Wang Yu sat by the fire, roasting his stiff rations until they were warm.
Across from him, a few ghosts watched the fire with uncertain suspicion.
Scary ghosts! This is seriously terrifying!
Killing on the spot! The power and speed of that arrow were so fearsome that even Suiniang, who was in the middle of her ghost transformation, couldn’t catch it.
And when he charged forward with his sword, Suiniang, a ghost who had seen the world’s chaos, had to forcefully suppress her transformation on the spot.
Too terrifying!
This was their first time witnessing such a terrifying cultivator!
In this Misty Soul Forest, except for the top hunter, everyone relied on their own skills when hunting. All were quite capable.
Often, when prey entered the forest, hunters hidden in the shadows would fix their excited eyes on it. Beneath the overwhelming mist, the hunting grounds were filled with powerful ghostly creatures.
These mediocre ghosts, who survived squeezed between the territories of the Great Ghosts, could only hope every day to pick up scraps left behind by escaped prey.
The area where these ghosts wandered was close to the forest’s inner Mist. Around them, the domains of three Great Ghosts clashed. Few who wandered here by mistake managed to do so safely.
Today, when they saw Wang Yu in the forest, they thought they’d hit the jackpot! Finally, a target that hadn’t been taken first. They hoped this would be their first victory in their ghostly lives, but…
The outcome need not be mentioned anymore.
Suiniang hugged her little drum in fear, her hair trembling nervously in the firelight.
Looking back, with Wang Yu’s bold aura, he probably fought his way straight in. The fate of the ghosts blocking his path was truly hard to imagine!
At this moment, she was somewhat thankful for that wretched ghost who tried to steal their prey. Judging by his miserable state, he didn’t leave peacefully either.
If she had been hit even a few times, she couldn’t imagine how painful it would have been.
But now, surviving was difficult.
Who knew what the Jade-faced Killing God across from them wanted to do with them?
There was no way he still thought they were ordinary people, was there?
***
【16 years old: It’s a quiet, long night.
You’ve done many things—you helped fellow lost travelers and cut down bandits who tried to rob you again.
Returning to the fire, tired yet at ease, you let out a long, soft sigh.
You might be a silent drinker in a tavern, an unknown bystander at a brawl, or just a boy in the crowd.
You are one among the masses, an unremarkable ordinary person.
Yet, ordinary people have ideals, and ordinary people have convictions.
The concept of justice is forever engraved in your heart. When you leave a place, you only want to bring peace and security to its people, to take away violence and savagery.
You do all you can, hoping to see smiles of relief on everyone’s faces—even if hidden in darkness!
Perhaps few witness your righteous deeds, or those who see you always think you’re just an ordinary boy, but you know clearly that every step you take leaves traces of your fight!
Today, you have once again driven out evil! Hero Yu, keep it up!
You’ve inquired along the way and heard that bandits in this Misty Soul Forest enslave many ordinary people. You think, perhaps your brother is here.
Without hesitation, you entered, accompanied only by the Blacksmith Sword, your bow, and a passionate heart!
You share your roasted bread with the poor souls opposite you, noticing their difficulty swallowing—you think maybe the bread is too dry and rough on their throats.
They are somewhat afraid of you. You regret killing the bandits too slowly this time.
If your aim had been better, piercing a bandit’s forehead with a single arrow, you wouldn’t have needed to chase them with your sword, and they wouldn’t be so frightened.
Next time, you’ll be faster!
You bite the bread with a troubled expression. You’re still hesitant—should you charge straight into the bandit den, or escort these people out first?
The mist in this forest during the day is so thick that you can’t see your own hand in front of your face. Wandering blindly, you might lead them straight into the bandit den.】
***
Seeing the Killing God’s expression grow ever darker, Suiniang clutched the bread with mounting dread.
She thought, it’s over, it’s over—he’s definitely going to kill ghosts!
Suiniang feared that as soon as the boy’s face darkened completely, he would draw his sword. She hurriedly asked if they had heard the legend of a man who kills ghosts like slicing melons.
Quickly flattering, Suiniang said, “Y-Young hero! Dawn is nearly here! The mist in this forest is thick and disorienting!”
“Mist?” Wang Yu’s eyes sharpened. Could this be another superstitious tale?
Sweat poured down Suiniang’s forehead. She felt the Killing God might draw his sword any second. She quickly raised her little drum:
“But I am a Divine Disciple, connected to the Divine Eye. I can lead the way through the mist.”
Divine Disciple—a type of cultivator unique to the Northern Province.
The Misty Soul Forest stretches across dozens of ridges in the northern border, widely spread.
The mist there has existed for hundreds or even thousands of years, covering the sky and blocking out the sun, thick enough to make one unable to see their own hand.
To survive, the locals developed this: Divine Disciples, who as children followed their masters to serve the Divine Lord.
Upon growing up, they perform Divine Rituals, enabling them to pierce through illusions with the Divine Eye, avoid ghostly creatures, and lead their people safely through the mist.
Suiniang took a deep breath, raised her hand with a determined gaze, and began moving with an unusual, inhuman rhythm, synchronizing with the beating of her little drum.
The drumbeat was particularly heavy, as if resonating with the innards, each strike weighing down on the chest like some invisible burden, making it hard to breathe.
Wang Yu frowned.
It was a strangely styled drum, the surface brownish yellow. The mist’s refracted light shone on it, revealing extremely clear patterns, vivid as if alive.
Around the drum’s edge were irregularly sized gray-white objects embedded, and the frame was wrapped with ribbons of three colors.
Suiniang’s pale hand rested on the drumhead, making it hard to tell where her skin ended. The ribbons tossed and fell with her movements like flowing long hair.
Amid the pale light and shadow, the drum resembled a faceless head.
Wang Yu vaguely remembered someone telling him that the human body is especially sensitive to certain sound waves, sometimes finding them oppressive and unpleasant.
Clearly, this drum was made based on that principle, hitting precisely the stage where the body feels discomfort.
The mist made one anxious, the drum made one uneasy—two negatives canceling out? That was truly genius.
Wang Yu relaxed. Although Suiniang mentioned the Divine Eye and Divine Disciple, he knew deep down there were no gods or ghosts.
Suiniang must simply know the paths herself but needed to cloak it in divine pretense.
Dawn came.
The mist rose swiftly.
Suiniang looked nervously at Wang Yu: “Young hero, shall we… go?”
Wang Yu stood up: “Return.”
Return? No, this meant sending them back to hell, didn’t it? These ghosts had just recently come into being and had no idea where hell even was!
The ghosts paled.
“Home.” Wang Yu had decided to send them home first. If they really stumbled into the bandit den, he might not be able to protect them.
The ghosts were stunned.
The boy bent down to pack his bow and arrows, took up his sword: “I’ll go alone.”
“Bandits, be alert,” he said slowly. “Too many of us will give us away.”
No way—he really considered them his ghosts?
Suiniang and the others exchanged incredulous glances.
What was even more surprising was that he planned to escort them home first, then go kill the ghosts himself. Did he owe their ancestors a favor? Why so biased towards them?
Suiniang couldn’t help but ask: “Young hero, why are you so kind to us?”
The boy looked back with a strange expression: “Ordinary people help ordinary people!”
His tone was resolute, as if stating some worldly truth! If he weren’t stammering, he might have added, “Isn’t this something everyone knows?”
But the problem was, they weren’t ordinary people!
They were, in fact, ordinary ghosts.
Suiniang sighed silently. This young hero was probably mentally unwell. Cultivators often lose their sanity at the end. His luck must have been bad—he came too early.
Recalling how mercilessly Wang Yu had killed a demonic spirit just now, Suiniang shuddered. No one could tell when he might stop seeing them as ordinary and decide to kill them.
Suiniang knew well that before contacting the Divine Lord, the boy’s swift sword could scatter her soul to the winds.
For now, the best plan was to strike first.
Struggling within her eyes, Suiniang wanted to survive, to live together with her uncles. The other villagers hadn’t even gained the right to become ghosts and had already vanished into the distance.
They couldn’t restrain this hero, but in her not-so-long career as a Divine Disciple, Suiniang had already identified the ghosts of this region.
Not far from here—about a ten-minute walk—was a Great Ghost with a surging Yin energy, about to become a Demon King!
“All right, young hero, please follow me.” Suiniang smiled gently and turned away, her expression losing the struggle.
The boy nodded and followed them, taking up the rear.
The mist in the forest was chaotic and white. Sunlight struggled to pierce through layer upon layer, falling on them.
Daytime in this forest was still too desolate.
No birdsong could be heard, nor the freshness of dawn felt.
The mist covered sky and earth, like smog trapped within steel and concrete, ahead of the world by several versions.
The wind was harsh and cold, the temperature seeming to plummet suddenly. Wang Yu had a nagging feeling something was wrong.
Suiniang’s movements grew smaller and smaller; the drumbeat weakened until it nearly died away. She stopped. At some point, she had gone ahead, leaving only a few ghosts beside Wang Yu.
Wang Yu was stunned but saw Suiniang’s expression was extremely complicated as she closed her eyes slightly.
Danger alert!
In a flash of lightning and thunder! The boy instinctively drew his sword to block! His pupils contracted!
“AJ!”
A crisp, clear sound of something breaking!
The flying silver-white blade reflected half of the boy’s shocked face, the other half mirrored the ghost’s blood-red eyes!
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