At Seongmo Jinni’s cry, the nuns of Emei all gripped their weapons at once.“Let’s go!”As the Emei disciples charged forward, the jiangshi that had been frozen in place suddenly began to move again.Jjeojeojeok—.Kakang—.Under the fierce assault of the Emei masters, the jiangshi began to be driven back.Their stamina and inner strength had been fully restored, and having accumulated experience fighting until exhaustion against the jiangshi, they could now confront them with far greater ease than before.Joining their attacks naturally, covering each other’s weak points, the Emei disciples’ skill advanced rapidly as they fought.Even so, battling the jiangshi was no easy task.The tide of battle once again began to shift against them.Watching this, Namgoong Hwan asked Yeon Woo Jin,“Are you truly not going to intervene?”Yeon Woo Jin smiled as he replied,“Seongmo Jinni requested it. She said they wanted to try with their own strength. If it proved impossible, she promised to ask me again.”“Ah! So that was it? Hahaha… Forgive me, I did not know.”“It’s fine. But I suppose it is about time I step in.”“They certainly look weakened compared to before.”“Hmm. I should probably show them the clue to defeating jiangshi.”“You will not deal with them directly?”“No. That way, even if I am not here later, they will know how to face jiangshi themselves.”At Yeon Woo Jin’s words, Namgoong Hwan nodded.Not to give them the fish, but to teach them how to catch it.Yeon Woo Jin looked up at the sky.A crow was circling above.With a wave of his hand, the circling crow exploded into nothingness.Namgoong Hwan tilted his head.“Why the crow?”“I felt as though we were being watched. Likely a familiar.”“Ah! I have heard of such. A sorcery that creates a familiar so that one may observe another place through an animal’s eyes.”At Namgoong Hwan’s words, Yeon Woo Jin nodded.“Most likely, whoever sent the jiangshi was watching through it. With the familiar gone, they will sense something amiss and try to withdraw the jiangshi. We must finish them before then.”Yeon Woo Jin slowly stepped forward.From the ground where he walked past, the scattered swords began to rise into the air, glowing with light.The Emei disciples who saw it were aghast.“Th-that’s Sword Control by Qi?”“No, not merely Sword Control by Qi! There’s sword force enveloping them!”“Then it’s Sword Force Control by Qi?”“A-and not one or two blades, but dozens—each one sheathed in sword force!”“Is such a thing even possible?”As all were stunned, only Seongmo Jinni and Hye Seon nodded as though it were natural.They had witnessed Yeon Woo Jin’s power firsthand.“Now, focus. I’ll show you how to slay jiangshi. Watch carefully how I do it, and find their weakness.”The dozens of swords floating in the air shot toward the jiangshi, instantly cutting them apart.Sseogeok— sseogeok—.The blades, as though alive, tore the jiangshi to pieces.The jiangshi the Emei disciples had struggled so hard to suppress collapsed as though they were nothing but blocks of wood.How could he dispatch with such ease the jiangshi that they had barely managed to fell with their lives on the line?Even Seongmo Jinni was curious.The jiangshi struck by Yeon Woo Jin did not regenerate; instead they decayed away.In an instant, the jiangshi were cleared.The Emei disciples could only gape at Yeon Woo Jin.Already, merely by breathing unknown energy into them, he had been regarded by the disciples as a divine man.Now, having witnessed such overwhelming divine might, their hearts naturally began to deify Yeon Woo Jin.“Look closely at the jiangshi. They each have a core that sustains them. Find it and cut it, and they will return to corpses.”Having shown them the method, Yeon Woo Jin stepped back.Only a few jiangshi remained.“Before they escape, slay them all. So focus.”At his words, Seongmo Jinni and the other Emei masters who could wield sword force fixed their concentration on the jiangshi.Where could the core that animated them be hidden?Surely not in some obvious place.Then Hye Seon spoke.“The feet. The soles—we have never once struck there. That’s where the core lies.”“The soles?”“Yes. Every strike Benefactor made pierced through the jiangshi’s soles.”While the others marveled at Yeon Woo Jin’s miraculous skill, only Hye Seon had discerned the essence of his movements.At her words, Yeon Woo Jin smiled faintly.Correct.Though he had deliberately hacked at the jiangshi to obscure the truth, she had pinpointed it exactly.Following her guidance, they struck at the soles of the jiangshi.And truly, the creatures collapsed and decayed into corpses.Who would have thought the cores were hidden in the soles?Ordinarily one would strike the heart, the head, the vital organs—not the soles.Moreover, jiangshi felt no pain, so no one would think to target their feet.Watching the jiangshi fall so easily now, a strange hollowness settled in.To think they had struggled so desperately against something that could be ended so simply.Come to think of it, every jiangshi they had managed to kill before had been hacked apart until its soles were included, thereby shattering the core incidentally.“Then from now on, do we just strike the soles to defeat jiangshi?”“No. Next time, they will hide it elsewhere. Now that you know the jiangshi’s animating force is hidden somewhere in the body, you must find it.”At Hye Seon’s words, all eyes turned toward the one remaining jiangshi.That jiangshi, seeming to falter, suddenly turned and fled.“Catch it! We must capture it for study!”“Yes!”Now it was the Emei disciples chasing to capture the jiangshi. ****Through his familiar, the Corpse Demon Emperor had been watching everything. He tilted his head.“What is this? A moment ago they were on the verge of collapse. How did they suddenly recover like that?”No matter how he thought on it, it made no sense.Were they feigning, pretending to be spent?But watching closely, it was no act.They moved with vigor as though they had never tired.Osssh—.Observing intently, the Corpse Demon Emperor felt a chill.He noticed the wounds on the Emei disciples’ bodies had vanished.Even the skin rotting ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) from jiangshi poison had become pristine.And all in the blink of an eye.Had the Buddha himself descended here?Otherwise, how could such impossible scenes be explained?Even the desire to remain here vanished from him.Something is not right. I must retreat.The Corpse Demon Emperor summoned all jiangshi from Emei back.No sense sacrificing precious jiangshi in a hopeless fight.At that instant—“Kuhk!”The familiar that had allowed him to observe suddenly perished, severing the link.“W-what?”It happened so swiftly he could not even guess what had occurred.“What in the world… happened?”Could phoenix energy have tracked the familiar?No. The fleeting presence he sensed had not been phoenix energy.It was something far higher.What is transpiring on Mount Emei? Has a Buddha manifested?Though burning with curiosity, he had to restrain himself.For now, recovering the remaining jiangshi was most urgent.And he had to report to the Cult Leader what had happened today, and the dread he had felt in that instant.Piiiiiik—.The Corpse Demon Emperor blew his flute to summon the jiangshi.But no matter how he waited, none came.“What? Could it be—they were all destroyed? In such a short time?”There had been plenty still left.Did the mysterious presence that slew his familiar also annihilate the jiangshi?But that quickly?Impossible.Unless… only one man in the Central Plains could do such a thing.Musincheonju.Osssh—.Goosebumps ran down his skin.Damn. It seems I’ve stumbled upon the most troublesome existence of all.The jiangshi no longer mattered.He had to report this at once to the Cult Leader.Still regretting the loss of his jiangshi, he smacked his lips as he glanced once more toward Emei—then leapt away toward his lord. ****“Failure?”Before the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, the Corpse Demon Emperor bowed his head.“I-I apologize.”“Kuhuhu. You boasted so confidently, and now you return with nothing but that?”The Cult Leader let out a laugh of disbelief.Then he ceased laughing, fixing his gaze on the Corpse Demon Emperor.“Was Emei truly that strong? Hard to believe. You must have seen it with your familiar, yes? Speak. What occurred?”“Yes.”The Corpse Demon Emperor gave a detailed account of what he had seen through his familiar.Hearing it, the Cult Leader’s expression grew intrigued.“Hooh. That Seongmo Jinni was so strong? Strange. The reports I had heard spoke quite differently.”“When I saw her, it seemed she had undergone rejuvenation or gained some similar enlightenment.”“Kkuung. Of all times, to gain such enlightenment now… And on top of that, the Phoenix Constitution… Still, to fail merely because of those two? Unbelievable.”“Emei’s strength was beyond expectation. But I confirmed they had exhausted themselves against the first wave of jiangshi, and deemed it the perfect chance to break them, so I unleashed the remaining jiangshi. Then—something strange happened.”“Strange?”“Yes. They were clearly exhausted, yet just as the jiangshi arrived, they suddenly seemed fully restored as if nothing had happened.”“Tsk, tsk. They deceived you. They only pretended to be worn down to lure you. And you, blind, threw away our precious jiangshi.”“N-no! I am certain—they truly were exhausted! I even saw them struggle desperately to kill the last jiangshi!”“And yet suddenly they recovered? What, did they chance upon a Great Rejuvenation Pill and all take it together?”“T-that… I do not know.”“Pitiful fool. You were tricked. How could anyone regain full strength in an instant?”The Corpse Demon Emperor fell silent.For indeed, the Cult Leader’s words made sense.And yet, he had seen it with his very eyes.The Emei nuns, so weary they seemed about to collapse, in the next moment brimming with strength once more.And their wounds healed.But he did not speak of the wounds healing in an instant.No one would believe it, and to say it aloud felt as though it would mark him as insane.From the look on the Cult Leader’s face, he was glad he had held his tongue.“Enough. Whatever you say, failure will not become success.”“Th-there is one more thing to report.”“What is it? Speak.”“T-there was one who destroyed my familiar and erased the jiangshi in an instant.”“What?”At his words, murmurs spread through the hall.“Speak plainly. Is this true?”“Yes! It is the truth.”“If such an existence… then only one man in the Central Plains fits.”“Mm… Indeed. One man. Musincheonju.”“Yes.”“He appeared there?”“I could not confirm with certainty, but I believe it was him. Otherwise, there is no way the jiangshi could be annihilated in an instant.”“Hmph. If not that monster… then who indeed…”

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