Suddenly, white smoke billowed from within the river, and intense water waves bubbled up.
The old Daoist had just become alert and was about to turn around when a clump of pitch-black water plants emerged above the surface, transforming directly into a naked woman with long black hair.
Her entire body was eerily pale, but her face was extraordinarily delicate and beautiful. She stretched out her hands to grab the Daoist’s neck.
The White Water Daoist felt a chill at the base of his spine. He swiftly turned around and pinched a yellow paper charm between his fingers. He lifted it high, ready to strike it at the woman’s forehead.
However, just as he turned around, the woman’s arms around his neck suddenly became soft and looped around him and clung onto him.
The situation instantly became extremely romantic. The Daoist seemed taken aback by this and paused in surprise, his lifted hand remained frozen in mid-air.
“Focus your mind!” At that moment, a stern shout echoed from behind the White Water Daoist.
The Daoist gave a start, and he pointed his charm at the naked woman.
But then, a bizarre thing happened!
Like a white fish, she suddenly leaped out of the Daoist’s embrace and plunged into the river. Her dripping wet, black, long hair, behaving as if alive, coiled around the White Water Daoist and attempted to pull him down with her into the river.
The Daoist only felt a tightness in his throat. As he was about to gasp for breath, a bunch of black hair entered his mouth, penetrating his throat. He instantly began gagging in pain. His strength seemed to have depleted, and he was helplessly pulled towards the river by the water ghost-like woman.
It was at this critical moment, the white-faced scholar chanted softly, raising his hand to throw something towards the river.
He saw four cut-outs of human figures, crafted from white paper, shooting out from his hand. The moment these figures hit the water surface, they glowed with a dark red light, rapidly expanding.
In a flash, four men dressed as judicial constables emerged from the red light. Each of them held a half-red, half-black water-fire staff in their hands. With a vigorous jolt upwards, the water ghost woman and the White Water Daoist, about to plunge into the water, were jolted back to the riverbank.
As Shen Luo lay prone on the ridge of the roof, he looked closely and saw that the four men had pale complexions and no signs of life on their faces. Each had a pitch-black chain wrapped around them, bearing a resemblance to the ghost emissaries described in legends.
Before the water ghost woman could land on the riverbank, the white-faced scholar had already transformed into a white shadow and reached her. He brought his hand together into a palm and performed a horizontal slash at her body, the edge glowing with a sharp white light.
The hair of the water ghost woman suddenly grew like a rapidly sprouting tree, lifting her body into mid-air and dodging the slash.
However, as the white light flashed, her hair was chopped off.
The severed hair instantly withered like water plants. The White Water Daoist, entangled within, rolled out, already unconscious.
The white-faced scholar leaned over to check and noticed a layer of black Qi dwelling on the Daoist’s face, burrowing aggressively into his closed eyes.
“Your Yang life is not finished. If you die now, it will be a real nuisance.”
He uttered, pinched a piece of green talisman paper, and placed it on the forehead of the Daoist. With his other hand, he formed a hand seal.
A light glowed from the talisman paper, covering his face. It battled with the black Qi, like a tug-of-war, locked in a stalemate.
At the same time, the four ghost emissaries had already rushed over, surrounding the water ghost, who had landed again, in the middle.
“Judging by this situation, could this be the legendary catching of ghosts by shadow emissaries? Who exactly is this scholar?” Shen Luo took a glance at the white-faced scholar and murmured to himself.
I saw two ghost emissaries in front of the water ghost, one on the left and one on the right, simultaneously raising their hands, throwing out the chains in their hands. Like two venomous snakes, they were reaching towards the water ghost.
The water ghost let out a low growl, twisting its body, and its damp black hair suddenly swept away. Water splashes seemed to gush out from it, and under the ding-dong sounds, it actually sent all the chains back.
But at this moment, there was a large gust of wind above its head. It was the other two ghost emissaries, swinging their water-fire staffs and smashing them down on the water ghost.
The water ghost couldn’t dodge in time and could only open its mouth and spew out a stream of pitch-black, foul-smelling liquid, like an umbrella, blocking above it.
There was a loud “bang”!
The black-headed water-fire staff was in the hands of the ghost emissary in front of it, which broke the black liquid umbrella apart. The ghost emissary behind it then took the opportunity to swing the red-headed water-fire staff heavily on the water ghost’s shoulder.
A piercing scream tore through the night sky.
The water ghost seemed to have been burned by a hot iron, smoke rose from its body. On its originally pale, smooth skin, large pieces of pustules abruptly appeared, extremely miserable.
The four ghost emissaries simultaneously raised their hands, their iron chains shooting out and separately tying around the water ghost’s hands and feet. With a pull from all sides, they lifted it into mid-air.
The water ghost kept crying out, unable to struggle and escape. It was about to be torn apart by the ghost emissaries.
Shen Luo watched these ghost emissaries work seamlessly together and finally understood why the white-faced scholar could so confidently go to rescue people. But this only made him more curious about the identity of this person.
Just at this moment, there was a sudden commotion from the bridge’s end.
Shen Luo quickly looked over in that direction, only to see that the river guardian beast, which looked like a rhino, was trembling violently. Astonishingly, there were two clusters of blood light glowing at its eye positions.
“This is bad, it’s coming!” The white-faced scholar, who had not yet removed the black Qi from the White Water Daoist’s face, frowned when he saw this situation.
Layers of stone peeled off the river guardian beast’s body revealing patches of flesh and bones not covered by skin. Wrapped in black fog, it jumped up from the stone platform and crashed down towards the backyard of the Shui Nuan Pavilion.
The four ghost emissaries saw the situation, each pulling the chains, thoroughly tying up the water ghost. After pulling it back, they managed to dodge.
There was a thunderous “boom”!
Although Shen Luo was dozens of feet away, he still felt the building under him shake. The jetty behind the Shui Nuan Pavilion had subsided a small part.
The river guardian beast roared, and a black light immediately lit up on its horn and shot out with a “swoosh”.
A ghost emissary couldn’t dodge in time, got pierced at its shoulder, and was shot out with a hole. Large patches of red light immediately flew off its body, disappearing underground.
Its physical form then rapidly shrunk, turning back into a paper-cut-out of a human figure, spontaneously burning into ashes.
Shen Luo looked at this scene, feeling increasingly amazed.
Subsequently, more black light flew out from the horn on the river guardian beast’s head, attacking the other two ghost emissaries.
“Fall back quickly!” The white-faced scholar pulled hard, finally tearing off the black Qi that had been sticking to the White Water Daoist’s face like a dog skin plaster. He quickly shouted to the remaining three ghost emissaries.