The old man's scalp was slick with blood, a large patch of it bald and exposing the pale bone beneath.
He touched the top of his head. His hand came away covered in blood.
He lowered his eyes to the scarlet smear on his palm, then looked back up at Shen Hui. In his sunken eyes, malice and fury mingled, as if he wanted to swallow Shen Hui whole.
"You little bastard! You dare ruin my plans!"
He kicked the White Banner lying by his feet.
It had lost control just moments ago and stopped spinning. Now it lay limply in the dust, no longer drawing in the pink mist.
He reached to his waist, took off the Jadeite Gourd, pulled out its stopper, and tipped its mouth downward.
Puff after puff of smoke poured from the gourd and fell to the ground. In the blink of an eye, they transformed into more than a dozen hideous evil ghosts.
The ghosts were half-solid, half-ethereal, their faces twisted. Some were missing arms, others legs, and they wore tattered clothes, as if they had just crawled out of some mass grave.
As soon as they landed, they all turned their heads in unison. Eerie green flames kindled in their hollow eye sockets as they stared fixedly at Shen Hui.
"Go!" the old man barked.
At his command, the dozen or so ghosts sprang into motion, clawing and snarling as they pounced at Shen Hui, stirring up a gust of Yin wind.
Shen Hui changed his hand seal.
A ball of flame ignited out of thin air before him. In the blink of an eye, it became a Fire Ghost more than ten feet tall.
The Fire Ghost was red from head to toe, flames churning around it. Its face was even more savage than those smoky ghosts'. It lowered its head and charged.
The moment they met, the savage expressions on the smoky ghosts' faces turned to terror.
They tried to flee, but where could they go?
Everywhere the Fire Ghost passed, the half-solid, half-ethereal ghosts were burned away in an instant, like snow beneath the blazing sun.
The Fire Ghost's momentum did not slacken. It kept charging toward the old man.
The old man's expression changed drastically.
He had never imagined that this young man would be so fierce, or that the Fire Ghost would be even more domineering than the Yin Souls he had collected.
Though fear gripped his heart, his hands moved swiftly. He hurriedly formed a seal and pointed. The Jadeite Gourd flew up again, hovering in midair as it spun rapidly.
A beam of green light shot from its mouth, enveloping the oncoming Fire Ghost. It was trying to suck it inside.
Shen Hui gave a cold laugh and changed his hand seal again.
The Fire Ghost exploded with a thunderous boom!
Waves of heat billowed outward.
The old man took the blast head-on and was sent flying backward. His gray robe was burned through in several places, exposing the charred flesh beneath.
"Yaaagh!"
The old man scrambled up from the ground, trembling all over. He pointed at Shen Hui and cursed furiously. "I'll tear you limb from limb!"
He opened his mouth and spat. A gust of Black Wind gushed out.
The Black Wind stank foully. Wherever it passed, the dead leaves on the ground turned black in an instant, and even the stones began to smoke.
At the sight, Shen Hui advanced instead of retreating, striding toward the old man.
At the same time, a thick stone wall rose from the ground before him, blocking the Black Wind head-on.
The Black Wind struck the wall with a sizzling sound, but for the moment, it could not pierce the hard stone surface.
In the blink of an eye, several more earthen walls rose from the ground, trapping the Black Wind inside.
The old man's face turned ashen.
He had thought this young man was nothing but a reckless fool who had snuck out of some Daoist temple, with a few spells under his belt and no sense of how vast the world was.
But after exchanging blows, he realized that the other man's methods were endless.
Earth magic, Sharp Gold Qi, fire arts—each was fiercer than the last. He was almost unable to hold his ground.
The Soul Banner still lay in the dust, out of his control and useless to him.
He gritted his teeth and had no choice but to activate the Jadeite Gourd again.
The gourd hung in midair and began to spin once more.
This time it spun even faster than before. Green light flashed at its mouth, and suddenly two balls of red light dropped from it.
Before they could hit the ground, the two balls of red light rose again, twisting and weaving around each other until they became two fist-sized eyes hovering in midair, staring unblinkingly at Shen Hui.
The eyes had no eyelids, and of course no eyelashes. They were nothing but two crimson eyeballs, each with a vertical pupil at its center, deep and eerie.
Shen Hui met the eyes for only a moment, and a surge of anger suddenly welled up inside him.
The anger came from nowhere, yet surged like a raging tide, as if it would swallow him whole.
His eyes turned scarlet in an instant, his breathing grew heavy, and only one thought remained in his mind.
Kill! Kill! Kill!
At that very moment, the Bronze Ancient Lamp at his chest spun wildly.
Anger was one of the seven emotions. How could the Heart Lamp allow an outside force to toy with his mind?
The faster the ancient lamp spun, the faster that inexplicable anger faded.
In the blink of an eye, the scarlet had vanished completely from Shen Hui's eyes, and his face had settled back into calm.
At the same time, flames leaped from his palm. Another hideous Fire Ghost roared out and charged at the old man.
When the old man saw him break free of the mind-bewitching art in an instant, his face turned deathly pale.
With the Fire Ghost bearing down on him, he could no longer worry about anything else. He snatched up the White Banner from the ground and hastily wrapped the cloth around himself.
BOOM!
Raging flames swallowed the old man in an instant.
He screamed as he flew backward, rolling across the ground several times.
Shen Hui stepped forward and continued walking toward him.
The old man shakily got back to his feet.
Smoke rose from his entire body. His hair and eyebrows had already been burned away, and his naturally gaunt face was now twisted beyond recognition.
Worst of all, the White Banner was engulfed in roaring flames, its cloth burned to tatters.
"Damn you... damn you!"
Trembling all over, he pointed at Shen Hui, his lips quivering as he tried to curse him again.
But Shen Hui did not wait for him to finish.
He opened his mouth and spat. Another stream of Sharp Gold Qi shot out, aimed straight at the old man's throat.
The old man used the same trick again, abruptly retracting his head into his chest.
The white light skimmed past his neck, shaving off a patch of charred flesh, but it failed to kill him.
Shen Hui's expression turned cold.
He raised a hand and swept it sideways. A line of fire streaked out, aimed straight at the old man's chest.
He could retract his head, but surely he couldn't retract his chest too?
The line of fire was as fast as lightning. It was about to cleave his opponent in two.
The old man was terrified out of his wits. In an instant, his body twisted in an extremely bizarre way.
His entire body abruptly shrank, as if someone had pulled all the bones from it, until he crumpled into a limp heap.
The line of fire skimmed past his shoulder, narrowly missing him.
But before he could feel relieved, a scorching heat suddenly erupted in his belly.
Shen Hui had already come within ten paces.
Flames ignited inside his stomach.
Pain swept through his entire body. He let out a scream, and the head he had retracted involuntarily sprang back out.
And this time, a sweeping line of fire was waiting for him.
The line of fire sliced across his neck.
The old man's head soared into the air, spinning several times before landing on the ground with a smack and rolling away.
Shen Hui lowered his gaze to the head.
After a long moment, he raised his hand and formed a seal. Dozens of lines of fire burst out in succession, mincing it into a fine mash.