Magical Duel

The old man's scalp was drenched in blood, a large patch gone bald, revealing the stark white bone of his skull beneath.

He touched the top of his head, his hand coming away covered in blood.

Looking down at the crimson staining his palm, then raising his head to stare at Shen Hui, the deep-set eyes were a tangled mess of malice and fury, as if they wanted to devour him alive.

"You little beast, daring to ruin my great plan!"

He kicked aside the white banner lying at his feet.

The banner, having lost control, had already stopped spinning, lying limp in the dust, no longer absorbing the pink mist.

Reaching down, he unhooked the Jadeite Gourd from his waist, pulled out the stopper, and tipped the gourd's mouth downward.

Clumps of smoke poured from the gourd's opening, landing on the ground, and in the blink of an eye, they transformed into over a dozen ferocious ghosts.

Those ghosts were half-solid, half-ethereal, with twisted faces; some were missing arms, others lacked legs, and they wore tattered clothes, as if they had just crawled out of some mass grave.

The moment they landed, they all turned in unison, hollow eye sockets igniting with eerie green flames, fixing their gaze on Shen Hui.

"Go!" the old man barked.

The dozen or so ghosts moved at his command, claws bared as they lunged at Shen Hui, stirring up a gust of chilling wind.

Shen Hui's finger seal shifted.

A ball of flame ignited out of thin air before him, and in an instant, it took shape as a Fire Ghost over ten feet tall.

That Fire Ghost was entirely crimson, flames roiling, its face even more grotesque than the smoky spirits, and it charged headlong into them.

At the moment of contact, the ferocity on the smoky ghosts' faces instantly turned to terror.

They tried to dodge, but there was no escape.

Wherever the Fire Ghost passed, those half-ethereal spirits vanished like snow under the scorching sun, burned away in an instant.

The Fire Ghost's momentum didn't wane; it continued hurtling toward the old man.

The old man's face changed drastically.

He had never imagined that this young man's methods would be so ruthless, that the Fire Ghost's might would be even more overbearing than the yin spirits he had collected.

Yet, despite the fear in his heart, his hands moved swiftly. He hurriedly formed a seal and pointed, and the Jadeite Gourd flew up again, hovering in midair, spinning rapidly.

A beam of cyan light shot from the gourd's mouth, precisely enveloping the charging Fire Ghost, attempting to suck it inside.

Shen Hui let out a cold laugh and changed his finger seal again.

The Fire Ghost exploded with a thunderous roar!

Waves of heat surged outward.

The old man took the brunt of it, blasted backward, his gray tunic scorched with several large holes, revealing the charred flesh beneath.

"Aghhh!"

The old man scrambled up from the ground, trembling all over, pointing at Shen Hui and cursing, "I'll tear you limb from limb!"

He opened his mouth and spat, and a stream of Black Wind gushed forth.

That Black Wind was foul and stinking, and wherever it passed, withered leaves on the ground instantly turned to ash, even stones smoking.

Seeing this, Shen Hui didn't retreat but advanced, stepping 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 slammed into the wall with a sizzling sound, but it couldn't penetrate the hard stone surface in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, several more earthen walls rose up, trapping the Black Wind inside.

The old man's face turned ashen.

He had originally thought this young man was just some reckless kid who had sneaked out of a Taoist Temple, relying on a few spells and not knowing his place.

But after this exchange, he realized the opponent's techniques were endless.

Earth arts, metal energy, fire methods—each one more fierce than the last, and he was struggling to hold his ground.

That soul banner still lay in the dust, out of control and unusable.

He gritted his teeth and could only activate the Jadeite Gourd again.

The gourd hung in midair and began to spin once more.

This time, it spun even faster than before, cyan light flickering from its mouth, and suddenly two red orbs dropped down.

Those two red orbs didn't hit the ground but flew back up, intertwining and winding around each other, finally forming into two fist-sized eyes, suspended in midair, staring straight at Shen Hui.

Those eyes had no eyelids, and of course no lashes—just two crimson eyeballs with a vertical pupil in the center, deep and eerie.

The moment Shen Hui met those eyes, a surge of rage rose in his heart.

That rage came out of nowhere, yet it was overwhelming, as if it would swallow him whole.

His eyes instantly turned bloodshot, his breathing grew heavy, and only one thought remained in his mind.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

Just then, the Bronze Ancient Lamp on his chest spun wildly.

Anger is, after all, one of the Seven Emotions. How could the Heart Lamp allow an external force to stir his mind?

The faster the ancient lamp spun, the quicker that groundless fury faded away.

In the blink of an eye, the crimson in Shen Hui's eyes had dissipated completely, his face returning to calm.

At the same time, the flame in his palm surged violently, and another hideous Fire Ghost howled forth, lunging straight at the old man.

Seeing him break free of the mind-confounding technique in an instant, the old man's face turned deathly pale.

As the Fire Ghost charged, he abandoned all pretense, grabbed the white banner from the ground, and hastily wrapped the cloth around himself.

Boom!

The flames roared, engulfing the old man in an instant.

He screamed and flew backward, rolling several times across the ground.

Shen Hui stepped forward and continued walking ahead.

The old man staggered back to his feet.

His body steamed with green smoke, his hair and eyebrows completely burned away. His already gaunt face was now twisted beyond recognition.

More importantly, the white banner had caught blazing fire, its surface scorched and tattered.

"Enraging This Old Man... enraging This Old Man!"

Trembling all over, he pointed at Shen Hui, his lips quivering as he prepared another curse.

But Shen Hui did not wait for him to finish.

He opened his mouth and spat, and a sharp golden qi shot forth once more, aiming straight for the old man's throat.

The old man repeated his trick, retracting his head abruptly into his chest.

The white light grazed past his neck, slicing off a patch of charred flesh, but failing to kill him.

Shen Hui's expression turned cold.

He raised a hand and swept out a line of fire horizontally, targeting the old man's chest.

His head could shrink in, but surely his chest couldn't do the same?

The fire line was as fast as lightning, seemingly about to cut him in half.

The old man's soul nearly fled his body. In that instant, his form twisted in an eerily unnatural way.

His entire body shrank, as if his bones had been pulled out, collapsing into a soft, crumpled heap.

The fire line skimmed past his shoulder, barely missing.

But before he could feel relief, a searing heat exploded from within his abdomen.

Shen Hui had already closed within ten paces of him.

Flames ignited from inside his stomach.

Pain wracked his body in an instant. He screamed, and the head he had retracted involuntarily popped back out.

And this time, a sweeping fire line awaited it.

The line of fire passed through his neck.

The old man's head flew high into the air, spinning several times before landing with a smack on the ground, rolling to the side.

Shen Hui looked down at the head.

After a long moment, he raised a hand and formed a seal. Dozens of fire lines burst forth in succession, mincing it into fine bits.