Chapter Ten: The Law Master and the Devil's Spawn

  The light dissipated, and a blue-robed Taoist stood between the snake demon and the boys. It was that strange person who had appeared by the river before. Xia Qiu and the others had a deep impression of him.

  The Taoist held up a copper bell in his left hand, shaking it violently. The last time this sound had startled the young men, but now they found it especially pleasant. The urgent ringing of the bell not only brought them confidence, but also gave them courage.

  The gigantic serpent, however, was extremely averse to the ringing sound, dashing east and west before finally returning to its original position, as if it had suddenly lost its sense of direction. Then it became enraged, no longer fleeing but instead raising its snake head high, opening its upper and lower jaws, revealing razor-sharp fangs, and whipping its snake body back and forth ceaselessly.

  It is about to launch a desperate attack, and the first to be sent out is a team of vanguards.

  The scales on the snake demon's back rose like waves, and a dozen or so skulls jumped out from inside, bouncing and jumping towards the blue-clothed Taoist in mid-air, with different facial expressions, several of which had obviously been dead for a long time.

  The young officer saw his ten subordinates again and was so frightened that he hid behind Xiao Qiu and trembled with fear.

  Xiao Qiu's heart also tightened, if it wasn't for the fact that he had previously seen the horror of the snake demon up close, he would probably have been scared stiff too. Now he only had one thought: he had once thrown away Tu Zi's skull, this matter must not be told to anyone.

  The Taoist in blue robes faced the snake demon's tricks without fear, his left hand shaking the copper bell faster, the sound connecting into a piece, like a real rope, tightly binding the snake demon. Then he slightly bent his knees and moved to the left with a strange step, each step as if carrying a thousand pounds. His right hand was raised on his shoulder, his index and middle fingers together, the other three fingers curved, constantly drawing in the air.

  The boys looked at each other in confusion, but the snake demon seemed to have suffered a heavy blow. Its head burst one by one, making a sound like ripe fruit falling to the ground. After landing, there was only a pile of powder without any bloodstains. The snake's head dodged east and west, forced to rise higher and higher until it finally rushed to the top of the tree crown.

  The moonlight filtered through the gap and fell down, and the boys exclaimed in unison. They saw an unforgettable scene: more than a dozen holes had been pierced on the sturdy snake's body, spewing out a large amount of blood, like a giant green sprout growing rapidly.

  The rebellion of the snake demon has ended, it easily killed ten Xuanfu soldiers, but couldn't defeat a single Taoist priest.

  The snake's body crashed down, and a large amount of fresh blood quickly seeped into the soft mud.

  The ringing stopped, the Taoist lowered his arm, and the copper bell disappeared. He turned around, and in his right hand was a small oil lamp. He walked out a few steps, hung the lamp on a tree branch, and stood in the light to say to the young men: "My name is Li Yuechi, Pangshan Wuxing Fashi, specializing in beheading demons and eliminating evil."

  These simple self-introductions will take root in the hearts of young people, having a profound impact on their future. Even that young military officer was no exception, hiding behind Xia Qiu and staring blankly at the Taoist priest, with unprecedented reverence churning in his heart.

  "You... are you here to save us?" Er Bao asked in a humble and gentle voice, even more respectful than when facing his father.

  Li Yuechi shook his head, pointing to the giant snake's corpse behind him. "I came for it. I've been tracking it for a whole month. Two days ago, it was only three feet long. Now... Alas. You clean up here and follow me later."

  Nothing to be gained, the young men immediately stood up straight, only Xia Qiu ran to pull back the jujube red horse. It was surprisingly calm and didn't show any surprise at the demon-slaying scene that had just occurred. It wasn't that it was brave, but rather that it was too old, so old that all its thoughts were focused on the delicious grass.

  Li Yuechi did not set off immediately, turned around and walked to the snake's corpse, looked at it for a while, rolled up his sleeves, like a rural long worker, grasped the snake's tail with both hands, and dragged it to an empty space, soon the snake's corpse was arranged in a straight line.

  The boys gasped again, the snake's corpse was incredibly long, and the oil lamp hanging from the branch could only illuminate a short section.

  "It's even longer than the bridge in town," said Xia Qiu.

  "It's even longer than the house of the Bi Erjia family," said Erlang.

  "Longer than the streets in town." Er Biao said, his words were too exaggerated, but no one spoke out against it, and the young people decided to use this metaphor to boast to their relatives and friends in town from now on.

  Only the young officer didn't fit in, "It's about ten zhang or so, not short, but placed among monsters it doesn't count as fierce."

  Two officers glared at him with slanted eyes, "I heard that beheading demons and eliminating evil is also one of the responsibilities of the Xuanfu Army. How come none of you ten people have fought against snake demons?"

  The officer's face didn't change color, "We weren't prepared, thinking it was just a matter of catching a few kids and horses. Many of our weapons weren't even brought along, and we were caught off guard by the snake demon. Who would have thought that there would be demons near Wildwood Town? If I had known earlier, I would have brought more powerful talismans..."

  "Haha, didn't you just scream like a little girl and faint?" Er Liang immediately exposed the young officer's true nature.

  "And that's the third time you've fainted." Er Biao said with a smile, the young men were still shaken and needed some jokes to lighten the mood. "From now on, we'll call you 'Faint Three'".

  "I'm not called Dizzy Three, I'm..." The officer showed a hint of annoyance, but ultimately just grunted and didn't reveal his real name.

  "Look quickly." Xia Qiu's gaze was fixed on the Five Elements Master, carefully observing every move he made, filled with reverence in her heart.

  Li Yuechi arranged the snake corpse, took out a round mirror, and the young people of Yelin Town were all familiar with it. Especially Xia Qiu and Er Tuo, the two had been reflected in this mirror before, and at that time their hearts were racing, but now they felt particularly close to each other. Er Tuo even started bragging to Fangfang and the young military officer.

  Li Yuechi held up a copper mirror and began to shine it on the snake's tail, carefully examining every detail, muttering something to himself from time to time.

  The young men didn't dare make a sound, fearing they would affect the work of the Five Elements Master, even though they had no idea what he was doing.

  After a while, the officer whispered: "He is looking for Yao Dan."

  "What is a Yao Dan?" Er Bao asked curiously, forgetting that he had once severely beaten an army officer.

  "Ferocious beasts swallow the essence of all things and transform into demons. During this process, they will concentrate most of their demonic energy on a certain part of their body, which is the demon core. It's extremely precious and can be used by cultivators to refine magical instruments."

  "Wow." The young men only understood the four words "extremely precious", and still admired them with all their might.

  The officer was right. Wu Xing master Li Yuechi stopped in his tracks when he reached the middle of the snake's corpse, and the dull copper mirror flashed once, shining brighter than an oil lamp.

  Li Yuechi put away the copper mirror, and another dagger appeared in his hand. From a distance, the dagger seemed to be made of copper, without even a blade, but it didn't hinder Li Yuechi's movements at all. He quickly slashed several times on the snake corpse, cutting off a scale, examined it against the oil lamp for a moment, and then put it into a cloth bag at his waist.

  The officer looked like he had seen a lot of the world and said in a low voice, "Refining scales into a demon pill is the most common method used by snake demons. It's not considered a major demon."

  Li Yuechi's work was not yet complete, and he took out a copper mirror to continue shining it on the snake corpse. The closer he got to the head, the slower he went, until finally stopping when the light landed on one of the snake's eyes. "As expected, it's here."

  He had a multitude of magical instruments on his body, and this time he had an additional gourd in his hand.

  Li Yuechi took three steps back, his left hand holding the gourd with its mouth facing the snake's eyes, while his right hand pinched a sword finger, and his legs were slightly bent, swaying from side to side like when he was killing demons, muttering incantations.

  The boys looked more closely this time, and Fangfang was the first to notice something unusual. In a very low voice, she said: "Look, there's a sword behind his back."

  The boys' eyes all looked over there, stared for a while, and finally vaguely saw something flying out of the hilt.

  "Metal, wood, water, fire, wood, the sword belongs to metal. This is a five-element metal mage. No wonder he can kill the snake demon so easily." The officer said with an air of having known it all along, but Xia Qiu saw clearly that he had also not seen through any trick just now.

  Not long after, a change occurred in Snake's eyes, and a thin green light slowly rose up, as if it was extremely reluctant to drill into the gourd.

  The whole process took a relatively long time, with a faint green light that was extremely thin. It wasn't until a full minute later that it was completely absorbed by the gourd.

  The officer apparently couldn't understand it either, so there was no explanation at all.

  Xiao Qiu felt a sense of familiarity, and he recalled the green light he had seen alone in the grass by the river, which was extremely similar to the line in the snake's eyes.

  Li Yuechi finally completed the task, putting away all the magical instruments. He saw curiosity and doubt in the eyes of the young men, so he said: "This is the demon species, it's a hundred times more venomous than the snake demon, fortunately it hasn't taken shape yet, it's just stored in the snake demon's eyes. Remember, never let it touch you."

  The officer looked as astonished as all the boys did, he had heard a lot about the demon kind, but this was his first time seeing its true form, and he felt slightly disappointed.

  "Away from the evil spirits." Er Miao still remembered the Daoist's reminder at that time, and said it out loud. He admired the five-element masters just like Xiao Qiu did.

  It's not just the two of them, even the most timid young man is filled with admiration for Li Yuichi.

  "I saw a Taoist from Mount Pong just the day before yesterday." The officer spoke in a flattering tone, walking out from behind Xiao Qiu.

  Li Yuechi seemed uninterested in this and nodded coldly, "You are from the Western Subduing State's Xuanfu Army?"

  The officer nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, Xuanfu Army had a great battle with the snake demon yesterday, unfortunately..."

  "Uh, you have the seal of the Fire God on your body, so make good use of it. Don't be like just now, flailing about wildly. Those twelve talismans are enough to subdue ordinary demons. This snake demon is all show and no substance, can't withstand your attack. However, it's also lucky for you that magic creatures don't like the weak. In situations where there's no choice, they'll settle for second best. If you kill the snake demon, you yourselves will become the target of the magic creature."

  The two men sized up the officer from head to toe, then suddenly reached out and flipped open his filthy outer garment, revealing a smooth, bare back.

  The officer hastily turned around and pulled down his clothes, but the boys still saw a palm-sized pattern on his back, which was apparently the so-called "Fire God Seal".

  "Ah, that's why you can use paper symbols." Er Miao suddenly realized and became even more disdainful of the officer, "And they said we had to spend ten years studying, turns out all it takes is drawing a seal on our backs."

  "It's not that simple!" The officer was secretly exposed, his face slightly red.

  Xiao Qiu didn't participate in the argument, he took a step forward, pointing at the snake corpse behind Li Yuechi, not knowing if it was his own eyes playing tricks on him or if it was real: another thread of green light emerged from the snake's mouth.