Good and Evil

The two men paled at the words.

A feeling of black clouds bearing down upon them welled up from within.

A tremendous crash shook the surroundings as the roof of the house where the two were hiding was torn off and sent flying.

The "monster" Hu Mang had seen earlier pounced on them.

Its flesh hung loose and rotted, bone spikes jutted from its body, and its limbs and joints were twisted out of place.

The only difference was that gray-black bone spikes protruded from its vaguely humanoid form. They spun with a sizzling sound, grinding the roof beams to powder.

"Watch out! It's a Bone Devil Seed!"

Zhou Yu shouted sharply and made a slight gesture with his fingertips. A plum-colored flying sword gleaming with cold light shot through the air, instantly blossoming into more than a dozen illusory winter plum blossoms that flew straight at the Devil Creature.

At the same time, he spread his left hand, and a dark iron shield protected them both.

Plum Blossoms in Dots, a sword art inherited by Plum Blossom Mountain, had little effect and was soon knocked flying.

The dark iron shield held out against the creature's whirling bone spikes for only a few breaths before shattering with a crack.

Just as Zhou Yu's face turned deathly pale, a dark shadow flashed beside his ear, followed by the blur of a whipping leg.

Hu Mang had seized the opening while the dark iron shield held the creature back, lunging forward and lashing out with a whip kick straight between its bone spikes.

Strangely enough, the Bone Devil Seed, against which physical attacks were plainly useless, was sent flying several zhang. A bloody footprint appeared on the bone where Hu Mang's toe had struck... along with a tiny crack.

A flash of red also passed across the sole of Hu Mang's foot.

The incomplete Blood-Piercing Essence-Reversal Art, a devil-path Cultivation Method he had stumbled upon overseas, was a dangerous art that reversed one's vital essence, refined devil blood, and contaminated one's Blood Qi.

Though he possessed only its first three levels and had yet to learn how to refine devil blood,

he had refined his vital essence into his blood. When he circulated it, it was like a great bell and drum, or rivers rushing into the sea, and he had cultivated tremendous strength.

Best of all, because his vital essence had already been refined into his blood, even if his cultivation regressed, he could still use the full extent of his abilities as long as he could circulate Qi.

After kicking the thing flying, Hu Mang said nothing, grabbed Zhou Yu, and fled.

The Bone Devil Seed tumbled several times through the air, then split open at its abdomen, changing from a great ball of bone spikes into a bone Blood Dripper before pursuing the two again.

You Lin'er, watching from the air, was not particularly surprised by the sight.

In fact, more than a dozen Bone Devil Seeds were howling back and forth in midair, emitting grating, unpleasant devil sounds. Most of the Bone Devils had clearly just been refined and could only carry out basic ramming attacks, but a few had been refined to a certain degree. After transforming into Blood Drippers, they breathed out cloudlike masses of Profound Yin Devil Qi.

You Lin'er's ambush had targeted at least five groups of people, and only two had died in the attack.

The remaining three groups were fleeing for their lives in three different directions.

"Go!"

Seeing this, You Lin'er formed a devil seal, sending one well-refined Bone Devil Seed and one that had received only cursory refinement after Hu Mang and Zhou Yu.

He himself turned into a streak of gray light and shot off in another direction.

Since he wanted to catch "meat heads," he would naturally start with those easiest to catch.

Hu Mang and Zhou Yu were fortunate enough to evade the first wave of pursuit.

But three Bone Devil Seeds continued to chase them relentlessly.

As they fled, Zhou Yu used his sword arts several times to attack them from a distance.

None of his attacks had much effect, however.

Though the Plum Blossom Mountain cultivator's sword arts were already quite accomplished, at least no worse than those of the retired old cultivator Hu Mang had met,

his sword light seemed to rely mainly on intricate variations and was not powerful in itself. When it struck the creatures, it left only shallow white marks.

If it was hit by a blast of Profound Yin Devil Qi, it became even more unstable.

Fortunately, Hu Mang was there to help.

Whenever a Bone Devil Seed drew near, Hu Mang would rush in and kick it flying.

Zhou Yu also saw Hu Mang's methods, which at the very least were unlike those of an orthodox cultivator, as well as his considerable combat experience, and his expression changed slightly.

The three Bone Devil Seeds seemed to possess a little intelligence, and they soon changed their approach. The well-refined Bone Devil Seed breathed out Profound Yin Devil Qi from a distance, while the other two took turns attacking, one after the other.

The two men's situation grew even more perilous.

"Master, don't you have a suitable Law Artifact?"

Zhou Yu, looking disheveled, patted his robes. Their protective formation had already been destroyed by the Profound Yin Devil Qi.

He looked at the strange "wandering monk" and saw that he was deep in thought. Without concern for what he was thinking about, Zhou Yu pulled out a spare magic sword and tossed it over.

Hu Mang caught it and ran a finger along its spine, gauging its grade.

A mid-grade Law Artifact.

It had not awakened any spirituality. It could not even be called a sword artifact, only a sword-shaped Law Artifact.

"It's not even as good as the shared flying swords back home."

The only respect in which this plum blossom sword surpassed a shared flying sword was that it had a sharpened edge.

Hu Mang's figure flashed. Rather than retreating, he counterattacked, running up a wall step by step and drawing a Bone Devil Seed after him.

Just as the Bone Devil Seed transformed into a Blood Dripper and descended over Hu Mang's head, his body went from extreme motion to complete stillness, seemingly in defiance of the rules of movement. The bone spikes narrowly scraped past the top of his head, while the sword in his hand thrust upward into the creature's "lower abdomen."

But soon, Hu Mang's cloudy eyes narrowed. Red lines flashed across his skin, and he abruptly crouched like a great cat, scrambling and shrinking downward. The next instant, more than a dozen bone spikes swept down.

Every one of them drove into the surface of the wall.

"I'm not very good with swords,"

Hu Mang said bluntly after rejoining Zhou Yu.

"And your sword isn't up to the task either."

He showed him the spare plum blossom sword. A series of notches had appeared on both sides of its blade, all caused by scraping against the devil bones.

Without sword intent to protect it, a flying sword was easily damaged.

"Then what are you good at, Master?" A flicker of distress passed through Zhou Yu's eyes.

"I'm decent with a spear."

Just then, two figures suddenly appeared around a bend ahead.

Zhou Yu's eyes lit up, and without another word, he called out, "Fellow Daoists, please wait!"

"Don't come any closer!"

One of them shouted angrily.

Without a word, the other gestured with his hand, sending three Emei Piercers at Zhou Yu and Hu Mang.

Zhou Yu immediately formed a sword seal and used his plum blossom sword to block two of them.

Hu Mang narrowed his eyes. Bloody light flashed across his hand as he caught one of the weapons barehanded, then flicked it back, driving it into its owner's neck.

The other man's expression changed drastically. He formed a Buddhist seal with both hands and shouted, "Lin!!"

A beam of Buddha light shot straight at Hu Mang and the two Bone Devil Seeds pouncing from behind him.

Without a word, Hu Mang slammed into the wall beside him. The True Explanation of Reinforced Concrete Spiritualization activated on its own, absorbing the spiritual materials in the wall and fusing them into a thin shell over his body.

Then the Buddha light came down.

The Buddha light was unexpectedly powerful. It not only blasted the house apart but also knocked the two Bone Devil Seeds back.

One of the Bone Devil Seeds, which had not been sufficiently refined, was smashed to the ground and shattered on the spot.

The Profound Yin Devil Qi around the other Bone Devil Seed also diminished considerably.

The Buddha light seemed to be especially effective against Devil Creatures.

Zhou Yu was delighted to see this and hurriedly called out:

"Fellow Daoist, we're all being hunted by Devil Creatures and have no choice. Why don't we work together to drive them off first, then go our separate ways?"

The man opposite them shouted angrily:

"How could I possibly trust you people again?!"

For a time, all three sides were once again locked in a chaotic battle.

By the time Hu Mang crawled out of the rubble, covered in dust,

the first layer of "spiritual-material concrete" on his body crumbled away.

After that, the "fox-fur red lines" on his skin dimmed by forty or fifty percent.

Finally, the reversed-essence Essence Blood produced by the Blood-Piercing Essence-Reversal Art finished its work, turning back into blood and surging into his major meridians and kidneys.

A sweet taste rose in Hu Mang's throat, and he coughed up a mouthful of clotted blood.

His meridians ached all over, and his bones creaked.

There were no Buddhist cultivators on Earth Star.

So this was the first time Hu Mang had learned that, besides the viciousness of devil-path Law Artifacts, a monk's Divine Abilities could be so ferocious.

As he concentrated on the battle, a vast, overwhelming divine sense suddenly resounded from deep within his sea of consciousness.

In a daze, he seemed to see a giant figure of light, its body wrapped in lightning, driving a lightning awl hard toward his skull.

Hu Mang felt his mind quake violently and the Qi and Blood throughout his body surge.

"Good!!"

The next moment, a great deal of information appeared in Hu Mang's mind.

For example, what Zhou Yu had said earlier.

And he could now vaguely sense the distribution of "good people" and "evil people" around him.

Slay evil and promote good: one grade of good added.

Use evil to suppress evil: cause and effect cancel each other out.

Rely on evil to harm the good: an unforgivable crime.

Hu Mang looked around and saw wild joy on Zhou Yu's face, while the man opposite them wore an extremely ugly expression.

Clearly, Zhou Yu had received "good," while the man opposite had drawn the "evil" prize.

Though judging by their actions alone, his side was the one causing trouble.

Hu Mang, who had recently become especially sensitive to "lightning tribulations," suddenly sensed something and snapped his head up.

Sure enough, three dark clouds had appeared in the sky at some point. Within them, layers of golden devil-subduing lightning shone, aimed directly at the "Great Hand Seal expert" and the two Bone Devil Seeds.

"Devil-Subduing Lightning Punishment!!" Zhou Yu's eyes shone.

The golden lightning crashed down!

As expected of devil-subduing lightning, it reduced both Bone Devil Seeds to ash on the spot.

The remaining Great Hand Seal expert tried to withstand it with a Buddhist seal. Buddha light flashed, and both it and the lightning vanished.

But he only held out against the first wave.

After the second wave, he was blown to death on the spot.

The dark cloud also seemed to have condensed to the size of a washbasin.

It seemed that if he could have withstood the third wave, the Lightning Punishment could have been resolved.

But he had not possessed the ability.

Zhou Yu breathed a sigh of relief and hurried over to the two corpses, rummaging through them and pulling out two Storage Bags. When he saw Hu Mang watching him silently, he gave an awkward laugh and quickly handed one over.

"Master, everyone who sees it gets a share."