fantasy novels Chapter 247 This sword of yours is not your original possession.
Chapter 247 This sword of yours is not your original possession.
Chapter 247 This sword of yours is not your original possession (4200)
Before the altar spirit's foot had even truly landed, the entire stone path had already "sat" on it for a moment.
It wasn't an earthquake, but a sinking.
Like an old well buried in frozen soil, suddenly compacted by an invisible weight.
The white lines in the salt formation, which were originally quite distinct, were instantly pressed down and collapsed by half.
The incense ash was swept up by a gust of cold wind, then suddenly fell back to the ground, as if the surrounding lights were being forced to bow their heads by an unseen hand.
The moment Lu Yuan lunged forward, all he saw was an overwhelming darkness.
That was neither black mist nor shadow, but rather the "mat evil" that exploded in an instant from the mats, bone slips, red ropes, paper ash, and old name register pages beneath the altar spirit's feet.
Once it gains momentum, it's like a dark mat turned up from the ground, specifically used to wrap people.
Anyone who is present at the banquet, if their mind is disturbed, will immediately be recognized as a "guest of honor" by the spirit. If they want to extricate themselves, they must first tear their soul off the table.
"Back off!"
Lu Yuan gave a low shout, took two quick steps with his feet, his right shoulder slightly lowered, and the short knife was already gripped in his left palm.
The red light of the copper coin on the back of the knife flashed, barely managing to split open half a foot of the shady mat in front of him.
Almost simultaneously, Zhou Heng thrust his sword upwards, the blade not traveling in a straight line, but rather diagonally flicking along the edge of the aura, executing a "returning stroke."
.
This is precisely the "Mask-Cutting Style" rarely seen in the old sword sect.
This technique is not meant to harm the ghost, but only to weaken its "edge energy".
Xi Sha fears nothing more than having its edges cut off, otherwise everything will be lost.
As the sword flashed, a gash was indeed cut open in the black mat.
But as soon as the opening was made, countless tiny black lines immediately grew out from under the altar spirit's feet, patching it up like spider silk.
"It's no use!"
Zhou Heng said in a deep voice, his wrist already numb from the vibration.
The spirit of the altar stands atop the altar's eye, its form not tall, yet resembling a bottomless grave that grows heavier with each sitting.
It slowly raised its hand, its five fingers pointing outwards.
Lu Yuan felt a sudden tightness under his feet, as if his legs were bound by some cold rope, and he was pulled forward abruptly.
That pull was extremely fierce; if he hadn't been prepared, he would have been dragged into the circle where the evil aura was strongest.
"Fellow Daoist Lu!"
Song Qinghe exclaimed in surprise, almost losing his grip on the sealing disc.
She quickly turned the plate around, and the yin-yang symbol folded three times, the cold light on the plate spreading out like a layer of frost.
The aura surrounding Lu Yuan's feet was forcefully suppressed. However, the altar spirit merely tilted its head slightly, its sinister smile deepening.
"The plate is nice."
It said calmly, "But your game is like using the light of heaven to illuminate ghosts."
"My seat is secured by the support of ten thousand people."
"You can suppress it for a while, but you can't suppress it all at once."
Before the words were finished, the paper banners on both sides of the stone path suddenly shook.
The white paper faces on the banner seemed to come alive, as if they were peeking out from the banner itself, with long, thin necks and mouths splitting open to reveal rings of black teeth like signatures.
It wasn't a single evil spirit, but an entire "Shadow of the Altar" that was awakened in one go by the spirit of the altar.
Lin Zhaoxuan coughed up blood, and the Thunder Token emitted a piercing chirp in his palm.
He knew that if he dragged it out any longer, his own thunderous intent would be reversed by the altar spirit, so he gritted his teeth and swung his right arm violently.
Thunder Token slammed into his chest, creating an extremely hard "Thunder Seal," and he shouted, "Thunder doesn't follow the heavens, thunder follows the law!"
"The law does not recognize the underhanded; the underhanded will naturally recede!"
"I use blood as my guide and commands as my gate!"
"Thunder Ancestor's True Light, descend!"
As soon as the word "fall" was uttered, a blue-white lightning line shot up from the talisman in the center of the Thunder Token, heading straight for the altar spirit's brow and altar eye.
But the spirit of the altar did not avoid it at all, and simply stretched out two fingers to gently pinch it.
"Sizzle"
The lightning bolt was snapped between its fingers, scattering into countless tiny sparks that splashed on the ground but then burrowed back into the edge of the salt array.
The next instant, the salt grains popped and sparked, creating dozens of reverse electric burns.
Lin Zhaoxuan grunted, his face turning ashen.
"It can eat thunder."
His voice tightened: "They'll even twist the thunder back into the formation!"
The altar spirit slightly raised its eyes, as if looking at a group of struggling lamp wicks.
"Your laws are all borrowed."
"How can something borrowed compare to this altar that I've been using for worship for a hundred years?"
As it spoke, it slowly raised its other hand, put its index and middle fingers together, and gently pointed downwards.
At this point, the ground seemed to be suddenly pierced by some invisible nail.
Lu Yuan felt the "Ancestral Fire Circle" beneath his feet suddenly freeze, as if a dark nail was drilling into it along the fire pattern, heading straight for the center of the fire circle.
"It's pinning me to a ring of fire!"
Lu Yuan's eyes sharpened, and he abruptly took half a step back, clapped his hands together, and swiftly shouted, "Fire is not your name, nail is not your root!"
"With the ancestral fire above, may you not be condemned to hell by the nails of darkness!"
"Ignite the fire, backfire, switch the fire, illuminate the fire!"
"Hurry, hurry, as the law commands!"
He uttered four sentences in a row, his palm flipping over, and the fire patterns suddenly swirled up on the ground.
Like a tiny red wheel, it burned the yin nail away by half an inch.
But the altar spirit simply gave a faint "hmm".
Its inner eye slightly opened, and the lantern at the end of the stone path floated forward half a foot on its own, and the tiny human hand inside the lantern suddenly opened.
With a slight bend of his five fingers, it seemed as if he were pointing towards Lu Yuan's brow.
Lu Yuan felt a chill in his heart and immediately turned his head away.
But he was still a beat too slow. A thin, cold wisp of light brushed past the end of his left eyebrow, like an ice needle, and instantly pierced the back of his head.
He felt a sudden "buzz" in his head and almost saw a very brief hallucination!
A long, dark mat was set up, with red lanterns and a hundred nameless guests sitting in neat rows.
But I am like an offering bowl placed at the very front, filled not with soup, but with my own breath.
"Don't look at the light!"
Song Qinghe's voice trembled with anxiety: "That lamp is hooking the god!"
Lu Yuan bit his tongue hard, the taste of blood exploding in his mouth, and his mind immediately cleared by half.
He knew that the altar for worshipping spirits was no longer relying solely on coercion, but was beginning to gradually use the four gates of "name, lamp, seat, and eye" to exert pressure simultaneously.
If it shines on us a few more times, not only will it break the altar, but our entire group will likely be dragged into the underworld on the spot, unable to even turn over.
But at this most dangerous moment, the altar spirit suddenly stopped.
It no longer urged down the evil spirits, no longer suppressed the thunder, and no longer used the lamp to illuminate people. Instead, it slowly lowered its head and looked at its own altar eye.
In those empty eyes, a tiny crack appeared.
Lu Yuan's pupils suddenly contracted.
"I see."
He murmured, "It's not without flaws either."
Zhou Heng immediately asked, "What flaw?"
A cold glint flashed in Lu Yuan's eyes: "The altar's spirits rely on others for the ritual; the greatest fear is the interruption of offerings."
"It can consume, it can reverse thunder, it can suppress life, but its true root lies not in these outer shells, but in the offering breath within the altar."
"As long as you temporarily deprive the altar of offerings, it will be exposed."
Lin Zhaoxuan took a breath: "But how do we cut off the supply?"
"This entire road is its altar."
Lu Yuan didn't answer, but stared at the altar and the spirit, while another thought quickly crossed his mind.
The most evil aspect of the so-called altar worship of spirits is not killing, but "substitution".
It is not a single monster, but has been cultivated into a "position".
Where there are offerings, there are people to sit; where there are people to sit, there are people to offer.
Now it sits in the middle of the seat, and if you want to cut off its supply, you have to make it lose its "place to sit".
The most ruthless law in this world is never to strike at the evil thing itself, but to dismantle the "name and position" on which it exists.
Lu Yuan took a deep breath, suddenly raised his hand, sheathed his short sword, and then took out a handful of neatly folded yellow paper talismans from his pocket.
There were seven talismans, but the folding method was not a single fold; rather, it was a "seven-fold fold without the top showing" altar fold.
As soon as the talisman was presented, the altar spirit's forehead eye trembled slightly.
It recognizes this thing.
"You want to change the altar?"
For the first time, a genuine chill crept into the spirit's tone.
Lu Yuan didn't reply. Instead, he threw out the seven yellow talismans one by one in the shape of the Big Dipper, chanting in a low voice, "Seven stars of the Big Dipper, restrain evil and fix names."
"The first light, I will sever your lamp root."
"The second Kaiyang, will sever your Xi meridian."
"The Third Jade Balance, shatter your altar's heart."
"The fourth day of power, lock your name on the register."
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"Fifth Tianji, I command you to return to your shadow."
"Sixth Tianxuan, you are hereby granted the privilege of receiving offerings."
"Seventh Heavenly Pivot, I will return you to the Void!"
"When the Big Dipper rises, the Dharma gate opens!"
"Hurry, hurry, as the law commands!"
The seven talismans, once unleashed, did not rush directly towards the altar and the spirit, but instead scattered around, forming a miniature Heavenly Battle Formation.
The altar's spirit head and altar eyes suddenly shone brightly, and the evil energy beneath its feet suddenly surged, threatening to shatter the formation.
Lu Yuan's eyes turned cold, and he finally formed an unprecedentedly powerful hand seal.
The left hand holds the "Ancestral Seal," and the right hand holds the "Severing the Bond."
Cross your palms, tuck your thumbs in, stand your index and middle fingers together like a sword, and hide the other two fingers in your palms, with your palms facing inwards.
It's like slowly pulling an invisible magic sword from your heart.
He chanted softly, "The ancestral fire has not been extinguished, and the lineage has not been severed."
"The altar can be overturned, the mat can be broken, the name can be scattered, and the lamp can be folded."
"I borrowed a breath of innate true energy and a wisp of acquired thunderous heart."
"6
"When the sword is drawn, no old grudges are considered; when the sword falls, only the root of evil is severed!"
"The sword's name is not revealed, but its essence is already present."
"The sword is not for killing, but solely for breaking through enemy ranks!"
"open!"
As the last word was uttered, an extremely clear and cold sword cry suddenly echoed from the end of the stone path.
The sound was unlike ordinary iron, much less like a short sword or a long sword, but rather like ancient, cold iron suddenly drawn from its sheath in the deep mountains on a snowy night, so cold it sent a chill down one's spine.
Before anyone could react, a line of white light suddenly lengthened in Lu Yuan's palm, resembling a long sword falling from nothingness.
The sword is imbued with spiritual energy, its bluish-white surface concealing golden patterns. The spine of the sword seems to contain the intent of thunder, while the blade is like primordial fire, cold yet fiery, and imbued with malevolence.
Lin Zhaoxuan exclaimed, "This is—!"
Lu Yuan did not answer, his eyes darkening, and he said loudly, "Today I will use it to cut this pot."
The coldness in the altar spirit's eyes instantly turned into shock, followed by unprecedented rage.
It finally lost its composure, and a blood-red crack suddenly appeared in the center of its forehead, sucking in countless sheets of paper, mats, bone slips, and lamplight.
His entire being was like a dark altar that had suddenly turned on him, bursting forth with towering black energy from within.
"Does anyone with a genuine weapon think they can defeat me?"
"You living people who borrow fire, thunder, and swords!"
"Today, I will include you all in this!"
As soon as he finished speaking, all the lights above the stone path suddenly went upside down, their pale white, bluish-black, and grayish-yellow swirling around.
Countless shadowy figures crawled out simultaneously from the walls, the ground, the altar, and the bottom of the coffin, like hundreds of silent hands, all grabbing at the newly revealed magic sword in Lu Yuan's hand.
Lu Yuan did not back down. Holding his sword with both hands, he stomped his feet in a powerful step, shouting, "The sword shines with three lights, slaying demons and vanquishing evil!"
"I will destroy your name, sever your throne, shatter your seat, and crush your altar!"
"The patriarch shines in front, and thunder and fire chase from behind!"
"The sword rises like a dragon, never to turn back!"
He suddenly swung his magic sword horizontally, and the sword light flashed like lightning splitting a snowy night, actually slicing the oncoming shadow in half.
But that sliver of hope didn't bring any respite; instead, it stirred up a hornet's nest.
The altar spirit's heart-shaped eye suddenly opened, and a thick, dark, foul odor burst forth from the cracked, blood-red fissure.
The black mist contained countless tiny scraps of paper, ashes, lamp oil, and fragments of rosaries.
Like a ignited dark river, it was forcibly pushed away by the sword light, then veered in mid-air and launched a counterattack.
"retreat!"
Lu Yuan only managed to utter one word before he felt a weight on his shoulder.
It's not about being heavy, but about "sitting".
It felt as if something invisible had suddenly sat on his shoulders and back, pressing down on his spine and making his entire arm go numb instantly.
Zhou Heng reacted extremely quickly, sweeping his sword back to try and dispel the oppressive pressure.
But just as the sword was halfway through its journey, a wisp of shadow wrapped around its spine, like an old vine binding a knife, forcefully reducing its force by seventy percent.
Zhou Heng's expression changed slightly. He twisted his foot and used the momentum to retreat, but the tip of his sword was already trembling from being worn down.
"It's using positional pressure!"
Lin Zhaoxuan spoke sternly.
Before he finished speaking, the withered hand that the altar spirit had raised gently pressed down in the air.
With this press, the white-faced, evil figures half-peeking out from the paper on both sides of the stone path all fell off the banner.
Like a group of boneless paper figures, they slowly slid down from all directions to the feet of the crowd.
The names written in vermilion on the paper faces began to bleed black, becoming darker and darker, until they resembled living obituaries, deliberately targeting people's shadows.
Song Qinghe suddenly pushed the sealing disc forward, and the yin-yang fish spun rapidly, spreading cold light in a circle on the ground, barely blocking the paper shadow from seeping in along the ground.
But her face was frighteningly pale, and her lips even began to tremble.
"Master Lu—"
She almost gritted her teeth as she said, "This thing isn't attacking us, it's changing our position—it's twisted the anode in my pan off course!"
Lu Yuan heard it clearly, and his heart sank even further.
The altar worship is no longer simply about making a move, but about "changing the altar".
Every time it raises its hand, every time it sits down, every time it opens its eyes, it transforms this stone path from a place where a living person can stand into its own seat.
If it were to turn the entire road into a dark, shadowy place, our group wouldn't even be able to stand, let alone fight it.
He suppressed the oppressive pressure on his shoulders, took three quick steps with his feet, raised his magic sword diagonally, and chanted urgently, "Heaven has its heavenly position, and earth has its earthly position."
"Humans have their place, and ghosts have their place."
"Do not overstep your assigned place, and do not disrupt the proper seating arrangement."
"Now that evil spirits have disrupted your proper position, I borrow a breath of true energy from the Ancestral Master to suppress your misalignment and force you back to your roots!"
"Please take your place, rise!"
Turn your left hand gesture, press your thumb against the base of your ring finger, raise your middle and index fingers together, and tuck the remaining two fingers inward, like a nail or a ruler.
With his right hand holding the magic sword horizontally in front of his chest, the blade trembled slightly, and the golden patterns on the sword surface shone brightly by half an inch.
As soon as the half-inch of golden pattern lit up, the shadows that had begun to slant under everyone's feet were forcibly pulled back to their original positions.
A flash of bloodlust appeared in the eyes of the altar spirit.
"This sword of yours is not your original possession."
It said slowly.
Lu Yuan didn't answer, but gritted his teeth and took another step, shouting fiercely, "Whether it's mine or not, I'll kill you enough to satisfy my needs!"
Having said that, the magic sword suddenly thrust forward, its tip aimed directly at the heart of the altar spirit's forehead.
This sword strike was both a direct attack and a probe.
But the spirit of the altar didn't even try to dodge; instead, it lowered its head and brought the altar's eye to the tip of the sword.
Just as the sword was about to touch the blade, it suddenly emitted a very fine and sharp tremor, as if something was being pulled out of the sword.
Lu Yuan's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly realized that something was wrong.
"It's stealing the sword's intent!"
As expected, the altar eye on the spirit's forehead, like a black well, swallowed the golden intent of the ancestral fire at the tip of the sword mouthful by mouthful.
The moment the sword tip touched the eye of the altar, the originally bright sword light quickly dimmed, and even the fine gold lines on the spine of the sword began to turn slightly gray.
"Sheathe your sword!"
Zhou Heng shouted loudly.
But it was too late.
The altar spirit raised his hand and grabbed the sword blade out of thin air.