Attack

A hazy, translucent shadow of nothingness—nearly impossible to catch with the naked eye in the darkness—burst from the fallen Wanderer's body. With its ghostly form flickering in and out of existence, it rapidly lunged toward Xuan Ye and the others!

The silver moonlight passed through its ethereal body without resistance. The Wraith moved through the darkness as freely as fish in water. Even though Xuan Ye had connected with the Perception Inner Mansion and his Spiritual Power had reached the level of a Three-Star Mage Apprentice, he still frequently lost track of the target at this distance!

The nocked arrow was delayed yet again! Unlike the slow-moving Wanderer he had aimed at before, this Wraith had no discernible movement pattern, and its ghostly form was nearly impossible to lock onto!

An ordinary Apprentice Ranger might have fired anyway under the pressure, gambling on luck even if they were unlikely to hit. But Xuan Ye had no desire to shoot at all. Precisely because he could read various parameters, he knew that while he could not maintain a clear view of his opponent, the chance of hitting it based on his shooting frequency and archery was infinitely close to zero!

Attacking would simply waste his strength. It would be better to let it draw closer, ensure he could keep it visually locked, and then think about defeating it!

"Don't waste your strength. Ordinary arrows can't inflict effective damage on a Wraith. Take out the Holy Water the Paladin gave us and coat your weapons with it! Quickly!"

After receiving the reminder, Luo Luoji also noticed that their target had appeared. He immediately and decisively issued an order.

A Wraith! It was at least a One-Star professional-tier being, and at the same level, it could steadily defeat ordinary human One-Star experts! Based on the traces Dean had judged earlier, this one was at least at the Two-Star level!

In a head-on battle, even with a Holy Water-coated weapon, Luo Luoji could not defeat it alone. Neither could everyone present combined!

Their only goal now was to stall it—to hold out until the four-person group made their move!

Luo Luoji's reminder startled Xuan Ye. He really was still far too inexperienced in actual combat. When the moment came, he had been too nervous, to the point that he had even forgotten to apply the Holy Water. Fortunately, he had not fully drawn the bowstring because he lacked confidence; otherwise, he would have wasted his stamina for nothing.

Suppressing the slight panic in his heart, he instantly pulled out the bottle of Holy Water from his robes and dipped an arrowhead into it. By then, however, the Wraith's ghostly speed had already brought it within thirty meters!

At this speed, it gave Xuan Ye no chance to dip a second arrowhead!

"Spread out! Focus your minds and resist the Mind Scream!"

Luo Luoji smashed the bottle of Holy Water directly onto his own blade, then continued issuing orders in an orderly manner.

'Mind Scream' was the Wraith's signature skill. It could send opponents with weak wills directly into a state of fear and dizziness. What made it most frightening was that it was an indiscriminate area-of-effect skill; the closer one was to the center, the greater its power. That was why Luo Luoji had no choice but to order them to spread out.

"Have a taste of this!"

The instant Luo Luoji finished speaking, Xuan Ye struck first. The soaked arrow shot from the bowstring with a thread of silver light!

It locked onto the empty space ahead of the Wraith!

The exact spot where it would arrive the next moment!

His prediction had been astonishingly accurate, and the attack was equally sharp!

However, there was only one arrow. An actual creature would have found it difficult to dodge because of inertia, but the drifting Wraith had no such weakness. It abruptly stopped in midair in defiance of physical laws, and the arrow trailing silver Holy Water grazed past just three centimeters in front of it!

It plunged into the desert surface!

But in the next moment, a bottle spinning downward through the air was shot apart by Xuan Ye's second arrow!

Nearly a full bottle of Holy Water splashed out, covering the entire area in which the Wraith was moving!

'Sizzle~'

A harsh sound rang out, like scalding oil poured onto butter. The previously incorporeal Wraith was almost completely revealed, wrapped in a hazy white halo. Even a wisp of green smoke rose from above it!

"Eek!"

A piercing scream rang out from nowhere. Luo Luoji and the other four members of the Scavenger Squad all felt a sharp pain in their brains. It was the 'Mind Scream'!

However, because the Wraith had not yet drawn close, they were only at the edge of the Mind Scream's range. They recovered rather quickly; they had merely lost the opportunity to press their advantage.

Xuan Ye's three-part combo had truly dazzled the others!

Not only had he injured the Wraith, he had also forced it to release its most dreaded Mind Scream from a position favorable to them. Given the duration of the oscillations in the Wraith's internal rune circuits, they could unleash their full power without worry for some time afterward!

"Nicely done! We'll take care of the rest!"

After recovering from his slight dizziness, Luo Luoji roared and charged directly at the Wraith, which had not yet completely escaped the Holy Water's coverage. Xuan Ye, whose attack had succeeded, finally relaxed a little.

In truth, he had not expected things to go so smoothly. He had merely been unable to soak a second arrow in time. Since the Holy Water was effective against this thing, he had simply gone ahead with the combo. He had not expected the results to be so good with his ability to observe and make minute adjustments to the parameters.

Holy Light flashed in the distance. Clearly, the four-person group from Dream Island had already set out and was rushing over. There probably would not be much left for him to do. His rapid firing in such a short time had placed considerable strain on his muscles, and once he relaxed, his arms began to ache repeatedly. He had probably strained them a little.

Yet at that moment, Xuan Ye suddenly felt his pores tighten and his hairs stand on end. An indescribable fear and darkness enveloped him, as if the deepest wound in his heart had been exposed, giving him the sensation that he was about to return to the loneliness of drifting through the cosmos.

'Clang~'

Perhaps because it had stirred up the memories of drifting through the cosmos, the enormous Soul Database deep within his soul gave a slight tremor, instantly dispersing the pervasive fear. Light returned to Xuan Ye's eyes, and his dazed mind regained clarity.

"Not good! There's another one!"

The instant he came to his senses, Xuan Ye discovered the problem. At some unknown point, the figure of another Wraith had appeared not far behind him, startling him greatly.

But the change that followed left him somewhat stunned. The Wraith that had begun by ambushing him and dragging him into fear was now flickering as it clutched its enormous head with its tiny claws, looking utterly miserable and foolish.

Then, beginning at the new Wraith's feet, its body slowly transformed into phosphorescent dust and gradually dispersed into the void, vanishing without a trace. Even at the end, it wore a pained expression as though asking what grudge it had ever held.

At first, Xuan Ye thought the thing had merged into the void and vanished in preparation for another ambush. But when a dense Essence began to emerge and was passively inhaled by him, he finally understood that this dazed Wraith had already kicked the bucket.

He hurried forward two steps into the center of the spot where the Wraith had vanished. At the same time, he regulated his breathing and used the improved Basic Breathing Technique to greedily absorb the Essence drifting through the surroundings.

Streams of cold Essence that greatly strengthened his physical body and Inner Palace were drawn into him. Although the Essence's concentration had completely dissipated after barely ten breaths, the enormous surge already left Xuan Ye's flesh faintly sore and swollen with pain. Even so, the harvest was far greater than the sum of all his efforts over the past few days since arriving in this world!

The Perception Inner Mansion he had only vaguely connected with showed signs of loosening and consolidating. His newly advanced Level 7 Knight Attendant was steadily advancing toward Level 8, nearly reaching the peak of Level 7!

The speed was astonishing. Killing prey truly was the fastest way for physical professions to advance!

After nearly all the Essence had dispersed, Xuan Ye greedily breathed in the trace of energy remaining in the air. He had truly gotten a taste of the benefits. In the past, he had at most fired cold arrows from the sidelines and had never approached his prey. Besides, the prey he had encountered had mostly been stinking things like zombies.

This was his first genuine experience of the method that placed physical professions at the top of the advancement rankings. No wonder people said it was the best path for commoners to make a comeback. They really had not been wrong.

However, Xuan Ye vaguely understood that the exaggerated effect this time probably had a great deal to do with the difference in ranks between him and his opponent. He was merely an Advanced Attendant who had not yet entered the professional tier, yet he had directly swallowed part of the Essence of a Wraith comparable to a Two-Star professional-tier expert. Even if what he absorbed was only a small portion of what had spilled out, it was still an enormous amount for him.

As for why the Wraith had inexplicably died on its own...

Uh, could it be that when this thing invaded his mind and used the Fear Spell, it had also passively been affected by the fear in his heart? A Pure Spirit Body like a Wraith, facing the impact of the mental contamination within the Soul Database—tsk tsk. Thinking of this, Xuan Ye's face showed an expression that mixed lingering fear with schadenfreude. If you didn't court death, you wouldn't die.

But apart from gloating, his heart also became exceptionally wary and alert. Setting aside his previous sparring in the Scavenger Squad and his bullying of the Wanderer, this was actually his first real battle.

Although the result had been fairly good, he had made obvious mistakes during the process. From forgetting to apply the Holy Water at the beginning and ending up with only one arrow, to relaxing his guard while standing aside and getting hit by the Fear Spell, he would probably have died or at least been badly injured without his unique ability!

Being a little slow was fine, and lacking experience was fine. He was no Saint Seiya, and making the same mistake twice was acceptable. But a third or fourth time would be unacceptable! He had to learn from experience, and his mentality had to improve as well. It was fine for the young to fail, but not to use that as an excuse!

After quickly making a simple summary, Xuan Ye maintained his vigilance while admiring the four-person group entering the battlefield and working together.

Aitiya's entire body was wrapped in a layer of holy radiance. Combined with her stunning figure and utterly serious expression, she looked sacred and inviolable. The giant sword nearly as tall as a person, streaked with silver-white light, swept over the first Wraith, which Luo Luoji and the others had already beaten into a sorry state.

She left only a gap in the defensive line. The Wraith, which possessed only an instinct for evading danger, obediently followed her arrangement and shot through the gap, only to crash headfirst into a scroll that suddenly appeared in midair.

Several Silver Threads burst from the scroll, winding toward the Wraith one after another. After breaking free of two threads in succession, the Wraith was finally caught by the third before it could escape. Then, before it could break free, the fourth and fifth threads followed in quick succession.

In the end, they bound it into a zongzi and dragged it into the scroll, raising ripples like waves.

'Seal!'

With a rustle, the scroll that had absorbed the Wraith folded itself up and fell into Dean's hand as he sat on the Small Carpet. The entire coordination was as smooth and fluid as flowing clouds and running water.

Yet from beginning to end, none of them discovered that Xuan Ye had silently caused the other Wraith to die!