One person: Orochi, starting with Feng Baobao's Eight Heroes.

The tengu let out a desperate wail, and countless black wisps of energy burst forth from its body as it tried to escape.

Zhenwu Faxiang merely flicked his sword.

There were no earth-shattering explosions, no dazzling lights or shadows.

All the Eight Banner soldiers froze at the same time, and then disappeared with the wind.

The shrine on the chest of the tengu cracked open with a "crack," and the vengeful spirits that had been devoured scattered like fireflies.

The gloom that had enveloped the entire valley was cleared, and for the first time, moonlight shone on the scorched earth.

"Cough cough..."

Zhou Sheng slumped on the edge of the altar, his token now shattered into dust.

He looked at the remaining incense ash in his palm and smiled bitterly.

"The True Martial Emperor's sword truly only severs cause and effect..."

Lu Jin was poking at the remaining bone fragments of the Crow Tengu with his foot when he heard this and looked up.

"Old Zhou, can't you speak like a human being?"

"It means this thing is completely dead."

Lu Ci kicked open the monster's head and suddenly pointed into the distance, exclaiming in surprise.

"Look at Qishan!"

Everyone looked back and saw that the blood-red light shield that had enveloped Qishan was fading away.

Even more astonishingly, the Eight Banners planted all over the mountain moved without wind, and the dragon patterns on the banners began to peel off piece by piece.

Zhang Shoucheng withdrew his Yin Thunder Domain, but black water was still dripping from the hem of his black robe.

"Once one of the array's cores is broken, the remaining seven will inevitably generate a response."

He gazed at the gradually brightening eastern horizon, his voice hoarse.

"It must be done before dawn..."

Before he could finish speaking, the earth suddenly trembled violently.

On the second flag mountain five miles away, a dark shadow was slowly rising.

It resembles a giant python but has a human face, and its coral-like horns on its head are absorbing the purple aura of the morning glow.

Fengping's fire gourd fell to the ground with a "thud".

"Damn it... is that Liu Xian, who's about to transform into a dragon?"

Lu Ren leaned on his silver spear and struggled to his feet, only to find his shadow twisting strangely.

He stared at the writhing shadow on the ground and suddenly issued a stern warning.

"Don't move! There's something in the shadows..."

The warning came too late.

Suddenly, the shadow of a Wudang disciple shot up, and a black blade pierced through his chest from bottom to top.

The tengu's body drifted away in the air.

Lu Ci was unable to stop in time, and his forehead slammed into Lu Jin's bronze mask with a "thud".

"Ouch!"

Lu Ci staggered backward, clutching his forehead which had instantly swelled up into a large bump, while Lu Jin, due to his triple rebirth state, radiated a glow, his Daoist robe not even wrinkling.

"Accident, purely accidental."

Lu Jin smiled and took off his mask, revealing his handsome face.

He reached out to help Lü Ci, but the other person slapped his hand away.

Stop pretending!

Lu Ci grimaced as he rubbed the bag.

"Is the Lu family's Triple Rebirth technique made of iron?"

Scattered laughter rose from the surroundings.

Uncle Lu stroked his goatee and nodded.

"Jin'er has already mastered three-tenths of the true essence of this reversal of life."

The head of the Gao family stood with his hands behind his back, his long blue robe fluttering in the wind.

"Among the younger generation, Nephew Lu and Second Young Master Lü are the most outstanding."

"fart!"

Suddenly, the head of the Lü family rushed out from behind the crowd and slapped Lü Ci on the back of the head.

"What kind of behavior is this, so reckless and impulsive!"

0 ······Requesting flowers··· ·········

The force of the slap sent the pebbles scattering on the ground, making Aunt Wang Ai click her tongue in amazement. She then reached out and pinched the round face of her chubby nephew beside her.

“Look at the upbringing of the Lü family.”

Guan Shihua was secretly stuffing candied fruit into her mouth when her master hit her on the head with his pipe.

"No rules!"

The girl stuck out her tongue, and the candied fruit packets scattered all over the floor with a "clatter".

In the center of the field, Lü Ren strode forward and hugged his younger brother, whispering something to him.

Lu Ci struggled awkwardly, but ultimately couldn't push his brother away.

... .. ...

This scene caught Lu Jin's eye, and he turned to walk toward Zhou Sheng, who was studying the fragments of the array flags.

"Brother Zhou, that crow tengu just now..."

"It borrowed the divine power of the True Martial Emperor."

Zhou Sheng didn't even look up, his fingers tracing the remaining golden patterns on the token.

"This evil spirit from Japan maintains its form through the circulation of Qi within its meridians; the token's obstruction is like..."

He suddenly froze, gesturing with two fingers in mid-air.

"Sealing the meridians and severing the channels?"

Lu Jin's eyes lit up.

"It has a similar effect to the Ruyi Jin technique of the Lü family."

Zhou Sheng finally looked up, his eyes behind his glasses narrowing into slits.

"If we're talking about breaking this deadlock, that Mr. Chen could probably do it with a stomp of his foot..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Shoucheng's hoarse voice suddenly came from afar.

"Where did that kid Chen Qi run off to again?"

The old Taoist priest leaned on a peach wood sword, the hem of his robe stained with mud.

Just as Lu Jin was about to reply, Wu Gensheng appeared on the treetop three meters away, his black suit spotless.

"He said he had some trivial matters to deal with regarding the loss of his soul."

Chapter 263 A Mere Formality

These words drew the attention of the Gao family head—it was this very mysterious man who had casually scattered thirty armed soldiers.

"The Five Witches' Army?"

Master Guan Shihua suddenly interrupted, the sparks in the pipe flickering.

"A lot has indeed been lost in the Northeast recently..."

Wugensheng chuckled and leaped down from the treetop, landing without disturbing a single leaf.

"Brother Gao seems quite surprised that I survived?"

He turned to the solemn-faced head of the Gao family.

"There's no need to test them. If they were to actually fight Chen Qi, even ten Wugenshengs would have been wiped out long ago."

Wang Ai broke free from her aunt's embrace, and "623" pulled out a piece of fluorescent yellow paper.

"I...I'll ask Brother Chen using yin-yang paper..."

Before the chubby fingers could finish drawing the incantation, the entire forest suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

Even the cicadas' chirping disappeared, leaving only the increasingly rapid breathing of the crowd.

"Click——"

The sound of a dry branch breaking startled Guan Shihua, who jumped up.

Her master's pipe clattered to the ground, and the unburnt tobacco in the bowl instantly frosted over.

Everyone looked toward the bend in the mountain path, where a thick, blood-red light was emanating.

"Back off!"

With a furious roar from the Lu family head, twelve walls of Ruyi energy instantly formed.

Lu Jin's bronze mask snapped back onto his face, and the white light of the Reverse Life Triple Expansion surged three feet.

However, all defenses were rendered useless before that black mist.

The fog bypassed all obstacles and condensed into black ice crystals on the ground.

A boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old emerged from the mist.

The hem of the snow-white hunting robe was embroidered with faded bellflower patterns, and blood-lotus-shaped flames bloomed wherever bare feet stepped.

The most horrifying thing was the stitches on his neck, the stitches were so rough they looked like a centipede had crawled across it.

"Please...kill me..."

The boy's voice was so ethereal it didn't sound human.

As he reached for the token inserted into the array's core, Lu Jin finally saw the cyan runes on the inside of his wrist.

It is exactly the same as the forehead of the Tengu.

"Do it!"

Seven talismans and five sword energies erupted simultaneously.

Aunt Wang Ai's paper-cutting transformed into a silver wolf pouncing and biting, while Guan Shihua's shaman drum vibrated with visible sound waves.

The boy neither dodged nor avoided the attack. His body, which was exposed after his hunting robe was torn to shreds, was covered with countless talismans, the most striking of which was the character "役" (yì, meaning service) written in vermilion on his chest.

"Is this all the exorcists in the Tang Dynasty are capable of?"

The young man sighed, and the fragments of the hunting robe suddenly froze in mid-air.

With a flick of his finger, the tattered cloth pieces instantly transformed into countless talismans, upon which appeared strange runes never before seen by anyone.

A strong, eerie wind swept through the mountains and forests. Where the talisman fell to the ground, a hundred or so semi-transparent ghostly figures emerged, including a female ghost with a long tongue hanging to the ground and a Wheel-Dweller with human heads floating on a wheel.

"My name... no, I've long forgotten it."

The boy touched the scar on his neck.

"The great demon king of the Heian period was defeated and sealed by the monk Kukai... and then turned into a shikigami by that bastard Minamoto no Yorimitsu."

When he uttered the three words "Minamoto no Yorimitsu," all the surrounding ghosts simultaneously let out mournful howls.

Lu Jin's bronze mask suddenly cracked open.

He saw not the reflection of a living person in the boy's crimson eyes, but countless devoured souls struggling.

"I've long since lost count of how many people I've killed..."

The boy raised his hand and summoned a three-eyed raven...