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"Zhang Menglong, what just happened? I felt like I was moments from death!" Qian Sijia said, as if she had just experienced a near-death event, her body even feeling a bit weak.
"It tried to attack you just now, but I fought it off," Zhang Menglong explained, "Everyone, step back. I'm about to perform a physical exorcism!"
"What does that mean? What's a physical exorcism?"
"Dunno, but it sounds pretty awesome. Everyone, move back."
"I saw a few videos on Bilibili. It seems that so-called physical exorcism means using real weapons like knives, guns, sticks, and clubs to kill those ghosts and spirits, instead of persuading or guiding them away."
"But that's blatantly unreasonable, right? Our supernatural abilities can't touch them, so how could ordinary weapons be possible?"
"This kid's got plenty of tricks; just listen to him," Old Zhou ordered, and everyone retreated to the entrance of the courtyard.
...
"Crack, crack!" Zhang Menglong clenched his fists, producing the sound of bones grinding, "Gou Dan, activate Teacher Fahai's power for me! And give me his exorcism set to use!"
"To activate Teacher Fahai's cultivation, it will consume 10 cred points per minute; the exorcism set includes the Zen Staff and the Purple Gold Bowl, consuming 20 cred points per minute!"
Fahai's realm was roughly around the Heavenly Origin Boundary. When Zhang Menglong's power surpassed that of the teachers at the Super God Academy, he only needed to borrow some of their powers, which actually cost very few cred points.
At that moment, the exorcism power surged through his entire body. Zhang Menglong instantly felt as if his strength had been renewed, even believing he could punch the spiritual body into oblivion.
"Do you feel that Mr. Zhang's aura seems a bit different?"
"I feel it too... Don't think I'm weird for saying this, but he seems to have become light itself."
"What are those stick and bowl he's holding? Mr. Zhang didn't bring those when he arrived, did he?"
"Team leader, Mr. Zhang has gone inside. Could he be in danger? That spiritual body seems pretty terrifying."
"He told us to stay out of it, so let's just stay put and not cause him any trouble."
...
"I'm giving you one last chance, get back to your Kaibong, or I will destroy both your form and spirit!" Zhang Menglong, brandishing two magic artifacts, was suddenly filled with a lot more confidence, and the energy in his body had transformed, now possessing equal lethal force to the spiritual body!
Unexpectedly, the corners of the spiritual body's mouth twisted into a hideous smile. Its numerous strands of hair attacked Zhang Menglong once again.
"Seeking death!" Zhang Menglong ignited the hair once more, and this time, flames spread directly along the hair to the spiritual body like a fuse.
"Aaagh!" The spiritual body let out a piercing scream. Once thunder and lightning could harm a spiritual body, the damage inflicted was truly terrifying. The frequency of the scream was even on the verge of falling within the range of human hearing, causing a bone-chilling coldness that even those outside could feel.
"Daring fiend, mighty heavenly dragon!"
"All-honored Ksitigarbha, all Buddhas of wisdom, prajna-paramita!"
"Boss here known as the rapper-killer, even those rappers bow down to me, and you, a dead thing, dare to pose in front of me?"
Zhang Menglong charged forward, Zen Staff in hand.
...
"Mighty heavenly dragon! Mighty heavenly dragon! Mighty heavenly dragon! (echo)"
"Giving you face and you don't want it!"
"Messing with Huaxia's folks!"
"For looking so hideous and scaring people!"
...
The disturbance in Academician Qian's room lasted for a good ten minutes before it finally subsided.
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Zhang Menglong was also dripping with sweat as he left the room and walked outside.
"Mr. Zhang/Menglong, how is it, everything okay?"
"Got it done," Zhang Menglong took out the purple-gold alms bowl, and within it floated a red orb. He tossed the alms bowl into the air, and a beam of light shot down from it, astonishingly allowing everyone around to see the spiritual body!
"Ah!" Upon seeing the fierce spiritual body, the women present let out a scream. Had they not seen it with their own eyes today, how could they ever believe in the existence of such a thing?
"Don't be afraid, it can't come out!"
Indeed, whenever the spiritual body touched the outer wall of the light column sprinkled by the alms bowl, it would scream in agony as if there was some force restraining it.
"Everybody, civilized photography, no feeding, haha!" Zhang Menglong shouted.
"Do you think this is just a visit to the zoo?"
"Feeding? Who would dare?"
"But taking a couple of photos should be fine!"
"Click! Click!"
...
If this spiritual body had self-awareness, it probably would have had a mental breakdown by now. Are living people so fierce nowadays? Not even afraid of ghosts?
"Menglong, how should we handle this thing?" Old Zhou asked, "If we leave it here, I'm afraid it might pose a danger."
"Hehe," Zhang Menglong wore an evil smile, "Of course, it should go back to where it came from."
"See that black nail in its chest?" Zhang Menglong explained.
Everyone looked carefully and indeed, there really was a bloody nail plunged into the chest of the spiritual body.
"A spiritual body of this level usually regains the intelligence of an ordinary human. It's mostly controlled by that one nail," Zhang Menglong said, "Rather than helping it with a physical exorcism, it's better to grant it freedom and let it settle its own scores."
Zhang Menglong muttered something under his breath, and the black nail turned into black smoke and dissipated in an instant.
Quickly, the frantically struggling spiritual body calmed down, its blood-red eyes turned blue, and after existing for so long, it even started to look somewhat handsome and delicate.
It looked around curiously at everyone, appearing quite puzzled.
"Did you help me remove the nail that the Onmyoji planted?" the spiritual body actually spoke, of course, it was speaking in Kaibong language.
"Come to your senses?" Zhang Menglong smiled and said, "Yes, I helped you pull it out."
"Thank you," the spiritual body actually bowed deeply towards Zhang Menglong, and even accidentally revealed round...cough cough cough!
"I have been controlled by that Onmyoji's family for over a hundred years, and today I'm finally free."
"Do you want to take revenge?" Zhang Menglong asked.
"Of course!" the spiritual body replied, "They killed my family, and they turned me into this neither-human-nor-ghost appearance. But they are an ancient lineage of Onmyoji. Although my power is stronger than theirs, it's restrained by their power..."
"No problem, I can help you," Zhang Menglong took out his phone and began to search, "One of my ancestors was an Artifact Refiner who liked to whip up all sorts of fancy stuff. Back when Kaibong was overrun with hundreds of ghosts, he generously created Haotian Tower, specifically to capture ghosts and suppress the big ones inside."
Zhang Menglong took something out casually, producing a treasure tower about 20 centimeters tall, "Use this thing first, wipe out that bunch of Onmyoji for me, but don't harm any innocent ordinary people."
"A hundred ghosts?" Zhen Yezhu looked delighted; she, of course, had heard those Onmyoji mention the hundred ghosts that once rampaged throughout Kaibong, said to be ferocious and evil spirits, with each strike taking down an Onmyoji. At that time, a deity from Huaxia had subdued them.
If she had the help of a hundred ghosts, wouldn't it be just a matter of minutes to deal with these Onmyoji?
"Come find me after you've dealt with the matter!" Zhang Menglong handed Haotian Tower to Zhen Yezhu, "Then I'll help you with your exorcism, and you can be free from your current state."
"Dare to harm a leading figure from our Huaxia?" Zhang Menglong scoffed coldly, "Give them a real beating for me, don't hold back on my account, if they die, it's on me!"
