Specter

Qi Bei coughed and got up from the ground, his face contorted in pain. "Hey, I told you there was no need to be so violent. You hypnotized me without my consent, so can't I make a joke?"

Yao Rao stared at Qi Bei for a long time before finally spitting out two words: "Monster."

"Fairy!" Qi Bei grinned, revealing a row of white teeth, and placed his left hand under his nose, inhaling deeply with a look of ecstasy.

Yao Rao's pretty face flushed slightly, and she almost wanted to throw a Wind Blade Technique to slice him into pieces.

"It's getting dark, do you know any place to hide? Also, I'm lost. It's fate that we met, you won't just leave me, will you?" Qi Bei said with a fawning smile.

"I never help people for free. What can you offer?" Yao Rao tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said charmingly.

"Uh... how about offering yourself in return?" Qi Bei's expression was full of longing.

"Sure, but can you handle it?" Yao Rao beckoned, and a wisp of breeze bound Qi Bei and pulled him to her side. Her beautiful eyes stared directly at him, as if trying to see through him.

"What? You doubt I can handle it? How outrageous! Let go of me, and we'll fight three hundred rounds right now," Qi Bei shouted as if he had been insulted.

Yao Rao shot Qi Bei a glance, then suddenly turned her head to look in the direction of the Blood River, a hint of joy appearing between her brows. She then extended a slender, jade-like finger to his lips and whispered, her breath like orchids, "Shh, do you think I don't trust you? But you'll have to bear with it for a while."

Qi Bei's heart leaped. It was due to Yao Rao's soul-stirring, enchanting demeanor, but also his intuition that he was surrounded by immense danger.

Damn it! Qi Bei couldn't move. He gritted his teeth and extended his tongue, licking Yao Rao's jade finger.

Yao Rao recoiled as if shocked, snatching her hand back and exclaiming in a delicate voice, "Bad guy."

A fairy is a fairy; even her scolding was so captivating.

However, after gaining a small advantage with his tongue, Qi Bei didn't feel any relief. The sense of danger had made all the hairs on his body stand on end.

Yao Rao tapped Qi Bei's throat, sealing his mouth. Then, she took out a handful of crystal cores and began to set up a formation around him.

In an instant, the formation was complete. She flicked two drops of blood from her fingertips, chanted a few incantations, and the formation flashed with blood-red light before disappearing without a sound.

Then, Yao Rao's entire body distorted like water ripples, and she vanished.

"What the hell, this fairy is using me as bait," Qi Bei cursed inwardly, finally understanding Yao Rao's plan.

In the swift-flowing Blood River, one vortex after another suddenly appeared.

In the blink of an eye, within a thousand meters of the Blood River, hundreds of small vortices were scattered. Within each vortex, shattered faces appeared.

The already dense deathly aura and resentment in the air instantly became more than ten times stronger.

The gloomy wind wailed, like thousands of children crying simultaneously, chilling one to the bone.

Qi Bei's inner force in his dantian flowed slowly, and the wind magic binding him began to dissolve bit by bit.

At this moment, from the hundreds of vortices in the Blood River, wisps of smoke, almost transparent like glass, escaped and gathered above the river, forming a semi-transparent specter with a faint golden hue.

This specter's eyes glowed with a dim golden light, greedily staring at the immobilized Qi Bei as if he were the most delicious delicacy in the world.

Qi Bei's pupils contracted. It was a specter!

Specters were not ordinary undead souls. All souls, whether human or beast, were governed by the legendary Death God, who absolutely did not permit any souls to linger in the mortal world. Even if some souls escaped the Death God's grasp, they would eventually turn to dust after some time.

However, if an undead soul not only escaped the Death God's grasp but also did not turn to dust, it would become a specter.

Qi Bei had spent eight months in the Undead Mountain Range and had seen only a handful of specters, all of which were mindless, low-level specters.

This specter was partially glass-colored. According to the classification of undead, it had one foot in the realm of an Undead King.

All undead were divided into low-level, mid-level, and high-level undead. Above high-level undead were the Undead Kings, such as Corpse Kings, Skeleton Kings, and Specter Kings.

Undead Kings already possessed considerable intelligence and could summon thousands of undead.

Provoking an Undead King was equivalent to provoking an undead army.

Although the specter before him had not yet become a true Undead King, it was uncertain whether it had a group of subordinates. Moreover, even without subordinates, its own strength was already beyond Qi Bei's reach.

That Silver Corpse back then, with only half its body remaining and only 20-30% of the strength of a true Silver Corpse, had pushed Qi Bei to the brink of despair. If not for sheer luck, he would have died long ago.

Furthermore, a Silver Corpse was only mid-tier among high-level undead. A stronger Gold Corpse could have killed Qi Bei in an instant.

Although this specter was salivating over Qi Bei, it didn't pounce immediately. Instead, it circled him several times, seemingly sensing something was wrong.

Logically, although the scent of a living person was an aphrodisiac to the undead, it shouldn't have made this specter so ravenous. Yao Rao must have done something.

The specter hesitated for a long time, but finally, unable to resist the temptation, it lunged at Qi Bei.

Just then, the wind magic on Qi Bei's body was completely dissolved by his inner force.

As Qi Bei was about to dodge, a magic array emitting a dazzling blood-red light lit up around him, trapping the specter within.

Qi Bei forcefully suppressed the urge to flee. He wanted to see how strong this fairy really was. Perhaps, while the crane and the clam fought, he, the fisherman, could benefit.

"Li ga lo, hai duo qi mo %*￥###..." Yao Rao appeared outside the magic array, holding her magic staff. Her red lips moved rapidly, chanting incantations in a hurried tone.

Blood-red vines suddenly emerged from within the magic array, tightly wrapping around the specter inside.

The specter let out a sharp cry, which made Qi Bei, standing close by, dizzy and disoriented, but it was contained within the magic array.

The specter began to struggle violently, its golden and glass-like light flickering.

The blood-red vines were broken one by one, but new ones immediately appeared and wrapped around it again.

Qi Bei noticed that with every vine that broke, Yao Rao's pretty face turned paler.

However, with every vine that broke, the specter's radiance dimmed.

Qi Bei could see that without the help of this magical formation, Yao Rao would not be a match for the specter.

The specter's sharp cry just now might have been a call for reinforcements. If it truly summoned a horde of undead, Yao Rao would surely flee in disarray, and Qi Bei, trapped within the magic array, would be torn to shreds by the undead.

The battle was now at a stalemate, depending on who could hold out the longest.