Playing with Liu Mei?

Directly in front of her stood a person.

That was Ghost.

But the Ghost of now had completely changed in appearance.

The loose black robe he originally wore had been replaced by a tight-fitting night-suit.

His facial features remained as deathly pale as before, but in those eyes, not a shred of human emotion could be found.

Hollow and numb, they were like two bottomless, dried-up wells.

Across the surface of his skin, a layer of black mist faintly swirled. This mist was no longer the superficial soul power of the past, but Shadow Spiritual Energy forcibly infused by Liu Mei using the secret arts of Vermilion Bird Mountain.

"Turn around."

Liu Mei's red lips parted slightly, her voice echoing through the hall.

Ghost's body stiffened for a moment, then, like a marionette, he turned mechanically to face Liu Mei.

His movements were devoid of the slightest hesitation or any superfluous expression.

"Merge with the shadows."

Liu Mei issued the command once more.

As soon as the words fell, the edges of Ghost's body began to blur.

In the span of a single breath, his entire being transformed into a flat black shadow, clinging to the red jade floor before sliding silently into the darkness beneath the daybed, merging completely with the gloom.

Not even the faintest sound of breathing could be heard.

Liu Mei curled her lips in satisfaction, a glimmer of appreciation flashing in her eyes.

"The Thousand Illusions Heartless Path is perfect for erasing consciousness; combined with this innate shadow constitution, the puppet refined is truly useful."

She stood up and smoothed her skirt.

"This tool, intended to test the Soul Refining Sect, is finally complete."

Outside the Sky Screen.

Spirit City, Pope Palace.

Bibi Dong watched Ghost on the screen—a man who had completely lost his sense of self and been reduced to a tool—her hands gripping the armrests of her throne tightly.

The great hall was so quiet that the sound of a needle dropping could be heard.

Yue Guan stood below the steps, his eyes rimmed with red, his teeth grinding together with a clicking sound.

"Old Ghost..."

Yue Guan's voice was thick with a sob.

The two of them had known each other for decades, fighting side by side and becoming elders of Spirit Hall together.

He knew Ghost's pride all too well.

Now, that pride had been forcibly ground away by illusions, turning a living man into a dog that knew only how to obey orders.

Such an end made Yue Guan feel as if his heart were bleeding.

Qian Daoliu closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.

"This is the law of the jungle."

Qian Daoliu's tone was filled with a sense of powerlessness.

"In that world, without strength, your body and soul are nothing more than materials in someone else's hands."

On the training grounds of Shrek Academy.

Tang San watched Ghost, who had turned into a shadow, his brows furrowed tightly.

He had discovered a terrifying detail.

"Ghost Douluo's martial soul has clearly been shattered."

Tang San analyzed in a low voice, his tone grave.

"Yet his current speed of concealment is even faster and more silent than when he possessed nine soul rings."

Dai Mubai listened from the side, drawing a sharp breath.

"San, are you saying that woman just casually modified him and made Ghost Douluo even stronger than before?"

Tang San nodded, his eyes full of wariness.

"She used that energy called spiritual energy to replace soul power."

"The degree to which this high-dimensional energy develops the human body is simply incomparable to the system of our Douluo Continent."

In the image.

Liu Mei pushed open the stone door of the cave dwelling and walked out to the edge of the cliff.

A mountain breeze blew, causing her long red dress to snap and flutter loudly.

She retrieved a red ribbon from her storage bag.

The ribbon grew in the wind, transforming into a red flying carpet over three zhang long that hovered steadily beside her feet.

Liu Mei stepped onto the Red Silk and glanced back at the shadow behind her.

"Follow."

A mass of black shadow crawled rapidly up the cliff face, spreading directly to the underside of the Red Silk and clinging firmly to it.

"Whoosh!"

The Red Silk turned into a blinding streak of red light, tearing through the sky above Vermilion Bird Mountain and speeding toward the distant horizon.

As Liu Mei flew, the viewers from Douluo Continent followed the first-person perspective, taking in the vast and boundless landscapes of the Renegade Immortal World.

At first, the scenery below was quite normal.

There were lush forests, rushing rivers, and occasionally, a few bustling mortal cities.

However, as the Red Silk continued to fly northward, the sky began to darken.

The spiritual energy in the air gradually thinned, replaced by a stifling, turbid gas.

This gas carried a faint, fishy stench that was highly unpleasant.

The vegetation below also began to change.

The emerald leaves turned grayish-brown, and the trunks became twisted and withered, resembling ghostly hands reaching out from hell.

The ground was covered in mudflats of various sizes, the water in the pools appearing a strange, eerie black, with a layer of white miasma floating on the surface.

This was one of the infamous forbidden zones on Vermilion Bird Planet.

The Demon Cultivation Sea.

Enveloped in toxic miasma year-round, it was filled with countless rogue demonic cultivators hiding from enemies while fighting over resources.

There were no rules here, no morality, only the most naked slaughter.

The Red Silk descended slowly at the edge of the Demon Cultivation Sea.

Liu Mei retracted her magical treasure, her feet landing on a black stone covered in moss.

She furrowed her beautiful brows slightly and took a white pill from her storage bag, holding it in her mouth to ward off the foul miasma surrounding her.

The black shadow that had been clinging to her feet slowly writhed, reforming into the human shape of Ghost under a nearby dead tree.

Ghost remained as expressionless as ever.

The highly toxic miasma of the Demon Cultivation Sea had no damaging effect on this shadow body, which had been refined through secret arts.

Liu Mei held her feather fan, surveying her surroundings with an air of indifference.

Suddenly, a faint sound of footsteps drifted from the black mist ahead.

The sound was soft, yet it rang out with startling clarity across the empty marshland.

Liu Mei did not move; instead, a cold smirk curled the corners of her lips.

"Come out."

Her voice was not loud, yet it pierced through the layers of fog.

No sooner had she spoken than the black mist ahead churned.

Three men dressed in tattered gray robes slowly emerged from the haze.

The three men looked incredibly vicious, their bodies reeking of a heavy, bloody scent.

The bald man in the lead carried a bone whip polished from the spine of some spirit beast.

The lanky man on the left wore a necklace made of human skulls around his neck.

The short man on the right held two black daggers coated in poison.

Three Foundation Establishment stage demonic cultivators.

The bald man looked Liu Mei up and down, his gaze roaming wantonly over her alluring figure.

"Yo, where did such a pretty little lady come from?"

The bald man licked his cracked lips, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"The Demon Cultivation Sea is no place for a girl from a righteous sect like you."

"Since you're lost, why not come with us brothers and let us take good care of you?"

The lanky man and the short man both let out lewd, wicked laughs.

In their eyes, this beautiful woman appearing alone on the outskirts of the Demon Cultivation Sea was nothing more than a fat sheep delivered to their doorstep.

Not only could they rob her of her storage bag, but they could also drag her back to serve as a dual-cultivation cauldron.

Outside the Sky Screen.

Ma Hongjun of Shrek Academy spat on the ground in disgust as he watched the three ugly demon cultivators.

"Blind, dog-like bastards."

The fatty cursed under his breath.

"To dare harass the personal disciple of the Vermilion Bird Master—they truly don't know how to spell death."

Tang San, however, paid no attention to the three demon cultivators; his gaze was locked tightly onto the patch of shadow at Liu Mei's feet.

"They are doomed."

Tang San took a deep breath, his tone certain.

"That woman refined Ghost Douluo into a puppet; she's using these three rogue cultivators to test her blade."

In the image, Liu Mei watched the three oblivious demon cultivators, her smile becoming increasingly radiant.

She didn't even draw a weapon, merely waving the feather fan in her hand with a light flick.

"Kill them all."

The three simple words, uttered from her rosy lips, sounded like a death sentence pronounced upon three ants.

The moment her voice fell, a sudden change occurred!

Ghost, who had been standing under a withered tree, suddenly melted into a pool of black liquid without any warning.

The bald man was just about to swing his bone whip when he suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold behind him.

His years of combat experience made him instinctively try to dive forward.

But it was too late.

From the black shadow beneath his feet, a pale, ghastly hand shot out.

The hand didn't stir a breeze, nor did it leak any energy.

Like a sharp blade slicing through tofu, it pierced directly through the bald man's back.

Squelch.

A teeth-gritting sound of tearing flesh echoed out.

The pale hand emerged from the bald man's chest.

Clutched in the palm of that hand was a crimson heart, still beating.

The bald man's eyes widened, a "gurgling" sound escaping his throat.

He looked down, staring blankly at the gaping hole in his chest, seemingly unable to believe he had died just like that.

Bang.

The pale hand squeezed shut.

The heart burst into a mist of blood.

The bald man's sturdy body collapsed straight into the mud, devoid of all life.

It all happened too fast—so fast that the two remaining demon cultivators didn't even have time to summon their magical artifacts.

"Big Brother!"

The thin, tall man let out a shriek of terror.

He finally saw the man in black standing behind the bald man's corpse.

That pale, lifeless face, paired with blood-stained hands and shrouded in black mist, was more terrifying than the most vicious ghosts in the deepest reaches of the Demon Cultivation Sea.

"Run!"

The short man reacted the fastest.

Without even glancing at his companion's corpse, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of essence blood.

Blood Escape Technique!

His body transformed into a streak of crimson light, fleeing frantically toward the Poisonous Miasma Forest behind him.

The thin, tall man also snapped to his senses, hurriedly slapping the storage bag at his waist in a desperate attempt to pull out an Earth Escape Talisman to save his life.

However, Ghost gave them no such chance.

He withdrew his hand and sank back into the shadows.

The next second, he materialized directly in front of the thin, tall man.

Without using any flashy techniques, Ghost simply raised his right hand, carving a black afterimage through the air.

Sharp shadow spiritual energy clung to his fingernails, turning them into five pitch-black daggers.

"Swish."

A head wearing an expression of terror soared into the sky.

Blood sprayed three feet high from the neck, staining a nearby withered tree crimson.

Having dealt with the tall, thin man, Ghost turned his head to look at the streak of blood-red light that had already fled dozens of meters away.

His legs bent slightly, and his entire body lunged forward with a sudden burst of force.

He transformed into a black arrow, darting rapidly through the shadows close to the ground, his speed actually a fraction faster than the Blood Escape Technique.

The short man fled frantically, glancing back as he ran.

When he saw the black shadow clinging to the muddy shadows like a phantom, he was scared out of his wits.

"Senior, spare me! In my storage bag, there is—"

His plea for mercy was cut short.

Ghost had already emerged from the shadow beneath his feet.

Two pale, ghastly hands clamped onto the short man's head from both sides.

Then, he twisted with force.

"Snap."

The crisp sound of a breaking neck echoed through the Poisonous Miasma Forest.

The short man's head hung limply, and his body took two more steps forward due to momentum before crashing heavily into the mud.

Three Foundation Establishment stage demonic cultivators.

From the moment Liu Mei gave the order to the moment they all became corpses, less than ten breaths of time had passed.

Outside the Sky Screen, everyone on the Douluo Continent gasped in unison.

In Spirit City, at the Pope Palace.

Yue Guan stared blankly at the screen, his body trembling uncontrollably.

What a terrifying way to kill...

Yue Guan swallowed hard, his voice laced with deep dread.

Although Ghost had always followed the path of an assassin, he used to have signs of soul power fluctuations before killing; he needed to release his martial soul and utilize his soul rings.

But now, this puppet that had been refined had completely discarded those superfluous movements.

Without the restrictions of soul rings and the interference of human emotions, he had become a machine born purely for slaughter.

Cold, precise, and efficient.

Qian Daoliu watched Ghost on the screen, expressionlessly wiping the blood from his hands, and let out a long sigh.

"An elder of Spirit Hall has actually been reduced to a sharp killing blade in the hands of a cultivator."

Qian Daoliu's tone was filled with sorrow.

"And this blade is more than ten times sharper than it was before."

On the screen, Liu Mei stepped forward with elegant strides.

She didn't even glance at the corpses on the ground, instead beckoning casually to draw the storage bags from the waists of the three demonic cultivators into her hand.

After checking the items inside, Liu Mei curled her lip in disdain.

"A bunch of poor wretches, as expected."

She tucked the storage bags away and pulled a small black flag, only the size of a palm, from her bosom.

A hideous skull was embroidered on the flag with gold thread, radiating a chilling aura.

Liu Mei gripped the small flag and waved it gently toward the three corpses on the ground.

Three translucent phantoms were forcibly ripped from the bodies, screaming as they were pulled out.

These three phantoms were the souls of the three demonic cultivators.

They struggled violently in mid-air, their faces twisted in pain and terror, yet they could not resist the suction of the small flag.

In the blink of an eye, the three souls were sucked into the black flag.

The skull on the flag seemed to flicker, as if it were chewing on a delicious meal.

Having finished all this, Liu Mei put away the small flag, raised her head, and cast her gaze toward the depths of the Poisonous Miasma Forest.

Her expression gradually lost its smile, becoming somewhat solemn.

"Let's go; ahead lies the territory of the Soul Refining Sect."

Liu Mei issued her command to Ghost.

Ghost obediently dissolved into a shadow, trailing closely behind Liu Mei.

One person and one shadow moved slowly along the muddy path, heading toward the deepest reaches of the black mist.

As they ventured deeper, the surrounding miasma grew increasingly dense, to the point where it felt almost impossible to disperse.

The mud beneath their feet had turned a dark crimson, as if soaked through by countless amounts of blood.

As they walked, the black mist ahead suddenly receded to both sides like a receding tide.

Their field of vision opened up abruptly.

Yet, upon seeing the scene before them, everyone on the Douluo Continent felt their scalps prickle in terror.

What appeared before them was neither a great mountain nor a city wall.

It was a massive canyon constructed from countless bleached, ghastly bones.

At the entrance of the canyon stood two black stone pillars, each a hundred zhang high.

The pillars were densely coiled with unknown black vines, from which dried, withered skulls hung.

Above the canyon.

There were no clouds, nor was there a sun.