Chapter 12: The Mulberry Tree Subdues the Yin Python Part 1

Wang Ya scrambled up the Mulberry Tree like a monkey, planting both feet on the main branch to steady herself. A torrent of yin wind swept up from below like the tide, and those dozen or so rays of talisman light flickered out. A vast, chilling Yin Qi surged upward along the freshly piled five-meter-high mound of earth like a speeding train. The Ghost-Seeking Talisman plastered to the forehead of the Giant Snake gleamed brightly, rapidly approaching from below the mound like a streak of golden light.

Wang Ya leaped down from the tree in a flash and ducked behind it. She scattered seven ancient bronze coins on the ground, arranging them into a Big Dipper Seven Stars Formation. She positioned her feet in the Tai Chi Array stance, swiftly formed hand seals, then bit the tip of her tongue hard, precisely spraying the flowing blood onto her dancing fingertips as she pinched the seals. With a flourish of her hands, a serpentine azure talisman light materialized before her like a roaming dragon. At the same moment, the Giant Snake lunged up the mound straight at Wang Ya.

Wang Ya unleashed all her strength at the instant the Giant Snake slammed into the Mulberry Tree, releasing the gathered power entirely. She drove the Azure Dragon Yi Wood Talisman, drawn with her own vital blood and resembling a roaming dragon, deep into the Mulberry Tree! A tremendous force erupted from the tree, a powerful surge of verdant life force bursting forth. It was as if they had returned in an instant to a spring where all things grew wildly, or as if the entire power of spring converged and exploded in this moment! Wang Ya felt an overwhelming wave of green vitality pour from the Mulberry Tree. The Yin force gathered by the Yin Python collided fully with the tree and its erupting burst of vibrant green life force. An energy shockwave rippled outward like a massive clash right before her eyes. The ancient bronze coins laid out in the Big Dipper Seven Stars Formation at her feet leaped off the ground and trembled like chaff in a sieve, as if struck by immense force! She clearly sensed the power of the Big Dipper Seven Stars Formation activate; the seven coins formed an unbreakable barrier, blocking the powerful shockwave from outside. Wang Ya had no doubt that without the Big Dipper Seven Stars Formation underfoot, she would have been sent flying or at least injured—not just her body shaken, but her Divine Soul likely harmed as well.

Everything before her eyes happened in a flash, in the blink of an eye!

After a second or two, Wang Ya snapped back to her senses. A thick mass of black Yin Qi swirled around the Mulberry Tree, churning like boiling water, expanding violently outward only to be yanked back by some force, struggling desperately in unwillingness. Meanwhile, the Mulberry Tree blocking Wang Ya’s path erupted with a second spring in the scorching heat of this midsummer night, as if injected with steroids. Its branches and buds grew madly—truly madly—from tender sprouts to mature leaves in just two or three seconds! The entire tree, from roots to branches and leaves, surged with frenzied growth. As the Mulberry Tree expanded wildly, the Yin Qi encircling it madly flowed toward the roots! If that boiling Yin Qi was water, then the Mulberry Tree was a flushing toilet, sucking it all down into the roots with a whoosh.

Mulberry sounds like “mourning”—Mulberry Trees are heavy with Yin Qi. From ancient times, there was a saying: Mulberry Trees entangle ghosts, and the dead are buried beneath Mulberry Trees!

Wang Ya had originally planned to use the Mulberry Tree to suppress the Yin Vein. Now that this Yin Python was so ferocious and her talisman papers were depleted, she naturally wouldn’t hold back against it. She channeled the power of the Four Symbols’ Azure Dragon Yi Wood into the tree, infusing it with powerful vitality via the Azure Dragon Yi Wood essence. Borrowing the tree’s strength, she first dispersed the Yin Python into Yin Qi with one strike, then used the Mulberry Tree’s property of gathering Yin and entangling ghosts to contain that Yin Qi!

The appearance of this Yin Python was strange, and Wang Ya feared complications. After catching her breath slightly, she drew another talisman with her vital blood and drove it into the Mulberry Tree, joining forces with it to suppress the Yin Python.

In less than a quarter of an hour, all that Yin Qi had been fully absorbed by the Mulberry Tree. The power of the Azure Dragon Yi Wood Talisman faded, and the tree’s growth halted. The Mulberry Tree had grown a full circle larger, its branches and leaves lush and imposing.

Exhausted, Wang Ya sat cross-legged beneath the Mulberry Tree, panting heavily! That damned Zheng Yanxia had planted the tree so high, forcing her to climb a five-meter mound just to reach it earlier, expending all her remaining dozen or so talismans! Did Zheng Yanxia expect this Mulberry Tree to stand here year-round suppressing the Old Ghost and the Underground Yin Vein? Fine, that had been Wang Ya’s plan too—but there was a method that took a bit more effort yet solved it once and for all: use the Mulberry Tree to suppress the Old Ghost, then dig it up roots and all, burn it with fire, Heavenly Thunder, or thunder talismans to incinerate the Old Ghost right there. Still, with an Underground Yin Vein present, suppressing it with the Mulberry Tree would work too, saving trouble from new ghosts spawning on the Yin Vein after dealing with the Old Ghost.

Wang Ya sat under the Mulberry Tree for half an hour before regaining some strength. In that half hour, the Old Ghost didn’t so much as show her face or shadow. Had she hidden?

Think hiding would make you impossible to find?

Though Wang Ya’s talisman papers were spent, she couldn’t keep biting her fingers or tongue to draw them—drawing with vital blood harmed the Divine Soul and shortened lifespan if overdone. She was just earning money; losing lifespan for it would be too costly! Fortunately, she had come prepared. With talisman papers gone, she had other cards to play.