Yusang hurriedly patted out the flames on her skirt. The moment she raised her head, she was immediately shocked by the scene before her. Where the thatched cottage had just collapsed, a blazing red fire was now burning on the ground. The flames reached three zhang high, tinged with purple within—clearly not ordinary fire. Yusang dared not delay any longer. She pulled out her white jade writing brush from her waist, gathering spiritual power in her palm, ready to strike the moment any danger appeared.

The purple-red fire burned more and more fiercely, and strange phenomena began occurring around them. The originally bright moon and sparse stars in the sky began flashing with lightning, and dark clouds gathered from all directions overhead, forming a thick black mass of clouds. After a tremendous roar, lightning struck down from the center of the dark clouds, hitting precisely the purple fire at the thatched cottage’s location.

Amid the scattering sparks, something appeared in the center of the fire pile, slowly rising and emanating a blinding purple-white light. Yusang turned her face aside, shielding her eyes with her palm, not daring to look directly at the brilliance. Only when that thing had risen about two zhang high did she carefully lower her hand to examine it, discovering that suspended in the center of the flames stood an incredibly bewitching figure, indistinguishable as male or female, with an eerie smile. But from the hair that merged with the fire and the posture of standing within the flames, she immediately thought of the Soul Keeper Elder she had seen in Yunsui City.

“The eighty-first soul. With you, I’ll be able to break free from the constraints of this Soul Sacrifice Plate,” the figure in the firelight spoke, the voice indiscernible as male or female—the same voice they had heard at noon today.

“You should have remained eternally guarding the Fengjian Divine Tree for the Fengjian Clan, yet you fled when the Fengjian Clan faced calamity. Now you’re causing evil in the mortal realm to escape your attached object and obtain human form. Do you know your crime?” Yusang looked at the figure coldly as she questioned.

“The Fengjian Clan? Hahahaha, that’s nothing but a joke from two thousand years ago. They’ve already vanished, and I am now free. To subdue me, only the bloodline of the Fengjian Clan could do so if revived,” the Soul Keeper Elder laughed loudly within the firelight, looking at Yusang with disdain.

Yusang met his gaze, revealing a slight smile. She raised two fingers before her chest and moved them gently. Her eyes gradually turned silver. The Soul Keeper Elder watched as the smile on her face gradually froze, his eyes widening slightly as he looked at her in disbelief.

“You… you…”

“If you want my soul, then let’s see your abilities,” Yusang sneered coldly. She transformed her palm into a blade, retreated half a step, then flipped and leaped up. In mid-air, she turned sideways and used her writing brush to create a phantom sword, thrusting toward the Soul Keeper Elder in the fire.

…

…

The phantom sword stopped at the Soul Keeper Elder’s brow. He merely blinked, and the phantom sword transformed into flames and disappeared. Yusang quickly retreated another half step, bringing her palms together, touching the ground with her toes as she leaped up and began chanting incantations with closed eyes. As Yusang gradually rose from the ground, wind began swirling around them. Flying sand and stones gathered into a tornado-like wind column that moved toward them from distant mountain peaks.

The Soul Keeper Elder, standing in the firelight’s expression changed, showing surprise as he said, “You know wind-controlling arts. You’re of the Yuwen bloodline…”

“Precisely,” Yusang answered, suddenly pushing forward with her palm, creating a burst of spiritual power that struck directly at the Soul Keeper Elder’s face. At the same time, as the tornado drew nearer, the earth began to tremble. However, unexpectedly, when the power Yusang released touched the flames before the Soul Keeper Elder, it suddenly rebounded back toward Yusang’s face. Yusang dodged to the side but was still caught off guard and struck in the shoulder, causing her to retreat several steps.

“Now it’s my turn. Even if you’re a descendant of the Yuwen clan, what can you do to me?” The Soul Keeper Elder in the fire revealed a sinister smile. He then lightly raised both palms, drawing a circle in front of him. In the center of the circle formed a blazing red fireball formed. With a light gesture, the fireball immediately transformed into hundreds of bright light points that rapidly approached Yusang. When Yusang looked more carefully, she discovered that each light point was a flame-wreathed phantom sword—hundreds of flaming phantom swords were now coming toward her all at once.

Yusang didn’t dare be careless and used all her spiritual power to try to create a protective barrier in front of her. However, those flaming phantom swords came too fast and too densely—she simply didn’t have time to gather her power. The heat from the flames on those sword bodies was already pressing close to her face. Just as she didn’t know how to save herself, a hand gently wrapped around her waist, and then a powerful protective barrier enveloped her. The hundreds of flaming phantom swords that had reached her eyelashes struck the barrier’s surface and fell one after another.

“Stand behind me,” Yan Qige’s voice sounded. Yusang lowered the hands she had been holding in front of her face and turned her head, indeed seeing Yan Qige’s handsome face glowing brilliantly in the reflection of the surrounding firelight.

Yusang made a sound of agreement and quickly retreated two steps behind Yan Qige, discovering that the fire wall behind him had been extinguished by magic to a width of half a zhang. On the ground outside the firewall, the innkeeper lay unconscious, while Ling Mingran was covering her chest and crouching nearby, gathering and focusing her energy—it seemed she had been injured by Yan Qige earlier.

“Were you awake the whole time?” Yusang asked.

“Did you think she could restrain me?” Yan Qige said without turning his head.

“Just asking,” Yusang pursed her lips and casually responded to Yan Qige.

Yan Qige didn’t reply again. He summoned the Soul Collector lantern and held it in his hand. With his other hand, he formed two fingers into a sword and created a phantom sword in front of him, thrusting toward the Soul Keeper Elder standing in the fire.

“Overestimating yourself. Do you think this can kill me?” The figure in the fire sneered coldly, extending just one finger to meet the directly thrusting phantom sword.

What was thought to be just an ordinary move unexpectedly turned out differently. When Yan Qige’s phantom sword touched the Soul Keeper Elder’s finger, a red thread suddenly shot out from the Soul Collector lantern. Yan Qige’s two fingers that had been controlling the sword quickly changed formation. He had no intention of harming the Elder—he simply grasped the red thread and wound it directly around the fire-dwelling figure’s finger.

A long howl came from within the fire, and sparks crackled and scattered from the firelight. Yusang was shaken back a step, and Yan Qige was also forced back to his original position by this eruption. However, his two fingers never left the red thread. Instead, he pinched the red thread between two fingers and pulled it back. When he retreated to the edge of the firewall, he stamped his foot heavily, turned sideways, wound the red thread around his fingers, and forcefully pulled it behind him. Both ends of the red thread were drawn toward the outside of the firewall.

At this time, the other end of the red thread in the Soul Collector lantern was pulled out, with the soul they had extracted from under the old locust tree today attached to it. After the soul left the lantern, Yan Qige released the red thread between his fingers, then quickly turned sideways, gathered Yusang in his arms, and with a powerful push of his toes, leaped out of the fire wall.

Just as Yusang landed on the ground in Yan Qige’s embrace, the octagonal fire wall from before exploded with a thunderous roar, sparks flying everywhere, igniting large patches of nearby reeds.

“Clang.” Something fell to the ground, and at the same time, a man tumbled out of the firelight and fell sprawling on the ground.

Watching the man slowly prop himself up from the ground and stand up shakily, Yusang recognized this as the Soul Keeper Elder who had just been standing in the fire. Although not as bewitching as before, his features were extremely similar. Yusang gripped her writing brush tightly in defense, but Yan Qige extended his hand to block her. The man then stood up, but had no intention of attacking them at all. Instead, he looked around in complete bewilderment and confusion.