The instant the white fluorescence was touched, it burst into a beam of white light. In Chen Mu's perception, this white light seemed to be a blank void, utterly devoid of power.
Yet this white light, which revealed nothing at all, erupted with an incomprehensible force, forcibly propping open a patch of white within the Netherworld!
It was as though a white paintbrush had forcibly smeared a stroke across the withered Grave Soil beneath the pitch-black sky!
The white light advanced with unreasonable force, instantly engulfing the Anping Marquis's ghostly image. With barely a tremor, his ghostly image was directly annihilated, leaving behind a wisp of black nethermist.
Under the white light's cover, the black nethermist also began to sizzle. It could not hold out at all and rapidly vanished in the blink of an eye, disappearing without a trace.
Whoosh!
The white light appeared swiftly and vanished just as swiftly.
After erasing the Anping Marquis's ghostly image completely, it quickly retreated and disappeared.
The boundless Grave Soil still lay before him, but the Anping Marquis's ghostly image had vanished completely. Whether soul-body or obsession, everything had been forcibly erased.
"Looks like it's just as I thought."
Chen Mu slowly withdrew his hand and looked at the layer of dim white light covering his palm.
It really could be done this way—by making direct contact, he could forcibly erase Netherworld Ghosts within the Netherworld and forcibly wipe away obsessions he had no desire to resolve.
The only problem was that doing so yielded no Soul Points, and it also caused the white light around him to dim somewhat.
After shaking his head,
Chen Mu quickly flew onward in search of his next target.
This time, however, he flew a very long way without seeing another ghostly image.
Only after flying onward for a while longer, when the white fluorescence around him had grown increasingly dim, did Chen Mu finally see, at the edge of his vision, a black shadow pressed against the ground amid the endless withered-yellow Grave Soil.
But as Chen Mu gradually approached, he suddenly discovered that the black shadow was not a ghostly image at all. It was a raised mound in the withered-yellow Grave Soil, shaped like an upside-down bowl.
A grave mound!
A strange glint flashed through Chen Mu's eyes.
Although it was perfectly normal for grave mounds to appear on this Grave Soil, he had never encountered one before. This was his first time.
Moreover, when he looked around, the endless Grave Soil was empty in every direction. As far as his eyes could see, it was all the same. In that desolate expanse, there was only this one solitary little grave!
After pondering briefly, Chen Mu still approached it.
Soon,
Chen Mu reached the grave mound.
After circling halfway around it, Chen Mu finally saw a ghostly image floating in the air behind the grave mound.
The ghostly image was a woman. Her hair was coiled into a bun, and her skin was a ghastly pale white, yet even that could not conceal the delicate beauty of her features.
There was no ferocity, hatred, or other frightening expression on her face. There was only a faint, almost imperceptible smile. She simply floated there, gazing tenderly down at what she held in her arms.
Looking lower,
Chen Mu suddenly saw that she was holding a blackish-purple dead infant!
Everything below her abdomen was covered in bright-red bloodstains. The blood seemed not to have dried at all, dripping down her clothes one drop at a time and falling onto the Grave Soil below.
With a single glance, Chen Mu immediately sensed that the woman's obsession was far more intense than that of Geng He and the others he had encountered before!
Just then, Miao Xinlan's ghostly image suddenly raised her head and looked in his direction, meeting his gaze.
In an instant,
the world transformed.
Chen Mu felt his vision blur. He was no longer standing on the Grave Soil, but had instead appeared amid a bamboo grove surrounded by verdant mountains and clear waters. A stream ran clear in the distance, while birds sang and flowers filled the air.
"An illusion... No, is this her memory?"
Chen Mu remained calm despite the change. He observed his surroundings, a thoughtful look appearing on his face.
This woman was named Miao Xinlan. Her obsession was more intense than that of any ghostly image he had seen before, to the point that some of her memories had remained. No wonder the system interface had not displayed her resentment or obsession. Since it could directly display her memories, there was naturally no need to gild the lily by describing them again.
With that thought,
Chen Mu looked around and soon saw a clearing outside the bamboo grove. A man and a woman were practicing swordsmanship there. The woman had delicate, beautiful features—it was Miao Xinlan—but the man was a complete stranger.
The two of them appeared to be around thirteen or fourteen years old.
The scene shifted.
Miao Xinlan and the man appeared in a mountain forest. A pack of demon wolves with scarlet eyes surrounded them. Standing back-to-back with their swords drawn, the two quickly slaughtered every last wolf.
The scene shifted again.
It was inside a wooden house. Upon the bed, beneath the curtains, skin as white as snow—Miao Xinlan and the same man as before. Amid faint gasps, the two held an unusual position.
During dual cultivation, the man continuously drew from her, his vital energy gradually growing more vigorous. Miao Xinlan, meanwhile, took nothing at all, merely expending her own vitality to help augment his.
The scene shifted once more.
The man won battle after battle in the Spirit Intent Sect, his cultivation growing ever higher. Step by step, he became the Spirit Intent Sect's prodigy, attracting the attention of all. Miao Xinlan silently watched him from below the arena, her eyes filled with tenderness.
The final scene.
In a valley, another woman stood beside the man, while Miao Xinlan was locked in fierce combat with someone ahead of them. After fighting desperately, she was defeated, and her opponent's sword finally pierced through her chest and abdomen.
The man could have acted to save her, but merely watched with indifference.
He vaguely heard someone let out a cold laugh. "As expected of a Spirit Intent Sect True Disciple. What a perfect example of a spirit with intent, but a person without feeling."
The memory ended completely there.
Chen Mu's vision returned to the withered-yellow Grave Soil.
At some point, Miao Xinlan's ghostly image had lowered her head again, still gazing tenderly at the dead infant in her arms.
Miao Xinlan Origin: Forty-Seventh-Generation Disciple of the Spirit Intent Sect Resentment: I miss him... Obsession: I miss him...
Line after line of text appeared on the system interface.
Just as Chen Mu was about to examine it more carefully, the white light around him began to flicker. Then he felt the world before his eyes blur, and he was instantly dragged away by a familiar force.
When he opened his eyes again,
he had already returned to his bedroom.
"Miao Xinlan..."
Chen Mu rubbed his slightly swollen temples.
Miao Xinlan's fragmented memories had shown him a bleak story, far more deeply than the words on the system interface could describe.
Moreover, the depth of her obsession far surpassed that of the Netherworld Ghosts he had encountered before. She even had a solitary grave of her own. Without a doubt, the Soul Points he could gain by dispelling her obsession would be far greater than those from the others.
As for this obsession... if he called it troublesome, it was somewhat troublesome. But if he called it easy, it truly was not difficult either.
The Spirit Intent Sect.
One of the Eight Great Sects.
Chen Mu did not know much about the Eight Great Sects, but he had at least heard each sect's name and knew roughly what they were like.
According to Miao Xinlan's memories, the man she still thought of after death, whose obsession lingered without dispersing, was named Tu Yue. He was a True Disciple of this generation of the Spirit Intent Sect.
As fate would have it, on the way back from Yuan Wu Alley with Chen Yao, he had heard quite a few martial-world anecdotes from Chen Yao, including one about Tu Yue.
It was said that three days ago, in the northern outskirts of the Capital, Tu Yue of the Spirit Intent Sect had fought Leng Shi of the Futiān Sect and ultimately emerged victorious.
One had to know that every True Disciple of the Eight Great Sects was a prodigy of the current generation. Who could truly be that much inferior to another? Even a narrow victory by a single point was enough to prove the excellence of Tu Yue's martial talent!
After that battle, word spread, and many in the martial world had already ranked Tu Yue among the top three of the younger generation!
"True Disciples of the Eight Great Sects..."
Chen Mu recalled the woman who claimed to be Xia, whom he had happened to encounter when visiting Cui'er's mother and younger sister, as well as the White-robed Youth with a sword hanging from his waist whom he had encountered before Xiao Qingshan's grave mound.
Given those two people's ages and martial cultivation, they were most likely True Disciples of the Eight Great Sects as well. He simply did not know which sect each of them came from.
"Very well. Let me see just what extraordinary abilities the prodigious True Disciples of the younger generation from the Eight Great Sects possess."
Chen Mu's expression remained calm.
Before you continue