The Best Wine at Apricot Flower House

For a moment, he felt as though he were floating toward immortality, his soul flying free of his body, seeming ready to ascend beyond the clouds and firmament, return to the Nine Heavens, enter that celestial palace, bow before immortals, and be granted divinity.

But.

The sensation did not last long.

A fierce chill suddenly surged over him, making Chen Mu shudder as his awareness snapped awake.

And upon waking, he was shocked to discover that he was floating in midair!

No.

More precisely, his soul was floating in the air. His physical body stood below, still and motionless.

His Soulmind hung suspended, with only a small portion still connected to his flesh. The part that had drifted out felt the icy coldness of heaven and earth, as though it would freeze his entire Soulmind solid.

Chen Mu drew in a deep breath.

But he inhaled nothing. It was merely an action made by his soul body.

"Out-of-Body..."

A faint glimmer flashed through his eyes, but he was not particularly surprised.

Out-of-Body!

An ability possessed by Eighth Rank sorcerers!

The Soulmind could temporarily leave the body, but it could not travel too far. Once it strayed too far, it could easily lose its way, the Soulmind turning into a wandering soul adrift while the body became a dead shell bereft of spirit.

The Out-of-Body ability still possessed little combat power. It was merely an enhanced version of Spirit Sight.

In the Out-of-Body state, Spirit Sight came naturally, and it was a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree Spirit Sight without blind spots. His vision reflected an area nearly a hundred meters around him.

"So Soulmind lv6 really is an Eighth Rank sorcerer."

Chen Mu murmured inwardly.

After experiencing it briefly, his Soulmind returned to its shell.

Though Eighth Rank sorcerers could send their Soulmind out of their bodies, it was still extremely dangerous, especially during the day. A single shaft of sunlight was enough to heavily injure a soul body, even scatter its soul to the winds.

Even those vicious, hatred-filled ghosts could only hide deep underground or in places where yin energy gathered during broad daylight.

He had to reach Seventh Rank as soon as possible!

There was not much difference between Ninth Rank and Eighth Rank, and their status was nearly equal. Both entered the Directorate of Celestial Observation as Spirit Officials. But Seventh Rank was entirely different. Upon entering the Directorate of Celestial Observation, one became a Celestial Secretary, able to refuse every order of deployment except an imperial command!

It could be said that once he became a Seventh Rank sorcerer, if he wished, he could leave Xuanguo Estate directly. Even the Xuanguo Duke himself would be unable to restrain him!

Such was the transcendent status of sorcerers!

Name: Chen Mu

Age: 16

Martial Strength: Strength to Truss a Chicken

Soulmind: lv6(+)

Soul Points: 11 points

Soul Roaming (Netherworld) -- Can be activated

Chen Mu summoned the system interface again. After glancing over it briefly, he continued upgrading.

His Soulmind rose from lv6 to lv7!

He experienced almost exactly the same sensation as before. Warmth and coolness intertwined, like yin and yang interweaving, enough to make one's mind and soul lose themselves.

But he had already experienced it once, and Chen Mu's soul body was now stronger and his will more resolute. Thus, after sinking into it for only an instant, he swiftly recovered.

His lv7 Soulmind was somewhat stronger again.

Chen Mu could sense that if it were nighttime, his Soulmind could leave his body and roam within fifty paces. Those fifty paces included both the sky and underground.

But it was still no use at all.

Only Object Manipulation was the key!

Chen Mu tried using Mind-Soul Power to touch the cup on the tea table, but he merely made the cup ring out with a series of crisp clinks. He could not lift it no matter what.

The cold tea in the cup splashed everywhere.

Chen Mu gently reached out and picked up the teacup. "Still without... hm, Strength to Truss a Chicken."

After thinking for a moment.

Chen Mu sat down beside the table, summoned the system interface, and activated Soul Roaming.

The reason he dared activate Soul Roaming in broad daylight was not because it was snowing. Rather, after his previous experience, Chen Mu understood the system's transcendent nature.

Even the boundless horrors within the Netherworld could not corrode the faint white light around his body, let alone the scant sunlight spilling down upon the mortal world.

Buzz!!

That sensation of being violently dragged returned.

A vast, irresistible force, like an invisible giant hand, seized him and instantly dragged him toward some unknown place.

The world before his eyes flashed past like phantoms. Even with his Soulmind upgraded to lv7, he still felt wave after wave of dizziness and could not remain conscious.

When he opened his eyes again.

The entire world had changed abruptly.

Black mist spread across the firmament, while brown filthy blood stained the earth.

In the distance came what seemed to be Ghost Cry, and what seemed to be tortured muttering. Merely hearing a little made his scalp prickle, as though his entire Soulmind were about to explode!

When Chen Mu turned around.

He sharply sucked in a breath.

A terrifying yet familiar ghostly figure stood pressed tightly behind him, black blood flowing from all seven orifices. If not for the white fluorescence surrounding his body, it would practically have been stuck against him.

It was Cui'er!

The sight startled Chen Mu badly, and he instinctively retreated.

Just as he was about to say something.

He saw Cui'er remain motionless, while the black clots of blood flowing from the seven orifices of her face began to peel away soundlessly.

At the same time, all the murk and filth covering her body fell away piece by piece like sheets of paper, finally revealing within a hazy figure glowing with faint white light.

This figure seemed to be what Cui'er had looked like in life. She was pretty and charming, seemingly an older Liu Lian. The only difference was a tiny cinnabar mole beneath the corner of her right eye.

The young woman gave Chen Mu a graceful bow.

She seemed to reveal an expression of liberation.

Then her entire figure transformed into countless white specks of light and vanished completely between heaven and earth.

Chen Mu stared blankly at the scene without reacting. Only after a while did he shake his head slightly and let out a faint, wistful sigh.

It seemed to be exactly as he had expected. A wisp of Cui'er's obsession had lingered, becoming entangled with resentment and terror in the Netherworld and turning her into a wandering Netherworld Ghost.

She had been sustained by nothing more than a wisp of obsession. Once that obsession dispersed, she naturally vanished like smoke and clouds.

After pausing briefly.

Chen Mu withdrew his gaze and slowly floated forward.

The withered yellow Grave Soil stretched endlessly, with no telling where it ended. Apart from the brown bloodstains, the vast land held nothing else in sight.

Those patches of black mist were even stranger. They clearly appeared not far away, yet no matter how he drifted forward, he could never approach them. They seemed separated by an uncrossable distance as vast as a heavenly moat.

Who knew how much time passed.

Chen Mu finally saw another figure.

More precisely, another ghostly figure.

The ghost looked like a beggar, with a rust-covered iron sword hanging at his waist. His eyes were closed as though he were asleep. At a glance, he looked like an ordinary person sleeping soundly.

Yet his feet hovered above the Grave Soil as he drifted aimlessly about.

Chen Mu approached him.

Words appeared above the beggar's head.

Xiao Qingshan

Origin: The world was his home

Resentment: None

Obsession: The best wine at Apricot Flower House—I will never taste it again...

Seeing the description, Chen Mu froze slightly and examined the other man more closely.

"Is it him?"

This was no unknown figure. Chen Mu even had memories of him; he was a character who often appeared in the tales told by storytellers in teahouses.

He loved wine throughout his life and wandered the world.

In his later years, he roamed the Capital. One night, drunk on wine, he encountered a vicious ghost harming people. He drew his sword and slew it, but ultimately died when his vitality ran dry. He was buried North of the Capital.

"This obsession... Does it mean I should bring a jug of good wine and make an offering at his grave?"

Chen Mu pondered for a while.

Bringing wine into the Netherworld was clearly impossible. Leaving aside the fact that he did not even know how he had arrived here, even if he did know, he likely could not bring material objects here.

At present, the only possibility seemed to be bringing a jug of the wine he could not forget, then finding the place where his bones were buried. Perhaps that could dispel his obsession.

The good news was that Apricot Flower House was in the Capital.

And the place where he was buried was not far from the Capital either.

"I can only give it a try."

As Chen Mu pondered, he turned to look into the distance and noticed several more ghostly figures wandering about aimlessly.

But just as he wanted to go over, the white light around him began to dim. Before he could make many movements, he was abruptly dragged away, vanishing from the Grave Soil.

The old beggar's ghostly figure did not react at all.

It simply continued wandering aimlessly across the boundless Grave Soil.