The gloomy wind swept through the forest in waves, sounding like a vengeful ghost's howls.
Hua Shuya felt the chill sink into her bones, and her teeth trembled faintly. The eerie woman remained silent, her expression dark and sullen. Yet the standoff between her and Lin Tianlu brought with it an even more suffocating pressure.
"You scholar—"
The eerie woman spoke in an eerie voice, extremely hoarse. "How dare you touch my body!"
"Men and women should keep their distance. I do know that much."
Lin Tianlu smiled faintly. "But aren't you going to explain these murdered farmers lying around us?"
"Go to hell!"
The eerie woman widened her eyes, as though fresh blood were flowing from their sockets. At the same time, a cold, sinister force surged forth in an instant, like the phantom image of a blade!
"..."
After the two sides remained silent for a moment, Lin Tianlu lowered his head and gave himself a strange look.
"Miss, cursing someone to death the moment you open your mouth is a little impolite, don't you think?"
The eerie woman froze.
In an instant, Lin Tianlu felt the cold wrist he had been gripping suddenly slip away. The eerie woman before him vanished without a trace.
"S-Senior... what exactly is that thing?!"
Hua Shuya's face had gone deathly pale. She could barely catch her breath, and even her sword-holding right hand was trembling.
Lin Tianlu narrowed his eyes and retreated several steps. In a deep voice, he said, "It seems to be a lonely ghost from the mountains."
"Hiss, hiss, hiss—!"
A strange noise suddenly came from behind.
Lin Tianlu hurriedly turned around, only to see a pale phantom flash before him. A palm hidden within its sleeve struck out with ferocious force!
—Boom!
The palm landed with a thunderous crash, like a war drum struck by lightning.
The scattered force of the blow even sent Hua Shuya staggering two steps back. Her face was filled with horror. "Senior!"
"...Hmm?"
Lin Tianlu lowered his head and looked at the palm pressed against his chest, his eyes full of astonishment.
He had not felt the slightest pain. On the contrary...
It was cold and cool.
And rather comfortable?
—No.
He gradually realized what was happening.
His body was simply too abnormal.
"How... could this be?!"
A trace of shock appeared on the eerie woman's pale face.
Just then, before the eerie woman could withdraw her hand, Lin Tianlu's gaze flashed like a blade. Like lightning, he seized her wrist once more.
Without wasting a word, he drew a deep breath and slammed his palm directly into her chest.
The eerie woman's face still held an expression of astonishment and bewilderment when half her body was blasted apart into blue smoke by the palm strike.
"Ahhhhhhh!!"
An ear-piercing shriek suddenly exploded, startling countless birds and beasts from the forest.
The eerie woman's body instantly transformed into a mass of dim, lightless smoke and fled rapidly into the distance.
"Impossible! Impossible!"
The eerie woman fled wildly through the trees. Her form grew increasingly indistinct, and her expression was filled with both panic and terror.
"That scholar... He clearly looks weak and frail, with a delicate face. Where did such terrifying palm force come from?!"
"The Pure Yang Realm? The Azure Spirit Realm? Or the Grandmaster of the Five Meridians?!"
"No! None of them! This man—"
The eerie woman seemed to have thought of something, and terror spread through her eyes.
"I have to escape! I have to get away from this monster as quickly as possible!"
Yet she soon sensed something wrong.
At some unknown point, strange silver-bright threads had already wrapped around her entire body. Her fleeing speed had slowed accordingly.
Until, her face filled with horror, she became completely frozen in midair, unable to move.
Lin Tianlu stood with his palm lowered, silently watching the direction in which the smoke had vanished. His gaze tightened.
At that moment, he suddenly felt the view before his eyes quietly change.
The sunlight spilling through the gaps in the trees became dim and illusory. Fine traces of light seemed to spread through the air, flowing toward the depths of the forest.
Not only that, Lin Tianlu even caught the faintest movements around him—
Falling leaves dancing through the air, wild grass and flowers swaying, and strange points of light he had never seen before, scattered and hovering over the earth beneath his feet.
Radiant light intertwined and wound together, weaving a beautiful, mysterious spiritual painting.
The scenery was uniquely beautiful, and utterly still.
In a daze, Lin Tianlu's eyes grew clear and distant. As though his heart had sensed something, he slowly pointed a finger into the air.
"Heavenly Net, Earthly Web. Where can you flee?"
A powerful wind suddenly rose, carrying a warm, gentle breeze.
Hua Shuya suddenly felt the cold pressure enveloping her entire body rapidly fade away, and her breathing loosened. She looked around in astonishment. Even the zombies that had gathered around them stopped in their tracks, staggering before kneeling to the ground.
At the same time, a woman's anguished wail echoed through the depths of the forest:
"I... am unwilling to accept this!!"
"Unwilling?"
Lin Tianlu shook his head with a laugh, and a thread of emerald radiance suddenly flashed through his eyes.
Within the struggling, trembling soul of that woman, scarlet bloodlight coiled and flowed. It seemed as though countless wronged souls accompanied her in their wailing. Her sins were piled high; no one knew how many innocent people had died by her hand.
"—You have no right to say that."
Lin Tianlu merely clasped his hands behind his back and sighed faintly.
Yet the eerie woman, restrained in midair, turned ashen with terror, her soul trembling.
In her field of vision, the Taiyi Mountain range stretching hundreds of miles began to tremble in unison. Its overwhelming momentum pierced the clouds, as though the heavens had been cleared of mist. Countless wisps of Spiritual Energy erupted from the earth veins, transforming into a world-ending tide that devoured both sky and land!
Howling like dragons, blazing beneath a flawless sun, it carried the unmatched and mighty power of Heaven. In the blink of an eye, it completely crushed her soul!
"..."
In an instant, the surroundings once more returned to calm.
The warm breeze that had blown without pause gradually dispersed, and the lingering sinister chill vanished without a trace.
The clouds and mist slowly faded, and warm sunlight once again spilled across the forest.
The zombies, which had been controlled by the sinister energy, seemed to have found release. Their bloodied, mangled faces even revealed traces of joy. Like pilgrims before a holy site, they clasped their hands, bowed, and kowtowed repeatedly.
"Thank you, Great Immortal, for helping us find release—"
"We will never forget the Great Immortal's kindness—"
Their bodies turned into wisps of blue smoke beneath the sunlight and dispersed between heaven and earth.
Hua Shuya stared at the unbelievable scene before her and could not help murmuring, "Senior, they..."
"They have returned to the dust and gone peacefully to the afterlife."
Lin Tianlu sighed with a hint of melancholy and looked up at the sky.
The girl's beautiful eyes fluttered as she stared at his back, lost in thought.
Under the reflection of the fragmented sunlight, that slender back stood so proudly and upright, ethereal as an immortal. In her daze, it gradually overlapped with the figure she had admired and yearned for in her youth.
Yet she did not know that Lin Tianlu was filled with utter astonishment.
After the eerie woman was destroyed, a wisp of extraordinarily strange dark-gray energy drifted over and slowly flowed into his chest.
When he reached into his robes, he discovered that the strange energy was being absorbed bit by bit into a broken jade pendant.
"Is this... the jade pendant I dug up on the mountaintop?"
Lin Tianlu was somewhat surprised.
He had thought it was merely a rotten, worn-out antique, but who would have expected it to truly retain a trace of something mysterious?
However, there was something even more surprising.
Lin Tianlu put away the jade pendant and gave his right hand a strange look as he clenched it.
He had only wanted to try it out, but he had never expected that... he had truly gained an extraordinary ability.
But he had never read any cultivation manual. Where had such cultivation come from?
Hua Shuya had struggled so badly against just a few zombies, yet he had dealt with the female ghost behind everything as easily as flicking a finger.
He could not understand it.
But it did not seem to be a bad thing.
Lin Tianlu looked toward the direction in which the female ghost had vanished and sighed inwardly.
This world seemed far more dangerous than he had imagined. Such demonic and sinister things truly existed. If an ordinary mortal body had entered this place, its fate might have been the same as these farmers'—a miserable death.
At that moment, Hua Shuya sheathed her sword and walked forward with a solemn expression. "Senior, has that female ghost been dealt with?"
"That is correct."
Lin Tianlu turned back to look at her. "Miss, what are you planning to do next...?"
"These farmers ultimately died because of me. After I return to town, I will do my best to compensate and comfort their families." Hua Shuya sighed softly. "It is a pity that I cannot bring their bodies back for burial. I truly have no face to meet their families."
She really was a kind-hearted woman.
Lin Tianlu was just about to speak when he saw Hua Shuya take a deep breath, clasp her fists, and bow.
"Thank you, Senior, for saving my life! If you had not intervened, Shuya would already have died at that fiend's hands!"
"It was nothing."
Lin Tianlu coughed lightly and waved his hand with feigned composure. "Since everything is settled, we should hurry and continue on our way. This place is cold and damp with sinister energy. Staying too long would not be good for your health."
"Yes!"
Hua Shuya hurried forward enthusiastically to lead the way.
Lin Tianlu followed silently behind her, secretly wiping away a bead of sweat.
The way those worldly experts spoke was truly difficult to control. Fortunately, he had spent the past half month cultivating in solitude and had tempered his temperament somewhat. At least he could speak neither servilely nor arrogantly.
Once they entered the town, he would have to sort through everything that had happened since he crossed over.
And there was also Taiyi Immortal Mountain—
Lin Tianlu suddenly felt something and turned his head to look back. He froze.
White clouds coiled around the peaks like an earthly paradise, while lush greenery covered the mountains and wilderness.
But...
The mountain peak that had once blotted out the sky and sun had disappeared without a trace.
Where had Taiyi Mountain gone?
How had that enormous Taiyi Mountain suddenly vanished from the face of the earth?!
At the request of our many readers, we are now introducing an ad-free function for VIP members.
Click to view
Before you continue