Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Spirit Crane Leads the Way

Because this was the scene of the crime, two constables were still standing guard here.

Their main purpose was to prevent any important clues from being overlooked.

“Brother Yi, have you sensed a faint, wavering trace of yin energy?” Yan Chixia’s gaze was sharp as a blade, his whole body radiating a fierce, battle-ready spirit.

At his words, Yi An nodded in agreement.

“Brother Yan, let us not grow restless. We must consider this carefully. In this wilderness, where ghosts and specters abound, we must never act rashly, especially when we know nothing at all.”

His instincts told him that there was far more to this matter than met the eye.

It was all a little too coincidental.

As far as he knew, the legendary thousand-year tree spirit was said to keep several ghostly servants under her command.

And when that was linked with the yin energy found at the crime scene, the whole affair suddenly became clear.

“Hahaha!”

“Brother Yi, then you have not yet understood me. The Jade Void Arts I practice are best at subduing evil and driving away malevolent forces. Beneath my longsword, no ghost or spirit can hide!”

“If I were to meet some kind of demon beast, I might still feel a little wary.”

“But if it is ghosts and specters that meet me, then they can only blame their own bad luck!”

“Over these past years, with my master’s deterrence over the area around Hangzhou, there have been very few demons or corrupt spirits.”

“This three-foot azure锋 in my hand has not tasted blood for years. It is most unsatisfying!”

“If this goes on, my longsword is truly going to rust.”

“This time, meeting these ghosts is just perfect for sharpening my blade.”

“In the far north, there is a demon capital. If, in my lifetime, I could go there even once, that would be wonderful.”

“A true man ought to travel the world with a sword in hand, cutting down grievances with joyous abandon!”

Yan Chixia’s words rang with lofty ambition, and his longing was laid bare in every line.

Hearing this, Yi An could not help but freeze, as though seeing him for the first time.

How had he not realized before that Yan Chixia was such a battle-crazed man?

Go to the demon capital and slay demons?

That demon capital lay in the far north, outside the borders of the Yanbei Dynasty.

The first great hardship on the road there was crossing a thousand miles of Gobi desert.

If it were only the wasteland, it would hardly deserve the name of peril. What truly inspired fear were the demons and evil beings that blocked the way along the journey. Calling it a human hell would not be the least bit of an exaggeration.

From this alone, one could see how grand Yan Chixia’s ambition truly was.

Yi An could not help but give a wry smile as he analyzed the situation.

“Brother Yan, what courage.”

“But one must never judge things by appearances alone. How do you know they have no accomplices?”

“If among those ghosts there are people no weaker than you, or even stronger than you, then your course of action would be no different from walking into a trap.”

At Yi An’s explanation, a look of alarm crossed Yan Chixia’s face.

Better safe than sorry. Indeed, he had not considered things carefully enough before and had acted too rashly.

Still, would a small place like Guobei County really have some great demon lurking here?

Though he thought this, Yan Chixia still accepted Yi An’s advice and said, “Brother Yi speaks truly. Leave the rest to me. So long as this trace of yin energy leads the way, that specter will have nowhere to hide!”

With that, Yan Chixia quickly formed hand seals and pointed a finger. A paper crane appeared at once, faint ghostly light shimmering around it.

“Heaven and earth limitless, borrow the power of the cosmos, spirit crane, lead the way!”

The words had barely left his mouth when the paper crane drifted toward the desolate hill.

Yi An and Yan Chixia followed close behind. After the time it took to burn an incense stick, the paper crane suddenly came to a stop and fell to the ground like a kite whose string had been cut.

“The specter’s last place of disappearance is around here.”

Yan Chixia looked wary, carefully scanning everything around him, afraid of missing even the smallest detail.

He turned his back toward Yi An so that the two of them could watch different directions.

Just then, the ground beneath their feet suddenly caved in. Both men reacted swiftly, dodging in opposite directions.

Almost at the same moment, the surrounding earth began to collapse in a wide area, like quicksand. One misstep and a person would be swallowed whole, torn apart by the vortex of sinking ground.

The longsword in Yan Chixia’s hand thrust out like lightning.

“Child’s play!”

“Just an illusion. Watch me shatter it with a flick of my hand!”

With a thunderous crack, as Yan Chixia’s sword descended, the sound rolled out like a bolt from a clear sky. In the blink of an eye, the danger that had seemed so fierce a moment ago was utterly broken.

The sinking sand and soil also returned to normal, as though nothing had ever happened.

“You foul Taoist!”

“Do not push me too far. I have no enmity with you, so why do you come hacking and killing at me?”

Suddenly, a sharp and piercing voice rang out.

Before seeing the speaker, one heard the voice first. Only a moment later did they spot a woman not far away, shrouded in eerie ghostly aura yet breathtakingly beautiful, staring fixedly at Yan Chixia and Yi An with a look of unprecedented wariness.

After that brief test, she knew very well that the other party was skilled in orthodox Daoist techniques, made to restrain ghosts and spirits.

If she fought them, she had no chance of winning.

Otherwise, why would she still be waiting here? She would have taken their lives the moment before.

“Hmph.”

“We may have had no grievance before, but once you committed murder, the matter became personal!” Yan Chixia let out a heavy cold snort. In his heart, he had already sentenced her to death.

“Die!” The female ghost’s voice was icy and merciless, her gaze flashing with savage malice.

Knowing that she had nowhere to flee, she could only fight with everything she had. Even if she had to expend every last trick at her disposal, she would bite off a few pieces of flesh from them before she died!

In the next instant, the once cold and lovely female ghost bared her true ferocity. Her eyes flashed with a frightening dark green glow, and with a flicker of eerie light, even her claws transformed into a pair of sharp, razor-like talons, unimaginably lethal.

“Nothing remarkable.”

Just as Yan Chixia was preparing to defend himself, the ghost suddenly changed the direction of its attack and lunged swiftly toward Yi An instead.

“Be careful!”

Yan Chixia tried to warn him, but it was already too late. He was a step behind, and the specter had already reached Yi An.

A dull thud sounded.

The female ghost stared in astonishment. She looked down blankly at her own claws, while at the same time a searing pain from them became her most immediate sensation.

Then, a powerful sense of frustration rose in her heart.

She knew well that what awaited her next was certain death. Rather than die in humiliation, it would be better to drag someone down to the grave with her. And was Yi An not the perfect choice?

She could not deal with Yan Chixia, but could she not deal with a frail scholar?

That was why the scene had unfolded just now. What she had never imagined, however, was that the lamb she meant to slaughter was in truth a wolf in sheep’s clothing.