Because Lu Xiaochan still vaguely heard the breathing and heartbeats of other people.
The little girl pulled up the corners of her mouth. “Why don’t you try it, then you’ll know?”
Suddenly, the little girl pounced towards Lu Xiaochan like a bolt of lightning.
Even though he couldn’t see, Lu Xiaochan could feel the evil energy approaching abruptly, and the wind rushed towards him like a sharp blade.
“Brother Shu Wuxi, save me—” Lu Xiaochan raised both arms and shouted out his ultimate move.
Shu Wuxi slightly raised his fingertips, and several streams of spiritual pressure attacked that little girl, instantly blasting her away and slamming her hard against the stone wall surrounding the ancient tree.
The sound of bones being crushed was extremely clear.
Lu Xiaochan felt his own bones ache just from hearing it.
But after that little girl fell, she tremblingly stood up again, completely unable to feel pain. She seemed to be pulled by some force, swaying and laughing softly.
Her laughter was chilling to the bone.
And the dead father beside her also stood up shakily.
Lu Xiaochan tilted his head, because apart from that little girl and her father, he heard the footsteps of many people approaching.
These footsteps were different from those of ordinary people walking. They were very heavy, like walking corpses, yet faintly revealing a murderous aura.
They were the Meng family disciples who had previously protected Madam Meng!
Suddenly, these disciples all raised their heads together. Although their eyes were lifeless and their chests were empty with their hearts dug out, they still held swords in their hands.
These swords left their hands, and seven or eight swords simultaneously attacked Shu Wuxi.
Lu Xiaochan only heard the sound of the wind tearing, and he instinctively clenched his fists.
Shu Wuxi’s facial expression didn’t change at all. Those swords hadn’t even reached within an arm’s length of him when they were intercepted by an invisible force.
The evil energy entangled around the sword blades took form, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, trying to break through the restraint of this spiritual energy. However, it was unexpectedly countered, and a silver-blue spiritual light swept over, dispelling the evil energy on the sword blades.
In an instant, these swords were instead controlled by Shu Wuxi, turning their direction and rushing towards the ancient tree like a flood.
They charged in from all directions with tremendous force. At the same time, all the stone walls shattered completely.
Although Lu Xiaochan didn’t know what had happened, his ears could hear seven or eight tenths of it.
When all the stone walls disappeared, if Lu Xiaochan could see the scene before him, his mouth would probably be unable to close.
The evil god within the ancient tree was none other than Madam Meng.
She sat cross-legged, head lowered, her entire body covered in blood stains. Lu Xiaochan didn’t smell the nauseating scent of blood and decay, but instead a cold fragrance so evil it sent chills down one’s spine.
It was like the scent of “Ink Bamboo” that she always loved to use, but even more eerie than that fragrance.
Every withered branch of the ancient tree was pressed down low, on the verge of breaking.
Yet, at the tip of each branch was impaled a heart, and these hearts weren’t dead; on the contrary, they were still beating.
Lu Xiaochan wiggled his ears, thinking he must have heard wrong. How could there be so many dense heartbeats?
At that moment, seven or eight hearts on the branches suddenly burst, spraying blood plasma far away.
It seemed about to splash onto Shu Wuxi’s body, but was blocked by the spiritual pressure around him, splattering onto the grass in front of him with a crackling sound.
Several Meng family disciples instantly collapsed as if their lives had been taken away.
Lu Xiaochan stretched his neck and swallowed—the Meng family disciples were all dead, completely dead.
Their swords fell and stuck into the ground.
Besides the sound of heartbeats, Lu Xiaochan also heard a sound that seemed like Buddhist chants, but more turbid and heavy than Buddhist chants. It was the sound of many people muttering.
Lu Xiaochan closed his eyes to carefully distinguish, and when he recognized the voices of the couple who had offered him catfish tofu soup, his surprise was beyond words.
When the stone walls on all sides shattered, surrounding the ancient tree were thirty or forty villagers, heads bowed in worship, sincerely praying to the evil god.
—So, the entire Chen family village were followers of the evil god!
The little girl whose bones had been crushed earlier held Jiang Wuchao’s silver bell in her hand and ran towards the evil god.
Lu Xiaochan suddenly realized something and shouted, “Don’t let her pass—”
Shu Wuxi used his finger as a sword, a stream of spiritual energy forming a bowstring, splitting the little girl in half, but the silver bell was nowhere to be seen.
It turned out to be a diversion. The little girl’s father took the opportunity to run in and threw the silver bell. Shu Wuxi’s second stream of spiritual energy had already arrived, directly cutting off the old man’s legs, while the silver bell happened to fall on the elder sister who had given Lu Xiaochan catfish soup.
The elder sister caught the bell and crawled towards Madam Meng, who was sitting cross-legged in the ancient tree. The elder sister was a living person, and cultivators couldn’t indiscriminately cause harm. Shu Wuxi could kill the little girl who had offered her heart and soul to the evil god, but he couldn’t touch the elder sister who was alive.
Lu Xiaochan forcefully patted Lushu’s back. Lushu whimpered twice but showed no intention of moving forward.
How could Shu Wuxi have failed? How could he have let that old man throw the silver bell in?
He could clearly see, right? He must have known that Jiang Wuchao… Jiang Wuchao had probably fallen into a trap and was being controlled!
At this moment, Madam Meng in the belly of the ancient tree slowly raised her head, opened her eyes, and the corners of her mouth turned up, revealing an extremely eerie smile.
The villagers of Chen family village didn’t dare to look at her smile, all lowering their heads and pressing tightly to the ground.
Madam Meng’s hand slowly extended, and in her hand, she still held a heart. It was beating strongly, and one could faintly see a layer of faint spiritual light attached to the heart. However, this layer of spiritual light was being contaminated by evil energy, growing weaker and weaker.
At the very top of the ancient tree, there was a figure with both hands hanging on the tree fork. His position was the highest, higher than all the hearts impaled on the tree branches.
With a splash, the person in the tree fell down, seemingly without any awareness.
But at the moment of touching the ground, he landed on one knee, holding a sword in his hand, slowly raising his head. It was Jiang Wuchao.
Jiang Wuchao only took one step, and Lu Xiaochan recognized his sound, shouting, “Brother Jiang!”
Jiang Wuchao remained unmoved, his eyes devoid of spirit. His right hand held the sword, while his left hand pushed out the sword hilt, and the silver bell rang. This sound was different from what Lu Xiaochan had heard before, like the roaring of a hundred ghosts struggling in the depths of hell.
Lu Xiaochan felt his hair standing on end, and he instinctively pulled hard on the Immortal-Locking Ribbon.
But he only heard Shu Wuxi’s calm voice say, “Don’t be afraid.”
In an instant, he fell from Lushu’s back, but before he could hit the ground, something swallowed him whole.
It was Lushu, who had revealed its spirit beast form and swallowed Lu Xiaochan into its belly.
Lu Xiaochan was enveloped by Lushu’s spiritual energy. He could hear what was happening outside, but it was as if from another world.
At this moment, Jiang Wuchao’s “Spirit Roar” sword formation had rushed towards Shu Wuxi’s face. The entire sword formation was tainted with black evil energy, yet it was more powerful than before, attempting to completely subdue Shu Wuxi.
Shu Wuxi’s clothes and hair were pulled up, but the expression on his face remained unchanged.
Amidst various curses full of jealousy and hatred, the “Spirit Roar” sword formation suddenly compressed and tightened, its force increasing exponentially!
Shu Wuxi merely tapped his toes lightly, and suddenly he burst out of the sword formation.
Jiang Wuchao chased after him. With a wave of his Minglang sword, that sword formation closely followed Shu Wuxi, layer upon layer collapsing. Overhead, branches and leaves continuously fell with the rotating hurricane.
Some villagers were trembling, seemingly afraid of this battle. One old woman stopped praying and looked up at the fighting Jiang Wuchao and Shu Wuxi. A leaf swept up by the sword formation immediately wounded her eye. Before she could cry out in shock, Madam Meng looked at her, and the old woman’s heart burst out of her chest, instantly impaled by a branch of the ancient tree.
Lu Xiaochan pondered in his heart that this evil god had probably attached itself to Madam Meng’s body.
It would use Madam Meng’s body, indicating that Madam Meng had some extremely strong evil thoughts, exactly what it needed most!
Lu Xiaochan recalled that in the Medical Lord Liche’s temple, this Madam Meng had said she came to pray to Medical Lord Liche for a child, yet she was willing to cut open his belly for an osmanthus chicken right in front of the Immortal Lord! How could such a woman have any motherly kindness of someone about to become a mother?
Unless she never wanted a child at all?
Lu Xiaochan suddenly remembered that when villagers wanted to offer incense but were driven away by Madam Meng, someone had once said, “Be careful lest the Immortal Lord brings plague upon you! Let you suffer from illness and pain!”
In other words, in folk legends, Liche could not only cure diseases and save people, but could also bring illness and pain!
Madam Meng’s murderous aura was so heavy. She didn’t go to the Immortal Lord’s temple to pray for a child at all! She was praying for the Immortal Lord to prevent the concubine at home from having children! To make her suffer from illness and pain!
Such deep-rooted jealousy and hatred…
She happened to pass by He family village… That little girl and old father were people who had moved from He family village to Chen family village. They had their hearts dug out, but other people from Chen family village were kneeling there in worship…
Could it be that the reason He family village had decayed and withered was because their villagers were all “sacrifices”, while the people of Chen family village were believers?
Lu Xiaochan was shocked in his heart, remembering the story that couple from Chen family village had told him.
That beautiful young woman from outside was admired by the men in the village, which aroused the jealousy of other women in the village. So that outsider woman stirred up jealousy, she was the root of everything… Perhaps she was the one who first attracted the evil god, or perhaps she was the evil god herself?
Otherwise, how could a village of farmers and weavers, almost devoid of evil desires, attract evil spirits?
The people of Chen family village didn’t voluntarily become followers. It was just that their “jealousy and hatred” wasn’t deep enough, so the evil god couldn’t “consume” them, let alone “possess” them. But when Madam Meng, with her deep-seated jealousy and hatred, came, it greatly enhanced the power of this evil god.
Lu Xiaochan shouted out loud. “Stop worshipping that evil god! If you don’t worship it, it can’t absorb evil desires! Without a source of power, it will soon be subdued!”
The villagers heard Lu Xiaochan’s shouts, but they were still very afraid, lowering their heads and closing their eyes tightly.
The elder sister with her head lowered prayed slower and slower, but her husband immediately elbowed her.
“How old is that blind boy! If you listen to him, the evil goddess will kill you first!”
Lu Xiaochan sighed heavily, then shouted again. “Think about your descendants! Do you want them to live under the threat of this evil god too? They might be unlucky and unable to become followers! This place is remote with few outsiders. Aren’t you afraid that when the evil god can’t wait for outsiders, it will dig out your children’s hearts and turn them into walking corpses!”
Tears fell from the elder sister’s eyes. She thought of her two-year-old child, imagined him living in such fear in the future, pictured his heart being cut out. She gritted her teeth, and no matter how afraid she was, she refused to utter another word of prayer.
“Wife! Wife— think about…”
The elder sister turned her face, looking at her husband with determination. “It’s precisely because I’m thinking about our child! We’ve finally waited for an immortal to come and exorcise the evil for us, but we’ve harmed him! Now another immortal has come, are we still going to aid the wicked?”
Her husband froze there, gritting his teeth, seemingly hesitating whether to continue praying or not.
“If you’ve never harbored hatred due to jealousy, your prayers are of no use to this evil goddess! She’s gathered you here to kneel and pray, just using you as shields! Because cultivators are not allowed to kill living people!”
Lu Xiaochan’s voice was loud and clear. The Madam Meng in the belly of the ancient tree actually moved.
She stepped out of the ancient tree with one foot. The villagers panicked, maintaining their kneeling posture while retreating to both sides.
Madam Meng held Jiang Wuchao’s heart in one hand while walking towards Lushu.
At this moment, in mid-air, Jiang Wuchao and Shu Wuxi were engaged in fierce combat. Jiang Wuchao unleashed three sword formations in succession, but Shu Wuxi avoided them effortlessly. Several century-old trees were destroyed by Jiang Wuchao’s sword formations and fell.
Madam Meng tilted her head, looking at Lushu. Her smile became more and more evident, so greedy that her mouth almost stretched to her ears.
“Unexpectedly… after more than a thousand years… I can actually see the spirit beast Lushu again… What’s inside the belly of this spirit beast?”
Madam Meng’s hand reached towards Lushu’s mouth.
Lushu’s eyes glared angrily, and with a roar, a gust of wind struck Madam Meng directly, blowing apart her hair bun. Her skirt was dragged backwards, and the villagers behind her were also intimidated by this roar. Those cowardly ones who were still praying now forgot everything. They huddled together, watching as Madam Meng faced Lushu’s angry roar and actually managed to grip Lushu’s upper jaw with one hand.
Lushu reared up, about to step on Madam Meng with its front hooves. Madam Meng’s figure flashed, suddenly appearing in mid-air like a ghost, and abruptly sat on Lushu’s neck.
“Such a rich and pure immortal aura.” Madam Meng lowered her head and sniffed with great pleasure. “To be protected so fiercely by Lushu, I wonder which family’s little immortal child has just learned to form a core, yet due to hundreds or thousands of years of cultivation, leaked from their core sea… Little immortal child, have you not ‘entered the power’ yet? Do you want big sister to teach you?”
As she finished speaking, Lu Xiaochan felt a tremor all around him. It was Madam Meng’s hand suddenly pressing down on Lushu’s back!
“Shu Wuxi! Shu Wuxi! This mad woman has come for me!” Lu Xiaochan became anxious.
Since Jiang Wuchao called Shu Wuxi “senior”, the difference in their cultivation levels was naturally significant. How could Shu Wuxi not have subdued Jiang Wuchao after flying around with him in the ancient forest for so long?
At this moment, another giant tree fell, revealing a patch of night sky above the entire ancient forest.
The thick clouds moved slightly, and a sliver of moonlight fell through the gap.
Jiang Wuchao’s feet stepped on a tree trunk, and as his sword light flashed, a sword formation nearly cut Shu Wuxi’s shoe tip.
However, Shu Wuxi borrowed the force from that sword formation. As the moonlight swept across his shoulder, it was as if a mysterious veil was being lifted bit by bit. His eyebrows, sharp as an unsheathed blade, and curved like resting mountains, his eyelids lightly opened. Spiritual energy burst forth, converging into an enormous spiritual pressure. The faint moonlight seemed to be drawn by a force, becoming as strong as daylight, rushing down from the Ninth Heaven to form a grand formation!
Suddenly, wind and clouds arose, and the fallen branches and leaves on the ground were swept into the formation.
Spiritual energy surged within this grand formation, forcefully enveloping this ancient forest.
Madam Meng, who had been arrogantly sitting astride Lushu’s back, prying open its upper jaw and pulling it back, suddenly froze. She raised her head, looking up at the figure suspended in mid-air, shrouded in moonlight.
The spiritual energy surrounding his body undulated like a silver glass sea. The man’s hair tie fluttered and fell, his black hair cascading over his shoulders. The subtle sound of countless fine strands made Madam Meng’s expression change from arrogance to fear!
“No… no… how is this possible! You are Yang…”
Before Madam Meng could finish her words, this grand formation converged from all directions. Waves formed from condensed moonlight crashed down with an awe-inspiring momentum!
The evil god struggled and wailed within Madam Meng’s body, but was refined in an instant, rising upwards and gently falling into Shu Wuxi’s palm.
Jiang Wuchao’s heart, which had been tightly gripped by Madam Meng, dropped with a splash, falling into the grass.
The hollow ancient tree collapsed like rotten wood. With a cracking sound, a fissure extended upwards from the ground, then shattered in all directions.
The hearts trapped on the branches burst open one after another, falling like scattered dust.
The villagers looked up, amazed at Shu Wuxi standing in the air.
Lushu whimpered twice and spat out Lu Xiaochan.
Jiang Wuchao, freed from the control of evil thoughts, fell and crashed heavily to the ground.
His Minglang sword also fell to one side.
Lu Xiaochan got up, stretching out his arms as if trying to touch something, but his toes kicked against an object.
Just as he bent down to pick up the thing on the ground, the Immortal-Locking Ribbon on his wrist jerked. He staggered backward, his back bumping into someone’s embrace.
