Wet viviparity

Chapter 725 Qing Gu, Setting Up an Altar
The figures, large and small, approached with incredible speed, so fast that the lake water seemed to be stirred up by their momentum, creating waves.

The black owl, like a tiger poised on the ground, lay prone on the water with its thin, dark body, surrounded by serpents that swayed like ribbons, giving it a strange and beautiful appearance.

Beside him, Jiang Hubiao had fully transformed into his true form as the Yellow Spirit Tiger. His three-zhang-long tiger body steadily pressed down on the water's surface, causing the surrounding water to remain calm. A sword light was hidden in the tiger's mouth, yet it remained unleashed.

The two, one on the left and one on the right, one large and one small, were on high alert.

"These two are the elder and younger Qing Gu. They were originally disciples of the Crying Ancestor of the Thousand Flower Cave of Qingzhen Temple in the Western Wilderness. Because the ancestor liked to travel all over the world and make friends, he entrusted them to the Purple-Faced Golden Granny, the leader of the Hidden Spirit Sect, for instruction."

They have cultivated for over two hundred years, possessing expertise in both demonic and Taoist scriptures. They are particularly skilled at concocting and commanding all sorts of spirits and demons; even the formless and intangible celestial demons are skillfully subdued by them, making them a formidable opponent for those in the righteous path.

"As long as there are demons and monsters, I have my Zen techniques and wondrous methods to protect them, so there is nothing to worry about."

Black Owl said with absolute certainty.

Tiger Biao knew that his brother Xiao's arrogance was not unfounded. He had witnessed the power of the Avici Hellfire, which could repel even gods and ghosts with a single snort. However, the two Green Maidens had been famous for a long time, and their fearsome reputation was no less than that of some old demons.

Black Owl remained silent, as the two figures rushing towards him had not arrived for a long time, maintaining a posture of pressing forward.

The two men knew perfectly well that this was a smokescreen. Jiang Hubiao immediately gathered his strength and roared, the tiger's roar rolling around and even smoothing out the ripples on the water. The smoke floating on the water and coming from all directions was shaken away, and the view became clear.

In front of the two were two evil spirits shaking their heads and chanting incantations. It was they who were using illusions in the smoke to make the two feel as if they were facing a great enemy.

Seeing that their plan had been exposed, the two ghosts let out a strange howl and shrank back. Unexpectedly, a long shadow flipped behind them, pulling them forward and landing them in front of the two brothers, where it tightly bound them.

Just then, the two ghosts still harbored rebellious intentions. Their bodies swelled to over ten feet in size, and demonic fire and yin light blew around them, eroding the spirit of the Teng Snake that bound them. At this very moment, Jiang Hubiao unleashed a sword light, piercing through the heads of the two ghosts in succession.

"You wicked creature, how dare you harm my spirit!"

The moment the sound was uttered, two figures appeared before it. The two stood amidst the wisps of smoke, revealing only two pairs of round, white lotus feet. The speed at which the two waited startled the two brothers.

Even though Black Owl felt his ferocity surging, he couldn't help but restrain himself a little and suppress the aura of the Teng Snake. However, the other party raised his hand and took away a bit of the aura within the Teng Snake, as if savoring it, "Not bad for physical body techniques!"

The two men removed the smoke swirling around them, revealing two women, one tall and one short.

The two women looked like they were cut from the same mold, both with long hair, bare feet, pale faces, and heterochromatic eyes, the only difference being their height.

The tall girl wore her hair in a simple bun, loosely secured with a plain hairpin, the hairpin devoid of any pearls or jade, giving her a rustic charm. The short girl's braid fell to her shoulders, tied only with a red string, while a few stray strands of hair kept restlessly brushing against her eyebrows and eyes.

Regardless of height, their evil and demonic nature is the same; their ruthlessness is immediately apparent.

"Two Qinggu!"

Jiang Hubiao knew that these two fierce gods might not care about his background, so he had to speak to them kindly. However, Xiao Di was agitated by the fight just now, and his blood was surging and his ferocity was rising. He had to not let him speak, otherwise a fierce fight would be inevitable.

"Shut up, who told you to open your mouth?"

The short, sturdy woman threw down a demon's head, which belonged to the boat owner from earlier.

The demon's head was half-submerged in the water, holding half a peach charm in its mouth, which was still sizzling with fire.

The woman's voice was somewhat hoarse and slightly piercing, as if she was deliberately being so gloomy. "If we hadn't seen you fighting with this demon and knew that you weren't part of the demon gang, how could we have so easily forgiven you for harming my spirit?"

As she spoke, seemingly noticing Jiang Hubiao's secret relief, she sneered, "Besides, who gave you permission to speak? Don't you know that my sister and I hate ugly people causing trouble more than anything else in our lives?!"

"I"

Jiang Hubiao blushed and was about to speak when a hand landed on his shoulder. Then he heard Xiao Di say, "Brother, so that's what you meant. But like you, I'm not one to be ashamed."

"I'm not ugly," Jiang Hubiao thought to himself.

"You speak."

The short woman pointed at the black owl behind Jiang Hubiao, whose image was obscured, and said with a gleam in her eyes.

"Humph!"

Black Owl let out a cold snort, which startled Jiang Hubiao. He almost thought Black Owl was using his Zen technique, but thankfully it was just a cold snort.

But then he worried that his cold snort would displease the two women, and he became anxious again.

“Young lady, your spirit is a refined essence, not easily destroyed. Why pretend to be fierce and make things difficult for us brothers? Even if my power is insufficient, I will never tolerate this evil.”

Upon hearing this, even the tall woman who had been floating in mid-air and looking down with arrogance cast a scrutinizing gaze at him, nodding and saying, "Good eye, and good aura too. You could be a good friend."

Seeing that he was losing ground, Black Owl, though he wanted to make peace, was still not happy, so he started to say some sarcastic things.

"I am a member of the Jiang family, and all my friends are outstanding individuals in the world."

"You two are shrouded in yin energy and demonic intent. It's obvious you cultivate the path of serving demons with your bodies, becoming one with them. If I hadn't known you were extremely vicious and I had no chance of winning against you, I would have already used my magic to dissolve you two ghosts."

"How arrogant! Even if you, the head of the Jiang family, came here, you would still have to be polite to us. Aren't you afraid of offending us by speaking like this?"

Seeing the two clashing, Jiang Hubiao, fearing that things would get ugly and he would lose face, quickly stepped in to smooth things over, saying, "Brother Xiao has always been upright and honest. He is new to the outside world and hopes that the two fairies will be more tolerant."

"Sister, we have been practicing magic and imprisoning demons for many years, precisely to seek revenge on that person."

Now that we have achieved some success, it is really not advisable to make more enemies, lest we fall into endless trouble, waste our energy in vain, and let that person continue to live a carefree life.

These two are both from the Jiang family, and they exude arrogance. They are most likely from the main branch of the family. If we could humble ourselves and befriend them, they might become powerful allies in the future, and would also add momentum to our revenge."

The short woman spoke in her voice.

After a brief discussion, the two women decided that it was best to befriend each other. So they stopped being so confrontational and explained what had happened.

It turns out that although they were taught by the Purple-Faced Golden Granny, they had moved out of the Hunshui Mountain Valley Spirit Land where the Hidden Spirit Sect was located decades ago, and instead built a hermitage outside Xiping Lake to live in seclusion and practice magic.

Unexpectedly, a wicked Taoist priest appeared out of nowhere, using flattery and cunning to deliberately befriend them and invite them to study two incomplete pages of the Taoist scriptures.

They found that the Taoist scriptures contained the profound principles of the interaction of water and fire, which would be of great benefit to subduing demons and monsters. So they happily studied and comprehended them together. Little did they know that this was a vicious scheme by the evil Taoist priest. He used the profound principles of the scriptures to make them relax their minds while he secretly set up an altar in a secluded place to make offerings to the gods and generals, so as to capture their souls.

They were already wary and were willing to feign cooperation in order to find out the demon's purpose and origin.

Unexpectedly, the sorcery set up by the demon was extremely powerful. Even though they were prepared and took extra precautions, and endured the ordeal for a certain period of time, they were still bewitched and their spirits were captured by the demon multiple times. If they had not been highly skilled in the arts, they would have already fallen victim to the demon's spell.

Today, the evil Taoist priest was performing a spell on the boat, capturing their souls nearby. Fortunately, Hei Xiao and his companion witnessed this, and by chance, they missed the opportunity to perform the spell, giving the two Qing Gu girls a chance to kill the evil Taoist priest.

As they spoke, the two young girls led the group to the boat for a look.

At the very end of the boat, outside the brocade-draped bed, there was a small altar on which were the birth dates of both the elder and younger Qing Gu.

There was a circle painted in front of the altar, and inside the circle was a shrine. When Black Owl went up to take a look, he saw that the shrine contained none other than the image of his own true form, the Star General.

(End of this chapter)