Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, but Thunderbolt Taoist Sect

From the distinct human-like screams of pain, Jian Feidao could confirm that the black smoke was a living being, but its current form was indeed without substance. This feeling of seemingly hitting it, yet not hitting it at all, was truly subtle.

This attack failed to stop them, and it was too late to launch another attack. The two men on the ground looked at the last bit of black smoke, and a guess formed in their minds.

"A time traveler."

"Special ability".

It turns out there are illegal transmigrators here. I thought they all ran south to join the White Lotus Sect.

No, there are also members of the White Lotus sect here, so it's not that some people didn't join the White Lotus sect, but rather that they went to the south to develop their careers and then came here for some purpose, just like Ling Ziling and Ren Yunzong encountered.

As the black smoke disappeared into the night sky, the fire that had illuminated the forest gradually died down. Despite the intense light, no vegetation was ignited by the flames.

Master Li came out with a newly lit talisman in his hand, holding a yellow talisman in one hand and a package containing human heads in the other, with his whisk and peach wood sword on his back.

At this moment, he frowned. Judging from the sudden "coming to life" reaction of the human head, he judged that something around him had stimulated the other party.

Before this, two innate beings flew back and forth in the forest with this head, but it never reacted. However, it came to life as soon as it was in his hands. Master Li did not believe that it was something he had on him. He knew very well that he did not have anything that could stimulate the zombie. He had no idea that he would encounter a zombie tonight.

Moreover, when he first touched the human head, the other party did not react immediately. It was placed on the ground and studied for a while before suddenly something unusual happened.

It was obvious that something had come near Master Li and was chasing after the head, getting closer and closer, which aroused the head, causing it to start struggling.

The surroundings were too dark and fraught with danger, so Master Li wanted to take the initiative and force the other party out. He threw out rings of fire in all directions. These flames would not harm the surrounding plants, but they could provide light for a short time and were especially effective against evil spirits.

The shadowy figure hidden in the corner was caught off guard by the ring of fire. He did intend to sneak up under the cover of darkness, and his only target was the head on the ground. As a native with high cultivation and standing on the side of justice, Li Daoshi always avoided illegal transmigrators as much as possible, trying not to attract their attention.

Whether they are Taoist priests or Buddhist monks, these people in the world of Liaozhai all possess genuine abilities. If provoked, they might actually summon the gods and bodhisattvas above, which could lead to their demise.

Therefore, even though he was not afraid of Master Li in terms of strength, he still chose to run away the moment he was discovered. In order not to let the other party see his appearance, he simply turned into a wisp of black smoke and flew away, so that he could disguise himself as a rather unusual ghost.

When Master Li discovered someone hiding in the shadows, he was already prepared for an attack. Judging from the black smoke covering the person, he knew at a glance that this was no ordinary person. However, even though he had already assumed a defensive stance, the other party didn't strike at all and simply ran away.

There was clearly something wrong. Seeing the black smoke rushing in the opposite direction, Master Li quickly chased after it. Then he saw a white light slashing towards the black smoke in the sky, followed by a scream that was clearly from a person, but the black smoke did not slow down at all.

Then, the two sides reunited, each with their heads and bodies. Seeing that Master Li had arrived and knowing that he was not in danger, Ren Pingsheng and the others stopped paying attention to the wisp of black smoke.

Anyway, we can't catch up with them anymore. These guys are here the whole time, and there's an undercover agent watching them. They can't escape no matter what. Let's deal with this zombie problem first.

"What was that just now?"

Master Li had seen ghosts and monsters before, and he had also seen the trick of turning into smoke to escape, but what he had just seen was a little different. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he just felt that something was wrong.

There was neither demonic nor yin energy present, making it impossible for him to notice the approaching figure. He eventually had to rely on the dead man's head in his hand to alert him. Even after spotting the other person, he still couldn't sense even a trace of yin energy emanating from them. If it weren't for the fact that the other person's appearance was completely unlike that of a human, Master Li might have mistaken them for an ordinary person who had wandered in by mistake.

"A ghost... no, it's clearly not human either..."

Now that he thought about it carefully, he realized that the other party not only lacked the aura of demons and ghosts, but also showed no signs of being alive. For a moment, Master Li couldn't figure out what kind of monster it was, so he couldn't help but ask the other two.

In his view, these two should be more knowledgeable than him and might recognize the black smoke from earlier. And if he wasn't mistaken, that attack was from Jian Feidao; although he couldn't stop it, it did cause damage.

"They're probably from the White Lotus Sect."

It's not appropriate to tell Master Li the term "illegal traveler." They were running so fast; it's obvious they were avoiding someone like Master Li. If you told them they were outsiders, they probably wouldn't encounter them again.

Strictly speaking, Master Li had already seen two illegal time travelers and two innate beings, so it was hard to say whether this person's luck was good or bad.

"When Ren Yunzong returned from the south, some people said that he encountered the White Lotus Cult members who would turn into black smoke and run away."

However, the term "illegal transmigrators" cannot be used, but the White Lotus Sect can. This is a cult that has been developing in the local area for a long time and has caused a lot of trouble. There are many cultists in it who follow crooked paths, so they can all be grouped together.

Although Jian Feidao did not yet know the enemy's name, it did not prevent him from associating this person with those guys in the south.

"Although there are some discrepancies between his description and reality, the possibility that they come from the same organization cannot be ruled out."

When Ren Yunzong transformed into the terrifying appearance of Duanmie Chanti, he finally slashed Lan Ying, who was already a high-ranking member of the White Lotus Sect, causing him to turn into a cloud of black smoke and flee in terror.

Since his intention was only to confuse the other party's judgment rather than to kill them, he did not attack the black smoke that Lan Ying had turned into. However, he did examine the black smoke and found that it seemed to still have a physical form, flying away like a wisp of a ghost.

Lan Ying was a living person, but she turned into a formless black smoke and flew away quickly. This way of escaping was somewhat similar to the transformation of innate people into light. However, everyone remembered very clearly that when they were in the capital, neither Lan Ying nor Yi Yang had this ability to escape.

If they had such a trump card, they wouldn't have been chased around in the sky by Liu Qingyuan and Jian Feidao, playing cat and mouse, and they wouldn't have needed to have Wan Jie appear as the villain to save them.

At the time, Ren Yunzong thought that this was a new ability that the other party had obtained from the illegal system after experiencing the events in the capital. Now it seems that this ability to escape by turning into black smoke may be the special ability of this illegal traveler tonight, which has been combined and used as a life-saving tool.

Because of Lan Ying's escape, Ren Yunzong clearly saw a process of activating something. And from Li Daoshi's description of his encounter, the other party turned into black smoke instantly after being discovered, reacted extremely quickly, and flew away with a flick of his cloak.

"The White Lotus Cult... those guys are active again."

Master Li was starting to have a headache again. The White Lotus Sect was rising and falling among the people. Even though it was very fragmented due to the struggle between different factions, a bunch of capable rebels could suddenly emerge, inciting the masses, advocating fallacies, and mixing and modifying the beliefs of various systems. Its vitality was terrifyingly tenacious.

However, when he heard that the strange black smoke was said to be from the White Lotus Sect, he immediately felt it made sense. A group of unorthodox people getting together could indeed come up with some things they had never seen before.

"I've heard that several factions of the Southern White Lotus Sect are merging and starting to support a leader who calls himself the Asura King. I'm afraid things are about to get turbulent again."

From Master Li's perspective, the White Lotus Sect had been committing evil deeds in the south, relying on the fact that many places in the south were easy to defend and difficult to attack to occupy their territory. Now, a very powerful figure has suddenly emerged to unify the fragmented sects, which is indeed a very dangerous trend.

However, as insiders, Ren Pingsheng and Jian Feidao were not worried. The leader, Asura King, was one of their own. Unless the disguise was suddenly taken over by the real person, no matter how strong the enemy became, they would eventually be wiped out.

Although Shou Wanjie is now showing signs of surpassing his enemies, everyone understands that his ostentatious promotion of the Asura King's name is nothing more than a drain on the White Lotus Sect's resources.

Because of him and a group of time travelers, they can easily do many outrageous things, such as slaying monsters and searching for treasures. Many of these are areas that the original White Lotus Sect sorcerers could not reach. Their specialty is still performing magic tricks to swindle money from ordinary people.

First, lure them to places they couldn't reach before, then speed away, cutting down the bridges they crossed. Those who were raised can't get down, and the rest can't get up, wasting manpower and resources. The imperial court's suppression will become easier.

Crossing the river and then dismantling the bridge? No, this is called eliminating a scourge for the people.

"There's an evil spirit hiding inside this zombie. Taoist priest, do you have a way to force it out?"

Ren Pingsheng casually tossed the headless zombie, bound like a rice dumpling, onto the ground. Because the creature kept struggling, he had no choice but to start by binding its hands and feet, and then wrap it tightly around its neck, wrapping it up to its feet, so that it couldn't move a single finger.

Even so, this guy still struggles, but because of the restrictions on his body, the struggle looks like a fish struggling on the ground.

Ren Pingsheng: So it's not that I don't want to help Jian Feidao intercept the black smoke. If you're in charge of moving a fish as big as a person that keeps struggling and splashing, you won't have any free hands to attack.

The body and head were placed together. Based on the previous examination, Master Li guessed that the zombie's own consciousness, or the soul of the deceased, should be in the head. However, the purple zombie was too weak and was created using special methods. It was also suspected that it was being chased, which prevented the deceased's own consciousness from emerging and made it impossible to communicate.

Looking inside, one sees a headless body containing a demon, which is manipulating itself to run around and struggling incessantly. It is unusually active. If it weren't for the fact that the body's head is missing, Ren Pingsheng suspects that this thing would have started cursing loudly when he tied it up.

This should be able to communicate, but it seems unwilling to cooperate. So the current task is to find a way to make the ghost inside appear. The first way is to reconnect the head and let the person's consciousness and the ghost inside fight for control of the body.

But this idea failed as soon as it was put into practice. The head and body were indeed the same person, but it seemed that due to the possession of an evil spirit, the head and body were repelling each other. They tried to close the knife on the other's neck, and as soon as they let go, the head rolled away.

Oh right, after the black smoke disappeared, the head went back to its dead, unseeing look, and the eyeballs stopped moving. It had just come back to life and then fell silent again.

Therefore, we still need to find a way to force out the evil spirits residing inside. Exorcising ghosts is something that Master Li is good at, and Jian Feidao can even see exactly where the ghosts are hiding inside. If they cooperate, it should be easy.

But now there is a crucial problem: this time, the one possessed by the evil spirit is neither a person nor an animal, but a zombie that was born for special reasons, and it is the lowest and weakest purple zombie among all zombie levels.

Zombies and ghosts are both things that people become after they die. They are both haunted by yin energy and both are harmful to the living. In other words, some methods used to deal with ghosts can also harm zombies.

The zombie himself was a former leader of the White Lotus Sect who rebelled. His head is suspected to be the head of an illegal transmigrator or a target of the current White Lotus Sect. In order to find out what this person did in the past, the zombie must be protected first, and communication must be carried out after his consciousness is restored.

Now here's the question: There are three people, two innate beings who can shatter stones with a flick of their wrists, and one Taoist priest who slays demons and protects the righteous path. How can they extract the evil spirits hidden inside the zombie without harming its body?

Using talismans? Zombies are afraid of that too; the ghost might burn before it even appears. Sunlight? While some zombies aren't afraid of sunlight, this is just a purple zombie and can't be exposed to it for long. A peach wood sword? No, both are surrounded by yin energy; a peach wood sword can suppress two at once. Black dog blood? Sorry, zombies are afraid of that too… They're completely of the same element; why would a ghost like you live inside a zombie's body?!

"This guy definitely did it on purpose."

After considering a bunch of methods, I realized that no matter what I did, I might accidentally hurt the body that was being possessed. Most of the exorcism and ghost-catching spells were created because evil spirits were causing trouble and entangled with mortals. Therefore, all the methods were aimed at creatures from the underworld, since yin and yang are inherently incompatible.

But who could have imagined that one day, a ghost would crawl into the zombie's body and still destroy the zombie's body along with it?

"How about I try setting up an altar and performing a ritual to lure the ghost out?"

Unable to use it for daily operations, Master Li wanted to upgrade his level by holding a large-scale ritual to summon ghosts.

"How about we go to the City God Temple and borrow the soul-collecting chains from the underworld officials?"

Jian Feidao changed his way of thinking. Although the two sides have different cultivation systems, from a general perspective, the three people present are all following the cultivation methods of the mortal world. Their thinking has not broken out of the framework of "living people".

But this world is not only the mortal realm, but also the corresponding underworld. Whether it is the City God or the Underworld, the underworld officials are equipped with special tools to capture ghosts.

Their main job is to take souls away for judgment, and with their soul-binding chains, they can pull out the evil spirits hiding inside.

As for how to borrow it, there's no need to consider that at all. The evil spirits here are filled with resentment. They either had a lot of lives on their hands in life or they have killed many people after death. No matter what kind of people they are, they are all targets for the underworld officials to capture.

There's no need for any special explanation; just take it with you, and the other side will definitely know what to do.

"It seems that spending time with Jianzi has indeed changed you quite a bit."

Ren Pingsheng patted Jian Feidao on the shoulder and said earnestly, "Not only have you learned to insult people, but your mind has also become incredibly quick to change your perspective."

“Traveler, I am not foolish.”

So please take back that "the child has grown up and become smarter" look on your face.