The Right Way to Level Up

"Have I finally found intelligent life?" Wang Yuan stood still until the last trace of White Qi from the corpse before him had been completely absorbed, then slowly drifted onward.

White Qi was being consumed far too quickly. Even when he was not under sunlight, even when he did nothing, it was constantly leaking away every moment.

"If there really are other ghosts, how have they managed to survive?" Wang Yuan pondered as he drifted along. "Could it be because this is a low-magic world?"

If Wang Yuan had not accidentally formed a connection with thirteen Mutated Crows, regained his intelligence, and received their help in catching other living creatures, his White Qi would have run out long ago. He truly had no idea how those newly born ghosts without reason survived.

As for those humans, Wang Yuan had no intention of approaching them immediately. There was still a major problem: communication.

This was another world. Those humans looked somewhat like Caucasians, but without taking them for genetic testing, who could say whether they were even the same species? The language they spoke was also one Wang Yuan had never heard before.

"Judging from their reactions, they dislike crows." Wang Yuan had noticed the expressions on their faces when they spotted the crows. Rather than delight at finding prey, there had been naked disgust.

"Eight test subjects in total. They pose a certain degree of danger to the crows." Wang Yuan did not dare let the crows take risks now. Losing even one of the thirteen Mutated Crows would pain him for a long time. Until he could breed Mutated Crows on a large scale, he had to act with utmost caution.

The wilderness at night was dangerous. With all kinds of nocturnal animals around and visibility limited, a human without fire would basically never see the morning sun.

The eight people sat around the campfire. The atmosphere within the hunting party was somewhat off. No one knew what had gone wrong this year, but prey had become pitifully scarce. They had been out for three days, yet the game they caught was only enough to feed themselves. How were they supposed to complete the village's assignment like this?

"Don't dwell on it. Get some sleep early. Tomorrow, we'll go deeper in. We'll definitely catch more prey," the bearded Dax reassured them.

The others nodded and fell asleep around the fire. Only Komoro, the young man in the group, looked lost and uneasy. This was his first time joining a hunting party. He was an utter rookie, always making mistakes during the hunt. Combined with their poor results this time, Komoro blamed himself, feeling as though he was a harbinger of misfortune.

"Maybe things will get better tomorrow," Komoro comforted himself before closing his eyes and falling asleep.

Naturally, he had no idea that Wang Yuan was drifting not far away. Through the crows' vision and his own Perception Field, Wang Yuan observed things differently and made a new discovery.

Each of these humans was covered in an extremely thin layer of White Qi. However, unlike the kind he absorbed, this White Qi carried fluctuations of its owner's will. Whenever Wang Yuan approached, he found that the White Qi around his own body began to cancel out against theirs.

"What is this? Yang energy?"

Wang Yuan had never seen this phenomenon—living beings wrapped in White Qi carrying will—on other animals. He did not know whether it was unique to humans or whether these humans had something special about them.

He controlled a crow to fly over from above and deliver a gift of Justice from the heavens. A lump of white filth fell, and Wang Yuan, hovering nearby, released a faint Interference Force that adjusted its trajectory, sending it straight onto one man's face. Some of it stuck to his nose and mouth.

The man woke up at once. When he touched his face, his expression immediately turned foul. He did not shout. After quietly saying something to the person on watch, he got up, took a torch, and headed into the distance. He needed to wash his face by the river.

But as he walked, he began to feel lightheaded and weak. He paid it no mind, assuming he had caught a chill. After reaching the stream and carefully checking that there was nothing in the water, he scooped up some water and began washing his face.

Suddenly, he felt something approaching from behind. Realizing something was wrong, he hurriedly got up and tried to roll away, but the instant he rose, his head spun and he could not summon any strength throughout his body.

Black claws accurately clamped over his mouth, preventing him from making a sound. Several other crows worked together smoothly, seizing his limbs. He struggled desperately, but he still could not escape their sharp talons.

Wang Yuan watched the otherworldly human collapse to the ground. As the man steadily weakened, the layer of White Qi carrying will around his body also weakened, until almost nothing remained.

A desire rose from Wang Yuan's Soul Body. All of a sudden, he wanted to kill this person more than anything.

Without hesitation, Wang Yuan ordered the crows to strike. Their sharp beaks pecked down, tearing a bloody hole into the man's neck. In just a few seconds, the man died completely.

A great surge of White Qi rose from his body. There was an enormous amount of it. The White Qi Wang Yuan absorbed in that instant alone was enough to sustain him for a day, and more White Qi continued pouring endlessly from the corpse.

At that moment, a vague memory flashed through Wang Yuan's mind—a memory from before he had emotions.

When he had first appeared, he had felt as though he would immediately scatter into pieces and vanish completely. It was precisely because his own corpse had released a large amount of White Qi that he had not perished at once.

At the same time, a fragment of this man's memories slowly flowed into Wang Yuan's Soul Body.

Besides White Qi, there was another kind of aura, similar to a cool breath, that continuously repaired and completed Wang Yuan's Soul Body. However, something else was mixed into those cool breaths.

"Why do I have to die? Why am I the one who has to die?"

"I still want to live. Let someone else die!!"

The clearest memories were those from before the man's death, accompanied by all sorts of emotions: anger, resentment, unwillingness, fear, a deep attachment to life, and hatred.

"My Perception Field and Interference Force have both strengthened, and I even understand a little of the language here." As Wang Yuan sensed the other man's memories and felt his own Soul Body slowly becoming whole, he thought excitedly, So this is the proper way for ghosts to level up.

"If I kill the remaining seven, could I completely restore my Soul Body?" As Wang Yuan's thoughts shifted, the White Qi surrounding his Soul Body began to glow red.

The dead man's memories and emotions continuously infected Wang Yuan, filling him with the urge to slaughter everyone and vent his rage. But gradually, Wang Yuan abandoned that foolish thought.

If he had been his former, unawakened self, he might have followed that impulse and killed everywhere. But now, thanks to the nourishment of the thirteen crows, Wang Yuan had retained his sanity. He knew that if he went on such a killing spree, he would become a mindless, murderous vengeful ghost again. Only then did he forcibly suppress the urge to kill and vent.

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