Chapter Seventy-Nine: Refining Blood into a Dragon, Purple Hair and Golden Eyes
A horde of ghosts surged forward in a frenzy.
"Kill!" A ruthless glint flashed in Yaoyue's eyes.
Long, sharp claws extended from her fingertips.
With a beat of her wings, she glided low to the ground, arriving before two of the specters.
Rip! Her talons tore through the two ghosts' forms.
As their bodies collapsed, they dissipated into blue smoke.
"These ghosts are nothing special after all," Yaoyue thought to herself.
Her claws were no ordinary weapons, but the talons of a demon eagle—capable of harming the very soul. If they scratched flesh, the wounds would never heal.
Elsewhere, Xiyue unleashed balls of ghostly green fire. The scorching flames exploded, instantly erasing three phantoms.
The remaining water python soldiers coordinated their attacks. Not only did the ghostly army fail to break through, but several of their own were slain in the process.
The situation was turning in their favor.
Yet before the group could rejoice, a thick black mist billowed from the dark banner in the sky.
The ghosts they had only just slain reappeared, utterly unscathed.
"What is this!" Xiyue’s beautiful eyes widened in despair.
These ghosts could not be killed, and above them, monsters awaited their chance to strike.
But retreat was not an option. Lu Qian had entrusted them with guarding the cave.
As long as Lu Qian remained inside, they could not withdraw.
"Brothers! With me!" the black eagle snarled, brandishing his ghost-killing steel blade streaked with cinnabar. He led the water python soldiers into the fray against the ghosts.
Yaoyue, wielding the blood-patterned crossbow Lu Qian had given her, picked off one specter after another with deadly precision.
Every ghost struck by a blood-patterned steel bolt exploded instantly.
And now, the ghosts' ability to reform was clearly waning.
Bang!
"Ah!" One water python soldier fell, and the ghosts swarmed.
Their black scales were torn open, blood spurting forth.
The ghosts, intoxicated by the scent of blood as if presented with a rare delicacy, swarmed over the fallen soldier, devouring his flesh.
In the blink of an eye, nothing remained but a pale skeleton.
Witnessing this, the group felt a chill cut to the bone, an icy wind seeping through their bodies.
Though they had become Taoist soldiers, human emotions lingered in their hearts.
Faced with such a scene, unease gnawed at them.
"Awaken!" Yaoyue’s command snapped them to their senses.
"Yes, miss!" the black eagle and the others rallied, bracing themselves to fight on.
Even unsettled, not one Taoist soldier thought to retreat.
It was not a matter of loyalty.
After consuming the golden elixir, Lu Qian’s words had become their law: unless every last one of them fell, there could be no retreat.
Bang! Bang!
Two more fell, their corpses stripped by the ghosts.
Still, the survivors held the line against the ghostly horde.
"What’s this? Useless trash!" Li Mingyou sneered coldly.
A dazzling burst of dark light erupted in the night. A wave of heat crashed down from the sky.
Jade-green ghostfire poured like a waterfall.
Wherever the eye could see, flames blotted out the heavens.
Even before the fire reached the ground, its searing heat felt as if oil had been poured onto a blazing inferno.
"Attack!"
The black eagle spat a stream of bone-rotting black water, and a dozen water python soldiers joined in, unleashing black water from their bellies.
The streams merged into a dark curtain, which held for only a few heartbeats.
"Sister, help us retreat—I've got a killer weapon the master left behind," Xiyue, drenched in sweat from the heat, called to Yaoyue.
"Understood!" Without hesitation, Yaoyue seized Xiyue and the black eagle.
The three remaining demon eagle soldiers each grabbed two companions, and with a mighty beat of their wings, they withdrew.
High in the sky, Xiyue hurled a sword hilt.
Buzz!
The hilt shot out three feet of blue light.
A chilling aura of death swept forth, ghosts dissolving into azure smoke.
But cracks began to spread across the hilt, and within them, red light flickered.
"Not good!" Li Mingyou’s pupils contracted.
Boom!
The Seven-Kill Yin Talisman Sword exploded!
A storm of ghostly flame and shockwaves swept in all directions.
Within hundreds of feet, everything was reduced to dust, and over a hundred ghosts were annihilated.
The flaming crows in the shadows were consumed by the inferno.
Xiyue and her companions were blasted hundreds of meters away by the shockwave, landing before the cave where Lu Qian was secluded.
"Damn it!" Blood trickled from the corner of Xiyue's mouth.
She threw another Seven-Kill Yin Talisman Sword.
Then another, and another, until five in total.
Boom!
A sky-filling eruption of ghostly flame!
“If it comes to using the self-destructing talisman swords, use them all. Hold nothing back,” Lu Qian’s precepts echoed in Xiyue’s mind from before he entered seclusion.
The scene before them was like a hell of ghostfire.
Flames covered the mountainside, blue light rippling across the sky.
When at last the fire died away, despair gripped them all.
A shadow crow, its wings spanning thirty feet, still hovered in the air.
Aside from a few lost feathers, it was entirely unharmed.
"Very good. Lu Qian, your creatures have finally managed to enrage me."
A wave of force swept forth, suspending two Taoist soldiers in the air and drawing them into his claws.
A slight squeeze—
Bang!
The soldiers burst into a mist of blood!
"Lu Qian, do you see this? This is your fate!" Li Mingyou bellowed at the stone gate.
Bang!
Another two soldiers were crushed.
He seemed as relaxed as a cat toying with a mouse.
"What’s this? Afraid, are you? Lu Qian, I’ll roast your soul over ghostfire for a hundred years!"
Boom!
The ghostfire transformed into a monstrous, snarling ghostly head, more than ten feet wide, its fangs bared in a roar.
The howling specter fell, its demonic voice ringing in their ears, heat like the blazing sun.
This technique: Flying Fire Yin Kill—capable of slaying from ten miles away.
Boom!
Flames engulfed the soldiers and the cave.
An entire section of the mountain was scoured flat.
"It's over." Li Mingyou smiled, finally avenged for Li Lin.
As this thought passed, the dark banner behind him unfurled.
Ghostly mist drifted down, the spirits appearing, ready to seize the souls of the fallen.
But Li Mingyou frowned. Why could he not sense any souls remaining?
At that moment, the smoke cleared.
A figure emerged.
At the sight of this person, Li Mingyou's heart trembled.
In the black ghost-mist stood a tall silhouette.
In Li Mingyou's perception, this man’s vital energy was like a beacon of smoke rising from the boundless earth—vivid and blazing.
He strode out from the mist.
His steps were slow and steady, each one echoing like a drumbeat in the heart.
Moonlight bathed him, his long black-violet hair cascading like a waterfall, shining with a mysterious luster, draping carelessly down his back.
He stood nine feet tall, with purple hair and golden eyes.
Dark yellow fish-scale markings adorned his face, his eye sockets shadowed in violet.
His green-scaled dragon armor clung to his body like a living thing, and in his hand he gripped the Blood-Dissolving Demon Blade, its surface flowing with crimson light.
At a glance, he looked like a dragon in human form cloaked in blue scales, an aura of bloodthirsty energy radiating from him.
This was Lu Qian, the Blood-Refining Fish Dragon!
A wicked grin played on his lips, and with a flash, he vanished, leaving an afterimage behind.
He cut through the ghostly mist, and when he reappeared, he held a fierce ghost in his grasp, crushing it into a small ball of green fire.
Crunch!
His mouth opened, and with a few savage bites, he swallowed the ghost whole, the sound of his chewing enough to make one's teeth ache.
Having devoured the fiend, Lu Qian looked up and grinned, revealing sharp, white teeth.
Killing intent radiated from him, the demon blade exuding a sinister mist.
"Steward Li Mingyou? Your reputation precedes you. To meet you today is a rare fortune."
"Let me give you some advice: leave now, and you can preserve your life and your honor—no one will know you ran away in disgrace. But if not…"
A fierce wind swept past, his black-violet hair billowing, and the dragon-sinew demon blade shrieked with power. Lu Qian’s golden eyes flashed with wicked light as he declared coldly, "If not, I'll deal with you myself—and turn you into minced meat!"