“Lu Lang!?”
“Junior Brother!?”
“Brother Lu!?”
“Brother Lu!?”
Lu Zheng’s sudden ascent into the air startled everyone present.
“Hehe!” Lu Zheng blinked, “I thought I still needed more time to cultivate, but it turns out I was just one step away.”
With white clouds beneath his feet, Lu Zheng felt the entire world looked different from this new perspective.
“Evil creature, meet your end!”
In the next moment, boundless wind and rain enveloped the sky above the black bamboo forest. Lu Zheng clapped his hand, forming another White Cloud Great Hand Seal, which slammed down toward the white-faced fierce ghost.
The white-faced fierce ghost was dumbfounded, unable to comprehend how Lu Zheng’s strength had suddenly improved.
A breakthrough in the heat of battle?
But it didn’t seem like he had pushed Lu Zheng to the point of needing a breakthrough, had he?
It was the ghost who needed a breakthrough!
“Ah!!!”
The fierce ghost let out a piercing shriek, its body surging with ghostly aura, colliding with the White Cloud Great Hand Seal.
Then…
As the cloud qi surged in, the ghost’s form wavered, and it hastily retreated, feeling no possibility of a breakthrough.
“You little brat, didn’t you just go to some backwater place to abduct a few mortal women? How did you provoke Buddhists, Taoists, and the City God, and even draw out such a stinking Taoist?”
The fierce ghost cursed toward its chest, then flicked its sleeves, scattering specks of Jade Phosphor Fire that burned away the encroaching ink, sword qi, blade qi, and Buddhist light.
“I don’t know, Father, save me! Let’s escape quickly!”
A voice sounded from the fierce ghost’s chest, and another ghost’s face emerged from it.
“Back!”
The fierce ghost shouted, its form turning into a shadow, breaking out toward the northeast.
Just moments ago, it had used the Jade Phosphor Fire to trap Yuanjing and the others, preventing their escape.
Now that it wanted to flee, Lu Zheng and the others were not so willing.
“This ghost father and son have disrupted the mortal world; their crimes deserve death. Stop them!”
The City God surnamed Wei brandished his brush, splashing out a vast wave of ink that formed a three-dimensional maze, blocking the fierce ghost’s escape.
Xin Zhanting and Yuanjing, one with a blade and the other with a sword, one martial and one Taoist, flanked from both sides, compressing the Jade Phosphor Fire layer by layer.
“Open!”
Guangyue, with his radiant relic overhead, wielded a long staff that emitted dazzling golden light, pressing down on the fierce ghost.
“Bang!”
The strike forced the ghost out of its shadow state.
“Get lost!”
Grabbing the staff, the fierce ghost shook it, sending ghostly qi into Guangyue’s body, then flung him back, causing the staff to slip from his hands.
A white cloud hand appeared, catching Guangyue and absorbing the remaining force.
Guangyue landed, golden light flickering within him as he struggled to expel the ghostly qi.
Lu Zheng, having saved Guangyue, drew a circle in the air with his peachwood sword.
In the next moment, a Flying Cloud Breaks Evil Charm appeared out of thin air, shooting toward the fierce ghost.
At the same time, Lu Zheng’s voice, carried by the wind and rain, reached everyone’s ears.
“You won’t escape!”
…
With Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan’s arrival, one became the strongest reinforcement, able to ignore the fierce ghost’s signature Jade Phosphor Fire.
The other specialised in defence, her three fox tail shadows covering the sky, blocking nearly half of the fierce ghost’s fire attacks.
With their hands freed, Xin Zhanting and the other three fully supported the offence, completely thwarting the fierce ghost’s counterattacks and escape attempts.
…
The fierce ghost suddenly realised that without paying a price, it might truly perish here.
Though they were already ghosts, it clearly didn’t want to die again and vanish from the world entirely.
The fierce ghost opened its mouth, spitting out a flower of Jade Phosphor Fire.
This flower had nine petals, both real and illusory, with sparks dancing endlessly on them, like a delicate work of art.
But as soon as the fierce ghost produced this flower, its burning and corrosive power instantly spread, evaporating all the rain within hundreds of feet.
Xin Zhanting and the others retreated in unison, while Lu Zheng rode the clouds, his wooden sword held across his chest.
In the next moment, the green flower spun rapidly, carrying a surge of mental energy, locking onto Lu Zheng and rushing toward him.
“Lu Lang, be careful!”
“Junior Brother, dodge!”
Guangyue’s eyes narrowed, “You can’t dodge. Brother Lu, come here, I’ll block it with my radiant relic!”
“You’re seeking death!” Lu Zheng’s eyes hardened. The ghost dared to try to kill him while attempting to escape!?
“You’re the one who’ll die!”
The fierce ghost roared, “You ruined my three-hundred-year refinement of the Jade Phosphor Nine Divine Fire Flower! I’ll make sure you have no grave!”
“Explode!”
In the next moment, the Jade Phosphor Nine Divine Fire Flower spun to Lu Zheng’s front, then exploded instantly, forming a sea of fire that engulfed him completely.
Yet this sea of fire was confined to a mere dozens of feet.
“Fire-avoidance technique?” The fierce ghost’s face twisted with malice, “Let’s see if you can avoid this flame!”
This compact sea of fire was not only highly condensed but also infused with most of the fierce ghost’s mental energy, surpassing its peak strength.
This move was a dual attack of physical and mental force. If Lu Zheng fully activated his fire-avoidance technique, the ghost’s mental energy could exploit the opening, killing him in one strike.
“If you want to keep me here, you’ll pay the price for it.”
Just as the fierce ghost thought this, a golden light suddenly blazed in its mental world.
“Golden Palace Heart Sword, Slash!”
A luxurious, golden sword, shimmering like an emperor’s blade, appeared abruptly. Its tip condensed into a point, cleaving through the tsunami-like mental energy with one strike.
“Golden Palace Divine Hall, Suppress!”
In the next moment, a palace adorned with dragons, phoenixes, and carvings of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, gleaming with golden light, appeared in the fierce ghost’s sea of consciousness.
Meanwhile, Lu Zheng, wielding his true charm, broke through the sea of Jade Phosphor Fire.
“Impossible!”
“This is the true fire-avoidance technique passed down from Chisongzi in a dream. Do you think you can ignore me with True Sun Fire or Nanming Li Fire?”
Lu Zheng was struggling, having pushed himself to the limit, but he maintained a calm facade, chuckling lightly.
“If you had escaped in another direction, I might not have caught you in time. But you dared to try to kill me on your way out?”
Lu Zheng shook his head, sighing, “Then you shall die.”
In the next moment, the Golden Palace Divine Hall pressed down on the fierce ghost’s soul in the spiritual realm.
Simultaneously, the surrounding cloud qi, Buddhist light, blade qi, and ink pursued, and Lu Zheng released his peachwood sword, using sword-control techniques to unleash white cloud sword qi. It transformed into a white meteor, piercing the fierce ghost’s chest in an instant.
“Ah!!!”
The fierce ghost screamed in agony, its ghostly form beginning to collapse in the blink of an eye.
As its body disintegrated, the fierce ghost reached into its chest, pulling out a translucent ghost shadow. It coated the shadow with a layer of Jade Phosphor Fire and hurled it in the opposite direction of Lu Zheng.
“My son, flee! In a hundred years, avenge me!”
As its words fell, the Jade Phosphor Fire within its body scattered explosively, engulfing Lu Zheng and the approaching Guangyue and others.
Moments later, when Lu Zheng and the four emerged from the sea of fire…
They saw Liu Qingyan, her three fox tail shadows swaying, holding a trembling ghost in her hand.
“Don’t, don’t kill me! I, I know where the Black Wheel King’s soul origin is…”
