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

"Right now, all I want is... to die."

The procession of a hundred demons has taken shape, with the snow woman at the very front opening her mouth and spewing out a storm of ice.

As soon as Lü Ci's Ruyi Force touched the ice crystals, it rebounded, freezing his right hand until it was covered in ice shards.

The head of the Gao family attempted to use a secret family technique to summon heavenly lightning, only to find that the dark clouds had been completely stained blood-red.

"it's useless."

The boy picked up the token and gently snapped it; the sound of metal breaking was mixed with the scream of some kind of creature.

"Do you know... the pain of being turned into a shikigami, where even suicide is impossible?"

He suddenly ripped open his shirt, and the character "役" (yi, meaning service/duty) on his chest was bleeding.

"Look, this cursed seal will heal itself..."

Zhou Sheng suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood; the backlash from his attempt to deduce the boy's fate had struck.

The cinnabar lines on Zhang Shoucheng's peach wood sword broke off inch by inch, while Wang Ai's yin-yang paper had already spontaneously combusted into ashes.

The boy tilted his head and watched everyone frantically defending against the ghosts, and suddenly laughed.

"By the way... that Chen Qi you all know..."

He condensed a black and red Qi ball at his fingertips.

"When he returns... please tell him..."

The moment the black mist surged, Lu Jin saw twelve pairs of illusory wings made of talismans unfold behind the boy.

Some of the outermost members of the Lü family had already begun to bleed from their seven orifices, while the monsters' revelry had only just begun.

"—That's the method you'll use to kill me."

As soon as the boy finished speaking the last word, all the trees on the mountain began to wither.

Chapter 264 The Trajectory of the Big Dipper

Wugensheng suddenly appeared beside Lu Jin, his suit covered in dust for the first time.

"What he's talking about... could it be a technique lost from the Tang Dynasty...?"

A clear, melodious sword cry suddenly rang out from the foot of the mountain. For the first time, the boy's expression flickered, and the rampaging demons all turned towards the source of the sound.

Lu Jin's lips curled up beneath his mask—he was all too familiar with the sound of that sword.

"All ghosts, heed my command!"

Shuten-dōji raised his arms and shouted, his blood-red robe fluttering in the wind.

Suddenly, countless cracks appeared in the ground beneath his feet, and a jet-black arm burst forth from the earth.

In the blink of an eye, hundreds of shikigami crawled out of the Netherworld Rift, including hungry ghosts with blue faces and fangs, headless 06 ghosts dragging chains, and lantern demons floating in mid-air, densely crowding the entire valley.

"Formation!"

Zhang Shoucheng roared and drew the Big Dipper's trajectory with his peach wood sword.

Azure energy spread from beneath his feet, instantly forming a "Northern Azure Pool" with a radius of thirty meters.

The hungry ghosts who rushed to the front had just stepped into the area when their movements became slow, and they were blasted into black smoke by the Lu family disciples who arrived later using their Ruyi Force.

Where are Aoki and Tsuchimikado Tsukiko?

The head of the Gao family stood in mid-air, with the golden Yang God appearing and disappearing behind him.

He stared at Shuten-dōji, who was suspended in mid-air, his voice filled with suppressed anger.

"Don't tell me they weren't involved in this Qi transformation!"

Shuten-dōji suddenly let out a chilling laugh, and the twelve magatama necklaces around his neck jingled.

Poor old man..."

He rolled his scarlet eyes.

"You think I'm standing here voluntarily?"

As he spoke, he tore open his shirt, revealing a dense array of black curse marks on his chest.

"Look closely, I am also a bound shikigami!"

My pupils suddenly contracted.

Those writhing incantations were clearly the long-lost "Binding God Talisman," a forbidden technique that, according to legend, could even imprison the Yamata no Orochi.

Shuten-dōji suddenly sprang into action, his right hand transforming into a sharp claw aimed straight at the throat of the Gao family head.

"But I'm luckier than them—today I can finally get my revenge!"

"Beware!"

Before Zhou Sheng's exclamation could even finish, Shuten-dōji had already pulled out a bronze token with his left hand.

The moment the token was unearthed, the entire valley suddenly trembled violently, and the clouds in the sky spun wildly, forming a vortex.

"The Demon-Suppressing Decree of the True Martial Emperor!"

Master Hutu's expression changed drastically, and six gilded copper coins shot out from his sleeve.

"We can't let him destroy the core of the Qi formation!"

The copper coins formed a six-line hexagram in the air, but suddenly stopped three feet away from Shuten-dōji.

The Gao family head's Yang spirit struck simultaneously, and the golden palm print and the copper coin hexagram seemed to crash into an invisible wall, turning into dust amidst a piercing cracking sound.

"Is that all you have?"

Shuten-dōji grinned as he raised the token high above his head, and dark purple flames erupted from the bottom of the token.

"Watch closely—this is the real Night Parade of One Hundred Demons!"

Suddenly, dozens of mounds rose from the ground, and each mound exploded, releasing three armored skeleton warriors.

Even more terrifying was the sky; the once azure sky quickly turned pitch black, and the phantoms of the Eight Banners soldiers appeared and disappeared in the clouds.

"He borrowed the power of the dragon vein!"

Liao Huzi suddenly rushed out from the crowd and slammed his pipe heavily on the ground.

"Uncle Liu, your disciple is invoking the spirits!"

A sudden gust of cold wind arose, and Liao Huzi's spine suddenly elongated abnormally, with scale-like patterns appearing on his face.

When he looked up again, his pupils had turned into cold, snake-like eyes. Liao Huzi, possessed by Grandpa Liu, opened his mouth and inhaled the black energy released by Shuten-dōji.

"Little Shuten-dōji..."

A hoarse voice squeezed out of Liao Huzi's throat.

"The corpse demon that devoured young boys and girls in Changbai Mountain back then has actually been resurrected by absorbing the blessings of the dragon vein."

As he spoke, Liao Huzi's right arm suddenly swelled and deformed, transforming into a giant claw covered in blue scales that lunged at Shuten-dōji.

The shockwave from the collision of the two forces overturned trees within a radius of 100 meters.

I hurriedly used my escape light to protect the Lu family members beside me, but I saw Liao Huzi fly back and crash into three reclining ox stones before stopping.

Half of Grandpa Liu's phantom floated out from his body, and for the first time, a solemn look appeared in his snake eyes.

"Juniors, retreat! This fellow has benefited from the entire Hidden Dragon Vein; unless the True Martial Emperor himself intervenes..."

"fart!"

Liao Huzi spit out blood and foam as he got up, and his broken left hand mysteriously set itself.

"I'm going to get him today..."

Before he could finish speaking, Shuten-dōji suddenly let out an inhuman howl.

Chapter 265 A Net of Heaven and Earth

His skin cracked inch by inch, exposing his crimson muscle tissue to the air. With a "rip," six bloody gashes opened on his back, and six tentacles covered with eyeballs burst out of his body.

Even more terrifying was the sky—those dark clouds began to burn, transforming into a torrent of blood-red flames pouring down.

"Northern Azure Pool - Open!"

Zhang Shoucheng bit his tongue and spat the liquid onto the peach wood sword, instantly expanding the azure light screen to a hundred meters.

The blood and fire sizzled as they fell on the light screen, and several disciples with weaker cultivation suddenly screamed in agony.

Their shadows actually stood up on their own and turned around to grab their main bodies by the neck.

"Xuanzong of Heaven and Earth, the root of Wan Qi!"

Lu Jin's second uncle threw out thirty-six golden talismans, which formed a net in the air.

But as soon as the purified ghosts disappeared, new tengu emerged from the ground, and wherever their wings swept, two members of the Lü family were instantly cut in half at the waist.

Wugensheng suddenly appeared beside me and slapped away the attacking Kamaitachi wind blades with a palm strike.

The distorted air materialized in his palm, transforming into a yellowed talisman.

Chen Qi..."

He stared at the fading characters on the talisman, his brow furrowing in a rare gesture.

"This old thing hasn't been completely destroyed yet?"

"Who?"

Lu Ci, clutching his bleeding arm, leaned closer, his Ruyi Jin energy forming a protective barrier around him.

Suddenly, Wugensheng crushed the talisman and turned to look at a certain point in the southeastern void.

"Focus on the present moment. That person's aura... seems so close yet so far away."

A pillar of fire, ten meters in diameter, suddenly exploded in the center of the battlefield.

Shuten-dōji transformed into a three-meter-tall red oni, its six tentacles' eyes simultaneously turning, locking onto Zhang Shoucheng who was setting up an array.

"True Martial Demon Subduing Altar?"

He laughed wildly and spewed out black flames.

"I am the greatest demon in your Taoist sect!"

At the critical moment, Grandpa Liu's phantom completely detached from Liao Huzi's body and transformed into a 20-meter-long blue python.

The python opened its mouth and spewed out emerald green flames. The two flames collided in mid-air, and the shockwave blasted a deep crater in the ground.

Only then did they realize that Zhang Shoucheng and the others had somehow already positioned themselves in the Three Powers formation, with the three sect leaders simultaneously forming hand seals, and an ancient bronze cauldron slowly descending from the void.

"Quick! Now!"

Zhou Sheng's roar could be faintly heard amidst the explosions.

Master Hu Tu's six-line coins flew out again, this time each coin trailing a long red rope, forming a demon-trapping array in the air.

The Gao family head's spirit transformed directly into a three-zhang-tall golden body, and the demon-subduing pestle, carrying the force of wind and thunder, smashed towards the top of Shuten-dōji's head.

But the most chilling change happened to Shuten-dōji.

Suddenly, all the eyes on those tentacles turned southeast, exactly in the same direction that Wugensheng had been staring at.

He let out a roar that was a mixture of ecstasy and pain.

"Chen...Qi...you've finally...come..."

"Lü Ci! Left side!"

Lu Renruyi's energy condensed into a vortex in his palm, shredding the three attacking Eight Banner soldiers into pieces.

But the fragments turned into black mist as soon as they hit the ground, and then condensed back into shape in the blink of an eye.

Cold sweat beaded on Lü Ci's forehead, and the light emanating from the Ruyi Jingu Bang in his hand dimmed considerably.

"These damned things are getting stronger the more I fight them, and my Qi is almost exhausted!"

Wugensheng stood between the two, with blue Qi flowing around him.

He suddenly chuckled softly.