Chapter 31: The Phantom Returns

  The forest was deep, cold, and damp. Sanbao clenched her fists and took a deep breath, deciding not to wait idly any longer, but to take the initiative. She carefully moved through the forest, when suddenly she heard someone calling her.

  "Please, stop, Benefactor."

  Sanbao looked up and saw the two familiar Taoist priests from the Wudang Sect. They were each standing by a tree, carving runes into the tree trunks with their daggers.

  Upon seeing Sanbao, the two Taoists bowed in unison. The older one spoke, "Wuliang Tianzun! Benefactor, greetings. I am Qi Zhitong, and this is my junior brother, Zhang Zhixin. We come from Wudang Sect in Junzhou."

  The younger Taoist, Zhang Zhixin, looked a little impatient. "May I ask, did Tang Mingli arrive with you?"

  "No, we parted ways in the forest," Sanbao replied.

  The two Taoists showed a hint of disappointment upon hearing this. They said no more and returned to their work, focusing on carving the runes.

  "Are you setting up a formation?" Sanbao observed for a moment, unable to resist asking. "Is it the Two-Element Thunderfire Formation?"

  The two Taoists paused their work and looked at her, their expressions tinged with confusion.

  "Benefactor can recognize this formation?" The older Taoist, Qi Zhitong, asked.

  Sanbao realized she might have said too much and smiled evasively. "I just happened to see something simir in a miscelneous book. The arrangement of these runes looks like a formation diagram I saw in that book."

  The two Taoists exchanged a gnce, seemingly doubtful, but they didn’t press further.

  Sanbao didn’t speak any more, stepping back to stand by a tree, quietly watching them work on the formation.

  At that moment, a frantic figure suddenly burst out of the forest, stumbling and running toward them!

  "He’s here! He’s here! Everyone’s dead! They’re all dead!"

  The figure was covered in blood, his face full of fear. It was Wu Cheng. He ran into the formation the Taoists had set up and smmed into a tree engraved with runes, colpsing backward and shouting frantically, "My brothers are all dead! They’re all dead! He’s here! He’s here!"

  "Wu Cheng, retreat quickly! We’ll take care of this monster!" Qi Zhitong shouted, a fsh of green light appearing as he firmly gripped his peachwood sword.

  Sanbao, seeing this, immediately hid behind a tree and cautiously watched the direction from which Wu Cheng had come.

  "Jie jie jie!"

  A cold, eerie ugh echoed from the depths of the forest. The voice was sharp and strange, as if someone was ughing directly into their ears. "Another group of ability users, don’t disappoint me now."

  "Shut up, monster!" Zhang Zhixin angrily shouted.

  "Junior brother, don’t waste words with it," Qi Zhitong’s expression grew grim. With his left hand holding the peachwood sword, he quickly applied a rune to the bde, chanting softly, "Heaven and Earth, limitless, the ws of the cosmos lend me your power! Strike!"

  The rune on the sword instantly caught fire, turning into a streak of golden light that shot toward a spot in front of them.

  In the next moment, the golden light nded on something transparent, emitting a sizzling sound as if it had burned through the skin of some creature.

  "Ah!"

  A shrill scream pierced the air, and the transparent shadow twisted and writhed, slowly revealing its true form.

  It was a massive humanoid creature covered in long fur!

  Its face was contorted, its eyes filled with malice, and sharp fangs gleamed with cold light. Bckened scorch marks from the fiery rune still lingered on its back.

  "It’s him! It’s him! He killed my brothers!" Wu Cheng’s eyes widened, and he suddenly jumped up from the ground, shouting wildly, as if losing his mind.

  "Wu Cheng, retreat!" Qi Zhitong shouted, sending his sword flying toward the wildman’s back.

  The peachwood sword pierced the wildman’s back with great force. The wildman let out a furious roar and convulsed a few times before colpsing to the ground, motionless.

  "Is it over?" Sanbao furrowed her brows, a sense of doubt rising within her. "No! It can’t be this simple!"

  Zhang Zhixin cpped excitedly. "Senior brother is amazing! A few moves, and the wildman is finished! Let’s take its head and go collect our reward!"

  Qi Zhitong retrieved the dagger he had used to carve the runes from his waist pouch, muttering under his breath. The dagger flew out of his hand, circling the wildman’s neck before returning to him. The wildman’s head rolled away.

  "Wait! Something’s off!" Sanbao suddenly shouted, her eyes locked on the wildman’s body. "The wildman isn’t dead!"

  Qi Zhitong looked at her dismissively and sneered. "A mere wildman, stabbed in the vital spot by my peachwood sword, is already dead. Not to mention I’ve already decapitated it!"

  Zhang Zhixin also scoffed, "This little girl is too naive! Senior brother Qi is the most talented and fastest cultivating disciple of the third generation at Wudang. Even our master believes he is destined to ascend. If he says the wildman is dead, then it’s definitely dead!"

  Sanbao snorted but didn’t bother to argue further. She simply took the water pouch from her waist and silently stood to the side, observing.

  Qi Zhitong, feeling smug, stepped forward to pick up the wildman’s head. Just as he bent down and extended his hand...

  "Jie jie jie!"

  The eerie ugh echoed again! But this time, the voice didn’t come from far away; it was coming from right beside them.

  Qi Zhitong’s hand froze in midair, his face changing dramatically.

  Everyone was stunned to see that the wildman’s corpse on the ground had mysteriously disappeared!

  Not only the body but even the severed head was gone!

  The wind rustled the dry leaves, and a shadow silently appeared behind Zhang Zhixin...