145 Breaking the Daoist Technique

This scene instantly stunned Li Qizong, Chen Shuxia, Tiejun, and the servants kneeling outside the courtyard gates.

"Eld-Eldest young master just kicked a golden armored heavenly deity to death with a single kick."

An elderly servant trembled uncontrollably.

At this moment, Li Xintian coughed lightly and waved his sleeves to disperse the surrounding yellow smoke, then spotted a pure gold statue lying on the ground.

The statue was that of an armored warrior, holding a long spear, clad in armor, with eyes wide and glaring—wasn't it the exact replica of the golden armored heavenly deity from before?

"This is... a soul's Yin spirit leaving the body."

Li Xintian's gaze sharpened.

Li Xintian had heard from Zhao Longjie that practitioners of the Dao could condense their souls together to form a Yin spirit, which could leave the physical body at night, travel freely through the heavens and earth, and enter dreams at night, much like the city gods and underworld runners.

However, Yin spirit projection was extremely perilous. Taoists lacking sufficient cultivation could easily have their Yin spirits blown away by the wind, unable to return to their physical bodies.

Just like the character Ye Zhiqiuyin in the film A Chinese Ghost Story, who fought the millennium centipede demon and whose projected Yin spirit ultimately failed to return.

Yet, that was a measure taken only in the most desperate of emergencies. If a practitioner was prepared, they would prepare a vessel for the Yin spirit—a dummy shell for the spirit to inhabit, ensuring it would remain unharmed by external forces, thereby allowing safe projection.

The pure gold statue before his eyes was precisely such a vessel for the Yin spirit.

Because pure gold is intensely yang and impervious to external malevolent influences, it was among the finest materials for crafting a Yin spirit vessel.

Now, this golden statue's Dao arts had been shattered by Li Xintian's righteous energy, revealing its true form.

"Tian'er, wh-what is the meaning of this?"

Li Qizong asked with utter astonishment.

Li Xintian replied, "This was merely an illusion conjured by Dao arts, not a genuine descent of heavenly deities. Someone attempted to use Dao arts to plunder our Li family's wealth. Everything that happened before was entirely deceitful. Father, Mother, you must not be fooled by those prior illusions."

"So... so that is how it was."

Hearing this, Li Qizong and Chen Shuxia instantly lost their fear, replaced by a mixture of shock and rage as they hastily stood up from the ground.

"What brazen rogue Taoist dares to set their sights on our Li family! I will surely hunt him down and beat him to death."

Li Qizong roared angrily.

Li Xintian said, "To act so lawlessly, relying on Dao arts to steal our Li family's wealth, he must be a renegade practitioner from the fringe paths, not a true master of the Dao. Genuine cultivators would never commit such deeds."

Practitioners of the Dao feared karmic retribution above all else, placing the utmost importance on accumulated merit.

To plunder wealth so brutally would surely result in him being struck dead by heavenly lightning during his tribulations.

Thus, true Dao practitioners would never do this; only those who took up the Dao halfway without understanding these principles would, upon learning Dao arts, fail to resist using them to seek riches and honor.

Did this mean the five thousand taels of silver previously lost by the Li family were connected to this?

Although white mice also stole, that should have been merely a chance encounter, and mice only engaged in petty thievery. This person, however, was the true master who had set his sights on the Li family's fortune.

Moreover, although Zhao Longjie harbored hatred toward demons and monsters, he had never stooped to stealing silver from others. Even though Zhao Longjie's merits and demerits balanced out, he had at least become a proper Daoist priest by now.

"Tian'er, quick, go stop them! Those silver armored heavenly soldiers are still carrying away our Li family's treasury silver... No, oh no, those silver armored heavenly soldiers are leaving!" Chen Shuxia suddenly cried out in alarm.

True enough, the ten silver armored heavenly soldiers had each carried a chest of silver into the dark clouds, which then rolled and slowly drifted away toward the exterior of the Li residence.

They actually intended to fly away.

"His Dao arts were broken by me, and now he realizes he has been discovered, so he wishes to slip away. But Father, Mother, rest assured, your son will not let him escape."

At this moment, Li Xintian turned and shouted, "Zouwu, come quickly!"

Zouwu snapped out of its trance in the sky, descended in a bound, and sprinted swiftly to Li Xintian's side.

"Tian'er, be careful."

Neither Chen Shuxia nor Li Qizong had ever seen Zouwu before. Seeing it approach Li Xintian, they could not help but voice their concern.

"Father, Mother, rest assured. Zouwu is my companion; it will not harm me."

"Gather all the servants, mount your horses, and follow me."

After reassuring Li Qizong and Chen Shuxia, Li Xintian mounted Zouwu's back. Zouwu dashed out of the room and leaped into the void, moving at a remarkably swift pace.

Li Xintian transformed his righteous energy into a glowing golden three-stone grand bow, accompanied by a quiver of arrows. With the powerful bow in hand and arrows slung at his waist, he sat upon Zouwu's back, pursuing the dark clouds out of the estate.

Although Li Xintian possessed vast and mighty righteous energy that kept malevolence at bay, this righteous energy had a limited radius. Beyond a certain range, Dao arts could still be cast. Just as before, when Li Xintian had not yet approached the golden armored heavenly deity, it still appeared majestic and awe-inspiring, but the moment he drew near, the deity lost its mobility and froze in place.

As for the exact effective range, Li Xintian could not gauge it precisely.

It was determined by the depth of the opponent's cultivation.

For opponents with profound cultivation, the area of influence of the Seven-Orifice Exquisite Heart would shrink, whereas for those with shallow cultivation, the area of influence would expand.

Seated upon Zouwu's back, Zouwu treaded through the air above the county town.

Li Xintian originally wished not to employ Zouwu within the county town, but it was nighttime, the town's residents had long since retired to rest, and the matter was of the utmost urgency, leaving him no time for hesitation.

"That person's cultivation is not low, to actually be able to move one hundred thousand taels of silver from our Li family." Li Xintian narrowed his eyes, gazing at the patch of dark clouds. Feeling that the distance of pursuit was sufficient, he drew an arrow and notched it to the string.

Fortunately, he had mastered martial arts.

Once the bow formed from righteous energy was drawn, with the flick of his finger, an arrow whizzed straight into the dark clouds.

Yet, despite the arrow striking the clouds, there was not the slightest reaction; the dark clouds merely drifted slowly toward the outskirts of Shuiwen County.

"Useless?"

Li Xintian frowned slightly. Suddenly remembering something, he drew another arrow, coated it with a layer of righteous energy, and once again drew the bow to loose it.

"Whoosh!"

The arrow imbued with righteous energy tore through the void and instantly plunged into the dark clouds.

Yet wherever the arrow passed, a hole was instantly punched right through the dark clouds.

Immediately following this, a figure plummeted out from the clouds.

"Thud!"

It sounded like metal striking the ground.

An armored statue made of silver crashed onto the earth, bearing a puncture hole where the arrow had pierced through it.

"Clatter!"

Directly after, a massive chest of silver coins spilled open from the dark clouds, scattering across the street.

"Leave a few people behind to gather the silver, everyone else continue the pursuit!"

Hearing the sound of hooves approaching from behind, Li Xintian shouted out into the dark night.

Instantly, a few of the accompanying servants were left behind to collect the silver scattered across the ground, while the remaining servants spurred their horses onward in pursuit.

"Let's see where you can run."

Li Xintian urged Zouwu forward, once again notching an arrow with its bowstring coated in a layer of righteous energy.

Li Xintian's righteous energy was both a restorative tonic and a deadly poison to practitioners of the Dao.

If used to draw spiritual talismans, they would naturally be efficacious—though, of course, Li Xintian did not know how to draw any spiritual talismans.

Yet if malevolent entities like ghosts or Yin spirits touched it, it acted as a lethal poison capable of destroying all forms of evil.

Another arrow was loosed.

A silver statue plummeted down, while streams of silver coins poured down from the dark clouds with a clatter.

With the Dao arts shattered, the ability to transport the silver naturally vanished as well.

"Zouwu, chase them down!"

Li Xintian urged Zouwu to increase its speed.

Zouwu pursued the dark clouds relentlessly.

However, the expanse of the dark clouds was vast, and the effective range of the arrows was somewhat limited, preventing it from shattering the Dao arts completely in a single stroke. Instead, he had to give chase and loose several more arrows.

By the time Li Xintian pursued them out of the county town of Shuiwen County, hunting them all the way, the eerie dark clouds in the sky had been thoroughly shredded by him.

All ten silver armored heavenly soldiers had been shot down to the ground one by one, stripped of their Dao arts and reduced to mere silver statues.

All around, countless silver coins lay scattered across the earth.

Having broken the Dao arts, Li Xintian felt no joy; on the contrary, his expression grew somewhat solemn.

Because the occurrence of this incident meant that his Li family had been targeted by a certain Dao practitioner. It seemed that as the reputation of the Li family's immense wealth spread gradually, troubles were following closely behind.

"Eldest young master."

At that moment, Tiejun hurried over with a squad of guards.

"Collect the silver and prepare to return to the estate."

Li Xintian instructed.

"Understood, eldest young master."

Tiejun acknowledged the order.

Li Xintian gave a slight nod. Without lingering any further, he immediately had Zouwu turn back toward the county town, fearing a possible diversionary tactic.

Just as he was heading back, within an inconspicuous residence inside Shuiwen County, an elderly woman with a face covered in wrinkles sat cross-legged indoors, motionless as a corpse.

If there were elders from Shuiwen County present, they would have recognized this old woman instantly: she was none other than the quite renowned spirit medium within the county.

She was an outsider, and no one knew her full name, save that she was called Mother Wang. Because she possessed the skill to communicate with ghosts and deities, people frequently sought her out to interpret dreams and resolve hardships. Yet during this period, Mother Wang had vanished for some time, refusing all visitors for nearly a month and turning away every single person who came to call.

"Pfft!"

Yet at that very moment, Mother Wang's eyes snapped open with a look of shock as a mouthful of blood spewed forth. Her entire being instantly withered away, exhaling an aura of death and desolation from head to toe, resembling someone on the verge of death.

"Li Qizong's son actually possesses such capability to shatter my Dao arts! No, that's impossible, he is merely a mortal, how could he possibly break my divine-ghost transportation arts?"

"Hateful, truly hateful! If not for that newly arrived Magistrate Liu hounding me endlessly, claiming the Li family had already discovered the theft of their treasury and might be on guard today, how could I have been so reckless today as to project my Yin soul directly to act at the Li estate? Now, all my Yin soul vessels have been ruined by Li Xintian, and my own divine soul has suffered severe trauma. This time, I have lost at least thirty years of my lifespan, and the very foundation of my Dao practice has been utterly destroyed."

Mother Wang gnashed her teeth, feeling excruciating pain all over her body as if someone had kicked her heavily, leaving her bones feeling as though they were about to shatter.

That Li family son really struck with ruthless force.

Fortunately, her Yin soul had fled fast enough, otherwise she might not have made it back from that projection.

Mother Wang had attempted to steal a chicken only to lose the rice; not only had she failed to seize the Li family's silver, but she had even ruined herself in the process.

"Cough, cough!"

Whipping up a weak cough, Mother Wang swayed unsteadily to her feet, retrieved an earthen jar from a nearby cabinet, heated it over the stove fire, and eagerly lifted the lid to devour its contents in large mouthfuls.

By the flickering candlelight, one could vaguely perceive a bloody placenta inside, attached to a fully formed infant.

Only as she continuously nourished herself by eating did the pain throughout her body slightly subside, and her injuries improve marginally.

Yet once she had consumed everything, although Mother Wang's complexion improved slightly, she remained as desolate of aura as a corpse awaiting burial.

"Whoosh."

Mother Wang's aged face suddenly twisted in anger, a ferocious expression surfacing as she cast the earthen jar to the ground and kicked the stove aside.

"Damn it! My lifespan is exhausted, and tonight underworld runners are coming to escort my soul."

Having sensed it just moments ago, she calculated that her lifespan had run out and today was destined to be her day of death, leaving her with no appetite for nourishment whatsoever. If not for her status as a Dao practitioner, she would already be a corpse on the floor; the fact that she could still move freely now was entirely due to her Yin soul sustaining her forcibly.

Regrettably, the ones coming to reap her soul were subordinates of the Black Mountain Old Demon.

"Since it's death either way, I might as well surrender to that stone demon, and evade tonight's underworld runners first before deciding."

A look of madness surfaced in Mother Wang's turbid eyes. Coughing intermittently, she rushed out of her dwelling and bolted toward the outskirts of Shuiwen County.

In the blink of an eye, Mother Wang vanished into the dark night, leaving no trace behind.

By the early morning of the next day.

Due to the events of the previous night, Li Qizong flew into a towering rage, immediately issuing strict orders to all servants, guards, shopkeepers, errand boys, and laborers across every estate and shop in the county to investigate anyone practicing Daoist arts or sorcery within the town.

He was determined to unearth who had dared to unleash Dao arts to afflict the Li family yesterday.