Fighting Ghost (Part 1)

Shen Luo felt a burning sensation in the middle of his right chest, where the Minor Thunder Talisman had been drawn. It was as though a red-hot branding iron had been pressed against him, and he could even smell the faint scent of scorched flesh.

But he was suspended in the air, his throat clutched tight, nearly unable to breathe. Naturally, he had no attention to spare for the pain.

"Activate! Hurry up!" he roared frantically in his heart.

The Minor Thunder Talisman rune lit up again, rekindling a sliver of hope within him.

But in the next moment, he discovered something else that filled him with dread.

A powerful suction force arose where the Minor Thunder Talisman rune was, madly devouring the scant Yang Hardness Force within his body.

Not only that, he could even feel the blood throughout his body heating up and flowing toward his right chest, making the already burning spot grow even hotter.

Shen Luo felt dizzy and parched, as though all the blood in his body was about to boil dry, while his right chest seemed on the verge of being burned through.

Panic began to rise in his heart.

If this continued, before the ghost could strangle him to death, he would either be drained dry by the talisman or burned alive.

But even if he wanted to stop, there was no way to prevent the rune from devouring the vital energy within him.

Fortunately, the Minor Thunder Talisman finally seemed to have absorbed enough. It stopped devouring his energy, and the white light it emitted suddenly withdrew completely.

A searing pain stabbed through Shen Luo's right chest, and he could not help letting out a muffled groan.

The next instant, the Minor Thunder Talisman rune flashed brightly. A dazzling bolt of white lightning burst from his chest, tearing through the surrounding darkness and yin energy before striking the ghost's arm that was clutching his throat like lightning.

This might have sounded like it took a long time, but from the moment Shen Luo began trying to activate the first rune on his chest until now, only one or two breaths had passed.

The ghost's arm gripping Shen Luo's neck, along with the ghostly claw around his throat, was effortlessly torn apart by the white lightning like snow meeting fire, vanishing into nothingness.

Shen Luo felt the pressure around his neck loosen. Before he could draw a deep breath, his feet slammed heavily onto the ground. He staggered and dropped to one knee, barely managing to avoid collapsing.

After piercing through one of the ghost's arms, the white lightning continued shooting forward. It did not strike the ghost, instead hitting the floor inside the house over ten feet away.

With a deafening boom, it was like thunder cracking on a clear day.

The ground jolted violently, blasted into a pit over a foot wide. The surrounding area was charred black as shattered stones and dirt flew everywhere. A scorching wave of air swept through the room, making the two people and the ghost all sway slightly.

Almost at the same time, a ball of yellow light suddenly flew from the little girl's arms and struck the other ghostly hand gripping her throat. It was a furry yellow dog's tail.

With another boom, yellow flames ignited on the ghostly hand, burning it to ashes as well.

The little girl fell hard onto the ground, clutching her throat with both hands and coughing incessantly. Her little face had turned bright red.

With both arms destroyed, the ghost let out another shrill scream. Its form blurred, then vanished.

Shen Luo looked toward the pit in the floor made by the white lightning, and a flash of delight crossed his eyes.

He had never expected that, through such a strange turn of events, he would successfully trigger the Minor Thunder Talisman under these circumstances. Though it had failed to strike the ghost directly, its power far exceeded anything he had imagined.

"Hiss..."

Only now did Shen Luo feel the intense pain in his right chest. Looking down, he saw that the place where the Minor Thunder Talisman had been drawn was charred black and bloody.

"No, that evil ghost should not have left yet!"

Shen Luo suddenly realized something. Without bothering to consider why the Minor Thunder Talisman had succeeded, he hurried to the shrine in the room, grabbed two handfuls of incense ash from the censer, and scattered them forcefully to either side. The ash immediately drifted throughout the room.

The little girl suddenly cried out and pointed behind Shen Luo.

Shen Luo spun around sharply, his pupils contracting.

The tall ghost had appeared right behind him. Its arms had already regrown, its five fingers solidified like black daggers as they viciously clawed toward him.

In his urgency, Shen Luo ducked low and rolled to the right.

Though he reacted quickly, his right arm was still struck by the ghostly claws, which tore three long wounds into it. Blood gushed out.

Shen Luo glanced at the wounds on his arm, a fierce expression flashing across his face. He understood that if he did not settle things with this evil ghost now, he feared he would have to die once more.

"Since I might be resurrected anyway, I'll risk it!"

He immediately steeled himself, yanked the two broken halves of the wooden stake from his waist, bit the tip of his tongue, and sprayed a mouthful of blood onto the runes on them.

The runes on the stakes immediately lit up, radiating a bright blood-red glow.

Most rune-carved wooden stakes erected at the entrance to Zhuangqian Village were used to ward off evil. This one apparently had truly been consecrated by an expert. Though broken, after being activated by essence blood containing Yang Hardness Force, it could still exert some of its power.

"Take this!"

Overjoyed, Shen Luo shouted low as he rushed forward, swinging the wooden stakes in his hands and smashing them viciously toward the ghost.

The tall ghost seemed quite wary of the two broken stakes in Shen Luo's hands and was just about to dodge.

A black shadow flashed within the room. The little girl had splashed the last of the black dog blood from her wooden bucket, blocking the ghost's path of retreat.

The ghost feared the black dog blood as well and hurriedly floated backward, only to be struck squarely by Shen Luo's wooden stake as he pressed forward.

Shen Luo felt his palm tremble. The wooden stake had not passed through the ghost's body; it had actually struck it.

Furthermore, when the red rune on the stake touched the ghost's body, it immediately made a sizzling sound like raw flesh placed on a red-hot iron plate, while great clouds of black vapor evaporated from it.

The tall ghost's originally translucent body became even more transparent, and it shrieked as it flew backward.

Shen Luo's spirits soared. The wooden stakes in his hands became a blur of swinging shadows as he struck at the ghost.

Although he had not learned any formidable external martial arts at Spring Autumn Temple, he had picked up some basic staff techniques for strengthening the body. Now that he was fighting for his life, all the potential in his body was drawn out, and his staff work was rather decent.

The ghost was huge, and being inside the room put it at a disadvantage. Incense ash filled the room, leaving it unable to turn invisible.

The little girl was quite clever too. Although the bucket no longer contained black dog blood, she occasionally imitated what Shen Luo had done earlier, grabbing a handful of incense ash from the shrine and scattering it at the ghost to hinder its movements.

Though the ghost was exceptionally vicious, under the cooperation of Shen Luo and a mute little girl, it actually fell into a disadvantage. Shen Luo's wooden stakes struck it several times in succession, making its body increasingly transparent.

However, although the wooden stakes dealt considerable damage to the ghost, the red glow emitted by the runes upon them was rapidly dimming.

Shen Luo had noticed this long ago, but the situation was critical and he could not worry about anything else. He continued swinging the stakes, sweeping them toward the ghost's lower abdomen.

The black ghost twisted its body and shifted sideways to the left, narrowly evading the strike.

Shen Luo glanced at the shrine on the right. If the ghost had dodged to the right just now, it should have been able to avoid the attack much more easily.

His mind turned as he recalled their earlier battle in the room. The ghost seemed extremely wary of the shrine, constantly trying to avoid it and not daring to approach.

"Could it be..." A thought flashed through Shen Luo's mind.