Twilight Boundary

Was the evil spirit really just a mass of yin qi?

Of course not. Evil spirits came in too many forms: spirits, Wandering Souls, evil objects, and phantoms, each with different origins.

Saying an evil spirit was just a mass of yin qi referred to the lowest forms of evil, which indeed were just yin qi. Encountering something with a bit more yang qi could easily overpower them.

Some existed and disappeared without ever attracting attention, merely parts of the cycle of yin and yang.

But did this stop Hu Ma from saying so?

It did not.

Presently, Hu Ma aimed to use this phrase he once heard from the Second Master to bolster the courage of the villagers.

Since he couldn't avoid the chaos, letting the evil spirits run rampant seemed less favorable than taking action early and seizing some initiative. If the villagers' courage was bolstered, the surge of vitality they released could rival that of the old fire pit ancestral hall.

He used thunderous methods to deal with the little ghost, also to maintain this courage.

With this courage, he could leverage the situation. He would deal with the evil spirits in the village one by one. If he encountered a more formidable one, fleeing to the Old Yin Mountain wouldn't be a loss.

And this tactic proved effective; the villagers following behind him grew bolder, still singing that work chant along with Hu Ma's assistants.

Even the four or five people who had just been bewitched by the little girl ghost were pulled back into the crowd. They charged into the village en masse. However, not long after rushing in, they saw two people ahead tying a belt around the trunk of a wutong tree.

Despite the crowd approaching, those two seemed oblivious, focusing only on tying the belt, preparing to stick their heads through it.

Startled, the villagers shivered at the sight.

Yet, Hu Ma gave them no chance to dwell in fear and immediately shouted, "What worthless things, daring to cause trouble!"

"Datong, take some men and chop it down!"

"..."

"I'm on it!"

Zhou Datong responded loudly, raising his knife as he charged toward the tree.

First, he kicked away the two people trying to hang themselves, then aimed his knife at the tree. He didn't care if it was haunted by a hanged ghost looking for a substitute or if the old tree itself had become a spirit and was causing trouble; he just chopped directly at the tree.

CHOP! CHOP! CHOP!

The tree quivered with each blow, leaves rustling down as if something within it was struggling.

SPLASH!

But before the old tree could struggle further, a bucket of child's urine splashed onto its trunk.

Then Zhao Zhu rushed forward, driving his enchanted dung fork into the tree, shouting, "Keep chopping!"

The tree immediately quieted down. More villagers rushed up to help, and together they felled it. They pushed further inward, their vigorous life force making other lurking evils in the village dare not approach.

As word of their success spread like wildfire, more able-bodied villagers rushed in to lend a hand.

Hu Ma led the group, charging directly toward the Zhao Family's funeral hall.

Under this overwhelming momentum, the ghost wall they had encountered earlier didn't even appear, and they reached the funeral hall directly.

Something hidden there seemed to sense the threat and immediately began shrieking wildly.

The pig's head on the offering table screamed, while the cries of a child from a steamer basket were incessant. Tables and chairs began to clatter and crash against each other, as if a great earthquake had struck.

BANG!

The tables and chairs clashed chaotically, but Hu Ma acted even more decisively.

He strode forward and kicked a table with full force. It flew into a second table, which then crashed into a third. The entire funeral hall was left in shambles from the wreckage caused by that single kick.

Strips of white mourning cloth and straw floated down like a rain shower, making the earlier cacophony of rattling tables seem insignificant in comparison.

SWISH!

At the same time, he reached out, grabbing at the pig's head impaled on an iron hook.

The pig screeched terribly, even trying to bite Hu Ma's hand. But Hu Ma didn't flinch, letting it bite his palm before he squeezed its jaw, shattering it. He then threw it behind him, shouting, "Datong, catch!"

"Got it...!"

Zhou Datong, still limping on one leg, suddenly jumped and caught the pig's head. He then blew a breath of yang qi directly into the pig's mouth.

Instantly, the screaming pig's head fell silent, as if whatever had possessed it had fled.

?

Hu Ma paused, stunned. He had meant for Zhou Datong to toss it into a dung pit. He actually kissed it? Hu Ma found it inwardly amusing but knew this wasn't the time to get bogged down in details. Maintaining their momentum was key.

Continuing forward, he kicked apart the stove and the steamer basket from which countless children's cries had emanated. Steamed buns rolled everywhere, only to be crushed under the feet of the advancing assistants and villagers, silencing the cries.

It was a waste, though, as they were precious white flour steamed buns...

After demolishing these items, they reached the Zhao Family's courtyard door. Inside, they saw the coffin. Around it, villagers continuously kowtowed, their foreheads bloodied, their faces showing an eerie mania.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

As if struck by the powerful life force Hu Ma and his followers brought with them, the contents of the coffin suddenly changed.

The coffin thudded wildly and then, shockingly, stood upright on one end.

Inside, Old Man Zhao's face still wore that eerie grin, but his seemingly shuttered eyes abruptly snapped open, casting a chilling gaze toward the intruders.

The villagers who had been kowtowing ceaselessly to the coffin now abruptly stood upright in unison, their blood-smeared faces turning to stare outward.

This sinister scene, thick with ghost qi, resembled a nightmare.

Even the bravest person, if stared at like that, would likely find their legs turning to jelly.

But Hu Ma was prepared. He couldn't allow the villagers a moment to feel fear. The instant the coffin stood upright, he took a step forward, raised his hands, pressing them to his sides below his ribs. A few rumbles echoed from within him, and then he suddenly let loose a shout like spring thunder:

"HRAAAGH!"

This loud shout boomed from deep within him, sounding both like a toad's croak and a clap of thunder.

The echoing sound carried a powerful yang aura capable of exorcising evil and expelling ghosts, instantly overwhelming the ominous sounds around them. Even the villagers closest to him jumped violently at the resonance.

In the courtyard, the blood-smeared villagers, shocked by the shout, had their Divine Souls startled into disarray. Their sinister expressions momentarily vanished, and they appeared somewhat dazed, as if awakening from a dream.

Only the coffin wobbled violently, its evil qi suppressed but ready to surge anew.

But following the shout, Hu Ma sprang forward. Leveraging the Shousui man's powerful physique, his explosive strength propelled him several yards in an instant, bringing him directly before the coffin.

CRACK!

Hu Ma grabbed Old Man Zhao's neck from inside the coffin, shattering the coffin itself as he pushed the corpse swiftly forward.

He slammed the cold, rigid body heavily against the main hall's wall.

PFFT!

He first spewed a mouthful of Blood Yang Arrow onto its face, then drove the fiery Wooden Sword straight into its heart.

He gave it no opportunity to cause further chaos.

It couldn't be helped; the Shousui man had no other skills, just brute toughness.

If someone from another Path were here, they might probe deeper, find the crucial point, and then resolve the issue. But Hu Ma had no time for that, so he chose the Shousui man's specialty: a direct, hard confrontation.

I don't care how you're causing this haunting; I'll destroy you first and then see what else you're capable of.

"AARGH..."

Hu Ma plunged the Wooden Sword into Old Man Zhao's hardened heart. Flames flared, and the corpse began to struggle as if it were a living being. Yet, even with the Wooden Sword piercing its heart, it thrashed and bit wildly.

But Hu Ma clung to its neck, holding it still. The rank corpse qi washing over his face couldn't shake the Shousui man an inch.

This approach, though brutally efficient, startled Zhou Datong and the villagers.

When the coffin had suddenly stood upright, and the possessed villagers inside the courtyard had all turned their heads at once, their distorted and eerie appearances had nearly broken the onlookers' courage.

But before true fear could set in, they saw Hu Ma charge forward. His actions were so decisive and brutal that he seemed, for a moment, even more terrifying than Old Man Zhao in the coffin.

Momentarily confused, they thought, The one on our side is even scarier; do I still need to be afraid?

"Don't just stand there dazed!"

While they had been gawking, Hu Ma turned and shouted at them, "Tie up everyone in the yard!"

"Wake them! If they don't wake up, slap them hard! If they still don't wake up, force-feed them manure!"

"..."

This shout jolted Zhou Datong and the others into action, and they rushed forward. The villagers inside the courtyard, their connection to the evil spirits disrupted by Hu Ma's shout, responded sluggishly.

One groggy villager, his forehead bloodied, lunged to bite the newcomers, only for Zhou Datong to shoulder him aside. A rush of people swarmed in, pinning the afflicted villagers down.

There was strength in numbers. In the chaos, with some struggling to get in and others to get out, someone gave a shout, and they even managed to push down an earthen wall.

The villagers in the courtyard, who had been kowtowing for so long, were still muddle-headed and retained some ferocity. However, with Old Man Zhao now burned by Hu Ma to nothing but a skeleton, they were also dazed. Crowded together, they couldn't fight effectively. Before they could react, the onrushing crowd of sane villagers dragged them out, pinned them to the ground, and rained blows upon their heads and faces.

Those with rope tied them up; when rope ran out, they simply threw them into manure pits.

The yard reeked, the stench seemingly dispelling some of the village's yin qi.

It looked as if Ganzi Village's crops would suffer a reduced yield the next day—they'd likely used up too much of their 'fertilizer' already.

But the results were undeniable—the evil spirit disturbance that had afflicted half the village was roughly but truly resolved.

There were plenty of scrapes and bruises, of course, but when all was said and done, it seemed that not many lives had actually been lost...

Before Hu Ma could fully process this, he saw panicked figures running from further within the village. Everyone tensed, only to realize they were neighbors from a nearby village, their faces masks of terror.

"This is terrible! Young Master, please, we beg you to save us! Our village is being haunted, even in broad daylight..."

"..."

Another shouted, "The children in our village have been afflicted by a 'guest'! They're crying so hard it looks like their eyes are about to fall out..."

His shouts hadn't even faded when another person rushed over, exclaiming, "It's terrifying! Even the rats are crawling out of their holes and trying to eat people..."