The fat man before Li Hai, who hailed from the Black Wolf Bandits, and the skinny man who had just died a gruesome death were, of course, no good.
Although the brothers weren't skilled in martial arts and had only reached the Force Eruption level,
Li Hai learned after questioning them that,
relying on the Black Wolf Bandits' fearsome reputation and their own cruel, ruthless nature, the innocent people these two had killed numbered more than ten.
After wringing every last bit of information from the fat man, Li Hai smashed his head apart with a single blow from the pipe as well, leaving only a headless fat corpse where he lay.
As for the martial arts the two had practiced... one was Savage Bull Fist, the other Iron Fan Palm. Though both were mere country-bumpkin fighting styles that, even at their peak, could barely touch the Force-Qi Circulation Realm, Li Hai didn't turn his nose up at them. He learned them both.
For someone like him now, every extra move he learned was a mark of respect for his own life.
This world was far too vast, with too many masters and too many secrets. Better to play it safe. If he could loot something, he should loot it—no room for pickiness.
"Let's leave the rest aside for now..."
Li Hai lowered his head and glanced at the old homespun clothes he wore, muttering, "I need to change out of these."
Then he began searching the many side rooms in the courtyard with care.
A quarter of an hour later, Li Hai appeared in the middle of the courtyard, having washed up and changed into a fresh outfit and new shoes.
Besides clothes, Li Hai had also found quite a bit of money and valuables in one of the side rooms.
It was worth mentioning that besides pierced copper coins, gold, and silver, Jing Dynasty currency even included paper notes.
Compared to modern paper money on Earth, however, the notes in this world were somewhat crude. They were also larger in both denomination and size, looking more like bank drafts.
So, not wanting to carry too much on the road, Li Hai took mostly Jing Dynasty bank drafts from the place, rather than copper coins or gold and silver.
"Time to hit the road~ Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
Standing at the entrance, Li Hai took one last look at the courtyard, then casually tossed his torch far into the yard.
Whoosh~
In an instant, the torch set the oil-soaked firewood piled high in the courtyard ablaze, and the flames quickly spread.
Before long, the entire courtyard and the three corpses within it were engulfed in a roaring blaze.
With his back to the blood-red flames and his face turned toward the rising sun, Li Hai walked away at an unhurried pace.
"Wifey~"
"Wifey~~"
Just then, a faint call came from far away, reaching Li Hai's ears.
He stopped at once and listened closely. His expression changed, and his figure blurred as he swiftly sped toward the voice.
After traveling more than a hundred zhang, an exceptionally handsome figure came into view.
It was... Guo Huaijin in his youth.
"Wifey~"
Guo Huaijin wandered around in a daze, calling loudly as he walked. "Wifey, where are you? Where are you?"
Then he spotted Li Hai standing quietly at the roadside. His eyes lit up, and he hurried over, clasping his hands in greeting.
"Brother, have you seen my wife? Do you know where she is?"
"Your wife?"
Li Hai asked, "What's her name?"
"She's called..."
Guo Huaijin stopped short, then answered awkwardly, "I... I don't know."
"You don't know?"
Li Hai said, "You don't even know her name. How are you supposed to find her?"
"I... I..." Guo Huaijin looked lost, unable to answer.
"By the way."
As if he'd thought of something, Li Hai asked, "What's your name?"
"Well..."
Guo Huaijin froze, then stared blankly. "I... I don't know either."
"Hmm~" Li Hai mused. "I think I know what you are."
You were... Asu's lingering obsession in the mortal world.
Then Li Hai turned and strode away into the distance without looking back.
Guo Huaijin stood there in a daze for a while. Then, as if he had completely forgotten everything that had just happened, he stumbled off toward the depths of the forest, shouting as he went:
"Wifey~"
"Where are you, wifey?"
"Please come back. Can we go home?"
After being burned by a raging inferno, Ghost Forest had become a truly lifeless place.
All the great trees had been scorched black and reduced to ashes, which blanketed the ground in a thick layer. Anyone who stepped down would sink into it and kick up a cloud of black dust.
Walking through this land of ashes, one could hear a crunching sound beneath their feet, as if dead souls were groaning in pain.
At the same time, the ruins of Ghost Forest were perpetually filled with a pungent smoky stench that made it hard to breathe.
Yet even in these harsh conditions, Li Hai hurried along without changing his expression.
With the speed of someone in the Steel Sinew Iron Bone Realm, he could cover dozens of zhang with every passing second. No matter how thick a charred tree blocked his way, he smashed straight through it, reducing it to dust.
The reason Li Hai had returned to Ghost Forest was to answer a question that troubled him:
Where had Asu's Cultivation method, the Evil Spirit Earth Yin Absorption Method, come from?
And did her old house, which existed only in Ghost Eye Vision, conceal some kind of secret?
"I'm finally here."
Beneath the boundless Mist Dome, Li Hai gazed at the distant black rocky slope covered in ashes. In a flash, his form turned indistinct and his face deathly pale as he transformed into a ghost.
The bare rocky slope changed just as strangely in his sight.
An ancient black-tiled house appeared there out of thin air.
"Hopefully, I'll find something."
Muttering this, Li Hai swiftly floated toward the old house.
Before long, he reached the mansion's entrance.
But before he could push open the door, a crisp, chilly laugh rang out from within:
"Heh heh heh heh~"
At the same time, the old house's dark wooden door creaked open by itself, as if urging him to hurry inside.
"Damn you."
Li Hai laughed and cursed without the slightest fear. "You're a ghost. You think I'm not? Trying to scare a ghost, are you?"
After saying that, he floated inside with his toes touching the ground and his heels raised, putting on a suitably ghostly act.
The wooden door slammed shut behind him.
At the very same moment Li Hai entered the mysterious haunted house, a lean, middle-aged man in a Daoist robe and holding a Divination Banner also arrived at the edge of the Ghost Forest ruins.
Frowning deeply, he stared into the depths of Ghost Forest, working through calculations with his fingers as he muttered:
"The evil aura reaches the heavens, yet there's not the slightest trace of murky confusion. How strange! Could a clear-minded ghost really have emerged from this nameless Evil Spirit Land?"
After pondering briefly, the Daoist-robed man reached into his sleeve and pinched out a long, narrow Yellow Talisman. He began chanting under his breath.
Whoosh~
After he'd muttered a couple of lines, the Yellow Talisman spontaneously burst into flame between his fingers.
Then the unfamiliar Daoist stepped into the pitch-black ruins of Ghost Forest, holding the banner in one hand and the burning talisman in the other.
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