Become my strength

Gray mist stood before him. This incense had been made according to Half-Immortal Xu's method, so its effects were far stronger than the ordinary version.

If ordinary Evil-Repelling Incense merely blocked ghosts and evil spirits, then the stick Zhou Muzhi had lit was a special version tailored specifically to the vengeful spirit before him.

Sizzle!

Like water hitting hot oil, that sound erupted when the red figure touched the gray mist. Part of the dress that made contact unraveled into threads, finally vanishing into thin air.

A short section of the Evil-Repelling Incense rapidly burned away at the same time.

"Not bad. You can certainly kick up a fuss."

No sooner had Zhou Muzhi spoken than he pivoted, unleashing his Five Qi martial cultivation and appearing behind the vengeful spirit in an instant.

He was not holding Listening Rain. Against an opponent of flesh and blood, a fine weapon certainly offered a considerable advantage, but his opponent was not human now.

Thus, weapons were effectively useless.

Besides, the scorching fire on his body seemingly could not extend beyond it. In other words, he could not coat his sword in a layer of special effects. Without that scorching fire capable of effectively harming the vengeful spirit, he was better off fighting barehanded.

The vengeful spirit's instinctive reactions were also extremely strong. After her entire body became corporeal, the most obvious improvement in her strength was her resistance.

Even incense specifically meant to counter her could not harm her actual body, only burn away part of her hem. And in mere moments, the burned hem returned to its original state.

Masses of long, blood-red silk ribbons shot from the vengeful spirit's hands, fluttering across the entire courtyard and forming a strangling assault.

An attack covering such a wide area left Zhou Muzhi nowhere to dodge.

Zhou Muzhi had only just reached her back and had yet to make a move when he saw the vengeful spirit employ this method. His eyebrows rose.

It seemed this thing had grown stronger by more than a little. In terms of speed, she was not far behind him anymore.

In other words, this vengeful spirit was at least on the same level as a Five Qi martial artist in terms of speed.

This was probably a ghost's strong suit. Humans could not match their speed. It was only because Zhou Muzhi's cultivation realm was higher now; had he still been at the Blood Gate, facing a fully manifested vengeful spirit like this would have meant simply waiting to be killed in an instant.

Watching the red shapes closing in to strangle him, Zhou Muzhi had no intention of retreating. What he had displayed just now had only been to test this vengeful spirit's strength.

It counted as a warm-up, and now the warm-up was over.

His aura erupted, his muscles began to bulge, and his body grew taller inch by inch. Soon, he had gained half a head in height, and his swelling muscles stretched his clothes almost to bursting.

The scorching fire true intent, dormant for so long, swiftly appeared across his skin, raising another layer of protection between his flesh and the gray mist.

"Now it's my turn to put some strength into this."

Zhou Muzhi locked onto the vengeful spirit ahead through the many red ribbons, bared his teeth, and spoke those words.

Finally!

Finally... I can fight back!!

Heaven knew how helpless he had felt upon first awakening, when his life had not been in his own hands.

Now, he finally had the chance to finish off the thing that had once sought his life, and he would even turn her into nourishment, into his own strength.

Such an outcome was far more satisfying than simply killing her.

Boom!

He stepped forward, tremendous force pressing down. The stone tiles beneath his feet cracked at once, and with a swish, Zhou Muzhi vanished from the spot.

He charged forward and thrust out his hands, gathering strength at his waist and releasing it through both arms. The scorching fire true intent also gathered around his two fists, and the faster he moved, the more true intent accumulated.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

The red ribbons stabbed out like countless venomous needles, raining dense attacks upon Zhou Muzhi. Under this onslaught, the gray mist surrounding him was being consumed at an extreme rate.

Red and gray constantly dissipated, then tangled together once more.

The vengeful spirit shrieked and retreated into the house. This time, she did not disappear as she had before.

It was not that she did not want to disappear, but that Zhou Muzhi had used specially made incense to trap her inside.

Until the Ghost-Controlling Incense burned out completely, only one of them could survive in this place!

Bang!

His fist carried more than three thousand jin of force, blasting the wooden door of the courtyard's front house into fragments as though smashing a bubble.

Then came more.

Bang, bang, bang!!!

Explosive crashes rang out one after another.

Zhou Muzhi's face was expressionless. His feet kept advancing, his punches growing faster and faster, until he had smashed his way from the front door to the back and passed straight through the entire house.

Doors, windows, supporting pillars, and the back door all became splintered timber beneath his fists.

Rumble!

After a muffled crash, half the house behind him collapsed. Dust billowed up, briefly obscuring his vision.

At that very moment, the long ribbons continuously blanketing him with attacks accelerated again.

Before the dust had settled, the gray mist shrouding Zhou Muzhi was growing thinner and thinner, until his figure could be seen through it.

Whooo!

The red ribbons surged, gathering around Zhou Muzhi in an instant and wrapping him in layer upon layer the next moment.

A red sphere resembling a red egg appeared on the spot. The ribbons writhed, looking exactly like blood-colored snakes.

The red ribbons were desperately strangling the life out of Zhou Muzhi.

In the rear courtyard, the vengeful spirit watched that sphere with her blood-red eyes, then suddenly tilted her head.

By rights, she should have been able to disappear now, yet the power trapping her remained. She could not leave.

She had no intelligence, only instinct, so she did not understand what any of this meant. She knew only that the person before her was not dead.

Suddenly, a voice penetrated all the red ribbons and reached the outside.

"I'm telling you, you went after the wrong person from the very beginning."

The voice continued.

"Become my strength. Only I can take you to exact your full revenge. Those little ghosts miss you terribly. Isn't that right... Sister Yuan?"

Whooo!!!

The wildly howling red ribbons suddenly slowed, and even their innate shrill cries seemed to sink into some kind of confusion.

The vengeful spirit's blood-red eyes still held not a trace of emotion. She merely straightened her head. She had no intelligence and did not know what this meant; she only sensed that the hands doing the killing were beginning to slow.

Without intelligence, you cannot understand my true intent. Without a concept of self, you are no different from livestock.

The present vengeful spirit, once Sister Yuan, was, broadly speaking, merely some kind of product formed after the death of someone who had once been human.

Suddenly, ten fingers thrust straight out of that tightly sealed red sphere, covered in an aura as scorching as fire.

Zhou Muzhi remained inside the enormous red sphere, but his hands had already emerged, pulling toward either side as though prying open a door.

"Just..."

His body grew taller again, his muscles bulged further, his clothes began to burst apart, and his eyes turned red.

"Open!!!!"

Bang!!

The red sphere's writhing seemed to jam, until it finally stopped altogether. Those ten fingers spread apart, and the scorching force tearing it open spread swiftly toward both sides from the rupture in the middle.

Until a faint sound rang out.

The red sphere turned into strands of thread that filled the entire sky over the rear courtyard, before finally vanishing into thin air.

The vengeful spirit shrieked again and floated over, waving her skirts, though they were much dimmer than before.