After sending Josephine Wong and Glenda Grimes off, Jianmen immediately conjured up his meat cleaver and his rattan broom, then with his body glowing in gradually brighter orange and golden light, he leapt upwards, breaking through all the ceilings and walls above him and into the sky above. At this point, the facade around the Hellinger Castle was completely blown away, the grim and dark clouds floating above now showed their true appearances: that they were just many faces of fog and smog piled up together, and the sky had several great completely dark cracks like that of a completely broken mirror spanning across the whole visible space. Cold and strong winds howled as pale ashes flew, and sparks of flame seemed to just randomly ignite and die down in the air.
The aura around him grew, as the energy he obtained from “redeeming” the white crystals slowly seeped into his body, his bones and his meridians and resurfaced around him. The crystals he had stored in the boxes in the inn’s basement, were “tokens” he got from cleansing the karmic pollutants, swallowing the direct aftermath of utilizing that kind of power, injuring himself in the process. And with the energy he was getting now, the old wounds on his body were starting to heal.
For the first time since he came to this world, he felt the same kind of unease when he was creating the portal that was supposed to lead him to his home - the feeling of the tear of karmic chains and fabric of the world being ripped apart. The beam of energy shot down from a portal up in the sky was not one that was intended for attack, but one intended to trap and seal the tear itself, to prevent it from growing and expanding. But just like he told Josephine Wong and Glenda Grimes, he wouldn’t be able to buy everyone much time. The beam of energy would dry out in no more than one and a half days due to his limited supply of the fuel - a concoction he spent a few years trying to perfect but was not able to due to his injuries, and he would have to find another way to keep the tear in place for as long as possible.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” Many parts of the Hellinger Castle exploded, and several streams of dark red liquid flowed from the holes of the castle building. Jianmen could easily see the shapes of people being trapped in these streams of liquid as they moved intertwined in the air, some merging together and some just kept on flowing and getting into some kind of dynamic equilibrium, where the streams kept flowing but the external shapes of them didn’t change. The streams that merged together, on the other hand, formed into the shape of a giant human head, with two completely dark eyes giving off a pale glow, and around twenty hands attached to the neck area of the head by long arms formed by the dark red liquid. The texture shown on the face, the arms and the hands were like other constructs of dark red liquid - the streams of liquid continued flowing, yet the overall shape did not change.
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“Who are you!? You do not belong here!” The head spoke with the voice of at least a dozen individuals, some higher pitched and some hoarse: “Leave! Or you shall feel the wrath of the Hellinger name!”
“Someone in this castle did a terrible thing, and it would really be in your best interest not to be a pissy spirit in this place and stay away if you can.” Jianmen shook his head, his voice was also slightly echoing even though he was in an open space.
“You DON’T BELONG HERE!” The face yelled, and several streams of the dark red liquid shot out from the palms of the hands around it aiming at Jianmen.
Jianmen swung his broom down and released a concentrated wall of wind, several of the dark red liquid streams were instantly blown off into the air, while one particular stream curled in the air and came right back from behind him and came right at the back of his neck. He then turned around and unleashed an orange and golden energy blade against this energy stream. The energy blade cut into the liquid stream, vaporizing every drop it came into contact with and moving up against the stream.
Two of the hands jolted towards Jianmen in an attempt to pull off a sneak attack. Jianmen immediately turned around and struck the two hands with his meat cleaver almost at the same time. Similar orange and golden energy blades were released and sliced the two hands open and vaporized almost all of the liquid that made up the hands. The speed of these two energy blades consumed and moved against the origins of the two hands were so fast, the head had to cut off the now barely noticeable arms.
The head moaned and cried in pain and fury, then four hands floating around it turned their palms against Jianmen with their centers lighting up. But before they could unleash any attacks, Jianmen pointed the broom forward, and four bolts of lightning shot across the distance between him and the hands, landing right at the centers of the palms.
The explosive energy eviscerated the four hands and parts of the arms to which they were attached. The very next moment, Jianmen had already closed the distance between him and the head, and the head’s two dark and slightly glowing eyes were fixated on the meat cleaver, which was already several times its former size and had the same destructive orange and golden energy glow on its edge.
“Stop! Please!” The head begged.
The edge of the meat cleaver cut into the forehead, and the orange and golden energy gushed inside through the wound and instantly propagated throughout the entirety of the head, forming into thousands of tiny energy seals locking down many nodes of energy that formed the head.