The timing was just right. When Ji Yuan and Song Lun arrived at the foot of the Tomb Hill, the sky was just beginning to show the remaining glow of the sunset. In the eyes of the two, the entire Tomb Hill was filled with a gloomy and deathly atmosphere.
There are several hills here. Some of the tombs are spacious and luxurious, while others are densely packed with ordinary small graves. This is because in the eyes of the locals, the feng shui here is excellent. Of course, the tombs of some powerful people must occupy the best hills, so they will not be so crowded.
Because there are many dignitaries buried here, there were some special grave keepers in the early years, but not many of these grave keepers lived long, and over time no one dared to guard the tombs here. When Ji Yuan and Song Lun stood at the foot of the mountain, the entire Tomb Hill was eerily quiet, and there was no sound of beasts roaring or birds singing in the distant mountains, as if even the animals knew to stay away from here at night.
"Fellow Daoist Song, how do you plan to capture Corpse Nine?"
Ji Yuan asked, Song Lun stroked his beard, looked toward the sky, and then answered.
"The momentum of this place where winds gather and water gathers has long been quietly changed by that evil creature into a situation where yin gathers and evil arises. Today, on the night of the full moon, that evil creature will definitely show up under the moon to practice. By then, I will use the Mountain Guarding Technique to subdue him."
Ji Yuan nodded without saying anything more. The two of them walked up the mountain, passing by one grave after another, and their figures gradually disappeared.
The night gradually deepened, and a full moon hung high above the Tomb Hill. In the midst of complete silence, a grayish light emerged from the top of one of the hills, and then a burly man at least a head taller than an ordinary man appeared from the hill.
"Huh..."
The man spit out a gray-white light, which then spread toward the surrounding hills, gradually condensing the death energy of the surrounding hills and transforming them into high platforms with huge flags on top, forming a special formation that echoed each other.
The moonlight spread down, coating the deathly-filled tomb hill with a layer of silver glow, which surprisingly had a special kind of beauty. And as Shi Jiu sat cross-legged in the middle of it, he actually had a faint sense of sacredness.
As the death energy's form was changed by the formation and the moonlight, ordinary people could not tell that Shi Jiu was practicing corpse arts or even evil magic. Song Lun, who was standing on another empty hilltop, already had a sneer on his face.
In the eyes of Ji Yuan who was standing by, a thin golden needle appeared in Song Lun's hand at some point. As soon as the golden needle appeared, the sharp edge of the tip had already disturbed the deathly aura nearby.
"Who? Who dares to spy on me practicing?"
Shi Jiu's dull shout spread out, and his sight swept to a hill a little further away. He could feel a sharp edge emerging over there. With a thought, the ground on the hill exploded "bang", "bang", "bang", and "bang", and four burly zombies jumped out from the ground.
“Roar…” “Roar…”
The zombies' roars were hoarse, but more terrifying than any wild beasts. Four pairs of red eyes stared at the direction of the hill. In the night fog, a figure vaguely appeared. The person stretched out his right hand forward, looking at the hill where Corpse Nine was.
"Evil creature, surrender and I will spare your life!"
As soon as Song Lun's angry voice rang out, the face of Shi Jiu, who was sitting cross-legged, changed drastically.
"Master!? Not good!"
It was almost a subconscious reaction. Before Shi Jiu could even get up, his arms were suddenly raised to his chest.
"Puff...Dang..."
A thin golden light penetrated the white jade-like left palm of Shi Jiu almost at the same time, and was then pinched by his right hand, revealing a golden needle that was shining with spiritual light. The tail end was tightly pinched by his right hand, and the sharp front end had already nailed into Shi Jiu's chest, making a golden sound.
"Um?"
Song Lun was slightly surprised. The golden needle couldn't penetrate directly into Corpse Nine's heart
“Boom~” “Bang…” “Bang…” “Bang…”…
The next moment after Song Lun was surprised, all the illusory platforms on the Tomb Hill Mountain exploded, and the originally illusory flags turned into entities and fell on the top of the mountain. Patches of gray color instantly covered the mountains and fields.
“Roar~~~” “Uh~~~” “Ah…”
All kinds of weird and terrifying roars were heard from it, and countless illusory wronged souls and evil ghosts, as well as burly evil corpses, emerged from the ground and various graves. Shi Jiu himself held the golden needle tightly in his right hand, resisting the needle, preventing it from penetrating into the heart, while he had already escaped into the mountains.
"How dare you attack me?"
When Songlun's roar spread throughout the mountains and fields, there were "boom..." explosions everywhere on the Tomb Hill Mountain. Flags exploded one after another, and endless death and corpse qi dragged the entire Tomb Hill Mountain into a den of evil spirits.
Shi Jiu, who had been fleeing continuously, was even more frightened when he heard Song Lun's voice. He subconsciously fled a little faster. At the same time, the piercing pain brought by the golden needle became stronger and stronger. Since he became like this, he had not felt pain for a long time. He did not expect that the experience today would be as if it was going to kill him with pain.
"How did Master know about me? Shouldn't he have thought I was dead a long time ago? How did he find me?!"
Shi Jiu was filled with fear. Even though he had thought more than once that he might be as capable as his former master, when facing his opponent directly, he simply could not muster the courage to fight back. He only wanted to escape.
Ji Yuan and Song Lun were both caught in the great formation of Tomb Hill. The evil flags exploded, releasing endless evil energy, among which countless corpses and ghosts appeared. They looked real and unreal, but they were all real when touched. The dead energy and evil energy drained all the spiritual energy around it, and it was even connected with the moonlight, locking everything on Tomb Hill like a whirlpool. The core and base of the formation had already self-destructed. Now the formation was consuming, and it was willing to consume everything to release enough power to restrain Song Lun.
"Bang..." "Bang..." "Bang..."
Around Ji Yuan, rays of magical light flashed with every wave of Song Lun's sleeves or slap of his hands, and groups of evil ghosts and corpses turned into nothingness, sweeping away a large amount of evil energy in the formation each time.
It seemed that Corpse Nine might escape at this moment, but Song Lun was not in a hurry at all. He was prepared to use this relatively gentle method to clear away all the evil spirits from the Tomb Hill. Ji Yuan was even less anxious. He believed that Song Lun would not let Corpse Nine escape.
After a moment, the atmosphere of the entire Tomb Hill became clear, and the remains of evil corpses were everywhere on the mountain. Under Songlun's spell, many corpses seemed to be quickly corroded and merged into the soil in a very short time, becoming nourishment and part of the land.
"Sir, please follow me. He can't get far!"
A long time after Song Lun and Ji Yuan turned into two beams of light and flew away, two lifeless or breathless corpses were lying in the center of a mountain somewhere in Tomb Hill. One of them moved at this moment, then slowly opened his eyes, and after seeing everything around him clearly, he breathed a sigh of relief.
'Fortunately, I was able to return without leaving any trace, thanks to Mr. Ji's translation of "Dreams in the Clouds". It is not advisable to stay here for long!'
After this thought flashed through his mind, Corpse Nine slowly fled in another direction, and the other corpse followed silently. The entire process was without any sound or fluctuation of magic power.
However, after running away for more than a hundred miles, the speed of Corpse Nine under the soil gradually slowed down, and a feeling of uneasiness in his heart became stronger and stronger. He stayed underground for a long time without moving. After about a quarter of an hour, Corpse Nine finally couldn't help it and slowly broke through the soil layer to reach the ground.
There was a narrow path on the ground with weeds growing on both sides of the road. When Shi Jiu appeared from the center of the road, he looked forward and saw the path extending into the distance. Then he slowly turned around and saw Ji Yuan and Song Lun standing about ten feet behind him, looking at him.
"Master is here, Ji Yuan is here too, there is no escape!"
At the same time, a golden light flashed.
"Whoosh... Puff..."
The golden needle pierced directly into Shi Jiu's heart before he could react. Shi Jiu covered his chest with his hands and felt his soul being nailed. His body swayed, and then he knelt down in front of Song Lun.
"Master, Master..."
"Hehe, my disciple died more than two hundred years ago. I am not your master!"
Song Lun said with a sneer and bowed slightly to Ji Yuan.
"Mr. Ji, this evil creature has been caught. He and I have long since severed our relationship. It is up to you to decide whether to kill him or chop him up."
Ji Yuan glanced at Song Lun. Since fellow Daoist Song had said so, he knew that he had no intention of killing Shi Jiu directly. Even if he had such an intention, he would give Song Lun some face and not do it directly.
"Master, although I have entered the evil path, I also want to achieve the right result. Although I know that I cannot face you, let alone dare to see you, my respect for you has never diminished! Mr. Ji, I, Shi Jiu, have no hostility towards you. I also revealed the matter of the Apocalypse Alliance to you. Even if the Wei family did not have it, it would still be destroyed. The Dream in the Clouds is at least my master's property. I will take it back. It is my duty..."
"Asshole! You still have the nerve to mention your master? Where's the book?"
Song Lun shouted angrily, stopping Shi Jiu from speaking. The latter was silent for a few breaths, beckoned towards the ground, and another corpse slowly floated out of the ground. Then the former took out "Dream in the Clouds" and Ji Yuan's translation from the corpse.
"Master and Mr. Ji, please have a look!"
"Sir, just take this book."
Ji Yuan nodded, without any polite words, he reached out and took the two books from Shi Jiu's hands, glanced at them and put them into his sleeves. Then he didn't waste any words and asked directly.
"How much do you know about the Apocalypse Alliance? Pick out the thing you think is the most dangerous."
Shi Jiu covered his chest, glanced at Song Lun, then looked at Ji Yuan's pair of eyes that seemed to be able to see through people's hearts. After a moment of silence, he spoke.
"I know that there is a genuine nine-tailed fox demon involved..."