Chapter 75: The Blood-Sucking Demon Statue

  "Stop fighting!" Wang Yuanying cried out anxiously, trying to intervene in the ongoing battle between Sanbao and Shi Mengsong.

  Qin Liangguang, who had remained silent until now, grabbed her arm and whispered, "Look closely."

  Before he finished speaking, Sanbao struck another palm on Shi Mengsong’s body. His body swayed, and with a loud cough, he spat out a mouthful of bck mist, then colpsed onto the ground in a limp heap.

  "Did you kill him?" Wang Yuanying asked in fear, her voice trembling.

  Sanbao ignored her and summoned a water ball, which she hurled directly at Shi Mengsong’s head. The water ball exploded upon impact, drenching Shi Mengsong in a cold spsh of water. He shuddered, and finally, he began to regain consciousness.

  Dazed, he sat up, gncing around in confusion. "What happened?" he asked.

  Wang Yuanying immediately pressed, "You don’t remember what just happened?"

  Shi Mengsong looked completely lost. "What happened just now? Where am I? How did I end up here? I only remember we found a courtyard full of dead rabbits and chickens, and then everything else is a blur..."

  Sanbao patted his shoulder, offering a calm reassurance. "That’s when a demon possessed you. I’ve already driven it away."

  At hearing this, Wang Yuanying and the others all sucked in a sharp breath.

  They had been together this whole time, yet the demon had managed to possess Shi Mengsong without them noticing a thing! The realization sent a cold shiver up their spines, and the air around them seemed to grow even colder.

  "Ah!" At that moment, a heart-rending scream echoed from behind them.

  It was Gu Xiaotu’s voice!

  The group quickly turned around, only to find that Gu Xiaotu had vanished.

  They swiftly ran back into the temple, and to their horror, they saw Gu Xiaotu hanging in the air, as if gripped by an invisible hand. He was suspended in mid-air, his body floating. The red silk wrapped around the statue had now unraveled, and the statue’s eyes glowed with eerie red light, casting a blood-red glow over Gu Xiaotu’s body.

  "Help me!" Gu Xiaotu screamed in agony, but his voice grew weaker and weaker. "It’s sucking my blood!"

  The group froze in terror as they noticed Gu Xiaotu’s complexion rapidly turning pale, his blood visibly draining away, seemingly sucked into the red light emanating from the statue.

  Qin Liangguang and Wang Suifeng immediately summoned their weapons and rushed toward the statue without a second thought.

  They swung their swords and bdes toward the statue, but there was no sound— it was as if their weapons were caught by an invisible force, unable to move around the statue. At the same time, the red light from the statue began to flow along their weapons, creeping up their arms and quickly engulfing both Qin Liangguang and Wang Suifeng in the same red light.

  Both of their faces, like Gu Xiaotu’s, turned deathly pale. The blood in their bodies transformed into thin red lines, sucked into the statue.

  The red light in the statue’s eyes grew even more intense, and the red aura began to rapidly expand, spreading towards Sanbao, Wang Yuanying, and the others.

  "What do we do?" Wang Yuanying excimed, almost in tears, her voice desperate. She stamped her foot and turned, running toward the temple door.

  On the ground, Shi Mengsong, still weak from being possessed, had not yet fully risen when the red light reached him, and his blood began to drain away as well.

  The red silk on the statue fluttered in the air, and through the gaps, Sanbao could vaguely see the statue’s mouth slowly opening, as though it was grinning in triumph.

  But Sanbao seemed unfazed by all of this.

  She quietly sat down, taking out the *Divine Illumination Sutra* from the Seven Treasure Bracelet, pcing it on her p, and began to meditate cross-legged.

  Inside the temple, the red light surged and twisted. Gu Xiaotu and Shi Mengsong had lost too much blood and had already fainted. Qin Liangguang and Wang Suifeng were still struggling, but their faces were pale, and they looked as though they wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.

  A yer of white light enveloped Sanbao, forming a protective aura around her.

  When the red light reached her, it recoiled as if shocked by electricity, retreating several inches. The red light swirled around the white aura, eventually coalescing into a thick red shield, trapping Sanbao and the white light inside.

  At that moment, Sanbao’s consciousness entered the Seven Treasure Bracelet’s space. She frantically flipped through the *Divine Illumination Sutra*, trying to find a way to break the blood-sucking statue’s curse.

  Time passed, and beads of sweat began to form on Sanbao’s forehead.

  Although the time flow inside the Seven Treasure Bracelet was different from the outside world, she still feared that if she took too long, Wang Suifeng, Qin Liangguang, and the others might die from blood loss.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Sanbao found the method to deal with the blood-sucking statue in one of the pages of the *Divine Illumination Sutra*...