A Teacher Is Here

Was that... the Earth-Pacifying Deity Mantra? Xia Jie thought in surprise.

He was at least twenty meters away, yet he could still hear the other person clearly.

His physical constitution was far beyond ordinary, and his five senses had naturally been greatly enhanced. Even from dozens of meters away, he could clearly see and hear what the other person was doing if he paid close attention.

Hearing the other person recite the Earth-Pacifying Deity Mantra, Xia Jie's expression turned somewhat strange.

As an online fiction enthusiast in his previous life, he had written a few cultivation novels himself, but without exception, none had made any waves.

Still, while researching material, he had gained a superficial understanding of Daoist culture. That was when he had memorized the Eight Great Daoist Mantras.

He had even secretly recited them himself in his previous life. They had done jack shit.

Seeing someone else recite one now naturally left him feeling strange, especially when a Curtain descended from the sky after the chant ended.

As the Curtain fell from the sky, a ghastly green Cursed Spirit emerged from the river.

The Cursed Spirit was nearly two meters tall, its entire body draped in long green hair. Wet, slimy, and slick, it resembled constantly writhing green waterweed.

Against the darkness and the river, its form was almost impossible to make out.

Its two eyes were green and roughly the size of a baby's fists, staring upward at Yu Xinran's body, which was bound by its hair.

Its enormous mouth split open at an unimaginable angle, sharp teeth gleaming coldly as though it were preparing to swallow the sinking Yu Xinran whole.

Just then, there was a loud splash as someone leaped into the water, sending currents churning as they swung a longsword at its head.

The Cursed Spirit's hair condensed in the water into several tough, dark green whips, like countless tentacles winding toward the figure who had entered the river.

Tang Qingxue gathered her Cursed Energy. Her sharp longsword transformed into countless flashes of sword light, severing every green whip.

The longsword gathered immense momentum and stabbed toward the ghastly green Cursed Spirit, only for it to raise the unconscious Yu Xinran in front of itself as a shield.

The girl hurriedly withdrew her sword, her body faltering for an instant.

The next second, the Cursed Spirit's hair abruptly lengthened, and several whipping strands tightly bound her.

Then, the Cursed Spirit turned its whips into spears and thrust them toward the girl's abdomen.

A gunshot rang out. A bullet engraved with exquisite runes shot through the water in a rapid stream, shattering the Cursed Spirit's green spear.

"What an idiot! Tang Qingxue! Where's your Cursed Technique?!"

Zhao Ya's icy voice came from the riverbank and reached the girl's ears.

Tang Qingxue's face showed hesitation, but she still obeyed Zhao Ya's command and unleashed her Cursed Technique.

An extremely frigid aura erupted from her body. Within mere seconds, the temperature of the river water dropped below freezing.

A pale layer of ice rapidly spread, forcing the Cursed Spirit in the water to dart up to the surface.

Tang Qingxue tore off the frozen green whips around her and sprang out through the ice as well.

Ren Tong and Zhou Yushan sat sprawled at Zhao Ya's feet, staring wide-eyed at everything before them.

It was thirty-five degrees today, yet this river had frozen over! Was this what the legendary superhumans were capable of?

And why was Yu Xinran floating in midair? What had happened to him?

"Finish this quickly! If that happens again, I won't intervene!"

Zhao Ya slipped her silver Colt back into the holster strapped to her thigh. Even in the pitch-black night, her smooth legs were strikingly pale.

Tang Qingxue clenched her teeth. She had no idea where her teacher got the confidence to believe she could exorcise this Cursed Spirit while it held a hostage.

She was indeed much stronger than the Cursed Spirit, but with a hostage in its hands, she could not fight freely. She truly might not be able to take it down.

"Listen, Qingxue!" As though she had seen through her disciple's thoughts, Zhao Ya said with an indifferent gaze, "Sometimes, ordinary people aren't that important!"

"You can't risk your own life for a stranger, can you?"

Tang Qingxue froze at those words and was caught off guard by the Cursed Spirit's long whips again.

"Hey!" Ren Tong stared at Zhao Ya beside him in shock. Pointing at Tang Qingxue and the Cursed Spirit, he roared hoarsely, "What are you saying?!"

"If you stepped in too, you could drive that monster back! Why are you just standing by?!"

"Oh?" Zhao Ya turned to glance at him, her voice calm. "So you can see it now? At your age, it is easy to see certain things... Since you can see it, just watch properly! You have no right to point fingers!"

Ren Tong shook with rage.

What did this woman think human lives were?!

"Hey! Ren Tong, what exactly is going on?" Zhou Yushan asked in confusion. "Why is Yu Xinran floating in the air? And what is Tang Qingxue fighting?"

Zhou Yushan recognized Tang Qingxue on the river's surface.

He had already found that figure somewhat familiar. Once he heard Zhao Ya call Tang Qingxue's name, he immediately recognized her.

Tang Qingxue, like him, Ren Tong, and Yu Xinran, had originally been a student at Peach Blossom High School. Her outstanding looks had once made her a popular candidate for school beauty.

He, Ren Tong, and Yu Xinran had secretly gone to watch Tang Qingxue and had even secretly taken photos of her.

He had once wanted to confess to Tang Qingxue, but during the second semester of their first year of high school, she had transferred away for some unknown reason.

Now, it seemed Tang Qingxue had clearly become one of the legendary "superhumans"!

Ren Tong gave Zhou Yushan a complicated look. "Tang Qingxue... is fighting some kind of monster!"

Tang Qingxue's longsword swept through the air in an arc, cutting apart the incoming green whips. She froze the scattered hairs into ice spikes, then sent them shooting toward the Cursed Spirit with a swing of her hand.

The Cursed Spirit once again raised Yu Xinran's body in front of itself, and the ice spikes that had been headed toward it fell one after another.

"What are you going to do?" Zhao Ya watched the scene with a hint of amusement in her voice. "Are you just going to let a Cursed Spirit have you completely at its mercy?"

"You..." Ren Tong wanted to speak again, but Zhao Ya's cold glance made him swallow the rest of his words.

"I will save him!" Tang Qingxue said, breathing heavily after repelling the Cursed Spirit's attack once more.

"Really? Can you actually do it?" Zhao Ya's voice was light and airy, making it impossible to tell what she thought. "If you keep dragging this out, I think you'll be the one who falls first!"

"When another person's life and your own are both placed on the scales, is it really so hard to choose, Qingxue?"

"Whose life matters more? Someone else's, or your own? Isn't the answer obvious?!"

Before Tang Qingxue could answer, the Cursed Spirit wrapped her up and flung her away.

Zhao Ya looked at Tang Qingxue as she crashed down beside her, lowered her head, and repeated what she had just said. "Is it really so hard to choose, Qingxue?"

Tang Qingxue looked up at her teacher, swallowed the blood in her mouth, and said, "Because... my teacher is here!"

"You've beaten me!" A trace of surprise flashed through Zhao Ya's eyes. Then she smoothly drew her Colt and aimed its muzzle at the green-haired Cursed Spirit in the distance.

A sudden, intense sense of danger made the Cursed Spirit raise Yu Xinran in front of itself once more.

"Hey! My student asked me so earnestly, after all!" Zhao Ya's tone remained unchanged, but her eyes grew increasingly bright. "Using that sort of trick in front of me is useless!"

Two gunshots rang through the night sky, but Ren Tong heard only one!

The first bullet passed directly through a tiny gap and struck the Cursed Spirit's shoulder, making it cry out in pain and release Yu Xinran from its whips. Then the second shot swiftly pierced through the Cursed Spirit's forehead, like a ghost!