After taking out a Yellow Talisman, Li Hai's expression turned solemn. He formed a hand seal and recited an incantation.
After a few breaths, he cried out sharply:
"Armor Horse Incantation, go!"
At his low command, the Yellow Talisman pinched between his fingers instantly ignited without fire, turning from solid to nothing. It became a wisp of invisible energy that fluttered and wound around his legs and feet.
Whoosh~
Then Li Hai experienced what it felt like to have wind beneath his feet.
He had been walking at an ordinary person's pace, but now his speed surged dozens of times over. As if riding an invisible divine steed, he seemed to skim over the ground, his feet barely touching it as he flew toward the endless mountains at the edge of the wilderness.
"Badass! Hahahaha!"
Bathed in brilliant sunlight, Li Hai spread his arms and laughed as he raced along at incredible speed, his legs and feet not moving in the slightest.
At the same time, as he "flew" just above the ground, the beams of sunlight surrounding him magically transformed into wisps of Yang Qi. He drew them into his body and soul, where they underwent three turns and nine refinements, becoming streams and bundles of invisible Dharma Power.
The reason Li Hai could transform sunlight into Yang Qi and then refine it into Dharma Power was that the sun hanging in the sky was the greatest source of Yang Qi in the world.
This was also because the core principle of the Heavenly Scorching Yang-Drawing Technique he had learned from Zhang Miaoji was to summon sunlight and transform it into Yang Qi.
As for the other technique with "Yang" in its name, the Primordial Breath Yang Refining Method, it was the more important foundational art for turning Yang Qi into Dharma Power.
With the Armor Horse Incantation's help, Li Hai crossed the entire wilderness in no time, using not a trace of his stamina or energy. He arrived among the endless mountains he had spotted in the distance earlier.
Once he reached the mountains, the talisman's power also ran its course, and his pace slowed drastically to that of an ordinary person.
He could have continued using the Armor Horse Incantation to travel, but first, the spell wasn't suited to mountainous or wooded terrain. Second, his own legs were actually faster.
So, after enjoying the Armor Horse Incantation to his heart's content, he decided to walk the rest of the way himself.
As a top-tier Steel-Grade Martial Artist, Li Hai was terrifying when he put his physical strength to use.
Though his body was as robust as a tiger's, he could move through the mountains and woods like a phantom, swift as lightning.
With just a light step, he could cross dozens of zhang.
At such a terrifying speed, Li Hai crossed steep slopes and uneven gullies as if he were walking on level ground.
Even when huge boulders blocked his path or sheer cliffs stood in his way, he only needed to kick against their solid surfaces a couple of times, crushing small footholds into them, then push off and easily clear the entire towering rock face.
As Li Hai continued over mountains and ridges, the terrain grew increasingly rugged, while the trees spread in every direction grew taller and denser.
The trees were massive and thickly clustered, their interlocking branches and leaves forming vast green canopies overhead. Combined with the hazy mountain mist drifting all around, thick in some places and thin in others, the light in this secluded mountain wilderness was as dim as dusk.
In the gloomy mountains, Li Hai suddenly stopped sprinting and turned to gaze southeast.
"The aura of a ghost."
He stared quietly toward the southeast. "There's also a strong aura of the living mixed in, and the two are so thoroughly blended that they're indistinguishable. Strange."
A ghost was a ghost, and a person was a person. The two were clearly distinct, with no middle ground between them.
That had always been the common understanding, and Li Hai's own belief as well.
Even though he could freely switch between being a ghost and a living person, he couldn't become something that was both ghost and human at once.
So what was this aura that was both human and ghost, the two blurred together until neither could be separated from the other?
"How bizarre."
Li Hai murmured, "Let me take a look."
He changed direction and raced toward the source of the inhuman, unghostly aura.
With three perception-based arts at his disposal—Ghost and Monster Seeking, Qi Observation Technique, and Yin-Yang Eyes—Li Hai was extremely sensitive to the movements and changes of all kinds of auras in the world around him.
So even though the strange aura was faint, almost nonexistent, Li Hai could still keep on its trail, following it all the way to its source.
The twists and turns, leaps and bounds, and dashes through the woods and across the streams need not be described. In any case, after traveling about ten li, he reached a narrow, muddy stream in the mountains.
The strange aura, now much clearer, was hidden beneath the murky waters.
Something that lived underwater and was neither human nor ghost... What could it be?
Li Hai couldn't help recalling the many strange tales he had heard in his previous life.
"Could it actually be... the legendary water monkey?"
As he pondered, the muddy stream suddenly rippled. A humanoid creature covered head to toe in filthy green fur crawled out, its face completely obscured.
When the green-haired monster emerged from the water and saw Li Hai, it reacted as if a human had seen a ghost. It let out a terrified shriek and hurriedly tried to return to the bottom of the stream.
But Li Hai wasn't about to let it get away so easily.
He pulled a Yellow Talisman from his pocket and swiftly formed a hand seal as he chanted:
"Spirit-Fixing Incantation, go!"
The paper talisman ignited without fire, turning from something into nothing.
Whoosh~
A wisp of invisible energy arrived in an instant and struck the green-haired monster with pinpoint Precision.
"Gah..."
Under the Spirit-Fixing Incantation, the green-haired monster managed only half a shriek before freezing on the surface of the stream as if dead.
Whoosh—
In the next instant, a strange gust swept over, blowing the monster to the stream bank and right to Li Hai's feet.
That strange gust had also been created by Li Hai. He had used the Wave Impact Palm, which Zhang Miaoji had graciously "provided."
Zhang Miaoji had originally used this technique specifically to throw Yellow Talismans. Now that Li Hai was using it to fetch things from a distance, it suited the purpose perfectly.
"I never expected..."
Looking down at the motionless green-haired monster on the ground, Li Hai clicked his tongue in amazement. "There really are half-human, half-ghost creatures in this world."
Indeed, observation and the system's assessment confirmed that this green-haired monster was both human and ghost.
Its personal profile was as follows—
Name: Unknown Level and Rank: Ghost Citizen → Yin Qi Dark Birth Skills: Adverse Survival (Incomplete) Minor Yin Absorption (Incomplete) Ghost Eye Night Vision (Incomplete) Traits: Stronger Fragment: None
"Ghost Citizen..."
Li Hai furrowed his bare brows and scrutinized this so-called Ghost Citizen. For the first time, he didn't want to learn the creature's cultivation system or skills.
According to the system's assessment, acquiring this damnable Ghost Citizen bloodline would nearly halve one's lifespan. It would also leave one muddled in thought, afraid of light and cleanliness, and fond of darkness and raw food.
Damn, this was a lowly, short-lived species even worse than humans.
Just as Li Hai, full of disdain, released the green-haired monster from the Spirit-Fixing Incantation and was about to kick it back into the stream, the creature scrambled to its feet and kowtowed without stopping, stammering in human speech:
"Master... spare... spare my life! I'm... I'm no monster. Please don't kill me!"
Before you continue