CHAPTER 294: THE THREE SOULS AND SEVEN SPIRITS! YOU PLAYED ME!

Li Yanchu had no patience to waste words with He Yu. They’d never seen eye to eye anyway, and besides, he was carrying out justice in Heaven’s name, why bother with such nonsense?

As Li Yanchu closed in, He Yu reacted with startling speed. The five copper coins tied to his waist with a red cord flared with a crimson light, wrapping around him in a protective glow. It was a defensive magical artifact.

At this moment, He Yu showed a flash of decisiveness. Unfortunately, he had run into Li Yanchu. With just a single stride, Li Yanchu crossed ten zhang in an instant.

Boom! The air cracked like mountains splitting.

Surging blood and qi burst from his fist in blazing heat, and with one punch, he shattered He Yu’s protective artifact to pieces. With that, He Yu shuddered as though struck by lightning.

Bang!

Just then, Li Yanchu’s palm slammed against his chest with a dull thud. The black shadow clinging to He Yu’s back was blasted clear of him. Back in Mount Jinting’s Blissful Land, he had used this very strike to drive out the heart demon that had possessed others.

He Yu gasped raggedly, and his lungs were searing as though they were on fire, as if they might explode. Unable to bear it, he dropped to one knee, and his consciousness grew hazy.

That palm of Li Yanchu’s had carried not only divine judgment, but personal grievance as well. He spread his fingers wide, and spiritual force surged through his palm, condensing into a crushing pressure.

Divine Astral Hands! Crane Control Hand and Dragonbind Hand!

That shadowy figure was instantly caught and held fast in his grasp.

At this time, Li Yanchu ignored the half-kneeling He Yu and fixed his gaze instead on the shadow. The shadow was shrouded in black qi, its face indistinct. It writhed ceaselessly in his grip, and its expression betrayed a plea for mercy.

Seeing this, Li Yanchu raised a brow. At first, he had intended to crush it outright. As for He Yu, he couldn’t be bothered to explain anything to him.

But the emotions leaking from this shadow made him feel that this thing was somewhat different from the ones he’d encountered before. The demon in Mount Jinting had been cunning and ferocious, skilled at beguiling the human heart. This one... seemed merely cowardly?

He paused in thought, while He Yu collapsed to the ground, his face unreadable. He was seemingly in too much pain to speak.

Just then, Li Yanchu pointed a finger into the air.

Daoist Art! Immobilization Spell!

He Yu instantly froze in place and was unable to move a muscle. A person possesses three souls and seven spirits. Heart demons would latch onto them, beguiling the mind, amplifying one particular soul or spirit, and gradually leading the person step by step into demonic corruption. Once the fusion was complete, there was no way to extract it.

No wonder He Yu had seemed strangely familiar, and his glances and behavior somewhat inexplicable.

“I wonder which of He Yu’s souls or spirits has been strengthened. Could it be the Hidden Spirit?”

The three souls were: Fetal Light, Bright Spirit, and Hidden Spirit. The seven spirits were: Corpse Dog, Hidden Arrow, Shadow Sparrow, Swallowing Thief, Non-Poison, Purge Filth, and Stinking Lung. All of them were turbid ghosts dwelling within the body.

If the Hidden Spirit soul went awry, it would stir desires of the heart. That was practically lowering one’s wisdom by force!

He scattered the black qi enshrouding the shadow, revealing its true form.

“Why does this look a bit familiar?” Li Yanchu arched a brow.

The figure’s appearance was identical to the half-kneeling He Yu on the ground.

“Has one of He Yu’s three souls and seven spirits been forced out? Or has this demon simply taken on his likeness?”

A gut feeling told Li Yanchu something wasn’t right.

Qi Sight!

A flash of clear light flickered in Li Yanchu’s eyes as he scrutinized the He Yu caught in his grasp. Though the soul was weak, it bore no taint of karmic resentment or blood qi. And it was a complete primordial spirit.

“Save me... save me...” The primordial spirit in his hand let out a frail, broken voice.

Li Yanchu’s face sank, his gaze shifting to He Yu, who was bound in place by his Immobilization spell.

Bang!

The half-kneeling He Yu suddenly drove a fist into Li Yanchu, the impact echoing thunderously. With that, Li Yanchu was knocked back seven or eight zhang. But his martial body was incomparably tough, and the blow had been intercepted by a flash of his talismanic armor. Thus, he was unharmed.

“You’re not He Yu!” Li Yanchu shouted coldly.

The “He Yu” on the ground sneered, his expression now completely different from before. His eyes glinted with sly malice.

“So you noticed. What a troublesome young Daoist you are.”

His original plan had been to wait until Li Yanchu left, then completely seize the body. Who would have thought Li Yanchu could pierce through that shroud of black qi?

At this time, Li Yanchu’s gaze turned frigid. He had nearly slain He Yu’s true soul while letting the real demon slip away.

Such cunningness! The fiend had used He Yu’s soul as bait, forcing it out of the body.

“Impudent wretch, you’re courting death!” Li Yanchu bellowed in fury, and his palm lashed out.

Void-Splitting Palm!

Boom!

The overwhelming force of his palm crashed down like a mountain torrent. The false He Yu was shrouded in black qi, with only a pair of blood-red eyes visible.

The next instant, he transformed into a grotesque, savage monster, and muscles knotted across its hulking frame. It stood over two zhang tall, with six eyes shifting restlessly across its face like a spider’s cluster of compound eyes.

Sensing the unmatched ferocity of Li Yanchu’s palm strike, the monster fixed all six eyes on him.

Whoosh!

A jet of black light shot from its eyes, colliding head-on with the incoming force.

Boom!

The black radiance clashed violently, the two powers utterly incompatible. Then, the collision erupted into an explosion. The thunderous blast quickly drew the attention of Jinguang Temple’s monks, as well as the guests who had come to escort the relics.

***

Inside the great hall, Master Puxing’s eyes sharpened as he turned toward the rear mountain.

“What dense evil qi!”

He and another elder monk inside the hall immediately strode out in great bounds. Golden light radiated from their bodies, and in the blink of an eye, they were gone.

The same thing was happening throughout Jinguang Temple. Cultivators, their movements swift as the wind, all rushed toward the source of the disturbance.

Li Yanchu too could feel the shift in atmosphere within Jinguang Temple, and the other cultivators would naturally sense it as well.

In the rear mountain before the waterfall, the demon-spawn monster, no longer human, was already coughing blood. Its body was battered and broken under one of Li Yanchu’s punches!

The creature’s twisted face showed a look of shock, as it had not expected Li Yanchu’s tyrannical might to be so overwhelming. Then, it opened its mouth and inhaled sharply, thereafter He Yu’s soul instantly vanished from where it hovered.

Crunch, crunch.

The monster’s maw emitted the sound of chewing, as it had actually bitten down and devoured He Yu’s soul. Almost in that same instant, all six of the monster’s eyes flared with crimson light.

“You’re using such petty tricks... Judging from your strength, you can’t be all that powerful!” Li Yanchu strode forward, and he caught the monster’s arm and pressed it down hard. The creature possessed boundless strength and ferocious attacks, but with that one tug, its entire body suddenly felt hollow, powerless.

This wasn’t some lofty Daoist technique, it was a straightforward, practical and effective martial fighter’s method.

Bang!

Just then, Li Yanchu drove his elbow into the monster’s skull, blasting it into a mist of blood.

Divine Astral Hands!

The fists, palms, elbows, and legs were deadly weapons. Seizing the momentum, Li Yanchu struck out with a palm, then another, and finally a third! Three surging waves of pure, unyielding yang force overlapped.

Boom!

The savage, hideous monster was completely annihilated and utterly destroyed beneath his palms.

When the others arrived, what they saw was a young Daoist furiously pummeling a two-zhang-tall monstrous fiend. Before they could even process what they were seeing, the young Daoist blasted the monster into oblivion!

Master Puxing’s expression shifted slightly. Beside him, a burly elder monk was even more stunned.

He had been trained as a martial monk and cultivated the body-tempering arts of Buddhism, so his muscles were brimming with terrifying strength. He specialized in close-quarters combat. Just now, he had felt the profound depth of this young Daoist’s martial skill.

“So young... yet he’s already a grandmaster of martial arts!?”

At the same time, the visiting guests within Jinguang Temple all revealed looks of astonishment.

None of them had expected that this young Daoist, favored by Duanmu Xuan and with Ding Rou following by his side, would display such overwhelming dominance once he struck!