Their flesh blackened and rotted at an astonishing speed. In the span of a single breath, their ghastly white bones were exposed.
The two of them twitched a few times in extreme agony before falling completely silent, leaving behind two rapidly decaying, unrecognizable corpses.
Lu Yun stood behind the shaken crowd, his gaze sweeping over the area where even the wooden bed had been blown to smithereens. A flash of regret crossed his eyes.
’The yin energy from this thing is more than ten times stronger than the one that possessed my eldest son!’
’If I could ’eliminate’ it with my own hands, the amount of modified value I’d get would be an unimaginable number!’
However, the thought only flashed through Lu Yun’s mind for a moment.
What was happening before him couldn’t be more obvious.
’Cao Quan has been dead for a long time. He was nothing more than a carefully prepared bait, designed to lure the big fish, Cao Shaozheng, back here!’
Lu Yun silently looked up toward the farthest wing of the house, the one directly across the courtyard. Its tightly shut, black-lacquered wooden door was slowly creaking open inward.
An aura of cold, sinister energy—far more substantial and chilling than Cao Quan’s—poured out from within.
A figure—no, to be precise, a phantom—was the first to drift out.
Its entire body was shrouded in a thick, churning black mist. Its facial features were twisted and blurry, and its eyes were two burning orbs of blood-red light.
Immediately after, a hunched figure leaning on a crude wooden crutch shuffled out from behind the ghost.
It was an old man with disheveled hair and tattered clothes. His right leg was severed at the knee, and a crude wooden prosthesis was visible beneath the empty trouser leg.
The old man lifted his face, half-hidden by his messy hair, and stared daggers at Cao Shaozheng in the distance.
"Cao Shaozheng, you bastard! I’ve waited thirteen long years for this day!"
"Do you remember... the family of thirteen you slaughtered in Dayu Town?"
Cao Shaozheng was scared out of his wits by the terrifying floating ghost and the old man’s venomous glare, but the cunning he had honed over many years as a warlord made him deny it instantly.
"You’re full of shit! I have no idea what you’re talking about! Where did a madman like you come from, daring to slander me?"
He spoke tough, but inwardly his heart was wracked with shock and uncertainty.
’Dayu Town?’
’That family... didn’t I order them to be gunned down and wiped out thirteen years ago?’
’How could there be a survivor?’
’And who the hell is this old man?’
Thirteen years ago was a chaotic time when Cao Shaozheng was raising a troop of his own, plundering everywhere to supplement his army’s pay.
The well-off family in Dayu Town had been an ordinary target, but the young mistress of the house was so beautiful that he was overcome with lust the moment he saw her.
Murder, seizure of property, abduction... He had kept the woman for a month, but she’d ended up killing herself when he wasn’t looking...
"BASTARD!!!" The old man was completely enraged by Cao Shaozheng’s denial.
"That was my older brother’s family!!! Tonight, I will slaughter every last soul in your Cao Family, down to the dogs and chickens!!"
"You never expected this, did you? That I, Zhao the Third, would come back alive to take my revenge!!!"
He wasted no more words, abruptly pointing his crutch at Cao Shaozheng.
The ferocious male ghost floating before the old man shot toward Cao Shaozheng at a terrifying speed.
Seeing this, Cao Shaozheng shoved off with his feet. His short, stout body exploded with surprising agility as he darted back and to the side, toward the densest part of the crowd.
At the same time, his large hands shot out again. He grabbed two soldiers beside him, who hadn’t even had time to react, by their collars and the backs of their waists, and viciously hurled them at the charging ghost.
"SQUELCH! SQUELCH!"
Two tearing sounds rang out almost simultaneously! A shower of blood rained down from midair!
After letting out miserable screams, the two soldiers were torn apart in midair by the ghost’s sharp, black claws.
Using this momentary distraction, Cao Shaozheng successfully retreated back to the front of his soldiers.
A savage glint in his eyes, he unhesitatingly drew the Mauser pistol from his waist and frantically pulled the trigger at the approaching black shadow, all while roaring himself hoarse.
"Fire! Open fire, goddammit! Kill this damn thing!!"
"BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!"
"RAT-TAT-TAT!!!"
In an instant, the courtyard erupted with the sound of gunfire, like popping beans.
Hundreds of rifles and pistols spat dazzling muzzles flashes, and a dense rain of bullets enveloped the flickering, ghostly figure.
However, the bullets whizzed through the male ghost’s mist-shrouded body, causing no substantial damage whatsoever.
The bullets passed straight through the phantom, striking the wall and ground behind it.
Physical attacks were useless!
"Vile creature! Your insolence ends here!" a furious shout suddenly came from the direction of the altar.
Zhang Daowang’s hair and beard stood on end. His left hand formed a seal, while he held the fingers of his right hand together like a sword, pointing sharply at an ancient Copper Coin Sword resting on the altar before him.
The Copper Coin Spiritual Sword, strung together with red thread, suddenly let out a clear ringing sound as its blade erupted with a dazzling golden light.
It then transformed into a golden meteor, shooting through the air and precisely piercing the male ghost’s chest.
"AWOOOO!!!"
A terrifying howl erupted from the male ghost’s twisted face.
Where the golden sword pierced its chest, the black mist hissed violently, and great clouds of white smoke billowed up.
Seeing this, the surrounding soldiers and Cao Shaozheng broke into ecstatic expressions.
Their joy was short-lived, however. The male ghost looked down at the golden Copper Coin Sword stuck in its chest, then suddenly reached out with its two Ghost Claws. Grasping the blade from both sides and ignoring the thick smoke billowing from its claws as the golden light burned them, it snapped the sword in two with a powerful wrench of its arms.
The Copper Coin Spiritual Sword, imbued with Zhang Daowang’s Magical Power, had been forcibly snapped in half!
The golden light instantly dissipated. The broken copper coins clattered to the ground, all their spiritual light gone.

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