Chapter 123: Extinction of the Malignant Force

Outside, a myriad of malevolent entities seemed to be lurking, watching every movement within the wedding hall. I peered intently out the window, but now, there was nothing there. Had my eyes deceived me?

"Agh!" Xu Yingying’s agonizing scream snapped me out of my thoughts. I pulled my gaze away from the window and fixed it firmly on her.

Enveloped in the crimson light, the black malevolent aura surrounding Xu Yingying evaporated rapidly. Once the miasma dissipated, her corpse was exposed before us in harrowing detail. Devoid of that dark energy, she was nothing more than a common cadaver. The skin, bloated and rotted from immersion in the Yellow River, began to decay swiftly under the influence of the Taoist radiance. The hands that had been clamped around Chen Zhiqiang’s throat naturally lost their strength and dropped to her sides.

"Get the hell away from me!" Having caught his breath, Chen Zhiqiang seized the opportunity and kicked Xu Yingying away with all his might.

With a heavy thud, she crashed to the floor.

Lying there, enduring the agony of the supreme Taoist light, Xu Yingying struggled to turn her head toward me. Tears welled in her dark, aura-depleted eyes.

Within her rapidly decaying gaze, a flicker of maternal warmth remained. She stared fixedly at the ghost infant in my arms, summoning the last of her strength to preserve her fading consciousness. She gasped out toward me, "Child... in your next life, be born into a good family. And remember... Mother loves you..." As the words left her lips, her final shred of malevolent energy dissolved into the light. With her aura broken, her body became nothing more than a lifeless, ordinary corpse.

Because her body had been soaked in water for far too long, the lack of sustaining aura caused it to decompose at a visible rate. In the center of the hall, she melted into a pool of bloody slush.

The stench that permeated the room was nauseating.

"Ah, Mother!" The ghost infant in my arms, witnessing it all, let out a piercing, desolate cry. The sound tore through the villa and drifted into the night sky, so chilling that even the moon seemed to recoil, hiding itself behind the clouds.

The ghost infant struggled to break free, desperate to reach his mother’s side. I held him tightly; without the protection of my incantations, he would be scorched by the Taoist light.

Looking at the pool of blood on the floor, a bitter, complicated feeling washed over me.

Xu Yingying was a pathetic soul. Despite her repeated attempts on my life, I found myself inexplicably sympathizing with her in these final moments. This wretched, hateful creature was, at her core, a mother. Even at the moment she dissolved into gore, the only thing this cursed spirit could not let go of was her child.

Conversely, looking at Chen Zhitian and his grandson, who acted with such ruthless, unhesitating cruelty, nothing they did surprised me anymore.

"Die!"

Just as I was lost in thought, I was shoved violently from behind, nearly stumbling to the ground. By the time I regained my footing, Chen Zhiqiang had already snatched the ghost infant from my arms.

"Wuu, Father, Father, please don't kill me." After seizing the infant, Chen Zhiqiang held him high within the crimson glow, exposing him fully to the power of the sacred scroll.

As the red light bathed the ghost infant, he trembled in terror. The skin he had worked so hard to nurture began to collapse and wither rapidly.

The lethality of this Taoist light was less severe for the infant than it had been for Xu Yingying, likely because the child had committed no evil acts; thus, the sacred relic’s full power was not triggered, serving only as a warning for the evil spirit to retreat. Even so, as a creature of the underworld, prolonged exposure to such a holy object would inevitably lead him to the same fate as his mother.

I reached out to snatch the infant back, but Chen Zhiqiang stepped back, producing a yellow spirit-suppressing talisman. He stared at me with icy eyes and hissed, "Take one more step, and I will kill him."

"Chen Zhiqiang, you beast! That is your own child—how can you be so heartless?" Seeing the talisman, I dared not move a muscle.