Chapter 74: Chapter 74 All Is One
"Everyone, don't be afraid, I have my ways to discern who is truly the evil spirit,"
Yi Chen said as he casually crushed the head of the man in white with a stomp, causing everyone's eyebrows to twitch once again.
Deep purple Inner Qi was leaping incessantly all over his body, appearing incredibly eerie under the moonlight when combined with the indifferent expression on Yi Chen's face.
Yi Chen dared to take such bold action earlier because, naturally, he had something to rely on in his heart.
At this moment, he still had his eyes tightly shut, with the mystical power eroded individuals within the team appearing crystal clear under the 3D perspective rendered by his mind's eye.
With a pale face and eyes sporting dark circles the size of fists, looking like they were covered in smoky makeup, dare you tell me you're a normal person?
Nevertheless, to be cautious, Yi Chen still chose to give the woman in white a couple of slaps to see if she had any malice toward him in her initial reaction.
If there was malice, it would mean there might still be hope; it was only erosion after all.
But the outcome was utterly empty.
Combining both factors for verification, even Bian Que would want to nod thrice upon seeing this situation.
After Yi Chen exposed the mysterious evil spirit in Yang Family Fort, it still wanted to play the game of sacrificing pawns to save the chariot, hoping to erode more people with the same trick. He decided to use this strategy against it and behead several of its generals first.
This game of wits led to the scene now unfolding before them.
Like chopping melons and slicing vegetables, Yi Chen launched several more strikes, severing the heads of all the people eroded by the sinister force within the team.
After a small victory, Yi Chen's face showed no hints of pride; he knew the greater challenge lay ahead.
He didn't even know how the group of men and women in white had fallen victim to the scheme and why his team was unaffected.
"Could it be that there is something on my person that the evil spirit fears? Or is it that my Pure Yang Inner Qi renders its corrosive tactics ineffective?"
With a thought, Yi Chen pressed the Thunder Condemnation Jade even tighter against his chest; if there was anything on him that would make the evil spirit wary, it would only be the Thunder Condemnation Jade.
After all, it was ranked as the tenth heavenly and earthly wonder.
No matter the truth of the matter, Yi Chen did not plan to continue tonight.
The bodies of the man and woman in white still lay twitching before him.
As fellow cultivators, dying so unclearly brought a sense of sadness and empathy to Yi Chen's heart.
He wondered how much money they made to dare to wade into these troubled waters.
Had the cornfields become too dull for them?
At that moment, the woman in white on the ground was continuously opening and closing her mouth in pain, struggling towards Yi Chen's direction.
"Good, it will stop hurting soon."
Yi Chen's sword flew like a dragon, cleaving her head in two.
The effect was immediate.
As expected, the woman in white stopped crying out in pain.
Yi Chen flicked his sleeves, inserting the magic artifact swords from the hands of the man and woman in white into his belt before he planned to lead everyone away.
Before leaving, he flicked his fingers, sending several deep purple sparks onto the corpses on the ground, which began to burn fiercely with flame.
Under the moonlight, as the fire ignited, it was as if a signal had been blown, and the evil spirit behind became clearly infuriated.
The whole Yang Family Fort began to 'come to life.'
First were the severed heads on the ground, which suddenly turned to look in unison toward Yi Chen and the others, their eyes filled with resentful blame.
They suddenly let out a skyward howl, and the flames on their bodies unexpectedly extinguished, as the mutilated bodies began to crawl chaotically, seeking and connecting with one another.
Numerous flesh buds grew from the cut surfaces of the bodies, attaching whatever they could as if they were vegetables in a pot, not caring whether it was their own body or not.
Some attached the heads of others to their own necks, some put their bodies on backward, some ignored gender differences, and those without heads cut a slit above their own belly buttons and roared as they charged towards Yi Chen and his group.
At the same time.
One by one, the residents of Yang Family Fort came out of their doors, eyes all turning in this direction.
Some carried hoes, others brandished large machetes, steadily marching toward them.
Threads of pale red light appeared on 'their' bodies.
Then came the teams of pigs, cows, horses, and sheep with eyes blazing red.
The view rose, overlooking Yang Family Fort from a bird's-eye view.
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The crowd, like ants, roared and converged towards the grand mansion at the center, where Yi Chen and his companions were located, as if zombies had broken out of their cages.
As soon as the anomaly began, Yi Chen felt something was wrong and yelled "Retreat!" before charging towards the surrounding wall.
At a time like this, who cares about the main gate?
Keep in mind, as we learned in middle school math, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. At this moment, it was necessary to take a shortcut.
Boom!
A loud noise thundered.
In an instant, Yi Chen had smashed a human-shaped gap in the grand mansion's surrounding wall.
The people of the Zhen'an Division were initially stunned, then yelled and followed the Taoist priest in a swarm, pouring through the breach.
The direction of the deep purple flame tail was where they charged.
On the road made of slag leading to the fort, a girl in white was running like mad at this moment, one of her shoes lost, revealing her fair and delicate feet which were bloody from the slag, but she didn't care.
Seeing Yi Chen and his group, she couldn't help but show an ecstatic expression on her face and ran even harder as she cried out:
"Taoist priest, save me!"
"Brother Zhengyi, save me!"
Behind her were hundreds of villagers who had completely transformed, black tendons wrapping around their bodies, visible on their faces as well, like tattoos or some kind of peculiar script.
A faint red smoke rose from the villagers' bodies.
Several times, the transformed villagers' claws nearly touched her neck.
"There are still people alive~"
"Miss Yuyan, don't panic, I'm here to help you!"
Lin Baihu drew his waist knife and wanted to charge forward to meet her.
However, he was caught by the collar by a large hand that suddenly appeared, as if it were a big fan.
Yi Chen threw him back and stood in front of everyone, yelling:
"Brother Lin, take the brothers and retreat quickly, I've got this!"
Having said that, Yi Chen took the lead and rushed towards Miss Yuyan.
The deep purple Pure Yang Inner Qi surged, burning fiercely, brilliantly radiant, and particularly eye-catching in the night.
"Taoist priest."
After a 180-degree turn, Lin Zhengyi's tiger eyes flashed with a clear light, and then he turned his head and led his brothers running in the opposite direction.
Yi Chen turned into a streak of light, his foot landing quickly and viciously on Miss Yuyan's face.
The ecstatic look on Miss Yuyan's face vanished. Her face deformed from the impact, her body flew backward, knocking over a dozen transformed villagers and finally crashed into a wall behind her, then bounced off, falling to the ground.
This kick by Yi Chen was not a mistake; it was deliberate and premeditated.
By this point, he had roughly guessed how the evil entity of Yangjiawu Fort was invading and eroding everybody—it was through eye contact.
The moment Miss Yuyan appeared, everyone from the Zhen'an Division felt an irresistible urge to rush forward and rescue her.
It was utterly inconceivable.
As if a collective stupidity aura had been cast, instantly planting a psychological suggestion in their minds.
Presumably, the white-clothed male and female cultivators, along with the missing Niu Da and Ma Da, had been corrupted and controlled by this method.
Fortunately, he reacted immediately, standing in front of everyone, stopping Lin Baihu, and awakening everybody.
"Taoist priest, that really hurt~"
Miss Yuyan crawled out from the mud and stood up.
The mutated villagers behind him also uniformly stopped, and said in unison:
"Taoist priest, that really hurt~"
The voices were synchronized, as if coming from one person.
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