STOTTD | Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Zhou Xin raised the peachwood sword, and the ring finger of her left hand brushed across the blade. The peachwood sword was stained with blood qi, and instantly gave off a faint glow.

Then, she held the sword and pointed it at the qi-eating spirit, but made no further move.

The qi-eating spirit did not move either, still keeping its original posture, as if it was also watching for changes.

Zhou Xin’s mind wavered, and she actually saw a trace of contempt from that faceless face.

Could it be that the ancient qi-eating spirits had different temperaments from the modern ones?

…Maybe I should just go back and ask Linghe Zhenren to make a move.

She withdrew the sword and turned around, only to meet Shen Jibai’s strange gaze, along with Shen夫人’s complicated look.

How embarrassing.

Zhou Xin wanted nothing more than to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.

Gritting her teeth, she stabbed backward with the sword. The qi-eating spirit rose upward, easily dodging it, and stood upright in the air.

She shouted loudly and charged again with her sword, but it did not move at all, showing no intention of dodging.

A strand of green silk swept straight toward her face, avoiding the peachwood sword, coiling around her wrist, then lifting her whole body into the air and smashing her hard onto the ground with a loud “thud!”

Immediately after, a “gigglegigglegiggle” laughter filled the room.

“There’s a demon, Aunt must be careful!”

Shen Jibai immediately sent Madam Shen out the door, slammed the door shut, drew the dragon-patterned blade from his waist, and swept a vigilant gaze around the room. “Lingyun Jun, how may Shen Jibai help you?”

Zhou Xin lay on the ground, her whole body wrapped in green silk, even her fingers bound so tightly that she could not move.

Seeing the green silk coil around her neck and about to spread to her head, she thought to herself, this ghost thing is trying to learn from spiders and make a human cocoon!

“Pick up the peachwood sword and hack at me!”

“Hack harder! Hack me a few more times!”

“Don’t be polite!”

“…What?” Shen Jibai was slightly startled, as if he thought he had misheard.

“Quick…”

The moment she opened her mouth, green silk drilled into it, directly probing toward the depths of her throat!

A wave of churning surged in her stomach, her qi and blood rushed upward, and tears kept pouring out uncontrollably.

An unprecedented feeling of suffocation hit her head-on. Zhou Xin kept retching, her face turning red, her body curling up as she rolled on the ground, constantly letting out painful moans!

Seeing this, Shen Jibai immediately picked up the peachwood sword and hacked fiercely at her!

Although he could not see it, he realized something was covering her body, and he did not dare stop even after hacking several times.

And since the peachwood sword did not hurt people, he hacked like his life depended on it, even carrying the air of venting a private grudge.

But from Zhou Xin’s perspective, every time Shen Jibai hacked once, he would cut off a section of green silk. The broken green silk turned into wisps of black smoke in the blink of an eye, slowly spreading outward in all directions.

These black smoke were all vital qi that the qi-eating spirit had worked hard to suck out from everyone. How could it let them drift away everywhere.

It suddenly withdrew the green silk, no longer caring about dealing with anyone else, and hurriedly jumped up and down, devouring the black smoke scattered around the room.

Only then did Zhou Xin get free, vomiting out a mouthful of sour water.

Lying on the ground with teary eyes, she gasped for breath in big gulps and said weakly, “…That’s enough. If you keep hitting, Zhou Xin is really going to suspect that Shen Jibai is taking the chance to vent his anger.”

The hacking motion stopped at once.

“What is it? Why can Shen not see it?”

Zhou Xin shakily stood up. “…There’s no time to say this. Open the windows for ventilation, and open the door too.”

The other side immediately did as told.

With the doors and windows wide open, the black smoke gradually drifted outside. The qi-eating spirit cried out in distress, chasing after the black smoke as it floated out of the room.

Zhou Xin pinched the tip of her ring finger, then smeared the blood that came out onto Shen Jibai’s forehead, giving him the heavenly eye as well.

Although he had already seen many monsters, when he saw the true form of the qi-eating spirit, he still could not help drawing in a cold breath.

“What is that?”

“A qi-eating spirit. Its spirit body is formless, invisible to the naked eye. It feeds on the vital qi of living people, and has always bullied the weak while fearing the strong.”

Zhou Xin did not want to admit that it had looked down on her, so she glanced at 檀奴 and changed the subject: “People all have three fires on their body, corresponding to soul, po, and ling. 檀奴 has an extremely yin fate, so he naturally attracts these things. On top of that, he is ill and weak, and the three fires are feeble, so it took the chance to get in.”

Shen Jibai murmured, “…So that’s how it is.”

Pulling out the dragon-patterned blade that he had tucked at his waist, Zhou Xin held out her hand. Her fingertip brushed over the blade tip, drawing a wound, and fresh blood instantly welled out.

She silently recited a heart mantra, using blood to draw a subduing-demon talisman on the blade. When the last stroke was completed, the blood talisman emitted a faint golden light, then disappeared.

The subduing-demon talisman was the talisman she used most often when catching ghosts and deceiving people in the past, so she was also the most skilled at it.

Now, using the profound daoist art within 朝南衣’s body, the talisman’s power was incomparably strong.

Handing the blade back to Shen Jibai, she tilted her chin toward the qi-eating spirit outside. “It has already been lured out of the room. I’ll trouble Shen Shaoqing to stall it for a while. Zhaomo needs to arrange things inside the room to prevent it from coming back and harming 檀奴 again.”

Yet the other party did not take the dragon-patterned blade. Instead, he stared blankly at her right hand.

Zhou Xin: “Shen Shaoqing?”

Shen Jibai barely came back to his senses, reached out to take the dragon-patterned blade, then suddenly flipped his wrist and swung it toward the air between the two of them!

Zhou Xin: “?”

After he finished hacking, he was visibly stunned for a moment, then looked over again.

Following his gaze, Zhou Xin finally realized that he was looking at the ring finger of her right hand.

But there was nothing on her ring finger!

Shen Jibai walked out thoughtfully, his lips moving as if he had muttered something softly: “Why can’t it be cut off?”

Zhou Xin lowered her eyes and stared at her ring finger, thinking, Strange, what did he see? Why can’t I see it?

Shen Jibai’s voice came from outside the door: “Aunt, go into the room and hide for a bit.”

The next moment, Madam Shen walked in with a worried expression, stood by the luohan couch, joined her hands, and repeatedly bowed toward all four directions, constantly praying that neither of them would run into trouble.

Pulling open 檀奴’s collar to expose his chest, she dipped her fingertip, which was still bleeding, into cinnabar and drew a talisman on 檀奴’s chest.

The moment the talisman was completed, the cinnabar instantly seeped into the skin and turned into a tattoo talisman!

Then she helped 檀奴 sit up and said to Madam Shen, “Support him a little.”

The latter hurriedly did as told.

Zhou Xin held a clay bowl filled with glutinous rice in her left hand. With her right hand, she joined two fingers together, lightly pressed her sword-finger on 檀奴’s 眉心, slid downward to the philtrum, then tapped once at the Bǐngfēng acupoints on both shoulders, and finally slapped his abdomen with one palm, while her left hand quickly raised the 陶碗 under his lips.

Only then did 檀奴 open his mouth and exhale. The snow-white glutinous rice immediately turned black, like a bowl of charcoal ash.

Madam Shen was stunned.

After spitting out this black qi, 檀奴’s complexion returned to the state it had after drinking the talisman water. Zhou Xin gave Madam Shen a look, signaling her to help him lie flat on the couch. “Madam Shen, 檀奴 has been invaded by evil qi, and his three fires are weak. This talisman can keep him safe. Once the three fires are strong again, this talisman will disappear on its own, and by then 檀奴 will be fine.”

Only then did Madam Shen finally let out a breath. Joy brought moisture to her eyes, and she tightly grabbed Zhou Xin’s hand while thanking her over and over.

Zhou Xin lightly tapped her 眉心 with sword fingers, and a dot of cinnabar landed on the 印堂.

In an instant, the 印堂, which had been covered with black qi, seemed to brighten like clear light reflected on snow. Even between her brows and eyes, there was a spaciousness like after rain had passed and the sky cleared, and her whole complexion visibly improved.

“Daoist, this is…?”

Zhou Xin smiled slightly. “This dot of cinnabar can keep you from being invaded by evil qi. Before 檀奴 recovers, Madam Shen, please bear with it for now, and do not wash your face.”

“I’ll listen to the daoist!”

“The evil spirit has not left yet. Madam Shen, please stay in the room for now to look after 檀奴.”

After finishing her instructions, she closed the door and went out with the peachwood sword in hand.

Shen Jibai swung his blade and cut off a strand of the qi-eating spirit’s green silk, shouting, “Lingyun Jun would be better off arriving one moment later!”

Zhou Xin originally wanted to draw her sword and help. After hearing that, she took a step back, folded her arms across her chest, and started watching the show. “A command is as good as a promise! Zhaomo will watch a bit more of Shen Shaoqing’s divine blade skills!”

Shen Jibai was furious. Just as he lost focus, the qi-eating spirit seized the opening, and the green silk suddenly shot over, avoiding the blade and wrapping around his wrist.

In an instant, it lifted him high up, then smashed him down hard!

“Thud!”

Although it was the same move, when the qi-eating spirit threw Zhou Xin, it had not used such great force. The sound it made was far less loud than this one.

No matter how good he was at fighting, he was still flesh and blood after all. That fall was truly not light!

Shen Jibai clutched his chest and spat out a mouthful of bloody water. Then, gritting his back teeth, he glared angrily and said, “朝南衣! You did that on purpose!”

“Didn’t Shen Shaoqing tell Zhaomo to help later?” Zhou Xin pulled him up with one hand, her face wearing a half sincere, half false apology.

Before the two of them could steady themselves, the green silk attacked again. Zhou Xin swung her sword and cut it off, shouting, “Shave its hair!”

Shen Jibai said nothing more, only doing as told.

With a point of his toe, he leaped into the air, raised his blade and struck with force, severing the qi-eating spirit’s green silk!

Then he stepped on his left foot with his right foot and flew even higher, the blade tip directly hacking toward the qi-eating spirit.

The person and the spirit were locked in an endless fight in the air. More and more green silk was cut down. Zhou Xin wanted to help, but she did not know 轻功, so she had nowhere to start.

She could only occasionally take out a 符箓 and throw it toward the qi-eating spirit, pinching hand seals and reciting incantations as she carried out long-range attacks, adding some “magic damage.”

But the talismans she had brought were limited, and before long she had thrown them all. She could only tilt her face up and watch while clapping to cheer them on, sincerely rooting for him:

“Impressive!”

“That move is really beautiful!”

Good grief, this guy’s combat power was off the charts.

So quickly he had used his blade to shave the qi-eating spirit into a crew cut, that was way too efficient.

Shen Jibai found time in the midst of his busy struggle to glance at her. “Have you seen enough yet? If not, hurry up and help!”

“At your command!” Zhou Xin took out the talisman paper hidden against her chest.

The second page of record of oddities introduced the qi-eating spirit. Since it was called a spirit, that meant it was transformed from the essence of sun and moon, and could only be destroyed by 天雷.

This thing was born without a heart, and was vicious to the extreme. The vital qi it absorbed would be transformed into green silk. The longer the green silk grew, the higher its demon power became.

It was extremely vengeful. Once battle started, 天雷 had to be summoned to destroy it. Otherwise, once it found a chance to retaliate, it was very likely to suck someone dry of vital qi.

When she went back to Shuiyun Stream to get the peachwood sword, Zhou Xin had flipped through the book to look at the thunder-summoning talisman, and had also copied several by imitating the model. She had even specially had Linghe Zhenren check them. She had kept them hidden on her body the whole time, waiting only to shave off the qi-eating spirit’s green silk and summon 天雷 while its demon power was lost.

She held the thunder-summoning talisman between two fingers and loudly chanted the spell: “The six directions and the battle formation are all thunder arts, 雷来, break!”

The words had fallen, but the talisman paper did not spontaneously ignite, and the sky was also silent, showing no sign of thunder.

Not to mention thunder, there wasn’t even a single cloud. It had not even called up a gust of wind.

Zhou Xin tried again, “The six directions and the battle formation are all thunder arts, 雷来, break!”

The result this time was the same.

Zhou Xin: “?”

What was going on?

And at this moment, the qi-eating spirit, now shaved into a bald head, was trembling all over in rage and kicked Zhou Xin flying!

“赫——！”

“赫——！”

It shouted and floated into the air. A gloomy wind suddenly rose around them, black smoke swirled up along with the wind and all returned into the qi-eating spirit’s belly. The cut-off green silk grew wildly like weeds, and in the blink of an eye it was over one meter long.

Then, it bent down and rushed straight toward the two of them!