Protection

The Eldest Master was stunned by the sight.

Eerie!

It was far too eerie!

He had no idea what this transcendent ability was, let alone how to counter it.

The people whose heads had been swapped crawled toward the Eldest Master with eerie smiles.

The Eldest Master could even strike down his own children, so he naturally showed no mercy to these outsiders.

With a few punches, he reduced them to a mess of flesh and blood.

Buzz—

The locusts on the black-robed corpses flew out once more, devouring the flesh and blood in great gulps.

These people were transcendents, and the energy within them was far stronger than that of ordinary humans. The locusts grew visibly larger as they fed.

The largest among them were already the size of an adult's forearm.

“Dad, you're a Demigod, aren't you? Why won't you save me?”

“It's all your fault! It's all your fault! If I weren't your daughter, I wouldn't have had to die!”

“The one who should die is you! Why is it me?!”

The Eldest Young Miss roared at the top of her lungs, charging at the Eldest Master with a short blade.

How could an ordinary person with an ordinary weapon possibly harm a Demigod?

The Eldest Master stared at Yin Yang with a murderous gaze.

“It's you... it's all you!”

“Give me back my children's lives!!!”

His divinity erupted, instantly crushing the Eldest Young Miss flat.

Inside the barrier, Yin Yang laughed.

“You've already killed her twice, yet you're asking me to pay for it?”

Boom!

The Eldest Master concentrated his divinity into his fists and slammed them heavily against the barrier where Yin Yang stood.

Yin Yang remained unmoved. With a flick of his left hand, a scabbard appeared.

The locusts grew even more frenzied upon seeing the scabbard!

Even the Eldest Young Master and the others struggled to maintain their human forms. This was the 【Locust God scabbard】, which Yin Yang had bought as a bundle with the incense burner.

The incense burner served as the core for the head-swapping ritual, while the Locust God scabbard was used as the core for the killing ritual.

From the looks of it, the results were good.

It was just a shame that the residual faith within these ritual offerings was thin; otherwise, the effect would have been even greater.

Unfortunately, someone was disrupting things.

Yin Yang looked up toward the Li family estate.

He didn't care about the locusts being killed.

However, burning the locust meat was a bit annoying, as he still had a use for it.

It was an important means of exhausting a Demigod. If it was all burned away, what would he use instead?

Thinking of this, Yin Yang bent down and inserted an ancient-looking key into the ground.

A ring of light emerged, completely covering a fifty-meter radius.

As the ground trembled, an altar slowly emerged.

The altar was grotesquely designed, covered in numerous skulls, one of which was staggeringly large.

If that really was a human head, he couldn't imagine how big the person must have been!

Yin Yang walked to one of the skulls with his staff, stepping on it as he spoke.

“Come, let me show you an old acquaintance.”

As Yin Yang spoke, the altar beneath his feet seemed to come to life. Some black material wriggled onto the skull, restoring its features.

The Eldest Master didn't recognize who it was at first, but as he watched, he suddenly froze, his face filling with disbelief.

“O-Old Fourth?”

“Oh? You can still recognize him after all these years?”

“It seems you really do share a deep brotherly bond.”

Yin Yang continued to provoke him with words. As expected, the Eldest Master took the bait, his emotions fluctuating even more violently.

‘Now!’

“With blood sacrificed, with blood contained!”

“Consecrate the body, consecrate the spirit!”

“Three souls emerge, seven spirits awaken!”

“Without offerings, I chant Thy name!”

Yin Yang had been a gardener in the Li family for quite some time; how could he have gained nothing?

Although he hadn't obtained any blood, he had managed to get some hair samples.

From top to bottom, he had everyone's—except for the Old Master, who was never seen!

As Yin Yang finished the incantation, the Eldest Master felt as if a heavy hammer had slammed into the crown of his head.

His vision went black, and the world began to spin.

Ding.

A jade pendant shattered. The Eldest Master snapped awake, looking down to see a zhanmadao cutting into his waist!

Without the jade pendant's protection, he would have been sliced in two by that single blow.

Adrenaline surged through him in an instant. The chaotic thoughts in his mind were immediately wiped clean, leaving only his most primal instinct.

Survival!

Compared to his life, nothing else mattered.

He flicked his wrists, and two iron rulers appeared in his hands. After crossing them to parry a strike from the blade-wielding ghost, he lunged forward, intending to disarm it.

One had to admit that a Demigod was still a Demigod; both his strength and combat experience were formidable.

However, the blade-wielding ghost was not weak either.

Under Yin Yang's constant influence, although it remained at a disadvantage, it wouldn't be finished off by the Eldest Master immediately.

Right then, two more Demigods flew in from the horizon—Chi Zhu and Ming Yang!

Yin Yang's lips curled into a smirk. This, too, was within his calculations.

Once they left the Li family's perimeter, the charred locust meat began to wriggle. It intertwined and spread, gradually forming a massive formation that surrounded the Li family.

Yin Yang began to dance atop the altar. Upon seeing this, the expressions of Chi Zhu and Ming Yang turned grim.

“The mask, the robe, the dance, the altar—it's the person the Headquarters is looking for!”

“That's right, it's him!”

The two exchanged a look, their divinity erupting instantly.

“Bureau Chief Li, we're here to help!”

...

Inside the Li family estate.

“What's the panic? What are you all panicking for!”

“It's just a small disturbance. The Eldest Master is here, and two other Demigods are here too. What could possibly go wrong?”

Wang Bo was lecturing the servants.

Although he was also afraid, he could not show weakness now, or he wouldn't even be able to handle these servants.

The guards clearly understood the gravity of the situation as well. Every one of them clicked off their safeties, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

In a corner, Dong Xin and Dong Yue stood beside Chef Dong.

The two hadn't forgotten what Yin Yang had told them earlier: if they encountered danger, they should stay with their father.

Chef Dong's expression was conflicted. One moment he looked at his children, and the next he looked toward the third branch's area.

Just as he was debating whether to take advantage of the chaos to kill the Third Young Master, a rustling sound reached his ears.

“What was that sound?”

A young man cried out in alarm.

The surrounding guards were even more tense, their eyes darting around.

“On the wall!”

At those words, the guards turned in unison toward the wall, seeing something wriggling along the top of the high stone structure.

Thud.

A black hand reached over from the outside and gripped the wall.

Rat-tat-tat.

Someone finally lost their nerve and opened fire on the black hand.

Fear was contagious. When the first person fired, the others followed suit.

The black hand was instantly blown apart, splattering black liquid everywhere.

Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, more and more black hands reached up.

Dong Xin reached out and covered Dong Yue's eyes, his breathing heavy.

“Little sister, do you want to play a game with me?”

Dong Yue nervously tugged at Chef Dong's apron.

“What game?”

“Let's see who can keep their eyes closed the longest.”

“Huh? That sounds boring.”

“If you win, I'll give you my electronic watch.”

“Okay!”

Hearing that she could get the electronic watch if she won, Dong Yue was suddenly filled with joy.

Dong Xin stared at the top of the wall in terror, his expression gradually hardening with resolve.

‘I have to protect my sister!’