Yuan Qi and Tu Shanli exchanged a glance, their expressions grave. They both noticed a layer of black malevolent energy shrouding the water's surface, growing increasingly dense, and wondered just how powerful the evil spirit within was.
Yuan Qi dared not act rashly, for fear of harming the people on the river.
But ordinary people, with their mortal eyes, cannot see these ominous signs and mistakenly believe that the fish leaping out of the water alongside the dragon boat is an auspicious omen.
Moreover, it was obvious that dark clouds were slowly gathering over the river, forming a dark cloud canopy overhead. The wind picked up on the river, and the river water gradually became turbulent, with high waves on the surface.
The people on the dragon boat realized that the weather was about to change, and they all rowed their boats to shore.
Those who were slow to react were capsized along with their boats, and some were even lifted high by the waves and then slammed into the water before disappearing from sight.
In a short time, more than a dozen boats were capsized, and some were even smashed to pieces by the wind and waves.
Even some of the onlookers on the shore were swept away by the crashing waves. Everyone fled as if their lives depended on it, crying and shouting as they hid in their carriages. Some even told their drivers to leave quickly.
The scene was chaotic. Some people accidentally fell and were trampled. Cries for their parents mingled with the sound of the wind and waves, creating a terrifying symphony.
Jiang Jiulu saw the towering waves and witnessed the slender dragon boat being lifted into the sky, with people floating up and down like duckweed in the turbulent water.
Jiang Bailu and Jiang Songlu were even more frightened; they hid behind the guards and were escorted to the carriage.
Yuan Qi ordered the guards to escort Jiang Jiulu and the others back to the carriage for safety. Since Wen Zhujun was made of paper and it was inconvenient for her to fight on the river, he had her stay on the bank to protect the people.
Tu Shanli stared intently at the black mist on the river, which almost completely covered the surface. After looking for a long time, he still couldn't find where the evil spirit was.
"Have you found where the evil spirit is?"
Yuan Qi shook his head: "No, this evil spirit is very cunning; it actually hides underwater and doesn't come out."
She threw several explosive talismans in different directions, and then cast more than a dozen exorcising talismans. The black fog on the river surface immediately decreased significantly, but there was still no trace of evil spirits.
Jiang Junjing had not expected such a thing to happen. He and Xiao Zhen escorted the contestants ashore. The wind and waves were very strong, and the dragon boats could not dock. Some were even swept back by the wind and waves. Some people fell into the water from the boats. Seeing the contestants struggling in the water, floating up and down, about to die, the two were very anxious.
Jiang Junjing suddenly remembered the talisman Yuan Qi had given him, so he took one out and threw it into the river.
The waves on the shore subsided considerably in an instant.
Xiao Zhen was shocked by the power of Jiang Junjing's talismans, and also surprised that he seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of talismans. Were such powerful talismans free?
"Where did you get these talismans?"
Jiang Junjing replied, "It was given to me by my seventh sister."
Xiao Zhen secretly marveled at Yuan Qi's prowess; no wonder he could so easily discover his Gu worms.
He then asked curiously, "Were all of these paintings done by Miss Seven?"
Jiang Junjing pulled someone over before answering, "Yes, they were all drawn by Seventh Sister. We are very grateful for these talismans today. Your Highness, please be careful; there may be evil spirits in the water."
He also took a closer look at Xiao Zhen and found that all the pendants on his body were still there and intact.
During this time, Jiang Junjing kept throwing talismans. Although it was a bit difficult, the contestants on the shore managed to get ashore successfully.
Xiao Zhen was also very anxious. He wanted the water ghost to kill Yuan Qi, but he didn't want him to implicate the contestants and the spectators.
Seeing the waves getting bigger and bigger, and dozens of people still unable to get ashore, he was anxious but helpless, so he asked Jiang Junjing, "Could you throw the talisman a little further away?"
Yuan Qi threw talismans at the populated areas to help those in the water get ashore as soon as possible.
Fortunately, Yuan Qi's talismans were very effective. After throwing out the exorcising talismans one after another, the wind and waves on that side did indeed decrease a lot.
"Get ashore quickly!" Yuan Qi shouted.
Tu Shanli also took the opportunity to leap onto the river and pull the person out of the water and bring them to the shore.
After going back and forth like this more than twenty times, almost all the people in the water had been rescued.
Seeing that Yuan Qi showed no intention of leaving, Jiang Junjing came over to persuade her, "Everyone has left, let's go too."
Yuan Qiyi said righteously, "There are powerful evil spirits in the water. If we don't get rid of them today, they will become a great scourge in the future. Besides, we will be training here and holding dragon boat races in the future. We cannot let the evil spirits harm people again. We must take them out."
“Then I’ll help you! Seventh Sister, you’re still so young, we can’t let you face the evil spirits alone.”
Yuan Qi pointed to Tu Shanli on the river: "With his help, you should leave quickly and not cause trouble here."
As he spoke, Yuan Qi also flew onto the river and together with Tu Shanli flew towards the densest black mist.
She threw a few explosive talismans, and the thick black aura indeed dissipated somewhat.
"Bang!" A huge tremor suddenly erupted on the water's surface, sending up a spray of water five zhang (approximately 10 meters) high.
Yuan Qi and Tu Shanli quickly retreated to avoid them.
Immediately afterwards, a humanoid monster covered in seaweed emerged from the water. The monster seemed to be made of seaweed, which continued to grow and quickly spread across a large area of the water.
Moreover, the aquatic plants seemed to have eyes, growing upwards from the water's surface beneath Tushan and Yuanqi's feet, attempting to entangle their feet.
Yuan Qi unleashed several fire talismans, while Tu Shanli separately used longswords to cut down the tangled water plants.
Water plants are not afraid of pain at all, and they are also not afraid of fire. Fire cannot ignite water plants, and it even extinguishes them.
"You're courting death!" Yuan Qi wasn't afraid. He took out an octagonal mirror from his cloth bag, chanted a spell, and the mirror emitted a golden light.
Wherever the golden light touched, the aquatic plants quickly retreated.
Before long, the water plants on the surface of the water all shrank back, and even the human-shaped water plant revealed its true form. It was a man dressed in black, soaking wet, but quite handsome. The man shook himself off, and the water vapor on his body disappeared.
He later transformed into a handsome young man.
However, it was a bit of a mood killer, as the young man was surrounded by black energy and had a ferocious and vicious expression on his face.
Yuan Qi and Tu Shanli both realized that this male water ghost was at least eight hundred years old, if not a thousand years old, and his cultivation was quite profound. No wonder he made such a commotion earlier.
I don't know how many innocent people have lost their lives at his hands in the past two years.
"Who are you, and why are you causing harm to living beings here?" Yuan Qi asked him.
"Since you two have some skill that made me reveal my true form, I will tell you that I am Xuan Yuanlang, the heir of the Wu'an King of the Baiye Dynasty a thousand years ago. This entire river, upstream and downstream for thousands of miles, is my territory. If you want to hold a dragon boat race here, that's not impossible, as long as you offer me a hundred young girls."
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