"Looking for death!"
The gray-robed man's orders were to eliminate any suspicious individuals near the docks.
A non-human growl escaped his throat, and with a flick of his sleeve!
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Three corpse vines, black as ink and covered in barbs, ripped through the air like enraged vipers, lunging towards Chen Changqing's face!
Their speed was like lightning!
"Be careful, young man!"
Old Man Wang, who had been leisurely practicing Tai Chi, saw his expression change drastically. He cried out in alarm, instinctively wanting to help. However, a wave of icy, bone-chilling air forced him back several steps, draining the color from his face.
However, the expected scene of brains splattering and blood flying everywhere didn't happen.
Chen Changqing, in a move that appeared clumsy but was actually incredibly skillful, twisted his body at the perfect moment, narrowly avoiding the deadly strike of the Corpse Vines.
Simultaneously, he smoothly flicked his sleeve, dislodging twelve Pure Yang Copper Coins that still radiated intense heat.
Buzz——!
The twelve copper coins hovered in the air, a meter in front of him. They rapidly moved and combined in an unfathomable and nearly invisible pattern, instantly forming a miniature "Earth, Water, Fire, Wind" Four Elements array that glowed faintly.
Zzzt...zzt...zzt——!
The three extremely vicious Corpse Vines crashed head-on into the Four Elements array formed by the Pure Yang Copper Coins.
They immediately emitted a piercing sound, like hot oil being poured onto ice, and billowed out thick black smoke, the smell of which was nauseating.
"Ugh!" The gray-robed man groaned in pain, his body stumbling uncontrollably. The bamboo hat on his head slipped off and fell to the ground.
Beneath the hat was a face that sent shivers down the spine! Half of it was already rotting and festering, one eyeball clouded and bulging, the other eye socket empty and hollow, the face twisted and horrifying!
As expected, a living person taken over and controlled by a Corpse Puppet from the Yinshi Sect.
Chen Changqing's heart settled, confirming his guess, but his expression slightly darkened.
Without hesitation, he reached into his bosom and pulled out a yellow Talisman to Suppress Corpses, inscribed with cinnabar runes. He formed a hand seal, rapidly recited the incantation, and the paper was about to fly out.
Chhht!
The bright yellow paper spontaneously combusted at his fingertips, without any fire. In less than a breath, it turned into a pinch of ash, which fluttered down.
Chen Changqing's heart suddenly leaped in alarm!
His Talisman to Suppress Corpses, though not top-tier, was a legacy from his sect. It was usually a piece of cake to deal with low-level Corpse Puppets, and it should never have been neutralized so easily!
His gaze turned sharp as lightning, quickly sweeping towards the gray-clothed man's waist.
There, hanging from the Corpse Puppet's waist, was a pigeon-egg-sized, shimmering bronze bell. The surface of the bell was covered with a dense array of miniature skulls that made one's scalp crawl.
Almost simultaneously, the Karma Heavenly Eye immediately provided information:
[Artifact Identification: Hundred Bone Bell (Sub-Bell)] [Rank: Mid-Grade Artifact] [Origin: Yinshi Sect Secret Transmission] [Effect: Controls low-level Corpse Puppet groups, significantly counters conventional Talisman to Suppress Evil (especially those with Yang-attribute), interferes with and shields a certain degree of Spiritual Sense detection. Note: This is one of the sub-bells of the main body, and its power is limited.]
So that's it!
Chen Changqing's eyes narrowed slightly. It seemed that the other party's actions were not only advanced but also well-prepared, even targeting and preparing artifacts that countered conventional Taoist methods.
The Yinshi Sect's intentions this time were probably far from simple; they were really planning something big.
He couldn't handle this like he had handled minor problems before, casually tossing out a few talismans and setting up a small array to solve things easily.
But if he were to directly use his trump card, his true yuan cultivation… the backlash from the Curse of the End of the Dharma, like a maggot clinging to the bone, made him apprehensive.
Just as Chen Changqing was in a dilemma.
"Hmph, so you're just a little Taoist who knows a bit of the surface."
The grey-robed man, or rather, the Corpse Puppet controlling him, let out a shrill laugh that was neither male nor female, like a screech owl sharpening its claws, extremely grating to the ears.
"You won't go the road to heaven, but you insist on barging into hell!"
"You dare to spy on the great affairs of my holy sect, and block this one's path to collecting corpses!"
"Today, I'll extract your soul, and use your essence blood to refine my Hundred Bone Bell!"
Before his words even faded, a murderous glint flashed in the gray-robed man's eyes. A thick, black corpse qi suddenly erupted from him, almost completely engulfing his form.
Within the black fog, countless pale, bloated arms could be vaguely seen, frantically flailing and emitting a hair-raising, whimpering sound.
An intense, sinister aura instantly enveloped the area within several meters, causing even the willow trees along the riverbank to rapidly wither and turn yellow.
Old Man Wang and the other morning exercisers paled, struggling to breathe, clearly unable to withstand the corruption of this evil qi.
Chen Changqing's eyes narrowed, knowing he could hesitate no longer.
He advanced instead of retreating, his footwork shifting. His left hand rapidly formed a hand seal.
His fingertip tapped three times on the phantom turtle shell projection floating before him!
"The word 'Xun', activate!"
"Kun, solidify!"
"Gen, suppress!"
With a hum, and spurred by his low voice, the thirty-six cobblestones (actually array bases) that Chen Changqing had casually placed along the riverside path, immediately lit up with a faint green light.
Thirty-six pillars of green light shot up from the ground, erupting like bamboo shoots, and instantly intertwined to form a more complex and stable array, tightly trapping the grey-robed man and the black fog surrounding him in the center of the array.
This was Chen Changqing's improved "Turtle Shell Trapping Immortal Array," refined with the help of the Karma Heavenly Eye!
On the green bamboo shadows, countless fine golden runes flowed and shifted, emitting waves of yang energy, which firmly suppressed the cold corpse qi within the array.
The pale arm in the black fog, upon touching the green light barrier, immediately dissolved like snow meeting the blazing sun, and let out a shrill scream.
"A mere trapping array dares to stop this one?"
The gray-robed man let out an infuriated roar. He clearly hadn't expected this seemingly ordinary young man to be able to set up such an exquisite array so quickly.
He frantically channeled the corpse qi within the Corpse Puppet, manipulating the arms in the black fog to repeatedly slam against the azure light barrier, emitting muffled thuds.
Although the azure light barrier trembled violently, and the runes flickered, the array's core remained stable, showing no signs of being breached.
Chen Changqing stood outside the array, his expression calm, and even had the leisure to adjust the collar of his tracksuit.
He knew this array wouldn't trap the other party for long, especially with the Hundred Bone Bell's amplification.
However, he hadn't intended to solve the problem with this array in the first place.
"With your meager cultivation, you dare to try and stop me?"
The gray-robed man was still roaring within the array, attempting to shake Chen Changqing's composure with words.
"Once I break your pathetic array, I will definitely extract your soul and refine it, making you wish you could live and die, enduring the torment of corpse fire for eternity!"
However, his threats and curses came to an abrupt halt.
Because through the thinning, unstable black mist, he saw with shock that the young man standing outside the array, calm and composed, was leisurely… pulling out a… smartphone from his sweatpants pocket????
Moreover, the young man unlocked the screen with practiced ease and opened an application that looked both ancient and somewhat official.
At the top of the screen, it clearly displayed: "Heavenly Dao Pavilion - Pavilion Master Xu Yang - Emergency Contact Channel"!
"Hello? Senior Xu? Ah, good morning. Hope I didn't disturb your morning exercise?" Chen Changqing put the phone to his ear, his tone polite and familiar, just like greeting an old man returning from morning exercises next door.
"Oh, nothing major, just a small matter. It's the people from the Yinshi Sect's Blood Plum Hall. Somehow they came to trouble the Number Seventeen Pier ahead of time. Yes, just one, but he brought a mid-grade magic item, the Hundred Bone Bell, which is quite effective against talismans."
Inside the array, the gray-robed man's roar was cut off as if his neck had been grabbed. The only intact, cloudy eyeball on his decaying face widened, almost popping out of its socket.
Heavenly Dao Pavilion? Pavilion Master Xu Yang?!
These words were like a thunderclap from the heavens, exploding in his mind! Although the Yinshi Sect operated secretly and mysteriously, they had still heard of the truly top powers and figures in the cultivation world. The Heavenly Dao Pavilion, what kind of existence was that? And Pavilion Master Xu Yang, he was a legendary figure whose every footstep would make the cultivation world tremble!
This… this kid could actually contact Pavilion Master Xu Yang directly?!
"Mm, I set up a small array to trap him temporarily, but it doesn't seem like it will last long," Chen Changqing said, listening to the phone. He glanced at the face in the array, which had gone from shock to terror, and then to disbelief. A barely perceptible smile played on his lips.
"You're coming personally? Oh, I can't possibly trouble you, that's too much. No, no, no need to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Just send a few capable enforcers to handle the aftermath. I'm mainly worried he might have accomplices, or be carrying a mother bell or something, that would be troublesome," Chen Changqing said in a relaxed tone, as if discussing the weather.
The gray-robed man felt a chill surge from his tailbone straight to the top of his head, even more bone-chilling than when the Corpse Vines were broken earlier. His arm, controlling the Corpse Puppet, instinctively stopped slamming against the array's light barrier, and the thick black fog became somewhat dispersed due to his shock.
He was finished! He had kicked an iron plate this time! No, he had kicked a mountain made of adamantine!
"What? You've already had Deputy Hall Master Zhou of the Thunder Law Hall lead a team to set out? So fast?" Chen Changqing raised an eyebrow slightly, seeming a little surprised. "Alright, then I'll wait for them here. I'll trouble Senior Xu, and I'll definitely visit to express my gratitude and have a meal another day."
The person on the other end of the phone seemed to say a few more things. Chen Changqing responded repeatedly, "Alright, you're busy, you're busy."
He hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket, then looked at the gray-robed man in the array, who had completely lost his composure.
"Did you hear that?" Chen Changqing said lightly, "The Thunder Law Hall of the Heavenly Dao Pavilion, they specialize in dealing with evil things like you. If you surrender now, you might be able to avoid some suffering."
The Corpse Puppet controlled by the gray-robed man emitted a "grrr" sound from its throat, like a leaking bellows, and its face was filled with despair. He never imagined that a seemingly ordinary clearing mission would attract such a formidable foe! And it even brought out the Heavenly Dao Pavilion, such a behemoth!
"You... who exactly are you?" His voice was hoarse and dry, devoid of the arrogance he had shown before.
Chen Changqing smiled, "A passing, enthusiastic citizen."
Old Man Wang, who was next to him, had recovered slightly from his initial shock. He now gaped, looking at the ferocious "monster" in the array, then at Chen Changqing, who was calmly making a phone call and calling for backup. He felt like his decades-old worldview was being rubbed on the ground repeatedly. Nowadays, even Taoist priests who caught demons were so... down-to-earth? Using a cell phone? Calling for help?
Just then, the light of the Turtle Shell Trapping Immortal Array dimmed a bit, and fine cracks began to appear on the blue light wall. Clearly, the evil power of the Hundred Bone Bell was still eroding the array.
Chen Changqing's brow twitched almost imperceptibly. It seemed the Hundred Bone Bell's power was even stronger than he'd anticipated. Or perhaps, the Corpse Puppet was being driven with considerable effort.
"So, you're still not giving up," Chen Changqing said, his tone still calm, but his eyes had grown colder.