Chapter 157: I Still Prefer Your Former Arrogant and Unruly Self, Spirit Orb of Calamity, God-Sealing Token

Granny Jiang was horrified.

She suddenly felt that going out on this tracking expedition was a colossal mistake.

Who could have imagined that a Zouxin practitioner with merely three sticks of incense's worth of cultivation, relying solely on the ritual of opening the altar, could unleash such terrifying might?

Not only did he forcibly drag away one of her subordinates to use as a town-spirit in combat, but he still had the surplus strength to raise yet another town-spirit.

The crucial point was that this town-spirit's strength had increased by such a staggering margin!

Previously, she had been effortlessly crushing her opponent; now, tables were turned, and she was the one being crushed.

Furthermore, on the other side, even while borrowing the divine power, her temple priest was still no match for that Zouxin practitioner.

Who on earth was this person?

When had such a formidable figure emerged within Jianghuan Town?

Her heart was filled with disbelief, accompanied by an overwhelming panic.

Thump, thump, thump...

While dodging, she desperately tried to charge back toward her own temple.

Yet she was relentlessly battered. Before she could run a few steps, she was entangled all over again. In the span of a dozen breaths, she had covered a mere four or five paces.

Seeing this, Chen Yushu's expression remained unchanged. Standing once more upon the ritual altar, he flipped his hand, and the final portion of incense-fire wish-power materialized. He rapidly absorbed it to replenish the incense-fire energy he had consumed. Following that, his gaze fell upon the hanging ghost, which had suffered severe injuries and was lying paralyzed to the side.

The ritual altar's power sustaining the hanging ghost had nearly been exhausted.

Because it had borne too much of Granny Jiang's pressure earlier, even its soul-body had sustained some damage.

However, it could not collapse at this moment. Thus, he once again activated the ritual altar, held his ancient sword, and pointed a finger. "Boundless Heaven and Earth, Yin and Yang untie, go!"

In an instant.

Strands of ritual altar power transformed once more into streams of flowing light, surging directly into the hanging ghost.

Simultaneously, the incense-fire cultivation within his own body depleted rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, the cultivation he had just recovered to sixty percent was once again completely exhausted.

Yet at this moment, the previously half-dead hanging ghost grew mighty once more. Its aura surged, quickly returning to the Sui tier.

Then, it strode with large steps toward Granny Jiang. The moment she broke free from Zuo Zongheng's entanglement once more, it smashed a fist directly into her.

Seeing this, Zuo Zongheng also rapidly stepped forward, resuming the pummeling.

Boom, boom, boom!!!

Thump, thump, thump!!!

The three evil spirits fought with frenzied intensity!

If it were only Zuo Zongheng alone, even though Granny Jiang was at a disadvantage, there was a genuine possibility she might have escaped.

After all, she possessed the crimson mist of faith and the wish-power of incense. Even if little remained, it could swiftly heal her injuries and support her return to her temple, leaving her in an undefeatable position.

Yet with the addition of the hanging ghost—likewise boosted to the Sui tier under the power-enhancement of the ritual altar—she was left with no room for reversal, plunging into a genuine desperate plight.

Her soul-body constantly trembled and continually regenerated, but the speed of recovery grew slower and slower.

"Chen Yushu, do you wish to die? Do you know who I am?

I am the River-Guarding God Envoy of Jianghuan Town, the deity of the waters ruling over this local Dragon River.

Release me at once, or I will surely plunge your entire Jianghuan Town into a disaster of inverted river waters and floods drowning the fields.

Do you intend to become the sinner of the entire Jianghuan Town?"

Terrified, Granny Jiang shrieked shrilly, her pale eyes brimming with venomous hatred.

Chen Yushu made no reply.

Deep within his heart, however, the answer had been clear for a long time.

As long as she was beaten to death.

Naturally, all these calamities would cease to exist.

Therefore, his intent to kill her grew even firmer.

Initially, the grievance between them was merely personal—to prevent her from involving his parents and family, he had intended to nip the threat in the bud.

Yet at this juncture, everything was completely different.

She had openly threatened all the common folk of Jianghuan Town.

She intended to bring disaster upon the local people, numbering tens of thousands, or even over a hundred thousand.

How could this be tolerated?

How could such a monstrously sinful evil spirit be spared?

Chen Yushu's killing intent was firmer than ever before. While continuously absorbing the power within the incense-fire wish-power to restore his inner cultivation, he held his longsword, pointing it afar at Zuo Zongheng, and continuously poured the ritual altar's power into the ghost's body.

Such successive attacks consumed a massive amount of the ritual altar's power.

Fortunately, his ritual altar had always been sustained by his own incense-fire cultivation, using his mastery to borrow the power of heaven.

It was a genuine art of using the small to leverage the large.

A single thread of cultivation could borrow ten, twenty, or even thirty threads of the power of heaven and earth.

This was what allowed Zuo Zongheng and the hanging ghost to forcibly elevate their strength to such heights.

Under the continuous reinforcement of this ritual altar power, Zuo Zongheng moved with extreme speed and wielded terrifying might. Blow after blow landed on Granny Jiang, carving obvious wounds across her body and causing her soul-body to gradually fracture, on the verge of scattering apart.

Most importantly, her crimson mist of faith and incense-fire wish-power were entirely depleted.

At this moment, she no longer had any power left for replenishment.

"Spare my life! I beg Chen... Immortal, spare my life..."

At this point, Granny Jiang finally panicked completely.

For she could sense her own weakness; her soul-body was on the verge of dissolution, carrying the sensation of shattering at any second.

To die, to die, to die...

She felt she was truly going to die.

Instantly, absolute panic seized her.

"I still prefer the way you looked so unyielding before."

Chen Yushu let out a cold snort.

Naturally, he would not command the hanging ghost and Zuo Zongheng to halt.

"Ah, ah, ah... I will curse you, I will curse you to a wretched death!"

Witnessing this, Granny Jiang fell into utter despair. Enraged shrieks tore from her throat, and simultaneously, she unleashed the Art of Dream-Entry.

At this very moment.

Nearly every single resident of Jianghuan Town, deep in their slumbers, heard a single sentence: "The god-slayer, Chen Yun..."

Before she could even manage to voice the final syllable, she was struck down by a punch from Zuo Zongheng, her soul-body completely shattering into oblivion.

Furthermore, due to the hurried circumstances, the character "Yu" in Chen Yushu's name became distorted in pronunciation, transforming into "Yun".

"The god-slayer Chen Yun."

Every person heard this exact phrase in their dreams.

Waking up one by one, they were filled with bewilderment and a somewhat wistful sense of loss.

Especially those martial artists and people initiated into the mystical arts within Jianghuan Town; upon snapping awake, their faces were etched with profound confusion.

God-slayer?

Chen Yun?

Who is Chen Yun?

Slay a god? Which "god" was slain?

Their imaginations ran wild.

The shrewd ones even walked out of their doors, gazing into the distance toward the direction of Granny Jiang's temple.

Entering dreams.

To ghostly entities like yin-spirits, was nothing extraordinary; many spectral beings mastered this ability.

For instance, when Chen Yushu had been sleeping in the apothecary's communal room, he had been visited in a dream by Li Heng, which allowed him to smoothly step into Zouxin cultivation.

However, attempting what Granny Jiang had just done—forcing the entire town into a dream, executing a universal dream-entry across three thousand households—was practically an impossibility.

Because this was an ability mastered only by evil spirits capable of receiving imperial enfeoffment.

Throughout Jianghuan Town, the only ones possessing this capability were the Wind and Cloud General in the General's Temple and Granny Jiang in Granny Jiang's Temple.

Yet the voice within the dream was unmistakably that of a woman.

Naturally, this directed their suspicions straight toward Granny Jiang's Temple.

Even so, this dream-entry had occurred without rhyme or reason, leaving most of them feeling puzzled and racking their brains in vain.

On the other side, as Zuo Zongheng struck Granny Jiang down once and for all, the battle officially came to an end.

Only then did Chen Yushu finally heave a long sigh of relief.

Truth be told, Chen Yushu had been exceedingly tense throughout this battle.

Although he had projected absolute confidence before it began, in reality, he had not possessed overwhelming certainty.

After all, what he was about to face was an officially enfeoffed deity of Jianghuan Town, a genuine evil-spirit-tier existence. It was unlike the stone fish in Beijiao Village, whose true strength was heavily restricted because it had always been suppressed by a grand formation.

Not to mention, back then he had Liu Qiao'er guarding his flank, providing a Dao-entry realm powerhouse as a safety net.

This time, however, everything was entirely different.

The only thing he could rely on was himself.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly.

This battle had finally been won.

Granny Jiang was dead, and her temple priest, He Jiang, had also perished by his hands.

As for the rest of the ghost soldiers, those who didn't die had fled, posing no further threat.

Thus.

He began to gradually withdraw the ritual altar.

First targeting the hanging ghost, an invisible, special power was extracted from within it, and the aura surrounding the hanging ghost rapidly diminished.

Even the injuries upon its body worsened significantly.

Moreover, the wounds it sustained this time were far heavier than the last.

It would require at least a month or more of recuperation to recover.

[Art of Opening the Altar +128]

Next, Chen Yushu turned his focus to Zuo Zongheng, reclaiming the ritual altar's power.

[Art of Opening the Altar +234]

In an instant.

A peculiar flash of insight surfaced within his heart.

In the span of a brief moment, it felt as though he had practiced the Art of Opening the Altar a thousand or ten thousand times, rendering it utterly transparent and thoroughly mastered.

Simultaneously, he detected numerous errors and flaws in how he had previously set up the altar.

"The Art of Opening the Altar has reached Great Accomplishment!"

Instantly, Chen Yushu understood.

His Art of Opening the Altar had successfully advanced from the Lesser Accomplishment realm to Great Accomplishment.

The Art of Opening the Altar at Great Accomplishment was fundamentally different.

Viewing his own altar setup through this new perspective, he immediately discovered numerous issues, particularly regarding the ritual altar itself.

An altar was a magical art used to borrow the power of heaven and earth.

Previously, the method he employed could borrow the "heaven", but now he realized that was imperfect and incomplete. Aside from borrowing from heaven, he could also borrow from earth.

The power of earth- Qi was no less formidable than that of heaven.

More importantly, he suddenly realized that while he possessed the ability to borrow earth power, he also vaguely sensed another kind of force hidden deep beneath the earth.

Or rather, a membrane!

A barrier.

Beyond that barrier, it felt as though another world was concealed, brimming with mystery and the unknown.

Yet although he could sense this world, he remained utterly unable to grasp its exact location.

It felt as though it was right beneath the earth, and yet simultaneously ubiquitous.

However, he could only perceive it while the ritual altar was active.

Particularly when he pushed the Art of Opening the Altar to the realm of Great Accomplishment.

Once the altar was dismissed, the sensation vanished completely.

It was almost as if everything he had sensed before was merely an illusion.

"Perhaps only by cultivating the Art of Opening the Altar to the Realm of Perfection can one truly explore and even touch that world?"

Chen Yushu frowned, pondering to himself before quickly pushing the thought aside.

His strength was insufficient.

Thinking too much was useless.

Following that, he stepped out of the courtyard.

With Granny Jiang's demise, several items had materialized on the ground immediately: a token, a black cylinder, and the ghost-artifact fan she had previously wielded.

As the altar's bolstering power faded, Zuo Zongheng, despite being a Sui-tier entity, felt somewhat weak.

Naturally, his condition was far better than the hanging ghost's.

It was merely the sensation of having his energy drained dry, making him appear somewhat feeble.

"Grandfather, are you alright?"

At this moment, Xiaohong approached alongside Chen Yushu, asking with curious concern.

"Grandfather is fine."

Zuo Zongheng flashed a grin. For ghostly entities, barring their slightly scattered soul-bodies, it was genuinely difficult to tell whether they were injured or not.

"What are these?"

Only then did Chen Yushu cast his gaze upon the three items resting on the ground.

"A Sui-tier soul pearl, an enfeoffment token, and a ghost-artifact wind-waving fan."

Zuo Zongheng reluctantly dragged his gaze away from the three treasures on the ground and explained, "Among them, the Sui-tier soul pearl is the fundamental core of an evil spirit, containing massive amounts of resentment and rich spiritual particles.

For you Zouxin practitioners, it can be considered a top-tier material.

Of course, to creatures of our kind—evil spirits—it is an undisputed supreme tonic.

As for the enfeoffment token..."

As he spoke, his face filled with yearning, and even though his ghostly eyes were completely pale white, Chen Yushu could still detect a trace of intense fervor within them.

"The enfeoffment token is an edict of conferral from the imperial court. Once one possesses this token and gains official recognition, one is permitted to build a temple.

One could say this token is a treasure that countless wandering ghosts and evil spirits yearn for in their dreams.

It is also the credential that allows one to openly receive the faith and devotion of humankind."

Zuo Zongheng naturally craved such an item.

Yet he was acutely aware that this time, he had been facing certain doom, and it was solely thanks to Chen Yushu that he had escaped with his life.

Therefore, even though he deeply desired this enfeoffment token, he forcefully restrained himself, waiting until Chen Yushu approached so he could explain each item in turn.

"Oh?

This thing is useful to Senior Zuo as well?"

Chen Yushu asked curiously.

"Of course it's useful.

I believe you also understand the importance of this faith-power to us ghosts.

One might say that once you possess an enfeoffment token and receive official conferral to open a temple, even the weakest wandering ghost or fierce specter can grow in strength within an extremely short period.

Transforming into an evil spirit.

Granny Jiang was precisely like this.

In less than a hundred years, she transformed from a drowning river ghost and resentful spirit into a terrifying evil spirit like this..."

As he spoke, he shook his head repeatedly.

"Then it's yours!"

Hearing this, Chen Yushu casually tossed the enfeoffment token in his hand directly into Zuo Zongheng's grasp.

"Ah?

It's... it's mine?"

Zuo Zongheng's face was plastered with utter astonishment.