Yuezhou.
A streak of white light and a cyan shadow flew closely over the dense forest canopy.
"Little darling of the Spirit Court, stop running. You can’t escape."
"Old Ghost Zhu, you have slaughtered the innocent and are riddled with sins! How dare you attack me? Aren’t you afraid I’ll invite the Dean to execute you?"
"Little white sheep, don’t try to bluff me. The Spirit Court withdrew from the Wanling Jiangnan Capital thirty years ago! It’s debatable whether the Yuezhou Spirit Court even exists anymore. Where are you going to find your Dean?"
"I am from the Shanzhou Spirit Court!"
"Then would he dare to come down to Jiangnan? Isn’t he afraid that the Great Mountain Dharma King and the Iron King Mountain Master would tear him apart?"
"Our Spirit Court also has experts in Jiangnan!"
"Let them come! We’ll see if I can devour them!"
"The Daluo Palace has also entered Yuezhou!"
"Bah! A bunch of meddlesome Mages! Sooner or later, I will chop off their filthy paws!"
The two figures, one fleeing and the other in pursuit, quickly zipped past the dense forest and appeared beside an official highway.
It was broad daylight. Convoys of merchants and porters, as well as freelance craftsmen and peddlers, traveled along the road. Seeing the figures flying toward them, everyone reflexively squatted down and covered their heads.
The white shadow changed direction and flew past them from the side.
The cyan shadow let out a bizarre cackle. Three cyan threads shot out from it, whipping outward from the side while still chasing the white shadow, aiming to entangle the three nearest peddlers.
Seeming to harbor some sympathy, the white shadow nonetheless prioritized his own life. He flicked his hand, throwing out three darts without slowing down, instead accelerating his escape.
SWISH!
The darts severed the cyan threads. However, the severed threads instantly elongated again, continuing to wrap toward the three people.
"HEH HEH HEH..."
Just as the cyan shadow continued to cackle and chase the white shadow, flames suddenly ignited at the tips of the three released cyan threads. The next moment, the flames traveled up the cyan threads at a speed almost invisible to the naked eye. In the blink of an eye, the fire burned right into the cyan shadow itself.
"Ah!"
Unable to hold back a bizarre shriek, the cyan shadow transformed into a human figure and flew backward, glaring at the official highway.
He saw two Mages dressed in blue robes, one old and one young, standing quietly by the road and looking at him.
The white shadow also noticed the sudden change and revealed the appearance of a handsome youth. His eyes lit up when he saw the two Mages, and he swiftly flew over to stand beside them.
"Are you two from the Daluo Palace?" the handsome youth looked at the old man, asking expectantly. "Senior, could you be an Elder of the Daluo Palace?"
"This humble Daoist is Qing Ye. I indeed hail from the Daluo Palace. May I ask who you are..."
This old man and young boy were none other than Taoist Qing Ye and Xiu Ming, the Young Taoist, from the Spiritual Treasure Sect of Ge Xuan Mountain.
"I am Yang Yi, an Inspector of the Spirit Court!" The handsome youth hastily bowed. "I have long heard that the Elders of the Daluo Palace possess profound Magical Power and uphold righteousness and heroism, but I never had the chance to meet you until now."
"Envoy Yang, you are too polite," Taoist Qing Ye waved his hand. He looked at the man in cyan who had stopped on a distant treetop, a hint of a smile flashing in his eyes. "Did you just say you were going to chop off our hands?"
Taoist Qing Ye was not the one who spoke; it was Xiu Ming. He crooked his finger at the man in cyan in the distance. "We’re right here. Come and get us!"
Without a word, the man in cyan turned around and fled.
Taoist Qing Ye let out a long laugh and soared into the air. He reached out and grabbed at the space in front of him. Five rays of light—cyan, red, yellow, white, and black—flew from his fingertips. They crisscrossed and blocked the man in cyan’s path.
The man in cyan skidded to a halt, his eyes widening in horror. He never dreamed that right after making such a bold boast, he would run into a top expert from the Daluo Palace who had broken through Five Hundred Years of Dao Practice.
"Senior, please stay your hand! We can talk this out!" the man in cyan hurriedly pleaded.
"No, we have nothing to talk about," Taoist Qing Ye shook his head with a smile.
In truth, Taoist Qing Ye was still a hair’s breadth away from reaching Five Hundred Years of Dao Practice. Relying solely on his own Magical Power, he wouldn’t have been able to fly. However, he possessed the Spirit Flying Jade Talisman. Furthermore, with his aura revealed, his profound Taoist True Qi was more than enough to support him in unleashing strength that surpassed that threshold.
In other words, if it were merely Demons and Ghosts who had just crossed the threshold of Five Hundred Years of Dao Practice, they actually wouldn’t be able to defeat him—let alone this old ghost, who looked like he had less than Four Hundred Years of Dao Practice.
Truth be told, this old ghost’s strength was already quite formidable. Aside from a regional Sect Leader Level expert, he could hold his own almost anywhere. But unfortunately for him, he had run into Taoist Qing Ye, someone capable of fighting above his own level.
The five-colored light merely blocking his path gave him a prickly sensation of extreme danger down his back. It stung his eyes, and his entire body of Ghost Qi faintly roiled in instability.
"What kind of Magic is this?" the man in cyan couldn’t help but ask.
"This is the fundamental technique of the *Supreme Cave Mysterious Treasure Red Book Jade Formula Scripture*, also known as the *Red Book Jade Technique*. It refines the five internal organs within and summons the Five Qi without. However, I prefer to call it the Five-Colored Divine Light," Xiu Ming said with a grin.
Yang Yi, the "little white sheep," stood next to Xiu Ming and chimed in, "Although it doesn’t sound as profound as the *Red Book Jade Technique*, the Five-Colored Divine Light is indeed straightforward and easy to understand."
Xiu Ming was speechless.
Making pop-culture references in front of Otherworld natives who hadn’t read *Investiture of the Gods* was truly no fun at all.
While the two were talking, the Five-Colored Divine Light cast by Taoist Qing Ye had already formed a cage, enveloping the man in cyan. Eastern Cyan Qi, Southern Red Qi, Central Yellow Qi, Western White Qi, and Northern Black Qi. The five-colored rays seemed like light, but they were actually the ultimate condensation of the Five Directions Five Qi.
Taoist Qing Ye changed his Finger Technique, and the Five-Colored Divine Light began to shrink.
The man in cyan flicked his fingers to test it out. His full-force Yin Qi was ground into a wisp of light smoke and scattered by the wind when it was less than three feet away from the Divine Light.
The man in cyan’s pupils shrank drastically!
That finger flick had been his full strength, yet it couldn’t even get close to those rays of light! If the Divine Light touched his body, wouldn’t his Ghost Body be instantly shattered, wiping him out of existence entirely?
"Wait!" the man in cyan shouted frantically. "I am the brother-in-law of the Dream God Sect Leader! You can’t kill me! If you kill me, my brother-in-law will tear you to pieces and turn you into nourishment for his dreams!"
Hearing this, Yang Yi blanked for a moment and couldn’t help but say, "The Dream God Sect Leader actually has a decent reputation, doesn’t he?"
Then he heard Taoist Qing Ye say, "If that’s the case, after I kill you, I’ll go pay a visit to this Dream God Sect Leader. If he is also someone entangled in Evil Qi, I will eliminate him as well."
The man in cyan was horrified.
"My brother-in-law has a full Thousand Years of Dao Practice!" the man in cyan warned.
Taoist Qing Ye breathed a sigh of relief. "You scared me. I thought he had Ten Thousand Years of Dao Practice."
The man in cyan was utterly bewildered.
As his voice faded, the Divine Light descended upon the man.
"Break!" the man in cyan let out a mournful, piercing shriek. His figure transformed into a streak of cyan light. Doing his utmost to condense his Ghost Body, he charged toward the gaps in the Divine Light cage.
Taoist Qing Ye shifted his Seal Technique. The Divine Light cage flared brilliantly. A ray of white light, sharp to the extreme, swept through like a fine mesh net.
"Ah!"
The man in cyan screamed hoarsely as his Ghost Body was slashed full of holes. The next moment, a red light flashed and disappeared. A wave of intense heat swept past, entirely wiping out the man in cyan’s already-crumbling Ghost Body.
Evil Qi surged into the Thunder Seed.
Xiu Ming, the Young Taoist, let out a long breath. "So comfortable!"