This was how a prophet fought!

Night shrouded the ancient valley, and deathly silence reigned.

Only the scarlet leopard soaring into the sky provided any light in the area.

Yet as the temperature continued to rise, an inexplicable pressure gradually spread, creating an oppressive sensation beyond words.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the black mist gathered together, rising from the valley in a dense, foglike mass.

It was like an awakened behemoth roaring in silence.

The black mist spread rapidly, blotting out the sky and moon and swallowing everything around it in darkness.

From within that endless darkness came faint, hair-raising roars of a hundred beasts, like howls from hell.

As the black mist churned and surged, a figure gradually emerged, formed from the fused and twisted shapes of countless animals.

It was Black Baleful Intent, a corporeal entity condensed from billowing black mist, a monster formed from the vengeful souls of countless creatures that had died within it.

Its form flickered in and out of sight, neither human nor beast.

Eerie red gleams occasionally flashed within its indistinct outline, like a demon lurking deep in the darkness.

Even the surrounding air seemed frozen by its evil presence, with only the howling of the churning black mist breaking the silence.

"Roar!"

When Black Baleful Intent had fully manifested.

It opened its seemingly nonexistent maw and let out a deafening roar.

Sound waves battered the valley, sending sand and stones tumbling and trees shaking violently, as though announcing its arrival to the entire world, bringing nothing but endless fear and destruction.

Whoosh!

Just as Black Baleful Intent was about to take shape, a golden flying sword suddenly sliced through the sky.

In an instant, Black Baleful Intent, formed from gathered black mist, was cleaved in two, and its already solidified body let out an agonized wail.

I've been waiting for you!

The golden sword traced a graceful arc in midair and pierced the thick black mist once more.

Long before this operation, Li Boyang had guessed that things certainly would not go so smoothly.

The evil ghost hiding in Black Cloud Marsh certainly would not stand by as Li Boyang and Xiluo weakened it so frequently.

Like a cornered dog leaping over a wall, it might do anything in desperation.

For that reason, before tonight's operation, Li Boyang had specifically performed a divination with the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron.

The result was that tonight's operation carried some risk, but would yield unexpected gains.

If they could seize the opportunity, they might even resolve the Black Cloud Marsh crisis ahead of time.

With that expectation in mind, Xiluo had not been rattled by Black Baleful Intent's sudden appearance, instead continuing with her own actions.

Because Xiluo trusted Li Boyang, trusting that he could handle the monster born from the black mist.

At the same time, in Li Household Village.

Within his swaddling clothes, Li Boyang quietly opened the third eye between his brows.

Meanwhile, the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron in his palm spun rapidly, helping him swiftly divine and predict the situation.

According to the Nine Chapters on the Secrets of Divination, things like this, where souls manifest through resentment and then attach themselves to some substance or phenomenon, are called monsters.

Unlike the ghosts in the literary works of my previous life, these monsters have physical bodies.

They often possess strength beyond ordinary ghosts, while also inheriting those ghosts' hard-to-kill nature.

At that moment, Li Boyang divided his attention between two tasks, controlling the Sword Pill in its battle against the monster while patiently searching for his opponent's fatal weakness.

With the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron's assistance, Li Boyang soon worked out the monster's weakness.

My Sword Pill alone can destroy it?

Only when the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron landed faceup did Li Boyang focus his attention on the flying sword, slightly surprised.

Even before this, Li Boyang had vaguely sensed that his Sword Pill seemed to naturally counter the black mist.

The corrupted beasts eroded by the black mist could not withstand even a single exchange with the Sword Pill.

But judging by the current situation.

Not only were those corrupted beasts no match for the Sword Pill, even tonight's Black Baleful Intent was no different.

Any black mist pierced by the flying sword had indeed failed to gather again.

Never mind the vengeful souls that depended on that black mist to exist-even the mist's own corrupting power had been purified by the flying sword.

With the temperature nearby gradually rising as well, the black mist rapidly dissipated like ordinary fog, no longer posing the slightest threat.

Combined with its earlier feat of slaying Ruifu with a single strike, did this Sword Pill seem to naturally counter monsters and ferocious gods with undying bodies?

That old man... really spared no expense, did he?

Whenever he thought of how this Sword Pill had originally come from the evil ghost in Black Cloud Marsh.

Li Boyang felt an inexplicable sense of absurdity.

By refining his soul into this Sword Pill, that old man had not only given Li Boyang the ability to kill him.

Even these latest tricks of his were being specifically countered and dismantled bit by bit.

Looking at it this way, I don't seem to be a traditional protagonist, despite being a transmigrator?

What protagonist kept specifically weakening the villainous boss before the boss could even stir up trouble?

What protagonist did not wait until the villainous boss had amassed power and assembled an army before engaging in the final showdown?

If the ghost king of Black Cloud Marsh had read a few novels.

It would certainly be vehemently condemning Li Boyang right now for refusing to follow the script.

As the villainous boss, it was clearly still in its development phase, so why had someone already come knocking at its door?

Unfortunately, reality doesn't have that many predestined coincidences.

Those skilled in war have no illustrious military exploits. Strangling danger in its cradle is what a normal person would choose.

A faint killing intent appeared in all three eyes at once. Li Boyang had decided to end this quickly.

Whoosh!

In an instant, the golden flying sword became the only streak of golden light in the night.

Its piercing whistle through the air intimidated the beasts, driving them to flee this dangerous place even faster.

"Roar!"

Seemingly sensing Li Boyang's killing intent, Black Baleful Intent, which had repeatedly failed to gather into shape, finally went berserk.

Since it could not form a physical body, it might as well stop trying!

A crane cried in the deep marshes, its voice reaching the nine heavens...

The roars of nearly a hundred kinds of beasts rang out from the black mist at once, momentarily louder even than that piercing whistle through the air.

The next second, tigers, leopards, wolves, insects, tortoises, cranes, birds, snakes, and other animals surged out of the black mist.

They were the very essence of Black Baleful Intent.

They were the souls of the wild beasts that had died within the black mist.

Through the power of the black mist, these beasts, filled with resentment and unwillingness, manifested the forms they had possessed in life, attempting to fight the golden flying sword in midair.

Unfortunately, gathered together, these beast souls might have become a terrifying monster.

But once scattered, they were merely a pack of lowly vengeful ghosts.

Whoosh!

The golden flying sword darted through the black mist with even greater ease.

In just a few breaths, more than half of those mindless vengeful ghosts had been slain.