Zhang Family, and she already knew that Shen Leling was a demon.

This was because the Zhang Family had come here under the banner of slaying demons, demanding that the village offer up corpses to aid them.

The village head refused, and after an argument, was butchered by Zhang Quan. Following that, they simply began a wholesale slaughter, selecting fifty elderly men in total to be killed.

Never had she expected that the so-called demon-slaying aristocratic clan would wash the village in blood, while Yan Nu and his companions would instead send the corpses back.

Humans were not humans, demons were not demons, ghosts were not ghosts.

"Many thanks to you all..." the old woman thanked them in profound grief.

Shen Leling hastily instructed Mr. Feng, "Arrange the corpses in the village's central clearing so that each family can claim their own."

Mr. Feng's sword fingers twitched slightly, and the remaining corpses walked on their own to the center of the village, then lay down on the ground, completely becoming ordinary corpses once more.

Their commotion was quite large, luring out quite a few women who peered outward through the window lattice, though they dared not step out.

The old woman took the initiative to step outside, calling upon the villagers to come out and claim their dead.

Soon the clearing was packed with people, and weeping shook the heavens. Almost all of them were women, and the males remaining were children under ten years old.

The only one who could be considered young and strong was a one-legged farmer. One of his legs was gone right down to the root, and he could only lean on crutches. Because of his disability he had not been conscripted, and because of his youth he had not been killed by the Zhang Family.

In the village nowadays, this disabled man was instead considered the main pillar of support. He was seen hobbling over to express his gratitude to everyone.

Yan Nu pulled him aside and said, "Let the village head and the others rest in peace first... Um, or should I help you dig?"

He noticed that the village lacked able-bodied men.

The one-legged farmer wanted to refuse, but a troubled look crossed his face. It wasn't that there was no one in the village.

Despite the group of women behind him, they were only used to doing farm work. If they truly couldn't even dig the pits, they wouldn't be able to live on.

The only difficulty was that if they wanted all the village elders to rest in peace and bury all fifty people together, it was by no means a small project.

While he hesitated, Yan Nu had already started looking for a shovel.

Seeing this, Mr. Feng said, "Fine, I'll do it. Just choose a graveyard, and I will use spells to break the earth for you."

Mr. Feng was good at earth-elemental spells, and this was a piece of cake for him.

"Many thanks, benefactors. Please stay in the village for the night." Seeing that there was an expert present, the one-legged farmer did not stand on ceremony and offered repeated thanks.

However, Shen Leling shook her head in refusal. "No need for formalities, we cannot stay long."

Saying this, she looked toward Mr. Feng. "Make it quick. Are you going to be able to manage?"

Mr. Feng frowned slightly. "Right now? I can..."

Although opening the earth to make graves was ordinarily a piece of cake, his current condition was too poor. After a succession of fierce battles, his primordial foundation had suffered trauma, his Dharmic power was exhausted, and he hadn't rested for even a moment.

Yet since he had already opened his mouth, he couldn't say he couldn't do it.

"Let's go!"

Mr. Feng forced himself to rally his spirits, once more commanding the skeletons to stand up, and walked step by step out of the village.

The entire village followed behind, sobbing incessantly.

Normally, burials weren't conducted in the middle of the night, but in the current state of the world, being able to get buried at all was already not bad.

With their village struggling just to survive right now, they didn't have many strict taboos.

The one-legged farmer led everyone to a barren hill, and Mr. Feng pointed a finger at the ground. "Open!"

His entire body trembled, his form flickering, and the soil of the barren hill instantly began to churn before parting to both sides on its own!

At the same time, Shen Leling found a spot, scattered seeds, and grew a grove of pine trees.

She continuously stimulated their growth, and the tall trees grew ever higher until, at a final command, they cracked apart into several sections.

The several sections of severed timber crackled and popped, and Huang Banyun stepped forward to peel away the bark, which had become soft and crispy on the surface. Good heavens, inside were actually smooth planks of wood.

The villagers were completely dumbfounded, endlessly marveling at this immortal means.

"How do you make coffins?" Shen Leling asked somewhat blankly.

"No need, no need, we hard-fated folk just need a piece of wood." The villagers dared not put them to trouble.

Mr. Feng immediately had the corpses drag the wooden planks into the graveyard themselves. After laying them out flat, the corpses climbed onto them on their own, tidied their clothes, and then grew completely still.

This eerie scene actually managed to dilute everyone's sorrow somewhat.

"Rumble!"

Mr. Feng closed up the tombs one by one, erecting rocks to serve as tombstones.

"You can carve the epitaphs yourselves... I'm done for."

Mr. Feng was dazed and muddled, finally unable to work any longer, his ghost body dissolving like a melting candle.

Shen Leling hurriedly brought him aside to bathe in the moonlight while emitting a stream of vital energy.

Mr. Feng took a deep breath, absorbing it all, and finally felt a bit better.

"Why don't you make a talisman for me too?" Yan Nu suddenly said.

Mr. Feng was astonished.

Shen Leling giggled. "It's the protective water talisman in Yan Nu's Shencang Acupoint."

"Old ghost, you should also condense a natal talisman for Yan Nu. He can channel his true Qi into it, and you can periodically recover the vital energy within it like eating a primordial-supplementing divine elixir."

Mr. Feng's eyes lit up. "Is that really possible? Previously I could only guess—so all your boundless vital energy was obtained through that water talisman?"

Shen Leling nodded. "That's right, but you'll also have to cough up a third of your primordial foundation."

"This..." Mr. Feng was practically about to cry. "No, my ghost body's primordial foundation has already been heavily battered, didn't you see? If I use my Dharmic power to condense a protective talisman, its defensive effect will be by no means weaker than yours."

Shen Leling cast a sideways glance at him. "It's not your defensive capability that we're after."

"The main thing is that it needs to quickly absorb true Qi, and the capacity must be high enough."

"If you only use Dharmic power to make the talisman, you'll explode before you can even absorb twenty percent of Yan Nu's true Qi."

Mr. Feng thought about it and realized it was true. Yan Nu's true Qi was far too vast and absolutely required a natal talisman to absorb.

He sighed mournfully, "My ghost body's primordial foundation has already suffered twenty percent damage. If I lose another third of the total, leaving me more than half missing, wouldn't that make it impossible to break through my realm?"

Shen Leling knew that if a body's primordial foundation was damaged, one's cultivation speed and spell-casting ability would both decline.

If more than half were missing, the Heavenly Dao would treat them as an incomplete living being, thereby preventing them from breaking through their realm.

However, it didn't matter. Shen Leling smiled. "It's just the primordial foundation being separated. Placed inside someone else's body, isn't it still yours? When you want to break through, just take it back."

"I suppose that's the only way." Mr. Feng thought it over and made up his mind.

He was seen directly refining the ghost-body sword in his hand into a ball of flame.

This flame was sinister and gloomy, flickering with a purplish ghostly radiance; it was a portion of his natal ghost fire.

He meticulously condensed it into a fiery talisman and shot it into the Spiritual Ruins Acupoint inside Yan Nu's body, echoing from afar with the water talisman in the Shencang Acupoint.

After finishing this step, Mr. Feng was listless, his ghost body flickering unsteadily and becoming ever more ethereal, resembling a wisp of mist and rosy clouds.

p.s: Apologies.