Chapter 106: Midair Fire Talisman

At this moment, my master gave off a completely unfamiliar feeling. Especially his eyes, they made it impossible to meet his gaze. The moment you looked into them, you felt overwhelming pressure.

Hui Jue stopped chanting scriptures and carefully put away his wooden fish. He stood up with ease, walked toward the crowd, and said, “Let’s watch the show.”

Everyone relaxed as well, each withdrawing their efforts and stepping aside while chatting and laughing.

I found it strange. Was my master really so powerful that everyone who had just been under such pressure now became like this?

Once everyone stopped their efforts, especially after the old monk Hui Jue stopped chanting, the pressure inside the formation on the hungry ghost eased considerably. It let out a ferocious roar and charged straight toward the crowd.

But whenever it reached the edge of the talisman patterns, it would always be forced back a few steps.

My master stood in front of the altar, holding the peach wood sword behind his back in reverse grip. His entire presence carried an unshakable, towering momentum. I knew this was the act of building momentum. Daoist practitioners focused on gathering and refining their power before striking. That was basic knowledge. I was just anxious, wondering why my master could still leisurely build up power at a time like this.

Without using the heavenly eye, just my strong intuition alone, I could feel that the hungry ghost was about to break into the formation. I could even sense the entire formation trembling on the verge of collapse.

“Don’t worry. Your master has activated the art of descending Mao, inviting a spirit to descend into his body. At this moment, building momentum is secondary. He must adapt to this power and also maintain his true self so he is not consumed by it,” Hui Jue said quietly beside my ear without me noticing when he had come over.

“The art of descending Mao?” I was not really asking, I was stunned. I knew exactly how difficult this technique was.

“Yes, the art of descending Mao. Originally it was only meant for spirit attachment, borrowing a bit of divine power. Unfortunately, we were all wrong. There is something strange about this hungry ghost worm,” Hui Jue sighed.

If we had known earlier that this worm was like this, what awaited it would not have been a simple Yang Extreme Locking Yin Formation, nor the hastily prepared medicinal water.

While Hui Jue and I were talking, a shout erupted from the crowd. I turned my head and saw that the hungry ghost had already broken out of the formation and pounced in front of the boy, opening its mouth wide as it viciously tried to bite him.

Why is it him again? He really is like he is cursed. I sighed in frustration.

Hui Jue stood nearby, grinning gleefully.

At that moment, it felt like a gentle breeze brushed past my face, and I heard a voice say, “Get back inside.” I saw my master move as if gliding through the air and kicked the hungry ghost straight back into the formation.

This was ordinary lightness skill, what people commonly call martial lightness techniques. Ordinary people think it is mystical, like flying over rooftops, but in reality its main purpose is simply to make movement faster and more agile.

“When did my master become so good at lightness skill?” I thought in shock, but I did not ask. There was no time to ask. Inside the formation, my master and the hungry ghost were already fighting.

The hungry ghost was extremely strong and fast, and I knew it also had a strange mental attack field. I had already been affected earlier. Yet I could see that my master was handling it with ease.

The peach wood sword fell strike after strike, slicing open the hungry ghost’s grayish skin. Instead, the hungry ghost was the one in a miserable state.

I could see fear in its eyes. It wanted to run, but it was deliberately confined within the range of my master’s presence and could not escape the circle at all.

What I was most curious about was that peach wood sword. I often played with it before and never thought it was particularly sharp. So how could it cut through the hungry ghost’s skin? When it was still in worm form, even Guo Er and the others could not damage it with shovel blades.

“Do not be obsessed all day with various spirit arts, talismans, and mystical techniques. Martial skills are sometimes the true foundation for survival. Do you understand?” As I watched my master fight the hungry ghost in the formation, I suddenly recalled those words. It was because his physical combat skills were truly excellent.

Normally I looked down on fist and kick techniques. Compared to that, I was far more interested in things like talisman drawing and Daoist shock techniques. In fact, I only practiced the Eighteen Lock Form because my master forced me to.

But at this moment, I realized that even when dealing with these strange entities, martial skills were extremely useful.

The hungry ghost was finally forced into a feral state by my master. It stopped its back and forth probing and stood still, its pair of vengeful eyes fixed viciously on him.

“Trying to compete in raw power? Competing in aura fields?” Hui Jue somehow pulled out a handful of broad beans and stood there chewing them Crunch crunch, his entire face clearly saying he was just watching a show.

Not only me, everyone around was speechless at this.

But my master did not even pay attention. He only smiled faintly, as if he had been waiting for this moment. He reversed his right hand and placed the sword behind his back, formed a sword finger with his left hand, and suddenly began chanting loudly. Following the rhythm of the incantation, his hand began drawing in the air.

I froze when I saw this. Drawing talismans in midair My master had actually used this technique.

This technique was not a secret in itself. Even its incantation was not a secret. In fact, many real Daoist practitioners knew at least three or four talisman chants and patterns.

But most Daoist practitioners would never use this method.

Because talisman paper and cinnabar are very special. True talisman paper is not ordinary yellow paper bought from the market. It follows strict requirements. I also knew that apart from yellow talisman paper, my master could not produce other types of talisman paper.

As for cinnabar, its yang nature is extremely strong and it naturally repels evil. More importantly, cinnabar can condense spiritual power. Once power is concentrated within it, it can affect the surrounding field. These two things are essential for forming talismans. To draw a talisman in empty space requires an unimaginably deep level of cultivation, as well as immense mental energy to condense it. That is why I froze when I saw my master’s movements.

The incantation for drawing talismans in midair is very short, and the patterns are not complex. In a fight, such techniques cannot take too long.

It is like if you are still drawing a talisman and your opponent picks up a brick and smashes you, you are done.

So from the start of my master’s movement to the final shout of “Haste!”, it took no more than ten seconds.

With the sword finger cutting down and that shout of “Haste!”, the hungry ghost suddenly trembled all over and stood there like it had turned stupid.

Hu Xueman could not help but shout, “What a powerful Shock Talisman!”

Old Man Jiang did not even change his expression. He turned and walked out of the formation, took out a talisman paper, lit it with candle fire, and stuck it onto the hungry ghost. Then he stood beside it and began drawing talismans in midair again.

“Heh, looks like Old Jiang is in trouble. The fire talisman he drew is not enough. He has to condense a new void talisman with his own power,” Hui Jue said happily. As long as my master was struggling, he seemed delighted.

I glanced at him unhappily. At my master’s next shout of “Haste!”, something incredible happened. The small flame on the talisman suddenly grew stronger and stronger, and in just a short moment it spread onto the hungry ghost.

The thing was, the hungry ghost had just been drenched in medicinal water. It was completely soaked. I had no idea how the fire even started.

“Surprised, little one? These things have already declined a lot nowadays. In ancient times, powerful fire talismans and thunder talismans could create fire and lightning out of nothing,” Hui Jue explained enthusiastically beside me.

I said, “Elder Hui, I did not expect you to know so much about Daoist matters.”

“Go on, go on. Daoist and Buddhist traditions share many things. You think only Daoists have hand seals? Only Daoists have healing branches, heavenly eye, or cultivation methods? Kid, if you do not study properly, of course you know nothing,” he said, slipping into a Shaanxi accent by the end.

At the center of the formation, the hungry ghost, now a burning figure, suddenly let out a shrill, unpleasant scream and charged toward my master.

“Bad!” Originally the fire was already fueled by the fire talisman and the medicinal water on its body. If it pounced on my master now, even though he was the one who cast the spell, he would still risk being burned by his own fire.