Encountering Evil in the Forest

"Hoo~"

Leaning against a crooked tree, Li Hai, his face pale and sickly, wearily exhaled a foot-long plume of white mist tinged with the scent of blood:

"Using Blood Devouring Burning Heart... is truly fucking exhausting."

Life-burning skills were indeed draining, but their effects were quite impressive.

In this hazy, gloomy forest, an ordinary person wouldn't be able to travel very far even after half a day.

Even a martial artist of Guo Huaijin's caliber could at most reach a speed of ten zhang per second.

Yet Li Hai, having utilized the Heart Burn Divine Ability, had covered twenty or thirty miles in just the time it took to brew a cup of tea, moving at a speed of fifteen to sixteen zhang per second.

Given how far this place was from the Three-Fork Junction, it seemed safe enough for now.

"If I am safe, you are safe."

Li Hai looked at Guo Shiwen, who was slowly waking up on the ground, and said coldly, "If I am not safe, then you... eh?"

Suddenly, he saw an elderly farmer carrying a hoe walking slowly through the mist in a clearing not far away.

"Old man, stop right there~"

Li Hai covered the dozen zhang of thin mist in two or three strides, reaching the old farmer, and asked with a smile, "Old man, where did you come from..."

As soon as the words left his mouth, his eyes widened and he froze in place.

Because upon getting closer, Li Hai realized that the old farmer's face, neck, and hands were covered in large patches of burns that exposed flesh and bone.

No, it wasn't just simple marks.

Looking closely, the old farmer was essentially a charred, incomplete corpse with no living blood or flesh, burned to the point of carbonization.

A corpse that could still walk around carrying a hoe?

Damn, this fucking thing is a ghost!

"Young man, you must be lost."

The Charred Corpse Ghost cracked open a toothless, tongueless mouth that was little more than a hollow cavity and smiled honestly, "Otherwise, why would you wander into our backwater?"

Heaven knows how Li Hai managed to discern an "honest" expression on the face of a charred, rotting corpse.

But that didn't matter.

What truly mattered was the personal interface of this old farmer—

Character Name: Unknown

Rank: Ghost Path → Departed Soul

Skills: Ghost Body Soul Remains

Traits: [Ghost Body Level 1] [Eerie Phenomenon Level 1]

Power Fragments: None

That's right, following orthodox martial arts and bloodline abilities, in just a short time, Li Hai had discovered a third cultivation system on this "farmer"—the Ghost Path!

And the moment he saw the ghost's personal interface, Li Hai was astonished to find that he could learn the other party's skill—Ghost Body Soul Remains—without any obstruction.

No, that wasn't a skill.

Under the system's "identification," or rather, its "explanation," Li Hai suddenly realized.

This so-called Ghost Body Soul Remains was actually the core essence of this old farmer as a ghost entity.

By analogy, it could be viewed as a concept similar to lineage or constitution.

In other words, if Li Hai learned this soul-remains skill, he might also turn into... a ghost.

"Hmm? What is that fragrant smell!"

Just as Li Hai was hesitating whether to learn this ghost-transformation skill, the Charred Corpse Ghost dressed as a farmer suddenly twitched its nose and muttered, "It smells a bit like watermelon, hiss~ what a rich fragrance."

As it muttered, the old ghost's expression became visibly ferocious, rapidly shifting from honest and simple to greedy and covetous.

At the same time, its gaze, filled with appetite, turned toward Li Hai... no, it turned toward his back.

When Li Hai followed its gaze, he saw from afar.

A dozen zhang away, Guo Shiwen, who had already regained consciousness, was limping toward the depths of the dark forest while clutching his severed hand.

Swish—

The next second, the Charred Corpse Ghost vanished from before Li Hai's eyes, instantly crossing the dozen zhang to appear behind Guo Shiwen. Then, it reared its head and roared as its entire mouth and half its face split into eight petals, biting fiercely into his shoulder and neck from behind.

Crunch! Crunch!

"Ah! Aaaah! Help me!!"

Accompanied by the sound of shattering bones and tearing flesh, Guo Shiwen immediately collapsed to the ground, screaming.

Then, in the dark, lightless tree-shaded clearing a dozen zhang away, a scene of ghost-eating-man, bloody and horrific enough to make one's hair stand on end, began to unfold.

Huff, huff!

Crunch, crunch!

The Charred Corpse Ghost fed with terrifying speed. In a mere few breaths, everything from Guo Shiwen's chest upward had vanished, leaving behind only a mangled, blood-spurting torso and a mess of gore and shredded remains.

Perhaps satisfied and sated, the Charred Corpse Ghost gradually slowed its feeding, then turned its head to fix a hollow, eerie gaze upon Li Hai in the distance.

Feeling the Charred Corpse Ghost's icy stare and its undisguised malice, Li Hai cursed inwardly:

"Damn it, this thing has worked itself into a frenzy, and it looks like it wants to eat me next... Fine, I'll become a ghost too and see if you still want a bite!"

Without hesitation, he decisively learned the creature's ghost-type "bloodline"—Ghost Body Soul Remains—and the moment he mastered it, he pushed the skill to its absolute limit with a single thought.

Whoosh.

It felt as if he had plummeted to the bottom of a thousand-foot-deep abyss, and Li Hai was instantly surrounded by an eerie, bone-chilling aura of evil.

These wisps of energy, like thousands of invisible serpents, hissed and writhed as they forcibly burrowed into his body and soul.

There was no pain in this process, only an endless, numbing cold.

To describe it, it felt like the local anesthesia he had experienced during a ganglion cyst surgery in his past life.

Though the area was numbed and devoid of sharp pain, he could still clearly perceive the horrifying sensation of a scalpel slicing through skin and flesh.

It was the same now.

Despite the lack of pain, Li Hai could still feel the intense discomfort of those wisps of yin energy frantically drilling through his skin, bones, and soul.

Fortunately, the process was as fleeting as a hallucination; no sooner had he begun to perceive it than it vanished without a trace.

This also meant that Li Hai had truly transformed into a ghost.

Or perhaps, he had become a being that possessed martial arts, divine abilities, and a living body, while also holding the nature and powers of a ghost.

Master Name: Li Hai

Rank: Orthodox Martial Arts → Force-Body Cycle, Bloodline Divine Ability → Low Grade, Ghost Path → Departed Soul

Skills: Five Animals Qigong, Tiger Claw Blade Fist, Blood Devouring Burning Heart, Ghost Body Soul Remains

Trait Entries: [Soul Fortification Lv.1] [Claw/Finger Lv.1] [Berserk Lv.1] [Ghost Body Lv.1] [Eerie Manifestation Lv.1]

Power Fragments: None

Once he officially possessed the essence of a ghost, Li Hai instantly understood the specific effects of the [Ghost Body] and [Eerie Manifestation] trait entries.

The former allowed Li Hai to act like a true specter, capable of passing through walls and rock at will, while ignoring conventional physical contact and attacks.

As for the latter, it allowed him to cast illusions upon the living—such as "ghost wall" traps or blinding their senses—to toy with them until they were utterly disoriented.