"Who are you?" Ghost Child instinctively backed away, a little afraid. Not only did the other party make him feel inexplicably afraid, but his words also surprised him. He actually knew Master Huang's real name!
How did this guy get out?
Master Huang, usually so composed, was stunned for a moment...
No one knew better than him how strong the seal on Azure Dragon Mountain was. He had known about that place for a very long time. The seal had existed before the previous dynasty's Heavenly Capital was even established, back when the world was still in chaos and sorcerers ran rampant.
A thousand years had passed, and even the mighty Great Jin dynasty had fallen, yet the seal remained as firm as ever. That was why he had dared to tamper with the other party's body: he had been certain the other party couldn't get out, at least not in the short term.
But it seemed he had been wrong...
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
A smile spread across the cute little girl's face. The muscles beneath the coarse cloth swelled rapidly, gathering astonishing energy.
"Who let you out?"
Master Huang harbored no hope of a fortunate outcome. The other party hadn't called him Daddy, so he clearly had no intention of showing mercy.
In fact, he also knew that this guy wasn't stupid. He had been willing to play dumb and let Master Huang strip his flesh and shave his bones because he was too lonely. Once someone could fill that loneliness, Master Huang would become his enemy...
"Daddy let me out..."
"Daddy?" Master Huang was taken aback, then said with a laugh, "You don't have a daddy!"
"I do now!"
His tone was calm, without the slightest trace of humiliation or anger. Yet it made Master Huang's heart sink even further.
What does he mean, he has one now? Was the one before fake, and the one now real?
Who on earth let him out?
"Stop him!" Master Huang wasted no more time and quickly retreated.
A trace of struggle flashed across the fake Ghost Child's face when he received the order, but his body moved beyond his control to block the way.
"You took my flesh and blood and made this thing?"
Ghost Child was stunned. What does he mean, a thing he made? Was I made too?
"Bullshit!!" His roar exploded like thunder. Ghost Child's muscles swelled rapidly, his devilish musculature expanding until he stood four or five meters tall, even bigger than before. His surging qi and blood caused the drizzle to evaporate a meter away before it could reach him!
But the child draped in coarse cloth couldn't even be bothered to glance at him and walked slowly toward Master Huang, who was fleeing behind him.
"Bastard!" Being ignored while giving his all drove Ghost Child's rage to its peak. Finally overcoming the inexplicable fear in his heart, he threw a punch with all his strength, determined to crush this ghostly thing!
In his fury, the power behind the punch was extraordinary. It was more than ten times stronger than when he had fought Wang Ye the day before!
Before the punch even reached its target, the air pressure it generated made the ground collapse, and friction against the air turned the entire fist as red-hot as a branding iron!
But the little girl still didn't look at him, allowing the punch to strike her face.
Crack!
A crisp bone-breaking sound rang out. Master Huang kept running without looking back; he knew without a second thought whose bones had broken...
How could this happen?
Ghost Child stared blankly at his arm. First his finger bones, then his fist and arm visibly deformed. The intense pain made him realize what a terrifying monster stood before him!
This guy's head was even harder than the fine-edged meteoric iron blade Master Huang used to cut iron!
Before he could finish marveling, a thick arm reached out from the coarse hemp garment and seized his face.
It was so fast that he couldn't react at all. The next second, he saw his own head explode!
Yes, he saw it. His eyeballs flew into the sky and watched his head burst apart. It was an incredibly strange sensation.
In theory, he shouldn't have been able to see once his eyes had left his body. But only when his body was destroyed did Ghost Child remember that his eyes didn't seem to be his own...
Oh, right. It seems the other things weren't mine either...
He stared blankly as his body fell to pieces. Scattered through the air alongside the flesh and blood were the wood chips that had held it together...
He understood now. He was just like those things Master Huang had made. It turned out... he was a fake...
Bang!
The moment the eyeballs hit the ground, the real Ghost Child mercilessly crushed them underfoot. He felt no pity for this fake, nor was he particularly angry.
He should have been furious, really. The guy who had tricked him into calling him Daddy had cut away his flesh and shaved down his bones just to make a thing like this.
But that was fine too. If he had really let him out early, he would never have met his current Daddy. Put that way, being deceived wasn't such a bad thing...
Thinking of it that way, the real Ghost Child was less angry. Instead, he felt a little grateful to the guy fleeing in panic.
But Daddy had told him to do his best to kill him!
"Stop!!"
Several powerful shouts rang out. They came from the personal guards who had just rushed over from the city gate. Seeing that Master Huang was about to be killed, each of them instinctively moved to protect him!
Without even turning his head, Ghost Child smelled the wood chips he hated most. A vicious glint flashed in his eyes, and he wanted to slap them all to death, but just as he was about to act, an immensely powerful restraint suddenly bound his limbs, making him frown.
Even so, the movement he had already started generated tremendous air pressure, sending the people rushing at him flying. They all fell with their heads split and bleeding.
"Go, bring Yuchi Peng here!"
An elderly voice rang out. Ghost Child ignored the personal guards fleeing in panic and looked up at the old man who had restrained him.
The old man wore a black conical hat, and his exposed arms were as thin as sticks. Ghost Child recognized him at once.
He was the old fellow who had followed Master Huang into the cave when he came to deceive him.
Ghost Child looked down at his feet. At some point, the world of shadows on the ground had become completely distorted. The houses and trees had all changed shape, becoming ropes that wrapped around his own shadow.
Though the shadows had changed shape, their mass hadn't. Ghost Child immediately felt ten thousand tons of pressure pinning down his entire body!
"Sorcerer..." Ghost Child's voice was ice-cold...
"If you'd come half a step later, I really would've been done for!" Master Huang collapsed to the ground with a bitter smile.
"I told you not to provoke that thing back then!" Mister Miao replied coldly. "Do you know who let him out?"
"How would I know which damned bastard it was?"
Mister Miao fell silent. He had a guess, but he also thought it was somewhat absurd. After all, how old was that person? No more than five people alive knew that Ghost Child was sealed on Azure Dragon Mountain. Even Liu Yu didn't know. That young county magistrate shouldn't have known.
Besides, even if he did know, how could a seal the Azure Dragon Sorcerer had given his life to devise be broken so easily?
"Hm?"
As he pondered, a sudden pulling force nearly knocked Mister Miao off his feet.
He looked over in shock and saw Ghost Child grinning ferociously at him, a terrifying light in his eyes, as he walked toward him step by step!
His spell hadn't failed. Flying Shadow had melted the shadows of all the heavy objects around them and bound them to Ghost Child's shadow. It was just that his opponent's strength was beyond imagination!
The ground tore apart, and the surrounding trees were all pulled out of the earth. Next, the foundations of the vast residence around them began to be uprooted as well!
Mister Miao and Master Huang both drew sharp breaths. Was this what it meant to have the strength to uproot a mountain? Rumor had it that this monster could match Ghost King Xiang in strength. They had thought it an exaggeration before, but now it seemed the rumor wasn't baseless!
"Up!!"
Ghost Child's face twisted and veins bulged. With a furious roar, he sent the entire ground heaving in an astonishing sight. Mister Miao spat out a mouthful of blood with a puff and staggered backward!
He stared at his opponent in disbelief. This was the first time he had encountered someone who could break his spell through brute force.
This monster!!
"Old Miao!" Master Huang was shocked. He was just about to help when a bold laugh rang out from the sky.
"Hahahaha! What monster dares run wild here? Take my blade!!"
A towering figure with a pair of enormous wings swooped down, his bold laughter booming like thunder. The air pressure from his dive made Ghost Child immediately look up at the sky, a rare gravity appearing on his face!
He hadn't been this serious even when trapped by the spell, because he could tell that the guy flying toward him was clearly more troublesome than that sorcerer...
Bang!
Without hesitation, Ghost Child stomped on the ground. The heaving earth shattered with a roar, and Ghost Child himself shot toward the newcomer like a cannonball!
"Well met!!"
The burly man in midair flushed red with excitement. Wielding his great blade, he combined it with the force of his dive to unleash a thirty-meter blade of light!
Boom!
Their collision produced a thunderous boom that made the hearts of everyone within ten miles jump. The tremendous air pressure generated by their clash whipped up a hurricane that crushed the residences for hundreds of meters around!
Many residents hadn't even had time to react before they were reduced to ash in terror...
"Yuchi Peng is here. Go!"
Amid the chaos, Master Huang hurried forward to help the injured Mister Miao up, then ran straight toward the rear.
Mister Miao's face was deathly pale. He nodded slightly. "No wonder the imperial court dared to send that Yuchi Household brat here alone. With that strength, I'm afraid he could give the Yuchi Household's ancestor a fight!"
"Stop talking..." Master Huang rolled his eyes at him. Supporting him, he threw a palm-sized wooden block onto the ground. The next second, the block rapidly transformed and expanded into a wooden bird over three meters long.
Master Huang hurriedly helped Mister Miao onto the wooden bird. In an instant, it vanished from the spot at astonishing speed.
"Now we're in trouble..." Mister Miao steadied his breathing. "A commotion this big is bound to alert the capital. Our plan..."
"Not necessarily!" Master Huang steered the wooden bird swiftly into the deep mountains and forests. "Wang Ye's construction is more than half complete. We can already read his memories through the puppet. According to him, he sent a letter to the capital asking the emperor to select a consort for the crown prince as scheduled, and the appointed day is just seven days away!"
"Seven days?" Mister Miao's dim eyes brightened, and his body jolted.
In that case, they still had a chance. After all, they had been building their influence in Liuzhou for years, so delaying the report for a while was still within their power. As long as the fake Wang Ye could enter the capital and they kept Yuchi Peng in Liuzhou, then... the plan was still viable!
"The only uncertainty is the person who released Ghost Child..." Master Huang's voice turned icy. "Only a few old fellows in the entire world of sorcery could break the Azure Dragon Spell. Old Miao, do you suspect anyone?"
"Do you... think your student might have done it?"
Master Huang: "..."