Chapter 80: The Advancing Skeletons
Li Yunfei wasted no words. He took out a bottle of Boar King Elixir, poured the entire contents into his mouth, chewed it thoroughly, and swallowed. Then, forming seals with both hands, he pressed them onto the stacks of Heavenly Thunder Talismans on the table and chanted, “Great Thunder Lord of the All-Heaven, thunderbolt shakes the void; celestial thunder descends in an instant, all ghosts vanish without a trace; summon them to the might of Kui Gang, transform into the pure winds; I invoke the Nine Heavens Responding Thunder God, act swiftly as commanded.”
When his incantation ended, he grabbed two thick stacks of talisman paper—one thousand in total—and scattered them outside the altar, shouting, “Hasten!” The talisman papers, empowered by the All-Heaven Great Thunder Lord's incantation, did not drift to the ground but transformed into a stream of light, rising diagonally into the air and disappearing about ten yards above.
Beneath the clouded sky, another massive black cloud formed. Unlike the system-generated clouds above, meant merely to block sunlight, this new cloud crackled with lightning and radiated thunderous energy.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
Just as the incantation foretold, bolts of thunder and lightning crashed down from the heavens, striking the ghostly horde mercilessly.
Shrieks and wails pierced the air, their agony battering Li Yunfei’s ears like sonic attacks. Each struck specter dissolved into wisps of smoke, vanishing utterly.
Seeing the power of the Heavenly Thunder Talismans combined with the Great Thunder Lord’s incantation, Li Yunfei finally relaxed; the ghost army was no longer so terrifying.
The price of the Heavenly Thunder Talismans was five grams of spiritual stones for ten sheets; a thousand sheets cost him five hundred grams, equivalent to five million yuan. To put it in perspective, Zhang Ziying’s monthly cultivation resources amounted to ten blocks of two hundred grams each—two thousand grams total.
With one wave, Li Yunfei had spent a quarter of Zhang Ziying’s monthly cultivation resources. This was the true “pay-to-win” method—a tactic of casting money to solve problems.
However, he hadn’t used spiritual sense to lock onto targets when scattering this batch of talismans; he simply couldn’t target so many at once. With his current cultivation, locking onto eight or ten was his limit.
Thus, the lightning rained down indiscriminately, with no guarantee of accuracy. Yet, because the ghosts were numerous and crowded, the thousand talismans still managed to slay two to three hundred evil spirits.
Li Yunfei and the little fox saw their experience bars surge by more than half in one go.
Although nearly a fifth of the ghost horde was wiped out, those at the front were already closing in on the altar. Others circled from the sides, attempting to flank Li Yunfei, but the Iron Fortress Array proved its worth.
As ghosts rushed the wire fence, a towering illusionary wall appeared, connecting seamlessly with the clouds above. The ghosts rebounded off it without even causing a ripple.
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Li Yunfei, reassured by this, focused his attention on what lay ahead.
Soon, some ghosts flew into the Heavenly Net Array, which immediately radiated golden light. Within the array, the ghosts writhed as if thrown into boiling oil, sizzling and smoking. Their screams echoed ceaselessly, and in moments, their forms faded, dissolving into nothing.
Seeing that the ghosts were blocked by the array and couldn’t reach him, Li Yunfei grew calmer, wasted no time, and tossed out two more handfuls of Heavenly Thunder Talismans.
There it went—half of Zhang Ziying’s monthly cultivation resources.
But with that batch of talismans, both Li Yunfei and the little fox leveled up to thirty-one.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
After spending Zhang Ziying’s resources for a month and a half, only a scattered few dozen evil spirits remained, no longer posing any threat.
At this point, the group of zombies finally stepped into the Heavenly Net Array. To Li Yunfei’s surprise, the array couldn’t immediately annihilate them.
They seemed intent on forcing their way through, and Li Yunfei tensed. One or two, even three or five, would be manageable, but dozens at once were overwhelming.
Among these monsters, zombies possessed the greatest defense and vitality. Their resistance to purification was also formidable. When he cast the Heavenly Thunder Talismans, some zombies were struck by lightning, but it took three or four consecutive bolts to bring one down—after convulsing, it would stop moving. One or two bolts weren’t enough to kill them.
Li Yunfei recalled that in all the zombie films he’d seen, final bosses were rarely slain by Taoist arts; most were reduced to ashes by fire. Now, that seemed entirely reasonable.
Since Heavenly Thunder Talismans couldn’t kill zombies in a single strike, he switched methods.
Li Yunfei bought a stack of True Fire Talismans from the system's inventory—one hundred in total.
He pinched a talisman between the fingers of each hand, infused them with spiritual power, and the True Fire Talismans ignited instantly.
Chanting, Li Yunfei intoned, “This fire is no ordinary flame, stored in the Eight Trigram Furnace; the Six Ding Divine Fire descends, demons and ghosts are reduced to dust; I invoke the Supreme Elder, act swiftly as commanded.”
Flames on the talismans turned a pure crimson, not a trace of any other hue. With a flick, Li Yunfei shot the fire talismans out, each striking a zombie.
“Whoosh, whoosh!”
The targeted zombies became blazing torches, shrinking visibly in the crimson blaze, soon melting away like snow, vanishing utterly.
Even after consuming the zombies, the red flames did not extinguish; they burned on the ground for a while before gradually fading and dying out.
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During this process, Li Yunfei launched several more waves of True Fire Talismans, turning more zombies into blazing pyres. Clusters of fire dotted the ground.
The genuine Six Ding Divine Fire never goes out, and only the Supreme Elder's banana leaf fan can snuff it.
These talismans, empowered by the Six Ding Divine Fire incantation, possessed some traits of the real thing, but were ultimately simulated by talismans, not the true divine fire.
When burning, they weren’t limited by the three fundamental conditions of ordinary flames—ordinary water could not quench them, and they burned even underwater.
Even basic water or ice spells could not extinguish them.
They burned without oxygen, without fuel, but when the talisman’s spiritual energy was spent, the flame would self-extinguish.
“Damn.”
Li Yunfei’s expression changed slightly. He saw that while the True Fire Talismans could instantly kill zombies, he had neglected their position.
Some zombies were still within the Heavenly Net Array, and the falling red flames burned through several sections of the red cord used in the array's setup.
He ended up breaking his own array.
At that moment, the skeletons charged in. With the array no longer active, they skirted the ground fires and rushed at Li Yunfei, now less than ten feet away.
No time for Taoist arts or talismans—Li Yunfei flipped his hand, and the Crescent Moon Blade appeared. He slashed horizontally, launching a long, crescent-shaped blade wave.
“Crack, crack, crack…”
These skeletons were far more agile than zombies, as if they could see the trajectory of the blade wave.
The first dozen or so skeletons were shattered into pieces, scattered on the ground, but those behind immediately rolled to the ground, dodging the blade's arc.
With a forward roll, they closed the distance to less than seven feet from Li Yunfei.
“Honghong, take care of those zombies and walking corpses—burn them to ashes. I’ll handle these bone racks.”
“Yip… (No problem.)”
Li Yunfei stowed the Crescent Moon Blade and grasped two Boar Tusk Scimitars.
With the enemy now up close—especially these agile, humanoid monsters adept at advancing and retreating—it was unwise to use the large blade without mastery of its technique.
Thus, Li Yunfei decisively switched to the lighter, more maneuverable scimitars, sacrificing some power for greater flexibility.