Unexpected Turns

Chapter 4: Unexpected Turns

A grayish-brown arm reached out from the grass, like a withered, dried-up branch. If it hadn't been clutching Li Wei's ankle so tightly, no one would have thought "it" was alive.

Li Wei wanted nothing to do with getting up close and personal with something like that.

He kicked the withered arm with his other foot. It went "thunk," like he'd kicked a tree stump, sending a sharp pain through the sole of his foot. But it worked: Li Wei broke free.

He scrambled to his feet, but didn't make the mistake of running off again. In fact, he'd realized he might have caused a catastrophe.

Arms like that kept reaching out from the grass around him. Soon, a number of human-shaped "things" crawled up out of the ground, surrounding every escape route.

By now, the dilapidated Mountain God Temple had caught fire from the lamp oil and dry grass. The flames lit up the surroundings and did something to dispel the gloom in Li Wei's heart.

The "female ghost" that had crawled out of the lantern floated unsteadily a dozen meters away. It looked ready to charge at any moment.

Half-crouching, Li Wei gave a bitter laugh and thought, I really brought this on myself.

All these unexpected events had to be related to his burning down the Mountain God Temple.

As if remembering something, he summoned the Yellow Paper. After just one glance, Li Wei wore an expression that could have meant he was about to laugh or cry.

The mission had indeed changed.

In fact, the change was earth-shattering.

Mission Two hadn't changed at all. But Mission One had gone from "Earn young Li Xiaoyao's trust and help him learn swordsmanship from the Wine Sword Immortal. Mission difficulty: D-Rank" to "Kill the Lantern Ghost, obtain the Lantern of the Vengeful Soul (C-Rank mission item), and return to the village within two hours... Mission completion reward: the Lantern of the Vengeful Soul and 100 points. Mission failure: randomly lose 2 base attributes and deduct 100 points. Mission difficulty: B-Rank..."

Li Wei had no idea what B-Rank meant at the time. But even after he grew familiar with the difficulty ratings, he still shuddered whenever he looked back on this experience, thinking he'd been incredibly lucky. With his F-Rank rating, a B-Rank mission should have meant certain death.

But at the time, Li Wei hadn't realized any of that.

He'd only proven one thing: a mission could indeed be changed by altering key points in the original plot. But such changes weren't necessarily a good thing. At least for Li Wei, this one certainly wasn't.

The situation was already a complete disaster. Not only had the mission difficulty increased, he now had to kill the female ghost floating in midair.

Li Wei glanced at the ghost again and felt a chill. Just looking at something like that was terrifying—how was he supposed to kill it? If only he'd prepared some cinnabar talismans or something.

Aside from the frightening female ghost, the "things" lurking in the dark grass were weighing heavily on Li Wei's mind, too. Fortunately, they seemed to hate fire. They kept their distance and didn't approach.

That gave Li Wei some time to think of a plan.

Know yourself and your enemy, and you'll never be defeated!

To kill the Lantern Ghost, he first had to learn her weakness.

He didn't have ghost-repelling items like the ones in games, but he did have something he could use.

It was the Yellow Paper. Summoning it again, Li Wei tried to project the female ghost's image onto it with his mind. Perhaps his naturally high spirit attribute helped. Ripples spread across the paper like a calm lake, and a long stretch of information appeared.

"Target: Lantern Ghost (third tier). Formed from the resentment of the dead, these terrifying ghosts survive by Devouring the souls of the living. Ordinary mortals cannot easily harm them!"

The information was brief, but Li Wei could read between the lines.

First, the Lantern Ghost was extremely dangerous. That much was clear from the line, "These terrifying ghosts survive by Devouring the souls of the living."

Third tier probably referred to her level.

Most importantly, "Ordinary mortals cannot easily harm them" couldn't have been clearer. He couldn't use ordinary methods against this thing. The wooden stick in his hand probably wasn't much more effective than a toothpick.

Li Wei was at a loss. Forget killing the ghost—whether he could even stay alive was still an open question. Once the fire behind him went out, his luck would run out, too.

Usually, he planned everything out ahead of time. Even when something unexpected happened, he could handle it. But the situation now had clearly gone beyond anything he'd anticipated. The ankle where the thing had grabbed him felt as if it had been plunged into ice water below freezing. It was going numb and swelling, and his entire leg had lost all feeling. If he hadn't been forcing himself to stay upright, he would probably have collapsed already.

He couldn't fight, and he couldn't run. It was a dead end.

Li Wei thought through dozens of plans, but rejected them one by one. Unless outside help intervened, he was doomed. But in a remote wilderness like this, the chance of anyone showing up was obviously slim.

Of course, he could choose to end this beginner mission, but he probably wouldn't get a very good rating in the end. For a moment, Li Wei hesitated.

The Mountain God Temple quickly turned into a pile of rubble, flames still flickering among the stones. After two hours, the fire had burned nearly everything here that could catch fire to ash. With the light gone, darkness gradually closed in on Li Wei, along with more than a dozen black shadows.

The female ghost let out a "hee-hee" laugh. It sounded as if she were mocking him—or cheering for the "feast" that was about to come.

It was over!

Though he knew what would happen next, Li Wei gripped the wooden stick tightly. He wasn't going to give up, no matter what. He also edged as far backward as he could. His back was burning with pain, but he couldn't afford to care about that now.

The female ghost charged first. She was in front of Li Wei in an instant, like a human-shaped block of ice. Her frigid aura made Li Wei's pores contract, while the scorching heat at his back tormented him.

It was a bizarre experience. At that moment, Li Wei was no longer so afraid, even though he could now see the female ghost's face clearly.

The white-clad ghost had no features. Her entire face was a bloody, mangled mess. The moment she came close, Li Wei swung the stick in his hand.

The stick whistled through the air and smashed into the ghost. The instant it struck her body, Li Wei felt it catch for a moment in his hands, but it passed through without much resistance. Then the ghost's body scattered like a cloud of smoke with a loud boom and vanished.

How could that be?

One swing had actually scattered the ghost.

Someone else might have wept with joy, but Li Wei wasn't stupid enough to celebrate.

The reason was simple: the mission on the Yellow Paper hadn't changed at all, and the so-called mission item hadn't appeared. The only explanation was that the ghost had used some kind of illusion.

Sure enough, Li Wei suddenly felt something cold against the back of his neck. He didn't need to look. He could tell from the sensation that an icy arm had draped itself over his shoulder.

The ghost was on his back!

For an instant, Li Wei was gripped by terror. But his mind told him that this was a matter of life and death. He couldn't hesitate. He couldn't waver.

At almost the same moment, his body suddenly sprang backward.

Behind him were the beams, now burned to embers. Li Wei's move had sent him plunging into a heap of charcoal. Under normal circumstances, that would have been suicide, but now it saved his life.

He landed in the burning pile of charcoal. Sparks and ash flew up, blinding him for an instant. The exposed skin on his body blistered from the glowing red-hot coals, but he heard a sound as beautiful as a song from heaven.

A miserable shriek!

The female ghost let out a piteous scream.