The Soul-Calming Office's Traitor

"Hm?"

Lin Qing flicked a Long Nail from his hand. Imbued with Tathagata Astral Qi, it became a streak of golden light that pierced the man's brow, blowing his head apart.

But even that failed to stop him from exploding. His headless body swelled like a balloon, then burst with a roar, sending a rain of blood over the surrounding area.

Lin Qing reacted in time. He grabbed the two young men by their clothes and retreated more than twenty paces, carrying them beyond the blood rain.

The explosion had come too suddenly, though, and both men had still been caught at its edge. Blood splashed onto their hands, chests, shoulders, and other places, rapidly eating through their clothes and leaving holes of every size.

Fortunately, they stripped off their clothes at once. Otherwise, the blood would have eaten into their flesh.

Song Chuanxin and the others stood farther away and escaped the spray, but fear gripped them too.

Wei Dong could not help grumbling, "These fiends have too many tricks. They can even blow themselves up. How are we supposed to guard against that?"

"I've heard the Yinyuan Sect has many Flesh-and-Blood Forbidden Arts, and self-destruction is one of them. These people are mad. Once an Evil Seed is planted in them, their thoughts grow increasingly unlike those of ordinary people. That's especially true when a Martial Artist reaches a bottleneck while the Evil Spirit inside him keeps growing. As it gradually breaks through the suppression of his vital energy and blood, it subtly interferes with his thoughts and replaces them.

"To survive, such people must find a way past their bottleneck or receive the Evil Spirit's Blessing," Song Chuanxin explained. Since the Corpse Collection Team rarely went out on missions, he knew more about this than Lin Qing