Pang Gang let out a hoarse, agonized roar. Cracks appeared across the surface of his body, then his outer flesh peeled away in scraps like torn paper. In the blink of an eye, he had become a man of blood.
Half of the evil thing burrowed out from the tumor on his chest. A venomous resentment showed on its mutilated face, its single eye fixed fiercely upon the tavern below.
"Buzz, buzz..." Tens of thousands of Gu insects returned.
The black specks in the sky vanished in an instant. From afar, a black funnel seemed to have appeared atop the tavern roof.
The myriad second-grade Intermediate Gu fed the blood essence they had gathered back to their host. Pang Gang's weakened aura stalled, then his vitality slowly began to rise, as though he might return to normal in a short time.
These Intermediate Gu had brought back more than blood essence. They had also gnawed away the tiny talisman characters embedded in his flesh.
Before he could recover at leisure, palm-sized Talisman Manikins silently drifted out from the tavern below, each igniting with a blossom of ghostly blue flame.
The next instant, piercing whistles split the air.
"Whoosh, whoosh whoosh..." More than twenty ghostly blue flames shot out in unison, streaking straight toward Pang Gang, who was wrapped in Gu insects.
The one who had acted was the White Sun Sect's Great Elder, intending to use this chance to finish Pang Gang off.
At the critical moment, the single eye of the evil thing atop the tumor rolled. It suddenly opened its mouth and let out a soundless shriek.
Visible to the naked eye, the twenty-odd ghostly blue flames froze in midair.
Below the rooftop, almost at the same moment the flames halted, a cry that was half-mad and half-pained