Hundred Ghosts Run Rampant

Just as Li Hai was secretly wondering about this.

Boom!

From the direction of Guo Family Village in the distance, a frenzied, vicious surge of yin ghost energy suddenly rose up. Roaring, it swept over a hundred weaker streams of ghost energy along with it as it thundered toward Li Hai's location.

"Hee hee hee hee~"

"Hahaha~"

"Wuwuwuwu~"

As the torrent formed by the ghosts of Guo Family Village sped through the air, layer upon layer of miserable ghostly cries rang out from within it—howls, mocking laughter, and savage shrieks—shaking the surroundings like a hundred ghosts running rampant, enough to make anyone shudder.

Perhaps the nest of ghosts in Guo Family Village had remained in this place for far too long, so long that they had merged into it and could greatly stir up the boundless yin energy of this Evil Spirit Land.

Li Hai was horrified to sense that the surging evil aura throughout the surrounding wilderness had begun to churn wildly in resonance with them from afar, growing ever more intense.

"This is bad. I'm too close to Guo Family Village. Asu's gone crazy and brought that bunch of ghostly things here to pick a fight with me... Eh? Wait, wouldn't this be the perfect chance to make the tiger devour the wolf?"

Li Hai's eyes rolled, and he suddenly let out a sinister chuckle. In an instant, his body and features blurred into a stream of evil ghost energy, shooting rapidly into the distance.

The direction in which he fled was precisely where Guo Huaijin stood, beyond this evil forest.

Dozens of li away, the edge of Ghost Forest had already been engulfed by raging flames.

Guo Huaijin had ultimately set the fire. He had mobilized a great deal of manpower and resources to lay down an enormous blaze around the forest's perimeter.

The fire had already been burning for quite some time.

Towering flames swept along billowing smoke, pouncing toward the depths of Ghost Forest like a pack of vicious monsters baring their fangs and claws. Everywhere they reached became scorched earth.

Whoosh~ Whoosh~ Whoosh~

Everyone knew that once a forest fire took hold and grew, it would spread at an unimaginably rapid pace.

The humus and fallen leaves on the ground, along with the grasses, trees, and woods, would all become fuel for the wildfire, helping it expand without end into ever broader stretches of forest.

Thus, even Guo Huaijin did not know how far this forest fire had spread by now.

He only knew that today, that little thief surnamed Li... would definitely die!

"Master~"

Looking at the inferno in the distance that had turned even the sky crimson, Steward Liu softly asked, "If this fire keeps burning, that boy surnamed Li probably won't have any chance of getting out. But the young master, he'll most likely..."

"That would be even better."

Guo Huaijin said coldly, "Shiwen's illness has gone untreated for so many years. Better to end it once and for all. As for that little Li thief, he can be buried alongside my grandson."

Upon hearing this, Steward Liu, standing behind him, felt his eyelids twitch as he secretly sighed. He could only feel that his master was truly ruthless.

Just to vent the anger of having been mocked and toyed with by Li Hai, he was even willing to abandon his beloved grandson.

Sure enough, the person Master cared about most... had always been himself.

His wife, children, and descendants came second.

As for servants and slaves, Master had never shown them the slightest consideration.

Steward Liu had always known this, and he had always been on edge, terrified that one mistake would cost him his life.

Thus, he had long since planned an escape route for himself.

"After this disturbance is over..."

Steward Liu thought to himself, "it'll be time for me to take the money I've painstakingly saved over the years, leave Guo Family Fort, and live a good life."

Just as Steward Liu was imagining his future, Li Hai, who was speeding through the boundless thick mist above the vast Ghost Forest from who knew how many li away, finally reached the edge of the mountain fire's range.

Although Li Hai had already vaguely seen the blazing fire that dyed the sky red through the mist several li away.

He had no other choice. He could only grit his teeth and charge forward, flying straight into the sea of flames.

"This fire was definitely set by that Old Dog Guo."

As he sped onward, Li Hai cursed, "Other than that son of a bitch, no one could be this rotten. Just you wait—I'll skin you alive and tear your bones apart!"

If it had been an ordinary Dead Soul-level ghost, faced with such towering flames, there would have been no path other than fleeing and avoiding them.

The yang energy within them was simply too fierce and violent. Low-level ghosts could not withstand it at all.

But Li Hai, as a higher-level ghost, had far greater resistance to the yang energy of such blazing flames.

So he gritted his teeth and endured the scorching flames, forcing his way through layer after layer of fire as he flew without regard for anything else toward the more distant edge of Ghost Forest.

However, the ghosts of Guo Family Village were in for misery.

Having died in a fire to begin with, they were instinctively terrified of flames.

In gaming terms, their resistance was negative.

Thus, the instant they sensed the scorching heat of the towering blaze through the thick mist, the torrent of ghost energy formed by Guo Family Village's ghosts collapsed on the spot.

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Wuwuwuwu!"

"No, no, no!"

All the ghosts shrieked and wailed as they frantically fled in every direction, terrified of being surrounded by the boundless forest fire with nowhere to escape, then suffering once more the agony of being burned to death in the flames all those years ago.

But at that moment, an extremely mournful and heartrending female voice suddenly tore through the thick mist, resounding in all directions.

"Brother Guo, you burned my child and me to death back then. Are you going to burn us again now? You... have such a cruel heart!"

At this point, the woman's voice abruptly turned icy and venomous.

"Ghosts of Guo Family Village... who gave you permission to run? All of you, come back!"

Whoosh—

In an instant, every Guo clan ghost fleeing through the dim, dense mist above the vast forest lost control of themselves. Wailing miserably, they flew backward toward the source of that female voice—Asu—and piled together once more into a dense torrent of ghost energy.

After a slight adjustment, the torrent roared as it shot toward the outside of Ghost Forest.

"Huh? Where did Asu learn this ability to command a host of ghosts? Why didn't the system identify it?"

Several li away, Li Hai had already penetrated deep into the vast fire zone. After hearing Asu's cry from afar, he muttered in surprise, "Could it be a boost granted to her by this Evil Spirit Land?"

He vaguely recalled reading in the Evil Spirit Earth Yin Absorption Method that although ghosts enjoyed eating people, their true "food" was the so-called evil yin energy.

This strange yin energy existed in great quantities only within Evil Spirit Lands.

Therefore, barring unforeseen circumstances, ghosts would remain in Evil Spirit Lands and almost never leave.

Even if they happened to leave, they would quickly return.

And when a ghost had remained in an Evil Spirit Land long enough, it would develop some sort of resonance with the limitless yin energy of that place.

As for what this resonance would bring, no one knew.

Perhaps Asu's ability to command the ghosts of Guo Family Village just now was related to this.

"A buff. This creepy place gave Asu a buff."

After muttering a few words, Li Hai deliberately slowed down.

Whoosh—

Before long, a torrent of ghost energy sped past him, showing no intention of stopping or turning as it shot straight toward the outside of Ghost Forest.

"Sure enough, all the hatred has shifted onto Guo Huaijin."

Li Hai gave a sinister chuckle and quickly accelerated after it.