Tang Zixian said with a smile, “I thought you would pour me a gla.s.s of plain water. I'm not a good drinker. It will affect my work.” After she said that, she put the wine gla.s.s on the tea table.

Bai Sheng asked casually, “Why did you come alone?”

Tang Zixian answered, “A colleague of mine had been held up. He will bring a camera later. Let me call to hurry him.” She took out her cell phone and called.

Bai Sheng sat on the sofa, sipping a small mouthful of whiskey. His eyes s.h.i.+fted to outside the large French window, as he gazed at the sky covered by dark clouds. The weather had changed so suddenly. Was it going to rain?

The line went through. Tang Zixian said, “Come here quickly. Mr. Bai's time is very precious. Don't make him wait.”

With these words, Tang Zixian hung up the phone.

Bai Sheng retracted his gaze from outside the window. He looked at Tang Zixian. “Your colleague speaks Mandarin too?”

Tang Zixian nodded. “Yes. This time, I specially engaged a Chinese American as my a.s.sistant. His Mandarin is not bad, so it's easy for us to communicate. By the way, he's called Xiaow.a.n.g.” As she spoke, she glanced subconsciously at her laptop on the tea table.

“What's his full name?” Bai Sheng asked again.

Tang Zixian answered, “His full name is w.a.n.g Ziqiang. He's a very young man.”

Bai Sheng suddenly reached out and grabbed the laptop.

Tang Zixian vigorously threw herself backward on the sofa. The whole sofa immediately toppled backwards.

Swoos.h.!.+

The convenient door suddenly appeared on the tea table, as dark as ink. Bai Sheng retracted his hand in panic. His hand had nearly reached into the convenient door. He had seen this door before and knew the absolute terror behind it. Cold sweat broke out on his palms and his forehead. But at the same moment, he launched himself on his toes and his entire body soared out like a dispatched arrow to the wall.

A human figure whizzed out from the convenient door. He, too, launched himself on his toes and streaked headlong to the wall.

Ning Tao had arrived.

Tang Zixian leaped up from behind the sofa, following Ning Tao's lead, das.h.i.+ng headlong towards the wall. As her body soared forward like a fired missile, the bones and tendons in her body cracked. A paper talisman dropped out from her hand, caught fire with a crackle, and incinerated without turning into ashes.

One after the other, Ning Tao and Tang Zixian dashed into the wall.

A leaden sky and the bloodstained earth, as well as an imposing sacrificial altar. The Soul-devouring Urn stood high on the altar. Under it was the technological magic tool, shaped like a ball, together with the Silvermoon Cherry which resembled a root sculpture.

The scene greeting Tang Zixian made her tense and her expression solemn.

But Ning Tao remained very calm. No one could see any emotional fluctuations on his face. He had put on his menacing face and his eyes were so cold that they were terrifying.

“So you haven't died!” Bai Sheng was on the uppermost step of the sacrificial altar, gazing down on Ning Tao who had come in pursuit. The expression in his eyes showed his astonishment and rage.

Ning Tao did not utter a single word. He threw the haversack to Tang Zixian.

Tang Zixian stretched out her arms and caught it. She took out the Demon-slaying Bowl from the haversack.

“If you aren't dead, my two daughters must be alive too! Where are they?” Bai Sheng asked. His emotions seemed to have stabilized a little.

Only now did Ning Tao speak. “Of course they must be around to kill you! Don't worry, you will see them when you die.”

“Kill me? Here?” Bai Sheng suddenly raised his head and burst out in maniacal laughter. “Hahaha…”

Ning Tao's hand drew out something from his back waist. With a flourish, the refined Mauser pistol appeared in his hand. He immediately stretched out his right arm and aimed the muzzle of his refined Mauser pistol at Bai Sheng. He did not hesitate, pulling the trigger directly.

If this had been a movie, the two of them would engage in a long dialogue. But this was the real world. Nothing that could be resolved with a firearm would be resolved by words.

Pfft!

A noise like the striking of a match resounded from the refined Mauser pistol. A refined bullet soared out of the muzzle. In the air, there was suddenly an intermingling black-and-white trail, barely discernible, streaking with the speed of lightning!

But this barely discernible bullet track curved after traveling a straight line, swerved past the Soul-devouring Urn on the altar, and headed for its behind.

Poof!

It was not the sound of an explosion, but the dull thud of something hitting a Zodiac stone tower. A bullet hole the size of a ball appeared. The structure around the hole almost disintegrated. Cracks soon spread outwards to the rest of the stone tower. It took only two seconds for the stone structure around the hole to crumble. The tower shook, then collapsed with a loud crash.

This bizarre s.p.a.ce suddenly tore open, like a scenery backdrop slashed by a knife. A gleam of light appeared in the sky through the fissure. The entire bloodstained earth returned to what it really was— a desolate wasteland, full of weeds and brambles. It was really an uncultivated plot of land!

That shot had not only astonished Bai Sheng but Tang Zixian too.

Ning Tao's hand shook and he pulled the trigger again. Another refined bullet flew out. Almost instantaneously, a gunshot resounded like the striking of a match. Another crater as large as a ball appeared, taking up one-third the size of the second Zodiac stone tower. One second later, it too collapsed with a crash.

Nothing was left of the bullets. After hitting the Zodiac stone towers, the refined bullets had expanded, spinning at high speed. They opened out and destroyed the stone structures, expending themselves.

Another fissure appeared in the sky.

Since they cannot hit the Soul-devouring Urn, I will destroy your Zodiac stone towers instead!

“No—” Bai Sheng gave a furious bellow. He hit out a palm on the Soul-devouring Urn.

Buzz!

An eerie, greenish ghost fire immediately surged up from the sacrificial altar. The howls and sobbing of countless ghosts and ghouls resounded from inside the Soul-devouring Urn. Ten thousand spirits which had died aggrieved seemed to be housed in this urn. They were desperate to throw off the shackles, soar out and destroy everything!

“La ma ba li suo— go!” A roar followed the incantation recitation. Bai Sheng's expression was grotesque, his eyes hideously green and their expression malevolent.

The ghost fire on the sacrificial altar suddenly exploded with a loud boom. Sparks of those hideous green flames suddenly soared towards Ning Tao and Tang Zixian.

These sparks of ghost fire were not ordinary. The wailings and sobs of aggrieved spirits in the Soul-devouring Urn seemed to have turned them into real ghosts. They showed human faces, with large protruding eyes and wide open mouths full of sharp fangs. Their ghoulish faces were all surging forward, like malevolent spirits after Ning Tao and Tang Zixian's lives!

Tang Zixian pushed out the Demon-slaying Bowl and recited an incantation. Small vortexes instantly appeared inside the bowl. The flickering ghost flames soared into the bowl and soon disappeared.

But there were really too many ghost flames and faces. Although the Demon-slaying Bowl could subdue demons, it was overwhelmed by this swarm of aggrieved spirits!

A pistol can shoot someone dead. But if your enemies were swarming towards you like a rising tide, the Demon-slaying Bowl could not destroy them all, even if it had been a machine gun!

But at this moment, Ning Tao suddenly recited loudly, “I rest within the womb, listening to the sound of the Way!”

“Dong!”

The divine bell tolled, sonorous and reverberate.

This bell had tolled in his consciousness, but as he recited, energy emanated out in the form of sound waves in every direction. The first line of Your Text eliminated the ghost flames and faces wherever its sound touched.

Reciting the first line of Your Text quietly in the heart had a different effect from reciting it aloud. This was because reciting aloud would cause the divine bell to toll. And it worked only for the first line. If he had recited the second— “My parents left me at the moment of my birth”— the divine bell would not have tolled, and it would not be able to exorcize those filthy spirits. Then he could only sob. But right now, he would surely not recite the second line.

“What was that?” Bai Sheng's voice sounded malicious, but it could not hide the shock and anxiety in his heart.

Ning Tao's voice was cold. “A special incantation to deal with demons like you.”

Bai Sheng growled furiously, “There are no such incantations!”

Tang Zixian could not help but turn her eyes to Ning Tao. Some of the incantations she knew were Sanskrit incantations, others musical chants she invented herself. Still others were ancient incantations pa.s.sed down from the magic ancient age. But the incantation Ning Tao recited just now was in Mandarin. But there were no such incantations in existence!

“You're already at the brink of death. You shouldn't talk so much nonsense!” Ning Tao sprinted and dashed up the sacrificial altar.

On the sacrificial altar, Bai Sheng suddenly stretched out his arms and embraced the Soul-devouring Urn. He tried desperately to turn the urn upside down— its mouth facing down and its bottom up. With a loud crash, he dropped the urn onto the sacrificial altar.

Buzz!

The urn resounded. Cracks appeared on the sacrificial altar.

Bai Sheng leaped up high into the air. He struck out a palm at the urn bottom.

Buzz!

A powerful energy wave was suddenly released. The stone blocks of the sacrificial altar disintegrated, splintering like bullets towards Ning Tao and Tang Zixian.

Tang Zixian's figure whizzed, darting behind Ning Tao.

At that same moment, Ning Tao's body was. .h.i.t by a few hundred stone fragments. The larger ones were like bricks and the smaller like pebbles. Ning Tao was also thrown backwards, dropping down like a kite with a snapped string.

Tang Zixian firmly embraced Ning Tao's waist. “Are you alright?”

Ning Tao retched and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Boom!

The two of them crashed to the ground. Ning Tao had been the human s.h.i.+eld for Tang Zixian. Now, Tang Zixian became Ning Tao's latex mattress.

The blood-soaked earth started to tremble. Hands emerged from the dark reddish soil, followed by heads and bodies! Some of these heads were half missing, others had no arms. Some had no organ in their chest, only white ribs…

In an instant, innumerable walking zombies emerged in this bizarre s.p.a.ce.

Ning Tao clambered up from Tang Zixian's body. His foot kicked at a zombie about to hurl itself at him. The sensation felt like kicking a real human being. And that zombie did fly away, cras.h.i.+ng on a few other zombies and toppling them.

“Capture them!” Tang Zixian once again pushed the Demon-slaying Bowl out.

Instantly, a black fume seeped out from a zombie's body. The Demon-slaying Bowl absorbed the black fume, and the zombie collapsed.

The bowl was functioning well.

But how long would it take to absorb them all, one by one?

Ning Tao's eyes suddenly s.h.i.+fted to the face of a zombie. He gave a surprised start. It was a familiar face— the deaf mute student he had failed to save that day. He saw her die, completely incinerated. So why had she emerged from the ground again?

In the twinkling of an eye, Tang Zixian had captured many zombies. But still the rest swarmed in from all directions. All around them were wails of ghosts and howls of wolves. There was also the revolting stench of rotting corpses in the air.

“Don't you want to kill me? Come then!” It was Bai Sheng's voice. He sounded so confident of victory.

Ning Tao recited aloud, “I rest within the womb, listening to the sound of the Way!”