Chapter 120: The Terrifying Flower Spirit

Good heavens... ghosts and spirits are truly not to be mentioned lightly; no wonder the elders always warn against saying the word "ghost" at night. Speak of the devil, and it appears.

A large, pitch-black mass rolled down the earthen slope like a ball. Wrapped in that blue cloth talisman, it struggled for a moment before a "rip" echoed through the air. The talisman was torn wide open from within, and the first thing to emerge was the iron-blue face of a woman.

Whatever beauty might have once tempted a man was now long gone; she was nothing but a female Rakshasa!

Originally, there had been two faces nestled together, but now, a large chunk had been bitten off one of them, with greenish sap oozing out incessantly like fresh blood. Perched atop her head was another small, fleshy monster.

Qi Yan had assumed that the so-called "Loge" ghost would at least bear some resemblance to an infant, but he hadn't expected this—it hardly looked human. Previously concealed by the cloth, its true form was now revealed.

It was nothing more than a lump of putrid black flesh! Its limbs were malformed, one short and one long, and most disgustingly, its entire body was covered in a dozen squirming human eyes.

Even though the demon had had half its cheek bitten off, the little ghost—while undeniably ferocious—looked equally wretched. Its mouth wasn't even visible, yet the piercing, heart-rending wail of an infant emitted from it; one could tell just by the sound how agonizing its pain must be.

It was unclear how much effort it had taken to lure the twin-faced demon here, but its goal had certainly been achieved.

The tentacle-like vines transformed into "small snakes" of varying thickness, specifically targeting the eyes on the Loge ghost's body. Within a few strikes, they had punctured several of them, spraying jets of black blood.

"Hrk!"

At that moment, Old Yan's head jerked violently backward. He sat cross-legged, yet his body began to tremble uncontrollably, as if he were suffering a seizure. The crimson centipede that had been buried in the soil along with the small coffin silently crept across the ground toward him.

The demon whipped the little ghost aside and, scurrying like a giant spider, lunged rapidly toward Old Yan. It must have realized that by disposing of this human, the little ghost would no longer be under control.

Although both creatures were crawling toward Old Yan, the demon was far faster than the crimson centipede, closing the seven or eight-meter gap in the blink of an eye.

"Are you not going to run?!" Seeing Old Yan still sitting there, "seizing" in place with no intention of standing, Qi Yan lost all caution. He grabbed the sharpened wooden stake coated in the sap of the Juan vegetable and charged forward. Before he had even steadied himself, he thrust the stake out, blocking the fox demon's path.

The strike missed its mark, easily dodged by the creature, but the demon halted. It turned its gruesome face toward Qi Yan, its eyes bloodshot—a stark contrast to its bluish-green skin—and bared a set of snow-white, silver teeth. A spray of saliva flew from its mouth, wild with murderous intent.

The tentacles beneath it snapped, and it leaped toward Qi Yan’s face like a cannonball.

Acting on pure instinct, Qi Yan pulled back the wooden stake and held it horizontally across his chest. The demon’s hideous face slammed into him, its teeth clamping onto the wood. Despite its head being only the size of a human’s, it carried the weight of a 170-pound man, easily knocking Qi Yan to the ground.

Fortunately, its drooling mouth remained clamped tightly onto the stake. Qi Yan had no doubt that if it had landed a bite on his neck, it would have torn his throat out on the spot.

Although the Juan vegetable sap smeared on his body did keep it somewhat at bay—preventing the snake-like vine tentacles from wrapping around him as they had before—the face before him was relentless.

Qi Yan was now only a dozen centimeters away, separated only by the horizontal stake. The monster's hair was just like a human's, though disheveled and matted with dirt.

Then, a bizarre transformation occurred. As Qi Yan struggled to push it off, he clearly saw the half-eaten face on the demon’s other head begin to squirm like flesh-colored clay. Within seconds, a new face began to knit itself together from the shredded remains.

First, a sharp nose emerged, slowly rounding out, followed by lips and teeth, and finally, eyes. Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, the new beauty’s face pushed aside the ruined remains of the old one.

In just these few moments, it had regained the appearance of having two faces, though the new one had not yet fully set.

When it had been on him before, the "Walking Buddha" pendant had forced it to retreat, but he had given that to Xuanxuan...

With his own strength, Qi Yan could not overpower it; he couldn't even free a hand to throw a punch. He had to use both hands just to hold the stake and hold it at bay.

It seemed he had miscalculated. While the Juan vegetable sap was effective against the scent and powder it indirectly released, it didn't have much lethality against the main body. Otherwise, he was smeared like a mud-monkey, and yet it still persisted in its savage, close-quarters assault.

Suddenly, two blue, root-like, withered claws shot out, grabbing each of the demon's heads and ripping it away with brute force.

Qi Yan scrambled to his feet and saw that it was... that strange wandering spirit?

It flung the demon aside. The demon immediately shot out several thick vines, attempting to bind the spirit. But the spirit did not seem afraid; it allowed the vines to wrap around it until it was encased like a mummy, without uttering a single cry of pain.

Qi Yan brandished his long stake, snapping a vine as thick as three fingers. The Loge, though battered, felt no pain and lunged again, opening a tooth-filled mouth in its abdomen to bite through two more vines.

But these vines were terrifying; the moment they were severed, they split in two, sprouting new tentacles to lash out.

Seeing this, Qi Yan dared not attack the vines further—they clearly multiplied the more they were cut! Old Yan and Xuanxuan had both said that plant-based demons possessed immense vitality, and now he understood why—this was their most troublesome trait.

At that moment, the mummy-like spirit, wrapped in countless vines, opened its mouth wide. Deep blue flames ignited simultaneously from its sunken eye sockets, its mouth, and its bald head!

While not intense, the moment the vines touched the flames, they caught fire like a fuse, burning rapidly along their length.

The demon was forced to release its hold.

Qi Yan looked at the wandering spirit in astonishment, thinking, "It actually has some tricks up its sleeve? It’s not just some ordinary ghost... then why did it retreat so easily when Xuanxuan shouted at it before?"

But now was not the time to ponder that. Although the blue flames were somewhat effective, the demon simply severed its own burning branches, quickly growing new vine tentacles. It crouched on the ground, both faces glaring viciously at every human and ghost in sight.