Guard the Truth, Manifest Authority

But Lin Mo suddenly looked at Xie Yuling.

"There's only one chance. If it doesn't work, you know what to do."

Xie Yuling looked at the Five Thunder Talisman in her hand. She understood very well that the vengeful spirit was a victim, but victims could also become perpetrators.

"I know."

Xie Yuling clutched the two talismans and nodded firmly.

Then she pulled open the car door and stepped out.

Jiang Yunlu looked at Lin Mo again.

"Did she have to be made to make this choice?"

"Not really, but as she grows stronger, she'll eventually face situations like this. You know she's not the type to be truly cold-hearted."

Jiang Yunlu took a deep breath, then finally yanked the door open and got out.

Chu Miaomiao and Ning Qingcheng were somewhat surprised but didn't follow, remaining quietly seated in the car.

Ning Qingcheng glanced at Lin Mo, then at Jiang Yunlu, who was hurrying after the others.

She couldn't help thinking to herself: Damn impressive!

Even Lin Mo hadn't anticipated this. The connections between people could be complicated sometimes.

Hearing footsteps behind her, Xie Yuling turned around.

Seeing it was Jiang Yunlu, she looked puzzled.

"What are you doing?"

"Coming to keep you company. Last time you accompanied me, this time I'll accompany you. Seems fair."

Xie Yuling almost broke into a grin but stopped herself, forcing the smile down.

"No need. And this was something I proposed to Lin Mo. Let me see it through."

"Then consider it your mission. I just want to watch up close."

Truth be told, both of them had a bit of a tsundere streak.

Just then, Shouzhen dropped his meditative chanting pose, his eyelids snapping open as he spat out two words.

"It's here!"

No sooner had he spoken than he flipped his wrist, and a snowy white horsetail whisk appeared in his hand.

The Quanzhen Sect didn't bother with those talismans or peculiar arts. Their cultivation relied entirely on internal alchemy, and this whisk, a Dharma artifact, was their weapon for subduing demons and evil.

The surrounding air suddenly grew heavy, as if infused with molten lead.

The temperature plummeted like a cliffside drop.

With her celestial vision activated, the world Jiang Yunlu saw had transformed.

Countless black threads, invisible to the naked eye, spread like wild aquatic weeds from every direction, all targeting the body bag at Shouzhen's feet.

Then a voice sounded.

No, not one voice.

A dozen, dozens of voices—sharp and childish voices of children and women, overlapping into a distorted wave of sound that scraped across everyone's eardrums.

"Give it back!!!"

The thick, clotted black mass suddenly coalesced, forming a massive ghostly hand with hook-like fingers that reached straight for the body bag.

Shouzhen stood rooted, unmoving, merely thrusting his whisk forward and flicking it.

Crack!

A dull thud, like a wet towel slapping against an iron plate.

The thousands of silken threads on the whisk elongated in the wind, faintly shimmering, and with sheer force they blocked the ghostly hand half a foot away.

"Reckless vengeful spirit! Stop clinging to your delusion!" Shouzhen bellowed like a tolling bell in response.

His answer was an even more frenzied roar.

"Give it back!"

Shouzhen curled his lip. He knew that reasoning with something that had lost its mind was a waste of breath. Unless he beat it into clarity, it wouldn't even recognize who he was.

The Quanzhen lineage had none of the flashy spellcraft of the Zhengyi Sect. Their approach was straightforward: just get down to business.

Go in and fight!

With a light tap of his toes, he shot forward like an arrow released from the bow, charging headfirst into the thickest concentration of yin energy.

His whisk was no longer a light Dharma artifact but a fierce, incomparably heavy weapon.

A single sweeping strike.

Whoosh!

An invisible blast of wind swept through, and that clotted, almost solid mass of yin energy was torn open with a huge gash, revealing the empty concrete floor behind it.

Even though the gash was filled in an instant by the surging black mist, both Jiang Yunlu and Xie Yuling could feel that the suffocating, bone-chilling cold had lessened by a fraction.

That little Daoist had some real skill!

In Lin Mo's view, Shouzhen had indeed made progress. The young Daoist had decent talent and would be even stronger if he trained under Zhang Gonglian.

The agents following Liu Zheng from the Yanhuang Awakening organization were also astonished.

"Wow, this little Daoist master is really hiding his abilities," murmured a bold agent among the crowd, shrinking his neck.

Before he could finish, someone beside him slapped a hand over his mouth.

But just as Shouzhen was about to press his advantage and strike another heavy blow.

The chaotic shouts stopped abruptly.

In the night wind, only one voice remained—clear yet venomously piercing, the voice of a child.

"Give me back my body!"

This time, the sound didn't come from the air.

It rose faintly from beneath his feet, from the motionless body bag.

Black patterns had gathered around the bag without anyone noticing, burrowing deeper and deeper.

Shouzhen took a deep breath. "Stubborn and unrepentant! Break!"

The whisk came down like a heavy hammer.

But it only shattered part of the black lines.

The powerful backlash forced Shouzhen to stumble back two steps.

"Pfft!"

Blood gushed from Shouzhen's mouth.

The mouthful of hot blood soaked into the whisk completely.

"Smash!"

Blood-empowered, the whisk was now buffed. It struck the body bag with all its might.

There was no sound. All the black lines dissipated in an instant.

At that moment, Zhafu, sitting on the balcony, stood up.

"Hmm? So Guangzhou really does have a hidden master."

He glanced at the bone flute in his hand and casually tossed it into the distance.

As he threw it, he erased all connection between the flute and himself.

That thing was useless now. The best move was to just discard it.

He never forgot the golden rule: stay low-key and stay safe.

On the other side, Shouzhen's determined strike with the whisk had indeed scattered all the black lines.

Just then, Xie Yuling furrowed her brow and couldn't help speaking up.

"It seems like... he just wants to protect his own remains."

Panting heavily, Shouzhen turned to look at her.

"What?"

Xie Yuling watched the black mist reform, now nearly half as thin as before. She could sense the vengeful spirit's power gradually weakening, wisps of black energy constantly leaking outward.

Shouzhen began to gather the remnants of his spiritual power. With the vengeful spirit already weakened, one final blow would obliterate it completely.

"Wait!"

Xie Yuling spoke up and walked straight over.

Shouzhen had seen Xie Yuling's file, knew she was Lin Mo's landlady, but he had no idea about her background.

"Miss Xie, please stay back. Even though it's very weak now—"

Xie Yuling raised her hand, cutting off his words.

She produced a yellow talisman.

Yin energy seeped from the talisman, and a soul began to slowly coalesce from within.

And at that moment, Xie Yuling spoke.

"Don't you want to see your grandmother again?"

The reforming vengeful spirit froze. A childish voice trembled in the air.

"Grand..."