Flowing Cloud Villa

The situation at hand was already quite easy to understand.

This caravan must have encountered Strange Ghosts while traveling.

Although Ghost Ridge Palace had arranged for disciples to be stationed around the trade routes, and most Strange Ghosts would be stopped by them,

there were always some Strange Ghosts that broke through the defenses and wandered onto the trade routes, resulting in attacks on caravans.

This caravan was one such unlucky victim.

At this moment, the Strange Ghost that had slaughtered dozens of people was chasing after them. The three surviving humans fleeing for their lives were a portly merchant and two martial master guards.

Through the reconnaissance dragonfly's vision, Su Jie noticed the portly merchant pull a deep-blue talisman from his robes. His face twisted with pain as he hurled it at the Strange Ghost.

Boom!

The talisman ignited in midair, transforming into an octagonal spirit-pillar cage that trapped the Strange Ghost inside.

A talisman capable of trapping a Strange Ghost was at least of low-grade mid-level quality. A single one cost dozens of Blood Marrow Crystals.

Seeing that the Strange Ghost had been temporarily trapped, the portly merchant continued fleeing in a stumbling fashion with the support of the two martial master guards. Their direction happened to be toward Su Jie.

The straight-line distance was too short, and the two sides soon came face-to-face.

When he saw Su Jie's group of three, the merchant shouted at Su Jie, "Hey, you Ghost Ridge Palace people over there! Are you blind? There's a Strange Ghost behind me! Hurry up and stop it for me."

The merchant had run so hard that even his shoes had fallen off, and his plump face was covered in bloody scratches from branches and bushes.

Now that he saw Su Jie, he did not even think before demanding that Su Jie help hold off the Strange Ghost.

"Can't you understand what I'm saying? Protecting us merchants is your duty. Believe it or not, I'll report you to the Command Hall."

The merchant pointed at Su Jie, his attitude extremely vile.

Merchants from places like the Black Market maintained Ghost Ridge Palace's supply of materials. Thus, even a demonic cultivation sect like Ghost Ridge Palace would not attack merchants at will, but would instead win them over and protect them.

As he spoke, the merchant also reached around his body, originally intending to take out the pass token issued by the Command Hall.

But he found nothing. In his panic, he had no idea where he had dropped it.

"Fatty, you're awfully noisy!"

Su Jie frowned as he looked over. His sharp, cold eyes made the merchant's entire body tremble.

Then, as though enraged by embarrassment, the merchant flew into a rage. "Do you know who I, Jia Xin, am? Let me tell you, my elder uncle is Jia Geng, the master of Flowing Cloud Villa and one of Ghost Ridge Palace's five specially authorized merchants. You dare speak to me like this? Believe it or not, I'll have your elders skin you alive."

"Brother Su, this fatty really does have quite a background. He's a merchant from Flowing Cloud Villa. We'd better not get ourselves into trouble."

Gu Weinan seemed to recognize the other party and urged Su Jie not to provoke him.

The so-called five specially authorized merchants were a cooperative system established jointly by Ghost Ridge Palace and five Aristocratic Clans.

Ghost Ridge Palace opened its resources to them, while the five great merchants had to satisfy Ghost Ridge Palace's demands for special resources.

What were special resources? Naturally, they meant people.

Demonic cultivation could not do without them.

It could be said that the five specially authorized merchants were all infamous slave lords. The trade in people on the Black Market was essentially monopolized by these five families.

Because they could procure the scarce human resources Ghost Ridge Palace needed, the five merchants held lofty positions there. No wonder the other party was so arrogant.

"What are you standing around for? Hurry up and protect me! If I lose even a single hair, I'll make sure you suffer the consequences."

Jia Xin looked at Su Jie smugly and was just about to continue when he suddenly heard the roar of a Strange Ghost from behind.

Immediately afterward, the Strange Ghost's terrifying, hunched figure appeared in their field of vision. It had already broken free of the talisman's restraints.

"Not good, Brother Su! We have to retreat!"

Gu Weinan instinctively took a step back, his heart and liver trembling. Not everyone had the courage to face a Strange Ghost head-on.

Not to mention that his leg was injured and Chen Yun was seriously wounded beside him.

Even if the entire team were uninjured, facing a Strange Ghost like this gave them less than a thirty percent chance of victory.

Chen Yun took a deep breath, her gaze resolute. It seemed she had made some decision, for she voluntarily stepped in front of Su Jie and said, "Fellow Daoist Su, you should leave first. I'll hold back the Strange Ghost."

This action already showed that Chen Yun had made up her mind to die, willing to buy Su Jie time by stopping the Strange Ghost.

Su Jie completely ignored Jia Xin's shouting from the side. He only measured the gap between himself and the Strange Ghost, then patted Chen Yun on the shoulder.

"There's no need. I'll deal with this Strange Ghost. You won't be able to hold it back."

Su Jie met the Strange Ghost's gaze. He had been fretting over how to test the combat power of the Thousand-Hand Centipede after its second Spirit Refinement, and now wasn't this the perfect opportunity?

Buzz, buzz!

A great mass of Yin Fire Blood Bees flew out, their tails raised as streaks of fire rained down.

The Strange Ghost moved with astonishing speed, avoiding most of the lines of fire with several nimble shifts. The few that splashed onto its body were blocked by that layer of pale skin, merely burning away a layer without affecting its movements much.

Several Silver-winged Golden Cicadas likewise returned without accomplishing anything, unable to break through the Strange Ghost's defenses.

"It really is powerful."

Su Jie took a step, then suddenly charged forward and plunged into the forest beside them.

Drawn by the attack, the Strange Ghost instantly shifted its attention to Su Jie and roared as it pursued him in fury.

Perhaps, in the Strange Ghost's eyes, the others were all prey it could toy with. Su Jie, on the other hand, not only failed to run but even dared to strike back, so he had to be dealt with first.

Su Jie's speed was completely incomparable to the Strange Ghost's. It caught up with him before long.

When the heavy footsteps and panting sounded behind him, Su Jie also summoned his trump card.

The Thousand-Hand Centipede crawled out from his sleeve. Its body rapidly expanded, transforming in the blink of an eye into a colossal creature six meters long—twice the Strange Ghost's length. Its hideous, terrifying upright form made the Strange Ghost, which had been pouncing at full speed, slam on the brakes, gouging two long trenches into the ground.

Roar!

The Strange Ghost let out a threatening roar, its rows of sharp fangs still carrying shreds of flesh, incomparably bloody.

Hiss!

The Thousand-Hand Centipede answered with a hiss. A fierce, fetid wind swept over, making the flesh on the Strange Ghost's face ripple like water. The difference in their auras was immediately clear.

"Kill it, Little Qian."

Su Jie rubbed the Thousand-Hand Centipede's sinister insect body and issued the command to attack.

The next moment, the Thousand-Hand Centipede carried out Su Jie's order without hesitation.

Its enormous body crushed the bushes as it swept forward like a black gale.

There was no fancy maneuvering. The Strange Ghost refused to back down and pounced forward, using both claws and fangs.

Claws and fangs capable of easily slicing through steel, combined with its formidable physique—these were the capital that allowed the Strange Ghost to run rampant.

When ordinary outer disciples fought a Strange Ghost, they could not kill it in a single blow. They could only continuously inject it with poison through their gu insects and slowly wear it to death.

That was also why outer disciples who encountered a Strange Ghost alone were almost certain to die.

Unfortunately, today the Strange Ghost had encountered an existence whose physical body was even stronger than its own.

In close combat between similarly sized creatures, insects' senses, mobility, and means of capture were often superior to beasts'. What was more, the Thousand-Hand Centipede was far larger than the Strange Ghost.

In the very first clash, the Strange Ghost was struck like a speeding train and sent flying by the Thousand-Hand Centipede.

Then, the Thousand-Hand Centipede clamped the Strange Ghost tightly in a pair of jaw limbs and crashed through one towering ancient tree after another along the way.

Roar, roar!

The Strange Ghost struggled madly. When its claws touched rock and ancient trees, they were as easy to tear apart as tofu.

But when the target it was destroying became the Thousand-Hand Centipede, the situation was completely different.

The Strange Ghost's seemingly sharp claws landed on the Thousand-Hand Centipede's chitinous shell, leaving only deep grooves and scratches.

Occasionally, when the fragile joints between the shell segments were injured, green insect blood sprayed out, but the wounds soon healed.

Some wounded sections even split apart directly, transforming into tiny centipedes that dropped off and burrowed straight into the Strange Ghost's flesh.

Sizzle, sizzle.

The Thousand-Hand Centipede grew even more excited as it fought, like a child given a giant toy. Its pale corpse hands stretched out one after another, wrapping the Strange Ghost around the trunk of an ancient tree before snapping the tree in two along with it.

In an instant, the two enormous figures were buried beneath the fallen branches.

A few seconds later, only the Thousand-Hand Centipede could be seen standing upright. The Strange Ghost on the ground had every bone broken, its colorful internal organs and intestines squeezed out of its belly. It no longer made a sound.

Sizzle, sizzle!

Holding the Strange Ghost's corpse high in its jaws, the Thousand-Hand Centipede continued shaking its head and swaying its body, as though it had not yet had enough fun.

"It's already over?"

Su Jie was somewhat stunned himself when he saw this scene.

Although Su Jie knew that the Thousand-Hand Centipede had been greatly strengthened after evolving to low-grade second-stage Spirit Refinement, the situation before him still exceeded his expectations.

Such a terrifying Strange Ghost—one capable of wiping out a three-person team—had been killed by the Thousand-Hand Centipede in less than two minutes.

After the Thousand-Hand Centipede had played to its heart's content, it carried the battered Strange Ghost's corpse over and placed it in front of Su Jie.

"So this is the power of a low-grade second-stage Spirit Refinement gu insect? Sure enough, my path was the right one."

Su Jie looked at the Strange Ghost's corpse delivered by the Thousand-Hand Centipede, a smile appearing on his face. That meant another several hundred Blood Marrow Crystals added to his accounts.

After hanging the Strange Ghost's corpse from a tree, Su Jie did not hurry back. This happened to be the place nearby where the caravan had been attacked by Strange Ghosts.

Su Jie, who believed that failing to take advantage of an opportunity would invite heavenly retribution, ignored the bloodshed covering the ground and searched through the corpses one by one.

There were some scattered Blood Marrow Crystals among the corpses, one or two at a time. Su Jie did not disdain the small amounts and scooped them all into his own pocket.

After searching everything, Su Jie had obtained twenty-three Blood Marrow Crystals in scattered lots.

Finally, Su Jie turned his gaze toward several overturned carriages. Those were the goods the merchants had prepared to transport to the Black Market in Ghost Ridge Palace.

Threads of cold air seeped from inside the carriages. When Su Jie lifted the tarpaulin and looked in, the horrifying sight made him involuntarily suck in a cold breath.

The carriages were loaded with one square ice block after another, each containing the frozen corpse of a child.

The oldest corpse was no more than five or six years old, while the youngest was not even a year old. The dead children had clearly been strangled, with a ring of dark purple bruises around each neck.

He searched several more carriages. They were all the same.