Chapter 6: Exorcism (Part 1)

  Just as the front foot had calmed down, the back foot saw everything in front of it and almost cried out. The coffin made of heavenly cedar wood was completely burned under the heavenly thunder, leaving only a black corpse inside. What's terrifying is not this, but on the heart of the corpse, a long sword with a pine wood color and golden light was inserted, still slightly trembling, emitting a sword hum, the whole corpse had some charred blackness, emitting a nauseating smell of burnt corpses.

  The corpse's face still vaguely showed its original appearance, with the five features largely unchanged. Only the eyes were tightly closed, and the eye sockets had bulged out. The corners of the mouth had also revealed two long fangs. At this moment, it was unclear what kind of stimulation it had received, but the corpse suddenly started to twitch slightly. Tian's mouth also suddenly opened wide, drawing in cold air with a hissing sound. Changming didn't know what "zombie" meant, but he felt that it couldn't be more terrifying than what was happening before his eyes.

  Just as Changming was getting increasingly tense and starting to get distracted, another strange thing happened. The mouth that had been open all along suddenly closed again, and started grinding its teeth with a "creaking" sound. In this dark room where nothing could be seen, hearing this ominous grinding sound made Changming's hairs stand on end as he spun around in circles.

  "Roar!" - A loud roar, and Su Tian suddenly sat up. His originally closed eyes also opened wide, revealing bright green pupils that bulged out of their sockets. The sharp fangs in his mouth were fully exposed. His nose twitched slightly as if sniffing the air for a scent. It seemed he had sensed the presence of strangers, and Su Tian slowly turned his head towards Qing Xuan and Chang Ming.

  The dark green eyeballs stared straight at Qingxuan and Changming, the corners of his mouth twisted completely, and he kept drooling down the green saliva. The inch-long fangs shone with silver light under the moonlight. "Hehe——" A gloomy laughter burst out from the gap between his lips, making Changming shiver immediately. Moreover, the stench of charred flesh in the air was much stronger than before for some reason.

  Qing Xuan's large sleeve swept across, shielding Chang Ming. His left hand formed a sword finger, pointing at the position where Chun Jun Sword was inserted into the abdomen of the zombie, and then retracted. The Chun Jun Sword seemed to have received a powerful pull, and it was suddenly pulled out from Rang Tian's abdomen.

  Qing Xuan's wrist turned, and the pure Jun sword in mid-air also rotated, flying rapidly towards the zombie. As it approached, a three-foot-long golden sword aura suddenly shot out from the sword body, striking the zombie's chest with a loud clang, unlike the expected sound of breaking bamboo. The zombie merely slowed down slightly, leaving only a white mark on its chest, seemingly unharmed.

  "This, this is sword energy! How can...?" Changming was even more shocked. In the martial arts world, sword energy was a supreme existence that only pre-heavenly experts could emit with their swords, and the emitted sword energy was an invincible existence. Qingxuan had already demonstrated the technique of controlling the sword earlier, so it didn't seem strange to Changming that he had used the sword to emit sword energy, and it even seemed like a matter of course. However, the fact that the sharpness of the immortal sword paired with unmatched sword energy hadn't left any wounds on the zombie was astonishing.

  "The poor Dao was indeed not mistaken, this evil creature has indeed used the body of your brother to recover its true form as a drought demon. Once the true form is formed, it will be invulnerable to swords and guns, even with the sharpness of the pure jue sword." Qing Xuan's eyes remained calm and unchanged, unaffected by the thorny situation in front of him.

  The sword was withdrawn, a flash of golden light passed by, and the Chunjun Sword had returned to Changming's scabbard.

  Qing Xuan suddenly turned around, pulled out a yellow paper talisman with crimson characters from his bosom and stuck it onto the scabbard of Chun Jun Sword. He instructed: "This drought demon is different from others, it's a killing star descending to the mortal world during an extraordinary celestial phenomenon, attached inside the drought demon. Just now I used the power of heavenly thunder to try and break its protective stellar power, but unfortunately fell short by a fraction of strength. You must remember..."

  Qing Xuan had not finished speaking when a strong gust of wind arrived, and it was actually the drought demon that had reached his front, its right claw swiping towards Qing Xuan's back of the head. Qing Xuan pushed Chang Ming away with one hand, lowered his head and did a forward flip, dodging out of the way.

  "Remember to keep a distance from this demon, it's extremely ferocious. I've already placed a talisman on the Pure Sword, in times of crisis it will protect you completely." Qing Xuan fell to the ground, calmly facing the hideous and sinister Haoran.

  "But Master Dao, you don't even have a single weapon, how can you exorcise demons and protect the Tao?" Changming ran to a distance and shouted loudly at Qingxuan.

  "Hahaha" The dry and withered mouth still echoed with eerie laughter. Qingxuan remained calm and composed, unmoved. "The universe has no bounds!" Qingxuan shouted loudly, his body suddenly radiating a burst of clear light. Under his feet, a Taiji diagram appeared out of nowhere, constantly rotating and circulating the yin and yang energies like the primordial chaos evolving into the Taiji. Millions of streams of clear light swirled around Qingxuan, forming a curtain that enveloped him.

  It seemed to have seen Qing Xuan accumulating momentum, and the dry corpse rushed towards Qing Xuan with a flash. Although the movement was not very coordinated, it was extremely fast. In an instant, it had already arrived in front of Qing Xuan. The zombie raised its right arm, stretched out its claws, and attacked Qing Xuan. Its claws still flickered with a faint green light, exuding an eerie evil aura, and if one were to be scratched by them, it would definitely not just be a superficial wound.

  However, Qingxuan surprisingly acted as if he hadn't seen it at all, without a hint of dodging, allowing that eerie and sinister claw to reach in front of him.

  "Ah! Daozhang be careful!" Changming exclaimed in extreme surprise.

  Qing Xuan remained unmoved, his expression calm and serene. He slowly extended two fingers, without a hint of panic, and lightly pointed at the zombie. A soft "hum" sound was heard, followed by a ripple in space, and a clear-colored glow suddenly appeared out of thin air. The surroundings were suddenly illuminated by a bright flash, followed by a faint sound, like something being pierced through.

  When the strong light dissipated, Chang Ming opened his eyes to take a look, and it was not a halo at all, but a clear-colored gas sword that was inserted into the zombie's shoulder. The zombie that was as hard as steel earlier could even withstand the sword energy of the immortal sword, but was broken by this gas sword.

  The sword body of the air sword was almost completely transparent, shimmering with a clear light. As time passed, that light gradually dimmed and eventually became almost invisible, dispersing into tiny sparks in the air. A round hole was left on the zombie's shoulder. "Hiss" The stimulation of pain made the dry corpse's breath even more severe. Unbeknownst to him, Changming felt as if every time the dry corpse took a breath, its wound seemed to shrink by a fraction.

  "This, how can this be good?" Chang Ming was thoroughly frightened. The drought demon was originally extremely terrifying, and now it could even recover from its injuries on its own. In Chang Ming's eyes, it had become an invincible existence.

  "Hmm!" Qing Xuan was not intimidated by the imposing aura of the drought demon at all. With a wave of his sword, seven or eight more sword lights appeared in the air, flashing with a clear color. The light reflected off Chang Ming's eyes, which were completely narrowed, but he couldn't bear to close them, fearing that he would miss this magnificent scene. The sword light flashed and disappeared, and in this round of sword energy attacks, the drought demon was forced to retreat three zhang away. Its body also left behind more than a dozen extremely deep scars.

  The wound was deep, but for the drought demon, it wasn't anything. It didn't have blood or internal organs, as long as it didn't damage its foundation, it would be considered a minor injury. However, the drought demon clearly hadn't expected Qing Xuan's strength to be so astonishing and was stunned for a while before reacting.

  But it was already too late, Qing Xuan let out a loud shout. "Tian Zun Wu Liang!" His right palm faced the sky and rose high, a gigantic clear-colored palm appeared above the dry corpse, carrying a force of thousands of kilograms as it pressed down fiercely. The residual shadow left by the palm breaking through the air showed a seven-colored glow under the moonlight, like a rainbow.

  After a loud noise, an extremely large palm-shaped depression was left on the floor tiles of the hall, and above it, a colorful halo mixed with clear colors was still lingering, as if some kind of immortal treasure was about to emerge. In Yichangming's opinion, the force of that palm just now was at least over 10,000 jin, and people in Jianghu didn't dare to harden their bodies, fearing that even the residual energy couldn't be blocked. This old Taoist was indeed no longer a mortal, otherwise it would not have been possible for him to have no reputation at all.

  "Is the drought demon gone now?" Changming saw that the hall had returned to calm, and only then did he carefully retreat back to Qingxuan's side from a distance.

  "No, my palm technique is powerful, but it can only break its shell. Its spirit may not be extinguished yet, you still need to be more careful." Qing Xuan shook his head, the frown on his forehead remained unchanged.

  "What's going on?" Changming's heart, which had just calmed down, was lifted up again.

  Qing Xuan hadn't even had time to speak when another strange occurrence arose! "Whoosh!" A black aura suddenly shot up from the palm print, instantly covering the seven-colored rainbow light above, and rushed straight out of the house.

  "Welcome!" Qing Xuan was overjoyed and sprang into action, his feet moving swiftly as he leapt out like a flying swan.

  It was as if he could sense Qingxuan's movement, and the speed of the black air suddenly increased by threefold. However, Qingxuan had been cultivating since childhood, and his Dao was profound. He managed to react afterwards and arrived first, blocking the way right in the middle of the hall.

  Hei Qi was cunning and knew he couldn't compete with Qing Xuan in a straight-up fight. Halfway through, he suddenly made a sharp turn and changed direction, flying towards Chang Ming. Chang Ming had never experienced anything like this before and let out a frightened "ah". It seemed that even if Qing Xuan were to rush over at top speed, it would be too late to save him. If Hei Qi entered his body, Chang Ming would become the next victim of dehydration. Even if he managed to force it out later, he would still lose his mind and become a useless person.

  Chang Ming's mind went blank at that moment, and in such an emergency, he even forgot to dodge. Moreover, with his speed, no matter how hard he dodged, it would be useless anyway.

  Changming was shocked, but Qingxuan remained unmoved. It's unknown whether he had expected this outcome or had simply given up hope. He slowly pulled out a dark green paper talisman from his pocket, covered in bright red mysterious symbols. Without even looking at it, Qingxuan flicked his wrist and tossed the talisman away.

  As soon as the paper charm left Qingxuan's palm, it suddenly burst into flames. Originally, with the weight of the paper charm, it was difficult to throw it at a very high speed, but somehow Qingxuan used some kind of technique, and this paper charm fluttered and somersaulted in mid-air, extremely fast. It looked like a fire dragon born from the flames, rushing straight towards the black air.

  Qing Xuan's move is called "You Long Jin" in Taoist magic, using immense force and hand techniques to throw out talismans or other objects. After the talisman is thrown out, it returns like a dragon returning to the sea, roaming freely through the heavens.

  As expected, the Flame Dragon God suddenly flipped over and blocked the black air's attack on Chang Ming. The paper charm entered the black air with a "pa" sound and exploded. A wave of fire enveloped the black air from the inside out, like a fireball. The fireball hung in mid-air, constantly rolling and burning.

  Qing Xuan's eyes lit up, and he stretched out his sword finger. With a wave of his hand, a clear-colored sword aura burst through the air, hitting the fireball squarely. The fireball took a heavy hit and immediately exploded, sending waves of heat and sparks flying everywhere. Finally, it dissipated bit by bit.

  Seeing the black air being burned by the curse, it finally dispersed in the air. Changming only put down his heart then. "The Daoist priest indeed has extraordinary skills, unparalleled." Changming wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling a bit frightened, but more admiring.

  Qing Xuan smiled and walked over slowly, looking at Chang Ming: "You're overpraising me, actually, it's not time to relax yet."

  "What!?" Chang Ming's face changed color with fear, and he simply didn't dare believe it. "Could it be that the drought demon hasn't been eliminated yet?"

  "Heh heh." Qing Xuan chuckled lightly and suddenly raised his left hand to form a seal. He shouted, "Tian Di Da Tong!"