The two black-robed men had already thrown back their hoods, revealing two deathly pale, long faces. They looked like a pair of soul-hooking White Impermanences, except one wore a short beard and appeared older, while the other had a fair, clean-shaven face.
Their magical artifacts were exceptionally unusual. The older, short-bearded black-robed man held an abacus roughly two feet square. The entire abacus was jade-green, and every bead upon it was the size of half an infant's fist. Each time he swung it, waves of jade-green smoke rose from the beads. Once the smoke drifted into the air, it transformed into slender jade-green snakes. Their heads were sharp and shuttle-shaped, their mouths containing only a pair of fangs, one upper and one lower, crossing outward—one hooked beneath the jaw, the other reaching toward the nostrils. With their mouths stretched wide and gleaming with eerie light, their blood-red eyes flashed as they turned into streaks of light and lunged at the old man opposite them.
Whenever the man swung the enormous abacus, it produced a series of strange rattling sounds: "Clatter, clatter, clatter!" The noise disturbed one's mind and spirit. Looking at the purple-robed youth behind the old man, one could see that while holding a white jade bottle and standing ready, his face periodically flushed red. Even though he circulated spiritual power to resist it, the effect was minimal. As a result, the hunched old man shielding him had no choice but to repeatedly turn back and send spiritual power into his body. Every time he turned to look after the purple-robed youth, the two black-robed men seized the opening, often forcing the hunched old man into frantic defense.
Moreover, the hunched old man clearly did not dare stray too far from the purple-robed youth. For a time, he was