Chapter 65: Where Is Everyone?

They waited together for a long time, but no one showed up.

Li Yan asked Shi Fou somewhat boredly, "Senior brother, do you think he stood us up?"

Shi Fou said with a hint of helplessness, "That is entirely possible. Let's wait a little longer. If it really doesn't work out, we'll go look for him in his territory."

Li Yan nodded. That was the only option left right now, as there was no other way.

They waited for a while longer.

Instead of waiting for the person, they were greeted by a gust of eerie wind.

Chilling winds blew in gusts, accompanied by the weeping of ghosts and howling of wolves.

The entire courtyard was shaken as if an earthquake were hitting the mountains, seeming on the verge of collapse in the next second.

Li Yan and Shi Fou realized something was wrong.

"It seems this person has already arrived and sent out a fierce ghost in red to test us."

Li Yan and Shi Fou immediately opened their Yin-Yang eyes.

Under the enhancement of their Yin-Yang vision, they quickly discovered the anomaly.

A large amount of red mist had appeared in the courtyard.

This red mist was transformed from the fierce ghost in red.

Li Yan and Shi Fou did not hesitate.

Each holding a sword, they began hacking wildly at the mist.

To their surprise, after cutting through the mist, they fell right into a trap.

They felt their bodies grow limp and weak, and an peerless beauty appeared right before their eyes.

This peerless beauty was gently stroking their arms.

It seemed as though she wanted to climb up onto their bodies.

Li Yan and Shi Fou fell under the spell momentarily.

They had never seen such a stunningly gorgeous woman before.

The woman successfully climbed onto their bodies and seated herself on their shoulders.

Li Yan and Shi Fou both felt a heavy weight on their shoulders.

This sudden weight instantly snapped the two men back to their senses.

They looked at each other's shoulders in horror.

Sitting on each of their shoulders was a female figure dressed in a red robe, with unkempt hair, a complexion as pale as snow, no eyes—only empty black sockets—bleeding from all seven orifices, skinless, and with a neck crudely stitched together by thread.

These two women looked identical in every way.

Although Li Yan and Shi Fou had encountered many ghosts and spirits before, this was the first time they had ever encountered true fierce ghosts.

After all, malicious fierce ghosts were extremely rare; the vast majority of spirits were benevolent.

A fierce ghost is inherently evil, devoid of human nature. The longer they have been dead, the more powerful they are, and the more torment they can inflict upon the living.

Those two fierce ghosts realized they had been discovered.

They directly extended their skeletal, bony hands toward the heads of the two men.

Then, they tried to scratch and ruin their faces.

Acting decisively, the two men bit the tips of their tongues and spat their primordial tongue-blood directly onto the ghosts' hands.

"Fierce ghosts may be tough to deal with, but I refuse to believe they aren't afraid of tongue-blood, which is an embodiment of pure yang!"

Once the tongue-blood was spat out, the two red-robed fierce ghosts began to shriek in agony.

The bones on the hands splashed with the tongue-blood turned pitch black, as if they were about to dissolve right before their eyes.

"Great! It's working. I hope they get off our bodies quickly. Otherwise, if they sit here too long, our two personal flame pillars will be extinguished."

Li Yan was somewhat overjoyed, relieved that the method worked.

However, what he did not expect was that after only a brief moment of pain, the two ghosts recovered completely, showing no intention of climbing down from their bodies whatsoever.

Not only that, but they also immobilized the two men.

Their bodies could no longer move; only their mouths could speak, and their hands could barely manage to form mudra incantations.

Li Yan and Shi Fou were both dumbfounded.

"What is going on here?"

With no other choice, they had to start thinking of alternative solutions.

However, the fierce ghosts sitting on their shoulders did not give them much time to think.

Instead of reaching out with their hands this time, the ghosts stretched their heads all the way down and opened their massive, blood-dripping jaws, preparing to bite Li Yan and Shi Fou.

Li Yan remained completely unfazed. "After all, they aren't zombies; getting bitten by one will at most just be disgusting."

He smiled because he had thought of a countermeasure.

Li Yan quickly chanted a spell under his breath while forming hand seals.

Shi Fou realized Li Yan's intention and immediately joined in, chanting along with him.

Barely after they started chanting, they felt a splitting pain in their heads.

Yet they did not check to see what was happening.

They simply concentrated on reciting the incantation.

After chanting for about five minutes, a formation materialized beneath them, inside of which stood a translucent ghost holding a Rakshasa weapon.

This ghost looked extremely ferocious.

Numerous golden Buddhist scriptures emerged within the formation, surrounding Li Yan, Shi Fou, and the malevolent entities.

The Rakshasa ghost also approached the side of Li Yan and Shi Fou.

Its form gradually grew larger.

It stopped growing once it reached the exact same height as Li Yan and Shi Fou.

It looked at Li Yan and asked, "Little Daoist priest, was it you who summoned me out?"

Li Yan nodded and said, "Help us destroy the two fierce ghosts on our heads."

The Rakshasa ghost nodded, but emphasized to Li Yan, "I can, but you need to offer something in exchange. That is the price for summoning me."

Li Yan nodded helplessly. "If they weren't so difficult to deal with, we wouldn't have resorted to this method. This method usually inflicts eight hundred casualties on the enemy while self-destructing one thousand."

Having received a affirmative reply, the Rakshasa ghost immediately engaged the two red-robed fierce ghosts in battle using its weapon.

Upon discovering the presence of the Rakshasa ghost, the two red-robed fierce ghosts no longer dared to lower their guard.

They climbed down from the bodies of Li Yan and Shi Fou.

Then, they cautiously joined forces to tackle the Rakshasa ghost together.

The single weapon in the Rakshasa ghost's hand multiplied into three.

Wielding its weapons, it charged toward the red-robed fierce ghosts.

As it ran, the weapons in its hands continuously emitted mournful wails, as if the weapons themselves possessed life.

With every step the Rakshasa ghost took, the shapes of the weapons in its hands shifted constantly.

At one moment they looked like an old person, at the next a child, and then back into true Rakshasa blades.

The surrounding courtyard was choked with thick mist, presenting an utterly desolate scene.

Li Yan and Shi Fou simply stood to the side, watching the show.

"A Rakshasa ghost is more than enough to handle red-robed fierce ghosts. It's just that this guy sure has a lot of fancy tricks."

Li Yan could not help but sigh.

Yet, a strange thing happened.

The Rakshasa ghost seemed as though it had been trapped.

It ran in circles around the courtyard over and over again, yet the red-robed fierce ghosts were nowhere to be seen.

Those two red-robed fierce ghosts appeared to have hidden themselves completely within the mist.

Seeing this, Li Yan thought, "This won't do. I have to go help."

He swiftly set up a detection array on the spot.

The strange thing was that even after the array was activated, it indicated that there were no red-robed fierce ghosts whatsoever in the courtyard.

There was only the Rakshasa ghost.

Li Yan was thoroughly baffled, completely certain that they had not fallen into an illusion.

So why on earth were the red-robed fierce ghosts able to evade the detection array?

Li Yan could not figure it out no matter how hard he tried; he hadn't seen anyone manipulating things from behind the scenes either.

Even if they managed to bypass the detection array, shouldn't they at least still be visible to the naked eye?

Li Yan scratched his head in utter helplessness.