"If I hadn't lost the Soul Severing Blade, I wouldn't be in such a sorry state."
As he ran, Baili Pangpang mourned the Soul Severing Blade that had vanished deep beneath the earth along with Shen Qingzhu. There were far too few forbidden artifacts capable of harming souls; even he had only possessed that one.
More and more ghosts gathered behind the four of them. Like mad things, they surged toward Cao Yuan. Their sobbing swept past their ears like a chilling wind, as though someone were crying, begging, and... roaring.
"Please, save us!"
"Release me, release me! If this keeps up, I'll become a vicious ghost too!!"
"No... I want to be freed. I want another chance to enter reincarnation!"
"You can obviously do it, so why won't you release me? Why?!"
"Please... even if you won't release me, at least release my child... please..."
"..."
The transcendence scriptures Cao Yuan used at the cost of his own cultivation were far too tempting for ghosts—especially these wandering souls trapped in this ghost city for nearly a century after the disappearance of the ghost deities. Their longing for liberation and rebirth had become an obsession!
Cao Yuan was their only hope.
"Turn right!!"
The four reached a fork in the road, and Li Deyang shouted again.
Baili Pangpang turned right with the others, unable to stop himself from asking, "Uncle Li, how much farther until we reach the gate? At this rate, we're really going to get worn to death here!"
Li Deyang froze. "What gate?"
The four people sprinting forward all shuddered.
"What?" Cao Yuan abruptly turned back. "Weren't you directing us back to the Bronze Giant Gate?"
"It's pitch-black out here. How could I remember the way that clearly?"
"Then all those directions you shouted..."
"I was just