Chapter 39: Punishing Spirits
"There's still a villager who hasn't died, right over here!" another disciple called out.
"Where?" Everyone looked over.
A man was lying in a pool of blood, his chest pierced through by a blade. Peck wounds littered his body; his flesh was raw and bloody in more patches than not. Though grievously wounded, he was indeed still alive.
"We can't do anything! He's too badly wounded."
"We'd need a rejuvenation pill from the sect to save him, but it costs three thousand taels of gold per pill! We don't have any on hand."
"We won't be able to save him without such a pill..."
The senior disciples looked at each other in regret.
"Senior Brothers, do any of you cultivate wood-attuned qi?" Xiao Nanfeng asked after inspecting the wounded body.
"Wood-attuned qi? I do," one senior disciple volunteered.
"Quick, channel your qi into the arteries and veins by his heart!" Xiao Nanfeng instructed.
"What?" The senior disciple looked toward Xiao Nanfeng, perplexed.
"Haven't you read Song of Rejuvenation from the Vault of Scriptures? Aren't you aware of how to emulate the properties of a rejuvenation pill when you don't have one?" Xiao Nanfeng shouted.
"I—" The senior disciple didn't know how to respond. How would I know? There are so many scriptures in the vault, and each one gives me a headache when I try to read through them! It's not even related to cultivation, and I'm no pillmaster, so why would I know about this?!
"Hurry up!" Xiao Nanfeng urged.
"Ah, yes!" The senior disciple stepped forward and channeled wood-attuned qi into the villager's heart.
"Who cultivates water-attuned qi?" Xiao Nanfeng turned back to the gathered disciples.
"Me!"
"Me too!"
"The four of you, grab hold of the villager's four limbs and prepare to channel your qi into it on my command. Infuse it starting from his extremities, his limbs, and then toward the rest of his body following his arteries and veins. Help him break up any qi or blood clots in his body. Don't do it just yet—wait until I say so," Xiao Nanfeng instructed.
"Understood!" the four disciples replied.
"Senior Sister Yu'er, you've already developed spiritual power. Please use that power to guard his head," Xiao Nanfeng instructed Yu'er, who had just rushed over.
"Got it!" Yu'er stepped forward curiously.
"We can start now. Wood qi to protect his heart, spiritual power to protect his head, water qi throughout his body to rejuvenate and revitalize him. Everyone, start channeling now!" Xiao Nanfeng instructed.
As the disciples channeled qi into the man's body, he trembled violently. Large amounts of clotted blood poured from his wounds.
"His heart rate's increasing, and his heartbeats are strengthening! His vitality is improving!"
"Remarkable! This is precisely the effect of a rejuvenation pill! Now that all the clotted blood has been removed from his body, his wounds can scab over."
"His leg just twitched! Is he coming to his senses?"
"Song of Rejuvenation? Junior Brother, just how did you come across such a scripture?"
The man's miraculous recovery shocked everyone.
"You're channeling too much qi! Weaken the flow. And you, do you not have enough qi? Can someone replace this disciple?" Xiao Nanfeng instructed, his entire focus on the wounded villager.
"Let me take over!"
"I'll follow your orders, Junior Brother."
"Ah, this villager's eyelashes twitched! He's about to awaken!"
As the disciples channeled qi following Xiao Nanfeng's command, the villager really did seem to come back to life. He widened his eyes and stared blearily at the disciples all around.
"Don't worry, we're disciples from the Taiqing Immortal Sect! We passed by this village and saved you," Xiao Nanfeng explained.
The villager seemed stunned for long moments before suddenly recalling something. He began to panic. "The crow troops, the crow troops are coming! They're here for my fifth uncle. Quick, you have to let my fifth uncle know to run!"
"The crow troops?" The disciples hadn't heard of the term before.
"The crow troops are the elite forces of Marquis Wu. Allegedly, there are even quite a number of Immanence-realm cultivators among the troops! It's famous within the Tianshu Empire," Yu'er explained.
"Please, I beg you, inform my fifth uncle! His name is Zheng Qian, and he's visiting a friend at Dawangzhuang," the villager begged.
"We don't know of this Dawangzhuang," a senior disciple replied, frowning.
"Ah? In that case, what can I, I—" The villager still seemed rather disoriented.
"His emotions are fluctuating wildly. The equilibrium of his body has been disturbed. Continue the treatment. If anyone starts to flag, replace that person with a fresh disciple," Xiao Nanfeng instructed.
"Got it!"
"Junior Brother Nanfeng, there's another survivor here! Please have a look. How should we treat him?" another senior disciple bellowed from afar.
Xiao Nanfeng immediately walked over, surrounded by a group of senior disciples. He had quickly become the heart of the group.
From afar, Ye Dafu could no longer bear to watch Xiao Nanfeng commanding everyone. He rushed toward a hill in the distance, where Ye Sanshui was facing off against the Ascension-realm golden crow spirit.
Sword and flame clashed in explosion after explosion, causing rubble and clouds of dust to rise up. Many of the golden crow spirit's feathers had fallen out, and sword wounds riddled its body. Ye Sanshui's robes were charred, and he was rather badly burned in some areas.
"Third Uncle, if you don't hurry up and finish off the golden crow spirit, you'll have lost your leadership in this expedition! Nanfeng's about to seize your authority!" Ye Dafu cried out.
"Shut up! Call some disciples over to assist me!" Ye Sanshui howled back.
"I won't be able to! Everyone's listening to Nanfeng's orders and helping to rescue the villagers! Third Uncle, you need to think of something!" Ye Dafu urged.
Ye Sanshui froze. Just what had happened while he was fighting the golden crow spirit? Xiao Nanfeng in command? An Acquisition-realm cultivator?
Just then, the gold crow spirit spat out a huge fireball.
"No!" Ye Sanshui cried out.
The huge fireball overwhelmed Ye Sanshui. The golden crow spirit took the opportunity to fly away toward the village.
However, it had just discovered something amiss. While it had been distracted and wounded by this upstart human, its flock of crow spirits had almost all been killed! What had happened?!
As it flew toward the village, the remaining crow spirits were all calling out to their leader, telling the golden crow that the human at fault was none other than that youth who was, even now, busy directing the other senior disciples around. It was he who had killed the majority of the crows!
The golden crow spirit instantly grew furious. It spread its wings and almost immediately landed by the village.
"Be careful! The golden crow spirit is here!" the disciples shouted.
The golden crow spat out a huge fireball. It exploded in the middle of a group of disciples, sending them flying as they tried to rush toward shelter.
"Be careful, Nanfeng!" Yu'er cried out.
However, it was already too late. The golden crow's sharp claws grabbed onto Xiao Nanfeng's shoulder. With a flap of its wings, it soared into the sky. The rest of the crow spirits all followed behind their leader.
"Ye Sanshui, rescue Nanfeng with your flying sword!" Yu'er howled.
"Senior Brother Ye, why aren't you making a move? Use your flying sword!" a group of disciples urged.
"I just fought off the golden crow spirit, and I've consumed too much of my reserves. I'm unable to chase after it at the moment," Ye Sanshui explained.
"Ye Sanshui! Didn't Nanfeng task you with stalling the golden crow spirit? How could you have allowed it to launch a sneak attack on Nanfeng? This was intentional, wasn't it?!" Yu'er cried out anxiously.
"How could you do something like this, Senior Brother Ye?"
"How could you scheme against Junior Brother Nanfeng, Senior Brother Ye?"
The majority of the disciples present began to criticize Ye Sanshui, who didn't know what to say. He had fought the golden crow to a standstill, and he was all out of stamina!
Furthermore, everyone was criticizing him openly. Did they not acknowledge his leadership?
"We need to chase after it!" Yu'er cried out, dashing off into the distance.
"Come, we have to go rescue Junior Brother Nanfeng!" A group of disciples followed suit.
"Ye Sanshui, if anything happens to Nanfeng, you'd better watch out!" Yu'er roared before charging off.
"Count me in. If anything happens to Junior Brother Nanfeng, we'll report Ye Sanshui to the sect!"
"Me too, me too!"
A majority of Taiqing disciples followed after Yu'er, leaving Ye Sanshui stupefied. What had happened? Why had all the junior disciples gone mad? Had he done something wrong?
Ye Dafu was astounded. Had Nanfeng really managed to oust his third uncle from his leadership position in so short a period of time?
"What are all of you waiting for? Leave a few of you behind to rescue the villagers. The rest of you, give chase!" Ye Sanshui called out sullenly.
"Understood!" the remaining disciples chorused.
Ye Sanshui hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth, ignoring his injuries, and charging forward in the direction of the golden crow spirit. What's the matter today? Why am I so unlucky?
Meanwhile, the golden crow's claws had pierced through Xiao Nanfeng's shoulder and carried him off past a few mountains, until he vanished from everyone else's sight.
The golden crow was rather badly injured, but it was still able to suppress Xiao Nanfeng's qi with its spiritual energy. For some reason, it chose not to kill Xiao Nanfeng; instead, it seemed to be taking him to a certain location.
Xiao Nanfeng didn't despair. He grabbed the remaining half of the purpleveil poison orb that he still possessed.
Though his qi was suppressed, Xiao Nanfeng still had access to his spiritual power, which he infused into the orb.
"Last time, I used the Art of Divine Fishing to fish up a golden eel. If I use the same method on the golden crow, surely the result would be similar?" Xiao Nanfeng thought to himself.
He infused spiritual power into the poisonous orb, which began to glow with blue light as it induced greed in those around it.
The golden crow's eyes seemed to catch a flash of light. It looked down to see a... pill glowing in blue?
The golden crow 'recognized' the pill immediately. It was a panacea for spiritbeasts. Not only would it be able to heal all its wounds in one fell swoop, it would even advance its cultivation by a significant margin! This was a pill it had dreamt of obtaining.
The golden crow trembled in agitation. Under the hypnotic effect of Xiao Nanfeng's spiritual power, the golden crow's greed was magnified many times over. It had made up its mind to consume this pill.
Xiao Nanfeng hurled the orb behind him as far as he could. Struck by the hypnosis, the golden crow thought that he was trying to ensure that it wouldn't be able to eat it. It made a sharp turn, then caught the pill in its mouth and swallowed it whole.
"As expected, beasts are beasts. Humans have far stronger willpower," Xiao Nanfeng commented disdainfully.
As the golden crow swallowed the pill, it began to release clouds of toxic poison, which instantly filled the crow's body. Only then did it discover that something was amiss.
The golden crow desperately tried to vomit up what it had swallowed, but the poison had already diffused into its body. As the poison took effect, it suddenly felt as though the world were spinning.
It barely stabilized itself and began desperately trying to expel the poison from its body, inadvertently freeing Xiao Nanfeng from its control and suppression.
Xiao Nanfeng took the opportunity to struggle free from the crow's claws. With a quick tug, he climbed all the way to the golden crow's head, then took out a dagger from his sleeve. He thrust the dagger straight into the golden crow's brain.
The golden crow shrieked in agony. It had been heavily wounded, poisoned, and now stabbed in the head. It offered up no resistance; a crow spirit, so strong as to already have congealed an inner core, perished ignobly in Xiao Nanfeng's hands.
The golden crow's body and Xiao Nanfeng fell swiftly toward the forests below…
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