Chapter 40: Art of Pursuit, Paper Effigies!
Boom!
This time, Li Yanchu's entire body erupted with blazing blood and qi, and his Six Yang Force burst forth like a furnace. Half of the monster's chest was blasted apart, and it didn’t even have time to scream before it was sent flying.
In the blink of an eye, Li Yanchu was on it again, striking with a flurry of powerful punches mid-air. Each blow was heavy and ferocious, carrying an unstoppable force like a crumbling mountain.
The creature collapsed to the ground, its body mangled and broken.
At the same time, a familiar Daoist resonance echoed in Li Yanchu’s mind. Merit earned: 300 points!
Bai Hongtu was momentarily stunned, but quickly recovered and joined the attack.
“Go!”
His sword unsheathed itself, shooting out in a streak of white light, splitting the demon’s body apart. This time, Bai Hongtu didn’t hold back; he immediately followed up with a talisman technique.
Boom!
The talisman struck the corpse and exploded into a burst of flames, igniting the monster’s remains on the spot. And this time, the evil creature didn’t stir again.
Li Yanchu’s earlier overwhelming technique of the Divine Astral Hands had already ensured the demon’s death. But, by the time Magistrate Xu and the others arrived, what they saw was Bai Hongtu using Daoist arts to vanquish the demon. To them, it was nothing short of divine intervention. The corpse of the evil creature, wrapped in flames, was quickly reduced to ashes.
Bai Hongtu's face flushed red. Just moments ago, he had confidently declared that the monster was dead beyond doubt, only to have it fake death and launch a sneak attack, nearly costing him his life.
“Yanchu, thank you!”
“Not at all. That thing died under your Flying Sword Talisman Technique. I just lent a small hand,” Li Yanchu replied, making no effort to take credit for slaying the creature.
Bai Hongtu gave him a grateful look. This is a friend worth keeping.
At that moment, Magistrate Xu arrived with his men. After asking for details and learning the monster had been thoroughly vanquished, his expression finally relaxed. He offered a string of thanks to Bai Hongtu, and of course, to Li Yanchu, who had risked himself as bait.
Bai Hongtu instantly became the center of attention. His heart soared, and he felt like he had just stepped onto the peak of his life. And with a friend like Li Yanchu by his side, he was more than pleased. He was already starting to see him as a true lifelong confidant.
Soon, the group returned to Wei City. The yamen quickly issued a public notice announcing the evil creature had been slain. Soon, Bai Hongtu's name spread throughout the entire city.
***
Li Yanchu was genuinely intrigued by Bai Hongtu’s Daoist arts. The Flying Sword Talisman Technique had a clear xianxia flair.
Their cultivation paths were from different schools: Bai Hongtu's Daoist spells leaned heavily toward combat and destruction, resembling those of lineages like Mount Longhu or Mount Mao[1].
Meanwhile, the spells in Li Yanchu’s Yellow Court Classic were more mysterious and refined. For instance, Telekinetic Retrieval, a technique Li Yanchu could perform, was something Bai Hongtu couldn’t replicate, nor did his sect have any records of it.
However, in this ancient era, Daoist techniques were not lightly passed on. The two only exchanged insights, but never taught each other their actual techniques.
As for Li Yanchu, he found martial arts deadly enough on their own, but he was still particularly fond of spells like the Deity Summoning Art, which could temporarily boost his power in battle.
***
Bai Hongtu had made a name for himself in Wei City, finally achieving his dream of “slaying demons and eliminating evil.” In the days that followed, many prominent figures in the city hosted banquets in his honor.
The Bai family of Jinchuan was indeed a prestigious and noble clan, but no one had expected this young master to also possess real skill in dealing with malevolent forces.
His purse quickly filled, and he often visited the entertainment districts to listen to music and enjoy himself, living a life of carefree indulgence.
Young Master Bai had completely thrown his father’s warnings to the back of his mind. Still, he remained genuinely grateful to Li Yanchu for backing him up and helping him rise to fame.
He tried multiple times to invite Li Yanchu to join him in the entertainment districts to “listen to tunes,” but was rejected every time. Bai Hongtu felt regretful, thinking this good friend he had made must be a pure cultivator who abstained from women. That belief lasted until he discovered that the curvaceous and alluring innkeeper seemed to have an unusual relationship with Li Yanchu.
The innkeeper had fair skin, seductive eyes, and the sultry allure of a fully ripened peach, the kind of woman who could easily ensnare a man’s soul. Bai Hongtu had not expected her to be Li Yanchu’s lover.
Then, he saw Fang Qinglan, a cold and stunning beauty, like a goddess descended to the mortal world. No matter how attentive and courteous he was, she remained cold and indifferent.
Bai Hongtu assumed this must just be her naturally aloof personality, until he witnessed Fang Qinglan laughing softly and speaking with Li Yanchu, looking radiant and graceful like a jade beauty come to life at the Taiping Inn.
The blow hit Bai Hongtu hard. From that point on, he threw himself into the arms of wine and song at the entertainment districts, licking his wounds in silence.
***
As for the rumor of the Elixir of Immortality, Li Yanchu didn’t know how it had started spreading, but he was well aware of the consequences it could bring.
There had already been frequent strange incidents in Wei City. The demonic entity outside the city some days ago had been a mountain monster, capable of mimicking the sound of a crying child, and it had led to many missing children.
With undercurrents of danger rising in Wei City, Li Yanchu didn’t dare relax. He had just begun to grasp the basics of the Deity Summoning Art, though for now, he hadn’t yet used it in actual combat.
Bai Hongtu admired the mystical refinement of Li Yanchu’s Daoist arts, while Li Yanchu, in turn, felt a bit envious of Bai Hongtu’s sharp, combat-focused techniques, with their distinct xianxia flair.
Still, Li Yanchu went back to the Yellow Court Classic and selected a new supportive Daoist art: Art of Pursuit, a method that could follow lingering spiritual traces to locate a being’s true form. He had chosen it specifically to deal with the malevolent spirits still lurking in Wei City.
After teaming up with Bai Hongtu to eliminate the evil creature outside the city, Li Yanchu uncovered another hidden threat within the city walls: a paper effigy causing chaos.
After he shredded it to pieces with the Jiaoslayer, Li Yanchu gained 100 merit points.
“Tonight, I’ll find out if there are any more paper effigies hiding in Wei City,” Li Yanchu said, his eyes fixed on a fragment of paper lying on the table.
It had been a paper effigy that possessed Constable Zhao, turning him into a corpse puppet. The figure that had snuck into the Taiping Inn late at night with ill intentions toward the innkeeper was also a paper effigy.
And this most recent one, which Li Yanchu had just slain, was the true culprit behind the disappearance of several maids at the Chen family’s residence, the same Chen family who had previously asked Li Yanchu to exorcize a lecherous ghost.
Three of their maids had vanished recently, and strange footsteps had once again been heard in the night.
Naturally, Bai Hongtu had come along. But it was Li Yanchu who finished the job, slicing the paper effigy into shreds with a single blow.
Now, standing before the torn paper remnant, Li Yanchu formed a seal with his fingers and silently chanted the incantation. A force invisible to the naked eye struck the scrap of paper on the table.
“Rise!” Li Yanchu shouted coldly.
The fragment trembled, then slowly floated into the air. Drawn by some unseen force, it drifted steadily toward the outside.
At his side, Bai Hongtu gave a low chuckle. “Impressive. Yanchu, that technique of yours is practically divine.”
Li Yanchu stood up and said, “Let’s go.”
His heart stirred with excitement. It seemed there really were remnants of the paper effigy still hiding in the city. He was eager to see just where this slip of paper would fly to.
***
At Yongxing Street in Wei City...
In the dead silence of the empty street, panicked footsteps echoed sharply. A young woman came running toward a nearby inn, frantic and terrified.
Her face was deathly pale, unnaturally so. Her expression was full of panic and tension as she constantly glanced over her shoulder and around her, as though desperately trying to avoid something unseen.
Her trembling hands dropped the key multiple times onto the empty street, the metallic clatter sounding piercingly loud in the still night.
1. 龙虎山 (Lónghǔ Shān) Mount Longhu and 茅山 (Máo Shān) Mount Mao are both real mountains in China historically associated with Daoism, and they each represent distinct Daoist schools or lineages. ☜
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