Chapter 13: Am I Truly Strong?

Although the thought of exterminating the gui had already arisen in his heart, Li Lin did not act immediately.

Over the past two days, he had begun practicing the White Tiger Turning Frame boxing art in his small courtyard.

[Fist Technique +1] [White Tiger Turning Frame +1]

[Fist Technique +1] [White Tiger Turning Frame +1]

He practiced with great dedication.

In only two days, his movements had transformed from merely forceful and powerful into movements that generated gusts of wind, each strike and form faintly accompanied by a roaring sound.

After completing a full set of movements, Li Lin regulated his breathing and finished the exercise.

Then he smiled at the two people standing outside the courtyard.

“Sorry for making you wait.”

Standing outside were Uncle Zhao and Zhao Xiaohu.

Uncle Zhao smiled.

“We’re the ones disturbing you.”

“Young Li, this boxing art of yours looks extremely domineering.”

“Impressive, truly impressive.”

Before Li Lin even had the chance to be modest, Zhao Xiaohu beside him spoke.

“Really? To me, Brother Lin looks like he’s just throwing punches around randomly.”

Zhao Xiaohu said this with complete honesty.

The moment those words came out, Uncle Zhao’s expression immediately darkened.

He cast a reproachful look at his son.

Li Lin could only smile helplessly.

There was no helping it.

Although White Tiger Turning Frame was indeed stronger than Arhat Fist, its movements imitated large northern cats.

It emphasized overwhelming force and ferocity, supplemented by tiger-like leaping footwork.

As a result, it really did look rough and crude.

That simply could not be helped.

However, practitioners all knew that although the style was not visually elegant, it was genuinely powerful.

Not to mention supernatural creatures like gui.

Even an ordinary person taking a solid hit from it would not have a pleasant experience.

Looking at Zhao Xiaohu’s bearded face, Li Lin smiled.

“Feeling better?”

Zhao Xiaohu nodded and said, “Thank you for saving me, Brother Lin.”

“These are just small tokens of appreciation from my family.”

“Please don’t dislike them.”

As he spoke, he gestured toward the items in his hands.

In his left hand was a slab of cured meat.

In the bamboo basket in his right hand was a cooked chicken, already fully prepared.

“You’ve gone to too much trouble.”

Li Lin did not refuse.

To save Zhao Xiaohu, he had genuinely spent a considerable amount of blood vitality.

Without two or three days of refining Blood Rice, it would be difficult to recover it.

Accepting a slab of cured meat and a chicken was already quite cheap compensation.

“Come in and sit for a while.”

Li Lin invited the two of them inside and treated them to a meal.

After the father and son had stayed as guests for roughly an hour, they left.

Li Lin shut the door, cooked another pot of Blood Rice for himself, and began refining blood vitality.

He had a feeling that the wandering gui would appear again tonight.

After all, it seemed to possess a special obsession with Xiaohu.

As for whether Xiuniang would appear, that was harder to say.

Li Lin hoped she would.

[Qi and Blood +1]

[Qi and Blood +1]

Soon evening arrived.

The village once again fell silent.

Li Lin began cooking and slowly ate his Blood Rice.

Then a woman’s resentful voice drifted in from outside.

“Xiaohu, Xiaohu, where are you?”

“I miss you so much.”

Sure enough, the interval between soul-calling sessions had become even shorter.

Li Lin was in no hurry.

There was still a long time before dawn.

He slowly chewed and swallowed the Blood Rice in his mouth.

Then he brewed a cup of tea and rinsed away the food residue lingering in his mouth.

Only then did he open the paper window and look outside.

Sure enough, two white figures were wandering outside the village entrance.

Li Lin gathered everything he needed and left home.

The moonlight tonight was not particularly bright.

The entire village was frighteningly quiet.

Occasionally, the sound of someone coughing would emerge from a villager’s home, but it would quickly be suppressed.

Li Lin walked beneath the withered tree.

The palace-dressed gui had already appeared there.

She was very fond of appearing in the dead of night.

At night, seeing such a sinister thing floating there would frighten anyone.

Li Lin himself used to be quite afraid of her.

But now he was much bolder.

After all, he had killed gui before.

He asked, “I want to kill the two gui outside.”

“Can you help me?”

The palace-dressed gui glanced at him but said nothing.

So she wouldn’t?

Li Lin turned and left.

After knowing this gui for half a year, he already understood her temperament.

When something was possible, she would respond.

Ignoring you meant refusal.

Li Lin arrived near the village entrance.

He was already fairly close to the two gui.

Yet neither of them noticed him.

Because of the altar.

Because the Tree Immortal Lady was here.

The villagers had already come under her protection.

Gui could not see them.

Meanwhile, the blood vitality gathered from living humans formed a barrier.

Gui could not enter.

Thus the gui could only wander outside.

Still, this soul-calling ability was indeed troublesome.

If they continued calling like this, Shangtikou Village truly would end up empty.

After waiting until the pair had moved farther away, Li Lin put on the Gui-Hiding Cloak and crouched as he left the village.

Then he hid along the wandering gui’s inevitable route.

He had already observed them earlier.

These two gui only followed a fixed patrol path.

Crouching in the grass, he waited silently.

Before long, the two gui returned from the distance.

They drew closer and closer.

By all rights, Li Lin should have been nervous.

Yet for some reason, he felt exceptionally calm.

There was not a trace of fear in his heart.

The two gui continued approaching.

Their appearances were extremely blurry.

Unlike the female gui in the Earth God temple, whose features had been clear and beautiful, nearly indistinguishable from a real person.

Although their appearances were vague, they were still recognizable.

One of the female gui was indeed Xiuniang.

Li Lin waited silently.

Like a leopard concealed before a hunt, his eyes shone with the sharp light of a predator.

As the two female gui drew nearer, the muscles throughout his body tightened further and further.

Finally...

The two female gui arrived right before him.

They were standing side-on to him.

The closest one was the unfamiliar female gui.

Then he moved.

A tiger charge.

A claw strike.

Spine-Severing Tendon-Rending Claw!

A ferocious opening move accompanied by a tiger’s roar landed squarely on the female gui.

Li Lin had expected a result similar to the female gui in the Earth God temple.

He thought he would force it from an incorporeal state into a corporeal one.

Instead, with a single claw strike, half of the female gui’s body was scattered.

It was as though a portion of a cloud had been violently torn away.

The woman let out a scream.

Then her body began to melt away.

Faintly, he heard her say,

“Xiaohu, my child...”

“Come back to your mother...”

“Come!”

Then the female gui vanished.

Li Lin froze for a moment.

That fragile?

At that moment, Xiuniang also reacted.

She turned to look at Li Lin.

Her mouth opened.

Inside was a pitch-black void.

There was nothing there.

Just pure darkness.

Simply looking at it made one uncomfortable.

Li Lin reacted even faster.

He leapt forward like a tiger.

A thunderous tiger roar erupted from his mouth.

Then both claws smashed downward violently.

White Tiger Carrying a Corpse!

His two claws slammed heavily onto Xiuniang’s shoulders.

The sensation was like dragging ten fingers through tofu.

Then, from top to bottom, he split her into ten separate strips.

Xiuniang remained standing there blankly for a moment.

Then she too dissolved into mist and disappeared.

Something seemed to fall from her body.

Clack.

It was really too weak!

Whether it was the soul-calling gui or Xiuniang, both were absurdly weak.

Li Lin stared at his own hands in disbelief.

A thought appeared in his mind.

Maybe I’m actually pretty strong?

At that moment, his white jade token had already begun emitting red light.

After the deaths of the two gui, large numbers of wild gui arrived.

Li Lin bent down and picked up the object from the ground.

A silver hairpin.

Was this Xiuniang’s possession?

Although it was only a silver hairpin, the workmanship was quite exquisite.

This was not something a poor family could afford.

After putting it away, Li Lin ran back toward the village.

But just as he entered the village entrance, a figure suddenly appeared before him.

When something abruptly appeared directly in front of you, anyone would be startled.

Instinctively, Li Lin struck out with a claw.

Then he seemed to hit something soft and yielding.

There was no sense of resistance at all.

The force of the strike was immediately diverted elsewhere.

He instinctively retreated.

Only then did he see that the Tree Immortal Lady was standing before him.

Her figure seemed to be swaying.

Like a water-filled balloon trembling after being struck.

Then her eyes narrowed.

She appeared to be angry.