A person stood directly in front of her.
It was Gui Mei.
Only now, Gui Mei had completely changed.
The loose black robe he had worn before had been replaced with a tight-fitting outfit for moving through the night.
His facial features were still as deathly pale as ever, but in his eyes, not a trace of human emotion remained.
They were hollow and numb, like two bottomless, dried-up wells.
A faint layer of black mist circulated over the surface of his skin. This was no longer the insubstantial Soul Power he had possessed before, but Shadow Spiritual Energy, forcibly infused into him by Liu Mei using a secret technique from Vermilion Bird Mountain.
"Turn around."
Liu Mei's red lips parted slightly, her voice echoing through the hall.
Gui Mei's body stiffened for a moment. Then, like a puppet on strings, he mechanically turned to face Liu Mei.
His movements showed no hesitation, and his expression didn't change in the slightest.
"Merge into the shadows."
Liu Mei issued another command.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Gui Mei's edges began to blur.
In the time it took to draw a breath, he had turned into a flat patch of shadow. It clung to the red jade floor, then slid silently beneath the couch and into the darkness, blending completely with it.
Not even the faintest sound of breathing could be heard.
Liu Mei's lips curled with satisfaction, and a hint of approval flashed in her eyes.
"The Thousand Illusions Heartless Path is perfect for wiping out someone's mind. Paired with this innate affinity for shadows, it's no wonder the puppet turned out so useful."
She rose to her feet and straightened her skirt.
"This tool for testing the Soul Refining Sect is as good as finished."
Beyond the Sky Screen.
At the Pope Palace in Spirit City.
Bibi Dong watched the screen, where Gui Mei had completely lost himself and been reduced to a mere tool. Her hands gripped the armrests of the throne tightly.
The hall was so quiet that even the sound of a needle dropping to the floor would have been audible.
Yue Guan stood below the steps, his eyes bloodshot and his teeth grinding.
"Old Ghost..."
Yue Guan's voice was thick with grief.
The two of them had known each other for decades. They had fought side by side and become elders of Spirit Hall together.
He knew Gui Mei's pride all too well.
Now, that pride had been ground to pieces by an illusion, turning a living man into a dog that only knew how to follow orders.
The sight made Yue Guan feel as if his heart were bleeding.
Qian Daoliu closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.
"That's the law of the jungle."
Qian Daoliu's voice was filled with helplessness.
"In that world, without strength, your body and soul are nothing but materials in someone else's hands."
On the training grounds of Shrek Academy.
Tang San watched Gui Mei turn into a shadow, his brow furrowing tightly.
He noticed a terrifying detail.
"Ghost Douluo's Martial Soul was clearly shattered."
Tang San analyzed in a low, grave voice.
"But now, he can conceal himself even faster and more silently than he could when he had all nine Soul Rings."
Dai Mubai, listening beside him, sucked in a sharp breath.
"Xiao San, are you saying that woman 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."
"When it comes to developing the human body, this higher-dimensional energy is in a completely different league from the system of Douluo Continent."
On the screen.
Liu Mei pushed open the stone door of her cave abode and walked out to the edge of the cliff.
A mountain breeze swept by, making her red dress flutter sharply.
She took a red ribbon from her storage bag and cast it into the air.
The ribbon swelled with the wind, transforming into a red flying carpet more than three zhang long. It stopped steadily at her feet.
Liu Mei stepped onto the Red Silk and glanced back at the shadow behind her.
"Follow me."
A mass of shadow rapidly crawled along the cliff face, spreading straight to the underside of the Red Silk and clinging firmly to it.
"Whoosh!"
The Red Silk turned into a blinding streak of red light, cutting across the skies above Vermilion Bird Mountain as it sped toward the distant horizon.
As Liu Mei flew onward,
the viewers from Douluo Continent followed the first-person view and took in the vast, boundless mountains and rivers of the Renegade Immortal World.
At first, the scenery below looked fairly ordinary.
There were lush forests and surging rivers. Every so often, they could even spot a few bustling cities of mortals.
But as the Red Silk continued flying north,
the sky began to darken.
The spiritual energy in the air gradually thinned, replaced by a murky atmosphere that weighed on the spirit.
The air carried a faint, fishy smell that was unpleasant to breathe in.
The vegetation below changed as well.
The verdant leaves turned grayish brown, and the trunks twisted and withered, like ghostly hands reaching out from hell.
The ground was dotted with mud pits of all sizes. The water in the puddles was a bizarre black, with a layer of white miasma floating over its surface.
This was the notorious dead zone on Vermilion Bird Planet.
The Demon Cultivation Sea.
Shrouded year-round in poisonous miasma, it was filled with countless rogue demonic cultivators who had fled from their enemies while fighting over resources.
There were no rules here and no sense of honor, only the most naked slaughter.
The Red Silk slowly descended along the outskirts of the Demon Cultivation Sea.
Liu Mei stowed away her magical treasure and landed on a black stone covered in moss.
She frowned slightly, took a white pill from her storage bag, and placed it in her mouth to ward off the foul miasma around her.
The shadow clinging beneath her feet slowly writhed, then re-formed into Gui Mei's human shape beneath a dead tree nearby.
Gui Mei still wore the same blank expression.
The lethal miasma in the Demon Cultivation Sea couldn't harm this shadow body, refined through secret techniques.
Holding a feather fan, Liu Mei casually surveyed her surroundings.
Suddenly, faint footsteps came from the black mist ahead.
The sound was soft, but it stood out clearly in the open marshland.
Liu Mei didn't move. Instead, a cold smile curled her lips.
"Come out."
Her voice wasn't loud, yet it pierced through layer upon layer of mist.
As soon as she spoke, the black mist ahead churned.
Three men in tattered gray robes slowly emerged from the fog.
They looked vicious, and a strong stench of blood clung to them.
The bald brute at the front carried a bone whip, polished from the spine of some kind of spirit beast.
The skinny, tall man on the left wore a necklace made of human skulls.
The short man on the right held two black daggers coated in poison.
Three Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators.
The bald brute gave Liu Mei a once-over, his gaze roaming shamelessly over her alluring figure.
"Well, well. Where did a pretty little maiden like you come from?"
The bald brute licked his cracked lips, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.
"The Demon Cultivation Sea isn't a place for a young lady from some upright sect to come wandering."
"Since you've lost your way, why don't you come along with us? We'll make sure to take good care of you."
The tall, skinny man and the short man both let out lewd laughs.
To them, this beautiful woman, alone on the outskirts of the Demon Cultivation Sea, was a fat sheep walking straight into their trap.
They could take her storage bag and drag her back to serve as a cultivation furnace for dual cultivation.
Beyond the Sky Screen.
At Shrek Academy, Ma Hongjun spat angrily on the ground when he saw the three ugly demonic cultivators.
"Those blind bastards."
The Fatty cursed under his breath.
"They dare harass a direct disciple of the Vermilion Bird Master? They must have a death wish."
Tang San, however, paid no attention to the three demonic cultivators. His gaze remained fixed on the shadow at Liu Mei's feet.
"They're in for it."
Tang San drew a deep breath, his tone certain.
"That woman refined Ghost Douluo into a puppet. Now she's got three rogue cultivators to test him on."
On the screen, Liu Mei looked at the three demonic cultivators who didn't know when to quit, and her smile grew brighter.
She didn't even draw a weapon. She merely waved her feather fan.
"Kill them all."
The three simple words slipped from her red lips, as if sentencing three ants to death.
The instant her words fell—
A sudden change struck!
Gui Mei, who had been standing beneath the dead tree, abruptly melted into a pool of black water without warning.
The bald brute was about to swing his bone whip when he suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold behind him.
His years of fighting told him instinctively to throw himself forward.
But it was too late.
A deathly pale hand suddenly shot out from the shadow beneath his feet.
The hand made no sound as it moved, and not the slightest energy leaked from it.
Like a sharp knife slicing through tofu, it pierced straight through the bald brute's back.
"Splurt."
A grating sound of flesh splitting rang out.
The pale hand emerged from the bald brute's chest.
In its palm, it held a scarlet heart that was still beating.
The bald brute's eyes widened. A rattling sound escaped his throat.
He lowered his head and stared blankly at the gaping hole in his chest, seeming unable to believe he had died just like that.
"Crack."
The pale hand suddenly clenched.
The heart burst into a cloud of blood.
The bald brute's burly body fell stiffly into the muddy water, lifeless.
It had all happened too quickly. The two demonic cultivators beside him hadn't even had time to summon their magical treasures.
"Big Brother!"
The tall, skinny man let out a horrified shriek.
Only then did he see the black-clad figure standing behind the bald brute's corpse.
That deathly pale, lifeless face, paired with hands smeared in blood and shrouded in black mist, was more terrifying than any evil ghost from the deepest reaches of the Demon Cultivation Sea.
"Run!"
The short man reacted the fastest.
He didn't even look at his companion's corpse. He bit his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood essence.
Blood Escape Technique!
His body became a streak of blood-red light as he frantically fled toward the Poisonous Miasma Forest behind him.
The tall, skinny man finally reacted too. In a panic, he slapped his storage bag, trying to pull out an Earth Escape Talisman to save himself.
But Gui Mei gave them no chance.
He pulled his hand free and sank into the shadows once more.
The next moment, he took shape right in front of the tall, skinny man.
He didn't use any flashy techniques.
Gui Mei merely raised his right hand and swept it through the air, leaving behind a black afterimage.
Sharp Shadow Spiritual Energy coated his fingernails, making them look like five pitch-black daggers.
"Whoosh."
A head wearing an expression of terror shot into the sky.
Blood spurted more than three feet from the severed neck, splashing across a nearby dead tree and staining it red.
Having dealt with the lanky man, Gui Mei turned and looked toward the streak of blood that had already fled dozens of meters away.
His knees bent slightly, and his whole body suddenly lunged forward.
He became a black arrow, darting swiftly through the shadows close to the ground. He was actually a few degrees faster than the Blood Escape Technique.
As the short man fled frantically, he glanced back.
When he saw the black shadow following close behind through the swamp's shadows, he was so terrified that his soul nearly left his body.
"Senior, spare my life! There's something in my storage bag..."
He hadn't even finished begging.
Gui Mei had already emerged from the shadow beneath his feet.
Two deathly pale hands clamped down hard on either side of the short man's head.
Then they twisted with force.
"Crack."
The crisp sound of a neck breaking echoed through the Poisonous Miasma Forest.
The short man's head lolled limply to one side. His body ran two more steps from its momentum before crashing heavily into the muddy ground.
Three demonic cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage.
From the moment Liu Mei gave her order to the moment they had all become corpses, less than ten breaths had passed.
Outside the Sky Screen, everyone on the Douluo Continent drew in a sharp breath.
Spirit City, Pope Palace.
Yue Guan stared blankly at the screen, his body trembling uncontrollably.
"What a terrifying way to kill..."
Yue Guan swallowed, his voice filled with deep fear.
The old Gui Mei had also followed the path of an assassin.
But before killing someone, there had always been signs of Soul Power fluctuations. He needed to release his Martial Soul and use his Soul Rings.
But this puppet, refined from his body, had cast aside all those unnecessary actions.
He was no longer constrained by Soul Rings, nor hindered by human emotions.
He had become a machine born purely for slaughter.
Cold, precise, efficient.
Qian Daoliu watched Gui Mei in the screen, expressionless as he wiped the blood from his hands, and let out a long sigh.
"A Spirit Hall elder has become a killing blade in the hands of a cultivator."
Qian Daoliu's voice was full of sorrow.
"And this blade is more than ten times sharper than before."
In the scene, Liu Mei walked forward with elegant steps.
She didn't even glance at the corpses on the ground. With a casual beckoning gesture, she drew the three demonic cultivators' storage bags from their waists into her hand.
After checking what was inside, Liu Mei curled her lip in disdain.
"Just as I thought. A bunch of paupers."
She casually put the storage bags away, then reached into her robes and took out a small black flag, no bigger than her palm.
A menacing skull had been embroidered on the flag with gold thread, and it radiated a chilling aura.
Liu Mei gripped the flag and gave the three corpses on the ground a gentle wave.
Three translucent figures emerged screaming from the corpses, forcibly pulled out.
They were the souls of the three demonic cultivators.
They struggled violently in midair, their faces twisted with pain and fear, but they couldn't resist the flag's pull.
In the blink of an eye, all three souls were sucked into the black flag.
The skull embroidered on the flag seemed to flicker, as if chewing on a delicious meal.
Once she was done, Liu Mei put the flag away and lifted her head, looking into the depths of the Poisonous Miasma Forest.
Her smile gradually faded, and her expression grew somewhat grave.
"Let's go. The Soul Refining Sect's territory lies just ahead."
Liu Mei gave Gui Mei an order.
Gui Mei obediently turned into a shadow and followed close behind Liu Mei.
A woman and her shadow made their way slowly along the muddy path, deeper into the black fog.
As they ventured farther in, the surrounding miasma grew increasingly dense, until it seemed to resist being dispersed.
The mud beneath their feet turned dark red, as if it had been soaked in countless pools of blood.
As they walked, the black fog ahead suddenly receded to either side like a tide.
The view opened up abruptly.
But when everyone on the Douluo Continent saw what lay before them, their scalps prickled with shock.
What appeared ahead was neither a mountain nor a city wall.
It was a vast gorge piled up from countless white bones.
Two black stone pillars, each a hundred zhang tall, stood at the gorge's entrance.
Unknown black vines coiled densely around the pillars, and dried heads hung from them.
Above the gorge.
There were no clouds, and there was no sun.