Chapter 222: The Poisonous Dance

The punch, delivered almost instinctively, channeled the inherent power of my Tai Chi training. It wasn’t so much a fist striking out as it was my hand lashing forward like a whip, producing a resounding crack.

SMACK!

The charred corpse took the full impact squarely in the chest, shrieking as it was sent flying. My immense physical strength, coupled with the concentrated force of the punch, had sent it sprawling.

I instantly retracted my hand, furiously shaking my palm. “Hiss! It’s scalding!”

The creature’s entire body was wreathed in flames. With a single punch, my hand had been seared; had it not been for the protective glow, I would have undoubtedly suffered severe burns.

Furthermore, without a spiritual artifact, I couldn’t even hit these intangible smoke ghosts. Xushan, on the other side, possessed only a single cursed artifact.

Without the protection of spiritual light, he kicked a smoke ghost, only to find his leg pass right through it, causing him to be tackled by the entity.

Yet, he remained unfazed. He swiftly swung his red high-heeled shoe, flicking several drops of blood onto the smoke ghost. The creature reacted as if splashed with sulfuric acid, immediately writhing on the ground and howling incessantly.

It frantically tried to shed the smoke from its body, attempting to wipe away the drops of blood. However, the crimson stain only spread further across its form, like a virulent poison.

Soon, the malevolent ghost began to convulse, quickly becoming breathless and on the verge of collapse.

“Brother Xu! Quickly summon the deity! I’m struggling a bit over here!” Jia Cheng cried out.

He aimed his camera at the charred corpse smoke ghosts before him, snapping several photos. But it seemed there were too many evil spirits present; each shot had a limit to the malevolent energy it could absorb.

The photos served no purpose beyond momentarily halting the evil spirits’ advance.

“Alright! Hold them off; I’ll be there immediately,” Xushan declared. He struck a pose, surprisingly beginning to dance on the spot, his legs moving in intricate steps.

I had no idea what he intended to do, so I could only continue to hold my ground. Evil spirits surged from every room, pouring in from all directions. We had no choice but to split up, each defending a different approach.

I had previously heard Bai Yue mention her fondness for zombie-slaying games. Although, in the formal classification of the spiritual world, these creatures should technically be called ‘ghouls,’ Bai Yue had even recommended several videos to me.

The current scene vividly brought to mind the images of ghouls besieging humans that I had seen on a computer screen. These charred corpse smoke ghosts were fearless, devoid of reason, and relentlessly lunged at the living, intent only on our demise.

While the ghouls in games and films were often depicted with plenty of gore and grotesque features, they still appeared almost ‘clean-cut’ compared to the charred corpses before me, whose entire faces had been burned beyond recognition by flames.

Their terrifying appearance, the pungent smell of burning, and their constant, piercing wails assaulted my senses, subjecting me to immense psychological pressure. Simply battling them was an enormous strain.

Bai Yue’s Gu worms also struggled to operate due to the pervasive smoke and flames. Aside from a few Fifth-Grade Gu worms, even Fourth-Grade ones remained vulnerable to smoke and fire, especially the kind generated by intense resentment, preventing them from getting close.

However, Bai Yue was resourceful. Gu poison, Gu poison—the notoriety of Gu worms largely stemmed from their venomous capabilities. Seeing that her Gu worms couldn’t approach directly, Bai Yue immediately commanded them to unleash a toxic mist.

These toxic mists were the accumulated poisons within the Gu worms’ bodies, formed from consuming negative energies like ghosts, corpses, malevolent aura, and resentment. Each type of Gu worm produced a mist of a different color.

The properties of the poisons also varied: chilling poison, corpse poison, fiery poison, and more. When these colorful mists intertwined, I could smell a greasy, nauseating odor from afar; even a slight whiff made me dizzy.

At that moment, the Golden Bee Gu stung me again. Though painful, the dizziness immediately subsided. It seemed the Golden Bee Gu could also detoxify, though I wasn’t sure if this was a Fourth-Grade ability or something gained upon reaching Fifth Grade.

For a similar reason, Xiao Qing was also unaffected. She was currently flinging printed talismans and spiritual water at the charred smoke ghosts before her. It was clear she was terrified, constantly screaming, “Don’t come any closer! Stay away from me!”

However, the primary offense didn’t come from Xiao Qing, but from the Jade Gecko perched on her shoulder, greedily inhaling. The Jade Gecko had absorbed more than half of the malevolent energy and thick smoke from the evil spirits in front of her, allowing her printed talismans and diluted spiritual water to have some effect.

Even the toxic mist sprayed by the Gu worms, as it drifted near Xiao Qing, was effortlessly sucked away by the Jade Gecko, making detoxification seem even easier than my own.

“Go protect Xiao Qing!” I commanded the Golden Bee Gu. Although I felt anxious, the Iron Thread Gu was formidable.

It was impervious to flames, relentlessly striking down the evil spirits that rushed toward me, allowing me to divert my attention to others. Having ascended to Fifth Grade, it now possessed offensive capabilities.

Unlike its Fourth-Grade state where it would perish after a single attack, it could even launch long-range assaults. The Golden Bee Gu flew around Xiao Qing, continuously shooting venomous needles from its tail.

These needles seemed to inflict excruciating pain on the evil spirits, causing them to writhe on the ground in agony and deterring them from approaching Xiao Qing. Furthermore, because the Golden Bee Gu was tiny, others didn’t even notice it assisting Xiao Qing, including Xiao Qing herself.

If they had any spare attention, they were likely captivated by Bai Yue’s vibrant, multi-colored toxic mist.

“Yue’er! Don’t release poison in such a confined space!” Mo Qingyan shouted, covering her mouth and nose as she swayed two steps away from the toxic cloud.

Even she couldn’t tolerate the Gu poison, despite it being just a wisp of mist drifting nearby.

“It’s fine, I can control it,” Bai Yue stated calmly. With a wave of her hand, the colorful toxic cloud drifted toward the area with the most charred corpse smoke ghosts, quickly enveloping them. What kind of smoke screen tactic was this?

The seven or eight charred corpse smoke ghosts were indeed halted by the toxic mist, and even the door was sealed by the toxic cloud. This toxic cloud was certainly potent, but it also risked harming allies.

While Mo Qingyan was alright, Jia Cheng, already physically weak, became dizzy and collapsed to the ground. “Jia Cheng!” Mo Qingyan used her red pencil to draw a crimson line on the ground before her, separating herself from the charred corpse smoke ghosts.

The evil spirits clawed and bared their fangs, but they couldn’t cross the boundary. Then, Mo Qingyan raised her red pencil and pointed it at the charred corpse smoke ghosts surrounding Jia Cheng, employing the Malevolent Yin Finger technique she had taught us.

Streaks of black and red light shot towards them; each hit left a hollow in the charred corpse smoke ghosts. Even the ethereal bodies of the smoke ghosts couldn’t withstand the Malevolent Yin Finger.

Although two or three Malevolent Yin Finger strikes weren’t enough to kill the charred corpse smoke ghosts, they were sufficient to cover Jia Cheng. Mo Qingyan then gathered malevolent energy into a demonic claw, sweeping the charred corpse smoke ghosts away.

It seemed the poison didn’t affect her output. Just as we were all teetering on the brink, Xushan finally shouted, “I’m ready!”

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