How did I, who just ascended to heaven, become an evil spirit?

The red-haired Taoist held the head in one hand and a sword in the other, deflecting all of Li Hu's attacks. Within a few breaths, a new head grew back.

He managed to get through this period of inactivity when new hair was growing.

"Hahahaha!! Although I, Daoist, have not yet become an immortal, how do I compare to an immortal?!" The red-haired Daoist laughed loudly, his terrifying voice startling the surrounding birds into fluttering away. The aura he released made everyone except Li Hu feel breathless.

Li Hu felt that this Taoist was too troublesome. He had never encountered such a disgusting opponent since he started cultivating swordsmanship. Although he could not lose, he could not kill him either.

Li Hu retreated with his sword drawn, creating distance, his mind racing as he considered possible countermeasures.

Although his swordsmanship was formidable, the Red-Haired Taoist was currently in full power and could fight anyone to a standstill. Li Hu really couldn't think of any other way but to wear him down.

"Brother Li, I'm here to help you!"

Huang Daxian had just climbed out of the rattan ball, hurriedly changed his clothes, and rushed forward empty-handed.

Seeing this, the few who could join the battle did not hesitate. Wuchang took out the red rope and rushed over with a whoosh. Yan Yang's sword was temporarily borrowed by Li Hu, but he could still use the heavy scabbard as a blunt weapon.

Apart from the trembling Yuan Sou and the Flowery Rat, all five able-bodied individuals joined the battle, completely surrounding the Red-Haired Taoist.

The red-haired Taoist grinned, revealing an expression of enjoyment.

"Come on!!" He shouted, his hands forming a sword incantation, his long sword pointing to the sky.

After saying that, the red-haired Taoist took out a talisman from his waist, recited a fire incantation, and the talisman suddenly burst into flames. The red-haired Taoist swallowed the talisman along with the flames.

After consuming the talisman, the red-haired Taoist's entire body turned red, and in this early spring season, steam rose from his body, with faint sounds of dragon roars and tiger howls emanating from his stomach.

Li Hu dared not delay and launched the first attack. With his long sword flying, he forced the red-haired Taoist to stop from gathering his strength.

The others quickly followed up with the attack, but Huang Daxiu stayed behind.

He pulled out a few bean pods from his pocket, rubbed them vigorously, and the black beans spilled out.

He bent down, picked up a few black beans, and scattered them towards the red-haired Taoist priest from a distance, shouting loudly:

"The five grains cycle in a cycle, and soldiers are created by scattering beans!"

In the blink of an eye, the black beans that had fallen to the ground were enveloped in a cloud of black mist, obscuring their original appearance.

As the black mist dissipated, tiny figures, each about half a meter tall, dressed in theatrical costumes, with bluish faces, wielding halberds, swords, spears, and knives, emerged from the ground, uttering strange cries, and all pounced around the red-haired Taoist to launch an attack.

Li Hu smiled upon seeing this, never expecting that Wong Tai Sin would have such a clever move.

In an instant, the red-haired Taoist was surrounded by killing intent, and countless weapons came rushing towards him.

It can be said that the horse fell into a pit, and its life was almost lost.

Seeing that he was completely surrounded and in a bad situation, the red-haired Taoist reached into his lower back and pulled out a bell with green rust.

It discarded its useless head, clutching a bell in one hand and a sword in the other.

It rattled and made a loud noise.

The sound of the bell seemed to possess an eerie quality, instantly blurring Li Hu's vision.

He felt that although he was clearly conscious and his steps were not chaotic, everything he saw was in three layers of shadows, and he could no longer accurately strike with his sword. The red-haired Taoist always managed to dodge his attacks, and each time he was just a little bit away from seriously injuring the red-haired Taoist.

Li Hu was in relatively good condition, but Yan Yang and Huang Daxian, whose willpower was slightly weaker, were already teetering on the brink of collapse, as if they were possessed, and it looked like they were about to stumble and fall.

As soon as the bell rang, the group seemed to be drunk, instantly losing most of their fighting power.

"Hmph, you rustic bumpkin, do you even recognize the treasure I hold in my hand?"

The red-haired Taoist priest nimbly dodged the attacks of several people, and stood far away behind a few bamboo groves, speaking in a sinister tone.

"This is a secret treasure of our Demon Suppression Division. When shaken, evil spirits and living beings will be unable to see or walk, and will only hear the sound of bells."

As they spoke, few of them were still able to stand; only Li Hu and Wuchang were still able to hold on.

The impermanent figure floated in the air, its body trembling, looking like a candle flickering in the wind, but it still tightly gripped the red rope in its hand.

"Tiger, I'll create an opportunity for you. How about we kill him one more time?"

Wuchang glanced at Li Hu, and before Li Hu could answer, he rushed forward. The red rope in his hand, like a poisonous needle, suddenly wrapped around the red-haired Taoist's wrist, and the sound of the bells lessened considerably.

Impermanence circled the red-haired Taoist several times, attempting to restrain his movements with the red rope.

Suddenly, the red-haired Taoist's sword came whistling through the air and severed the red rope in one stroke.

Immediately afterwards, another sword pierced through the wandering impermanence in the air.

Wuchang was used to wandering around. Since he was a spirit, swords and blades had little effect on him. Therefore, he didn't even try to dodge this time and crashed straight into the sword tip.

sizzle-

The part of the sword that touched the impermanent ghost instantly emitted smoke, and like a red-hot cleaver cutting through foam, it pierced right through.

"Why not avoid it? Are you truly not afraid?"

The red-haired Taoist was still somewhat puzzled, but he quickly seized the opportunity and swiftly swung his sword repeatedly, cutting the floating Impermanence into several pieces until it dissipated into the air.

The azure spirit vanished with the wind, and now even Li Hu could no longer sense Wuchang's presence.

Wuchang had been an evil spirit for over six hundred years. Although he might not be considered a benevolent being, Li Hu couldn't help but feel a sense of shared sorrow at the loss of his comrade.

Li Hu cried out and, taking advantage of the moment when the sound of the bell faded, drew his sword and charged again!

The red-haired Taoist priest didn't even bother to dodge this time. He just stared at Li Hu with a silly grin on his face and let his neck be slit.

He simply increased the speed at which he was shaking the bell.

His headless corpse grabbed the fallen head and quickly retreated, casually wielding his sword to cut down several small figures that had been transformed from black beans, killing them one by one.

Li Hu held the sword in reverse, horizontally in front of him, his true energy surging, his eyes turning bloodshot.

"Li Fengcong! Old Daoist, I'm not inferior to you, am I? Hahahaha!"

The red-haired Taoist priest kept shaking a bell in one hand, holding a sword at a distance. His newly grown head laughed loudly, "Today, even if I exhaust all my strength, I still cannot defeat you, but you will not be able to kill me either!"

Li Hu was horrified as he looked at the crowd who couldn't stand because of the bells.

Although he had never been defeated in his sword cultivation journey, he was completely helpless against the Taoist's unreasonable regeneration.

Not to mention that the red-haired Taoist still has earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a technique that can be used to escape) that he hasn't used yet, catching him today would be as difficult as climbing to heaven.

Time passed slowly, and Li Hu was secretly pondering a way to break the deadlock.

Suddenly, he noticed that a burst of sword energy had suddenly risen from the bamboo forest behind the red-haired Taoist, stirring up a strange wind.

The sword energy initially approached slowly, slicing through a few bamboo leaves.

Then, in an instant, it came hurtling over. By the time the red-haired Taoist noticed something was wrong and turned around, an invisible sword aura suddenly severed his neck.

Then, gruesome bloody gashes appeared on his wrists, ankles, exposed chest, and back.

As the red-haired Taoist dodged, scalding hot blood gushed out from those bloody mouths.

At first, the red-haired Taoist was able to dodge and weave through the precise sword energy, but as the wind grew stronger and the sword energy became finer and denser, the red-haired Taoist could no longer avoid it.

Realizing something was wrong, the red-haired Taoist priest didn't even bother to ring the bell anymore.

He quickly descended into the earth using earth magic, but the sword energy, like a relentless butcher, forcefully churned up a handful of soil, creating a deep pit and digging the red-haired Taoist out of the ground.

"ah!!"

Before the red-haired Taoist could utter a complete sentence from his newly grown head, his vocal cords were slashed by another sword aura, leaving him hoarse and unable to make a sound.

As if knowing that simply severing the red-haired Taoist's head would be of little use, the sword aura swept over his entire body, tearing his clothes to shreds and scattering his flesh and blood as if weathered away, gradually disintegrating and gnawing away until he was completely gone.

It's no exaggeration to say that this sword energy, arriving in an instant, almost completed three slow, slicing operations within ten seconds, each time inflicting no less than three thousand cuts.

The air was filled with the stench of blood.

Until finally only a thin skeleton remained standing in the same spot, Li Hu could no longer see any trace of the original appearance of the Red-Haired Taoist.

Centered on that skull, the ground within a ten-meter radius was entirely red, and not a single intact organ could be found.

Li Hu stood there blankly, his pupils suddenly contracting.

"Sword Qi! It's sword qi again!"

Li Hu rushed to a relatively open bamboo forest, then looked up at the sky in a panic.

A very faint figure filled the entire southern sky in the clouds. The figure was dressed in a brocade robe and stood with its hands behind its back.

But in the blink of an eye, the already faint figure disappeared into the clouds.

Li Hu couldn't even tell if it was because the bell distorted his vision, or if there really was someone on the horizon who looked just like him.

But regardless of the circumstances, the reappearance of this sword aura was clearly the work of a sword immortal.

Of all the things that have happened recently, what Li Hu doesn't understand the most, and what he wants to know the most, is what exactly Sword Immortal Li Hu is planning!

Why did he repeatedly hunt him down when he first became an evil spirit, even driving him to the point of having his limbs severed, and now he's being helped by a sword aura? This contradictory behavior only made him more terrified.

"What exactly do you want?!" Li Hu pointed to the sky and shouted.

But after the sword energy and the figure disappeared, the sky was quiet, and apart from a few cawing forest birds, there was no response to him.

"Master Hu, what's wrong with you...?" Old Yuan ran up to Li Hu tremblingly.

"You've come at the right time, Yuan Sou. Did you just see a figure in brocade robes appear on the horizon?" Li Hu asked anxiously.

"No?" Old Yuan shook his head. "The sky over there is completely clear; I didn't see any signs."

"Hehe, Brother Li, you really have impressive skills. You casually killed this Taoist priest on the spot." Qi Yuehong's eyes were a little red. As he walked over while talking, he clapped his hands, and his thoughts were self-evident.

"Brother Qi, I really didn't do this," Li Hu said helplessly once again.

"So that was done by the Sword Immortal? Why would the Sword Immortal kill a Taoist priest who has nothing to do with him instead of you?" Qi Yuehong's lips twitched, and she took a deep breath.

"If we had acted sooner, we wouldn't be in such a sorry state, right? Wuchang Ghost was even killed by that Taoist priest."

"If I had this ability, why didn't I use it sooner?" Li Hu said anxiously.

"Why didn't you use it sooner? Are you trying to play us for fools?" Qi Yuehong waved her hand. "Brother Li, if you want to kill me, please do so. With the power of the sword aura, I'm afraid I can't escape it even if I hide at the ends of the earth."

His words were full of disbelief, and also contained a hint of a "what's the point" attitude.

"If I could truly wield this sword energy, you would be the first one I kill!" Li Hu retorted without any hesitation.

"Tiger, Tiger, don't be anxious." Yuan Sou tugged at Li Hu's sleeve, then ran to Qi Yuehong to smooth things over. "Commander, Tiger really doesn't seem like someone who can control this sword energy. If he could do that earlier, he wouldn't have been killed so miserably by that Taoist along with us."

"snort!"

Qi Yuehong flicked her sleeve, gave a cold snort, wiped her head, and closed her eyes.

The people present were sandwiched between Li Hu and Qi Yuehong, and they all remained silent in fear.

Yuan Shou subtly gave a wink to the people around him, signaling them to clean up the scene and pack their belongings.

Li Hu really couldn't be bothered with any of that. He picked up the gleaming golden sword left behind by the Red-Haired Taoist and tucked it into his waistband as a temporary weapon.

Before Li Hu became an immortal, he also had a commonly used sword, but unfortunately, it was taken away by the sword immortal Li Hu when he ascended to immortality, so he could only borrow it from Yan Yang when he wanted to use the sword during this period.

Although his swordsmanship had long since reached a state of perfection and he was no longer bound by any particular weapon, having something handy was always better than having nothing at all.

Li Hu hung the sword on his back waist, then bent down to pick up the bell that the red-haired Taoist had left on the ground. He carefully sealed the copper tongue with a strip of cloth to prevent it from making a sound again, and stuffed it into his pocket as well.

This bell can make both evil spirits and mortals in its path sway, so it must be a powerful magic weapon that might come in handy in the future.

After doing all this, Li Hu remained silent.

He glanced back at the crowd, then walked alone toward Blackwater Mountain.

Seeing this, everyone silently followed behind him, except for Qi Yuehong, who was a little resentful. She stood there alone until everyone had gone far away before reluctantly following.

……

"Shuisheng, come on, let Grandpa Shenxing eat first."

In the dimly lit thatched hut, a father and son had just finished cooking dinner.

The father ladled the steaming hot food into a bowl, and the son wiped his dirty hands with anticipation.

The meal was a typical farmhouse meal: a few cornbread buns, half a plate of pickled vegetables, and a bowl of elm leaves. Although it wasn't anything particularly delicious, it made Shui Sheng, who hadn't eaten all day, drool with envy.

But the father still slapped away Shuisheng's hand that was reaching for the cornbread, and instead took the plate to the only altar in the house, where he arranged the bowls and dishes one by one.

Father blew on the tinderbox, carefully protecting the fire, and lit the two candles on the altar.

The candlelight illuminated the dark object on the altar.

It was a dilapidated clay statue with a fierce and menacing face. It stood on two wheels and was covered with dried earthworms, emitting a foul stench. Every time Shui Sheng smelled this disgusting clay statue, he felt nauseous and wanted to vomit.

If his stomach weren't completely empty, he really could have vomited.

"Come, Shuisheng, kowtow to Grandpa Shenxing." The father turned and beckoned to Shuisheng.