Soul Snatching

Unable to hold it any longer, a few men finally broke, gasping for air in deep, ragged gulps.

Huff, huff. The sound was completely swallowed by the howling gale.

Yet, the hundreds of vengeful spirits drifting in the air suddenly froze, turning their heads in unison to stare.

Before these unlucky souls could even draw a full breath, the spirits lunged at them, slamming directly into their skulls.

With a soft pop, the three life-flames on their bodies were instantly extinguished.

In such a situation, who would dare to intervene?

To the onlookers, after the spirits burrowed into their ears and noses, these men stood dazed for two or three seconds before clutching their heads and screaming in agony. Their eyes turned bloodshot and foam gathered at their lips; they looked like victims of rabies. However, unlike the puppets possessed by Three-Corpse Insects, they did not attack the humans around them. Instead, they scrambled about in a blind panic, rolling on the ground or slamming themselves against the walls.

With dozens of vengeful spirits brawling, tearing, and attacking one another within the same sea of consciousness, it felt as if dozens of firecrackers were detonating inside their skulls. Who could endure that?

In barely ten seconds, they collapsed, bleeding from their seven orifices, and died.

The rest of the group watched, hearts pounding with terror.

The trouble was that the faster one's heart raced, the shorter one's breath became. Now, most people were reaching their limit, their faces turning a bruised purple. Yet, the vengeful spirits continued to erupt in a constant fountain. When would this ever end?

It was either suffocate or have one's brain pierced by a spirit. After only a few more seconds, five or six more men were forced to choose the former.

He Lingchuan and Nian Songyu were holding up well, as the lung capacity of martial artists was naturally superior, but He Chunhua's face had already turned a deep, bruised purple; it was clear he could not hold on much longer.

He Lingchuan could not afford to worry about anything else. He grabbed Sun Fuping by the sleeve and mouthed, "Do something!"

He practiced the martial path; the tricks he had on hand were useless against vengeful spirits.

Perhaps Sun Fuping also felt the time was right. He flicked his wide sleeve, shaking off He Lingchuan's hand, and walked into the center of the troops to raise his staff.

He stuffed something into the mouth of the beast head, then held the staff high and slammed it into the ground!

Centered on the beast head, a yellow-glowing barrier emerged, perfectly enclosing everyone within.

A barrier!

Sun Fuping shouted, "You can breathe now!"

The crowd felt as if they had been granted a reprieve; many slumped over, some coughing uncontrollably from the sudden intake of air.

Even He Chunhua was somewhat angry this time: "Why did the State Preceptor only act now?"

Had he acted a dozen seconds earlier, those five or six men would not have had to die.

Sun Fuping's expression was grave: "This Void Barrier of mine cannot last long, and its effects are inferior to life-flames; I only use it as a last resort. Can you predict how much longer the spirits will keep erupting?"

No one could.

He Chunhua had nothing more to say. The expressions of the many soldiers as they looked at Sun Fuping were indescribable.

But he did not take it to heart.

"Saving the lives of the majority is what matters most." Nian Songyu asked, "What now?"

"We continue to wait." Sun Fuping stared fixedly at the surface of the pool. "Only when the spirits stop emerging from within will we have our next step."

With their nerves finally settling, the group had the leisure to observe the spirits drifting across the sky.

Situ Han let out an "eh": "There are mostly humanoid spirits coming out now, and even large groups of armored cavalry."

These dead souls galloped on horseback, waving their blades and roaring as if they were still on a battlefield locked in endless slaughter.

"The dead soldiers from the battlefield are the most numerous, and their resentment is the greatest." He Lingchuan was startled. "Look at this!"

The spirits surging from the pool had evolved from the bizarre shapes at the start to mostly human souls, and now, to something of staggering size. Although vengeful spirits had no weight, the one He Lingchuan saw looked like a fusion of seven or eight spirits; not only did it have seven arms and eight legs, but there were also pairs of eyes all over its chest and shoulders.

Ordinary spirits standing before it were like commoners standing before an ancient banyan tree; there was simply no comparison in scale.

The pressure it exerted on the living was also incomparable.

Seeing this monster, Sun Fuping actually seemed to heave a sigh of relief: "So that is how it is."

He Lingchuan: "How is it?" Always leaving your sentences half-finished—you'll end up with a weak bladder at night.

"After being in the pot for too long, some spirits begin to devour and fuse with one another, forming new, powerful individuals, much like raising a Gu." Sun Fuping pointed at the monster. "As expected, the order in which the spirits appear is from weak to strong. That means our endurance is coming to an end."

This seven-armed, eight-legged monster had crawled out and was originally meant to follow the main force upward, but the moment Sun Fuping finished speaking, it suddenly turned its head. Its sixteen eyes blinked in unison, and it stared straight at the barrier!

He Lingchuan felt his hair stand on end under its gaze; this thing's eyes were far more terrifying than Nian Songyu's. "Can it see us?"

"Shh!" Sun Fuping hurriedly cut him off.

But it was too late. The Sixteen-Eyed Monster clearly made a sniffing motion, then crawled out of the pool and headed toward the barrier.

The Sixteen-Eyed Monster's movements were comical, its limbs uncoordinated and somewhat staggering. But Sun Fuping knew this was only because it had just entered the human world and had not yet fully adapted.

The Void Barrier did not possess true defensive power—nor could it, or it would provoke the aggression of the spirits—it merely possessed the property of concealing the living, preventing these dead souls from smelling the scent of flesh and blood.

However, among the myriad strange spirits, there would always be a few with special abilities that were not easily deceived. Judging by the actions of this Sixteen-Eyed Monster, it had not completely seen through the Void Barrier, but it had grown suspicious and was determined to come and investigate.

In its eyes, there was no scent of the living within the range of the Void Barrier, but it could vaguely sense a trace of vitality, like sparse fireflies occasionally lighting up in the night. When it tried to look closer, it blurred again.

This undoubtedly piqued its curiosity, prompting it to move closer for a better look.

Just as it was about to collide with the barrier, Sun Fuping let out a low shout: "Bai Shan, Qingshui! Raise the Soul-Fixing Banner!"

Two attendants behind him lunged toward the front of the formation, standing at the edge of the barrier. They produced a massive white cloth banner from nowhere and began waving it frantically at the Sixteen-Eyed Monster.

The banner was covered in dense, black-and-red runes. As the white cloth fluttered against the wind, the runes seemed to lift off the surface, rotating slowly while a faint sound of chanting echoed through the air.

The banner appeared to be nothing more than an ironwood pole draped with a piece of white cloth, swaying loosely, yet the attendants struggled to wield it, requiring four hands between two men just to keep it upright.

The way they swung the white banner resembled the rhythmic, repetitive tracing of an "∞" symbol in the air.

At the same time, Sun Fuping stepped to the front of the group and signaled for them to close their eyes.

However, the order came a moment too late. The instant the white banner appeared, everyone's gaze had naturally followed its movement. After it swayed twice, several men's eyes glazed over; as if drawn by a magnet, they lifted their feet and began to walk toward it.

One of them passed by He Lingchuan, who pressed down firmly on the man's shoulder and forced his eyelids shut.

The man struggled twice before going limp.

The others followed suit, restraining their companions who had been ensnared by the soul-stealing charm.