On Master Liaoran’s side, he remained in his position, in the same pose as he was. The Vajra’s bde was buried deep ihe trunk of the tree, with his Qi p into the tree through it. The master’s left ha rotating the string of prayer beads on his left hand, his fingers g the beads harder and harder, so much so that some of the beads even began to crack.

  Marcus lost t how many spirits the invisible wall of Qi had bsted away. The weaker ones were even buro ashes just by approag. Yet there were others, stronger ones with darkewisted bones and even some kind of hardened exoskeletons that could withstand the burn. And even though fire and smoke burst out of their bodies, and the energy from the wall was igniting, crushing and obliterating more and more of their body parts, they still tried to reaaster Liaoran in attempts to stop him.

  “Namo Amitabha.” Seeing the cws of these stronger evil spirits gradually making their way through the wall, Master Liaoran said a prayer, still standing straight and uurbed.

  “Make it work, Wuzui!” Marcus jumped over the red fg array and swung his sword at the spirit with a crumbling exoskeleton aendings arms pointing at Master Liaoran. This time, Marcus felt the sword cutting into something solid - the flesh and bones on this spirit resisted the ford impact of the sword like a piece of bread would a sharp khe flesh was sliced, the bones cracked and caved in with the almost pletely edgeless bde. Dark smoke gushed out of the wound where the forearm once was, and the spirit took a step back while screaming at Marcus. The severed arm turned into sparks and der before it even hit the ground, and the entity missing an arm fell on the ground, squirming and twitg in pain. The energy from the wall seeped into its body through the wound, and in an instant it burst in fmes from inside.

  Seeing that this attack worked, Marcus immediately charged at the other spirits that were closing in on him and the master. Even though these spirits appeared to be much more dangerous and durable than the rest.

  “The Gods of one and nine, lehy power and watch over me!” Wuzui ted one more time with his bamboo stick pointed upward at the sky, the red fg array glowed in a faint e light and pushed bae spirits that tried to gang up on him. But nothing else happened.

  At the expense of being scratched and cwed, Marcus sliced the head off another eyeless spirit with ara long and slender physique, a dark exoskeleton and simirly dark nails. The disected head flew off and nded on the ground to the side, still screaming at Master Liaoran and Marcus, even with the bck roots and branches protruding from its eye sockets Marcus still felt like he was being grudgingly and vengefully stared at.

  Two of these spirits switched course and targeted Marcus instead. When Marcus swung his sword at one of them, it raised its two forearms and tried to tank this attack head on, while the other tried to ambush Marcus from the left, even risking at getting closer to Master Liaoran aing burnt more harshly by the invisible wall of Qi.

  “k!” The sound of metal g together exploded from the collisioween the sword and the hardened arms of the spirit. The red threads holding the sword together tore and broke from the impact. The s scattered all around Marcus. At the same time the outer shells on the spirit’s arms were cracked and shattered, and its right forearm was almost ly sliced off.

  The other spirit lu Marcus, grabbed onto Marcus’ left arm and crashed onto the ground with him. Before he could even see what hit him or try to get up, Marcus felt a source of danger ing right at him. Purely out of instinct, he ihe s still in his right hand with his Qi and threw it in the dire of the sense of danger.

  A spirit, with its mouth wide open and bck, crooked teeth ready to tear into Marcus’ flesh was bsted by the s at a point bnk rahe spirit’s fad chest area, though mostly covered with shells and bck, hardened roots, was instantly covered with scratches, cuts and even s embedded into its flesh and skull. The Qi on these s burhis screeg spirit, making a crag and sizzling sound as smoke rose.

  Marcus felt that his left waist and parts of his left arm had bee numb again - possibly due to the attack he took from this very spirit and others. But he had no time to che his wounds - more of them were closing in on him. Since he nded oer wall of Qi around Master Liaoran, he became the easier target.

  “Wuzui! Is it ready yet!?” Marcus yelled as he swung his hand in a half-circle in front of him like a knife/sword, the Qi trated on the edge of his palm cutting through three spirits, turning them into ashes and smoke in the process.

  “I’m on it! Stop rushing!” Wuzui yelled back with a trembling voice.

  Marcus crouched down and side stepped to evade one charging spirit and to grab some more scattered s on the ground. Once agaihrew his whole handful of s along with dirt and pebbles at the spirits that came close to Master Liaoran. This time, only three spirits with exoskeletons were pushed back by this attack. As a result, in order to prevent the master’s a or ritual from being interrupted, he had to rush over and try to fight them with his bare hands.

  A spirit with protruding bck roots in its eye sockets and mouth swung its right cw at Marcus, and more spirit burst through the wall of Qi and grabbed onto Marcus’ shoulder from the back. Marcus had no choice but to block the ining attack with his arms crossed before him, while pushing his Qi in his body tthen his defenses.

  “Boom!” Marcus was thrown in the air and involuntarily flipped a whole circle before he hit the ground. The same numbness creeped into his bad shoulders due to one more spirit grabbing onto him and trying to chew through his skin and flesh.

  “The Gods of one and nine, lehy power and watch over me!” Wuzui tried his t once again after no one knew how many failed attempts. Finally it seemed to be w - the red fgs fpped in the air along a circur wall of wind. Some kind of golden lightning started fshing and appeariween the fgs. Wuzui ughed out loud iement and relief, and immediately ted the part of the spell with his bamboo stick still pointing upward: “The Lords of Six a, turn your eyes of justice my way and rain down your fury upon the wicked!”

  “Kabang!” A bolt of golden lightning desded from the sky, forked into hinner bolts in the mid air and nded oip of all nine red fgs around Wuzui. The wind cirg around the red fgs turned into a powerful tornado, with golden lightning sparks and arcs shooting out in every dire. The sudden lightning strike alsht about a powerful explosion, the shockwave released from whistantly bsted the spirits around him into barely reizable smoke and ashes.

  The shockwave swept through Marcus’ body as well, yet it did not inflict direct impa like it did the spirits. Instead, it just flowed through his body, halting the flow of Qi in his body for a short moment, taking away the cold numbness left by the spirits on his body, and leaving him with a sensation like he was just electrocuted.

  Master Liarunted from the impact as well, yet he remaianding in position, his hand still holding the Vajra firmly in his hand. Many of the spirits trying to break through his wall of Qi were instantly vaporized by this shockwave, and those who survived ended up being burned away mere moments ter by his wall of Qi.

  “Boom!” Another explosion happehis time somewhere deep underground.

  More cracks appeared on the ground, some of which merged together, fell apart and caved in, revealing some kind of underground tunnels underh. Marcus tried to hold onto some solid ground, but it was never solid ground to begin with and he fell through the colpsing debris.

  “Detective! Are you okay?” Wuzui asked from the edge of the irregurly shaped sink hole.

  “I’m fine! Cheaster!” Marcus struggled up and checked his body the moment he was able to. The electrocuted sensation did not linger for too long, now all he felt was a little bit of tingling feeling in his muscles. The numbness from the attacks of the spirits came back, but much weaker than before.

  The ground shook once more, and foul smells started ing from deeper parts of the ground. Marcus looked around, c his nose and mouth with his left sleeve. Aside from the debris, rocks, pieces of dirt and grass, he could clearly see things that did not look like they belong - bones, rib cages and skulls, with roots of trees, grass and fungi crawling all over them.

  Marcus was about to alert Master Liaoran and Wuzui, when he heard a surprised and startled gasp. He immediately stomped on the ground and unched himself ba the surface, just in time to see Master Liaoran’s palm strike nding on the chest of the dark shadow of a humanoid monster with a wooden and root-covered body. This menag looking shadow did not eve a ce to growl, before the golden palm mark on its chest ed its whole body. The remainder of the tree in the backyard was pletely go this point, all that was left was a hole on the ground.

  “The sing is done.” Master Liaoran coughed and greeted Marcus and Wuzui with a smile, then took a look at the m glow behind them: “The sunlight should se what’s left there. The rest will be left to you, detective.”

  “Of course, master.” Marcus bowed.

  “Wuzui, leave the rest of the talismans to the detective.” Master Liaoran sighed: “The earth, the air and the vegetation is still tainted. It’s not much, but still bad omens for civilians.”

  “The bones uhere, what happened?” Marcus looked down at the biggest sinkhole, the one he just fell into, and asked.

  “The light is here.” Master Liaoran raised his right hand, seemingly to touch the beam of sunlight pierg through the edge of the clouds and gradually moving towards the depths of the sinkholes: “Time is of the essence, detective. We’ll leave you to it. Take care.”