Chapter Forty-One: Fire Ignites! Calamity Begins!
With a single palm, Liu Changfeng was knocked unconscious.
Qi Xiu rose to his feet, his expression grave as he turned to face the city, where towering flames pierced the night sky. His face flickered with uncertainty.
Things had taken a dire turn.
He had never expected that after all this time preparing for external threats, it would be internal unrest that arrived instead.
The magistrate, the deputy, and the constable—
Along with all their subordinates: the bailiffs, police runners, and clerks of the six departments.
All of them—every last one—had been offering worship to demonic altars.
A cold shiver ran down Qi Xiu's spine, his scalp prickling with dread.
The county of Baohua, which always seemed so peaceful and harmonious, had become a den of monsters.
Within the county office alone, there were seven such altars! Scattered throughout the county, in countless hidden corners, were even more, too many to count.
No wonder news of the missing never spread; with the authorities themselves corrupted, who would care?
He had to leave.
He must go—if he stayed any longer, he would end up as food for that demon!
His heart in turmoil, Qi Xiu spared no more thought for the unconscious Liu Changfeng on the ground. He stepped forward to leave when a sudden premonition struck him.
His back prickled as if stabbed by needles.
He whipped his head around. On a distant rooftop, several hundred meters away, a pale, ghostly figure hovered. Its inhuman, chilling eyes fixed unwaveringly upon him.
The instant Qi Xiu spotted it, the wraith turned and fled.
No good! It’s going to raise the alarm.
His face darkened. He knew he could not allow this wraith to escape, or he might not even have the time to get out of Baohua County.
With a thunderous surge of power in his legs, Qi Xiu drove explosive force into the ground.
With a sharp crack, shards of stone flew as a web of fissures burst across the earth. His body shot forward like a cannonball, leaping ten meters in a single bound.
Bounding across rooftops, Qi Xiu became a streak of lightning, all focus bent on catching the wraith.
No matter how smooth or uneven the rooftops, he found his footing with uncanny precision, vaulting and springing with incredible speed and agility.
Only one thought filled his mind: catch that wraith.
Under the intense flow of energy, his mastery of the Swallow's Flight technique soared, rising faster than it ever had during rigid practice—even though, at this moment, he cared nothing for such progress.
As the gap between him and the wraith narrowed, Qi Xiu bit his finger, swiftly inscribing three "Seal" characters on his autumn sandalwood staff.
With three swift motions, he unleashed three blood-red arcs of sword energy, thick with a noxious, demonic aura.
But as if sensing the deadly attack behind it, the wraith’s immaterial body suddenly dropped, passing straight through a rooftop and vanishing into a house.
"Get out here!" Qi Xiu roared, demonic red-black energy surging around him. With a mighty strike, he shattered the roof, crashing into the room below.
Inside, a couple in the midst of a roleplay stared in terror, scrambling for their clothes as Qi Xiu burst through the ceiling.
His tiger eyes swept the room, catching a flicker of shadow passing through the southern wall. Qi Xiu tossed them a silver ingot, then smashed through the wall in pursuit.
Stunned by how, in the blink of an eye, their roof and walls had vanished, the mustached man in a lady’s gown turned to his wife.
"Should... should we keep going?"
...
In a cramped, shadowy alley, the wraith twisted and darted, trying to lose its pursuer in the darkness of night.
But with the power of the Sun-Gazing Spirit Art, even in pitch-black night, Qi Xiu saw as clearly as in daylight.
Around and around they went, until the wraith led Qi Xiu back to where they started, then dove straight into the body of the unconscious Liu Changfeng.
Liu Changfeng’s eyes fluttered open, revealing a cold, sinister smile.
He... won’t... dare... to kill...
Having witnessed Qi Xiu’s earlier handling of Liu Changfeng, the wraith’s muddled consciousness concluded that Qi Xiu would not easily kill a living person.
Sitting on the ground, facing Qi Xiu striding toward him, the wraith spread its hands with a twisted grin.
What can you do to me, unless you dare to kill this living—
Red Sand Palm!
The wraith’s sluggish thought wasn’t even finished before a blazing, ferocious palm—fiery energy raging, wicked poison hidden within—came crashing down like thunder, landing squarely atop Liu Changfeng’s skull.
A scream tore out as the virulent yang energy of the Red Sand Palm blasted through Liu Changfeng’s body.
The wraith writhed in agony, torrents of ashen smoke gushing from Liu Changfeng’s orifices.
How... could... he... dare...
The wraith could not comprehend Qi Xiu’s sudden ruthlessness.
It struggled to escape from Liu Changfeng’s body, only to be seized in Qi Xiu’s grasp.
As the wraith shrieked and writhed, unable to break free, Qi Xiu mused thoughtfully.
"So pure-yang martial arts are the bane of these wraiths."
The Red Sand Palm was a fusion of the Crimson Heart Palm and the Black Sand Palm. The Crimson Heart Palm itself was a pure-yang technique, wielding fiery force and devastating heat. Fused with the Black Sand Palm, its fire gained a poisonous quality—a "fire poison" that clung like maggots to flesh, impossible to shake off.
That was how Qi Xiu could grasp the otherwise incorporeal wraith—because the fire poison on his hand trapped it, leaving it unable to escape.
His fingers clenched. The wraith burned to ash, scattering on the wind.
With the threat eliminated, Qi Xiu turned and hurried home.
There was no waiting for tomorrow.
He would leave tonight!
...
Bounding over rooftops, Qi Xiu vaulted back the way he had come. With a three-sixty somersault, he landed lightly in his courtyard and hurried into the kitchen.
He removed a brick next to the water vat, retrieving his entire fortune: twenty-one thousand three hundred taels in banknotes.
With his wealth in hand, Qi Xiu let out a breath of relief. He left everything else behind; traveling light was best. He could always buy what he needed elsewhere—money solved everything.
He stowed the banknotes, returned to the inner room for a few changes of clothes, two fine-tipped brushes, and a bottle of ink.
Preparations complete, Qi Xiu stepped out of the main hall, ready to leave—when he suddenly froze.
He turned, blinking hard in disbelief.
Was he seeing things?
Where was the jade Buddha?
The jade Buddha that had always stood quietly in the corner of the hall had vanished without a trace. Only the white cloth remained on the floor.
A chill swept through Qi Xiu.
What on earth was happening tonight?
He dared not dwell further. Cinching his bundle tight, Qi Xiu strode briskly away.
...
In the rear courtyard of the county office—
An altar that had once been hidden in a secret chamber was now set out in the open.
Bare-chested, his expression wild, Guo Youfang knelt in a frenzy at the foot of a fox demon statue, both hands raised high above his head.
Beside him, more than a hundred commoners were bound, their faces twisted in terror as they struggled in vain.
"Great Fox Immortal! Please, feast to your heart’s content!"
The fox demon statue, now even more ornate and luxurious than before, glowed with blood-red eyes.
In the next instant, the bound captives screamed as countless streams of blood gushed from their seven orifices, merging in midair into a rippling river of blood that poured over the statue.
In less than ten seconds, more than a hundred people were reduced to shriveled black husks.
After consuming so many lives, the fox demon statue spewed a thick pink mist into Guo Youfang’s body.
The demonic mist entered him, and his body began to swell rapidly. Gray-green cords of muscle writhed beneath his once smooth, pale skin, his joints twisted grotesquely, and his yellowed teeth fell out, replaced by sharp fangs.
In the blink of an eye, the county magistrate had become a half-human, half-beast monstrosity.
And such scenes of horror and madness played out all across Baohua County.
The raging infernos became the curtain hiding monstrous crimes.
In the shadows, monstrous evil flourished, unchecked.