Chapter 47: The Three Great Evils

I waited for a long time, but the old man shivering in the corner made no movement whatsoever.

What is going on?

Could it be that he does not want to leave?

Just as I was about to step forward and ask, the Yin energy ahead surged violently, and a female ghost dressed in red charged straight in my direction.

What the hell is this?

Why is she breaking through from my side?

"Sword, come!"

I shouted loudly, lifting my rune-inscribed heavy sword and slashing forward.

My strike fell, but it hit nothing.

The female ghost in red had appeared right behind me. Before I could even turn around, a tremendous force threw me flying several meters away.

The red-clothed female ghost—is it her?

Last time at the village stage, this entity seemed to be performing an opera on stage.

Now that she has revealed her true nature, she is a red-clothed spirit?

How are we supposed to fight this?

Red-clothed spirits, braid-haired corpses, and water sprites are the three major evil entities. Encountering such creatures usually means running as far away as possible.

The so-called braid-haired corpses refer to zombies from before the Qing Dynasty.

Most zombies people see in television dramas have queues, and since these are closer to modern times, the danger level is relatively low.

However, braid-haired corpses date back to before the Qing Dynasty, with a history of at least several hundred years. Once fully formed, they are extremely ferocious.

Water sprites refer to aquatic monsters. No matter how strong a human is, they cannot unleash their full power in the water. Those spirits can wreak havoc in the water while cultivators remain helpless.

As for red-clothed spirits, they are usually trapped by obsession. Such ghosts are terrifying, harboring immense resentment that defies conventional logic.

Looks like I am going to bite the dust today!

Wielding my sword, I crawled up from the ground and slashed at the red-clothed spirit once more.

Right now, I can only try my best to stall it; wiping out a red-clothed spirit all by myself is completely unrealistic.

"Sweep away the sword to slay demons and evils, one strike to slaughter all fiends!"

I let out a sharp cry, and the rune-inscribed heavy sword in my hand hummed loudly. This strike possessed immense power, which even a red-clothed spirit should find difficult to withstand.

Yet her speed was simply too fast. Before my sword could even get close, she vanished from my sight.

"Puff!"

Before the heavy sword could fall, I spun around swiftly, bit the tip of my tongue, and spat a mouthful of fresh blood behind me.

"Hiss..."

The sound of food frying in a wok rang out as my tongue-tip blood sprayed directly onto the red-clothed spirit.

"Ah!"

The red-clothed ghost shrieked in agony and retreated dozens of meters.

"Filthy trash, how dare you try to show off in front of old Xu!"

The moment the red-clothed spirit fell back, Xu Wei arrived.

"Bang!"

A gunshot echoed, followed immediately by several more shots from Xu Wei, all of which struck the body of the red-clothed spirit.

"This kind of firearm has been modified by dozens of masters from Bureau 749. Can you withstand it?"

Xu Wei closed in rapidly, pulled a retractable baton engraved with secret runes from his waist, and struck the female ghost in red twice.

Following several consecutive critical hits, the form of the female ghost in red grew increasingly translucent.

"You are still too green to fight me!"

Xu Wei tossed out a talisman paper, slapping it directly onto the body of the female ghost in red.

Instantly, a ball of fire erupted.

In just a few short seconds, the female ghost in red was burned into a heap of ashes.

Powerful!

Simply too powerful!

I increasingly felt that Bureau 749 was unfathomably deep. Last time in the Qinling Mountains, so many half-demons were slaughtered by them, and this time, facing a red-clothed female ghost, Xu Wei resolved such a ferocious evil entity without the slightest bit of pressure.

One must know that Xu Wei was considered merely middle-ranking within Bureau 749, not even reaching the higher echelons.

Above him were branch directors, and above the directors was the bureau chief.

If a mere squad leader is this formidable, wouldn't the branch directors and the bureau chief be able to sweep across the entire Great Xia Nation?

"All personnel, assemble!"

Without giving me a chance to remain shocked, Xu Wei shouted in a booming voice.

Everyone quickly converged on the spot.

Among them, the personnel from Bureau 749 were fully armed with live ammunition and wore rune-inscribed garments. They looked well-trained, and their combat effectiveness was off the charts.

In contrast, our hastily assembled temporary team looked like a bunch of scattered stragglers, utterly negligible.

"Form the spearhead formation and charge straight in. Kill one if we meet one, and kill a pair if we meet two."

Xu Wei stood at the absolute front of the crowd, facing the very tip of the spearhead formation—the position where the greatest danger would be encountered.

Yet at this moment, no one disputed Xu Wei. Everyone closely followed behind him and stepped into the village covered in ashes.

Originally, weeds grew rampantly, making every step extremely difficult.

But now, as we charged in, it felt as flat as walking on level ground.

I even suspected that Xu Wei had deliberately set the fire just to make entry easier; otherwise, how could such a coincidence happen?

The entire village now had only sporadic patches of fire remaining, posing little danger.

Along the way, we did not encounter many evil entities.

Those with insufficient cultivation had probably been reduced to ashes in this blazing fire.

Those who managed to survive were without exception evil specters with profound cultivation.

Between heaven and earth, the Yin energy grew dense once more, and those scattered flames were suppressed by the Yin energy, gradually extinguishing.

Within the village, a thick black mist seemed to rise.

Unlike the Yin energy I had seen before, the thick fog here seemed to condense into tiny droplets of water.

Xu Wei led us straight toward the very center of the village.

"Kill!"

Xu Wei lifted his retractable baton and lashed out straight ahead.

"Thud!"

This time, Xu Wei's baton did not fall swiftly; instead, it felt as though he had struck solid stone.

Cold sweat broke out all over his body, and his stamina seemed to drain rapidly.

"What are you standing around for? Come over and lend a hand!" Xu Wei barked at the crowd.

Only then did everyone come to their senses. Seeing how ferocious Xu Wei had been earlier, everyone had assumed he could handle the trouble here entirely by himself.

The members of Bureau 749 made their move first, with around twenty team members hurling dozens of talismans.

Then, as if they had coordinated in advance, they all drew their weapons and charged forward simultaneously.

Before those talismans could get close, they spontaneously burst into flames mid-air.

Taking advantage of the firelight, I clearly saw what was in front of Xu Wei—it was the very same coffin from before.

After being burned by the raging fire for so long, this coffin remained completely undamaged.

"Kid of the Jiang family, use your sword!"

Xu Wei barked at me again.

"Coming!"

I hastily replied, feeling a small surge of pride internally.

Even a problem that the people of Bureau 749 could not solve required my intervention.

Wielding the rune-inscribed heavy sword, I slashed downward through the air.

A mass of black mist appeared above the coffin, tightly gripping the rune-inscribed heavy sword and preventing it from falling any further.

I felt as though my heavy sword had hacked into a quagmire, unable to be pulled out and unable to hack any deeper.

What on earth is this thing?

How can it be this formidable?

In my understanding, a red-clothed spirit was already considered a top-tier evil entity, yet Xu Wei had suppressed one with a mere wave of his hand.

And right here, we encountered another evil entity that even Xu Wei could not resolve.

Comparing the two, the evil specters here were countless times more ferocious than that red-clothed spirit!

"Useless piece of trash, chop it down already!" Xu Wei cursed at me angrily.