SWDnovel Chapter 84 also yielded unexpected results.
Chapter 84 also yielded unexpected results.
After being struck by the demonic dragon, the originally scattered black-clad Taoist priests seemed to have been triggered by some kind of instinct, and they quickly moved their positions to form a small Heavenly Gang Formation.
A powerful force of suppression and exorcism suddenly surged forth, pressing down on Xu Changqing.
At the same time, several eccentric Taoist priests flickered like ghosts, carrying a sharp, eerie wind, and rushed straight for Xu Changqing's vitals.
"Ha, they're treating me like a great demon, aren't they?" Xu Changqing sneered. "They're really turning the world upside down."
The white bone jade hairpin slipped silently from her hair, and while still in mid-air, it exploded with a "bang," transforming into hundreds of white bone water sparrows, each no bigger than a finger joint.
These birds were pure white, like jade, and their wings fluttered silently, yet they carried a chilling, annihilating aura that pierced straight to the soul, like a flurry of snowflakes, sweeping backwards towards the approaching Taoist priest.
The first few Taoist priests who came into contact with the white bone bird suddenly froze. The black scriptures writhing wildly on their bodies seemed to have met their nemesis, their eerie light flickering rapidly, emitting a faint "sizzling" sound like insects being crushed.
The smooth, pale skin quickly lost its luster, revealing large patches of grayish-brown lividity, which then cracked and peeled off, exposing the dark red and blackish, long-dead, rotting flesh beneath.
The remaining Taoist priests swayed, uttering incomprehensible hoarse sounds, seemingly trying to regroup, but their movements were already slow and stiff.
Xu Changqing would never give them another chance. The white-boned birds gathered like a tide and swarmed forward.
Moments later, only a few corpses of rotting flesh remained on the spot, completely lifeless.
Xu Changqing stepped forward, bent down, and pulled out a palm-sized wooden plaque from the lining of a tattered Taoist robe.
This wooden plaque is made of wood similar to the "Gold-Etched Banana Tree" and is engraved with the two ancient seal characters "Patrol". The back has some blurry cloud patterns.
Xu Changqing traced the cold engravings on the wooden plaque with his fingertips, lost in thought. "It seems these eccentric Taoist priests were originally the temple's guardians responsible for protecting the temple from theft. Even after falling into demonic possession, they still retain some of the instinct for coordinated attacks and formations..."
He casually put the gold-plated wooden plaque into his treasure bag, and with a flicker of his figure, continued walking deeper into the eerie forest.
But after Xu Changqing left, the black scriptures on those strange Taoist priests suddenly began to writhe eerily, then seeped into the ground and disappeared, their whereabouts unknown.
Once the scripture was lost, the rotting flesh and remains shrank rapidly, as if they were being sucked clean from the inside by something. In just a few breaths, they turned into a puddle of mud, just like the strange banana plants that had lost the control of the true plant.
......
As Xu Changqing walked through the strange forest, he pondered how many spirit jades he could exchange for the several sets of Five Elements Strange Banana Trees he had just acquired.
Suddenly, the fog ahead dissipated, revealing a corner of the eaves.
He paused slightly, gazing intently. He saw the outline of a palace faintly visible in the mist. Although it was dilapidated, with crumbling beams and pillars and scattered tiles, one could still discern that it had once been a large and important place.
"Oh? There's an unexpected bonus." Xu Changqing raised an eyebrow and floated closer like a wisp of smoke.
The palace door was half-closed, the vermilion paint was peeling off, and a crooked plaque hung above the door, the characters of which were blurred and difficult to decipher.
"Squeak."
He pushed the door open and went inside, and years of accumulated dust fell from the wooden door.
The interior of the hall was dimly lit, with only a few rays of light filtering through from above, barely illuminating the scene inside.
The hall was spacious, with a clay statue of a Taoist deity, about ten feet tall, enshrined in the center.
The Daoist's face was blurred, but one could vaguely see his long beard reaching his chest. He sat upright, his left hand forming a hand seal on his knee, while his right hand held a... banana leaf fan?
The fan had an ancient and simple design, with an oval-shaped surface and fan ribs that resembled wood but were not. They seemed to have grown together with the Daoist's right hand. However, the fan itself was dilapidated, with a dull gray color and several missing pieces along the edges, as if it had been eaten by insects and eroded by wind for thousands of years, and was covered with a thick layer of dust, just like the statue of the Daoist.
Even more peculiar is that several dry, curled root-like things extend from the end of the fan handle, deeply embedded in the sleeves and base of the Daoist statue, as if the fan grew out of the statue itself.
Xu Changqing muttered to himself, "Could this be the Daoist Master Qingxu Daode Shuntian?" The jade slip provided by Mei Qianqian mentioned that this was the patriarch worshipped by Ziyang Temple.
His gaze shifted downwards, but a slight tightness gripped his heart.
Below the statue of the Daoist Lord, seven elderly Daoist priests sat cross-legged, arranged in the seven-star configuration.
Unlike the black-clad patrolmen seen before, these seven people were all dressed in Taoist robes. Although they were covered in dust, they were intact and their original high-quality yellow color could still be faintly seen.
Their faces were rosy, their skin plump, even faintly glowing, and with their eyes closed and curtains drawn, they looked as if they were alive.
However, after Xu Changqing secretly investigated with the "Ziwei Annotated Death Scripture", he clearly sensed that these seven people had no life force and were undoubtedly dead.
But the more it is like this, the more bizarre it seems.
He dared not linger, fearing he might cause some serious trouble, and immediately planned to leave quietly.
But when his gaze swept over the Yin-Yang Banana Leaf Fan in the Daoist statue's hand, Xu Changqing's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and a flash of inspiration struck him. Instantly, his Killing Qi transformed into a large, blood-red hand, and he swiftly reached for the fan.
The Yin-Yang Banana Leaf Fan reacted extremely quickly, as if it possessed a mind of its own. It nimbly dodged the large hand, and then the fan surface shook, shooting out a stream of Yin-Yang energy that swept straight towards Xu Changqing.
Seeing this, Xu Changqing was not angry but delighted and laughed heartily.
"May the Heavenly Venerable grant you boundless blessings! It is my good fortune to come here."
With a single Killing Seal, he dispersed the Yin and Yang energies, causing the Killing Qi to surge violently. His blood-red hand grew even larger and grabbed out fiercely.
At the same time, the white bone hairpin transformed into a prison of white bones, covering everything from the other side and sealing off all of the banana leaf fan's escape routes.
The Yin-Yang Banana Leaf Fan trembled violently within the prison of bones, clashing and striking in all directions with a sharp clang of metal striking metal. But the White Bone Jade Hairpin was forged from the finger bones of a powerful being through the tempering of thunder and fire; it was incredibly hard, and there was no way it could break free.
In an instant, the fan was handed to Xu Changqing. It was heavy and cold to the touch; the fan ribs felt neither metal nor wood, and the fan surface was as thin as a cicada's wing yet exceptionally tough.
The banana leaf fan trembled violently in his palm, and a fleeting light flashed across the dark patterns on the fan surface. A strange aura, a mixture of cold and heat, suddenly surged up, attempting to invade his hand.
"Hmph, you still want to rebel after you've fallen into my hands?" Xu Changqing sneered, his palm slightly circulating the Devouring Heaven and Devouring Fortune Divine Power, an invisible force of devouring and suppressing emanated, instantly subduing the restless spirituality.
The fan struggled for a few moments, then finally gave way in resentment.
However, as soon as the fan left the statue of the Daoist Lord, it seemed to trigger some kind of seal, and the eyes of the seven old Daoists suddenly opened.
The rosy glow on their faces faded visibly, turning into a deathly gray. Their skin quickly dried up and wrinkled, and black runes emerged from beneath the flesh, twisting and writhing.
The aura instantly locked onto Xu Changqing, icy, deathly, and filled with malice, as if an invisible shackle had been placed upon him, causing the surrounding air to freeze and the temperature to plummet.