Chapter 178: Let’s Play A Game First
Ren Yaozhe stared intently at Xuan Xia for a moment, then laughed again, his laughter mocking: “Deliverance for me? An obscure junior relying on the elders’ lingering prestige, how arrogant.”
Xuan Xia frowned; this person’s words were really unpleasant.
“Lingering prestige?”
Forget it, no way to argue this.
But, “arrogant?”
Xuan Xia laughed in anger.
“Why don’t you think it over again, who is the truly arrogant one?”
If he hadn’t buried a bell in the pond to harm her, could she have followed the clues step by step to find him?
He was clearly the evildoer, yet he dared to strike first and complain, so Xuan Xia could only give him the three words “shameless.”
Ren Yaozhe snorted coldly, “All along from Jiangshi, Miaoxiang, to Yanjing, it was you repeatedly ruining my plans, right?”
“All along from Ningzhou, Jiangshi, to Miaoxiang, Yanjing, repeatedly not wanting me to succeed, always haunting like a ghost—that’s you, right!”
Ren Yaozhe clearly wasn’t good at arguing; after Xuan Xia retorted, his face immediately darkened, or perhaps he thought of something else, and he swung the thin stick in his hand forcefully.
“No matter how sharp your tongue is, I hope your skills match that mouth of yours.”
With that, he swung the thin stick in his hand again, quickly chanting from his mouth: “Heaven opens and earth spreads, with my spirit communion, summon heaven’s respect, seize earth’s welcome, what is called arrives, what is summoned stands before, what is withered revives, what is extinguished is reborn!”
The bell rang ding-ding-ding nonstop; as Ren Yaozhe chanted the spell, the entire Daoist Temple suddenly overlaid with a phantom image, and then fog suddenly began to rise.
In just a moment, the fog grew so thick it completely obscured Ren Yaozhe.
“Be careful.” Daoist Master Qin warned.
It wasn’t clear who Daoist Master Qin was warning, but both Xuan Xia and Yan Wentao responded.
Xuan Xia had already witnessed the sudden fog at Auntie Feng’s house before, so she wasn’t panicked now.
However, without talismans on her, she felt a bit at a loss.
Immediately after, Daoist Master Qin lowered his gaze halfway and began chanting an incantation.
The incantation he chanted was specifically for dispelling evil energy.
While Daoist Master Qin chanted the incantation, Xuan Xia and Yan Wentao guarded on either side; Xuan Xia was on guard against Ren Yaozhe possibly launching a surprise attack while the fog hadn’t dispersed, while Yan Wentao stayed alert for the fierce ghosts that hadn’t been subdued.
Daoist Master Qin quickly finished chanting the incantation, but when he looked up, it had no effect.
The fog only grew thicker.
Daoist Master Qin couldn’t help but furrow his brows tightly.
Ren Yaozhe’s triumphant laughter came from the fog: “Don’t waste your effort; you can’t break it.”
Xuan Xia felt very displeased hearing this.
Yan Wentao also found Ren Yaozhe’s arrogance extremely irritating, so he simply formed a hand seal and tried chanting a spell to drive away evil.
The result was the same as Daoist Master Qin’s incantation—it failed.
“Looks like this guy came prepared.” Yan Wentao said.
Before their own side could agree with him, Ren Yaozhe, hidden in the fog, chimed in first: “I know Daoist Master Qin’s skills and methods are formidable, so naturally I came fully prepared.” With that, he laughed.
This laughter was even more infuriating than before.
After laughing a few times, he continued: “It’s such a rare good day today; how about we play something different? Ah, it seems I still have some things in your hands, right? Perfect then.”
Xuan Xia tensed up, knowing the things Ren Yaozhe mentioned were those bells from before.
She instinctively looked at Daoist Master Qin beside her; she only knew he had said the bells wouldn’t dare act up in Lingguan Hall, but whether those bells could still cause trouble now, she didn’t know.
Just as she thought this, a string of shrill hee-hee laughter suddenly came from the fog.
Daoist Master Qin and Yan Wentao might not have heard this sound before, but Xuan Xia instantly made the connection.
“Come play with me.” After the hee-hee laughter came this sentence.
This immediately confirmed Xuan Xia’s judgment.
Now it was Xuan Xia warning the two: “Be careful; this is the bell from Miaoxiang, wearing the Nuoxi Master Ghost Mask.”
No sooner had she spoken than Xuan Xia caught a black shadow appearing at Yan Wentao’s side in her peripheral vision.
Fortunately, Yan Wentao was on high alert; almost as soon as it approached, he reacted, formed a hand seal, and chanted from his mouth: “Heaven and earth natural, foul energy disperses.”
At the same time, Yan Wentao saw clearly that the ghost that lunged out was indeed wearing a Nuoxi Master Ghost Mask.
But unfortunately, Yan Wentao’s incantation didn’t harm the ghost wearing the Nuoxi Master Ghost Mask.
The Nuoxi Master in the ghost mask instantly vanished into the thick fog, still emitting “hee-hee” laughter, as if mocking Yan Wentao for failing to hurt it.
Mixed in with the laughter of the Nuoxi Master in the ghost mask was also Ren Yaozhe’s bell sound.
Ding-ding, like surround sound, making it impossible to tell where it was coming from.
Yan Wentao remained vigilant and asked Xuan Xia: “What is that? So fast.”
Xuan Xia said: “I don’t know what it is either; I only know that Nuoxi Master Ghost Mask grabs people very painfully.”
Before, it had grabbed a young guy like Zhou Shiqing right into the hospital.
Although Yan Wentao was different from Zhou Shiqing, Xuan Xia still thought it best to warn him.
Upon hearing this, Yan Wentao repeatedly said: “My mistake; I should’ve grabbed some magic tools when I came down.”
Who hadn’t miscalculated?
Xuan Xia thought to herself that if she’d known it would turn into this situation, she definitely would’ve stuffed all her talismans in her pockets beforehand.
Now Daoist Master Qin was the quietest, not saying a word.
Xuan Xia and Yan Wentao couldn’t help glancing at him.
They saw Daoist Master Qin staring into the fog ahead, lost in thought.
Yan Wentao still had to guard against the ghost mask Nuoxi Master lunging again and couldn’t afford to be too distracted, so Xuan Xia spoke up: “Daoist Master Qin, what’s wrong?”
Daoist Master Qin suddenly said: “I got it wrong.”
Xuan Xia asked: “What did you get wrong?”
Daoist Master Qin said: “This fog isn’t sorcery; it’s caused by a formation.”
“A formation?”
Xuan Xia’s knowledge of formations was limited to the demon-breaking formation that Qu Xingxuan had set up.
But with Daoist Master Qin saying this, she felt it very likely; after Qu Xingxuan’s formation activated, raging winds had swept through, similar in effect to the fog now rising everywhere.
“Smart.” Ren Yaozhe’s voice rang out. “These past few years, I’ve heard Daoist Master Qin’s name more than once; they all say he appeared out of nowhere and is formidable.”
“I was skeptical at first, but now I’ve seen it; to discern it in such a short time—turns out the rumors are true.”
“So, Daoist Master Qin, why not guess where the formation eye is and how you’ll break the formation?”
Ren Yaozhe laughed again, his laughter full of complete confidence in his own formation.
Thus, Ren Yaozhe eagerly said: “But before starting to find the formation eye, how about playing a game first?”
This was already the second time Ren Yaozhe mentioned the so-called “game,” and no one knew what his game really was.
But no matter what game it was, it definitely wasn’t anything good!
