Bait

After daybreak, Ming Shu and Little Zhao were finally allowed out of the carriage. Although the weather was gray and overcast today, it was said that some powerful Ghost Spirits could still venture outside and act.

Chong Li and Second Senior Brother were discussing something off to the side, while Old Zhao and Ren Yuan sat by the fire roasting sweet potatoes.

After fighting all night, everyone was exhausted and starving. They needed to replenish their food first.

The other Demon Hunters were skillfully cleaning up the battlefield. No teammates had died, though quite a few had suffered minor injuries and were being bandaged.

The traces on the ground had to be dealt with.

Ghost Spirits left behind no possessions.

However, after a Ghost Spirit died completely, it would disperse while forming a layer of white powder on the surface of the sand and soil, on tree bark and leaves, or on the surface of stones.

It possessed a certain spirituality. Once collected, it could be used in alchemy and medicine, or in Artifact Forging. It could even be simply smeared onto the sharp edges of weapons; using it that way allowed one to borrow a bit of a Ghost Spirit's power and increase the damage dealt.

The effects were said to be quite good.

Everyone was a Demon Hunter who lived by the blade, so they were accustomed to collecting useful things first and distributing them among the group afterward.

Although Ming Shu had learned about the forbidden place where Ghost Spirits were imprisoned and refined, he had neither a reason nor an opportunity to pass on this crucial information.

He was only a thirteen-year-old boy now. He could become impulsive after suddenly gaining power and dare to fight.

But what he dared not expose most was the actual age of his soul. He could be dazed and dull, but he could not be calm and calculating.

Just as he had seen in the fragments of memory he obtained from those completely dead Ghost Spirits, some had come from neighboring Zhuo Shui County, some were traveling merchants passing through, and some were from poor families in Qing Shui County.

This world must have ways to read memories, right? I wonder whether the Life Book can shield me from such methods.

The enemy who had laid plans in Qing Shui County had painstakingly worked for many years, creating numerous accidents and continuously collecting the Soul Spirits of the dead before placing them in the forbidden place for refinement. Only then could they preserve them over the long term and gather this enormous power.

Who knew how much had been consumed in last night's battle?

Even if someone had investigated each incident carefully back then, it would still have been hard to discover anything unusual. It was not as though the young ladies and masters of wealthy families never suffered accidents. In the end, weren't those cases all left unresolved?

Like Little Zhao, Ming Shu was extremely curious about the Demon Hunters.

After each of them ate a sweet potato, they took the initiative to help clean things up. Little Zhao still did not dare touch anything himself. He only helped search through the area, calling the others over to collect whatever he found.

Ming Shu picked up the club Ren Yuan had given him earlier. It had already broken into several pieces, all of them covered in white powder.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, a nearby Demon Hunter took the initiative to explain to the two boys what the powder was, what it did, and how it should be stored.

He was also quite curious how many Ghost Spirits this ordinary club had killed to become coated in such a thick layer of white powder.

Professionally, all of this could be called Death Spirit Powder.

Its color differed depending on its quality.

One absolutely must not let it come into contact with fresh blood. It might ignite and scorch the Soul Body.

Of course, such situations were accidents. Under normal circumstances, it would not react. When he reached this point, he even gave Little Zhao a fright.

Warlocks would combine incantations with powder and spiritually potent fresh blood to create a certain amount of power.

It was generally used against Demon Beasts.

Demon Beasts basically all possessed physical bodies. Ghost Spirits had no physical bodies, yet could still move about. Demon Spirits, meanwhile, needed to borrow a human body or the body of a demon beast.

Ghost Spirits were relatively pure, dividing into several different types within themselves. Demon Beasts were relatively stable. Demon Spirits, on the other hand, absorbed and accommodated the spirituality and power of other things to strengthen themselves.

The Demon Spirits in the Demon Subduing Hall were now mostly no longer the same pure Demon Spirits they had been at the beginning. Many had combined with other spiritual powers, forming new Demon Spirits.

This knowledge was all public within the Demon Hunters. Second Senior Brother also encouraged everyone to teach one another, pass on their experience, and develop and strengthen the organization.

Chong Li and Second Senior Brother had finished talking, and they came over to sit together and eat sweet potatoes.

"The leader of the Demon Hunters, codename Qilin." Chong Li introduced him to Ming Shu.

"We Demon Hunters are a loose organization. In our daily lives, we chase and collect Demon Spirits. Wherever Demon Spirits wreak havoc upon the mortal world, our presence can be found."

Although everyone knew perfectly well that Qilin belonged to the Sky-Toppling Observatory, they tacitly needed to say that he was only Qilin.

"Besides the Demon Spirits in the Demon Subduing Hall, many Demon Spirits still wander the world. As for where they came from—go find that answer yourself." Second Senior Brother sounded thoroughly uninterested.

Chong Li picked up the conversation and continued teaching Ming Shu. After all, he had already gained the small Stone Pagoda's recognition and could be developed into a Demon Hunter.

"Demon Hunters are a martial-world organization, not an official one. Besides Demon Hunters, there are also Demon Beast Hunters who deal with Demon Beasts, and Ghost Exorcists who deal with Ghost Spirits. Both of those groups come from the Dao Sect."

The Dao Sect was the great sect that had once protected the Way under the previous dynasty. It had once towered over the world and was even larger than the current Sky-Toppling Observatory.

Unfortunately, problems arose in its internal administration. It split into multiple factions and fought among itself for years. Finally, when the realm fell into chaos, one faction chose to head north.

That faction was relatively aggressive.

It now occupied the Demon Locking Pagoda, driving its Demon Beast Hunters across the world to collect Demon Beasts.

The Demon Locking Pagoda was a treasure of the northern barbarians, an existence similar to the Demon Subduing Hall.

The other faction of the Dao Sect chose submission instead, heading south to lie low. It guarded the ancestral Ghost Refining Prison.

It maintained the Ghost Exorcists as they exorcised ghosts throughout the world and protected ordinary people. This faction was relatively more moderate.

They often spoke of the Great Way of the Common People.

As for the Academy, that was far too complicated. We truly could not explain the affairs of scholars. The relationships within it were intricate and deeply entwined.

Martial Artists were much simpler. In the martial world, there had once been many Martial Artists who could enter the army and become its middle-level strength.

As the Immortal Dynasty decayed, more and more interests were monopolized by the Aristocratic Clans and those noble families. They had lost all chance to rise above their station.

The Supervisor had already foreseen that a new age of chaos was about to arrive.

Chong Li had hinted at this information to Ming Shu several times. Were they afraid that this hot-blooded boy would still be yearning for his ancestors' glory?

Or were they worried he would fail to see the situation clearly and go looking for death himself, just like his other brothers?

Most of the Demon Hunters present were actually Martial Artists from the martial world. They had merely learned some methods of dealing with Ghost Spirits, Demon Beasts, and Demon Spirits. In reality, they had no Demon Spirits within them.

Two or three of them had a dog with a Demon Beast in its body nearby. For the time being, they called them War Hounds.

The others only possessed weapons produced by the Sky-Toppling Observatory, which had a certain ability to restrain Demon Spirits.

This battle had also come suddenly. To gather manpower and destroy as many Ghost Spirits as possible, Second Senior Brother had made Chong Li and the others hold out for another hour.

If Ming Shu had not suddenly erupted and delayed them for quite some time, Chong Li and Ren Yuan would probably have needed to reveal more of their trump cards.

That was because Ming Shu and the others carried an aura from the Sky-Toppling Observatory that Chong Li had deliberately leaked. This was the real bait.

The enemy lurking in the shadows had guessed that they might be important figures from the Sky-Toppling Observatory. That was why they had sent so many Ghost Spirits to intercept them at any cost.

It had also caught Second Senior Brother off guard.

But he himself was the greatest trump card. If things truly came to it, he would make his move. Chong Li simply did not know what specific moment Second Senior Brother had been referring to.

So she had just gone to speak with Second Senior Brother in private.

After probing for several days, Second Senior Brother had already confirmed that there were at least two powerful Demon Spirits in Qing Shui County.

These Demon Spirits were not like the "docile" Demon Spirit in Ming Shu's hands. Their intelligence was extremely high. Not only could they scheme, but their plots ran deep.

They were also hidden very well.

Under ordinary circumstances, they were extremely difficult to detect.

Moreover, the abilities of Demon Spirits varied from one to another.

If a great battle truly erupted within the city, the civilian casualties would certainly be severe. This was a problem that had to be considered carefully.

Should they continue using bait?

Second Senior Brother and Chong Li looked at Ming Shu at the same time.

The boy, who was learning about the world from a Demon Hunter uncle, inexplicably shivered.