The Female Hanging Ghost

Zheng Que hurriedly stopped, but his body kept rising.

Realizing something was wrong, he quickly crouched down. But the moment he tried to bend at the waist, his body not only failed to descend—his feet, which had barely been touching the ground, rose rapidly into the air.

Zheng Que's heart jolted. He looked down and immediately saw the sunlight behind him casting his shadow onto the courtyard wall ahead. A hemp rope was tied around the shadow's head, and it hung firmly from a tree.

This was...

His own shadow, hanging from the tree!

Zheng Que's pupils suddenly widened. The next moment, a searing pain flared at his neck, and the sensation of suffocation swept over him. It felt as if a very sturdy rope had cinched tightly around his throat, pulling him upward without pause.

He finally understood why his body had been floating upward. It wasn't that he had become lighter; without realizing it, the Resentful Soul had hanged him!

Coming back to himself, Zheng Que immediately reached for his neck. But after several grabs, he found nothing there at all.

He calmed down in an instant, swiftly cut his palm, and smeared blood all over it. Then he reached for his neck again.

This time, he immediately caught hold of a coarse rope.

Zheng Que yanked hard with both hands, trying to snap it. But the rope was unexpectedly tough. Even with the strength of a Qi Refining Stage cultivator, he couldn't change it at all, no matter how many times he strained—except that it tightened further around his neck.

Still, cultivators had tenacious vitality. Even now, with his neck purpling from the constriction and suffocation bearing down on him, his instincts told him that the chilling sensation of death's approach he'd felt last night was nowhere to be found.

The Female Hanging Ghost in this tree wasn't as strong as last night's Call-Sound Ghost!

Thoughts flashed through his mind like sparks. Clutching the rope around his neck with both hands to ease the weight pressing on it, Zheng Que quickly looked toward the place where the Female Hanging Ghost's shadow had been.

Before him lay the mottled shade of the trees, where swaying branches dappled the ground with shifting light. The familiar figure of the Female Hanging Ghost had vanished at some point. Only the shadow of the dead old tree sprawled feebly across the wall and ground, stirring in the wind.

Zheng Que was momentarily stunned, but quickly collected himself and fixed his gaze on his own shadow again.

His shadow stretched across the courtyard wall. Besides the rope, which was slowly hoisting its body, its outline had grown much larger at some point. It looked oddly bloated, as if two people had been layered on top of each other.

The next moment, a bone-chilling cold swept across Zheng Que's back. A slender, graceful figure lay across his shoulders. From within her sleeves, floating like banners, a pair of thin, bony arms suddenly reached out and clawed viciously at his neck.

Crack!

The Female Hanging Ghost's pale hands passed straight through the hands shielding his neck and clamped tightly around his throat.

A sinister chill spread through Zheng Que's entire body.

The color drained from his face in an instant, leaving it as pale as paper.

He immediately released one hand and started to swing it behind him. But just then, he seemed to remember something...

Without a moment's hesitation, Zheng Que extended a fingernail and slashed hard across the scab that had formed over last night's wound on his chest.

Blood welled up at once, and a faint, sweetly metallic scent filled the air.

Imitating his master's movements, Zheng Que swept his arm and rapidly formed a complicated hand seal.

The blood that had just flowed out instantly turned into a living-looking mist. It spread with uncanny agility, then suddenly unfurled like a net, encircling Zheng Que and the Female Hanging Ghost together.

A cultivator's spirit blood brimmed with Yang Energy, and in broad daylight it was especially potent. The Female Hanging Ghost seemed to sense the danger. For the moment, she disregarded Zheng Que and immediately tried to escape into the shadow below.

Zheng Que gave her no chance to flee. His hands rapidly formed one seal after another.

As the seals shifted, the Spirit Blood Net trapping the man and ghost swiftly manifested into runes of all sizes. They floated in midair, flickering in and out of sight, then began flying into the Female Hanging Ghost's body according to some pattern.

The instant the first Spirit Blood Rune burned into the Female Hanging Ghost's form, she stiffened abruptly, and the Yin Energy coiling around her weakened in a flash.

Zheng Que immediately felt the rope around his neck loosen just a little.

He didn't dare let up and continued forming the seals.

The Spirit Blood Net churned in the air, gathering and dispersing, leaving the Female Hanging Ghost no chance of escape. Densely packed runes burned into her body, one after another.

Letters of sinister aspect kept appearing on her white clothes and loose hair. Her body thrashed violently like fish and shrimp hauled ashore. Yet no matter how she struggled, she steadily lost control of herself.

Crack!

Just then, the rope that had been squeezing Zheng Que's neck suddenly lost its strength and snapped.

Zheng Que dropped back to the ground. The suffocating sensation vanished, and all restraint left his neck. At last, he could breathe normally again.

His heart settled. The Ghost Controlling Technique was working!

With that thought, Zheng Que continued forming the seals and looked up.

Among the branches of the withered tree overhead, the slender, graceful figure hung rigidly. She had none of the lightness of something swaying in the wind. Runes of all sizes continued to rise from her body. The dangerously potent Yin Energy she'd once exuded had almost entirely dispersed; now the Female Hanging Ghost seemed to be on her last breath.

With Zheng Que's final seal, every rune burned into the Female Hanging Ghost's body.

She immediately dropped from the treetop and slowly fell, collapsing limply to the ground without moving.

Filtered again and again through the dead tree's crown, the sunlight illuminated her slender form. She seemed both real and unreal, as if she could vanish at any moment.

The Blood Seal had been applied. The process was complete!

Thinking this, Zheng Que used a finger smeared with his blood to quickly draw that birdlike, insectlike character in his palm.

This was the final step of the Ghost Controlling Technique: issuing the Command Character!

The instant he finished drawing the character, Zheng Que raised his palm and aimed it at the Female Hanging Ghost. His voice rang out with authority. "Hah!"

The Female Hanging Ghost lay facedown on the ground without any response.

Seeing this, Zheng Que froze. He aimed his palm at her again. "Hah!"

But just as before, she lay motionless, as if she were dead.

Zheng Que couldn't help feeling utterly baffled. His Ghost Controlling Technique had followed almost exactly the same steps as his master's. Why wasn't this Resentful Soul reacting at all?

Had he missed something along the way?

As he pondered, Daoist Qu's cool voice suddenly reached his ears. "You learned it well!"

"But your spirit blood's Yang Energy is too strong."

"A Resentful Soul in broad daylight can't withstand it."

"This Female Hanging Ghost won't survive."

"Try again with another one tonight."

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