Everyone Come Out to Welcome Guests

The three bandits standing behind Liu Feng and Zhu Li did not dare to respond to the siblings.

"Third Master, what should we do?" The Bald Bandit gripped his steel saber, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes.

Zhu Li remained silent, offering no response to the Bald Bandit.

Liu Feng activated his Dharma Eye Insight and looked at the old couple and the siblings; without exception, they were all ordinary mountain folk, not Evil Specters of any kind.

"These villagers failed to escape Niu Family Village and have lost their minds due to the influence of some evil object here." Liu Feng retracted his Dharma Eye Insight, seeing no need to look further.

Though these people appeared normal on the surface, they were like the five villagers outside who were to be burned alive—they had long since lost their sanity.

Seeing the six men standing motionless, the white-haired old man chuckled, "It's late now; you should just rest well in the village."

The hunched old woman beside him raised her voice and called out, "Fellow villagers, come out and welcome our guests."

The six men subconsciously turned their gazes toward the houses that still had lights on.

As the hunched old woman's call rang out, house doors along the winding village path began to open one after another.

In a few moments, about thirty villagers appeared.

These thirty people looked normal, but the figures trailing closely behind them were not living people at all.

Those figures had their flesh exposed and were plastered with Human Skin Talismans; they had clearly been skinned and refined into Evil Specters, numbering at least seventy.

As for the thirty villagers with intact skin, they treated the Evil Specters like kin, as if they saw no difference between these monsters and the people they had known in the past.

Clearly, aside from the Evil Specters, every living person here was a lunatic who had lost their mind.

Seeing so many fellow villagers emerge, the siblings in the courtyard beamed with joy, as if they were witnessing a delightful celebration.

When the six men looked again, it was indeed a "celebration."

More than seventy Evil Specters swarmed toward them, the talismans on their bodies suddenly glowing with a faint light.

The next moment, on the crisscrossing mountain paths, the seventy-plus Evil Specters lunged at the six men like mad demons. The talismans on the few closest to them ignited, and their bodies burst into Nether Fire.

"Outsiders, stay in Niu Family Village."

"The True Persons are performing rites in the Ancestral Hall; stay and ascend to immortality with us."

"You cannot escape."

In front of a house not far away, the old couple and the siblings were still waving at them.

Facing the now-crazed Niu Family Village, all six men, including Liu Feng and Zhu Li, turned and fled.

The moment they turned, a raging fire ignited around five of them.

The other three bandits glanced over to see Lump completely engulfed in pale, ghastly Nether Fire, unable to even let out a scream.

What burned him alive were the two dozen Human Skin Talismans he had tucked into his own robes.

Under the night sky, the houses were scattered in disarray, and the village paths crisscrossed chaotically along the mountainside.

The five men were on the same path, sprinting in the same direction.

Yet, after only a hundred paces, the five men who had been running on the path a moment ago vanished from each other's sight.

Only after they had disappeared did a youth covered in runes emerge from a pitch-black house by the path—he was a disciple of the White Sun Sect.

At the center of Niu Family Village, the Niu Family Ancestral Hall.

Much like the situation Liu Feng and Zhu Li had encountered, a large number of skinned Evil Specters had gathered here.

Surrounding the Niu Family Ancestral Hall were sixty Evil Specters, their bodies plastered with Human Skin Talismans, ready to be ignited at any moment.

These Evil Specters circled the Niu Family Ancestral Hall tightly, as if preventing anyone inside from escaping.

At this moment, inside the hall, five White Sun Sect demon-daoists stood apart on the roof and courtyard walls, watching the center of the hall coldly from a distance.

"Creak, creak..." Countless vine-woods twisted and writhed, filling the large courtyard.

Amidst the dense green vines was Shen Yushu, his hair disheveled.

His appearance had changed drastically; green light flickered in his eyes, and his body was covered in roots, as if he had transformed into a Vine Wood Spirit.

On his back, the main body of the Vine Wood Spirit was rooted into his flesh, and the extending vines held two White Sun Sect disciples.

The two men wailed incessantly; they were clearly still alive, yet Shen Yushu had them hung there to have their essence and blood drained away while they lived.

Besides these two White Sun Sect disciples, four charred corpses lay on the ground of the courtyard—they were the bandits Shen Yushu had used as cannon fodder.

At this, the thin youth standing on the roof sneered, "Release my two junior brothers, and we might grant you a quick death."

"You are merely a second-tier Medicine Person. We couldn't burn a Medicine Person to death, but can we not burn you?" The pale-faced youth beside him also smiled.

As the two spoke, they couldn't help but shift their gazes to the Medicine Person standing at the very top of the green vines.

At this moment, the Medicine Slave Li Si, just as he had when facing the Corpse Refiner, once again stirred the medicinal power and Gu poison within his body, releasing a thick, strange fragrance throughout the courtyard.

It was precisely because the five White Sun Sect disciples feared the Gu poison that they kept their distance from Shen Yushu.

Shen Yushu looked upward and discovered that more and more human skins were gathering, almost covering the sky above the Ancestral Hall.

"Among the five of them, those two are the greatest threat; the other three are not to be feared."

"If I could guide Medicine Slaves like Liu Feng, I wouldn't be cornered here by them!" Shen Yushu stared fixedly at the two figures on the roof; they were the Second Senior Brother and Third Senior Brother of the White Sun Sect.

As for the other three White Sun Sect disciples standing on the courtyard wall, this Second Senior Brother from the Insect Valley did not even deign to look at them.

"A quick death? I'll give your two junior brothers a quick death first." The Green Vine behind Shen Yushu suddenly coiled, snapping their necks on the spot.

"You court death."

"Second Senior Brother, Third Senior Brother, what are you waiting for?"

"Burn him to death."

On the roof, the gaunt youth and the pale-faced youth exchanged a glance; since their two junior brothers were already dead, there was no need for further words.

As the two spread out, they formed hand seals and pointed toward the Ancestral Hall courtyard.

At the same time, the other three White Sun Sect disciples on the wall mirrored the movements of their two seniors exactly.

The five White Sun Sect disciples chanted in unison, and the human skins floating in mid-air stirred, forming five formations with seven skins each in the blink of an eye.

In a flash, five pale-white Fire Lotuses bloomed above the Ancestral Hall.

"I'll take you down with me first." With a crazed expression, Shen Yushu urged the Nightmare Gu Larva in his palm, his gaze locked onto the gaunt youth on the roof.

Li Si, the Medicine Slave covered in insect armor, bent his knees; following Shen Yushu's guidance, he prepared to exhaust all his strength to drag the White Sun Sect's Second Senior Brother to the grave with him.

At that same moment, Shen Yushu retracted all his vines. Even though he knew it was nearly impossible to block the attack, he had no other choice.

The Nether Fire illuminated the Ancestral Hall brightly, but at the critical moment, the Medicine Slave Li Si, who had bent his knees to spring, did not leap out.

With a dazed expression like a sleepwalker, he suddenly punched through the Green Vine beneath him and grabbed Shen Yushu with a backhand.

"Boom, boom, boom..." The Nether Fire descended like a torrential waterfall.

The five White Sun Sect disciples watched in unison as the Medicine Person, whose movements had been ordinary just moments before, suddenly began to move with eerie, unpredictable agility under the firelight.

With eight insect legs on his back hacking a path, the Medicine Person flickered across the Green Vines a few times, actually carrying the Gu Master out of the range of the Nether Fire.