Chapter 84: Will-o'-the-Wisp and Ghostly Hands

The spy did not flinch at the sight of the ghostly flame.

Or rather, he simply did not believe that the flame unleashed by Shanglu could hurt him.

A mere village constable—what could he possibly know of sorcery?

Faced with the blue fire, the spy did not evade it. He merely yanked a small round shield from his back in a swift backhand motion.

All of it happened in an instant.

No sooner had he raised the shield than the ghostly flame arrived soundlessly.

He hurriedly lifted it to block.

As the spy expected, the flame was indeed stopped by the shield, the blue blaze bursting and scattering in all directions.

The spy gave a cold laugh, about to mock him, when from within the fire that had struck the shield a pale, ghastly hand suddenly reached out and seized it.

A tremendous force came from that pale hand.

The spy could not withstand it; the shield was snatched away in an instant.

The sudden turn of events shocked him to the core. He staggered back in haste.

At the same time, he swung his axe with his right hand, bringing it down with the force of splitting mountains toward the pale hand.

For after stealing his shield, that pale hand showed no intention of stopping. It had pursued him together with the ghostly flame.

This strike of his was terrifying in both speed and power, and even produced a deafening sonic boom.

Shanglu and Constable Liu both changed color.

If they were the ones facing that blow, there would be no way they could block it.

As for the low-ranking constables, they were already clutching their ears and crying out in pain; merely the sonic boom from that one strike was more than they could bear.

Yet in the face of the spy’s full-strength attack, the pale hand did not dodge. It met the blow bare-handed, caught the axe directly, and snatched it away as well.

The spy reacted just as swiftly, instantly realizing he had encountered an opponent beyond him.

He no longer hesitated and ran at full speed.

But at that very moment, from within the ghostly flame that had just been shattered by the shield, a cluster of black hands, mottled with corpse spots, suddenly reached out.

Like venomous serpents, those black hands instantly coiled around the spy, seizing his arms, legs, and body, greatly restricting his movements.

The spy only felt ice-cold all over.

Those black hands covered in corpse spots were each terribly frigid, making him feel as though even his blood was freezing.

He let out roar after roar, fully urging his vital blood to break free from their grip, and he actually managed to shake some of them loose.

But then the pale hand caught up once more, lunging straight for his back with a vicious claw.

With a dull burst, his protective vital blood was torn apart at once, and his back was directly pierced through.

The pale hand reached into his body and ripped out his heart.

Thump, thump...

Even after leaving his body, that heart was still beating.

"I..."

The spy turned his head and stared at his own heart. He opened his mouth, trying to say something, but the strength within his body was rapidly draining away, and he could not make a sound.

A moment later, his vision went black, and all consciousness was gone.

From the moment Shanglu spotted the spy to the moment the pale hand tore out his heart, it seemed as if many things had happened, but in truth it all took place within a single fleeting instant.

So fast that some of the constables did not even have time to draw their blades.

Watching the spy’s heart be torn out and blood gush endlessly from his back, the constables found it hard to believe.

"Dead? He was killed like that?"

Though none of them had fought him directly, the speed and strength the spy had displayed made it clear that he was far above them.

Shanglu was even more certain that the spy’s strength, even if it had not reached the marrow-cleansing realm, was at least at the perfection of the meridian-penetrating stage.

No wonder the spy had shown such contempt and no fear at all after his whereabouts were exposed.

Because he truly had the power to kill Shanglu and the others.

It was just unfortunate that the spy had not anticipated that the sorcerous talismans in Shanglu’s possession could summon such bizarre and formidable aid.

To be honest, Shanglu had not expected it either.

At first they had thought the sorcerous talismans were only for warning, and that they would have to wait for the paper figures and bean soldiers to come destroy the enemy.

They had not imagined that the talismans themselves would have the power to kill.

And to be this strong!

With only one exchange, they had killed a spy whose strength was at least at the perfection of the meridian-penetrating stage.

While everyone was still in shock, looking at the hands that protruded from the ghostly flame, fear also rose in their hearts.

At that moment, not only Shanglu, but everyone was wondering where these strange hands had come from.

Were they war spirits raised by the shaman official? Or some bizarre creature summoned by sorcery?

Fortunately, these hands were on their side.

After the brief shock, Shanglu was about to lead the others over to search the spy’s corpse.

To see whether they could find anything that proved his identity and origin.

Yet before they could even draw near, the strange hands that had emerged from the ghostly fire gathered around the corpse, seized it, and dragged it toward the mountains.

At the same time, the pale hand tossed a new talisman to Shanglu, then withdrew into the ghostly fire, taking the still-beating heart with it before vanishing completely.

The ghostly flame then went out, as though it had never appeared at all.

But the corpse being dragged away in the distance proved once again that everything that had just happened was real, not illusion.

"Constable Shang, where are those ghost hands taking the spy’s body?" Constable Liu asked curiously, blade in hand, standing beside Shanglu.

"I have no idea."

Though Shanglu said he did not know, he was already guessing in his heart: were those ghostly hands planning to drag the spy’s corpse into the strange fog deep in the mountains?

He very much wanted to follow and see, but he feared arousing suspicion from the hands and the shaman official, and so could only let it be.

Those hands, especially that pale ghostly one, had killed a spy with at least the perfection of the meridian-penetrating stage in a single exchange.

To kill him would probably be even easier.

Though he had the mask gifted by the young shaman official in his breast.

Yet if the elder shaman official was suspicious, who could guarantee that the young one was entirely without issues as well?

Just as Shanglu gave up on following, Third Madam’s figure suddenly drifted out from the oil-paper umbrella and followed after that group of ghostly hands.

Shanglu’s heart instantly leapt into his throat, fearing Third Madam might be attacked by them.

Yet neither the constables beside Shanglu nor the group of hands dragging the spy’s body noticed her presence.

It was not strange that the constables failed to notice her.

But why had the hands failed to notice her too? Were they not also yin spirits?

Or did Third Madam possess some special method of concealing herself?

In any case, since the hands had not discovered Third Madam, Shanglu finally relaxed.

But he remained on guard at all times, ready to rush over and help at once if she ran into danger.

Fortunately, what he feared did not happen.

Not long after, Third Madam returned and told Shanglu:

"The body was thrown into the thick mist in the mountains, and before long a group of snakes carried it away."