Chapter 459: Evil Spirits

The ominous Purple Tassel Sword was slowly drawn by Li Huowang from its scabbard with a clang. Its tip pointed steadily at the thing in the corner.

Fiends. Since arriving in Daliang, Li Huowang had rarely encountered such entities. He truly hadn't expected to find one under these circumstances.

Li Huowang's brows furrowed. He spoke in a low voice, "Brother Zhuge, it seems this catastrophe isn't merely about the sky turning dark. Is this fiend related to it?"

With a grave expression, Zhuge Yuan stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the sky, seemingly lost in thought. Zhuge Yuan didn't react, but the thing in the corner began to stir.

As it slowly turned around, Li Huowang saw a pale, massive face with two bloody holes where its eyes should have been.

Its gaping maw slowly opened. Inside, there were no teeth, but instead, rows of small, corpse-spotted infant hands. As the upper and lower rows of hands clasped together, they formed a bone-chilling grin.

At this terrifying sight, Li Huowang, still atop the wall, twisted his expression into a grimace. He stomped his feet forcefully and charged straight towards the entity.

In this utterly insane world, he had experienced far too much. Such things no longer stirred a ripple in his heart.

His sword arrived before he did. The instantly elongated Copper Coin Sword, with a whistling sound, cleaved down powerfully towards the entity's forehead.

Seeing this, the fiend used its hands, several times longer than its body, stabbing from left and right towards Li Huowang's sides. It seemed to be attempting a feigned retreat to advance.

However, as Li Huowang's sword-holding right hand quickly flicked and pulled, the copper coins in the air twisted and coiled. A flash of blade and sword light streaked through the air, accompanied by a shrill shriek, as both of its arms were neatly sliced into three sections.

The armless fiend's large head rapidly shrank and drew inward. As its clothing fell to the ground, a dark shadow quickly emerged from within the silk robes and vanished into the darkness.

Glancing at the strange, bamboo-joint-like severed arms on the ground, Li Huowang did not pursue, wishing to avoid being lured away. He violently flicked the black blood from his sword and turned to return to the Bai family compound.

But as he took two steps, a paper window at the end of the dark road suddenly lit up.

An eerie green light seeped through the wooden window. The light source flickered, brightening and dimming, suggesting something was moving back and forth inside. He was certain it wasn't a person, as everyone from Niuxin Village was currently inside the Bai family compound.

At first, it was just one house. But gradually, two or three more appeared. As these windows lit up one by one, the entire Niuxin Village became as sinister as the underworld's Fengdu.

Looking at the lit windows, Li Huowang's expression began to turn grim. One fiend was nothing, but so many were quite troublesome.

Moreover, and more importantly, he couldn't be sure if this situation was the beginning of something much worse.

"Bang!" Li Huowang forcefully slammed the gate of the Bai family compound shut. He pulled out a piece of turmeric paper, quickly wrote an Evil-Dispelling and Malevolence-Quelling Talisman with his own blood, and directly affixed it to the wooden bolt.

Seeing the many faces in the compound, Li Huowang spoke, "You don't need to worry about the trouble outside. All of you, stay put in the courtyard! No one is allowed to go out before the catastrophe passes!"

After speaking, Li Huowang climbed back onto the wall, gripping his sword, and stared intently at the windows glowing with eerie green light.

"Normally, encountering even one fiend is rare," Li Huowang thought, "but now they're all popping up as if they're free. Is this only happening in Niuxin Village, or is it happening everywhere? If it's the latter, then perhaps..." His heart began to sink.

"If it's truly as Brother Li fears," Zhuge Yuan said, his expression as grim as Li Huowang's, "then this catastrophe will likely live up to its name."

His right hand was half-raised, his thumb continuously tapping on his other knuckles, as if he was constantly calculating something.

"Ah, what a pity," the Faceless Red lamented from beside him, "such an interesting event. Too bad I missed out. I died first, of all things."

"Daoist, what exactly is going on?" the Monk asked worriedly. "Will a lot of people die from this?"

Li Huowang ignored the chatter of his hallucinations, silently staring outside. The only good news, if any, was that while the windows were lit, no hostile gazes were cast from them.

It was unclear if they were intimidated by Li Huowang, but those entities showed no intention of leaving the windows.

"My heavens! What... what is that?!" Lu Xiucai yelled frantically. "Master, look behind you!"

Lu Xiucai's frantic shout made Li Huowang turn around abruptly. He immediately saw a second-floor window also turning green. They were inside!

What made Li Huowang's heart pound with dread at that moment was that window belonged to Bai Lingmiao's boudoir!

Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang quickly drew two talismans and forcefully slapped them onto his knees.

As he instantly pushed off the wall with a powerful thrust of his feet, his agile body launched into the air like a thrown spear, charging straight towards the green window.

"Crash!" The wooden window shattered. As Li Huowang, sword in one hand, tumbled into the room, he saw two figures, one in white and one in red, kneeling and hunched over the bed, gnawing on something.

From their attire, he could tell these two were Bai Lingmiao and Er Shen!

"Miao Miao!" As a terrified Li Huowang walked behind them, he placed a hand on Bai Lingmiao's shoulder and turned her around. His heart violently trembled.

The formerly delicate Bai Lingmiao was gone. What appeared before Li Huowang was an unusually terrifying face.

Her mouth was full of barbed fangs, and her face was covered in spikes and green scales, all stained with foul-smelling black blood. Bai Lingmiao's body bore no resemblance to a human's; it looked like a grotesque patchwork of various animals.

Despite this appearance, Bai Lingmiao was still laughing, her hideous mouth stretched almost to her ears. "Hahaha~ Hahaha~!!"

"Li Huowang! Hahaha! I don't want to laugh! But I can't help it! The Immortals are all going crazy with joy! They've affected me, and I'm so hungry now!!"

After speaking, Bai Lingmiao pounced back onto the bed and frantically tore at the remains of what seemed to be a fiend's corpse, unrecognizable now.

"Crack!" A blood-streaked bone was bitten in two by Er Shen and swallowed whole without chewing.

Looking at Bai Lingmiao, who seemed to have degenerated into a beast before him, Li Huowang understood this wasn't a solution. He had to make them calm down.

He immediately made a cutting gesture with his right hand, and a Pai Gow tile appeared in his palm.

Next, Li Huowang formed a Vajra mudra with his hand and pressed the Pai Gow tile to his forehead. "Sever attachments, calm the mind!"

When he took the Pai Gow tile away again, his own face peeled off like a mask.

Li Huowang held his own face with one hand and pressed it directly onto Bai Lingmiao's face. "Great Calmness, Attainment of the Dao!"

The moment Li Huowang's face, with the Pai Gow tile still on its forehead, settled onto Bai Lingmiao's face, she immediately stopped moving and laughing.