Spirit Hunters of Maoshan Sect - c4

Chapter 4: The Miao Region Poison Master
The watching villagers stood dumbfounded. If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, who would believe such supernatural events could occur in broad daylight!

“Wicked creature!” Qing Yun Zi suddenly stood up and berated the female corpse: “I kindly offer to help your mother-child spirits transcend, yet you remain unrepentant. Like an ant trying to shake a tree, you dare resist divine power – I shall now obliterate your very souls!”

He bit his finger and swiftly drew several strokes on a spiritual talisman. With a wave of his hand, the talisman flew into the flames, but instead of burning, it attached directly to the female corpse’s forehead. Qing Yun Zi formed hand seals and began his ritual.

The white energy stopped emanating from the female corpse, and the flames gradually drew closer. First her clothes caught fire, then her skin began to burn and ooze oil, making crackling sounds. Soon the skin was completely burned away, revealing blue-white flesh crisscrossed with green veins that shrank in the flames like earthworms twisting and struggling in fire – a truly nauseating sight.

The female corpse’s whole body trembled as if struggling, her expression changing as she gnashed her teeth. Her eyes, now without eyelids, bulged grotesquely, looking far more terrifying than any ghost in horror movies.

“Mother of heaven…” Some of the more timid villagers collapsed to the ground, nearly losing control of their bladders. Everyone instinctively backed away, many huddling together while trembling.

Just as it seemed the female corpse would be burned away, the unexpected happened—

A black cloud drifted over from the horizon, blocking the sunlight. The entire sky quickly darkened, mountain winds howled, and it appeared a storm was imminent.

Qing Yun Zi silently cursed his bad luck as he looked up at the sky. Though sudden storms were common in the late summer of September, and the female corpse certainly didn’t have enough supernatural power to cause this, the timing of this wind and rain couldn’t have been worse. Without sunlight’s suppression, fire alone wouldn’t be enough to contain the corpse demon.

Sure enough, the female corpse suddenly let out a piercing shriek and sprang up, leaping out of the fire pit. At that moment, the Five Elements flags Qing Yun Zi had planted around the grave suddenly began to sway, shooting out rays of golden light that interwove to form a net covering the airspace above the grave.

The female corpse crashed into the net and fell, but quickly jumped up again, continuing to crash against it while making terrifying beast-like roars that rattled the nerves of everyone present.

This time no one retreated – they were all too scared to move, standing frozen as they watched the female corpse’s frenzied display.

Qing Yun Zi remained motionless, maintaining his hand seals while continuously chanting to reinforce the divine power of the Five Elements flags. He could see that although the female corpse was going berserk, she was at her limit. In another moment, she would inevitably be burned to ashes. However, the infant demon in her belly still hadn’t shown any movement…

“Aooo—” Another strange cry rang out as the female corpse stopped ramming the golden net and instead grabbed its edges, beginning to tear at it. The corpse demon’s strength was enormous, and soon it had torn a hole in the net, poking its head through.

“Demon, you dare!” Qing Yun Zi shouted, drawing his jujube wood sword. While peach wood swords catch ghosts, jujube wood swords subdue demons. For dealing with corpse demons, jujube wood swords were necessary. Qing Yun Zi’s sword was made from a hundred-year-old jujube tree that had been struck by lightning, possessing limitless spiritual power.

Qing Yun Zi bit his middle finger and quickly drew a spell on the jujube sword with blood. He leaped forward and thrust the sword into the female corpse’s left eye. The eyeball burst, spraying green liquid that fell on the vegetation below, acting like strong acid as it immediately turned black and withered.

The sword’s blade emerged from the back of the female corpse’s head. A sound like oil popping in a wok rang out as black liquid bubbled and flowed from the sword wound. The female corpse’s whole body trembled as she let out an even more piercing shriek, her hands suddenly gripping the sword blade tightly, preventing it from being withdrawn.

At that moment, her swollen abdomen began to writhe. With a “pop,” a pale small hand emerged, followed by another. They grabbed the flesh and ripped it open with a tearing sound. A large-headed infant with blood-red eyes and a pair of sharp fangs crawled out of the mother’s body, quickly escaping through the hole in the golden net.

The infant demon had finally appeared! Protected by the mother’s body, the earlier fire hadn’t harmed it at all. Though it clearly feared Qing Yun Zi, giving him only one fierce glare, it crawled away toward the mountains at incredible speed using both hands and feet.

Unable to withdraw the jujube sword, Qing Yun Zi dared not let go, fearing the female corpse wasn’t dead. Unable to handle both threats at once, he worried for the villagers’ safety. He withdrew his right hand and took out a handful of copper beans from his sleeve, throwing them forcefully at the infant demon. Most hit their mark, causing black smoke to hiss forth. The infant demon shrieked but didn’t slow down, disappearing into the vegetation.

Qing Yun Zi formed a mudra with his right hand and struck the female corpse with his palm, sending her flying. He pulled out the jujube sword and thrust it into her throat, continuously chanting incantations.

The female corpse let out miserable whimpers. After ten seconds, her body finally stiffened and fell straight back into the still-burning pile of firewood, unable to hold onto the jujube sword.

Qing Yun Zi hurriedly chased in the direction the infant demon had fled. Pushing aside a patch of tall grass, he saw a downward slope, with the infant demon already at the bottom. Knowing he couldn’t catch up, he bit his left thumb and pressed it to the jujube sword, loudly chanting: “As sun sets in sandy clarity, heaven and earth invert, limitless yin and yang, boundless is the power of Dao!”

He hurled the jujube sword with all his might.

The sword flew like an arrow, accurately striking the infant demon’s heart from behind. The demon shuddered but managed to pull out the sword with its hand, fleeing wounded into a grove of trees at the foot of the mountain.

Qing Yun Zi pursued down the mountain without pause, following the demon energy the infant had left on the vegetation. Just then, the storm arrived as expected, and in moments, the rain had washed away all traces of the demon energy from the plants.

“Heaven does not aid me!” Qing Yun Zi stamped his foot and sighed deeply, stopping his pursuit. With nightfall approaching, although the corpse demon was wounded, it could still absorb nearby yin energy, having enough power to sustain its escape. Further pursuit would be meaningless.

Qing Yun Zi dejectedly returned up the mountain to the grave, seeing the female corpse had burned to ashes. Somewhat relieved, he directed people to bury the remains on the spot to prevent the corpse poison from spreading and causing an epidemic.

“Master, that ghost child…” Old Man Ye asked timidly.

Qing Yun Zi sighed deeply, lamenting: “I was also careless. The female corpse was prepared to die from the start and had transferred most of her demon energy to the infant demon. That’s why even the jujube sword couldn’t kill it, allowing it to escape.”

“Ah!” Everyone was shocked, looking at each other in dismay.

“Then… will it return to harm people?” Old Man Ye asked in a trembling voice.

“It took one of my sword strikes and is seriously wounded. It will certainly find a place to hide and recover through cultivation. It won’t emerge to harm people for three to five years.”

“It takes three to five years to recover from a wound?”

Qing Yun Zi rolled his eyes, “It’s not human – you can’t judge it by human standards. Corpse demons have no lifespan; three to five years is merely the blink of an eye to it.”

“Then what about after three to five years?”

“If it appears then, you can contact me again.” Qing Yun Zi sighed, having no better solution. He began walking toward the villagers.

Despite the pouring rain, none of them dared to leave the mountain, each waiting for Qing Yun Zi’s instructions.

Qing Yun Zi walked past them one by one, finally stopping in front of a man in his thirties. His gaze sharp as lightning, he looked the man up and down, suddenly grabbing his right hand and opening the palm. There, on the pads of his thumb and middle finger, was a faint red stain.