Xie Qingyan and a few junior martial brothers were healing Zhi Xuan's injuries.
While being healed, Zhi Xuan cursed loudly.
"Those beasts! The next time I see them, I will definitely teach them a harsh lesson!"
"They are worse than beasts. They deserve to be reincarnated as animals in their next lives."
"Bastards, bah!"
A junior brother beside him felt somewhat helpless. "Zhi Xuan, you are already in this state, just be quiet."
"Why should I be quiet? I want to curse them! They are always making sarcastic remarks at me. Those three are bastard Daoists!" Zhi Xuan shouted loudly.
Even after Xie Qingyan and the others finished treating his injuries and walked out of the courtyard, they could still hear Zhi Xuan cursing in the room.
At this time, Ji Zhaoxi was lying in bed, chatting with that parrot ghost.
The parrot ghost shouted angrily at the top of its lungs, "Those bastard Daoists, catching even a parrot! Good thing I was clever and escaped."
Ji Zhaoxi snorted and rolled over. "I thought city ghosts were so amazing, but it turns out you couldn't even hide as long as a village ghost like me."
The parrot ghost flapped its wings at her and squawked, "That's only because that stinky Daoist is protecting you! Stop being so smug."
"Your Daoist isn't anything good either. The ones who tried to catch me included Daoists from the Taichu Sect!"
It sharply sensed an aura outside the room. Its wings trembled, and it was so frightened that it hurriedly flew to the tree outside.
Ji Zhaoxi was earnestly reading the book How Evil Ghosts Are Raised, and she couldn't help but retort.
"He is much better than you!"
Footsteps stopped by the bed, and a pair of hands wrapped around her waist. Ji Zhaoxi's body stiffened.
"Who is much better?" Xie Qingyan pulled Ji Zhaoxi into his arms, burying his face in her shoulder.
"Nothing," Ji Zhaoxi said in a muffled voice.
Xie Qingyan glanced at the book in her hands, a hint of a smile flashing in his eyes.
"Miss Ji can use these methods on me."
Under his gaze, Ji Zhaoxi's ears grew redder. "Daoist Xie, why do I feel like you are becoming more and more..."
"More and more what?"
Ji Zhaoxi didn't say a word. Xie Qingyan stopped teasing her, afraid of truly annoying her.
He gently squeezed her hand. "Did that cat in the courtyard pay attention to Miss Ji today?"
Ji Zhaoxi's eyes lit up. "It did! It was finally willing to come near me."
"Daoist Xie, you don't know how scared of me it was before. It would puff up the moment it saw me, but now it's willing to be close to me."
"I even fed it something to eat. Let's go find it together tomorrow, okay..."
The wind blew gently outside. The parrot ghost stood on a tree branch, rolling its eyes speechlessly at the scene inside the room.
Did this village ghost know what she was doing? These Daoists were the worst. When she gets deceived, she'll know she was wrong!
It sat mournfully on the branch, thinking back to the days when it lived in a cage and its master treated it so well.
But now it was a lonely, single bird without even a place to live.
That night, the disciples of the Taichu Sect finally tracked the aura of the fierce ghost and found its approximate location.
Zhi Xuan insisted on going together no matter what. In the end, under his strong demands, he went along, even though he still needed others to support him to walk.
"What's wrong with me being like this? If something happens, you guys don't need to worry about me!"
He had brought enough talisman papers, after all.
If anything really happened, he would run away immediately and absolutely wouldn't drag them down.
The late-night forest was extremely cold and gloomy, covered everywhere with rotting leaves. Black mist continuously seeped out from the cracks in the ground, and ghostly aura permeated every corner of the woods.
A sudden stench of rot came from deep within the forest. A misshapen shadow was twisting madly, its waxy skin loosely clinging to its skeleton. The ghostly aura attacked directly toward their vital spots.
"Evil creature! Die!"
Several Daoists immediately raised their swords and attacked the fierce ghost, bringing about gusts of howling wind. The other officials and soldiers had already set up talismans all around, guarding the edges of the formation.
The fierce ghost roared incessantly. It knocked their swords away and attacked them like a maniac.
Zhi Xuan hid behind a tree, endlessly throwing talisman papers toward the fierce ghost, but the talismans were torn apart one by one.
Zhi Xuan: ...
The other Daoists sat on the ground, closing their eyes to form an array. Several corpse-suppressing talismans were plastered all over its body. It let out a shrill roar and forcefully shattered the formation. The Daoists maintaining the array violently spat out mouthfuls of blood.
Xie Qingyan furrowed his brows tightly. He held a jade talisman between his fingers. The fierce ghost roared continuously and lunged straight at Xie Qingyan's face. Xie Qingyan immediately met the attack, the jade talisman striking right into the fierce ghost's heart.
"Bang—"
A blast of putrid airflow violently struck toward Xie Qingyan, and the sword in his hand vibrated incessantly.
Enduring the intense pain in its body, the fierce ghost tightly entangled Xie Qingyan. The two exchanged an unknown number of blows in mid-air, and the surrounding ancient trees fell in swaths.
The fierce ghost's stamina was finally exhausted. Just as it planned to self-destruct to break out, Xie Qingyan pierced through its entire body with his sword. Before it even had time to let out a wail, it was burned into a pillar of fire.
The other Daoists finally hurried over, panting heavily.
Black blood from the fierce ghost still remained on Xie Qingyan's face. His silhouette was extremely distorted in the firelight, and his body was shrouded in an un-dissipating ghostly aura.
The other Daoists were stunned for a moment. This ghostly aura should belong to the fierce ghost from just now, right...
However, wasn't that fierce ghost already dead?
"Eldest Senior Brother, you're injured!"
"Eldest Senior Brother!"
Everyone surged forward.
The moon in the sky emitted a pale white light. The courtyard was very quiet; only the sound of footsteps stepping on the bluestone slabs could be heard.
"Daoist Xie!"
Seeing Ji Zhaoxi, the disciples beside him silently stepped aside a bit.
"How did you get hurt so badly?" Ji Zhaoxi looked at the wound on his arm, her eyes instantly turning red.
Zhi Xuan also limped over to look from the side. He hadn't said a word since just now. Why did this wound look so strange? The wound was real, alright, but the angle of it looked completely off no matter how he looked at it.
Xie Qingyan leaned against the bed with a pale face, tightly grasping Ji Zhaoxi's hand. "Miss Ji, there is no need to worry. It's just a minor injury."
Zhi Xuan frowned and wanted to lean in for a closer look. When he looked up, he met Xie Qingyan's gentle gaze.
"Junior Brother, is there a problem with my wound?"
Ji Zhaoxi also looked at him eagerly.
Zhi Xuan smiled awkwardly. "No problem, no problem at all."
The other disciples all left, leaving only Ji Zhaoxi in the room. Her voice carried a hint of a sob, and Xie Qingyan softly comforted her.
Zhi Xuan couldn't resist taking a peek.
Miss Ji's eyes were all red, and she looked so pitiful when she cried. His senior brother lowered his head to comfort Miss Ji, gently stroking her back, but his eyes carried a trace of morbid tenderness.
Zhi Xuan choked up.
Miss Ji was truly done for. She was going to be completely devoured by his eldest senior brother for the rest of her life.
He had felt at the time that it was impossible for his eldest senior brother to get injured in that situation. The fierce ghost had been planning to flee. When it was over and he saw such a large wound on his eldest senior brother's arm, he had been dumbfounded.
