Crisis

After returning to the Li residence, Lin Bei had yet to come back, so Chu Liang sat cross-legged to meditate, planning to reward himself while he had the time.

Entering the White Tower, he saw a faint golden ghostly silhouette imprisoned within.

Chu Liang had previously wondered whether this White Tower was some evil artifact that refined souls in exchange for treasures. Later, he realized that probably was not the case. The White Tower did not interfere with the dispersal and reincarnation of souls. The golden phantom it extracted was more like an imprint, used only to prove that he had indeed slain such an evil being.

The most direct evidence was the Painted Skin Ghost before him, as well as the Cat Spirit from before. They had both been transformed from ghostly entities and were themselves incorporeal souls.

If what the White Tower extracted and refined here were their souls, then their forms inside the White Tower should have been no different from their forms outside. Yet that was not the case. Within the White Tower, there was only a mindless golden phantom.

So this was merely a positive-energy White Tower that encouraged him to slay demons and eliminate evil.

Thinking this, he casually pressed the character for "Refine."

Boom—

After the radiance faded, he caught the treasure in his hand and found it was a crystalline white jade talisman.

Soul-Shifting Spell:

It could temporarily exchange your soul with that of another body for three breaths. It was recommended for use on the same species; entering a different species would not be a pleasant experience. Three breaths was a short time, but sometimes it was enough.

Chu Liang curled his lip. This reward was rather disappointing.

Strictly speaking, this kind of jade talisman did not count as a talismanic charm. It was merely a pre-stored spell.

If cultivators preserved one of their divine abilities or techniques through a complex method, they could store it within such jade talismans. The higher the grade of the jade talisman, the better its storage effect. A white jade talisman like this could retain at least eighty percent of the spell's power.

Such jade talismans could sometimes produce miraculous effects. For instance, certain complicated spells could be cast instantly, or protective spells could be stored for juniors.

However, this method came with many restrictions, and the cost involved was considerable, so it was not especially common.

As for the Soul-Shifting Spell stored in this jade talisman...

Chu Liang could not see much use for it. It would have been better to give him an empty white jade talisman. Even that rare material could fetch quite a few Sword Coins at the Sword Transmission Hall.

But a white jade talisman containing a useless spell was not worth nearly as much.

Just as his reward was finished, Lin Bei returned from outside.

"How did it go?" Lin Bei asked.

"Very smoothly. The Painted Skin Ghost has been eliminated," Chu Liang replied.

"That's good. Things went smoothly on my end too. Yan Xiaohu has already acknowledged me as his sworn elder brother and sworn to turn over a new leaf and become a new man from now on," Lin Bei said with a smile.

Chu Liang nodded.

Then he told Lin Bei the details of what had happened.

"But it is strange..." After hearing Chu Liang's account and learning the full picture, Lin Bei was somewhat puzzled. "They were all people who bullied her, so why did Situ Yan bear no resentment toward Yan Xiaohu? He was scared out of his wits for half the day, only to find that he was not even on her revenge list."

"Perhaps... it was because Yan Xiaohu did not discriminate against her because of her appearance." Chu Liang pondered. "Though he demanded money from Situ Yan, he demanded it from others too, and asked for the same amount. In that regard, he treated everyone equally. What truly hurt Situ Yan was the special treatment..."

"That makes sense. Sigh..." Lin Bei nodded, then let out a long sigh as well.

The night was deep and still. It should have passed without incident.

After returning to South Mountain Academy, Song Qingyi circulated her energy in meditation for a while before lying down to rest.

Cultivators at the Human Pass still needed sleep to nourish their spirits. Only upon reaching the peak of the Divine Intent Realm, when essence, qi, and spirit were complete, could cultivation replace sleep. Even then, though, it was still not as comfortable as getting a solid night's rest.

Not long after, near dawn, she was suddenly awakened by a sobbing, whimpering cry.

"Hm?" Song Qingyi rolled over and sat up, confirming that a faint, intermittent sound of weeping was drifting in from outside the window.

She rose, put on her clothes, and leaped through the air to the window.

This was a residence South Mountain Academy had specially arranged for her. It was quite far from the other instructors' residences, and no one lived nearby.

Who was crying?

She followed the sound. Before long, she saw a small figure curled up in a corner by the wall, hair tied in twin buns, crying with its back to her.

"Little one?" Song Qingyi hurried over. "What's wrong?"

The matter of the Painted Skin Ghost had already come to an end, so she was not overly vigilant. But the instant that child turned around, dense yin energy almost surged straight into her face. Song Qingyi's heart tightened, and she flew backward in retreat!

But she was still a little too late.

She saw the child's face—pitch-black, horrifying, with twisted, knotted blood vessels and a shattered visage like a rotten watermelon. Her mind seemed to ring with a clang, as though a heavy hammer had struck the depths of her soul.

Though her reaction had been swift, she had not been prepared for this attack. Her entire body froze in place for an instant.

At that very moment, several muffled pops sounded beneath her feet. Seven or eight ghostly hands, their joints protruding and their nails long and black, burst from the earth and seized both her ankles!

Song Qingyi bit down hard on the tip of her tongue to regain clarity. Flipping her hand, she drew out the Inchheart Ruler, intending to sever those ghostly hands.

But another wave of bone-piercing cold came from behind her!

She herself could only feel unbearable cold, her body stiffening until she could no longer move.

But from the side, one could see that a female ghost in white, her face covered by long hair, had somehow already pressed herself against Song Qingyi's back, both hands cinched around her shoulder blades.

"Who is it?"

Though Song Qingyi was restrained, she did not panic. Instead, she asked in a grave voice. So many ghosts appearing at once could not possibly be a coincidence.

Someone had to be controlling them from behind the scenes.

"Hehe, so it's a little girl from the Gentlemen Hall..." A hoarse, grating voice sounded from the side.

A tall figure clad in a black robe that covered its entire body, its head hidden beneath a hood, slowly emerged. The voice sounded exceedingly old, but its build and bearing did not resemble that of an elder, making it seem rather eerie.

"You should never, ever have touched the Painted Skin Ghost I painstakingly refined." Resentment still laced the black-robed figure's tone. "I promised her that she could kill three enemies here, and in return, she would single-mindedly gather living souls for me. Who would have thought... it had clearly already ended, and she was even preparing to leave with me... yet you just had to kill her at that moment..."

"I am very angry..."

"You must pay the price..."

The black-robed figure's sinister tone sent chills through the body in the darkness before dawn.

Song Qingyi did not say anything more. Instead, she suddenly formed a hand seal with her left hand, and a streak of golden light floated into the air. It was the half-page of golden scripture.

The half-page of golden scripture rose into the sky and scattered a clear radiance. In an instant, black smoke rose from every ghostly hand binding Song Qingyi! Hissing crackles rang out without end, followed by miserable shrieks and wails.

"Ah—"

The ghostly hands and the female ghost in white retreated one after another, and Song Qingyi immediately regained her freedom. She did not try to attack the black-robed figure, for the battle just now had already proven that the other party's cultivation far surpassed hers—at least a Golden Core cultivator... and a demonic cultivator with bizarre methods.

Escaping was the most important thing now.

She flipped through the air and darted toward the rear. Yet the black-robed figure did not pursue, merely smiling strangely as it flipped its hand and produced an enormous black iron slingshot.

Its right hand made an empty grasp at the slingshot and drew it taut. With a light shout, it said, "Go!"

Whoosh—

A streak of lightning tore through the long night.

Ssst.

Song Qingyi's body jolted in midair. The sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh rang out, yet no wound appeared on her body. She merely stiffened abruptly before crashing heavily to the ground.

Bang!

After she hit the ground, she felt icy cold and stiff all over. Even moving a finger was extraordinarily difficult. A name suddenly flashed through her mind.

Soul-Piercing Nail.

A demonic artifact of the Nether King Sect, formless and shadowless, made specifically to pierce the soul. Once struck by a nail, if the soul was fixed, the person was fixed.

The footsteps behind her drew ever closer. The black-robed figure slowly approached, then crooked a finger. It was as though invisible threads were pulling Song Qingyi, and her body rose upright against her will.

"Come with me."

The black-robed figure let out a strange laugh and walked forward. Song Qingyi, her body utterly stiff, followed behind all the way, seemingly unable to escape.

Only...

In an unnoticed corner, the half-page of golden scripture that had protected Song Qingyi had already quietly vanished...