Chapter 93 Tao Yindi
Upon receiving the instruction, Lü Xiachan's form shifted dramatically, instantly transforming into a ferocious and terrifying ghost! Her fingernails grew long and sharp as knives, gleaming with a cold light. The chilling ghostly aura in her eyes was so intense it was suffocating, as if it could devour the entire night! In comparison, the other evil spirits seemed insignificant. Although they were more powerful than ghosts, their ghostly aura paled in comparison to Lü Xiachan's.
These evil spirits clearly sensed Lü Xiachan's power and danger. They immediately huddled together, letting out shrill cries and baring their fangs as they charged towards her. In an instant, the entire space was filled with a sinister and terrifying atmosphere. In the past, Lü Xiachan would definitely not have been able to fight five against one, but after training with Chen Cheng several times, she had devoured some ghosts and evil spirits, and had also devoured a ghost king and the ghost cultivator from earlier. Although they had all been shattered and their souls severely damaged by Chen Cheng, they were still great tonics that could help her increase her ghost power and ghost energy!
Soon, Lü Xiachan tore the two evil spirits apart and also suffered some minor attacks, but these were negligible to her current ghostly power!
"The Ghost King has appeared!"
Ling'er's warning voice rang out again. She had once been the spirit of the great formation and was extremely sensitive to changes within it.
"It's really great to have this alarm!"
Chen Cheng responded jokingly, but he had already sensed the overwhelming ghostly energy emanating from the fourth floor, and he felt a little nervous. Ghost kings are also divided into different levels of ghostly power. If a ghost king is strong enough to almost reach the level of a ghost general, then it is extremely difficult to deal with.
"Sisi, take out the Five Thunder Talisman. I'm going to fight the Ghost King later and won't be able to protect you. If an evil ghost attacks you, use the Five Thunder Talisman to attack it!"
"Ah, oh, I know, I understand."
Zhang Qian stammered as she answered, taking a talisman out of her pocket and holding it in her hand.
"Little Taoist priest, you have a path to heaven but choose not to take it, and you have no gate to hell but choose to barge in. Since you're here, you might as well stay here too!"
A voice that was neither male nor female rang out; the male voice was deep and sinister, while the female voice was sharp and piercing!
"Hmph, you think you can stop me? Tonight, I will act on behalf of Heaven and wipe out all you demons and monsters, restoring peace to the world!"
After saying that, she took out two talismans and shot them at the two evil spirits that Lü Xiachan was attacking. How could the small evil spirits withstand the Taoist purple talismans? Instantly, they screamed and were blown to pieces! Only then did Lü Xiachan free herself up and begin to desperately devour them.
"Protect your mistress!"
He took out a peach wood sword from his bag and thrust it towards the ghost king, who was shrouded in ghostly energy.
Sensing Chen Cheng's sudden increase in Taoist energy, the Ghost King was also taken aback. It immediately dodged, thinking that Chen Cheng could not see it, but little did it know that Chen Cheng's Ghost Eyes made it nowhere to hide!
Chen Cheng's peach wood sword relentlessly pursued its dodging movements, occasionally interspersed with two talismans. The ghost king recognized its power and could only dodge. Although it could not evade Chen Cheng's ghost eyes, it was faster than Chen Cheng. For a time, neither could gain the upper hand.
The Ghost King wanted to capture Zhang Qian, an ordinary person, but Chen Cheng stood in the way, while the formidable Lü Xiachan also protected her.
After another dodge, the Ghost King floated to the corner of the wall, let out a fierce shout, and waved his two ghostly claws left and right, concentrating the surrounding ghostly energy in front of him. With a sudden strike in the void, a solid iron ball the size of a millstone was smashed towards Chen Cheng.
Chen Cheng hurriedly used his Golden Shield Tai Chi to block, but the powerful impact forced him back several steps!
The Ghost King stretched out its two ghostly claws, and the clutter in the dormitory banged and floated out of the room as if weightless. Chen Cheng knew that the next thing these things would be thrown at him.
"Lin, Bing, Dou, Zhe, Jie, Zhen, Lie, Qian, Xing!"
Chen Cheng quickly formed a hand seal and first cast a Taoist Nine-Character Mantra Golden Hand Seal, which sent all the floating debris flying and also sent the Ghost King flying away.
"Five Thunder Palms"!
Chen Cheng pressed his advantage, unleashing the Five Thunder Palm followed by several purple talismans. Finally, a talisman was imprinted on the Ghost King's body. The Taoist karmic fire burned its ghostly aura, causing it to writhe in agony, looking from afar like a scarecrow billowing black smoke!
Another sword thrust came, severely injuring the wailing Ghost King once again. He didn't hesitate to burn a portion of his ghost power and used all his strength to send Chen Cheng back more than ten steps with a palm formed from black energy. Chen Cheng fell to the ground and his face instantly turned ashen.
Seeing Chen Cheng injured, Zhang Qian rushed forward and half-hug him, while Lü Xiachan also pounced on the Ghost King. Now its strength has increased by leaps and bounds, and the Ghost King has suffered repeated setbacks. The two are evenly matched!
"Sissi, help me up!"
He sensed that this was the true Ghost King, far more powerful than the Ghost King who had just been promoted in Building Thirteen. It seemed that Lü Xiachan could fight it to a draw, but in time she would surely be defeated.
Zhang Qian quickly hugged him from behind and helped him up.
Chen Cheng steadied himself, chanting the nine-character mantra of Taoism. His hands moved swiftly, forming hand seals. A golden hand seal shot out from the air. The instant the hand seal was released, he used his senses to warn Lü Xiachan to dodge. Meanwhile, the ghost king was struggling to fight Lü Xiachan with his weakened ghost power. Suddenly seeing the female ghost dodge, before he could react, a Taoist magic seal struck him. He could no longer hold on, and his ghostly figure was shattered into pieces!
Seeing this, Lü Xiachan flew up at lightning speed, grabbed a piece, and devoured it in a large mouthful. Even if the Ghost King's ghost body fused again, its strength would not be restored.
When the Ghost King had devoured half of its soul, Chen Cheng stopped Lü Xiachan, allowing it to retain a portion of its remnant soul and then fuse the rest together. At this point, the Ghost King was extremely weak, its body almost translucent, but it still retained a faint consciousness. Faced with Chen Cheng's questioning, it slowly began to tell its story.
It turns out that this ghost king's real name was Tao Yindi, and she lived during the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty. In that era, the preference for sons over daughters was prevalent, and her name itself reveals her female identity. Sold by her parents at a young age, Tao Yindi joined a theatrical troupe. Because of her unique voice, capable of mimicking male voices, the troupe leader trained her to become an actress who could sing both female roles and male roles. She had long since mastered this vocal transformation.
Her last performance took place in a small village called Lijiatuo. At the time, the village was small, with only a few hundred residents. During an ancestral worship ceremony, the villagers invited Tao Yindi's opera troupe to perform.
The agreement was that the performance would last three days and pay three taels of silver, but the village chief forced them to perform for five days straight without paying more. Naturally, the dozen or so members of the opera troupe were unhappy, and the argument escalated from verbal exchanges to a full-blown brawl with the village chief and a few villagers. Surprisingly, the villagers were very united and ganged up on the opera troupe, taking turns beating them. The outcome was predictable. Even more heinous was that after accidentally killing two members of the opera troupe, the villagers decided to kill all of them. Driven to despair, Tao Yindi threw herself into a well. The mob killed the remaining members, then burned the opera troupe's equipment and the dozen or so corpses, dumping the remains in a mass grave outside the village.
Who knew that so many people died, only Tao Yindi's soul survived. Because he harbored resentment, and because the well was a place of yin and evil, he turned into an evil ghost after a period of time. After gaining consciousness, he devoured all the lonely ghosts in the nearby mass graves. When he accumulated enough ghost power, he slaughtered all 128 people in the village, young and old, within three days and devoured their souls, thus becoming a ghost cultivator!