Come Out and Welcome Our Guests

The three bandits standing behind Liu Feng and Zhu Li didn't dare respond to the siblings.

"Third Master, what should we do?" The Bald Bandit tightened his grip on the steel saber, a murderous glint flickering in his eyes.

Zhu Li said nothing, giving the Bald Bandit no answer.

Liu Feng activated Dharma Eye Insight and looked at the old couple and the siblings. Without exception, they were ordinary mountain folk, not Evil Specters or anything of the sort.

"These villagers couldn't escape Niu Family Village. They've been affected by the Evil Objects here and have lost their minds." Liu Feng put away Dharma Eye Insight. There was no need to look any closer.

They looked normal on the outside, but, like the five villagers beyond the village who were about to be burned alive, they had long since lost their minds.

When the old couple saw that the six men hadn't budged, the white-haired old man chuckled. "It's already this late. Why don't you rest in the village for a while?"

Beside him, the stooped old woman raised her voice and called, "Neighbors, come out and welcome our guests!"

The six men reflexively turned to look at the houses whose lamps were still lit.

As the stooped old woman's call rang out, doors began opening one after another along the village path stretching into the distance.

In a matter of moments, about thirty villagers appeared.

The thirty looked normal, but the figures following close behind them were not alive at all.

Their flesh hung exposed, and Human Skin Talismans were pasted to their bodies. They had clearly been skinned and refined into Evil Specters—at least seventy of them.

The thirty villagers with normal-looking skins treated the Evil Specters like family, as if, in their eyes, those specters were no different from how they used to be.

Clearly, apart from the Evil Specters, every living person here was a madman whose mind had been twisted.

Seeing so many neighbors come out, the siblings in the courtyard beamed with delight, as if they'd just spotted a lively scene that made them happy.

When the six men looked again, it certainly was lively.

More than seventy Evil Specters closed in around them, the talismans on their bodies suddenly glowing faintly.

The next moment, more than seventy specters charged at the six men like fiends gone mad, rushing down the crisscrossing paths. The talismans on several specters nearby flared, and Nether Fire engulfed their bodies.

"Outsiders, stay in Niu Family Village."

"The True Persons are performing a ritual in the Ancestral Hall. Stay here and become immortals with us."

"You won't escape."...

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

Faced with Niu Family Village gone mad, all six men—including Liu Feng and Zhu Li—turned and ran.

The instant they turned, flames roared to life around five of them.

The other three bandits glanced aside and saw Lump swallowed whole by pale Nether Fire. He hadn't even had time to scream.

The more than twenty Human Skin Talismans he'd tucked into his clothes were what had burned him alive.

Under the night sky, the houses stood scattered and haphazard, while the village paths crisscrossed chaotically along the mountainside.

The five ran along the same village path, all heading in the same direction.

But after barely a hundred paces, the five men who had been running together on the path just moments earlier had each vanished from sight.

Only after they were gone did a young man covered in runes emerge from a pitch-black house beside the path. He was a disciple of the White Sun Sect.

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

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

Sixty Evil Specters surrounded the Niu Family Ancestral Hall. Human Skin Talismans clung to their bodies, ready to be ignited at any moment.

They had encircled the Ancestral Hall as if to keep the people inside from escaping.

At that moment, five demonic cultivators from the White Sun Sect stood spaced apart atop the roof and along the courtyard wall, watching the center of the hall with cold eyes.

"Creak, creak..." Countless vines twisted and writhed, filling the Ancestral Hall courtyard.

At the heart of the dense Green Vines stood Shen Yushu, his hair hanging loose.

His appearance had changed dramatically. Green light rippled in his eyes, and roots hung all over his body. He looked as if he had turned into a vine spirit.

At his back, the Vine Wood Spirit's true form had taken root in his flesh. Two White Sun Sect disciples were impaled on the vines extending from it.

The two men cried out without pause. They were clearly still alive, yet Shen Yushu had left them hanging there, draining their essence and blood.

Apart from the two White Sun Sect disciples, four charred corpses lay on the courtyard floor. They were the bandits Shen Yushu had used as pawns.

At that moment, the gaunt young man standing on the roof sneered. "Let my two junior brothers go, and I'll grant you a quick death."

"You're nothing but a second-realm Medicine Person. We might have trouble burning a Medicine Person to death, but surely we can burn you?" The fair-faced young man beside him smiled as well.

As they spoke, their gazes shifted to the Medicine Person standing atop the Green Vines.

Just as he had when facing the Corpse Refiner, the Medicine Slave Li Si had now once again roused the medicinal power and Gu poison inside him, filling the Ancestral Hall courtyard with a rich, heady fragrance.

The five White Sun Sect disciples had kept their distance from Shen Yushu precisely because they feared the Gu poison.

Shen Yushu looked up and saw more and more Human Skin Talismans gathering, nearly covering the sky above the Ancestral Hall.

"Of the five, only those two pose a real threat. The other three are nothing to fear."

"If I could guide the Medicine Slave like Liu Feng, would I have let them corner me here?" Shen Yushu glared at the two men on the roof. They were the White Sun Sect's Second Senior Brother and Third Senior Brother.

As for the other three White Sun Sect disciples standing on the courtyard wall, this Second Senior Brother of Insect Valley didn't consider them worth his attention.

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

"You're asking for death."

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

"Burn him to death."...

On the roof, the gaunt young man and the fair-faced young man exchanged a glance. Now that their two junior brothers were dead, there was no need to waste words.

As they parted, they formed hand seals and pointed toward the Ancestral Hall courtyard.

At the same time, the other three White Sun Sect disciples on the courtyard wall made the same movements as their senior brothers.

All five White Sun Sect disciples formed hand seals and chanted. The Human Skin Talismans floating in midair shifted, arranging themselves into five formations, each made up of seven skins.

In the blink of an eye, five pale Fire Lotuses bloomed above the Ancestral Hall.

"I'll take you down with me first." Shen Yushu's expression turned manic. He urged the Nightmare Gu Larva in his palm and fixed his gaze on the gaunt young man atop the roof.

The Medicine Slave Li Si, his body covered in insect armor, bent both knees. At Shen Yushu's direction, he was about to do everything in his power to take the White Sun Sect's Second Senior Brother down with him.

At the same moment, Shen Yushu drew in all the vines. Though he knew they could hardly hold the enemy back, he had no other choice.

Nether Fire lit up the Ancestral Hall. At the critical moment, however, the Medicine Slave Li Si—his knees bent and ready to spring—didn't leap out.

His expression was dazed, as if sleepwalking. Suddenly, he smashed apart the Green Vines beneath him with a punch, then spun around and grabbed Shen Yushu.

"Boom, boom-boom..." Nether Fire rained down like a waterfall.

All five White Sun Sect disciples looked over and saw that, beneath the flames, the Medicine Person—whose movements had been ordinary just moments before—was suddenly moving in a strange, elusive way.

Eight insect legs jutted from the Medicine Person's back, hacking a path through the air. With just a few sways atop the Green Vines, he carried the Gu Master right out of the Nether Fire's reach.