A Life for a Spell

Boom!

A wave of force actually burst from Jia Yuntong's body, blasting the two officers who had barely managed to restrain him several steps back. Just then, four more officers arrived outside.

Clatter!

An iron chain shot into the cell and instantly hooked around Jia Yuntong's waist. The officer outside planted his feet, gathered his strength, and gave a vicious yank.

Thud!

As the flabby Jia Yuntong crashed to the floor, even the ground seemed to shake twice.

The next instant, all four entered the cell. Together with the first two, they pinned Jia Yuntong's limbs and head, while the remaining man leaped up and landed on his body with a Thousand-Jun Drop.

"What's going on?"

"No idea. Jia Yuntong's acting like he's possessed!"

"Hold him down! Some wicked practitioner may have put a curse on him. Seal every major acupoint in his body!"

The officers freed their hands, gathered their internal energy, and rapidly struck acupoints all over Jia Yuntong's body. Moments later, they felt the movement beneath them subside considerably, but still dared not relax.

"Did it work?" "I don't know!"

Another officer guarding outside rushed in and cried out in surprise at the chaos in the cell.

"What happened? Wait, why is Jia Yuntong's body..."

Their hearts lurched. Looking closely at Jia Yuntong, they saw his skin gradually turning red, with faint bulges rising in places.

"Something's wrong! Get incense ash from the Yuanjiang County City God Temple, now! Any later and it'll be too late!"

An officer from Moon Province seized a Yuanjiang County bailiff beside him and shouted.

"Where's the City God Temple?"

"In the north of town. I'll take you!"

"Hurry!"

Several men raced out of the dungeon and headed straight for the City God Temple. Those remaining inside were just as frantic, their hearts burning with anxiety. The officer directing them immediately issued more orders to the other Yuanjiang County bailiffs.

"Find cold water and strong liquor! Bring them here at once!"

"Huh? Yes, yes!"

The dungeon bailiffs scrambled outside. Cold water was easy enough to find, but they had no strong liquor left. Meanwhile, Jia Yuntong's condition grew stranger by the moment.

"Urgh... aaargh... raaagh!"

The six officers pinned Jia Yuntong down with all their might, but his body was shaking rapidly beneath them, a terrifying force brewing within.

"Damn it, we can't hold him much longer..."

"Hold on!"

By then, Yi Shuyuan had appeared outside the dungeon. At this distance, he immediately sensed a strange presence. The Night Wandering God accompanying him also knitted his brows.

Then the spiritual energy within Yi Shuyuan stirred, becoming a clear breeze that blew toward the cells. Despite this being his first attempt, he seamlessly cast an illusion technique: "Go with the Wind," which contained a measure of the principles of wind control.

When he discovered that the panicking bailiffs truly could not see him at all, Yi Shuyuan knew his illusion had worked.

Not only the ordinary bailiffs-even the Night Patrol Spirit almost lost track of Yi Shuyuan. He merely felt a sudden breeze, and Mr. Yi beside him was gone. Being a divine spirit, however, he immediately realized Yi Shuyuan had used a spell to go ahead, and hurried after him.

Without stopping, Yi Shuyuan combined his illusion with his martial footwork, his figure seeming to blur. In several steps, he covered a considerable distance and entered the dungeon, sweeping straight to its deepest level with a gust of wind.

Upon arriving, his illusion changed directly into One Leaf Blinds the Eye, causing all the bailiffs to overlook his presence. The Night Patrol Spirit following him could finally see him again, though his figure remained rather indistinct.

"Hmm?"

The sight of Jia Yuntong left Yi Shuyuan startled and uncertain. Looking farther into the cell, he saw He Xin cowering in a corner, equally bewildered. Clearly, this was not her doing either.

"Urgh! Push harder!"

"Damn his mother, this bastard Jia Yuntong... how did he get possessed out of nowhere?"

The Moon Province officers had not noticed Yi Shuyuan at all. All their attention was on Jia Yuntong, their internal energy surging and their faces flushed bright red.

Yi Shuyuan did not know how to handle this either. He looked at the Night Wandering God beside him, who frowned and said,

"Mr. Yi, I fear some wicked sorcerer is working a spell. It's a paltry, low-grade art, but an exceptionally vile one!"

"A demonic cultivator?"

Hearing that a wicked practitioner was casting spells made Yi Shuyuan's heart jolt. Could I be meeting someone from the demonic path before I've even encountered a righteous immortal cultivator?

"Er, not an immortal cultivator. Merely one of those low-grade wandering sorcerers..."

Just then, another wave of force burst from Jia Yuntong's body.

Boom!

Thud! Thud! Thud!

"Aah!" "Urgh!"

Three officers were blasted away outright, while the other three barely held their ground. At that very instant, Yi Shuyuan moved. He stepped forward, his body tracing an arc like a swimming fish, and appeared before Jia Yuntong.

At the instant Jia Yuntong had burst open all his sealed acupoints, Yi Shuyuan sensed several unusual presences within him. Judging by that fleeting impression, they seemed very diffuse and not particularly powerful.

No matter what, nothing could happen to Jia Yuntong!

As though he could see them with his own eyes, Yi Shuyuan struck like lightning, pressing a finger between Jia Yuntong's brows. His enormous body froze instantly. The next finger struck the pit of his chest, and another his dantian.

After those three strikes, Jia Yuntong swayed and toppled toward Yi Shuyuan.

Yi Shuyuan's gaze sharpened. He turned aside, gathering internal energy and spiritual energy into his palm like swimming dragons. Though his opponent was someone the Wandering Spirit had called "low-grade," his first clash of spells made him exceptionally tense.

The next instant, while Jia Yuntong was still falling, Yi Shuyuan swung his hand back and slammed his palm, charged with spiritual power, into the center of Jia Yuntong's back.

Thump!

As the blow landed and Jia Yuntong fell, the entire dungeon seemed to shudder, almost like an illusion. The sinister energy within Jia Yuntong-which seemed to Yi Shuyuan as weightless as dust-was scattered by the impact.

Yi Shuyuan paused in surprise. That was much weaker than I'd imagined!

A little earlier, in a cold, gloomy spot several li outside the county town, shaded by trees and screened by shrubs, small flags filled a patch of ground several feet across. A ritual altar stood in its center, with a middle-aged man in some kind of black ritual robe seated on a cushion behind it.

In the open space before the ritual altar, a child bearing some resemblance to Jia Yuntong lay bound, gagged, and blindfolded. Fear and pain covered his face, while blood vessels bulged beneath his skin like earthworms.

The man in the black ritual robe kept waving his hands, chanting with his eyes closed. Several people stood beyond the flags, watching with furrowed brows.

"Hall Master, why don't we simply storm the County Office? How strong could its guards be? Why bring a witchcraft sorcerer here..."

"Attacking a government office is tantamount to rebellion. If we're discovered, this will become a truly serious matter." "Shh! Quiet!"

The black-robed man seemed to have reached a critical moment.

"Wuuu-yayayaya! Give me..."

Before he could finish, an overwhelming sense of danger suddenly arose. In the darkness behind his closed eyes, he seemed to see a palm-shaped flash of white light appear in an instant.

Boom!

With a sound like exploding thunder, several objects on the ritual altar burst apart. The black-robed man seemed to suffer a crushing blow and flew backward four or five zhang, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

"Pfft!"

He spat out a mouthful of blood and lay twitching on the ground, unable to move.

The change came so swiftly that the onlookers froze for a moment before reacting and immediately rushing toward him.

Inside the dungeon, Yi Shuyuan, still somewhat dazed, suddenly sensed something, as though thunder had faintly exploded in a certain direction within his mind.

At the very instant he heard it, the answering sensation seemed to sketch an image in his mind. It was as though he saw a small group of indistinct people and even sensed their auras.

It wasn't my imagination. They really aren't strong-and they're very close!

Almost the instant this thought arose, Yi Shuyuan sped out of the dungeon.

Excited and tense, Yi Shuyuan instinctively pushed his lightness footwork and illusion to their utmost. At that moment, the two became almost indistinguishable.

His body moved like wind and thunder; his form swept like a gale scattering the clouds.

This was no longer merely an illusion combined with ordinary lightness footwork.

Yi Shuyuan seemed to notice this special quality too. He had already gained a faint insight earlier; now, he split his attention, deducing further transformations as he traveled. His figure became a raging wind that blew out of the County Office, swept across the rooftops of Yuanjiang County, and headed south.

The Wandering Spirit of the Underworld Office pursued with all his might, yet could only sense a fierce wind receding into the distance. Beyond that, he could neither see Yi Shuyuan nor catch up!

Before reaching the town wall, the energy within Yi Shuyuan surged upward. He leaped into the air like a flying swallow, rising more than a dozen zhang. His body felt weightless, as though he were stepping on the wind, and he glided beyond the town.

He covered the dozen or so li in merely twenty or thirty breaths, arriving almost in an instant.

The people in that cold, gloomy place were still reeling from the sudden disaster at the ritual altar, shouting around the black-robed spellcaster.

"Master!"

"Master, did the life-for-a-spell rite succeed?"

"Did you finish off Jia Yuntong and the others?"

"Master? Master?"

The black-robed spellcaster struggled to rise, but blood kept spilling from the corners of his mouth. His words were incoherent, barely intelligible, and he coughed up bloody froth, clearly in excruciating pain.

"There's... an... ex... cough, cough... expert... not... not mortal... arcane... arts... it's... urgh, cough... an immortal... immortal... I... urgh, aaah..."

The black-robed spellcaster clutched someone's trouser leg, seemingly trying to stand. His bloodshot eyes stared toward Yuanjiang County town, his face filled with longing.

The others thought he resented failing and suffering the backlash, but only he knew the truth. That vast, boundless immortal spiritual energy could never belong to a mortal like himself. It could only belong to an immortal who possessed genuine immortal arts.

He had never imagined that, at the end of his life, he would encounter a true immortal in such a ridiculous, absurd fashion-and that immortal was in the county town a dozen or so li away, almost within arm's reach!

Though the black-robed spellcaster knew his last breath was approaching, and even his soul was beginning to unravel, he so desperately wanted to reach the immortal in town, even if only to see him once. How desperately he wanted it...

"I... cough... can't accept..."

Just then, Yi Shuyuan arrived nearby. He saw the people there, but his deductions had reached a critical point, and he could not quite stop. All he could do was sweep toward them with a howling gale.

"Whooo..."

The men involuntarily raised their hands to shield themselves. Some were even blown several steps backward.

"What a fierce wind!" "Why has a gale suddenly sprung up?"

"Careful! There's someone in the wind!"

When Yi Shuyuan reached them, the breath of internal energy he had drawn up finally dispersed. His figure fully emerged within the wind, and his headcloth was blown away once again.

To the others, branches swayed and fallen leaves whirled all around, while an indistinct, long-sleeved figure stood amid the wind. His robes and the hair at his temples danced wildly in the air. He scarcely seemed a being of the mortal world.

Under these circumstances, however, their instinctive reaction was that the newcomer was an enemy, not a friend.

"Attack!"

The leader shouted, gathered all his internal energy, and leaped forward, striking at Yi Shuyuan with his palm. The others reacted slightly more slowly, but almost immediately charged as well. Some drew weapons, splitting into several groups to surround him.

This was Yi Shuyuan's first time traveling by this extreme method of his own invention, and he clearly had not mastered or fully controlled it. He had gotten a little carried away, leaving his breath surging and his spiritual energy churning.

He had only just steadied himself when he saw a man hurtling toward him. The rushing wind and momentum of that attack marked the man as an expert at a glance. In his urgency, Yi Shuyuan could only muster his strength and strike out with his palm.

Bang!

Their palms collided with a ringing crash like metal striking stone. A wave of force surged outward from Yi Shuyuan's palm, lifting earth and whirling leaves, and swept another man away like withered grass in the wind.

"Urgh!"

The leader's right hand suffered shattered bones and torn tendons, and a bone in his arm burst through his elbow. He flew backward with a scream, but even as he spewed blood in midair, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Xiantian True Qi!"