The skeletal ghosts weren't particularly difficult for the group to deal with. But when River Haunt stirred thousands upon thousands of scattered bones, fusing them into twisted monsters and tainting them with the same corruption as the statue, they became truly terrifying.
Ghost Wine's shadow condensed into countless fine threads that pierced the skeletal ghosts. Yet even after being strung up, they still gaped and reached for the group, their bodies writhing.
They knew no pain. They were numb, controlled and driven by "faith."
The giant statue used its body as a shield. Anyone who came close to the temple behind it would suffer its targeted attacks. The river and its muddy silt trembled; the water churned not only with the foulness of ghostly energy, but also with a blinding cloud of sand.
The group could breathe underwater because Ghost Wine had used psychological suggestion to make them believe their legs were octopus tentacles. Now they felt themselves suffocating again—
Mud and sand in their lungs. It was awful!
"Do we have to attack the temple?" The siren was the most composed one here. She could control the water precisely, making sure she didn't breathe in any impurities. From the statue's behavior, she could tell Yu Xing had made the right call, but she still had no idea how they were supposed to carry it out.
After all, Jiang Haunt's ghostly energy was mixed with a trace of faith. This power could even block Ghost Wine's omnipresent shadows. Otherwise, couldn't Ghost Wine simply travel through the shadows and appear in front of the temple?
But whenever Ghost Wine tried to use the shadows behind the statue, Jiang Haunt sensed him and unleashed that terrifying white sludge—pollution so pure it was almost tangible—spreading it over the shadows in a frenzy. Even