Chapter 1: The Haunted Forest of Demons (Part 1)

  In the midst of chaos, the Yellow Ox Spirit had completely transformed into an ox form. Its scarlet eyes glared with a fierce intensity, its horns gleaming with a cold light. The two hind legs, as thick as pillars, swept across the ground, stirring up clouds of dust and sand that made the eerie atmosphere even more unpredictable. The air grew heavy and oppressive, filled with an intense sense of foreboding, like the stillness before a storm.

  The magician monster who was still carefree just now is also squatting aside with his arms around his shoulders, looking at the Yellow Ox very expectantly, as if he has determined that this move will surely put Ding Lingyu to death.

  Ding Lingxu felt as if he was in a pressure cooker, his heartbeat getting clearer and clearer, but he tried to suppress his fear, one hand holding the military dagger in a defensive posture, slowly putting the other hand into his backpack.

  Just as the yellow bull was transforming into a cow shape and gathering strength, Ding Lingxiu suddenly discovered that there were two kinds of aura, spiritual and demonic, inside the yellow bull's body. This situation could only occur in a demon-hunting master. So Ding Lingxiu's first guess was that it was a tamed demon, but he immediately dispelled this idea because a demon of this level would not still have such ferocity once tamed. His other guess was that its demonic aura had been eroded by Zhang Shanyi's inner elixir inside the Gathering Spirit Ball.

  Although the Spirit Ball itself is crystal clear and suitable for storing gas, if multiple gases are mixed together, unpredictable things will happen. That's why it produces this strange and mysterious aura, which is also why the magician asked Huang Niu Jing to remove the aura immediately earlier. Because if this mixed spirit aura is not carefully extracted, it will be unstable on its own, using it is like continuously filling a closed room with coal gas, if ignited by flames, it will explode immediately.

  If Ding Ling's second conjecture is correct, then the magic monster that just urged Huang Niu to solve Ding Ling quickly was not showing its procrastination, but rather worrying about the long night and many dreams, and it's uncertain when the demonic energy and spiritual energy inside Huang Niu would collide.

  Ding Lingxiu thought of these things and couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. What he had to do was ignite the spark that would explode the coal gas in this room.

  Ding Lingxiu calmly took out the last cigarette from the case, which was a cigarette wrapped in Shenwei symbol patterned paper.

  A spark flashed, and the tobacco in Ding Ling's fingers regained its vitality.

  He raised his military dagger and pointed it at the Yellow Ox Spirit, a calm and indifferent voice slowly drifted out of the smoke, sounding leisurely and self-satisfied:

  "Hmm... haven't you finished gathering your strength yet? My sword is already eager to slaughter the ox."

  After finishing speaking, Ding Lingxiu endured the pain in his arm and used three fingers to hold a military dagger, hooking his finger at Huang Niu.

  Huang Niu Jing's eyes turned red and purple, as if splashed with chili water. His muscles all bulged up, and the demonic energy that had been gathering and dispersing earlier suddenly burst out like steam from a opened valve, rising majestically.

  "Damn it, you're still so arrogant even when death is near, watch me smash you to pieces."

  The yellow bull spirit let out a loud moo, the sound was deafening and shook two copper lamp slaves near him to pieces. The magician fairy covered her ears with her fingers, seemingly also hating the sudden bellow of the yellow bull spirit.

  The sound stopped abruptly, and the fierce wind rushed in with great force. The giant bull was like an arrow shot from a full bow, its momentum unstoppable. The pounding of its hooves was faster than the frequency of bullets fired from a machine gun. Ding Lingxiu could only see a dark shadow approaching with a cold light flashing on top of its head, but he couldn't make out the shape of this fierce bull at all.

  "Raging Bull Attack."

  "Hmm——"

  After the loud noise, a terrifying energy fluctuation burst out instantly, causing the entire cave to shake violently. Several unstable stone pillars collapsed with a loud crash, and almost all the copper lanterns inside the cave were extinguished by this energy fluctuation, leaving only a few still flickering with dim light.

  The wizard monster was stunned, relying on the dim light, staring blankly at the scene in front of him.

  The moment the bull's head hit Ding Lingxiu, he thought it would bring a deafening crash like an avalanche, but unexpectedly, it transmitted a dull sound similar to a drumstick hitting a stubborn stone.

  At this moment, the yellow bull spirit is no longer arrogant and domineering. The cow's hooves are covering its head, and a big lump has actually swollen on top of its head. Its body also swayed back to its half-human, half-demon form.

  Ding Lingxiu held a porcelain bottle in one hand and a dagger in the other, standing amidst the smoke.

  The mist surrounding Ding Lingyun suddenly transformed into an egg-like shape in an instant, enveloping him inside. The mist floated with many strange symbols, and the surging spiritual energy swirled within the egg.

  In the hazy and unclear smoke, a shadowy figure resembling a heavenly god suddenly appeared. This figure was wearing a suit of majestic armor, holding a giant golden shield, and standing right in front of Ding Lingyu. The Yellow Ox Spirit had also collided with this golden shield, which is why it had swollen to such a large size.

  The magician monster recognized the shadow in the egg-shaped smoke and exclaimed:

  "Is this... Heavenly Guardian? He can actually summon a Heavenly Guardian?"

  The so-called Tian Shen Wei is the war god revered by Taoists, along with Tian Shen Yong and Tian Shen Hui, known as the Three Pure Heavenly Gods. They were originally three high-ranking generals under the Yellow Emperor's command, who achieved great military merit in the Battle of Zhuolu. Later, they followed the Yellow Emperor to attain immortality through the Dao, becoming the three personal guards of the Three Officials' Great Emperor, stationed in the Jade Clear Realm, Upper Clear Realm, and Supreme Clear Realm respectively. If one can summon Tian Shen Wei, it would be a Taoist who has at least achieved the third level of internal alchemy; Ding Ling's appearance doesn't seem like that of a Taoist no matter how you look at him.

  So after waiting for half a day, the magician naturally didn't see the Heavenly Guardian emerge from the smoke that enveloped Ding Lingyu. The shadow of the Heavenly Guardian in the smoke was indeed majestic and radiant with golden light all over its body, but it was just an outline without any substance. Only then did the magician realize that Ding Lingyu had not actually summoned the Heavenly Guardian; he had merely borrowed the Heavenly Guardian's spiritual energy using the Divine Guardian Symbol to create a range similar to a defensive shield.

  "Damn it, what did I hit...?" Huang Niu was painfully rubbing the lump on his forehead, feeling like everything around him was spinning.

  Ding Lingxiu put the porcelain bottle back into his backpack, slowly pinched the cigarette in his hand, and said leisurely:

  "Yellow Bull Essence, do you know what you've bumped into? You've bumped into a great calamity."

  The Shenwei symbol slowly burned, causing the smoke floating out of the cigarette to be mixed with faintly visible characters. These materialized characters floated in mid-air and then disintegrated into a stream of golden light, constantly coalescing into the shape of the Heavenly Guardian, blocking Ding Lingyu's path, like a personal bodyguard.

  "Damn it, don't think you can be arrogant just because you blocked this move, watch me..." Huang Niu Jing was scolding and suddenly his whole body shook like being electrocuted, the hand that was covering his head earlier now clutched at his chest in agony, his expression extremely distorted.

  The demonic energy and spiritual energy within its body began to undergo intense mutual rejection and backlash, causing a ** throughout its entire body.

  As expected, Huang Niu Jing had been using his will to forcibly merge the two energies into his own power all along. Once something was done to disrupt his concentration, he would naturally be counterattacked by this energy.

  Ding Lingxiu took a deep drag on his cigarette and said calmly:

  "Calm down a bit, the pain will pass soon. I hope you don't die before I defeat your partner, I still want to be friends with you."

  The yellow bull essence still didn't realize what had happened, although it felt like its chest was cut open by Ding Ling's military dagger and some blood flowed out, but the pain wasn't so exaggerated. The wounds were now throbbing with a pain that was like being gnawed by ten thousand ants, making it feel limp all over, and its blood was being sucked away at an alarming rate.

  "What's...what's going on...ahh..."

  The ox spirit let out a miserable cry, painfully rubbing the knife wound on its chest. Because of its large cow head, it couldn't see clearly what was happening at the base of its jaw and could only judge by feel. At first, it just felt something moving in its chest, and it thought its own artery had been severed. But after carefully feeling for a while, it immediately discovered that these squirming things were growing at an astonishing speed, and in just a few seconds, they had swollen to the size of a small red ball.

  At this moment, he looked down again, his face turned white, and he fainted instantly, thudding to the ground with a loud bang.