PCJ – Chapter 489 Soul-Devouring Black Snake

“Listen! What’s that sound?” Zhang Jiaohua suddenly stopped. He heard a strange noise. Apart from the footsteps of a few people, there was another sound in the cave!

Zhang Yichen quickly raised his hand, signaling Meng Guoshen and Zhang Jing to stop as well. “What’s wrong, little brother?”

“There’s a sound. Listen carefully,” Zhang Jiaohua said.

“Little brother, are you being overly sensitive? What sound? I don’t hear anything,” Meng Guoshen stopped and listened closely, thinking that Zhang Jiaohua might be overreacting.

“There really is a sound. Listen again carefully,” Zhang Jiaohua insisted, hearing it clearly. The sound was faint, hard to detect, but definitely present.

“How could that be? I…” Meng Guoshen was about to say more, but was stopped by Zhang Yichen.

“Don’t speak. He’s right. There’s definitely some movement ahead. Everyone get ready. We don’t know exactly what it is yet, but we can be sure that it’s definitely stronger than those controlled corpses,” Zhang Yichen said seriously.

“This damn thing keeps sending waves to test us. Why not throw everything at us at once? That way we’d be in even more trouble,” Zhang Jing said, feeling confused and worried.

“It’s testing my strength. This thing isn’t simple. It’s not taking us seriously. Otherwise, it would have already used all its tricks at once. This way, we can deal with them one by one. Little brother, be careful with your energy consumption. The real enemy hasn’t shown itself yet,” Zhang Yichen reminded Zhang Jiaohua.

Zhang Jiaohua took a few stones from his pocket and casually tossed them onto the ground. The stones rolled a few times before coming to a stop. The stones looked ordinary, and Zhang Jiaohua’s actions seemed no different from any other person.

“I thought you were going to set up a formation,” Meng Guoshen laughed. At first, he had been startled, thinking that such a young person as Zhang Jiaohua might know how to arrange a formation. Formations might seem simple, but they were actually extremely complex. Meng Guoshen himself hadn’t learned them yet. Seeing that the stones Zhang Jiaohua tossed didn’t emit any spiritual power, it clearly wasn’t a formation.

Zhang Yichen, however, felt something was off. Although he didn’t sense any spiritual power coming from the stones, which was different from a typical formation, he knew that cultivators had various methods. Who could say that Zhang Jiaohua wasn’t using a unique magic?

Zhang Jing, being older and steadier than Meng Guoshen, showed no visible reaction to Zhang Jiaohua’s actions.

Zhang Jiaohua ignored the others’ reactions and stood on the stones, performing a hand seal and chanting a spell: “Thousand changes, one Qi divides. One change becomes three, three Qi become five. Five transforms into the spirit of the five elements… swiftly turn the celestial prison, bind and capture the evil spirits. Quickly, as commanded.”

After finishing the incantation, Zhang Jiaohua stopped moving, made a hand gesture, and pointed at the stones on the ground. A beam of spiritual light shot out from his fingers and landed on the stones. The once ordinary stones suddenly seemed to connect in a mysterious way.

“A formation! How is this possible?” Meng Guoshen widened his eyes. Just moments ago, he had mocked Zhang Jiaohua, only to be taught a lesson by the undeniable fact that Zhang Jiaohua was indeed setting up a formation.

“Your magic is really special,” Zhang Yichen praised. He had once seen records from the Daoist school, where it was said that Daoists could also arrange formations by calling upon spirits. However, many of the spirit-calling traditions had been lost over time, and only a few cultivators today still knew how to do it. Due to historical reasons, Daoist traditions had been severely damaged, and when the Daoist school had the chance to develop again, these traditions had already been lost.

At that moment, a large shadow poured out from the depths of the cave like black flowing water. Meng Guoshen used a strong flashlight to illuminate the black flow and couldn’t help but gasp. The black flow wasn’t water at all, but a dense mass of small black snakes. Countless black snakes wriggled and quickly slithered forward.

“Soul-Devouring Snakes!” Zhang Yichen, well-experienced, immediately recognized the small snakes. “These snakes usually exist only in tombs. I’ve never seen them myself, but I’ve heard my master mention them. These Soul-Devouring Snakes are very dangerous. They feed on human souls. Once bitten, your soul will be damaged. Everyone, be careful.”

“Quick, gather here,” Zhang Jiaohua waved to Zhang Yichen and the others.

Zhang Jiaohua stood in the center of the stones he had casually tossed, and the stones surrounded an area just big enough for four people to stand. Although it seemed like Zhang Jiaohua was being casual, he had already prepared for such dangerous creatures.

Hiss…

The Soul-Devouring Snakes hissed as they moved. Although the sound wasn’t loud, it was eerie and unsettling.

“Quick! Get in!” Zhang Yichen, though unsure of the power of Zhang Jiaohua’s formation, chose to trust him.

Once they entered the formation, they didn’t feel any immediate change, nor did they notice any protective barrier.

The Soul-Devouring Snakes drew closer, like a black river rushing towards them.

Everyone felt tense. With so many Soul-Devouring Snakes, if they attacked all at once, it could indeed cause some trouble. While the snakes weren’t strong in terms of attack power and had almost no defense, their sheer numbers were a problem. Even if only a few of the snakes bit Zhang Jiaohua and the others, it would still be a serious issue.

As the snakes approached, Zhang Jiaohua and the others held their breath, afraid of alarming the snakes. But Zhang Jiaohua’s formation wasn’t a stealth or confusion formation; it was a demon-binding formation. It was like trapping them in a bag, gathering all the evil spirits inside.

As soon as the Soul-Devouring Snakes got close to the formation, they vanished into thin air. The formation wasn’t particularly strong, but it was perfect for dealing with these snakes. The black flow seemed to be contained in a vessel designed to collect water.

The number of Soul-Devouring Snakes was truly vast. It took nearly ten minutes before the last of them had passed.

But just as the flow of snakes was nearing its end, Zhang Jiaohua suddenly smiled bitterly. “Not good! The formation is about to give out. Be careful!”