There Is a Ghost

"Are the great powers of the Desolate Dust this frugal with their computing power?" Wu Hen originally wanted to crack a joke.

But he noticed that Ming Yi beside him looked tense, her naturally hanging hand trembling slightly.

Ming Yi and One-Eyed Sister were both visual Awakened.

The images they saw were completely different from what Wu Hen and the others saw.

Because they could clearly see hundreds of millions of White Bone Yin Ants, using a base code similar to the "0" and "1" of human computers, executing an incredibly precise "cross" construction... using it to complete walls, tiled roofs, beams, eaves, and interior decorations!

The most terrifying thing was that among the ranks of those "worshippers," there were quite a few skeletons.

Once these skeletons stepped into Yin Province, they would instantly turn into White Bone Yin Ants, immediately joining the ranks of this "living ant code" construction army!

Locusts devour people.

People turn into bones.

Bones turn into Yin Ants.

Ants build Yin Province!!

Just how big this Yin Province was, there was no way to know. But people like Ming Yi and One-Eyed Sister, who possessed Awakened vision, could already imagine that its formation was built from billions of corpses. And as for what kind of existence in the Desolate Dust could complete such an exquisite masterpiece, it had already moved beyond the primitiveness and savagery of most Desolate Dust Lifeforms, possessing its own unique "art"!

"Let's keep moving forward..." Captain Cai took a deep breath and said, bracing himself.

Everyone took a step forward, but they couldn't help but look back at Little Stutterer.

Little Stutterer held the Spirit Candle in his hands, its flame flickering inexplicably, as if it could be blown out at any moment.

"Switch to the next group." Seeing that the Spirit Crown had already begun to dim, Captain Qin spoke up.

Along the journey, they had already consumed quite a few Spirit Crowns.

In the time it took for eight Spirit Candles to burn, they only had seven left.

The time a single Spirit Crown could last was roughly half an hour...

To be honest, in a place as eerie and terrifying as this, it wouldn't be strange to be tormented for a century, and this group of theirs only had three and a half hours left!

"Are you a caravan traveling through the lands? If you're tired, you can come to our inn to rest your feet and have some tea. There are twenty of you in total; it won't cost many Yuan You. Come and sit for a while, won't you?" Suddenly, a controlled person walked over, approaching them with the enthusiasm of an inn waiter.

Captain Qin looked at Cai Jinlin beside him with a strange expression...

Wasn't this person one of the living people who had been walking in front of them earlier?

Cai Jinlin was also confused, having no idea what was going on.

The two captains also observed their surroundings immediately. As that pale, eerie scene became increasingly three-dimensional and vivid, they discovered that it was actually presenting the bustling atmosphere of an ancient street market. Not only were there ancient paths, buildings, shops, and pavilions, but there were also a large number of busy people!

These people were the lost group that had been worshipping earlier. They had clearly been stripped of their minds, yet after entering the Mausoleum Gate of Yin Province, they each gained an identity and a purpose, inexplicably "living" as the natives of this place!

"No, no, we have other things to attend to." Captain Qin forced a smile, his heart crawling with dread while he politely declined.

"Oh, then I won't disturb you all from going to die..." The controlled waiter's smile remained, but the words he spoke were bone-chilling!

Under normal circumstances, if Qin Sheng encountered such an insolent waiter, he would have broken three of his limbs at the very least.

But this was Yin Province, and he felt it was best not to provoke even a controlled native.

The waiter's gaze swept across the bustling Mausoleum Gate, and it seemed he finally spotted another team of Awakened, intending to go up and solicit business.

"Wait a moment, waiter." Wu Hen, however, called out to the controlled waiter.

"Aren't you guests in a hurry to go die?" the waiter asked, puzzled.

"You said earlier that our team had twenty people. Your eyesight must be poor; we clearly have twenty-one," Wu Hen said.

"Hehehehe~~" The waiter let out a sharp, theatrical laugh. His already eerie gaze swept across Wu Hen's team, and he said with a mocking lilt, "That is what you believe... If you aren't going to drink tea, then hurry off to die. Don't get in the way of my business!"

With that, the waiter dropped his hypocritical politeness, shot a vicious glare at Wu Hen, and then ran toward another group of Awakened!

The leading members of that Awakened team were two men carrying firearms, one tall and one short, who looked like brothers.

As the waiter rushed over in that bizarre manner, the younger brother didn't hesitate to raise the Origin Mech Gun in his hand and fired a shot directly at the waiter's head!

"Bang!!"

The waiter's head blossomed on the spot. Everything above the nose was gone, leaving only exposed blood vessels and bone...

"If you don't want to do business with me, there's no need to resort to violence!" Even with only half a head, the waiter actually opened his mouth to speak, and that half-skull slowly curled into a smile.

The scene shocked that entire team, causing them all to retreat!

Suddenly, every native on the street turned in unison. Their pupils radiated an eerie light as they stared at the team with the Origin Mech weapons with greed and hatred!

Like a pack of starving ghouls seeing living people, a massive swarm of controlled Yin Citizens rushed toward that team. They opened their mouths and began to tear into them!!

"Bang bang bang bang!! Bang bang bang bang!!!!"

Bullets flew everywhere. Everyone in the team drew their guns in self-defense and began firing at the Yin Citizens.

But even when the Yin Citizens were riddled with holes like sieves, they remained full of vitality. Driven by hunger, they rushed up to them, tackled them to the ground, and then—one tore off an arm, another ripped off a leg—they began to feast on the living people like starving wretches!!

The ground was painted with blood, yet a group of Yin Citizens still lay on the floor, licking up the flowing blood, not even sparing the scraps of shredded flesh.

The scene was only a few hundred meters away from Wu Hen's team, leaving everyone in this temporarily assembled group trembling with horror!

They were an Awakened team, after all. Even though their overall strength wasn't as high as those from Night Gloom, they had been left with absolutely no room to resist when faced with the countless Yin Citizens...

In just a few minutes, they had been reduced to a pile of white bones.

And these white bones quickly deconstructed into White Bone Yin Ants, merging naturally into a part of Yin Province to become the white bone plaque in front of the inn!

After witnessing this scene, Wu Hen and the others understood, even without activating their spiritual senses: every brick, every tile, and every grain of sand in this Yin Province was built from the bones of living people!

In other words, if they died here, they too would become a part of Yin Province.

"We cannot attack these Yin Citizens." Captain Cai Jinlin took out a notebook and quickly jotted this down.

"Captain, there are usually Yuan You in places like this," said the burly man with the black hairband.

"Indeed, but we have to be alive to take them," Cai Jinlin replied.

"Excuse me, I'm still very concerned about what that waiter said earlier," Wu Hen said.

Although Wu Hen wanted to sense something amiss and quietly retreat behind the others, the Otherworld Law was indiscriminate in its killing. If you just hid without gathering valuable information on the laws, you would find it nearly impossible to escape death!

"He just misjudged us, what's there to care about in such a trivial matter?" the White Peacock Man said with some impatience.

"Little brother, what is your take?" Cai Jinlin, however, did not overlook this point.

"Look at the waiter. He could clearly distinguish who was being controlled and who among us were Awakened ones who maintained their consciousness... So, is it possible that one person in our team was controlled the moment they stepped into Yin Province and turned into a Yin Citizen?" Wu Hen expressed his understanding.

As soon as these words were spoken, both teams were stunned, their gazes quickly sweeping across everyone's faces!

Yes, why assume that the people in their own team couldn't be controlled?

What if there existed another, more powerful form of infection that could directly pierce through the protection of the Spirit Crown???

Moreover, they were all travelers in the desolate dust; whether ordinary people or Awakened ones, everyone was susceptible to Otherworld infection.

And this was Yin Province, a city of even more terrifying Evil Degree. Those with weak willpower, those harboring fear, those entangled in resentment... it was very easy for them to be infected and controlled!

"Wu Hen makes sense. Someone in our team might have been infected or controlled," Qin Sheng nodded in strong agreement.

"We commonly refer to them as 'ghosts'," Cai Jinlin said.

Wu Hen was also someone who had experienced life and death.

He clearly remembered when he and his aunt escaped from the Evil Soil, and that Scar-faced Uncle suddenly went mad, truly acting like a Water Ghost, trying to drag everyone off the boat to drown!

If there was a ghost in the team, it would have only one goal.

"I suggest we immediately split into groups of three. Each group of three must keep an eye on their members. Otherwise, if the ghost in our team attacks the Yin Citizens here, we'll all be attending our own funerals!" Wu Hen said.

As soon as he said this, all twenty-one members of the team tensed up!!

They hadn't reacted at first, but after looking back at the team that didn't even have blood left, they suddenly realized the truth!

"You mean the person who fired the shot just now might be the traitor in their team!" Ming Yi was quick to react and immediately understood what Wu Hen was implying.

Wu Hen nodded.

That was right. The person who fired the shot had been too reckless—reckless to the point of being illogical.

Anyone who walked through the Desolate Dust knew that even when encountering something bizarre or eerie, one should keep their distance regardless of their strength. How could someone just pull a gun and blow someone's head off without a word?

Unless that person was the traitor in the team.

Their goal was to ensure the destruction of this entire squad!

So, among these twenty-one people, who was the traitor?

"Ca... Captain... the ca... the Spirit Candle is going out!" At this moment, Little Stutterer shouted in panic and terror.

Captain Cai turned his head and saw that the Spirit Candle he had just lit was extinguishing at an incredible speed.

They had only just rotated a group of people to release the Spirit Crown to protect everyone not long ago!

Once the Spirit Crown vanished, they would be picked clean by the Otherworld Locusts and Otherworld Yin Ants!

There really was a traitor!

Someone was trying to wipe them all out!