A faint, intermittent sweet rain drifted down over Shi Xuan, jolting his mind awake. He slapped the command tablet again, and lightning and golden light flared simultaneously, striking at the tiger-headed monster and leaving it no time to attack. For the moment, it could only focus on defense. Unfortunately, with the aid of the ritual altar, Shi Xuan could only activate two talismans at once. Otherwise, if four or five attacked together, they might well have broken through the tiger-headed monster's defenses.
The situation was now extremely unfavorable for Shi Xuan. He did not have many talismans left, and most could not be used for direct attack or defense: one Soul Sealing Ghost Summoning Curse talisman, one Righteousness and Evil Resistance Incantation talisman, one Toxin Removal Talisman, and one Universal Salvation Sweet Rain Incantation talisman. Of those capable of direct attack or defense, he only had one Qi Induction Thunder Talisman drawn by Old Daoist Xu, two Golden Light Soul Breaking Talismans, two Earth Armor Talismans—one of which he had drawn himself—and one Fire Burning Talisman.
Although the tiger-headed monster had to control the Black Banner while launching pale white Wind Slashes, consuming an enormous amount of strength and appearing utterly exhausted, Shi Xuan truly had no confidence that his remaining few talismans could break its defenses and kill it.
Shi Xuan gritted his teeth and made up his mind. His trump card was important, but his life was more precious!
He slapped the command tablet, and a suit of yellow-earth armor formed over his body. With another slap, under the ritual altar's enhancement, the Disaster Aversion and Blessing Incantation was swiftly completed. This spell allowed Shi Xuan to recover his energy quickly and become even more clear-headed.
Next, while the tiger-headed monster was focused on defense, Shi Xuan stepped through the Yu Step and followed the method Old Daoist Xu had left behind to mobilize the power of his soul. Finally, he bit through the tip of his tongue despite the pain and sprayed a mouthful of blood onto the command tablet. At once, a layer of pale red light rose from it.
By then, the tiger-headed monster had shattered each of the lightning and golden-light attacks. Seeing Shi Xuan cast his spell, it understood that something formidable was coming. It hurriedly gathered all its strength. One head spat out two pale white Wind Slashes in succession, intending to interrupt Shi Xuan before he could finish casting, while the other head drove the Black Banner with all its power, sending down countless strands of black light to protect itself with everything it had.
Seeing the Wind Slashes approaching, Shi Xuan did not dodge. He shouted, "Hasten!" At the same time, he guided the command tablet in a circle along a particular path before slamming it hard onto the table.
With a whoosh, the four incense candles abruptly blazed several times brighter, then suddenly dimmed. The four small banners rose at once, floating half a foot above the tabletop. At the center of the table, the Ancient Cloud Seal Script on the Great Unity Sky Thunder talisman at the Zhen position of the Eight Trigrams lit up one stroke at a time in a mysterious sequence. In the end, it transformed into several ancient, profound Cloud Seal characters hovering between the small banners, like strands of gold-cyan lightning twisting around one another.
The Wind Slashes had already struck Shi Xuan, continuously grinding away at his protective yellow-earth armor. Compared to turning into an earthen wall, the yellow-earth armor produced by the Earth Armor Talisman possessed stronger defenses. Even so, it could not completely block the two Wind Slashes launched by the tiger-headed monster at full strength. The final remnants of the Wind Slashes broke through the yellow-earth armor, carving wound after wound across Shi Xuan's upper body.
The yellow-earth armor had vanished, and the Wind Slashes had been fully spent. Shi Xuan's Daoist robe was tattered beyond recognition, and countless wounds showed through its tears. His entire upper body was drenched in blood. Yet his actual injuries were not as severe as they looked. The Wind Slashes had already reached the end of a spent arrow; the wounds on his upper body were merely minor cuts.
After releasing the Wind Slashes, the tiger-headed monster saw such a strange phenomenon appear from Shi Xuan's talisman and knew it was not something to be trifled with. It had no intention of standing there to be beaten. Riding a gust of black wind, it rose from the ground into the air, intending to evade this wave of attacks first.
The Cloud Seal lightning formed by the Great Unity Sky Thunder talisman abruptly contracted, then explosively expanded. A gigantic bolt of gold-cyan lightning cleaved toward the tiger-headed monster. Lightning was incomparably swift, and when Shi Xuan had activated it just now, he had locked onto the monster's aura. It was about to catch up with the black wind carrying the tiger-headed monster.
Seeing that it could not evade, the tiger-headed monster's ferocity surged. It spat a mouthful of blood onto the Black Banner, which instantly doubled in size, growing over ten feet tall. The eyes of the evil ghost heads on its surface bled, and the black light they sprayed became streaked with red amid the black, making it seem even more wicked and bloody. Yet the black light also became more resilient and lustrous.
When the gold-cyan lightning struck the black light, there was neither sound nor ripple. The black light melted away directly like white snow beneath the blazing sun and disappeared. Without the slightest hindrance, the lightning struck the Black Banner itself.
The evil ghosts on the Black Banner let out cries so piercing they nearly deafened the ear, then exploded of their own accord. Under this tremendous shock, a massive evil ghost head with twin horns emerged from the black banner cloth and collided with the lightning.
With a boom, a violent explosion erupted. Shreds of black cloth fluttered down in a chaotic shower like falling leaves. In the explosion, the black wind carrying the tiger-headed monster was blasted into pieces. The monster fell like a stone toward the ground, wrapped in gold-cyan lightning only one-tenth the size of before.
During that brief descent, Shi Xuan saw the tiger-headed monster first revert to its original form—a gigantic tiger with two heads. Then the tiger blackened and charred. Next, the soul of the Two-Headed Tiger emerged, and finally, amid mournful howls, it disappeared completely into the lightning.
The gold-cyan lightning still had force to spare. Mixed with the Two-Headed Tiger's corpse, it crashed into the ground. With another bang, the lightning blasted a pit half a man tall and over ten feet wide into the earth. Only then did it leisurely dissipate.
Although Shi Xuan's Daoist heart was extraordinary, even he was stunned. The power of this Great Unity Sky Thunder talisman was far greater than he had imagined, and it even possessed the mysterious ability to lock onto an aura.
This power truly did not seem like something a cultivator at the Qi Induction and Soul Tempering realm could have left behind. At the very least, it had to be Spirit Soul Union. Muttering inwardly, Shi Xuan glanced at the pit again, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. If that tiger had flown above his head just now, would the force of its fall not have sent him straight to the underworld? Of course, that was basically impossible, since the tiger had been trying to flee, not attack.
Only after letting out a breath of relief did Shi Xuan feel how painful and uncomfortable his body was. He was exhausted to the bone. Hurriedly, he slapped the command tablet and activated his remaining Universal Salvation Sweet Rain Incantation talisman, bathing himself in waves of sweet rain. His wounds gradually stopped bleeding, contracted, and scabbed over. At last, with a light wipe from Shi Xuan, the scabs fell away without leaving any scars.
After the Great Unity Sky Thunder talisman had been activated, three of the four incense candles on the temporary ritual altar had gone out outright. The remaining candle swayed unsteadily when Shi Xuan activated the Universal Salvation Sweet Rain Incantation talisman and nearly extinguished as well. The four small banners returned to their original positions, but the banner cloth on two of them had torn open with gashes nearly half their size. Though they could still be used, the ritual altar's effect had been greatly diminished.
The most miserable was the command tablet. After Shi Xuan had activated it with blood, it now looked like a centuries-old antique, dim and worn. Shi Xuan reckoned that after another one or two uses, it would reach the end of its lifespan.
But this was only to be expected. How could he use a talisman of such immense power beyond his realm without paying some price? Back then, Old Daoist Xu had only used this talisman after reaching the late stage of Soul Departure, and even then, the backlash had severely injured him. Shi Xuan had merely sacrificed half a set of ritual altar implements that did not even qualify as Dharma Artifacts. That was perfectly normal.
After standing there and recovering a little energy, Shi Xuan picked up the remaining talismans from the temporary ritual altar and placed them in his sleeve pouch. Then he slowly walked to the edge of the pit and carefully inspected it from side to side, ready to use a talisman to make up for anything amiss.
Yet the lightning's power had surpassed imagination. It had left the Two-Headed Tiger no chance of life. Slightly left of center in the pit lay the Black Banner, shattered beyond recognition. The Two-Headed Tiger's corpse was scattered in a circle around the banner. With a single glance, Shi Xuan could not even count how many pieces the body had been blown into.
Shi Xuan jumped into the pit, walked before the Black Banner, and crouched down to inspect it closely. The two strings of white bone skulls hanging from either side had long since been blasted away to who knew where. A huge hole had opened in the middle of the strange patterns on the banner cloth, with several tears of varying sizes around it, while the banner pole had snapped into three pieces.
Shi Xuan sighed inwardly. This time, he had practically squandered his entire fortune only to get back this ruined Dharma Artifact. Later, he would have to search the tiger's lair and hope there was some method of restoring Dharma Artifacts.
After taking the Black Banner and its pole and gathering the banner's remaining fragments, Shi Xuan jumped out of the pit. The moment he found his footing, he heard Ding Mingde calling from afar, "Celestial Master! Brother Zi'ang! Is the monster dead?"
"All right, it's over. Make some vigorous movements where you are, then come over," Shi Xuan called back. He still needed those two to clean up the battlefield. He himself was exhausted enough already.
From two corners of the courtyard, the figures of Ding Mingde and Yan Jujian slowly emerged. Yan Jujian was practicing a set of sword techniques, while Ding Mingde was performing movements similar to the Five Animal Play.
Once the invisibility effect on the two was removed, Shi Xuan beckoned to them, signaling for them to come over.
"Brother Yan, Brother Mingde, I’ve slain the monster. I'll trouble you two to go down and collect its corpse. Such a large tiger, heh, is fine food indeed. I still need to put away this ritual altar." Shi Xuan clearly explained what he wanted them to do.
Yan Jujian and Ding Mingde had witnessed the entire battle just now and were utterly horrified by the power of Shi Xuan's final strike, finding it beyond all praise. Compared with the shattered black light in the sky and the great explosion, that huge pit gave them a more direct impression of its terrifying might, leaving them so shocked that they had little power of speech. Thus, they said nothing more, merely nodded to Shi Xuan before turning toward the pit.
The tiger-headed monster's appearance had likewise left a deep impression on both men. Had it not been for that final heaven-shaking strike, the tiger-headed monster would surely have appeared in Ding Mingde's nightmares from then on. Now, however, because that final strike had cleanly and decisively killed the Two-Headed Tiger, Ding Mingde's thoughts turned instead to the unmatched power of Daoist magic. Though Yan Jujian had extensive experience in the Jianghu, it was also his first time seeing a monster with a tiger's head and human body, and he could not help but feel secretly terrified.
As they carefully gathered the Two-Headed Tiger's remains, both men felt as though they had awakened from a dream.
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