Rain poured in sheets, and mud flowed in rivulets.
The moment the heavily decomposed corpse was dug up, Xiahou Aotian saw a thick plume of black smoke surge up from underground. It formed into a savage ghostly face and lunged at him.
Xiahou Aotian did not dodge. He threw back his head and let out a piercing shriek.
Mental Strike!
The ghostly face formed from black smoke shook violently and froze in midair, as though it had suffered a devastating blow.
As soon as the skill took effect, Xiahou Aotian hurriedly retreated, drew a deep breath, and let out another piercing shriek.
The ghostly face of black smoke released an angry, unwilling, inaudible shriek before slowly dissipating.
Under two Mental Strikes, the vengeful spirit was utterly obliterated.
"Phew..."
Xiahou Aotian exhaled a breath of foul air and approached the corpse in the mud again. After a brief examination, he could not determine the exact cause of the woman's death, but one detail stood out: the corpse had no clothes on it.
A young woman had died in the wilderness, been buried in an abandoned temple, and left unclothed. After death, her resentment had lingered and turned her into a vicious ghost.
How she had died was obvious at a glance.
Xiahou Aotian continued examining the young woman's bones and discovered another detail: her left hand had only four fingers.
He silently memorized the detail, then used his knife to shovel the dirt back into the pit.
In an S-rank instance dungeon, every detail was worth noting—especially dangers encountered by a Spirit Realm Walker like himself.
Spirit Realm Walkers were the most likely to trigger plot events, and the "stories" within instance dungeons all unfolded around them. Clues and details that could yield benefits would not appear somewhere a Spirit Realm