In response to the black-clad men’s “kindness,” Ji Ruohan did not answer. Instead, she demanded coldly:
“So the beast rampages in every province… that was your doing as well, wasn’t it?”
“That’s right. Waking all the souls in the River of Forgetfulness isn’t an easy task. Humans are too fragile, so of course we had to use monster beasts with strong vitality as test subjects~”
The man shrugged and replied:
“To be honest, you arrived much faster than I expected. Those spineless fools from the Righteous Faction didn’t buy me much time at all. But it’s fine—in the end, we were still one step ahead.”
Hearing this, Ji Ruohan had roughly pieced together the truth.
These criminals—so depraved that the Righteous Faction would execute them on the spot if caught—had secretly gathered, come to the River of Forgetfulness, found the source of the Everlasting Tribulation Sword’s power, and through some means, acquired a portion of that power.
After gaining the ability to control Rot Qi, they were still unsatisfied. They wanted to awaken the resentment of all the wandering souls in the River of Forgetfulness, plunging the world into chaos to take revenge on Great Yan.
First, they spread Rot Qi across the provinces, triggering beast rampages while subtly shifting the blame onto Yu Yi of Yizhou, using her to stall the other Righteous Faction forces.
The later the Righteous Faction arrived at the River of Forgetfulness, the more time they would have to absorb the Everlasting Tribulation Sword’s primordial power and awaken the resentment of all the souls there.
Now, their plan was proceeding smoothly.
However, Ji Ruohan was not one to sit idly by. Just as the three Taoist priests were chanting spells and maintaining the talisman array to fend off the evil spirits, the sword in her hand faintly throbbed, eager to leap from its sheath.
“Lady Ji, ordinary blades cannot harm evil spirits and malevolent entities. Let me lend you a hand!”
Fang Tianhai, seeing Ji Ruohan’s intent, spoke in a low voice.
While maintaining the talisman array, he drew a spirit talisman and affixed it to Ji Ruohan’s longsword. Ji Ruohan immediately felt a warding force envelop the blade.
“I’m going in.”
After saying this calmly, she charged straight out of the talisman array!
With a flash of sword light, the circle of evil spirits and malevolent entities closest to the array were all slashed into ash and nothingness!
Ji Ruohan aimed directly at the black-clad men standing on the mountain peak. She transformed her zhenqi into a sword, stepped across the air, and charged straight toward them!
***
But the next second, something unexpected happened.
One of the black-clad men stepped forward and raised his hand. The nearest evil spirits were drawn to him, their forms dissipating instantly and condensing into a ball of Rot Qi in his palm.
He turned and struck out with a palm toward Ji Ruohan, who was flying straight at him on her sword.
In an instant, a powerful wave of Rot Qi rushed at her. Ji Ruohan quickly condensed Zhenqi into an air shield to block, but the shield shattered with a roar.
At that moment, she felt her skin being torn and corroded.
Yet even so, Ji Ruohan showed no sign of retreat. She pressed forward with her sword.
“Heh, you really don’t know when to give up!”
The man sneered, absorbed another portion of the evil spirits’ souls, converted them into power, and sent it surging toward Ji Ruohan.
Unfortunately, he underestimated the ability of a Grandmaster—and even more so, the resolve of a Disciple of Sword Pavilion!
Ji Ruohan’s sword edge tore through layer after layer of Rot Qi, aiming straight for the black-clad man!
But at the most critical moment, Ji Ruohan suddenly heard a scream behind her.
She couldn’t help but look back and saw that the talisman array maintained by the three Taoist priests had already been breached at one point!
Zhou Qingwen, whose right hand was already injured, tried to seal the gap with his left hand, but he was a beat too slow—an evil spirit bit off his left hand!
Zhou Qingwen could no longer cast spells, meaning the loss of one person’s power made it difficult to sustain the talisman array.
If the array was destroyed, even with Fang Tianhai’s exceptional skill, he couldn’t hold back the tide of evil spirits alone.
Ji Ruohan gritted her teeth and resolutely withdrew her sword, charging back.
“Dammit…”
The black-clad man was left standing there, soaked in cold sweat, breathing a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, Ji Ruohan had chosen to protect others at the last moment; otherwise, her sword edge might have pierced his heart.
Though it had been a close call, luck was still on the side of the black-clad men.
When Ji Ruohan fought her way back and relieved the pressure on the three Taoist priests, the exorcism talisman on her sword had exhausted its power and turned to ash.
This meant that Ji Ruohan’s blade could only cleave the bodies of the evil spirits, not eradicate them completely!
Ji Ruohan was now surrounded.
She could neither obtain another talisman from Fang Tianhai nor go to help them.
As the talisman array was about to be breached, Ji Ruohan struggled to break out of the encirclement. The corners of the black-clad men’s mouths curled upward at her anxious yet helpless expression.
“It’s time. If we keep playing around, there won’t be enough souls left for us.”
“Hehe, then let’s send them off on their final journey.”
The black-clad men absorbed the evil spirits’ souls all at once. The Rot Qi swirling around them grew heavier, its power seeming capable of killing every living being in an entire city in an instant.
But just as they were about to finish off Ji Ruohan and the others, one of them asked in confusion:
“Huh? That’s strange—why can’t I absorb that one?”
“Which one?”
The others followed the direction of his finger and saw something slowly emerging from the waters of the River of Forgetfulness.
“The one in the river.”
They all exerted their power together, but the thing in the river remained completely unaffected.
As they puzzled over this, the “thing” in the river finally revealed itself.
It was a small, petite loli, her purple hair as deep as the night. Floating like a ghost, she rose lightly from the river, her bare feet walking across the water’s surface as she headed straight for the shore.
“Th-that thing… doesn’t seem right?”
“Is she human or a ghost?”
“Obviously a ghost—what human looks like that?”
“But if she’s a ghost, why is she so ‘complete’?”
The black-clad men were baffled. As they murmured among themselves, the purple-haired loli spoke:
“You’re the ones causing trouble, aren’t you?”
Her tone was utterly flat, and her face showed no expression, yet the black-clad men could feel the anger radiating from her.
They were startled.
In their life of evil, they feared neither humans nor ghosts.
This purple-haired loli looked human, could speak human language, yet did things no human could.
But this half-human, half-ghost “monster” that defied categorization made them panic.
“You—”
The purple-haired loli stared at them, tilting her head slightly.
“Do you know what this place is?”
“This is the River of Forgetfulness. My turf. Got it?”