The air was thick with a heavy stench and a bone-chilling cold.
Captain Yi surveyed the land; he purposely chose to come at dusk, at the moment when yin and yang exchange, as night approaches.
He wanted to see if the fierce ghost entrenched here would dare to show itself in front of his Southern Army tonight!
The sky quickly darkened, and the last glimmer of daylight was swallowed by the night. The Zhou Family mansion was completely enveloped in darkness.
Three hundred soldiers stood silently, breathing steadily, as if they were waiting for something.
"Light the fire."
With Captain Yi’s order, ten soldiers moved immediately to light the torches.
These torches were exactly like those used in Ku Shi Town, with handles wrapped in red talismans.
As the light of the symbols flowed, the flames roared to life, stable and bright, unaffected by the gentle breeze.
"Creak—"
A faint creaking sound of wood rubbing came from behind, particularly clear in the deathly silence of the open space.
Captain Yi’s face was cold and stern as iron, not even blinking.
"Bang—!!"
A loud noise suddenly exploded!
The door was kicked open as if a giant invisible hand had shoved it harshly, slamming it shut!
The heavy impact echoed throughout the mansion.
Almost at the same moment the door closed, a faint weeping of a woman drifted from the depths of the mansion’s embroidered building.
The sound was mournful and sorrowful, intermittent, not like it was next to the ear but rather resounding directly in one’s heart, making the blood boil and the scalp tingle.
Captain Yi’s eyes turned sharp suddenly, not showing a trace of fear; instead, a cold, almost cruel smile curled up at the corners of his mouth.
"Finally willing to come out?"
He murmured under his breath, thumb gently undoing the safety on his pistol.
The cold wind swept through.
Just a meter ahead of Captain Yi, more than twenty figures appeared out of nowhere without warning.
They were wearing colorful satin burial clothes.
There was an old man with a cane, his face greenish-black, a woman cradling a baby with blood oozing from her seven orifices, a youth with a twisted neck and a sinister grin.
Men, women, young and old, they seemed like a complete family, staring silently and blatantly at Captain Yi in an eerie "welcome home" manner.
But their way of "welcoming" was truly eerie, with some having half of their face rotten to the bone, others with limbs bent at unnatural angles, and even more extreme, some with ruptured bellies and intestines hanging out, yet still wearing stiff smiles.
Even the battle-hardened Captain Yi and the three hundred soldiers, despite being mentally prepared, instinctively shuddered and retreated half a step back in unison at the sight of the terrifying scene suddenly appearing before them.
In the next moment, those more than twenty ghosts, like being pulled by invisible strings, suddenly floated forward!
Countless ghostly hands with sharp, black nails, bringing a piercing chill, reached towards Captain Yi who was close at hand!
Just as the lethal ghostly claws were about to touch his face.
"Buzz!"
A low hum sounded, and a blazing crimson light erupted suddenly from Captain Yi’s chest!
A crimson barrier formed of countless vermilion symbols instantly appeared, with blazing righteousness like the scorching sun.
The ghostly hands recoiled upon touching the crimson light, as if encountering a nemesis, instantly emitting thick white smoke and letting out sizzling burning sounds!
"Ah—!!!"
Eerie wails, unhuman in their shrillness, simultaneously erupted from the mouths of the more than twenty ghosts.
They were as if struck by an irrefutable mighty force and instantly thrown backward, crashing awkwardly onto the bluestone slabs six meters away.
Upon a closer look, black mist churned around the ghosts, clearly showing that they were seriously injured.
As the crimson light gradually receded, Captain Yi stood proud and unharmed.
He looked coldly at the rolling, wailing ghosts in front, slowly raised his right hand.
"Open fire."
The next moment, gunfire exploded like popping beans!
The scorching barrage, guided by the crimson talismans, instantly enveloped the rolling, wailing ghosts in front.
The bullets pierced through the frail ghostly bodies, leaving the specters unable to organized proper resistance, as their figures rapidly disintegrated amid increasingly faint wails.
In the end, they turned into wisps of blue smoke, dissipating completely into the night sky along with that suffocating resentment.
The gunfire ceased, and the courtyard of the mansion returned to tranquility, leaving only the scent of gunpowder.
The fierce ghost of the Zhou Family, which once prowled here and made the entire street tremble with fear, under the absolute might of the Southern Army’s talisman battalion, was vanquished in mere moments.
"Ten people per team, search the entire mansion to confirm whether these ghost things have completely disappeared." Captain Yi holstered his gun, his tone still calm, as if the extermination just now was merely a bunch of insignificant foes.
Just at the moment he issued the order.
"Ah!!!"
A scream far sharper, filled with rancor and pain, suddenly came from above everyone’s heads!
A fiercely substantial blue ghostly figure had stealthily reached right above Captain Yi, ready to pounce with claws outstretched!
Its speed and bizarre form far surpassed those miscellaneous shadowy spirits from earlier.
However, just as it was about to succeed, a flash of red light emerged around Captain Yi.
"Bang!"
The blue shadow collided fiercely with the red light, producing a heavy boom.
This time, the counterforce was even more powerful, as if the blue ghostly figure was struck by an invisible heavy hammer, letting out an even more shrill wail.
It flew back faster than it came, crashing brutally into the darkest main building within the mansion.
"Ha! Knew there was a big fish hiding!"
Captain Yi was not only unsurprised but showed a knowing expression.
"Been expecting you! Now, the walls outside the mansion are fully plastered with Divine Talismans personally granted by the Prince. Even if King Yama arrives, he’ll have to squat obediently inside here!"
He turned and raised his arm in a shout, his voice resonating throughout the mansion: "Brothers! Now’s the time to shine!
The first one to catch that ghost tonight will have all the wine and meat they desire; I’ll pay out of pocket for the team to have an extra meal!"
"Captain, you’re brilliant!"
Three hundred soldiers cheered in unison, shaking the roof tiles and turning the originally eerie and terrifying ghost house into a thrilling hunting ground.
For thousands of years, it’s always been deadly ghosts claiming lives, never have they seen humans chasing after a fierce ghost with torches through the courtyard!
The blue shadow hiding in the shadows finally understood—what it meant to feel fear like prey.
It fled him pursuing, unable to escape even with wings.
"Open the Heavenly Eye!"
At Captain Yi’s command, all three hundred soldiers acted in unison, taking out a red talisman from their chests and pressing it firmly onto their foreheads, near the eyes.
As the talisman touched their skin, the faint red light flowed, seeping into their skin like something alive.
The next moment, a layer of hazy red light enveloped the eyes of all the soldiers, appearing like flickering stars in the dim courtyard, fantastically wondrous!
Under this "Heavenly Eye" vision, the world changed abruptly.
The previously indistinguishable yin and evil energies were now vividly visible, while the trails left by the fleeing blue shadow were like a beacon in the night.
"To the southeast corridor, it’s heading toward the inner courtyard well!" one soldier accurately reported.
"It ran again! Damn, this house is huge! Quick, search over there!"
"Eh? Wait... Behind that rockery! Heh heh, it’s a little girl ghost, quite pretty but with heavy evil aura, sporting an intimidating look."
"Enough with the chatter, eat my bullet!"
"Hahaha! I shot her in the thigh! Let’s see if she can still run!"
Damn, crawled through the wall! Pursue!
The entire Zhou Family mansion seemed to become a vast hunting ground, and the blue-clad female ghost was now in utter disarray. Previously terrifying divine techniques appeared laughable under an onslaught of talisman bullets and omnipresent "Heavenly Eye" tracking.
She had just phased through a wall and into what seemed a safe courtyard, only to crash headlong into a pack of fierce troops.
The adversaries gave no quarter, raising guns to shoot, sending scorching bullets that made her ghostly form tremble violently and wail in distress.
Ultimately, amid a despairing shriek, she was pushed to a corner, bombarded by dozens of bullets simultaneously, with her solid ghostly form unable to sustain.
With a "puff," it exploded into a mass of wriggling, foul-smelling viscous blue liquid.
Captain Yi walked up expressionlessly, casually dropping a red talisman onto the liquid.
"Boom!"
The blazing flames of pure yang shot skyward, accompanied by the final remnants of a ghastly sound, purifying the unclean entity completely, burned to nothingness.
"Mission accomplished." Captain Yi turned around, his voice calm and steady, "Regroup."
The ghosts exterminated in these six counties all transformed into Lu Xuan’s system points.
Host: Red Dust Immortal Lu Xuan (Seventh Life)
Realm: Heavenly Master (Minor Accomplishment)
Cultivation Technique: Yang Flame Talisman Fire True Manual (10/9) — Can be deduced
Points: 1,480,000
Consume 1.4 million system points to deduce Yang Flame Talisman Fire True Manual?
"Deduce!"