Under One Person: Starting with the Dual Cultivation of Body and Soul

Chapter 113 Murder Under the Moon

"If I call to you from across the mountain, you'll answer from across the mountain; if I call to you from across the river, you'll turn around and run away."

"A cool breeze blows from behind Yinshan Mountain, a chilly wind blows in."

"A strong wind blows behind Yinshan Mountain, and it will turn you back."

The sound was awful, like fingernails scratching glass, it was incredibly annoying, and the worst part was that you couldn't stop listening to it, and it kept getting louder.

Lu Lin suddenly opened her eyes, a layer of cold sweat beading on her forehead: "Senior brother, the voice is getting clearer and clearer. He's getting closer to us quickly."

The thought of an unseen enemy approaching filled Lu Lin with anxiety.

When I get anxious, the feeling that something inside me wants to fly out becomes more pronounced.

The stronger this feeling, the deeper the anxiety, creating a vicious cycle.

Li Chang'an stood aside, his tone calm as still water: "Calm down. That force is very weak. The reason you feel you can't resist it is because of the delusions in your heart."

"You felt him getting close, so you instinctively felt a little fear, and that little fear caused you to lose your composure."

"It's just like when we were training in the dark cave before. There were no monsters in the cave; the monsters were in your heart. It's the same principle this time!"

Li Chang'an looked down at Lu Lin: "What are you afraid of? Even if he gets close, the enemy is in the open, and we are in the dark. We are the hunters. They are the ones who should be afraid."

"If they come looking for us, they're asking for trouble. Get your mindset right, we're ready to take them down."

Meanwhile, on another mountaintop.

Several people hidden in the night were secretly observing all of this through covert means.

"Master Lu, it seems there's been a slight mishap in your trial this time. The opponent's abilities are somewhat countering Reverse Life!" said the bald, middle-aged man in an executive jacket.

Lu Jin asked, "Xiao Dou, what ability does that guy with the mourning staff have?"

The middle-aged man is named Dou Le, and he is the head of the company's East China region. In the entire circle of supernatural beings, there are very few people who can call him "Little Dou," and Lu Jin is one of those few.

Dou Le said, "The one carrying the mourning stick is called Mu Wudang. He is a strange person from Bijie, Guizhou. He has learned the shamanistic methods of summoning souls."

"Although human lives are closely intertwined, they are not without gaps. Especially for children, when they are frightened, their souls are easily lost in the panic. At this time, it is necessary to call back the soul. Specialists who call back the soul can bring back the lost soul. Of course, they can also use the same method to forcibly call the soul out of a living person."

Dou Le paused for a moment, then continued, "Master Lu, most members of the Lu family are resilient, so ordinary methods of calling back the soul are definitely useless. But Mu Wudang is different. Did you notice the mourning stick in his hand?"

Lu Jin looked over and asked, "Is that a magical artifact?"

Dou Le nodded: "That's right. That mourning staff is a magical artifact passed down in their sect. This person secretly killed his master, seized the artifact, and joined the Quanxing Sect."

"That stick needs to be maintained with Qi and corpse oil from the dead all year round. It can not only amplify the power of the caster, but also has the ability to collect souls."

"Don't be fooled by the fact that it's just him calling out to the soul. There might be hundreds of vengeful spirits inside that stick calling out along with him, which is why Lu Lin is so unable to cope."

At this moment, Xiao Zizai, a temporary worker in the East China region, spoke up: "It's not that we can't handle it, but rather that Lu Lin has fallen into the wild horse effect."

"The Wild Horse Effect?" Lu Jin looked at Xiao Zizai: "You mean the mind wanders, letting things run wild?"

Xiao Zizai said, "Actually, compared to the mystical explanations of Taoism, I prefer to use psychology to explain things."

Upon hearing this, Dou Le glanced at Xiao Zizai with some surprise: "Old Xiao, you study psychology?"

Xiao Zizai smiled gently and said politely, "In order to cure my illness, I have read many books on psychology. There is a term in psychology called the 'wild horse effect,' which is somewhat similar to letting a horse run wild."

"It comes from an interesting experiment: on the African savanna at night, a strong wild horse was bitten on the ankle by a vampire bat."

"The wound was only the size of a few pinpricks, and the amount of blood lost wasn't even enough to fill a Coke bottle cap."

"But the wild horse, enraged by that slight sting, began to neigh incessantly and gallop wildly across the grassland, kicking the air with its hind hooves, trying to trample the non-existent enemy to death."

"In the end, it died from exhaustion, foaming at the mouth. The autopsy showed that its blood was extremely abundant and its organs were in perfect condition."

"What destroyed it was not the bat, nor the tiny wound, but its anger and fear."

"Now, the sound of calling out souls is like the wounds left by bats, and Lu Lin is like that frightened wild horse."

"This kind of thing can't be solved by just a few words of reminder from others. It's like an ordinary person walking alone at night. No matter how much you follow them and remind them that it's safe around them, they will still instinctively feel scared. In fact, the more you remind them, the more terrifying their imagination will become."

"Moreover, mental attacks like soul-calling are inherently highly manipulative."

"Faced with such a vicious trick, it's already quite good that Lu Lin was able to guard her mind and resist the departure of her soul from her body."

""

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin sighed: "That's very true. The mind itself is an extremely difficult monster to tame. The underlying logic of most attacks that target the soul is to exploit and amplify this monster."

"However, this is the first time I've heard of combining these esoteric methods with modern psychology. Mr. Xiao is quite knowledgeable."

Xiao Zizai smiled modestly: "Mr. Lu, you flatter me. I am a patient, and reading more books is also to better understand my condition!"

He pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting the moonlight, making it impossible to see his eyes.

He initially read these books to treat his illness.

But as he looked around, he realized that this psychological knowledge was more suitable for "eating" than for treating illness.

The more he learned, the more he knew how to make the "food" suffer more.

If it's just physical pain, then slow slicing is pretty much the worst form of torture.

But psychological pain is limitless.

To kill someone, you must first destroy their spirit!

The most delicious food is the food that comes from a state of extreme physical and mental suffering.

Thinking of this, Xiao Zizai took a deep breath and said with a look of ecstasy, "In terms of how troublesome this Mu Wudang is, he is even more troublesome than Xue Fan, the mourner from Quanxing. Master Lu, when do you plan to make a move?"

He was already getting impatient to eat.

In his view, this soul-summoning technique was too secretive in its killing. That Mu Wudang must have killed many people.

Kill him—no, eat him—it would be absolutely justified.

"No rush. Although Lu Lin can't withstand it, we still have Chang'an!" Lu Jin said.

Dou Le also noticed that Li Chang'an's expression remained stable, as if he hadn't been affected: "Master Lu, your disciple has a very high level of skill in sexual cultivation."

Lu Jin nodded and said, "Chang'an has indeed achieved some success in the art of life and death."

Dou Le then asked, "I wonder how he will handle the situation now, with an ordinary person who has lost an arm and a junior brother whose soul has been affected?"

Lu Jin watched quietly without saying a word.

Xiao Zizai said, "If we weren't going to be affected, the wise thing to do would be to carry one in each hand and leave decisively, but he doesn't seem to be planning to do that."

Meanwhile, halfway up the mountain.

Li Chang'an rummaged through his backpack, going through all the talismans inside. Lu Jin had given him quite a few different kinds of talismans, but none of them were the Mind-Cleansing Divine Incantation Talisman that could handle this kind of situation.

"I should have thought of that earlier."

He closed his schoolbag and muttered to himself.

If the old man knew how to use these talismans, he would have been able to defeat the Four Madmen in the story.

"Since we can't break the spell, the only option is to kill the person who cast it!"

Li Chang'an had originally planned to make his move at the Sanyi Sect on the mountaintop, but now it seems that making his move here is just as effective.

As for running away—

Li Chang'an asked himself a question.

The answer obtained is ————

He didn't want to run.

"Since they don't want to run, then kill them!"

Li Chang'an adjusted the enhancement of the Chonglong Jade Talisman to the nose.

His life foundation was much stronger than Lu Lin's, so the blessing from the talisman was naturally greater for him as well.

He can distinguish various smells within a radius of several kilometers.

With such a keen sense of smell, it would be quite easy to distinguish the scent of a living person in such a desolate place.

He sniffed the mountain breeze, and various scents filled his nostrils.

Familiar, unfamiliar, and even with a strange, pungent smell.

Having experienced a brush with death, Li Chang'an naturally recognized the taste.

This is the smell of a rotting human corpse.

The stench is moving, and it's moving quite fast.

"Cousin, you wait here and keep an eye on the driver."

"Senior brother, I—"

Lu Lin's face was full of guilt. He wanted to help, but the demonic voice in his mind and the feeling that his heart was about to jump out of his chest made him powerless.

He understood that in this situation, following along would only make things worse.

"Don't worry, I'll be right back."

Li Chang'an took out a talisman from his backpack and handed it to him, then turned around, picked up his sword, and headed towards the source of the smell.

Li Chang'an wasn't stupid; he didn't just charge straight at them.

He took out more than a dozen talismans from his bag and scattered them with a wave of his hand.

The talismans floated in the air, turning into specks of light.

Dozens of dark figures, each over ten feet tall, silently followed him from behind.

the other side.

A dozen or so people are chasing after them up the mountain.

Mu Wudang walked in the middle of the procession, waving a mourning stick in his hand and constantly calling out to the soul.

"Old Mu, does your soul-calling technique work? Why hasn't it brought the soul back yet?" someone asked him.

Muwu ignored him and continued calling to himself.

Suddenly, someone pointed ahead and shouted:

-

"Look!"

Everyone looked up at the same time.

On a protruding rock several meters above their heads stood a figure dressed in white, holding a sword.

The moonlight shone from behind him, his white hair fluttered in the night wind, and a faint white aura surrounded him.

He stood there, looking down. From below, you couldn't see his eyes, only two points of white light flashing, like shooting stars.

"No wonder he's nicknamed 'Immortal,' he truly has the bearing of an immortal," someone remarked.

"He came alone, what makes him have anything to rely on?"

"Could Lu Jin be nearby?"

The members of Quanxing were discussing it amongst themselves, and for a moment they hesitated.

Mu Wudang was also somewhat surprised. He had thought that the souls of the two people would be summoned, but he did not expect that their physical bodies would come instead. Could there be some kind of ambush?

He immediately waved his mourning staff to sense the presence of many vengeful spirits, which were most sensitive to the aura of the living, but he couldn't sense any living people around Li Chang'an.

Trying to steal a chicken? Mu Wudang spoke up: "Everyone, don't panic. My spell has already hit him. Although he's standing there, he's definitely using most of his conscious mind to suppress his soul."

"In this situation, his soul is in turmoil, which will affect his ability to use his skills. He is definitely putting on a brave face, pretending to be something he's not, and putting on a show."

"I suspect he was trying to buy time to cover the escape of another man surnamed Lu."

"Everyone, let's attack him together, take him down, and then kill that old bastard surnamed Lu. Let's make that old geezer Lu Jin furious."

97

The eerie cries of Muwudang continued unabated, emanating from the mourning stick.

"You're quite good at making yourself look dramatic," Li Chang'an said expressionlessly, waving his hand.

The moment the order was given, dark shadows darted about on the steep cliff face dozens of meters behind him.

The densely packed Shangqing warriors raised their hundred-pound boulders and, aiming them at the Quanxing demons below, hurled them with the standard motion of a shot put.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh————"

Huge rocks, accompanied by a terrifying howl of wind, cascaded down from the sky.

Most of the sorcerers of the Quanxing sect are specialists who are skilled in techniques but lack moral principles; although their magical abilities are high, their physical bodies may not be very robust.

This was also a tactic that Li Chang'an had devised.

A wise man does not stand under a crumbling wall; before he knew the other party's methods, he did not want to rashly find himself in a situation where he had to fight many against one.

It's perfectly normal to use some underhanded tactics.

Although the Five Warriors of Shangqing are powerful, they have no physical form and are fragile. If attacked directly, they can easily be destroyed by a few spells.

But stones are different. With their height and weight, combined with the strength of a strongman, the force of a falling stone would be enormous.

Faced with this overwhelming rain of stones, they were immediately thrown into a state of panic and confusion.

Someone waved their sleeve, creating a gust of wind that blew several stones off course.

Someone blasted a fireball, shattering the large rock overhead.

But after the large rock was broken, it became a pile of sharp small stones.

The falling debris is still a deadly threat, and the area affected is now much larger.

After several people were killed by the falling debris, the remaining Quanxing demons realized the danger and no longer dared to fight back. They all scattered and dodged in a sorry state.

Mu Wudang was also dodging. As a wizard, his methods mostly worked on the soul, and he was helpless against this kind of large-scale high-altitude throwing. He could only dodge left and right with his mourning stick.

But just as he awkwardly dodged a boulder, a feeling of suffocation rushed down from the top of his head, as if a raging torrent was rushing towards him.

Mu Wudang's hair stood on end. He didn't bother to look; his body reacted instinctively, grabbing the mourning staff and blocking with his backhand.

"Clang!"

The sound of metal clashing exploded amidst the chaotic rain of stones.

It blocked it! What a close call! A sliver of relief had just surfaced in his mind.

The next second, an unparalleled force surged through the shaft.

He couldn't even hold onto the mourning stick he had nurtured for over twenty years. It was jolted out of his hand and crashed back, hitting him in the chest.

"Snap!"

The sound of his ribs breaking was crystal clear, and he immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood.

This left him momentarily stunned, and an absurd thought flashed through his mind: had he accidentally struck a dump truck that was hurtling towards him at high speed with a stick?!

But then...

A streak of white light flashed by.

Muwu felt himself fly up lightly.

From a constantly and violently shifting perspective.

He saw his own body, still standing in the same spot.

It has no head.

Blood gushed from his neck like a fountain.

A mourning stick was deeply embedded in his chest.

"What happened?"

"I...I'm dead?"

Between life and death lies immense terror, and Muwudang is gripped by panic.

The last thing he saw was a white-clad figure sweep past him, casually swinging a sword in a perfect semi-circle, blood spreading out in a fan shape—killing someone under the moonlight, the sword striking with blood, blood splattering through the forest.