Screams and barking erupted at once, throwing everything into chaos.

The lanterns the beggars carried fell to the ground, igniting patches of dry grass. Flames flared alongside thick smoke, spreading in all directions and driving the wild dogs into an even greater frenzy.

The remaining beggars immediately scattered.

“Spotted! Watch for dark eyes!”

“Loose the snakes, make him ours!”

“Don’t disturb the Qingfeng!”

While dodging the wild dogs, they shouted in coded slang. Though the jianghu’s spring cant differed from place to place, there was still a shared core. Anyone who heard it often enough could decipher it.

Translated to something normal people could understand, it meant: “We’ve been discovered, beware of hidden weapons,” “Release the snakes, kill him,” and “Don’t alert that ghost.”

Such words might fool outsiders, but Li Yan understood them clearly.

Beggars were experts at handling snakes. Since they could secretly control wild dogs, using snakes to ambush people was only natural. But the phrase about not alerting the ghosts made his heart sink.

That was likely their trump card. They were going to summon something troublesome that carried unpredictable consequences. With that thought, he stopped concealing himself. He leaped from the hillside and charged downhill.

Woof! Woof woof!

The agitated pack of wild dogs immediately noticed him. Those beasts had long since gone feral. Some chased after the fleeing beggars, but more bared their fangs and lunged at him. At the same time, the beggars shrugged off their cloth satchels, unfastened them, and flung them open. Instantly, over a dozen black snakes shot out, slithering rapidly across the ground toward Li Yan.

Li Yan’s expression didn’t change. His Guanshan blade flashed from its sheath. With a single focused thought, the Three Talents Demon Suppressing Coin tassel began to sway from side to side.

Having stepped foot onto the mystic path and succeeded in stabilizing his spirit, though he had yet to construct his inner temple and the deity he visualized remained only a vague orb of light, he could already wield the artifact.

Guided by his spiritual will, the killing qi contained in the tassel spread instantly. The blade turned icy, exuding a chilling, sinister air.

As Wang Daoxuan had explained, the Three Talents Demon Suppressing Coins, when combined with an imperial plaque, formed a subtle suppressive formation. It was insidious, vicious, and self-sustaining. Used alone, however, they held momentum.

The force, though steeped in yin energy, was fierce and overbearing. It was perfect for suppressing evil.

The wild dogs, though merely flesh and blood, had long fed on corpses. They inevitably carried traces of yin energy and were highly sensitive to it.

They bristled and recoiled the moment Li Yan drew his blade, as if encountering their natural enemy. They whimpered as they quickly scattered in panic.

The black snakes fled as well. Though even more vicious, they immediately turned back. Some burrowed into the satchels again, while others suddenly lashed out, attacking the beggars instead.

Clearly, the snakes had gone out of control.

The beggars were startled. Though caught off guard, they were seasoned snake handlers. When they heard the snakes lunge at them, they formed claws with their right hands, seizing the snakes by their vital points and stuffing them hastily back into their bags.

But in that brief moment, Li Yan had already closed in.

Shing!

One beggar didn’t even have time to react before his throat was cut open. Blood sprayed as he collapsed, clutching his neck and making choking sounds before falling still. Beside him, an old beggar with far more combat experience leaped backward while swinging his dog-beating staff down with a howl.

His move was called “Beating the Dog’s Head.”

When facing vicious dogs, beggars would leap back at the moment the dog lunged, creating distance while bringing the staff down vertically to strike a vital point. Against humans, they didn’t necessarily aim for the head.

The staff, being a long weapon, could shatter an opponent’s wrist with a single strike, forcing them to drop their weapon. Then the attacker could follow up with a forward step and a slanted upward strike to the throat.

Even if the opponent dodged, it still created space.

The old beggar had a good plan, but Li Yan was faster. After killing the first beggar, he rolled sideways, dodging the staff. The old beggar recovered smoothly, twisting his body to launch a sweeping strike.

But as Li Yan rose from his roll, he flicked the handful of gravel and dirt he had grabbed into the old beggar’s face. Panicking, the old beggar tried to retreat, but felt a sudden chill at his neck. His vision spun as his head was cleanly severed.

It was a fight to the death. Li Yan showed no mercy.

One of the beggars yelled, “Hard target! Wind’s tight, scatter!”

The remaining beggars turned and fled.

The Beggar Sect had always been large and mixed. Though these men were skilled among beggars, they mainly bullied ordinary people. Against true martial artists, they relied on numbers and tricks like dogs and snakes to catch enemies off guard. But their techniques failed when faced with someone like Li Yan, leaving them no choice but to flee in disgrace.

Li Yan snorted coldly and gave chase. He was already in danger. He couldn’t afford to act blindly. He had to find out why the beggars were causing trouble.The fleeing beggars scattered in all directions. Though their lanterns were gone, they knew the terrain well and darted into the densest parts of the forest.

Though Li Yan could track them with his enhanced sense of smell, they were slippery. Some even dove straight into burial pits and vanished.

There are tunnels beneath the mass graves!

Li Yan bent as he ran, snagging a stone, and flicked it forward.

“Ow!”

One beggar was struck in the back of the head, slipped, and crashed into a tree. His head rang and his vision darkened. As he struggled to rise, he felt a chill settle at his neck. Li Yan’s blade was already pressed against him.

“Who sent you? Why attack us?” Li Yan wasted no time.

But the beggar showed no fear. He grinned, revealing a mouth of rotten teeth, and puckered his lips to whistle.

“You’re tired of living.” Li Yan’s brows shot up as he slit the man’s throat with a flick of his wrist.

Whistling at midnight was a grave taboo, especially in a place where yin energy gathered like the mass grave.

Wang Daoxuan had once explained it to him. In ancient times, before writing existed, people used knots to record information. Hunters had relied on gestures and whistles, which became the origins of hand seals and incantations. Colors like white and red carried similar meanings, where white symbolized the cold and red symbolized blood. The concepts were etched into the soul and passed down through generations, still influencing many techniques today.

Even now, some sects and folk shamans used whistles to assist in summoning souls or controlling spirits.

The beggar had clearly intended to drag him down with him.

But Li Yan had acted a moment too late. The moment the beggar’s throat was cut, a sinister wind rose. Cold, damp mist churned, and faint sounds of battle cries seemed to echo within it.

At the same time, Li Yan smelled the iron scent of blood. It was weaker than the previous Cold Altar Soldier, lacking the beastly stench, but this carried a dense killing intent, like rusted weapons.

It was a soldier spirit.

Li Yan’s eyelid twitched. He quickly retreated and sheathed his blade. Wang Daoxuan had told him about such entities. This land had never lacked war. From ancient tribal conflicts to dynastic upheavals, countless lives had been lost.

Yin energy gathered, and the lingering resentment and unscattered souls often gave birth to war spirits. In some places, they gathered in great numbers, forming roaming ghost armies. Those entities wandered the land and were often sources for recruiting more soldiers spirits. Their defining trait was an aversion to the aura of weapons. Once they sensed it, entangled with memories of their former lives, they would swarm its wielder like wild dogs.

There had once been a village plagued by such a ghost army. When they heard battle cries daily, a charlatan advised the villagers to scrape kitchen knives together to scare them off.

The result spoke for itself. Not a single villager survived.

Though Li Yan possessed the Three Talents Demon Suppressing Coins, he had fought a Cold Altar Soldier before and knew those things defied common sense. It was better to avoid them than risk extinguishing another of his life flames.

The sinister wind grew stronger. The cold scent of blood seeped from the graves, drifting around before entering the beggar’s corpse.

Crack!

With a grotesque twisting of bones, the corpse rose stiffly to its feet.

Li Yan held his breath and retreated slowly. He had intended to distance himself, but the corpse staggered toward him, the cold blood aura growing denser. Li Yan stopped, a fierce light flashing in his eyes as he gripped his blade. It seemed he couldn’t shake it.

Fortunately, the soldier spirit had made a mistake. Its longing for flesh had driven it to possess a corpse. A body was both vessel and prison. Destroying the body would force it out to seek another host! With the Three Talents Demon Suppressing Coin tassel, if Li Yan seized the right moment, he could kill it.

“Wait!” Just as he prepared to strike, a voice suddenly rang out from behind him.