"Go!" Dong Xiaoyu ordered the hundred ghost soldiers and generals. She no longer had time to dwell on her doubts. She only wanted to wear Fei Luo down, then finish him off with a thunderous strike.
How potent would the yang essence of a Taoist with such profound cultivation be?
If all went as expected, it would surely make her ghostly form more substantial and take her cultivation to a higher level.
There were both righteous and wicked ways for ghosts to cultivate.
Only a tiny fraction of ghosts had no desire to commit evil. They merely absorbed the yin energy between heaven and earth to strengthen their ghostly forms.
Most ghosts, however, would take the risk of doing heinous deeds—and the rewards were immense.
Dong Xiaoyu was one of them. She had lived on South Mountain for years, tricking countless travelers who passed through. More than a hundred of them had been Taoists alone.
She was a Supernatural Ghost, born with the ability to change her appearance. That had allowed her to gather a great many underlings.
Most of the ghosts in the courtyard had been toyed with to death by her, then taken into her fold to serve as lackeys. Dong Xiaoyu took great pleasure in this.
She toyed with you while you were alive, and even in death she wouldn't let you go. She trapped you by her side for all eternity. Her overwhelming strength had made her the tyrant of the surrounding hundred li. Every wandering ghost who heard Dong Xiaoyu's name trembled with fear.
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
At Dong Xiaoyu's command, the newly arrived ghost soldiers and generals immediately set their sights on Fei Luo.
The ordinary vicious ghosts also revealed their murderous intent. They joined forces with the ghost soldiers and generals and continued toward Fei Luo.
"Whoosh!"
Fei Luo's fighting spirit soared. He repeatedly activated the Soul Capture Art in his eyes, and several more ghosts instantly turned to ash.
Could my cultivation be too low? Why does the Soul Capture Art need five breaths before I can use it again? Fei Luo frowned as he sensed that he couldn't immediately unleash it again.
As the evil ghosts lunged at him, Fei Luo clenched his left fist and wielded the Flowing Cloud Sword in his right. Using fists and feet alike, he charged into the horde of a hundred ghosts.
"Buddha-Demon Thirteen Styles!"
Fei Luo's fighting style looked rather bizarre to outsiders.
He held a sword in one hand and clenched his other into a fist, sometimes striking with sword and fist together, sometimes sweeping out with a kick. Even Qiusheng, watching from the hillside outside the courtyard, was utterly dumbfounded.
Brutish, wild flailing, utterly without form.
That was the thought that sprang into Qiusheng's mind.
The newly summoned vicious ghosts were much stronger than the previous evil ghosts. But against Fei Luo's perfected Buddha-Demon Thirteen Styles and the edge of the Flowing Cloud Sword, they were still cut down one after another.
If only I'd learned swordsmanship. Then I wouldn't have to fight in such a wild flurry. Fei Luo seemed to feel his own predicament.
Since obtaining the system, he had learned eye techniques, body techniques, Taoist arts, and more. He had even opened his Dharma Eye.
But swordsmanship was the one thing he had yet to learn.
How could he live up to his dream of subduing demons with sword in hand without knowing swordsmanship, despite the three-foot blade in his grasp?
"Master, this fellow is too strong! Please help me—ah!" A three-meter-tall giant ghost had barely begun to cry for help when a dazzling sword gleam flashed past. His head went flying.
Whoosh!
Several more sword strokes followed, slicing the giant ghost's ghostly energy into pieces.
"Six—six of them already." Crouched on the hillside outside the courtyard, Qiusheng stared in shock at Fei Luo, who was fighting with wild abandon in the courtyard, and murmured.
Qiusheng was numb by now.
Those giant ghosts would have been a real headache even for him and Uncle Nine. But against Fei Luo, they were finished in just a few sword strokes.
"Whoosh!"
Fei Luo had just knocked aside two hanged ghosts with a single sword stroke when he suddenly sensed yin energy closing in from behind.
Without a second thought, he turned and thrust his sword behind him to block.
"Clang!" Metal rang against metal. Dong Xiaoyu slid a black dagger from her sleeve, and it clashed with Fei Luo's Flowing Cloud Sword.
Hm? She's not only about to form a ghost core, she's even forged a ghost weapon? Fei Luo thought, feeling the tremendous force transmitted through his blade.
That was right. Dong Xiaoyu was already on the verge of condensing a ghost core. For now, though, it was a False Core; she had yet to form a true one.
A ghost that condensed a ghost core was equivalent to a human cultivator in the Golden Core Realm, with abilities beyond imagination.
In that instant, Fei Luo realized why Dong Xiaoyu could change her appearance at will. She had already reached the threshold of becoming a Ghost King.
Among ghosts, those in the Golden Core Realm were called Ghost Kings. Among zombies, they were called Corpse Kings.
"Soul Capture Art!" Five breaths later, blue light once again shot from Fei Luo's eyes like lasers, sweeping toward the horde of vicious ghosts rushing at him.
"Ah!" As they screamed, the vicious ghosts turned to dust one after another.
What terrifying power! He's only a Foundation Establishment cultivator, so why is he this strong? I'm practically a Ghost King! Dong Xiaoyu's failed strike had sent her reeling from the force of the rebound. She was shaken to the core.
She had already reached the False Core Realm and was considered half a step from becoming a Ghost King. How could she still fail to take down a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator?
She didn't know that Fei Luo's body, transformed by a supreme-grade Marrow Cleansing Pill, could no longer be judged by ordinary standards. Even at the Foundation Establishment Realm, his strength was no less than that of a Golden Core Realm Ghost King.
Dong Xiaoyu was only a quasi-Ghost King. How could she possibly be a match for Fei Luo?
Only after clashing with him did Dong Xiaoyu grasp just how powerful Fei Luo was.
What?
Dong Xiaoyu looked at her ghost weapon. A hairline crack had appeared on it.
At that, a tempest rose in Dong Xiaoyu's heart.
A magical treasure!
And it had to be at least a mid-grade magical treasure to do that.
The sword in his hand was a magical treasure.
How was that possible?
While Dong Xiaoyu stood stunned, her underlings screamed one after another. In moments, the ghost soldiers and generals were slaughtered and sent fleeing in disarray.
"Master, save me!"
Another three-meter-tall giant ghost barely got the words out before Fei Luo's sword had chopped him into several pieces.
"Human, you're asking for death! I'll devour your flesh, drink your blood, rip out your sinews, and grind your bones to dust!" Dong Xiaoyu's heart was bleeding. These were the elites she had painstakingly gathered, and Fei Luo had slaughtered nearly all of them in less than half an incense stick's time.
What kind of Taoist was this?
Who knew where this Taoist had come from? How could he have such an inexhaustible supply of magic power?
Dong Xiaoyu shrieked. Her hair streamed through the air, and ghostly energy burst from her seven apertures, tangible as it surged toward Fei Luo.
"Know your place! You're a mere little ghost, yet you dare run your mouth?" As Dong Xiaoyu lunged at him, Fei Luo swiftly formed a hand seal.
"Five Thunder Marshals, Thunder Lord He Chong, Lightning Mother Wen Ying. Five Thunders Heart-Burning Curse! Haste, as the law commands! Enact!" As Dong Xiaoyu stared in confusion, Fei Luo formed a seal with one hand and chanted under his breath.
Suddenly, a brilliant flash of blue burst in the night sky. The majestic might of heaven descended, and Dong Xiaoyu instinctively looked up.
Boom!
Dong Xiaoyu was struck by five bolts of lightning and tumbled from the sky like a kite with its string cut.
Dong Xiaoyu was stunned. What kind of Taoist art was that?
What was going on with this Taoist?
Weren't Taoist arts supposed to require a talisman in the left hand and a hand seal in the right, with a chant under one's breath?
"Ding! Congratulations, host, for eliminating Dong Xiaoyu's Ghost Mansion. You have received a mysterious reward." As expected, the system's voice rang out in Fei Luo's mind.
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