Huang Family

"Such a petty trick, and you dare flaunt it?"

Yu Chen studied the spell before him. It was exquisite in some ways, crude in others.

Compared to the various witchcraft he had encountered in the Southern Barbarian Mountains, only its flexibility and precision were worth praising. As for the power and strangeness enhanced through blood sacrifices, they were beneath mention.

"Execute!" Yu Chen spat out a single word. Liu the Half-Immortal immediately clutched his head in agony as countless snake shadows danced before his eyes. It felt as though his soul were being torn apart by those shadows, yet he had no idea when Yu Chen had captured a trace of his aura and laid a witchcraft curse upon him.

Liu the Half-Immortal muttered an incantation, one hand clutching his head while the other reached for something on the ritual altar. Yu Chen did not even glance at him. With a pointed finger, the Yin Snake Chain that had long lain hidden nearby soared into the air.

The little white snake left two fang marks on Liu the Half-Immortal's neck. Black blood trickled from them; he had clearly been injected with venom.

"Aah!" Only after a moment did Liu the Half-Immortal's scream burst forth. Then his limbs stiffened and he toppled to the ground. After twitching twice, he lay still.

With a beckoning gesture, a departed soul flew out. Yu Chen raised a finger, and lines of Snake Shamanic Script emerged, circling the soul and drawing out the memories he wished to know.

This method of extracting memories was also one of Yu Chen's achievements from his years as a snake shaman.

The technique had originally been one of the secret witchcraft arts passed down by the Snake Tribe, but it had not been valued within the tribe. After all, important figures in other tribes were generally protected by their totems. Unless they were captured and brought back to one's own tribe, the moment they died, their souls would be rescued by the enemy's totem.

Even within one's own tribe, despite the suppression of one's own totem, it was often impossible to stop the other party's totem from destroying the soul. The information one sought could not be obtained at all.

Only Yu Chen possessed a cheat, having cultivated foundational mana. He did not need to fear contaminating his own aura, and he could further alter this method and cultivate it to a rather profound level.

Back then, the totems of both the Mist Serpent Tribe and the Poison Snake Tribe had been unable to stop Yu Chen from gathering information from the minds of their totem warriors. Now, Liu the Half-Immortal, who had lost his fleshly body, likewise could not stop Yu Chen from obtaining what he wanted.

With Liu the Half-Immortal's memories, Yu Chen quickly found what he was looking for.

Rubbing his somewhat swollen head, Yu Chen silently recited the Heart-Calming Mantra, severing his excess distracting thoughts. He swiftly found several Daoist scriptures Liu the Half-Immortal had treasured, along with some cultivation materials.

After resting briefly, he borrowed the cover of mist and night to drift toward the Huang Family on the other side of the county town.

The Huang Family was one of the foremost wealthy households in the surrounding region. Naturally, their residence in the county town occupied no small area and had many hidden twists and turns.

The vermilion gates were studded with rows of bronze nails and adorned with two beast heads painted in gold. Blood aura coiled around them. Even without using his Dharma Eye, Yu Chen could tell that these two doors had been refined through an unorthodox ritual, with two tiger souls imprisoned within. Any ordinary wandering ghost that passed through here would likely be devoured by those tiger heads before it could even approach, becoming a tiger's servant ghost within the bronze rings.

The two stone lions before the gates, on the other hand, were quite ordinary—mere feng shui ornaments. Indeed, the direction they suppressed was not outward, but inward, meant to conceal the deathly aura emanating from the tiger souls.

This sacrificial method is rather interesting. It is not something an ordinary household would possess, and Liu the Half-Immortal does not have such skill. Yu Chen stood before the gates for quite some time. This sort of sacrificial art had no small connection to the witchcraft path, yet the ingenuity behind it far surpassed ordinary witchcraft. But...

To me, what use is something without anyone controlling it, no matter how exquisite it may be?

Yu Chen stepped forward. Several snake shadows flew out and landed upon the vermilion gates, swiftly transforming into dim snake patterns that crawled across the doors. They blinded the imprisoned tiger souls within the golden beast heads. Then Yu Chen leaped over the wall from the side and entered the Huang residence.

The moment Yu Chen entered, a man emerged from the side. He wore a scholar's cap and azure robes. Behind his head floated a milky-white halo of misty light, within which countless tiny seal characters shifted and collided, producing sacred melodies. They gave the man something of the bearing of a deity.

Yet his body was like smoke and mist, drifting and wavering. Clearly, it was not flesh, but a divine soul that had absorbed Incense and Fire Prayer Power and cultivated the divine path.

Upon seeing Yu Chen, the man said nothing. He pointed a finger, and streams of yin energy gathered from all directions, forming a long river of ghastly white mixed with murky qi that descended from the void. Grim flames burned upon it, eerie green light rolling and casting the surroundings in a most sinister glow.

At the same time, many ghosts crawled out of the river—some with bulging eyes, some missing arms and legs, some with only half their heads remaining. They shared the same origin as the divine arts Liu the Half-Immortal had displayed earlier, yet they were even more wondrous.

These ghosts were half-real and half-false. One by one, they waved their hands, trying to drag Yu Chen down into the water with them.

At the same time, an unseen force descended. Yu Chen felt his head grow dizzy, then darkness surged toward him, pressing down upon his mind.

An art of nightmare suppression? Yu Chen raised a brow. A snake pattern appeared between his brows. This was the manifestation of Yu Chen's comprehension of Snake Shamanic Script. In a sense, it was the condensation of his own spirituality, the embodiment of his spiritual status. Nourished by the Golden Light Mantra, it possessed a natural restraint against curses and nightmare-suppression arts. Light flowed forth, effortlessly shattering the darkness.

He lifted a hand, and several mist snakes flew from his sleeve, wrapping around a man attempting a sneak attack.

"Your little move is far more subtle than Liu the Half-Immortal's, but it is still primarily illusion. Even with two people hidden in the shadows, there is nothing worth seeing!"

Just as the mist snakes opened their jaws, preparing to bite, a surge of blood qi erupted from the man's body. Like blazing flames, it forcibly "burned" the mist snakes to death.

A martial cultivator under control? Yu Chen's mind flashed to the man's origins, but his movements did not slow.

Though he did not know the true cultivation method of martial cultivators, in that brief instant of exchange, Yu Chen saw the warrior's lifeless eyes. He immediately understood the crux of the matter and thought of a means to deal with it.

Against such beings, whose flesh had been tempered a thousand times and who feared neither ordinary witchcraft nor spells, while also possessing tremendous close-range combat power, the most important thing was to keep one's distance and target the divine soul.

During his past conflicts with other tribes, Yu Chen had already tested many methods from the game worlds of his previous life for breaking defenses built upon blood qi. He had truly found quite a few countermeasures with outstanding effects.

His body twisted like a spirit snake, narrowly evading attack after attack. He reached out and made an illusory grab, catching a wisp of aura. A snake curse descended, bypassing the defenses formed by the opponent's blazing blood qi and striking directly at his mind.

Then, with a sweep of his sleeve, the Yin Snake Chain transformed into a little white snake and flew out, crashing toward the divine soul preparing once more to cast a spell.

At the sight of the white snake, the man in azure felt as though he had been targeted by a natural predator. Though he was merely a divine soul condensed through Incense and Fire Prayer Power, the shock to his mind caused him to reveal many habits from his time as a human.

His pupils contracted violently, and he could not help taking half a step back. The halo behind his head erupted with streams of mysterious light. Like a peacock spreading its tail, rings upon rings of misty radiance spread outward. Seal characters large and small influenced one another, forming a curtain of light in an attempt to block and knock away the Yin Snake Chain.

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