Chapter Eighteen: The Soul-Devouring Banner

Jiang Wangshu snapped back to reality.

“Hey, hey, hey, you’re a prisoner now, still shouting like that. Have you lost your mind?”

Jiang Wanwan stepped back, scanning the room with disbelief etched across her face. “Are you crazy or am I? This is our home!”

She sneered coldly, “I thought you’d grown smarter, but you’re still just a fool.”

“This house isn’t yours. It’s mine,” Jiang Wanwan said, clapping her hands. “Someone, seize Jiang Wangshu!”

A shadow flashed from the corner, leaping at Jiang Wangshu like a ferocious tiger.

Jiang Wangshu stood her ground. “Little Black.”

With a grim expression, Little Black reluctantly emerged, swiping its claws—one for each shadow. The ghostly forms were torn apart, utterly defeated by his sharp talons.

Jiang Wangshu sank into the sofa, propping her head up, gazing at Jiang Wanwan. “Anything else?”

In her mind: System, scan her for any pendants.

The smile on Jiang Wanwan’s lips vanished, her face darkening abruptly. “Jiang Wangshu, you won’t be smug forever.”

She hurled a jade pendant.

A savage roar erupted. Suddenly, a pitch-black, four-winged, two-headed tiger appeared, its three-meter-tall body squeezing the living room tight.

Jiang Wanwan grinned maliciously. “Kill her—no, crush every bone in her body.”

Jiang Wangshu pressed her forehead, sighing. “With all this evil energy, aren’t you afraid the police will come?”

Cultivators of the dark arts built their power atop countless corpses, feeding on all spiritual energy, despised by the world. If any surveillance stone detected evil energy, the police would be alerted instantly.

Jiang Wanwan burst into manic laughter, tears nearly spilling. “The surveillance stones around here have long been cleared out. No one will come to save you—just accept your fate!”

Jiang Wangshu’s eyes flickered, and she shivered, her poor acting painfully obvious. “But there’s a recording stone inside, capturing everything.”

Jiang Wanwan smirked triumphantly. “A fool will always be a fool. Would I leave such an obvious flaw?”

Jiang Wangshu feigned sudden understanding, applauding, “You’re truly brilliant! In that case, I won’t hold back!”

Jiang Wanwan snorted coldly. “All you do is talk big. Attack!”

The four-winged, two-headed tiger lunged, jaws wide, spewing ice and fire. Wherever its breath touched, blackened patches appeared, the scent dizzying and nauseating.

A black shadow charged headlong, colliding with the tiger, both crashing through the wall and tumbling into the garden.

Tiger and merman tore at each other in primal, savage combat.

Amid her shock, Jiang Wanwan sensed a surge of wood spiritual energy beneath her feet. A flash of light enveloped her, repelling the encroaching vines.

“Jiang Wangshu, do you think you can outplay me with wood spiritual power?”

Jiang Wanwan tossed a handful of grass seeds. Wild grass erupted, twisting like snakes, enveloping Jiang Wangshu and forming a thick grass effigy.

The triumph in Jiang Wanwan’s eyes had barely taken shape when a massive tree phantom appeared, breaking free from the grass’s grasp.

Jiang Wangshu stared at her book, weaving a spell with one hand. “Jiang Wanwan, hurry up and show your next move.”

Gritting her teeth, Jiang Wanwan formed a seal with both hands. “Enclosure. Decay technique.”

A ring of miasmic fog surrounded Jiang Wangshu, plants exuding a rotting stench clawed up from the floor, surging toward her.

Jiang Wanwan’s face turned pale, cold sweat beading from spiritual exhaustion. “I don’t believe you can escape now.”

She was at the ninth level of Qi cultivation, nearly ready for Foundation Establishment. Jiang Wangshu’s spiritual energy was so thin it didn’t even match the first level of Qi cultivation—there was no way she could lose.

Nearby, Aunt Liu evacuated the other servants, silently watching the scene, holding a message stone to act as a mobile camera for her master’s live viewing.

Jiang Mingqian watched Jiang Wangshu struggle to break free, his eyes falling with disappointment.

Jiang Wanwan listened to the thunderous battle outside, her eyes fixed on the fog, her smile growing wider with every moment.

“Hahaha! I told you, trash will always be trash—”

Suddenly, the fog cracked open, and the rotting aura spread, causing everything in the living room to rapidly decay and crumble.

Jiang Wangshu met Jiang Wanwan’s rigid expression with a smile. “Sorry to keep you waiting!”

Her eyes closed lightly, right hand raised to her forehead, fingers forming a seal. “Resonance. Judgment.”

The decayed spiritual energy gathered swiftly, condensing into a deep green spear.

The shaft was straight, the tip dull with a woody texture, aimed directly at Jiang Wanwan.

Jiang Wanwan’s pupils contracted, terror overtaking her, brain seized by a sense of imminent doom, hands trembling, feet rooted, unable to move.

“Wanwan!” Mu Guannan rushed in, unable to cast a spell in time, launching herself like an arrow to push Jiang Wanwan aside.

The spear’s wooden tip pierced through, then vanished.

Mu Guannan fell to the ground like a severed kite.

Jiang Wanwan finally reacted, scrambling to embrace Mu Guannan. “Mother…”

Mu Guannan’s whole body was tinged with gray decay. She trembled, lips quivering, using Jiang Wanwan’s strength to stand.

“To harm Wanwan is unforgivable. Today, you must die.”

“Soul-Devouring Banner.” Mu Guannan recited a spell, and a sinister, ghostly flag rose, enveloping Jiang Wangshu in a shroud of light.

Jiang Wangshu stood unmoving, feeling languid and content, as if she’d returned to a place of safety.

Her eyelids drooped, nearly falling asleep on the spot.

Jiang Mingqian’s face changed drastically. “Act now!”

Aunt Liu darted from the corner, but she was a moment too late.

Jiang Wangshu vanished, and the feasting Little Black disappeared as well.

Mu Guannan stowed the Soul-Devouring Banner, grabbing Jiang Wanwan. “I knew Jiang Mingqian would keep a trump card. Let’s go!”

Before her words finished, a flash of light enveloped them, and they disappeared.

“Carrying a teleportation stone—how extravagant.” Jiang Mingqian sneered. “Liu Ying, hunt down Mu Guannan and Jiang Wanwan. If Jiang Wangshu dies, bring back any remaining soul.”

“Yes.”

In an instant, the hidden corridors boiled with activity, for the renowned intelligence agency Golden Toad Pavilion had issued a bounty and a search order.

The bounty was ten thousand high-grade spirit stones, and the search reward even more staggering—fifty thousand high-grade spirit stones.

Everyone strained to claim the generous reward.

Meanwhile, another major event unfolded publicly.

The formation clan Jiang family’s array turned out to contain demon bones, attracting hordes of monsters who broke through the black hole to attack.

The Jiang family came under massive scrutiny.

But they acted swiftly, investigated thoroughly, executed the traitor Jiang Che, and poured out spirit stones to placate the people.

A shocking incident vanished before it could stir waves, snuffed out in the cradle.

Meanwhile, the F City Chief Li Huan Yi was punished and removed from office following public complaints, reassigned to the Star Realm Fleet to exterminate Outer Domain demons.

The command of F City was handed over to Shen Qingzhou.