Chapter 1580: Ghost Expulsion

Chapter 1580: Ghost Expulsion

Bai XiaoSheng truly wanted to slice open Mo Hua's brain to see what it actually looked like inside.

To slice it up and study it... just how could a human brain be so freakish?

Unfortunately, he didn't know how to slice brains.

Of course, even if he did, he wouldn't dare.

No matter how fat his courage grew, he wouldn't dare slice his Little Grandaunt's Little Junior Brother, his ancestral grandaunt's Little Martial Nephew.

Great Void Sect would certainly never let him off either.

Moreover, the battle allowed him no time to overthink, for the cold, ruthless Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors were still hacking at them ceaselessly, like rabid dogs.

"Left: strike the Jingming point. Right: strike the Fengfu point..."

Bai XiaoSheng recited the standard answers Mo Hua had provided. His figure flickered like Sword Light, vanishing in a flash to reappear beside the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior on the left. Then, he thrust his longsword out.

His Sword Qi was condensed to the utmost limit, transformed into the size of a needle's tip.

Following the sword's point, it pierced straight into the acupoint at the corner of the Golden-Armored Puppet's eye.

The Jingming point lay at the inner canthus; striking it shattered the eye and led straight into the cranium.

Bai XiaoSheng transformed his Sword Qi into a needle, allowing the sharp Spiritual Power to penetrate into the golden armor's Jingming point. The effect was immediate.

The Golden-Armored Puppet's head jerked visibly. Afterward, its vigor faded, and its gaze dimmed considerably.

"It worked!"

Bai XiaoSheng's eyes lit up. Repeating the trick, he once again condensed Sword Qi into a needle and pierced the Fengfu point of the other Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior.

The Fengfu point was located at the nape of the neck; striking it rattled the brainstem and severed the flow of Qi, blood, and spiritual currents throughout the body.

With this single sword strike, the other Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior also seemed to sustain injury, slumping noticeably.

These two simple thrusts were more effective than the hundreds of exhausting sword strikes Bai XiaoSheng had unleashed previously.

Having the standard answers to copy versus guessing blindly without an answer key truly made a world of difference.

"This kid Mo Hua is truly miraculous..."

For a moment, Bai XiaoSheng didn't know whether to sigh in admiration or resign himself to helplessness.

Afterward, he continued to concentrate wholeheartedly, exclusively targeting the two fatal points on the Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors: Jingming and Fengfu.

Not far away, Gu Changhuai also condensed his Wind Blades into tiny scalpel-like edges, striking the Juque point on the upper abdomen of the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior before him.

This Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior was clad in heavy armor and possessed high magic spell resistance.

Even though Gu Changhuai's Wind Blades were condensed to the extreme, their might was still heavily diminished when slashing against the warrior's body.

Fortunately, this Juque point was its Fatal Point, a crucial juncture for the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior's Spiritual Power circulation. Once the wind force seeped inside, it still caused damage to the internal structure.

The Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior's speed visibly slowed by a fraction.

Gu Changhuai let out a long breath of relief.

Mo Hua was indeed still Mo Hua; he never disappointed, and his calculations were terrifyingly precise.

If only he could stir up fewer messes sometimes...

Clearly both clever and steady, yet at times downright audacious, fearing neither gods nor ghosts. He truly is one of a kind.

Gu Changhuai shook his head.

Aside from them, Great General Chang didn't think nearly as much.

Whatever the Esteemed Master said, he simply did. Surging with strength, he swung his Mountain-Suppressing Spear and fiercely jabbed at the Guanyuan point three inches below the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior's navel.

Relying on the profound solidity of his Earth-Element Cultivation Method, Great General Chang didn't even bother dodging the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior's attacks anymore.

For Great General Chang, who was naturally adept at frontal charges rather than single combat, this suited him far better.

With instructions given, he just had to kill. He didn't even care about his life—that was how battlefield slaughter worked.

Under Great General Chang's singular, valiant onslaught, although his spear force was not as refined, the momentum of his spear was as heavy as a mountain. Striking exclusively at the Guanyuan point, he battered the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior before him into steady retreat.

This was a world apart from the state of the battle earlier.

As expected, Esteemed Master Mo foresees everything like a god; his words are never wrong...

Great General Chang nodded inwardly.

Pei Tanggong, Wen Zhuangzhu, and Lü Jingxiu were initially astonished, half-doubting Mo Hua's words, and subconsciously resistant to this Esteemed Master Mo's guidance.

Yet catching sight of the turnaround in Great General Chang and the others' battle out of the corners of their eyes, they had no choice but to lay down their prejudices and follow Esteemed Master Mo's instructions.

Lü Jingxiu had the weakest cultivation and could still only protect himself. Occasionally, he channeled his Jade Ruyi, condensing a wisp of jade light to strike the Jizhong point of a Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior.

However, he was not skilled in slaughter and possessed meager magic power; even when he hit, the damage was minimal, better than nothing.

It merely alleviated a bit of his own pressure.

Virtually all the real pressure fell upon Pei Tanggong and Wen Zhuangzhu.

Previously, the two of them as Late Golden Core Stage cultivators had barely held their own against three Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors, finding it rather strenuous.

It wasn't that their cultivation was weak, but rather that their magical treasures were formidable against flesh and blood, yet at a huge disadvantage against these rock-hard Golden Stone Puppets.

It had been a bitter, excruciating fight.

Now, having received Mo Hua's pointers and following Esteemed Master Mo's instructions, the situation finally took a turn for the better.

Wen Zhuangzhu shifted his Divine-Sense, identifying the acupoint locations. He then chanted an incantation, manipulating three Emerald Jade Pythons to coil around the three Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors, slowing their speed.

Pei Tanggong, meanwhile, wielded the Three Origins Spirit Treasure Sword Light, consecutively targeting the three fatal points of the three Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors: Zhongji, Qugu, and Yamen.

In this mode of spell duel, Wen Zhuangzhu suffered greatly.

His three Emerald Jade Pythons had to directly entangle the three Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors, enduring the slashing of their golden blades and battleaxes.

Yet there was no other choice; Pei Tanggong lacked means to trap the enemy, so this was their only option for now.

Sure enough, before long, one of the Emerald Jade Pythons was struck by a blade-axe on a Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior's arm, carving a distinct fissure into it.

The sound of jade cracking rang out.

This was his Lifebound Magical Treasure!

Wen Zhuangzhu felt immense heartache and suffered a backlash from the magical treasure. A mouthful of blood surged into his throat, which he forcefully swallowed back down.

Having carved a crack into the Emerald Jade Python, the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior pressed its advantage immediately, raising its sharp golden-stone blade-axe high, intending to cleave the Emerald Jade Python in two and ruin the Emerald Jade Serpent Staff magical treasure.

Seeing this, Wen Zhuangzhu was terrified, but controlling three at once left him entirely unable to manage.

Fortunately, Pei Tanggong nearby possessed remarkable cultivation. At the critical moment, he finally displayed his sharp edge, piercing the Qugu point of this Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior with a sword light gathered from spiritual luster and treasure Qi.

With its Qugu point damaged, the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior's Spiritual Power instantly fell into disarray. The falling blade-axe slowed, its angle deviating by several inches.

Only then was Wen Zhuangzhu able to recall the Emerald Jade Python, defusing the crisis.

Afterward, the situation eased somewhat.

Pei Tanggong suppressed the Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors with his sword arts, while Wen Zhuangzhu manipulated his lifebound Emerald Jade Serpent Staff with ever-increasing caution.

Meanwhile, the battle on the other side soon reached a conclusion.

After another hundred-odd exchanges, Bai XiaoSheng was the first to disable a Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior.

With his Sword Light, he struck over a dozen times, finally destroying the Fengfu point of the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior before him.

Once the Fatal Point was destroyed, the originally ferocious Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior's limbs twisted. It collapsed to the ground, twitched a few times, and ceased moving altogether.

Next was Gu Changhuai. Unleashing dozens of tiny Wind Blades in a continuous assault, he accurately destroyed the Juque point of the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior before him.

Another Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior fell, twisted, and went motionless.

Then came Great General Chang; after thrusting his Mountain-Suppressing Spear dozens of times with ferocious force, he also ruined the Guanyuan point of the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior facing him.

Following that, Bai XiaoSheng destroyed the Fengfu point of the second Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior before him as well.

Having eliminated their respective foes, the three freed their hands and went to reinforce Pei Tanggong and his group.

Now outnumbering the enemy, coupled with the fact that Pei Tanggong's group had already turned the tide, all eight Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors in the area had their fatal points destroyed within a few dozen exchanges. Their Spiritual Energy severed, they were temporarily paralyzed.

Some lay collapsed, some knelt halfway, while others remained frozen in the posture of hacking downward, perfectly rigid, without the slightest stir.

Everyone released their Divine-Sense to sweep over them.

Confirming that there were no longer any fluctuations of Spiritual Power circulating within the Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors, they finally let out long sighs of relief, their minds at ease.

"Finally... it's resolved..."

Everyone sighed.

Even Bai XiaoSheng felt a sense of relief.

Though these Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors weren't overwhelmingly strong to him, fighting them without using his trump cards was truly exhausting, draining on body, mind, and spirit.

To deal with these Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors, one would need high-realm cultivators who practiced superior Dao-Enhancing Methods, at least experts at Peak Golden Core or above—to suppress them with sheer overwhelming force and destroy all these puppets in one go.

Otherwise, without a significant gap in cultivation realm, slowly grinding against these Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors blade against sword would be impossible; powered by such a massive Spirit Stone Tomb, even an immortal might not outlast them.

The slightest carelessness would result in death under a flurry of blades.

Moreover, the flaws of these Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors were hidden so deeply.

Calculating these minuscule, nearly imperceptible fatal points would consume an unimaginable amount of Divine-Sense...

I wonder which wicked bastard crafted such a vicious trap...

Bai XiaoSheng thought to himself, his brow furrowing slightly.

If Mo Hua hadn't possessed heaven-defying computational power and brought this group of Golden Core experts into the Spirit Stone Tomb, these eight Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors alone would have been an insurmountable chasm.

In the entire Qingchou Prefecture, probably no one could have walked out alive from the butcher's knives of these eight Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors.

Considering how concealed their fatal points were, how exquisite their construction was, and the tricky intellect and complex computational power required to crack those points...

Unless a Feather Ascension True Person arrived in person, even across all of Houtu City, one probably couldn't pick out a handful of Golden Core Cultivators capable of breaking these eight Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors.

Thinking of this, Bai XiaoSheng felt it grew increasingly bizarre.

Who on earth was this Great Philanthropist Lü?

Where did he obtain these eight Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors?

And with eight such troublesome Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors guarding this tomb gate, what in the world was hidden deep within the tomb?

"Strange..."

Bai XiaoSheng glanced once more at the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior beside him that had ceased functioning, suddenly struck by a sense of dissonance.

Although these Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors were disabled, the various scenes of the bloody battle just now still lingered in his mind.

In particular, that cold, cruel killing instinct—originating from who knew where—was exceedingly peculiar.

This was definitely not something an ordinary, inanimate puppet could possess.

No matter how brilliant a formation was, it couldn't achieve this, for a formation was also an inanimate object that had to operate within a set framework.

Yet the Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors just now didn't seem to have that rigid feeling of being driven purely by formations.

"Why..."

Bai XiaoSheng frowned and subconsciously looked toward Mo Hua, only to find Mo Hua turning his head, gazing at Pei Tanggong and the others. It was unclear what he was looking at, or rather, it seemed as if... he were waiting for something.

Waiting for what?

Puzzled, Bai XiaoSheng followed Mo Hua's gaze and looked intently. On the other side, Pei Tanggong and the two others had barely recovered from their fright, gasping for breath heavily.

Without Mo Hua and the rest, these Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors would have truly given them more than they could handle.

Once his mind settled, Wen Zhuangzhu cradled his Jade Serpent Staff. Seeing that the originally fresh, dripping-green three-headed snakes on the magical treasure were all worn down, and one even had an internal fracture, it was clear his lifebound magical treasure had suffered severe damage.

Wen Zhuangzhu felt immense heartache, which quickly morphed into rage.

"These golden-stone beasts..."

If not for these beasts, how could his magical treasure have been damaged?

Overcome with wrath, Wen Zhuangzhu immediately raised the Jade Serpent Staff and jabbed the sharp tip of its tail into the eye of a Golden Stone Mighty Warrior to vent his anger.

Squelch!

The Jade Serpent Staff directly punctured the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior's eye, shattering the eyeball embedded with a Spirit Pearl.

Everyone froze for a moment.

Even Wen Zhuangzhu, in his fury, looked astonished.

The Golden-Armored Mighty Warriors were incomparably tough; during the earlier battle, he had repeatedly attacked their eyes, yet failed to leave a scratch.

Though he had acted out of anger just now, he never expected that a casual jab would pierce the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior's eyeball.

Wait, something's wrong...

Wen Zhuangzhu frowned, slowly lowering the Jade Serpent Staff, and subconsciously glanced at the ruptured eye of the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior.

This eye had been inlaid with a Spirit Pearl; now devoid of Spiritual Energy, it was an ashen gray.

Wen Zhuangzhu glanced at it and noticed nothing unusual at first, but in practically the next instant, he felt the world before him completely transform.

Black smoke billowed and dense fog spread as Evil Qi gushed violently from that ruptured eye.

Accompanied by the black mist, an ugly, cyan-and-red creature twisted its body, crawling out from that slit of an eye no wider than a finger.

Wen Zhuangzhu was horrified, yet his body seemed paralyzed; no matter how he tried, he couldn't move.

He could only watch helplessly as this ugly, cyan-and-red ghostly creature crawled out from the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior's shattered eyeball, creeping toward his own eyes inch by inch.

It seemed intent on burrowing through his eye sockets and into his brain.

Wen Zhuangzhu wanted to resist, but for some reason, he seemed to have lost control over his body.

His entire cultivation couldn't be mobilized; he couldn't even turn his head. His mouth hung wide open, yet no sound came out.

Seeing that this giant cyan-and-red ghostly creature was about to drill into his eyes, in the midst of his terror, an aged voice suddenly rang in his ears:

"Wen Zhuangzhu! Watch out!"

Then, Wen Zhuangzhu felt a sharp pain across his body as someone knocked him aside, sending him tumbling to the ground.

When he regained his senses and looked up, he saw the aged Pei Tanggong clutching his eyes, kneeling on the ground, his face contorted as he screamed in agony.

It was as if something had burrowed into his eyes.

Wen Zhuangzhu froze, bewildered for a moment, before understanding struck him instantly.

Pei Tanggong had saved him!

At the critical juncture, it was Pei Tanggong who shoved him away, distancing him from the Golden-Armored Mighty Warrior and from that ghostly creature's terrifying nightmare.

Yet Pei Tanggong hadn't escaped it.

Pei Tanggong pushed him aside, only to become the ghostly creature's target himself. The cyan-and-red ghost had burrowed into his eyes, subjecting him to the agony of an Evil Ghost devouring his brain, plunging him into despair.

At this thought, Wen Zhuangzhu felt both guilt and self-reproach.

Although local Golden Cores like them mostly hailed from wealthy landowning backgrounds and frequently pursued profit and exchanged pleasantries hypocritically, when someone truly saved his life, his emotions couldn't help but surge.

What was more, Pei Tanggong's current state was extremely dire.

That cyan-and-red ghost seemed exceptionally ferocious, torturing Pei Tanggong until tears of blood streamed from both eyes, leaving him in unbearable pain.

Wen Zhuangzhu had never understood much about ghosts and supernatural phenomena. Seeing Pei Tanggong struck by this ghostly calamity in such miserable agony, he was utterly at a loss.

In his panic, Wen Zhuangzhu looked over and saw the mysterious Esteemed Master Mo standing in the distance, clad in black robes with hands clasped behind his back. His heart jolted violently.

He scrambled to his feet at once, bowed deeply, and pleaded with utter sincerity:

"I beg Esteemed Master Mo to save Pei Tanggong's life!"

(End of Chapter)