Chapter 60

When it got behind me, I yelled to my third brother and the others, "Run!"

The three of them were already terrified, and when they heard me shouting, they ran towards the village.

The Mountain Shadow Demon hadn't anticipated this. It must have been starving these days, and instead of letting them go, it wanted to devour all our souls. The giant shadow chased after the three of them.

Just as it was about to catch up, the three of them ran out of the willow branch I had inserted. I placed my left hand under my arm, made a sword-like gesture with my right hand, and pointed to the sky, chanting aloud: "Tianyuan Taiyi, the master of the army, awakens Xiyi and drives away evil!"

As I chanted the incantation, the one hundred and eight willow branches I'd planted in the ground during the day began to glow redly, illuminating the entire night sky. These one hundred and eight branches transformed into one hundred and eight stars in the heavens, surrounding the Mountain Shadow Demon and me. Then, I summoned the Fire Bell and pointed at the nearby branches. Ignited by the Red Lotus True Fire, all one hundred and eight branches burst into white flames!

Seeing the situation was bad, the Mountain Shadow Demon tried to escape, but when it approached the flames of the willow branches, its shadow was instantly engulfed by the flames. It quickly retreated, fearfully staying away from the willow branches.

This is the 108 Sun True Fire Demon Subduing Formation I just learned! It draws its energy from the sun absorbed from the willow branches, ignited by the Red Lotus True Fire, and transformed into the world's most powerful Sun True Fire! This Sun True Fire is far more powerful than my Red Lotus True Fire. My Red Lotus True Fire is a karmic fire, highly effective against yin entities like ghosts. While it has some effect against demons, it's not as effective. Furthermore, this Mountain Shadow Demon is too massive. My Red Lotus True Fire can injure it, but it can't eliminate it. If I let it escape, given its temperament, it won't be so easily fooled again.

So I thought of using this 108 Sun True Fire Demon Subduing Formation to trap it within. The Sun True Fire can incinerate anything in the world, and the Mountain Shadow Demon was engulfed by the True Fire before it even touched the Yangzhi, wounding it. This perfectly illustrates the principle of the mutual restraint of all things: when the sun shines, the shadow disappears.

The shadow demon saw that I was the one in charge of the formation, and if it wanted to escape, it had to kill me first. So the black shadow surrounded me and opened its mouth to bite my shadow.

A sense of danger came over me, and I quickly jumped away. But it had already surrounded me, and its dark shadow was everywhere.

I quickly summoned the golden light to protect my soul, protecting both me and my shadow within the golden light.

It impatiencely attacked the golden light, knocking my soul into a trance. Taking advantage of this gap, the black shadow solidified into a solid form, transforming into a pair of large hands that grasped me. Its demonic energy frantically consumed the golden light all over my body.

Once the golden light disappears, I will become its meal.

This won't work. I manipulate the 108 poplar branches, each of which emits a white thread to entangle the Mountain Shadow Demon. The threads, transformed from the sun's true fire, refine the shadow as they touch it, until they finally wrap it into the shape of a mountain. This must be its true form.

Now it has been trapped by me, and wisps of black air are coming out of it.

I took this opportunity to step out of the One Hundred and Eight Suns True Fire Demon Subduing Formation, chanting, "The radiant True Fire, the essence of the sun, slays evil and subdues demons, bringing clarity to the heavens and earth!"

One hundred and eight willow branches turned into billowing flames, gradually narrowing the encirclement and devouring the Mountain Shadow Demon bit by bit.

As it devoured it, the black energy emanating from its body transformed into souls, young and old, male and female, that flew out of its body. These were all the pitiful people it had devoured. I had thought their souls had long since merged with the Mountain Shadow Demon, but unexpectedly, they were refined by the Sun's True Fire. I thought again of the record in the Yin Fu Lu, which states that our clan's most important ability is to liberate the souls of the dead. Needless to say, the Feather Stone on my chest floated into my hand. I immersed myself in it, and the Feather Stone's light emanated, purifying the wronged souls one by one. They all knelt before me in mid-air.

At this time, the village entrance was already full of people. Some villagers saw their relatives and cried and wanted to go forward, but were held back.

My salvation ritual concluded when a strong wind blew in. The villagers, blown by the strong wind, covered their eyes. I knew it was the Night Wanderer. Sure enough, he emerged from the wind's source and, with a wave of his sleeve, gathered the souls. A flood of gratitude transformed into energy, channeling into the Feather Stone. Looking at the Mountain Shadow Demon again, it had already been incinerated by the Sun's True Fire.

I breathed a sigh of relief, finally solving it.

When the villagers saw the white light disappear, I was the only one standing there quietly. The brave ones looked at me.

"I have gotten rid of it." My voice was particularly clear in the quiet night.

Only then did a few villagers come forward, and when they left the village, the evil aura did not appear, because the Mountain Shadow Demon was dead, and the barrier surrounding the village naturally disappeared.

I looked out at the crowd. Some villagers, overcome with emotion by the sight of their deceased loved ones, had fainted. Everyone rushed to help. They were mentally unstable and needed to rest. They would recover naturally once the shock had subsided.

The next day, early in the morning, I was blocked by the villagers at Aunt Liu's house.

"Auntie, please tell the villagers not to send me any more food. I can't finish it all by myself, and I can't carry it all." I was sitting in Auntie Liu's house, and outside the door were the villagers who came to thank me.

According to the villagers, their relatives who had been killed by the Mountain Shadow Demon appeared in their dreams last night. They had watched me eliminate the Mountain Shadow Demon last night, and knowing I was leaving today, they all brought me eggs and even homemade stewed chicken.

Looking at the enthusiastic villagers, I felt a little embarrassed. Not to mention chickens, even eggs were rarely seen in daily meals, except during Chinese New Year.

This is how I had the conversation with Aunt Liu just now.

"Oh, little master, this is all out of everyone's good intentions." Aunt Liu is no longer as frightened as when I first came.

"Auntie, I really don't want it," I said.

"Then go tell everyone yourself. I can't do anything about it."

I opened Aunt Liu's door, and when the villagers saw me coming out, they all rushed over. I used Aunt Liu to block them and took advantage of the chaos to slip out of the crowd. It wasn't until I ran several dozen meters that Aunt Liu shouted, "Oh, the young master has run away!"

The chaotic villagers looked in the direction Aunt Liu pointed, but I had already run far away.

They chased me for a while, but when they couldn't catch up with me, they stood there and watched my figure slowly disappear.

As I walked along, I began to carefully study the Yin Fu Lu. The complete text contained a vast amount of information, covering topics such as salvation, spiritual communication, exorcism, summoning spirits, and formations. Even more exaggerated was the inclusion of divination and feng shui. But these things were overwhelming and completely uninteresting to me. Speaking of summoning spirits, the Night Wanderer, whom I had accidentally summoned, was one of them. He always appeared when I was performing salvation for the dead, and I was no longer surprised to see him.