Contest of Sorcery

"Alright, you two do your thing, and I'll watch from the sidelines," I said with a smile, though I felt a bit helpless. I hoped it would just be watching, but if Xijun had to step in, the soul urn might break. If the urn shatters, the soul is lost, just like the soul urn in Grandma's chest.

Right now, I felt like I was walking a tightrope, terrified of any misstep.

"Haha, okay, Brother Xia, whatever you do, don't interfere this time. I need to get my turn in, or I'll get mad at you!" Lin Feiyu roared with laughter, patting my shoulder.

"Then just provide cover for us. If it really comes down to it, you don't have to fight, just ensure Zhao Qian and Zhao Yi can escape safely. The Xuanmen's issues are for the Xuanmen to handle. You're only half a Xuanmen member. We two old folks won't drag you down," Uncle Hai said, pulling a palm-sized turtle shell from his backpack and shaking it with a kaka sound.

It sounded like there were copper coins inside.

I nodded, giving them a grateful look. It seemed they had seen the soul urn shatter just now. They were giving me an easy way out.

"Brother Hai, is this divination using a turtle shell? What do the hexagrams say?" Lin Feiyu asked, pinching his chin and staring at the turtle shell, completely clueless.

The center of the turtle shell had three grids, representing heaven, earth, and man. Around it were twenty-four grids, representing the twenty-four mountains. Some had ten grids, representing the ten Heavenly Stems. The bottom of the shell had twelve grids, representing the twelve Earthly Branches. It contained the profound principles of heaven and earth, truly extraordinary.

That was a tool of the Yin Yang practitioners. It was used by Jiang Ziya of the Western Zhou and Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms. This profession of Yin Yang practitioner became popular after the Zhou Dynasty and before the Qin Dynasty. Later, it even spread to Japan, and the "little Japanese" learned a bit of it, but that could only be called Onmyoji.

However, the Yin Yang practitioners of today are few and far between. Masters like Uncle Hai are truly rare in the country.

Uncle Hai looked at the divination, picked up the copper coins and the golden turtle, and frowned as he looked at the drizzly sky. He said, "It's alright. Let's go."

I frowned. When I first met Uncle Hai, his round face was always ruddy, and he had a bright smile. He was completely different from the sinister Lin Feiyu. But today, his expression was the same as Lin Feiyu's, so grave that I could barely breathe. It was oppressive.

"Hey, what do you mean 'alright'? Brother Hai, is this trip going to be very dangerous?" Lin Feiyu's face turned even paler, a look of worry on his face.

"I say, Little Lin, if you're afraid of dying, hurry up and leave. No one's stopping you," Uncle Hai said with a smile. He glanced at the sky, then took out a live turtle from his hiking backpack. This turtle had Bagua symbols on its back, and it was much larger than the palm-sized one.

"Bagua turtle? You even brought it out this time? Brother Hai, are you planning to go all out?" Lin Feiyu gasped.

"Is Wu Zhenghua an ordinary person? If he sees the two of us together, won't he go all out? You've heard and seen his abilities, right? You know who drove him away back then," Uncle Hai said, stroking the Bagua turtle. He formed strange hand seals and chanted a few incantations. The Bagua turtle extended its head and looked at the sky.

Raindrops hit its head, making it try to struggle.

Uncle Hai took out a needle and pricked the Bagua turtle's claw. He squeezed some turtle blood out with a paper figure, then put the turtle back into the backpack.

"Lend me a strand of your hair." After finishing, Uncle Hai reached out and, seizing the opportunity, plucked a strand of my hair and tied it to the wet paper figure.

I felt a sharp pain and didn't know what he was trying to do, but I figured he wouldn't harm me, so I waited to see what would happen.

Uncle Hai didn't answer me. He casually threw the paper figure on the ground and continued walking forward.

Sister Wife suddenly tugged at my sleeve. I quickly looked around but saw nothing. I had no choice but to quicken my pace to catch up. I looked back at the paper figure getting further and further away and asked curiously, "Uncle Hai? What is this?"

"Don't look, it'll blind you," Uncle Hai said without turning his head, quickly catching up to Zhao Yi, who was leading the way. I could only hurry to keep pace.

Zhao Qian was still a bit curious, but after hearing Uncle Hai's words, she turned her head away.

BOOM!!

A thunderclap sounded, and a bolt of lightning struck the paper figure behind us! It instantly turned the paper figure to ash!

I was stunned, my mouth agape, wide enough to swallow Uncle Hai's turtle.

"Lightning... lightning curse!" Lin Feiyu shivered, patting his chest, looking greatly relieved.

"This is the Maoshan 'Summoning Lightning Curse.' Did you see it?" Uncle Hai made a hand seal, looking relieved. "Wu Zhenghua originally didn't plan to clash with you, but it rained in the middle of the night, and the clouds covered the sky. That was a sign that your life was in danger, so he decided to take a risk. He set up an altar to summon the Five Thunderbolts to strike you."

"Haha, I get it now. Your divination earlier was to calculate that Brother Xia's life was in danger, and that's why you brought out your 'Life-Sharing Turtle' to borrow the energy of a living being, and then used Brother Xia's hair as a substitute paper figure to draw the lightning strike, right?" Lin Feiyu asked with a look of understanding. In truth, he only had a vague grasp of Yin Yang practitioner's techniques.

"No, the divination earlier was indeed calculating the lives of us two old guys," Uncle Hai replied with a smile.

Lin Feiyu choked, cold sweat mixed with rainwater streaming down his face.

This was a magical duel? It was too damn dangerous! They could summon lightning at any moment?

I couldn't catch my breath. A cold wind was blowing fiercely behind me. Sister Wife must be furious right now.

"Brother Xia, quickly think, did you give that old bastard anything? Like hair, or something you've used before?" Lin Feiyu looked at me, pinching his chin, very worried that the next lightning strike would come.

If it did, I wouldn't be the only one to die. He was standing so close, they would all be finished.

I thought about it but couldn't recall giving anything to Wu Zhenghua. I shook my head. I was different from others; I never lost hair or even skin flakes since I was a child. Sister Wife would meticulously clean everything for me, even the room was spotless. There was no way for anyone to collect anything from me. Wu Zhenghua's method of finding people definitely wouldn't start from this.

"Little Lin, asking this is useless. We old foxes don't necessarily need personal items to perform rituals. I don't know his method, but it's definitely not based on personal items for tracking. Hey, look at the Yin energy on him; it's quite easy to pinpoint. Forget it, let's go find that old guy's altar," Uncle Hai said, rubbing his palm and starting to divine again.

"Uncle Hai, thank you so much. If it weren't for you, I probably would have been struck dead by lightning. These magical duels are truly perilous," I said with sincere gratitude. In reality, with Sister Wife's prediction, I could have dodged this lightning strike. However, given my usual tendency to ignore her advice, there was a possibility I would have been struck dead on the spot because I couldn't see the danger.

So, Uncle Hai's presence was truly crucial.

"No need. You are a descendant of Senior Zhou Xian. I believe you would have had your own way to dodge the lightning curse. I was just helping out," Uncle Hai said, waving his hand, and then focused on his divination.

I secretly thought, What method do I have? You're just giving me face, old man.

It seemed I really needed to communicate properly with Sister Wife. Otherwise, if I encountered a solo magical duel in the future, I wouldn't even know how I died.

"Brother Tian, are you alright?" Zhao Qian asked, seeing my pale face with concern.

"I'm fine. That old scoundrel is indeed quite capable." I was actually shivering all over. At that moment, I had only wanted to use Xijun to fight Wu Zhenghua. How naive I was!

Looking at the dense dark clouds and the rain, even if that lightning strike hadn't killed me instantly, who knew how many more lightning bolts there would be before we reached the altar? Moreover, that old scoundrel also knew how to drive away ghosts. Just driving away fierce ghosts in the rain would be enough trouble for me.

Of course, if Uncle Hai and Old Wu weren't leading the charge, with Xijun's condition, I would never have gone up the mountain to seek trouble.

"Haha, now you know, right? Don't underestimate us old guys in the future. When pushed to the limit, we can pull out anything that can save our lives," Lin Feiyu said with a strange laugh, pinching his chin, looking like he was boosting the elders' prestige.

"I know, you old guys are still the best." I admitted defeat this time. These old guys were indeed hiding their true strength, and their experience in magical duels was incredibly rich. If I wasn't careful, I really wouldn't know how I died.

And even the police couldn't do anything. If I were struck dead by lightning, could they arrest Wu Zhenghua on baseless charges?

"This is much more fun. It should be at the summit, no doubt about it," Uncle Hai said, striding towards the mountaintop.

Zhao Yi and Zhao Qian knew the way well, their flashlights illuminating the path winding up the mountain.

The mountain path wasn't exactly rugged, but it wasn't easy either. It had become muddy from the rain, making it slippery.

Once Old Hai reached the halfway point, he started pulling paper figures from his backpack, tossing them down the mountain. I didn't know what was going on, but I figured he had his reasons and didn't ask.

The closer we got to the summit, the heavier the Yin energy became. I wasn't sure if it was just getting colder because we were closer to the top, but the fine rain was blowing at an odd angle, which was eerie. Sister Wife began to tug at my clothes.

"Hey, Brother Hai, that old guy seems to be making a move. Did you notice? The Yin energy is still so heavy; the substitute dolls you threw didn't work. Did he figure something out?" Lin Feiyu's brow furrowed. His specialty was close combat, and like me, he was helpless against underhanded tactics from people like Old Hai and Wu Zhenghua.

"It seems he's realized we've come up the mountain. The Yin energy has become very heavy; is he trying to summon a Mountain Ghost?" Old Hai's expression grew serious.

"What?! Summon a Mountain Ghost?" Lin Feiyu froze and immediately stopped in his tracks. Seeing Old Hai's expression wasn't a joke, he quickly said, "Alright, let's go back. We can't fight him. That old fellow is risking his life. Brother Hai, this weather is perfect for him; anyone who goes will likely die."

"Not necessarily. If a Mountain Ghost comes, how will we know if we don't fight? This is much more fun. Since that old guy is going all out, I'll have to use some of my cultivation too, or he'll really think we're easy to bully." Old Hai took his backpack off his back and brought it to the front, unzipping the back and rummaging through a pile of paper figures.

Old Hai really came prepared with plenty of stuff. Carrying his backpack in front meant he was ready to fight at any moment. I was completely impressed by his professionalism. No wonder he said I was half a Xuanmen member; compared to him, I wasn't even half.

"You're going to fight a Mountain Ghost? Seriously? That's a mountain spirit that hasn't been officially enfeoffed!" Lin Feiyu exclaimed.

"If he dares to summon it, I dare to kill it," Old Hai said with a cold laugh, taking out five blue paper figures. They had the characters for metal, wood, water, fire, and earth written on them, along with messy curse inscriptions.