Chapter 43: Clash of Arts

"All right, you two cast your spells as you see fit, and I'll back you up," I said with a smile, though inwardly feeling rather helpless. I was hoping it would just be backup; if Xijun were truly forced to act, her soul urn might shatter. A shattered urn means the destruction of the soul, much like the one in Grandma's wooden box.

Right now, I felt as though I were walking a tightrope, terrified that something might go wrong.

"Haha, fine. Little Brother Xia, make sure you don't make a move this time. You've got to let me show off my skills a bit, or I'll really get upset with you!" Lin Feiyu laughed heartily, giving me a pat on the shoulder.

"Then just cover our flanks. Even if things get tough, you don't need to step in—just ensure Zhao Qian and Zhao Yi leave safely. Mystic world matters are settled by the mystic world; you're only half a man of the mystic sect, and the two of us old fellows aren't going to drag you into this deep water," Uncle Hai said, pulling a turtle shell about the size of a palm out of his backpack and rattling it with a sharp click-clack sound.

There seemed to be ancient copper coins rattling inside.

I nodded and looked at them both gratefully. It seemed they had noticed the shattering of the soul urn earlier and were giving me a graceful way out.

"Brother Hai, is this a fortune-telling hexagram? What does the reading say?" Lin Feiyu asked, pinching his chin and staring intently at the tortoise shell, completely unable to decipher it.

In the center of the turtle's shell markings were three grids representing Heaven, Earth, and Humanity—the Three Powers. Surrounding them were twenty-four grids representing the twenty-four mountains, along with ten grids representing the Ten Heavenly Stems. The bottom of the shell featured twelve grids representing the Twelve Earthly Branches. It contained the ultimate principles of heaven and earth, making it extraordinary.

That was the instrument of the Yin-Yang School. Jiang Ziya of the Western Zhou dynasty and Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms frequently used such devices. The profession of the Yin-Yang masters had already flourished after the Zhou dynasty and prior to the Qin dynasty. Later, it spread eastward to Japan to preach the Dao; the little Japanese nation learned just a superficial fraction of it, which could only be called Onmyodo.

However, now that the Yin-Yang tradition had been passed down to this era, its practitioners had withered away in talent, numbering as rarely as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Finding a master of Uncle Hai's caliber within the country was truly a difficult task.

Uncle Hai examined the hexagram, picked up the copper coins and the golden turtle, frowned as he looked up at the drizzly, overcast sky, and said, "It's passable. Let's go."

I furrowed my brow. When I first met Uncle Hai, his round face was usually flushed with a cheerful smile, completely different from the sinister and gloomy Lin Feiyu. But today, his expression mirrored Lin Feiyu's—so heavy and grim that it made it hard for me to breathe, a suffocating pressure.

"Hey, what do you mean by 'passable'? Brother Hai, this trip isn't going to be extremely dangerous, is it?" Lin Feiyu's pale face grew even paler with worry.

"Listen, Little Lin, if you're afraid of dying, you should leave right now. I won't stop you," Uncle Hai chuckled, glancing at the sky before pulling a live turtle out of his mountaineering pack. This turtle had the Eight Trigrams inscribed on its back, and it was much larger than the palm-sized one.

"An Eight Trigrams Tortoise? You even brought this thing out this time? Brother Hai, are you trying to risk your life?" Lin Feiyu sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

"Is Wu Zhenghua an ordinary person? When he sees the two of us walking together, won't he fight for his life? You've certainly heard of and witnessed that fellow's abilities. You should know who it was that stepped in to drive him away back then," Uncle Hai stroked the Eight Trigrams Tortoise, forming a strange hand seal, and muttered a few incantations. The tortoise extended its head and looked up at the sky.

The raindrops pelting its head caused it to struggle repeatedly.

Uncle Hai produced a needle, pricked the claw of the Eight Trigrams Tortoise, squeezed a bit of the tortoise's blood onto a paper figurine, and then returned the turtle to his mountaineering pack.

"Lend me a strand of your hair." With that done, Uncle Hai reached out and took the opportunity to pluck a strand of hair from my head, tying it securely to the dampened paper figurine.

A sharp pain shot through me, and though I had no idea what he was planning, I figured he wouldn't harm me, so I waited to see what he would do.

Without answering, Uncle Hai casually dropped the paper figurine onto the ground and continued walking forward.

Goddess Wife suddenly tugged at the corner of my clothes. I quickly looked left and right, but saw nothing, so I hurried to follow. Looking back, I saw the paper figurine getting farther and farther away behind us, prompting me to ask curiously, "Uncle Hai? What is this?"

"Don't look back, or you'll be blinded," Uncle Hai said without turning his head, quickly catching up to Zhao Yi who was leading the way. I had no choice but to quicken my pace to keep up.

Zhao Qian still looked quite curious, but upon hearing Uncle Hai's warning, she quickly averted her gaze.

Rumble!

With a tremendous crash of thunder, a bolt of lightning from behind struck directly onto the paper figurine, instantly reducing it to ashes!

Stunned with fright, my mouth dropped wide enough to swallow Uncle Hai's tortoise.

"Th-Thunder spell!" Lin Feiyu's body was chilled to the bone as he patted his chest, wearing an expression of profound relief.

"That was Mount Mao's Summoning Thunder spell. Did you see that?" Uncle Hai formed a hand seal, looking somewhat relieved. "Wu Zhenghua originally didn't intend to conflict with you directly, but the rain falling at midnight and the dark clouds covering the sky offered him the momentum of the heavens. So he decided to take a desperate gamble, setting up an altar to summon the Five Thunders to blast you to pieces."

"Haha, I get it now! Brother Hai, your earlier hexagram reading calculated that Little Brother Xia's life was in grave danger, so you brought out your sympathetic tortoise to absorb the living creature's energy, and then used Little Brother Xia's hair on a substitute paper figurine to draw down the lightning strike, right?" Lin Feiyu asked with a knowing look, though he only had a half-understanding of the Yin-Yang School's arts.

"No, the hexagram earlier actually calculated the fortunes of us two old fellows," Uncle Hai replied with a smile.

Lin Feiyu was instantly choked into silence, cold sweat mingling with the rainwater streaming down his face.

So this was fighting with magical arts? It was violently dangerous beyond belief! You could just summon lightning on a whim?

I couldn't even catch my breath; a bitter, howling yin wind swirled behind my back. Goddess Wife was probably furious right now.

"Little Brother Xia, think carefully. Did you leave anything behind that old bastard might have gotten his hands on? Like a strand of hair, or something you once used?" Lin Feiyu stared at me, pinching his chin in deep concern that another bolt of lightning might strike next.

If that happened, I wouldn't be the only one to die; since he was standing this close, all of us would be finished.

I thought about it and couldn't recall anything of mine falling into Wu Zhenghua's hands, so I shook my head. I was different from others—even the hair or skin flakes I shed since childhood never went unaccounted for. Goddess Wife always helped me clean up meticulously, leaving even my room spotless. It was impossible for anyone to have collected them, and Wu Zhenghua's method of tracking people certainly wouldn't start from that angle.

"Little Lin, asking this is useless. Old foxes like us don't necessarily need personal objects belonging to someone to perform sorcery. Though I don't know his specific method, he definitely isn't relying on life-tokens to search for him. Heh, look at the yin energy clinging to him—it's quite easy to track. Forget it, let's just go find that old bastard's ritual altar." Uncle Hai rubbed his palm and resumed casting his hexagrams.

"Uncle Hai, thank you so much. If it weren't for you, I probably would have been struck dead by lightning. This magical duel is truly fiercely perilous," I said, offering my heartfelt gratitude. In truth, relying on Goddess Wife's premonitions, I might have been able to dodge that bolt of lightning myself. However, given my past habit of frequently ignoring her warnings, there was no guarantee I wouldn't have been struck dead on the spot simply because I couldn't see the invisible danger.

Therefore, having Uncle Hai here was endlessly important.

"No need for thanks. You are Senior Zhou Xian's successor; I believe you would have had your own methods to evade that thunder spell anyway. I merely lent a hand along the way," Uncle Hai waved his hand dismissively and concentrated on his calculations.

I thought to myself that I had no methods whatsoever; the old man was just giving me a boost of face.

It seemed highly necessary for me to communicate well with Goddess Wife from now on; otherwise, if I ever had to fight someone alone in the future, I wouldn't even know how I died.

"Brother Tian, are you alright?" Zhao Qian asked with a worried look, noticing my pale complexion.

"I'm fine. That old scoundrel really does have some genuine skills," I said, though my entire body was radiating cold chills. At the time, I had only intended to rely on Xijun to fight Wu Zhenghua, which was indeed utterly naive.

Looking at the dense, rain-heavy dark clouds in the sky, even if that bolt of lightning hadn't struck me dead on the spot, who knew how many more bolts awaited us on the way to the altar? Furthermore, that old scoundrel also knew how to command ghosts; just the malicious spirits summoned in this rainy weather would be enough to give me a terrible headache.

Of course, if Uncle Hai and Uncle Wu hadn't been acting as our vanguard, given Xijun's current state, I wouldn't have braved the mountain looking for trouble for all the tea in China.

"Haha, now you know! Don't look down on us old fellows from now on; push us into a corner, and we can pull out any fatal trick in the book to deal with you," Lin Feiyu chuckled strangely, pinching his chin with an expression deeply proud of the elders' prowess.

"Understood. You old timers are truly the capable ones," I conceded defeat this time. These old foxes were indeed hiding their true depths, possessing incomparably rich experience in magical duels. Without caution, you truly wouldn't even know how you died.

Besides, even the police were helpless against lightning strikes. Could they arrest Wu Zhenghua on groundless charges of summoning lightning?

"The fun is just beginning. It should be at the summit, no mistake," Uncle Hai said, taking large strides toward the mountain peak.

Both Zhao Yi and Zhao Qian knew the path well, illuminating the narrow trail with a flashlight as they wound their way up the mountain.

The mountain path couldn't be called rugged, but it wasn't easy to walk either; the rain had made the mud slick, causing frequent slips.

Midway up the mountain, Uncle Hai began pulling paper figurines by the handful out of his mountaineering pack, tossing them down the slope. Though I didn't understand the reason, I figured he had his own motives and didn't press him with questions.

The closer we got to the summit, the heavier the yin energy became. I couldn't tell if the drop in temperature was simply due to approaching the peak, but the drizzle was blowing askew, creating an eerie atmosphere. Goddess Wife also began lightly tugging at my clothes again.

"Hey, Brother Hai, that old bastard seems to be making a move. Did you notice? The yin energy is getting this heavy, and the substitute paper dolls you threw down aren't working. Has he discovered something?" Lin Feiyu's brows knitted into a tight knot. He excelled in close combat, but when it came to the underhanded spiritual tricks employed by Uncle Hai and Wu Zhenghua, he was just as helpless as I was.

"It seems he's realized that the two of us are climbing the mountain. The yin energy has grown intensely heavy—is he trying to summon mountain ghosts?" Uncle Hai's expression turned stern.

"What?! Summoning mountain ghosts?" Lin Feiyu startled, instantly halting his steps. Seeing that Uncle Hai's expression was no joke, he hurriedly said, "Forget it, let's head back. We can't beat him—that old fellow is risking his life. Brother Hai, this weather plays right into his hands; whoever goes up there is bound to die."

"Not necessarily. Since the mountain ghosts are coming, how would we know if we don't fight them? It's getting interesting. Since that old bastard wants to risk his life, I have to show a bit of my own Daoist cultivation; otherwise, he'll really think we're easy to bully." Uncle Hai took the mountaineering pack off his back, slung it across his chest, and unzipped the rear compartment, searching through a pile of paper figurines for something.

Uncle Hai had plenty of items on hand; he had come fully prepared. Furthermore, wearing his pack backward meant he was ready to enter a magical battle at any second. My admiration for his professionalism reached the ground. No wonder he said I was only half a mystic; compared to him, I didn't even count as a quarter.

"You're going to fight a mountain ghost? Really? That's a mountain spirit that hasn't even received an official imperial decree!" Lin Feiyu shrieked in shock.

"If he dares summon it, I dare kill it," Uncle Hai sneered coldly, pulling out five blue paper figurines inscribed with the characters for Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth respectively, accompanied by messy, chaotic incantations scrawled alongside them.