The Main Course

Even with Zhu Li towering two heads above the burly man, his eye twitched when he saw that Evil Specter.

The Evil Specter before him was different from a Spirit Monster. Both belonged to the category of "monsters," but this one had been refined by a Daoist using heretical techniques.

It had already possessed a warrior's physique, and after being empowered by the Daoist's heretical arts, it had grown a whole size larger, with strength to match.

Its only weakness was its lack of a warrior's agility and ability to change moves.

Compared to a Medicine Slave's half-alive, half-dead state, this Evil Specter was a pure dead thing, somewhat like a corpse-driving technique.

Zhu Li dropped from the tree branch to the ground, twisted at the waist, and hurled the tree trunk from his hand with his right arm.

"Whoosh..." The wind surged, and a shadow flashed past.

The hulking Evil Specter that had been crouching on the ground abruptly sprang upright and raised an arm to block.

The tree trunk shot straight into its arm. The Human Skin Talisman pasted to it glimmered faintly, stopping the trunk.

"This Evil Specter's footwork is less nimble than mine. I don't need to meet it head-on yet."

Zhu Li kicked hard against the ground and darted swiftly through the mountain woods. Only when the Evil Specter closed in did he exchange a few blows with it.

The moonlight was bright and clear as two figures arrived, one behind the other.

They had followed the commotion here. They were Liu Feng and the Bald Bandit.

The two had searched the woods to the north but found neither Shen Yushu nor the other bandits. Instead, they had heard a commotion in the west.

They peered out from beneath the bushes where they were hiding and saw a hulking Evil Specter grappling with Zhu Li beneath the moonlight.

"That's Third Master. Should we go help him?" the Bald Bandit whispered.

He would only be throwing his life away if he went over to help. He was obviously asking Liu Feng to come up with a plan.

"Shut up." Liu Feng shot the fool a cold glance.

To him, the mountain woods at night were no different from those in broad daylight. His goal was to find the true form of the White Sun Sect's demonic Daoist.

Without finding the Daoist himself, fighting these Evil Specters would be a pure waste of energy.

The nine eyes on Liu Feng's face blinked. His gaze first settled on Zhu Li, then began searching outward from him.

At the center of the fight, the Evil Specter's strength was terrifying. Every punch and kick still carried the techniques it had used as a warrior in life, movements that had become second nature.

Their fists collided, and even Zhu Li was shaken back, putting him at a slight disadvantage.

The Bald Bandit watched with his heart in his throat, pressing his whole body against the ground for fear of giving himself away.

"Fourth Master." He saw Liu Feng rise and hurried after him.

Liu Feng moved slowly, keeping his eyes fixed on the weeds scattered across the ground.

There lay a Human Skin Talisman, shaped like a person and about the size of a palm.

The Talisman Manikin followed behind the Evil Specter, as if it were controlling it from afar with a spell. The Daoist's true body was not here at all.

"Once Third Senior Brother evades the Evil Specter and opens up some distance, the Talisman Manikin will eventually be recalled." Liu Feng hung back, keeping it in view with his Compound Eyes without drawing near.

But the next moment, something unexpected happened. Third Senior Brother lost patience with dodging.

Zhu Li pulled a vivid red Gu worm from his robe and tossed it into his mouth.

Then, to the astonishment of Liu Feng and the Bald Bandit, Zhu Li's already sturdy arms swelled until they were nearly deformed.

His arms ballooned with rings of flesh. The bluish-black lumps on them turned into dense, swollen knobs, and countless Gu worms crawled out.

"Thump, thump-thump..." A succession of muffled impacts rang out.

Even from a great distance, the two men could tell from sight alone how terrifying the force behind each of Zhu Li's punches was.

He had temporarily given up his agile footwork in exchange for a surge of brute strength.

Just as the Evil Specter was battered until its bones broke and its tendons snapped, the Talisman Manikin in the weeds behind it quietly withdrew.

As the Talisman Manikin retreated, Liu Feng, who had been hanging back, moved too.

In a mountain hollow, two men dressed like herb gatherers sat cross-legged on the ground.

Their expressions were extremely wooden, their skin deathly pale. The skin covering their bodies was wrinkled like clothes.

And that was exactly what it was: the two skins had been taken from herb gatherers!

Just then, a Talisman Manikin came running and slipped into the sleeve of the herb gatherer on the left.

The short herb gatherer on the left opened his eyes and said, "No wonder one in ten Gu Masters survives. The Evil Corpse on my side was beaten to pieces."

He was a disciple of the White Sun Sect. In the sect, only one in ten people survived the process, and anyone who reached the required level of Qi Refining became a sect disciple.

But according to the stories they had heard, Gu Masters were made ten at a time, like a swarm of Gu worms devouring one another, and it was a rare thing for even one to survive.

Now, the two of them had experienced the fearsome ability of a Gu Master for themselves.

The short-haired herb gatherer on the right opened his eyes as well and said calmly, "A Gu Master having this kind of strength is to be expected. Otherwise, with their Second Senior Brother on the verge of becoming a second-generation Gu Master, why would the Sect Master and Great Elder need to hunt him down together?"

"Let's meet up with Second Senior Brother and the others. It's time to serve those Gu Masters the main course."

"Second Senior Brother is dealing with a Gu Master who controls a Vine Wood Spirit. That man seems to be someone else's Second Senior Brother too."

The two spoke in low voices. Dressed in their herb gatherer skins, they looked so convincing that anyone who didn't come closer would truly think they were a pair of herb gatherers.

They hoisted their baskets onto their backs and were about to leave when they suddenly felt numbness in their limbs.

They glanced around and saw dense black specks all around them. A thin poisonous fog had already covered half the hollow.

"We've been poisoned!" The two exchanged a glance, madness rising in their eyes.

Just then, a young man emerged at a leisurely pace from the darkness nearby.

"What main course are you two serving? Why not try Liu's main course first?"

The young man had nine eyes on his face. As he spoke, he reached behind his back and seized a strange insect with five legs.

Its five insect legs were lined with doglike teeth, too numerous to count at a glance.

Now, beneath the creature's abdomen, its insect tubes were spewing billowing poisonous fog.

"You little brat. Die!"

The two White Sun Sect disciples tore free of their skins, revealing bodies covered in runes. At the same time, they flicked their hands and shot out sheet after sheet of Human Skin Talismans.

But at the very next glance, the two White Sun Sect disciples were horrified to see that the many-eyed youth had no intention of dodging the talismans.

"Whoom, whoom-whoom..." Clusters of crimson flames lit up the mountain hollow.

Liu Feng used his Evolution Pupil to widen his field of vision and his Mind Eye Technique to anticipate the talismans' trajectories. He dodged whenever he could; when he couldn't, Gu Fire clashed against the Nether Fire formed from the Human Skin Talismans.

From the trees behind them, the Bald Bandit watched Liu Feng charge like a madman through the dense Nether Fire.

Then the strange insect covered in sharp teeth turned into the Split-Tooth greatsword and hacked down the short White Sun Sect Daoist.

The remaining White Sun Sect Daoist retreated, forming hand seals and shouting in haste as he pointed at Liu Feng from afar.

"Urgently, I command! By decree, I command! Let the gods rage and exterminate evil..."

Liu Feng sneered. The Daoist was full of heretical arts, yet he actually wanted to exterminate evil!

"Gulp, gulp..."

Liu Feng drew the Soldier Gu, Split-Tooth, from where it was devouring the man's essence and blood. The instant he straightened, he flicked his hand and sent a hundred Gu worms flying out.

The thousand or so Gu worms that had formed a ring around them all closed in at once, swarming toward the White Sun Sect Daoist covered in runes.

Just as Liu Feng was about to charge after the Daoist, he abruptly tilted his head and looked up.

Seven human skins drifted in the air like kites, vaguely forming the positions of some kind of formation. As the Daoist's incantation continued, the formation was rapidly taking shape.