Ominous Deities and Malign Baleful Intent

Gao Family Village, Hundred Lands Mountain Range.

"Child? Has something happened again?"

Listening to the overlapping howls of tigers, leopards, and wolves, a blind old woman tottered out of her room, yet her voice was remarkably calm.

"Mother, nothing's wrong."

Stepping forward in time to support the old woman, Panhu, who had a dog's head and a human body, spoke softly.

Even though Panhu had bent as low as he could, he still looked so tall and powerfully built.

Outside Panhu's home, the villagers of Gao Family Village had already gathered, but none dared push the door open and enter.

"Child, your mother's only blind, not deaf."

The old woman tried to pat Panhu's head as she had when he was little, only to reach his shoulder instead, and laughed.

"Oh, what a pity. I can't see what my son has grown up to look like."

"So tall and so strong. I wonder what girl within a hundred li would be a match for my son."

Obediently lowering his head of his own accord, Panhu answered with a smile as well.

"As long as you approve, Mother, any girl will do."

At that, the old woman immediately pushed Panhu's head away with a look of displeasure.

"What nonsense is that!"

"We're finding you a wife, not finding your mother a wife."

"And you have to see whether the girl is willing! Anyone who didn't know better would think you were a bandit snatching a bride!"

Smiling without a word, Panhu raised his head to look toward the outskirts of the village and continued in that deliberately lowered voice.

"Mother, everyone's waiting outside! I'm going to..."

Before Panhu could finish, the old woman immediately opened her eyes wide and snapped.

"If they want to wait, let them keep waiting!"

"A pack of petty people who forget all loyalty at the sight of profit! When something happens, they know to come begging you, but when nothing's wrong, they can't get far enough away from you."

Blinking helplessly, Panhu knew the old woman had deliberately said those words for the villagers outside to hear.

"Mother, this has nothing to do with them."

"Didn't you teach me when I was little to repay kindness?"

"Someone who once helped me needs my help now. I have to go right away."

After a long silence, the old woman could only sigh in the end.

"My child is simply too kindhearted."

"I did teach you to repay kindness, but I also taught you to act within your means."

"Fine, fine. Once a son grows up, his mother can no longer tell him what to do. Go!"

"I still want to eat the meat buns you make tomorrow morning, so remember to go and come back soon!"

Giving the old woman a reluctant glance, Panhu answered.

"I understand, Mother!"

At the same time, in the sky above the valley.

"It's that ghost king. It's appeared in person!"

Wreathed in flames, Xiluo barely hesitated before suddenly treading through the air and pouncing toward the source of the black mist.

Although the current situation was not part of the original plan.

Xiluo was hardly one to stick rigidly to the rules, much less let such a perfect opportunity slip away.

Whoosh!

Blazing flames lit up the sky.

The black mist was swiftly ignited and dispersed, and the night shone as bright as day...

At this moment, rather than a mountain god, Xiluo looked more like a fire god or sun god descended into the world.

[What's going on with you?]

Seeing that something was clearly not quite right with Xiluo, the flying sword, which had regained its ability to move, swiftly reached her side.

Compared with when she had fought Ruifu last time, Xiluo now seemed absurdly strong.

If Xiluo had been this strong all along.

Then there would have been no need last time to wait for Li Boyang to help her slay that Ominous Deity.

"Now isn't the time to explain!"

Rather than directly answer Li Boyang's question, Xiluo, in her red leopard form, merely growled under her breath before plunging into the black mist of Black Cloud Marsh.

[You...]

Having watched so many films, Li Boyang understood at once.

Xiluo most likely could not maintain her current state for long.

Not only that, her display of might like a fire god might even have come from using an ability similar to the "Heavenly Demon Body Disintegration Great Art."

Whoosh!

There was no time at all to complain about Xiluo's lack of trust in him.

Li Boyang immediately sent the flying sword shooting forward, turning it into a golden streak of light that likewise charged toward the source of the black mist.

"Brats! Die!"

Faced with the two-pronged attack from Xiluo and the flying sword.

The ghost king shrouded in black mist suddenly let out a wild laugh, revealing astonishing strength at that moment.

Its sweeping claw gave a piercing shriek as it tore through the air, simultaneously releasing a sinister, icy chill.

"Roar!"

In just a single exchange.

Xiluo, who had pounced first, was forced back.

For the instant that claw swung out, it actually separated from the ghost king's body and turned into a pitch-black leopard with a ghostly face.

Although the ghost-faced leopard looked extremely unwilling, it still lunged at Xiluo under the ghost king's control.

"Roar!"

Every attribute of the ghost-faced leopard was the exact opposite of Xiluo's, making it look like her natural nemesis.

Not only that, the ghost-faced leopard also displayed a fearless disregard for death, utterly unafraid of Xiluo's fierce attacks.

[Another ghost creature, and stronger than that Black Baleful Intent from before?]

The thought flashed through Li Boyang's mind.

The golden flying sword then sliced through the sky, flying straight past the ghost-faced leopard toward the ghost king.

Then, a sight that shocked everyone appeared once again.

"Screech!"

Accompanied by a loud, piercing cry.

An equally pitch-black, four-winged eagle flew out of the black mist and reluctantly moved to meet the Sword Pill.

Just like the ghost-faced leopard that had manifested earlier to counter Xiluo.

The four-winged eagle's entire body was as hard as iron, and its sharp talons gleamed with a keen, cold light.

Even before they made contact, Li Boyang could vaguely sense it-its abilities would certainly counter his own.

Clang!

The instant the sound collided with the flying sword, Li Boyang's guess was confirmed.

[They're not ordinary ghost creatures? They're actual malign baleful intent!?]

After a brief moment of stunned distraction, Li Boyang immediately realized what was happening.

These ghost creatures were not ordinary ghost creatures at all, but one of the strongest kinds recorded in the Nine Chapters on the Secrets of Divination-malign baleful intent.

Ominous deities and malign baleful intent were the two kinds of calamities recorded in the "Ominous Baleful Intent Section" of the Nine Chapters on the Secrets of Divination.

The former were natural manifestations of a certain kind of primordial Qi of heaven and earth, deities born and nurtured by nature, classified by the Witch of the Huai River as a kind of "natural disaster."

The latter were the physical embodiment of the resentment of intelligent beings, a kind of man-made calamity even rarer than ominous deities.

For malign baleful intent to form, besides requiring the deceased to have harbored intense resentment in life.

There were also extremely stringent requirements concerning the circumstances of death and the environment after death.

For instance, if a bride died violently on her wedding day and her resentment did not disperse, she would turn into red baleful intent.

Or, for instance, if a water ghost who had died unjustly still could not reenter the cycle of reincarnation after finding enough substitutes, it would turn into white baleful intent.

Because these special conditions involved such things as the eight characters of one's birth date and the feng shui of the terrain, their formation requirements were even more exacting than those of ominous deities, and their abilities were likewise even stranger.

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