Chapter 52: Slaughter at the True Immortal Temple

The ashes of the paper talismans drifted through the air. The believers felt as though countless insects were gnawing at their brains. Having been in contact with Hsieh Ya-li, the core of the parasitic fungus, at the True Immortal Temple for far too long, nine-tenths of them were already beyond saving.

Li Hsuan did not feel much sympathy for them.

How many of these hundred-odd believers had families suffering the same fate as Lu Ming? He was not sure...

Huang Yi-feng and Lin Tao-sheng, as Hsieh Ya-li's "disciples" and senior believers, should have suffered the most severe reactions, but instead, they only showed mild symptoms of a nosebleed.

Li Hsuan's remark that "ascension is a scam" seemed to ignite the powder keg in their hearts.

Enduring the pain in his brain, Huang Yi-feng lunged forward with a long sword, his eyes gloomy and his voice hoarse. "Heretic demon, stop bewitching people's minds! I am going to slay demons and eliminate fiends on behalf of my master!"

His swaying appearance seemed fragile and vulnerable.

Li Hsuan had studied mixed martial arts in the real world for over six months, but he had not yet learned swordsmanship. He wanted to avoid any and all risks!

He pulled the purple-red gourd from his waist, uncorked it, and gently patted its exterior.

Swish!

A cold flash shot out from the gourd's mouth, instantly piercing Huang Yi-feng's throat. Lin Tao-sheng peered closely, only to realize it was a utility knife blade!

Huang Yi-feng's throat was severed, blood spilling from his mouth. He collapsed to the ground, struggling desperately before finally dying of asphyxiation.

The gourd blessed by the White Crane Immortal had marvelous uses. Not only could it store items like a "storage pouch," but it could also automatically absorb and store the spiritual energy of every world like a power bank.

When facing ghosts and spirits, Li Hsuan still had specialized ritual instruments such as the Fengdu Seal, the Inspection Seal for Ghosts and Spirits of the Three Realms, the Jiuchuan Command, the Dongyue Great Emperor Command, and the Tianpeng Ruler.

However, against ordinary mortals of flesh and blood, many spells were ineffective.

Especially in sudden close-quarters combat, people would not wait for you to slowly set up an altar, arrange formations, and chant incantations; they would just smash a steel pipe right over your head!

It was precisely for this reason that Li Hsuan suffered from a slight deficiency in martial prowess anxiety, which drove him to desperately supplement his nutrition, work out, and practice combat.

Still feeling uneasy, he studied the gourd and was suddenly struck by an inspiration: when storing items, if he threw them in with a hurling motion, would they also emerge with a hurling motion when retrieved? He tested stones and steel balls, and indeed, a certain velocity was retained, but manual throwing lacked sufficient power.

He tried a slingshot, and the power was passable.

After adding a frame and a track to launch blades, the power improved considerably, though it still fell short when facing wooden planks, stone slabs, and metal.

***

The gourd concealed weapon was merely a transition; he needed to get his hands on a pistol given the chance. Although he was a practitioner of the Dao, he deeply understood the deterrence of modern weapons.

As a practitioner of the Dao, ballistics was also part of the Dao, after all.

A trace of fear flickered in Lin Tao-sheng's pupils. Having followed his master from a past life to re-cultivate the path of immortality in this lifetime, what did life and death matter? He only feared perishing at the hands of this demon, having his soul shattered, and never being able to transcend through the cycles of reincarnation.

After all, even his master seemed somewhat wary of this demon.

The more he thought about it, the more faint-hearted he became. He stepped back half a step, balled his right hand into a fist, extended his pinky, index, and thumb to form the Three Pure Ones mudra, and forcefully waved it toward a few nearby believers. Dispersing a large amount of scarlet and eerie special dust, he said, "If you slaughter this fiend, you will surely attain immortality and achieve the Dao."

These were a few middle-aged women whose parasitic fungus had been forced out of their bodies by the talisman ashes. Bleeding from all seven orifices, they could barely stand. At that moment, once infected with the specially cultured fungus by Lin Tao-sheng, their pupils instantly dilated, and with foolish grins on their faces, they picked up the daggers from the ground and turned to walk toward Li Hsuan.

Li Hsuan stood on no further ceremony and gently patted the mouth of the gourd!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Pristine white light flashed!

All these believers collapsed to the ground, twitching as they died. Lin Tao-sheng had not expected these believers to be so useless and turned to flee. Having followed his master in cultivation for only a few months in this life, he had barely mastered the art of bewitching minds with parasitic Yin worms; otherwise, he was no different from an ordinary person.

Puff, puff, puff!

Three blades struck the back of his neck, seemingly damaging his cervical vertebrae nerves. His body went limp uncontrollably; he was not yet dead and could speak, but his limbs refused to move no matter what...

Lin Tao-sheng panicked. "I am the introductory disciple of my master from a past life! You cannot harm me, or else the cycle of karma will bring forth disaster! You, you, you—you will be cast into the Fengdu Ghost City to suffer endless tortures in hell! As for us immortals-in-training, we stand outside the cycle of life and death; reborn in another lifetime, our path to immortality remains smooth..."

Li Hsuan looked down at Lin Tao-sheng sprawled on the ground and asked calmly, "Do you know the Black Code?"

Lin Tao-sheng was somewhat stunned, wanting to say no, yet fearing the other party would deal a fatal blow. The name "Black Code" sounded bizarre; it was probably this demon's cultivation technique or perhaps his sect's precepts.

He hurriedly said, "I have heard a little of it. Although it relies on dark cultivation, it is actually not inherently evil; it also guides people toward goodness. By killing my master's disciples and believers just now, you have already broken the precept against killing!"

Heh, he made it sound almost authentic!

Li Hsuan raised a foot and forcefully stomped the three blades deeper into the back of Lin Tao-sheng's neck, causing him to instantly draw his last breath. "You spoke with such conviction that I almost thought I was cultivating a pirated version. When I clean up the aftermath later, I will send you to labor reform via the Fengdu Seal so you stop spouting nonsense to everyone you meet."

The air was thick with the stench of blood...

Aside from Lin Tao-sheng and Huang Yi-feng, the other believers had not even touched the hem of Li Hsuan's garment. Instead, because the parasitic fungus had abandoned them, they collapsed to the ground and breathed their last, the floor littered with vomit, making one's stomach churn.

***

Li Hsuan had thought that entering the True Immortal Temple would inevitably involve a fierce battle with the two disciples and a host of believers, which was why he had scattered the talisman ashes to expel the fungus upon meeting them, weakening their combat effectiveness first.

He never expected it to directly drain their health bars.

It simply left him speechless.

Considering he had made quite a bit of psychological self-suggestion and self-encouragement before entering the building, was that really it?

However, he did not lower his guard.

Because Hsieh Ya-li was still inside the True Immortal Temple, and he didn't know if that "immortal" older sister who possessed Huang Huo-tu's daughter had returned yet...

He walked through the main hall and proceeded further inside.

Behind the main hall was a vast empty chamber. A short-haired girl dressed in a thin, sheer white gauze dress stood there. Her facial features were regular—not particularly pretty, but her skin was as pale as a corpse's. She stood barefoot on the ground as if she had been standing there for a long time. The eyeballs in her left and right eye sockets rolled back and forth, revealing eerie double pupils.

Her voice was very soft, carrying even a trace of youthful innocence. She raised her left arm while her right hand held nothing, yet she performed the motion of "flicking a horsetail whisk," staring at Li Hsuan as she spoke:

"Those who cultivate the Dao seek the immortals and inquire after immortality, aiming for feathered ascension and soaring to the heavens. I merely follow the records in the ancient texts, imitating Lord Huang Shang in slaying human ghouls to achieve ascension! The path of cultivation is desolate and lonely, impossible without great perseverance. In my past life, I exhausted my whole life in bitter cultivation, fortunately obtaining a rebirth in this present lifetime, born with the anomaly of double pupils. I wish to slay human ghouls to verify the Dao and lead those with an affinity to ascend to the immortal registers together. Yet a doubt remains unsolved in my mind—you forcefully obstruct our kind, for what reason?"

The last time he heard someone speak like this, it had been Marshal Tianpeng.

When others spoke with such pretentious grandeur, it sounded fine, but coming to Hsieh Ya-li, with Li Hsuan watching a modern teenage girl speak this way, it felt awkward no matter how he listened.

He didn't even want to deliver an opening line. With a zero-frame startup, he slapped the gourd!

Instantly, five flashes of blade light shot out, heading straight for Hsieh Ya-li's face with fierce momentum, carrying an intense intent to kill!

You think I am a "heretic demon," and I think you are a heretic demon too. Since we are all heretic demons, if we are going to fight, just fight—why bother reciting lines!

What a waste of time!