Master Miao Xiang's voice was hoarse, yet her words rang like metal.
"I asked you here to help get things done. If Ma Huai comes looking to make trouble for you, I'll take it on myself. You needn't get tangled up in this matter."
Yu Ci was speechless. Though he did not know whether the woman before him had other schemes in mind, judging solely by what he had seen so far, Master Miao Xiang's bearing and spirit far surpassed You Rui's. But why should Yu Ci let someone stand in front of him to shield him?
In this world, nothing else mattered much, but if others looked down on him, he would be unworthy of calling himself a man.
Still, he said no more, only saying, "Let's look at the Ghost Pool first."
Sure enough, Master Miao Xiang led him to the same place as yesterday. After several hours, the miserable green mist over the Ghost Pool had acquired streaks of grayish white, making visibility even poorer.
The "moon wheel" overhead had gradually turned silvery white, casting down purer light and making things clearer. From time to time, phantoms of incomplete limbs and faces flickered in and out within the Ghost Pool. These should have been yin souls and ghostly creatures newly drawn here by the baleful land, only to be shredded and broken apart by the even more terrifying resentment and malice within the pool. Strangely, there was not a sound throughout the process.
Yu Ci circled half the pool. This time, he had far more time than before and inspected it more carefully, even gaining some understanding of the surrounding formation. Yet the four-winged Two-headed Snake was nowhere to be seen; presumably, it was still hidden within the pool. At last, he asked:
"This Ghost Pool was