Chapter 1: The Haunted Yōlin (Part 1)

  The dim lamp post illuminates the eerie and misty cave, a vague halo envelops this not-so-spacious space.

  The yellow bull's massive head shook, its nose, which had been pierced by Guo Mohan, split outward, with blood congealing on top of it like a leech.

  The yellow bull fiercely pulled the swaying nose ring, and even tore off the flesh on its own nose, with blood splashing everywhere in an instant. It walked towards Ding Lingyu with a ferocious expression, saying viciously:

  "How's it going? It's your turn now."

  Ding Lingxiu used a military dagger to make a defensive posture, but found that his legs were still as heavy as lead and couldn't move. He was amazed by the magical power of the Wu Guangshi, which could cause such a long period of mental numbness without direct contact. It was indeed the legendary magic stone.

  Ding Lingxiu patted his pocket and found that there were only two cigarettes left in the cigarette case.

  He stroked the familiar pattern on his cigarette holder, his eyes firm, for he knew that what he was facing now was a demonic elite, a kind of demon with strength close to that of ghosts. The battle process had to be both swift and accurate, as victory or defeat would depend on this one move.

  Ding Lingxiu's every box of cigarettes has three special cigarettes for burning talismans, each wrapped with Zhēn Yāo Fú, Níng Shén Fú and Shén Wèi Fú. In case of emergency, one can complete the process of burning talismans without being detected by monsters. However, due to the magic power of the Wu Guang Stone earlier, Ding Lingxiu's mind was confused, and he had no choice but to light up the cigarette wrapped with Níng Shén Fú, which allowed him to barely regain consciousness now.

  The next two cigarettes and this military dagger would become his most important weapons.

  Ding Lingxiu lit a cigarette with a calm and composed demeanor, raised an eyebrow at Huang Niu's gesture, and gave a disdainful look.

  The yellow bull spirit let out two loud snorts and was immediately enraged by Ding Lingyu's action, charging towards him furiously.

  The yellow bull spirit wrapped its body around the ring, with its horns protruding forward like a locomotive head, rushing over with an unstoppable momentum. Ding Lingxiu took a big puff of smoke and saw the yellow bull spirit approaching, immediately taking out his lighter and lighting up the remaining cigarette.

  A golden light flashed suddenly in front of Huang Niu Jing's eyes, and Ding Ling Xiu fell to the ground sideways. However, Huang Niu Jing, due to the inertia from this wild collision, was like a steel nail that directly crashed into the rock wall, deeply embedding himself inside.

  This cigarette burns with a demon-suppressing charm, and even with the power of a yellow bull spirit, under the burning power of the demon-suppressing charm, it will still lose all its demonic powers and lose any combat effectiveness.

  Ding Lingxiu let out a breath and reached into his backpack while staring at the movements of the other magical creature.

  But unexpectedly, this magician didn't show any surprise or panic, and had no intention of extracting the demon's power from the Spirit Ball.

  Ding Lingyu was stunned, what does this mean? Is it that when facing a companion whose demonic power is sealed, it doesn't plan to lend a hand? Or is it that it can defeat Ding Lingyu without even using its demonic power?

  Just as Ding Lingyu was stunned for a brief second, he felt a mountain-like pressure behind him. The rock wall that Huang Niu had crashed into was making a crumbling sound, and the stones on the top of the cave were starting to fall down. Ding Lingyu felt his feet trembling slightly. A strong thought in his mind was urging him to escape, this dangerous signal was something he had never encountered before, it came out of nowhere, yet it came from within, just like people often said intuition.

  Ding Lingxiu's electric light flashed, and he sprinted forward. At that moment, a deafening bellow shook the air, causing the rock wall behind him to collapse. The demonic energy of the Yellow Ox Demon burst forth like a floodgate opening, and in the midst of the chaos, only the demon's scarlet eyes could be seen, glowing like two giant red lanterns suspended within the swirling dust.

  In an instant, the rock wall that Huang Niu Jing had crashed into collapsed and exploded, a gigantic shadow enveloped Ding Ling Xu.

  Ding Lingyu didn't even have time to turn his head and see what the shadow was, all he could do now was to sprint with all his might.

  A deafening crash sounded behind Ding Ling, and he almost escaped to the edge of the shadow, only a little bit away from being crushed by it. He turned his head back, and found that this shadow was actually a giant stone twice as big as the yellow bull spirit. And the yellow bull spirit was already standing on top of this giant stone, staring at him with a fierce gaze.

  How is it possible?

  At such a close distance, even the Town Spirit Seal is ineffective against it?

  Ding Lingxiu's root was almost lost in time, and he had no chance to regret his mistake. At this moment, the first feeling in his mind was filled with question marks about Huang Niu Jing.

  "Heh heh, borrowing the smoke to burn the talisman, I didn't think you'd actually have a couple of tricks up your sleeve." The magician demon teased with a mischievous grin.

  Ding Lingxiu didn't have time to reason with her, and quickly pulled out a small pouch from his sleeve, taking out three Demon-suppressing Talismans in preparation for battle. Although Ding Lingxiu had mastered the twelve talismanic spells of the Ding family and learned how to draw ten kinds of talismans, many talismans had to be used within a few days after being drawn, so they couldn't be drawn ahead of time. Therefore, the only thing that Ding Lingxiu could prepare in advance was the Demon-suppressing Talisman.

  Although the yellow bull spirit was in its prime, Ding Ling thought that after he took out the demon-suppressing talisman, the yellow bull spirit did not dare to launch a surprise attack. Because at its level, it was still insufficient to break free from the demon-suppressing talisman.

  But contrary to Ding Lingxiu's expectations, the Yellow Ox Essence almost ignored his movements. It relaxed its arms and let out a terrifying bellow, then once again charged at Ding Lingxiu with reckless abandon. This time, the Yellow Ox Essence's speed was even faster than before, launching a surprise attack like a whirlwind, and in an instant, a burst of yellow smoke appeared on the rocks, and two crescent-shaped horns materialized before Ding Lingxiu's eyes. The attack caught him completely off guard. Before he could react, he was knocked into the air, a cluster of blood flowers bursting from his shoulder, his entire right arm pierced by the ox horn with a large bloody gash, and he was sent crashing into the stone wall.

  Ding Lingxiu slid down the stone wall like a pancake, leaving behind a long trail of terrifying bloodstains. He felt as if countless sparkling lights were flashing before his eyes, and the blood in his body seemed to rush into his head all at once, almost making him vomit. Fortunately for Ding Lingxiu, just as Huang Niu Jing was about to charge over, he had already stuck three Town Demon Symbols on both of its horns and its forehead. It was precisely because this action took up too much time that he was hit by the full force of Huang Niu Jing's attack.

  Ding Lingxiu struggled to look at the Yellow Ox Spirit, and the three Demon-Suppressing Talismans were stuck on its two horns and forehead. Originally, one talisman would have been enough to intimidate the Yellow Ox Spirit and seal its demonic powers. But Ding Lingxiu saw that one was ineffective, so he used three talismans, and even used the Heaven-Earth-Human Three-Element Array to seal it, which doubled the power of the Demon-Suppressing Talismans. In this situation, even the elite among ghosts and monsters would be helpless.

  But everything seems to be developing in a direction that Ding Lingru did not anticipate.

  The yellow bull spirit brazenly tore off the demon-suppressing talisman on its face, and the demonic energy that had just weakened a bit surged up again, accompanied by a faintly stirring spiritual energy. The yellow bull spirit's face was ferocious, and every muscle on its body seemed to be breathing on its own, bulging up one after another, as if brewing a huge amount of energy.

  "Niu Niu, stop teasing him, look at how scared he is, hurry up and kill him to make a cake." The magical girl said with a smile.

  "Alright, watch me take care of it right now." Huang Niu Jing replied viciously.

  As soon as he finished speaking, the two hands of Huang Niu Jing supported on the ground turned into cow hooves, and his two hind legs also turned back into cow hooves. The muscles all over his body were completely tense, with his back arched like a drawn bow, accumulating strength for a leap. The demonic energy and spiritual energy on Huang Niu Jing's body mixed together, emitting an intimidating aura that made one's heart tremble with fear.

  "How can there still be spiritual energy?" Ding Lingxiu exclaimed in surprise.

  What shocked Ding Lingxiu was that this spiritual energy appeared out of nowhere. If Huang Niu's demonic power was extremely strong, but his comprehension was relatively low and he hadn't broken through to the next level, the demon-suppressing talisman had a sufficient restraining effect on him, which could barely be explained. But for a monster to have spiritual energy, this was absolutely impossible, it was like saying fire burns in ice.

  Ding Lingxiu found that things were getting more and more out of hand, the stolen inner elixir, the unfindable demon, the yellow cow spirit, the five-colored stone pillar, the gathering spirit ball, and the ineffective demon-suppressing talisman.

  These clues kept emerging in Ding Ling's mind, quickly linking together, and he was suddenly enlightened. In an instant, he understood what was going on, and at the same time, he had a way to subdue this seemingly invincible Yellow Bull Essence.