The wicked witch Chi Liang gently exhaled, her painstaking preparation that had taken years after going through some setbacks was finally almost brought to a successful completion. She sat up straight with great effort, her charming face had turned solemn as her scorching gaze slowly swept through the entire scene. Her satisfied expression grew stronger when suddenly, a shade of amazement leaped onto the corners of her mouth.
Wen Leyang, with blood seeping from the corners of his mouth, stood up in an unstable gait. He did not try to avoid the piercing brightness at all as he stared straight at her with his flashing eyes. The red-colored scar on his cheekbone looked like it was slowly wriggling around under the reflection of the seductive flames.
The skin on Wen Leyang’s body was slowly relaxing and contracting. Even though he was severely wounded, it did not affect his telegnosis ability. Through the opening and closing of his pores, he slowly stripped himself out of his surroundings. The brightness and the loud noise were still there yet those were all now part of the ‘movie’ and had as little effect on him as a spectator of the movie.
Chi Liang laughed abruptly and asked him piteously, “How long do you think you can last?” Her voice was sweet and seductive, it made one’s emotions fluctuate.
Her voice could somehow be heard over the loud hammering noise covering the sky.
Wen Leyang didn’t speak but as he tried to take a step forward he immediately stumbled back onto the ground while grimacing in pain. Earlier, he had risked his life to battle ferociously with the young married woman. Because of this he was more severely wounded than ever. Upon taking a step forward, he felt as if the joints between his bones had turned into blunt knives. It was even more agonizing than soaking in medicinal potion in Wen Tunhai’s courtyard.
The pillar of fire extended a tentacle and gently attached itself to Chi Liang’s shoulder. The wicked witch chuckled as if she had been tickled. A few of the shadowy human figures floating in midair were engulfed by the bonfire and several more Miao clansmen in the stockade village let out a low, agonized scream and never moved again. On the other hand, the wicked witch Chi Liang’s spirit became healthier and more vigorous. Her laugh was as sweet as honey as she said, “One shadow is equal to one portion of witchcraft power. If you’re planning to hurt me, then you need to quickly do it now.” Her Mandarin was clearly articulated with a full tone, she was much more fluent than the Second Mother and sounded utterly unlike a woman from the Miao stockade village.
As she was speaking, the wicked witch stretched out her hand and conjured a few bowl-sized vital fires next to her. The vital fires trembled for a while before they slowly floated together and fused into a more vigorous bonfire.
The wicked witch nodded her head in full satisfaction as a few more black shadows were engulfed into the bonfire. Based on the current speed, the entire stockade village’s worth of Qing Miao clansmen would be killed before the next sunrise. The witchcraft powers that had once belonged to thousands of people would be absorbed by only one person – Chi Liang.
Wen Leyang simply sat on the ground and did not get up anymore for he really had no more strength to stand up now. He inhaled strenuously and spoke with a voice he could barely hear himself, “I don’t understand why you’ve waited until this moment to cast that spell?” According to the Second Mother, the wicked witch had every single clansmen’s life in her hands all along. It was really not necessary for her to wait until this moment to initiate the process.
The wicked witch shook her head and laughed, “It’s too noisy, I can’t hear you at all and I don’t want to hear you as well.” As she was saying that she snapped her fingers once and four to five pieces of tuberfleece flower vines intertwined with silver wires suddenly whipped out of the vital fire before herself and coiled themselves around Wen Leyang’s throat and limbs ferociously!
Meanwhile, the wicked witch Chi Liang’ smile also stiffened suddenly as a streak of dark red-colored scar appeared on the crystal clear skin of her cheek without warning. It added a few shades of pretty and coquettish seductiveness to her boundless charm!
‘You’ve Got Me’ had stealthily snuck into the wicked witch and leaped up without warning. The steel stingers on its entire body were erected as it pricked mercilessly into her extremely delicate face!
More and more black shadows were rolling into the pillar of fire as the wicked witch needed more witchcraft power to counteract the Poison of Fire emitted by the Buddha’s Light Bug.
The tuberfleece flower vines, however, winched and squeaked as it spared no effort in trying to pull Wen Leyang’s body apart from limb to limb!
The vital fire burned more vigorously now as the silver wires within the vines turned into dazzling gold threads. Wen Leyang was in agony and to his surprise, when the five tremendous forces simultaneously pulled outwards, he felt as if he was going to have diarrhea.
At this crucial moment, Wen Leyang’s pores stopped opening and closing, and his telegnosis ability retracted back into his body. He fused back into his surroundings for he could not bear to watch himself being torn into pieces after having a bout of diarrhea.
The Buddha’s Light Bug’s body too was becoming stiffer as the wicked witch’s resistance gradually grew stronger. Finally, there was a popping sound as ‘You’ve Got Me’ tumbled off her face.
Wen Leyang’s heart missed a beat as his final strike too had missed. He now started missing Wen Xiaoyi’s big-muzzled weapon. If the little girl had been here, she would have aimed her weapon and fired it at the direction of the fire altar. The result would have been rather delightful.
Just as Wen Leyang’s mind was wandering into his wild imaginations, his consciousness began to slowly leave his body. Suddenly, a sweet-sounding voice cried out in alarm and following that his body relaxed as the five long vines broke into pieces!
The sky-splitting long howl suddenly ended with a loud bang. The ground shook vigorously and everyone there was tossed a few feet up into the air. The scorching brightness finally erupted into a melted rage and exploded into the night sky. Several arcs of lustrous and brilliant light expanded past the Miao stockade village and swept past the entire Seven Maidens Mountain in the blink of an eye!
The loud noise faded away and the brightness vanished. In an instant, the pillar of fire suddenly exploded into pieces. The black-colored shadowy human figures floating all over the sky were akin to freed spirits as they dispersed and escaped in a flurry and dove headfirst into the Qing Miao clansmen who were lying on the ground…
Wen Leyang felt a small, delicate hand slap his face repeatedly. He opened his eyes reluctantly and cried out with alarm soon after, “Ah Dan! Where is Mumu…stop hitting me!” As he was speaking, the little hand was still slapping him and never stopped for even a moment.
One of Ah Dan’s hand was holding on to the wicked witch Chi Liang’s leg as he took a look at Wen Leyang smilingly. The Buddha’s Light Bug ‘You’ve Got Me’ was lying on his bald head. It was trying to hold its fat body steady as it was afraid that it might slip off accidentally.
The wicked witch Chi Liang was trembling all over, her originally crystal clear face was surging with layers upon layers of burning blush and her eyes were tightly shut.
Ah Dan let go of the wicked witch. He first imitated a woman’s walk by taking a few mincing steps while swaying his buttocks from side to side, then he knocked onto his bald head and made a hollow knocking sound before finally forming his hands into tiny fists and posed in a loyal and protective stance.
He looked at Wen Leyang with a smile as he finished explaining the situation.
Wen Leyang was stunned for a moment before he roared with laughter. He only managed to laugh twice before he clutched his chest in agony. He panted as he asked, “A woman, a monk, and protection? Mumu is still with the fat monk Shui Jing right, correct? Ah Dan, please help me to bring the two of them over here together with the Second Mother and little Chi Maojiu.” Wen Leyang pointed at the two brothers Bushuo and Buzuo on the nearer end first, then pointed towards the Second Mother and the little boy at the far end.
Ah Dan immediately obeyed as he leaped up and dragged the four of them over.
The four people were all senseless and there were bloodstains on their ears and on the corners of their eyes. They were still breathing normally so they were only unconscious.
Wen Leyang exhaled a breath of relief and he asked with a smile as he tried to recuperate his strength, “How did you get here?”
This got Ah Dan bustling about, his gestures were complicated as the bald little boy jumped here and there. He even lay on the ground and crawled around for a moment while in the next moment he jumped up and threw a few bastard’s punch…
Ah Dan was not the only anxious one for Wen Leyang too was clearly confused. He muttered to himself, “Can anyone tell me what had happened…” Before his voice died away, a familiar voice suddenly added, “I can!”
Wen Leyang turned around and looked at the speaker and was terrified until his hair stood up. The old monk Ji Fei was lying on his stomach and staring at Wen Leyang from not too far away. His eyeballs were completely white, he did not look like a Taoist monk at all but more like an extra actor who had just walked out of the ‘Resident Evil’ movie.
The old monk Ji Fei blinked hard once as he chuckled, his eyeballs rolled in a ghastly manner and revealed his black pupils, “It was too bright earlier and I only managed to see clearly in this manner…”
Wen Leyang narrowed his eyes as he asked, “You know what happened? I thought you had fainted earlier?” As he was saying that, he stretched out his hand and guided back the Buddha’s Light Bug back to him.
The old monk chuckled, “The loud noise and brightness had appeared so suddenly and this old monk was caught off guard before he fainted from the vibration. He had woken up after a short while and just as he was about to try to save you, that little bald boy came running out of nowhere and grabbed the wicked witch’s ankles without any hesitation before madly slamming her around.”
Wen Leyang was astonished, “It was that easy?”
The old monk nodded as he laughed, “It wasn’t that easy. The wicked witch’s devilry was no trivial matter but the moment her work was on the edge of a successful completion was also the moment that it was at its most vulnerable state. Once it was suddenly interrupted by someone, it failed in a flash!”
At this point, Ah Dan suddenly smacked onto his huge head abruptly as if he had just recalled something. He took out a small piece of notepaper from his chest pocket and stuffed it into Wen Leyang’s hand. The note read: The monk won’t release me so I’m sending Ah Dan to help you. Ah Dan’s abilities are much stronger than before.
The handwriting was delicate and graceful. Only now did Wen Leyang know that Little Chili Pepper had good penmanship, her handwriting reflected her as a person and not her unpleasant actual name…
Ah Dan then procured a second note, the handwriting was still Little Chili Pepper’s as it read: Help him look for a new hat, be sure to remember this!
Wen Leyang could roughly guess at the situation now. Ah Dan must have refused to leave his master and so he had been lured over in the end by the idea of getting a new hat.
Wen Leyang stretched out his hand and knocked once on Ah Dan’s bald head. He then pointed at the Qing Miao clansmen’s stockade village, “Go and look for a new hat for yourself!”
Half a day passed before Ah Dan returned fully satisfied and contented, wearing a little copper pan on his head.