The Undead

022 The Undead

The ending had long been predetermined; only the process had taken a few twists and turns.

Quite a few Demon Hunters had been seriously injured.

If the Grand Scholars from the Academy had not been present to suppress the two demon spirits, the Demon Hunters and the Sky-Toppling Observatory would probably have been utterly defeated.

The most important ability of these two demon spirits was actually controlling the huge crowd outside. If they acted through those people, even the county magistrate probably would not have escaped. Starting a rebellion would have been a piece of cake.

However, there was no benefit to the barbarians in exposing this piece so early.

Chaos in a single city or region could not shake the rule of the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty.

Many of the Demon Hunters had wills that were still easily influenced by the two demon spirits. They would often grow dazed in the middle of a fight.

This frightened Ming Shu so much that she did not dare go up to help. She continued hiding below and watching.

They leaped back and forth across the rooftops, smashing through and sending flying the roofs of many houses.

Chong Li discovered that when women fought that female demon spirit, they were affected to a lesser degree. Thus, she did her best to avoid that Master Ximen.

With Qilin not taking action and Grand Scholar Kong continually using Words of Power, they finally wore away most of the demon spirits' strength.

Just as they finally knocked them to the ground and the Demon Hunters prepared to complete the final capture ritual, a Daoist flew down from the sky.

He thrust out a sword, clashing with Qilin, who had been prepared for him long ago.

Qilin struck back repeatedly. That Daoist was extremely powerful, and he had hidden in the dark preparing for a long time. He did not entangle himself with Qilin, instead evading Qilin's attacks.

Once Qilin's offensive ended, the Daoist cast a spell. Like a storm sweeping away the clouds, a cloud of smoke spread out, and then the Daoist and the two heavily wounded demon spirits all vanished.

"Damn it!" The less upright Demon Hunters stamped their feet and cursed.

"Bastard!"

Only Qilin and Kong Sansanshi remained calm.

The current outcome could already be considered quite good.

Qing Shui County had been preserved, along with more than a hundred thousand people. Li Jixu and the faction behind him, in particular, were temporarily out of great danger.

As for the two demon spirits, under the suppression of the Sky-Toppling Observatory's secret arts and the Academy's sacred words—

"They probably won't be able to restore their human forms for fifty years." Qilin made a preliminary judgment.

"If chaos descends upon the world and they stop at nothing, they could recover within ten years at most." Mr. Kong added, "As for how many living beings would have to be sacrificed, that is beyond my ability to calculate."

Mr. Kong is seriously lopsided in his studies. Is he no good at mathematics? Although Ming Shu had not understood the situation completely for a while, he had been watching the battle and enjoying the spectacle, while also recording quite a lot of useful information in the Life Book.

For example, several of the [Words of Power] used by Li Jixu and Mr. Kong had been written down. So far, he had not found any special feedback.

There was also their conversation just now—the prophecies about chaos descending upon the world that he had been hearing repeatedly lately.

And the powers used by the group of Demon Hunters.

Aside from the demon spirit within Qilin, the Life Book had provided no information about any of them. The demon spirit within Chong Li was the most special: [Earth Hero Star Heavenly Eye General].

It should have been two sections of information. His own demon spirit, [Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King], and Ren Yuan's demon spirit, [Sky Pillar], were both merely simple names.

Moreover, there was more than one Sky Pillar. Another Demon Hunter had one as well. This showed that demon spirits were not unique—at least, that was true of that one.

The other demon spirits did not seem particularly powerful. Still, he silently recorded them all.

Demon spirits: [Iron Head Monkey], [Golden Palm Bear], [Bronze Whip Leopard], [Wolf Howling Moon], [Eagle Screaming Sky], [Butterfly Loves Flower], [Mountain Leaper]. Why did they feel connected to demon spirits?

Were they demon spirits or monster spirits?

Were they hybrids?

Had he encountered monster spirits before? Back when he had been outside the city, several Demon Hunters had brought a few War Hounds with them. It was said that those were monster spirits.

Monster spirits had physical bodies. Ghost spirits possessed spiritual bodies. Demon spirits, meanwhile, needed to possess a host.

Or rather, were demon spirits beings that possessed humans, while monster spirits lived within demon beasts?

Ming Shu recorded this small discovery of his.

He would find a chance to ask a professional later. This scene was not suitable right now.

The Academy and the Demon Hunters, as representatives of the Academy and the Sky-Toppling Observatory, respectively, conducted a brief review of the entire incident on the spot and agreed on a unified account.

The county magistrate would represent everyone and submit a memorial to the Immortal Dynasty to request commendations.

As for the losses, so long as things did not grow so serious that they could no longer be concealed, the emperor could not possibly find out what had really happened here.

Everyone maintained an unspoken understanding.

Kong Sansanshi turned around and asked Qilin, "Was it a fragment of the Holy Grail of the Undead?"

"It had that smell. Only that thing could control so many ghost spirits over such a wide area." Qilin had fought that person at close quarters and confirmed the aura on him.

The two heavyweights walked aside and began quietly discussing the subsequent handling and arrangements.

According to the original plan, Ming Shu had intended to continue eastward once the incident was mostly resolved, bringing Old Zhao, Little Zhao, Chong Li, and Ren Yuan with him.

However, for the next few days, they first had to stay in the courtyard behind the county office and wait.

This was the residence of County Magistrate Li Jixu. He had recently been busy handling all kinds of matters and had no time at all to return home.

Ming Shu had to wait because Chong Li and Ren Yuan still needed to help. There were far too many things for them to handle, especially the huge crowd that had been controlled by the demon spirits' power.

Every single one of them needed to be carefully examined, and they even had to test whether any of the demon spirits' power remained within them.

Old Zhao and Little Zhao had nothing much to do. They stayed here with Ming Shu to rest and study.

Little Zhao continued practicing martial arts, while Old Zhao taught Ming Shu some exercises to strengthen his body and improve his health.

Ming Shu also borrowed several books from the county magistrate's study and began learning from the basics.

As for cultivating the power of demon spirits, he did not bring it up on his own, while Chong Li and the others had no energy to come teach him.

During this period, he also took time to sort through the massive amount of information recorded in the Life Book.

In particular, when Ming Shu tried recording the information about the fragment of the [Holy Grail of the Undead] that he had heard about last, he immediately received feedback from the Life Book.

The so-called Holy Grail of the Undead was an extremely high-level treasure. It followed a certain pattern: every ten years, it could resurrect one person, after which it would automatically split into seven fragments that scattered across various places.

After three years, it would release the mark and power of one fragment at random each year, one after another.

Once all the fragments had been gathered, one would have to wait another ten years at the earliest. Then the wisher could fill the Holy Grail with his own blood and resurrect the person he wished to bring back.

The price would be tremendous.

Moreover, after a wish was made, all records and memories in the world related to the Holy Grail of the Undead would be automatically deleted and reset.

Everything would begin again.

Only a very small number of objects of higher rank could preserve the records related to it.