As midnight approached, the dense black mist of yin malice surged skyward, blotting out the full moon above, then a massive surge of it transformed into malice ghosts that lunged ferociously toward everyone, intent on devouring their souls and sucking out their marrow.

Lang Jiuchuan reacted the fastest. She pulled talisman paper from her sleeve, hurled it at that malice energy, and chanted solemnly: “Heaven and Earth, the profound origins, the root of all ten-thousand breaths!”

The talisman paper burst into flame without a spark, transforming into flowing fire that exploded open in midair. In an instant, golden light blazed brilliant, scattering the invisible malice ghosts that had rushed toward her. The golden light wrapped around her like warm sunlight, so that the extreme vicious yin malice energy dared not approach.

But those Daoist practitioners who had not managed to react in time, or whose cultivation was merely average, were not so fortunate. The yin malice energy drew close and gnawed at them — their flesh feeling as though something had truly bitten into it, the pain excruciating. The yin malice energy bored through their five senses into their meridians; the extreme cold spread to their four limbs and the bones all over their bodies like ten-thousand-year ice worms burrowing and gnawing from within. They could not suppress their cries of pain.

Gong Tinglan and those with him had not expected that the moment they set foot here they would encounter such dense and domineering extreme malice energy. They reacted without thinking, immediately hurling out talisman paper.

Talisman seals detonated one after another in the air, their righteous fire blazing, forcing the malice energy to retreat and giving everyone a moment to catch their breath.

Lang Jiuchuan transmitted her voice to Gong Qi. She then activated a concealment seal upon herself and, with a few leaps, descended into the corpse mountain.

And Kong Xu Zi’s group had barely drawn a few breaths when suddenly a chill ran down their spines and they each stumbled backward several steps, as a cry rang out from someone beside them.

“Senior Brother Xiao!”

Everyone looked over with wide eyes. From within the yin malice black mist that had receded like a tide, the jiangshi suddenly burst out with the speed of a gale. It seized the Daoist nearest to it, sank its long sharp fangs into the man’s throat, and drank deep of his refined blood. Then, with both hands, it tore him apart — as effortlessly as tearing paper — and flung the two halves back onto the corpse mountain.

All of this happened in the span of no more than two breaths.

The scent of blood drifted over on the wind, and everyone’s expressions changed drastically. Looking again at the jiangshi — it was hovering in midair, raising both claws to its lips, licking the fresh blood that had not yet dried on them. Then it let out a sharp, piercing roar at the group, and in the darkness, its long and pointed fangs glinted with an eerie, greenish-black cold light.

Its ten fingers were slender, without flesh, longer by a full inch than a normal person’s, and the nails had grown into blue-black bladed weapons — sharp and keen.

“Vile creature, how dare you still harm people!” Kong Xu Zi thundered furiously.

Gong Qi called out in a commanding voice: “All Gong Clan members, hear my order — form the Heavenly Constellation Northern Dipper formation.”

He looked toward the Young Master and transmitted a message, then quietly took Gong Shiliu with him to follow after Lang Jiuchuan.

The Young Master understood. He exchanged a glance with those beside him and began to form the formation to surround the jiangshi.

As though sensing the threat, the black mist of yin malice emanating from the jiangshi grew denser and more vicious. Those crimson undead eyes seemed soaked in blood — a piercing, harsh red.

It clenched both hands into fists, and the joints of its ten fingers let out a grating cracking sound. It charged into the crowd again and seized another person to bite.

“Aah!” Another person died beneath its long, sharp jiangshi fangs.

Kong Xu Zi held his coin sword in one hand. He bit his fingertip with the other hand, smeared blood along the blade, and at the moment the jiangshi’s hand reached out to seize him, touched the tip of his foot to the ground and leapt. The coin sword, glowing red, suddenly blazed with intense light, its edge like a ray of light, slicing across the back of the jiangshi’s hand.

Clang.

Kong Xu Zi heard a ringing sound like a sword striking gold or iron, and was greatly alarmed. Had this jiangshi actually tempered its body to have skin like bronze and bones like iron?

He looked at the jiangshi’s hand — where the coin sword had swept across, it had left a scorched black mark as though struck by lightning and burned. Breathing in the acrid smell of charred flesh, he raised his eyes and swiftly spun his body to dodge the other party’s razor-sharp claw.

The jiangshi missed its strike and let out another sharp, piercing roar. At close range, its long, pointed fangs seemed all the more lethally cold — fragments of flesh still clinging to them, putrid sticky fluid dripping from between them, enough to turn one’s stomach.

It moved with gale-force speed, again pursuing Kong Xu Zi. Kong Xu Zi pulled from his chest a eight-trigram mirror, its surface painted in blood-red talisman symbols drawn with vermilion and black dog’s blood. He held it up to face the jiangshi. The golden light that shot from the mirror’s surface made the jiangshi let out a sharp, ear-splitting screech. It shielded its eyes with its sleeve — but did not slow down. From its other hand, dense malice energy surged forth like a massive palm and struck toward Kong Xu Zi.

Kong Xu Zi went flying, pain exploding in his chest. He saw the yin malice had shattered the front of his Daoist robes, leaving a black palmprint on his chest, along with the claw marks that had broken his skin — poison entering his chest cavity, his soul shaken with pain.

He vomited a mouthful of dark blood, and several years seemed to appear on his face at once.

The jiangshi appeared unsatisfied. Its long sharp fingernail blades slashed toward him — but its body was suddenly bound by lines of coin wire, one after another, wrapping around it like a heavenly net.

That was golden armor coin wire — made of gold-thread silk impervious to water and fire, soaked in black dog’s blood, and tempered through lightning fire. It could exorcise evil and bind souls.

Now with the jiangshi bound by the golden armor wire, the coins on the wire rang out, each chiming strike against the other. The more it struggled, the more fiercely the righteous lightning force of the wire tightened its restraint.

The jiangshi was completely enraged. Shrouded head to toe in black mist of yin malice, with a tremendous crack, the golden armor wire burst apart and the coins scattered across the ground. It broke free.

By this time, the Gong Clan had already formed the Heavenly Constellation Northern Dipper formation, each person fulfilling their role, guarding their position.

Gong Tinglan held a Three Pure Objects staff in his hand, treading the Dipper Pacing Steps with tremendous speed, drawing the thunder energy of the Nine Heavens to strike down upon it: “Fierce generals of the Five Thunders, shaking the Five Sacred Mountains, thunder with ten-thousand-jun force, eradicating evil and supporting righteousness — Edict!”

Boom.

A bolt of purple lightning from the Nine Heavens, thick as an arm, crashed down upon the jiangshi. The electric light blazed as bright as day; the force of the lightning coursed through its entire undead body, making it let out a howl of anguish.

At that howl, the white bones of the corpse mountain behind it seemed to be roused from slumber — they began to move. As though tens of thousands of resentful souls cried and wailed in unison, the resentful energy surged skyward and came rushing toward it.

Gong Tinglan’s expression was cold and severe. He commanded sharply: “Gong Clan disciples, hear my order — raise the formation. Subdue with full force.”

All disciples touched their feet to the ground and leapt in unison. Magical instruments flew.

And the cultivators from the other clans also stopped holding back, bringing out their most powerful techniques and abilities.

Kong Xu Zi, shaking, swallowed a pellet of medicine, then drew a talisman on his own chest, and lightly drew the coin sword across it, silently circulating his energy to expel the corpse poison.

He was panting, but held the wooden figurine in his hand. Taking advantage of the fellow Daoist cultivators battling the jiangshi, he quietly slipped to a sheltered spot. He gazed into the distance toward the depths of the corpse mountain, then took out and unfolded a talisman.

He looked it over once by the light of the snow on the ground, then brought it close to his nose and smelled it. He felt that this talisman was extraordinary. Lang Jiuchuan had given it to him along with the wooden figurine, to be used to burn the figurine — but the timing had to be right.

The timing she spoke of — it should be when that bronze-skinned iron-boned jiangshi body of its has been beaten close to its limit?

Kong Xu Zi watched the battlefield where magical instruments and Daoist techniques flew in all directions, his heart anxious, his eyes fixed and unwavering.

And Lang Jiuchuan had already crept to the edge of that altar. She said to Jiangche: “Work with me — ambush him!”

Who was this “him”? Naturally, it was Cong Jingnian — the one who had not left Princess Zhao’an’s side for even a moment, clutching a sharp blade in his hand and watching the jiangshi battle in the distance.

Jiangche understood instantly. It immediately appeared before Cong Jingnian and unleashed its fierce tiger-like malice energy. With a thunderous roar, it spread its claws and pounced toward him.