Ghost-God Power

The evening wind howled as the two returned to the tent.

Yang Chunsha tossed and turned. Her insomnia kept her awake, so she kept drinking.

Luo Yi, meanwhile, had fallen asleep on the grass and was even snoring.

Having passed on his insomnia, he slept quite soundly.

"Get some rest. I don't need sleep—I'll wake you during the day." Xia Heng sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, seemingly meditating.

Wu Zhong crawled into his sleeping bag. After two exhausting days on the road, none of them had gotten much sleep, so they quickly drifted off.

In his groggy state, he felt as though he was about to dream.

Then, a thunderous boom jolted everyone awake.

"Rumble..."

A scorching heat wave surged over them. Firelight mixed with the gale and battered the tent, casting twisting crimson shadows across its canvas.

"What happened? What happened?"

Wu Zhong and Yang Chunsha sprang up. Xia Heng abruptly opened his eyes, and the three tore open the tent and rushed outside.

Luo Yi was already awake. He had been sleeping out on the grassland and had been blasted into a soot-covered mess, smoke rising from his head.

Their off-road vehicle was what had exploded.

"What?"

Wu Zhong's pupils contracted. The car had suddenly exploded?

"It's the Night Wanderer!"

He reacted at once. They had not encountered it in a long time, but it had still come.

But hadn't it lost track of him? How had it found him again?

Wu Zhong moved first, charging out as purple armguards materialized around his arms.

Although the Madblood Clan's neural reactions and sensory acuity were only at half strength—ten times normal—that still surpassed everyone else's regular state.

Without using Multiversal Force, Luo Yi was only six times stronger, while Yang Chunsha was merely three times stronger.

Of course, Xia Heng constantly kept Multiversal Moment active, so he reacted at the same time.

"Whoosh!"

The two simultaneously blocked the Night Wanderer from either side and fired two cannon blasts.

The Night Wanderer rolled like smoke and dust, evading Wu Zhong's shot while taking Xia Heng's attack head-on.

With a boom, it was blown apart on the spot.

Yet its body was like cloud and mist, shimmering with flowing light. It repaired itself in an instant.

Wu Zhong stared at it. Ye Zhong looked the same as before, but his cloudlike body had become much more solid. More than that, it was filled with a cold aura.

Even from several meters away, they could feel it constantly absorbing heat from the surroundings.

"Come on!"

Wu Zhong had been assassinated time and again, and he had long been holding back his anger.

Now that his strength had risen drastically, he was not afraid at all.

Bang!

He exerted all his strength, kicked off the ground, and sent grass and dirt flying as he shot forward like a cannonball.

With a crash, Ye Zhong was punched through the heart, leaving a gaping hole in his body.

Naturally, that hole could not heal.

"Die!"

Wu Zhong hated the Ghost Gods to the bone. He moved like lightning, his iron fists whistling through the air. Even knowing the enemy could revive, he relentlessly pursued and hammered it.

The Night Wanderer kept fleeing. No matter how its clouds rolled and scattered like wind and storm, it could not withstand Wu Zhong's Incurable blows.

"Sigh..." Seeing that he was no match for Wu Zhong, the Night Wanderer Ye Zhong sighed.

He shot upward, intending to escape by taking flight.

But Wu Zhong leaped ten meters into the air at incredible speed, getting above him first. His purple-plasma armguard came crashing down like a club!

The Night Wanderer was instantly flattened and smashed into the ground.

Times had truly changed. The Night Wanderer had no room to fight back at all.

It was clear that the Night Wanderer's speed and strength had improved considerably. It possessed several times an ordinary person's strength and should have been comparable to Arborvitae in his regular state.

But Wu Zhong had improved even more. His speed, strength, energy, and reactions suppressed the Night Wanderer across the board.

The only thing the Night Wanderer could use to hinder him was that bone-piercing cold aura.

But Wu Zhong was brimming with youthful vigor. He endured it head-on and punched the Night Wanderer full of holes.

Rip!

The Night Wanderer tore itself apart, and a wisp of its remaining body fled at high speed.

This time, Wu Zhong saw clearly. A strand of smoke dimmed, turning into a phantom that was about to merge with the night and vanish without a trace.

Boom! Wu Zhong caught up like an arrow and threw a punch. The air detonated as he completely obliterated the Night Wanderer.

Before the thing could escape, it was reduced to ashes and sent back dead to Mount Lu.

Of course, more than half of its previously solidified cloud-mist body had been left behind on the ground.

Wu Zhong picked up the remains. The scraps around the edges dissipated, leaving only a Cloud Gate Ring that felt icy to the touch.

"So cold..."

Wu Zhong handed it to Xia Heng. "Brother Xia, take a look?"

Xia Heng examined it. "It contains a special icy energy..."

He sniffed it, then stuck out his tongue and licked it.

His expression immediately turned stern. "This is energy from another universe manifested by Multiversal Force!"

"That's right. It has the taste of Multiversal Force!"

Wu Zhong was dumbfounded. "Huh? The Ghost Gods have Multiversal Force too? Have they become Awakened?"

"Um... are there racial restrictions for becoming Awakened? Can nonhumans become Awakened?"

Xia Heng shook his head. "There are no racial restrictions. Even pigs can become Awakened, but they have no brains, so they can't cultivate."

Wu Zhong was stunned. "How did these Ghost Gods become Awakened?"

"It should be the tablet, right? The Night Wanderer's Night Escape ability is so powerful. Maybe it found Multiverse Academy, infiltrated it, and got its hands on that tablet."

Xia Heng rolled his eyes. "The Primordial Tablet's defenses are beyond anything you can imagine. The Night Wanderer could never have touched it."

Seeing how certain he was, Wu Zhong was even more surprised. "Oh? Could the Night Wanderer have been given it by Pavas...?"

Xia Heng still shook his head. "I don't think the Night Wanderer is an Awakened. It merely captured Multiversal Force."

"No, it did not even capture Multiversal Force. It merely intercepted the other-universe energy manifested by Multiversal Force."

Hearing that, Wu Zhong nodded slightly.

Intercepted? Yes, it was theoretically possible to intercept it.

Although when Multiversal Moment was deactivated, things like internal energy and magical power would disappear.

But that was not always the case. Hadn't he intercepted Feipeng's internal energy by creating a Life Gate?

Absolute traits were above all Multiversal Force. Whether it was the laws of this universe or those of another universe, they were helpless before such unreasonable traits.

Wu Zhong pondered deeply. "Brother Xia, I just remembered something. When 985 took me to negotiate with the Ghost Gods, Lu Guangqi killed two gods with a single blow."

"After that, Ji Meng said, 'Wonderful energy. This is something this universe does not possess. This king likes it very much.'"

"Thinking about it now, Lu Guangqi used powerful fantasy energy to kill him. Could that have actually made him stronger instead?"

"God Ji Meng has a trait that lets him use that to intercept these special energies!"

Xia Heng did not question the theory much and accepted it directly. "Yes. Ghost Gods possess a trait that allows them to carry all forms of energy."

"We can call it Ghost-God Power."

Wu Zhong's expression turned grave. He had learned another trait of the Ghost Gods.

Ghost-God Power? Their bodies could intercept any energy from the multiverse?

Fortunately, they were not immune to energy. They still took the damage they were supposed to take; their divine bodies merely absorbed part of the energy.

But combined with their immortal, undying nature, that was rather absurd.

Streams converged into seas. Little by little, they would grow stronger the more they fought. If that continued, who could stop them?

Wu Zhong mused, "There's no way to kill Ghost Gods completely. All we would do is make them stronger..."

"Who's feeding them? They can keep growing stronger even while sealed? Hmm, it should only apply to the Day-and-Night Patrol Gods. They can't be contained—they can freely teleport through environments like daylight and nighttime."

"The cyclone has already been sealed by 985, so none of the Ghost Gods can get out. Only the Day-and-Night Patrol Gods can continue becoming stronger."

"They've been wandering outside all this time, searching for us and following us. That's why their cloud-mist bodies have become more solid."

"Not only that, they've attacked scattered mercenaries and absorbed some multiversal energy that way."

He continued analyzing, and Yang Chunsha nodded.

Xia Heng neither confirmed nor denied it. "Think about why it attacked us..."

"The Night Wanderer isn't stupid. Why would it take a beating for no reason?"

Wu Zhong frowned. "Right. This attack was practically throwing itself at us."

"I can deal with it now, let alone the two of you."

As he spoke, he looked at the car, which had burned into scrap metal. Luo Yi was trying to salvage the liquor bottles inside.

A whole pile had shattered. Only two bottles remained intact, and in order to save those two bottles, all the food and other supplies had been lost.

Wu Zhong was getting irritated. The Night Wanderer had died and returned several times—how had it kept finding him again?

Could he really have a Ghost-God Mark, tagged by some undetectable aura?

He recalled every time he had been attacked, trying to find a common pattern.

It seemed they had all happened while he was sleeping?

Right, sleeping! Other than the first time, when the Day Patrol God controlled a driver to ram him with a car.

Every attack afterward had come while he was asleep. One time was at the hospital, when the Night Wanderer had arrived while he was drowsily sleeping.

Another was in the Dark Tunnel. He had also been asleep in the car when the Night Wanderer suddenly attacked, causing groundwater to flood in.

Then there was now. After staying up for days and traveling so far away, he had only slept for an hour or two before the Night Wanderer came again, detonating the car to wake him.

What, it was not going to let him get a peaceful night's sleep?

No, he had slept peacefully before. During his time getting foot massages in Star City, he drank every day and slept soundly, waking naturally without the Night Wanderer bothering him.

When he drank himself unconscious, he had even slept for more than a day without anything happening.

Was it because the Night Wanderer feared that attacking him in a city would expose its location to 985?

Thinking about it, that was indeed the case. Aside from the hospital incident, every attack afterward had taken place deep underground or in remote wilderness. It was clearly helping him avoid 985.

Wu Zhong explained his theory.

Xia Heng tilted his head. "That is indeed possible. Whenever you sleep, the Night Wanderer can learn your location."

"It simply does not attack you when attacking would bring no benefit and might even cause harm."

Wu Zhong frowned. "And this time, the Night Wanderer's target was only our car. It wanted to destroy our transportation. Could there be pursuers behind us, about to catch up?"

"Is it signaling nearby pursuers to look our way?"

Xia Heng nodded. "That must be it."

"The Night Wanderer can attack people who want to kill you in your name, then use various methods to lead them in the right direction."

"At night, the grassland may be vast, but when a car explodes, its light can be seen from far away."

"If the pursuers have good eyesight, they may have already spotted us."

As he spoke, his gaze swept through the surrounding darkness like lightning.

The endless grassland was quiet and empty beneath the night sky.

They could only see herders riding hard toward them.

Xia Heng said coldly, "Let's go. We can't stay here long..."

Everyone nodded, knowing there had to be pursuers lurking in the shadows.

They immediately packed up whatever supplies they could still carry, slung them onto their backs, and set off on foot.

No vehicle was no big deal. Not one of them was ordinary. At worst, they would hike across Supreme Ridge's snow mountains.

"Who could it be?" Luo Yi ran while smoking with imposing flair.

He stared with dead-fish eyes, looking exhausted beyond measure despite refusing to sleep.

Xia Heng cast him a worried glance. "Whoever it is, it definitely isn't 985."

"The Night Wanderer would never lead 985 to us. It would even help mislead 985 away."

Wu Zhong asked, "This time will probably be much tougher than last time, right?"

"Last time, we at least knew who was leading them. This time, we don't have any information at all."

Luo Yi held out his hand. "Give me that thing."

He pointed at the Night Wanderer's remains, and Wu Zhong immediately handed them over.

Luo Yi grabbed the remnants, licked them, sniffed them, and rubbed them repeatedly to get a feel for them.

Xia Heng asked, "What? Did you recognize whose multiversal energy it is?"

Luo Yi yawned and tossed the remains to Xia Heng. "Don't recognize it. Some nobody."

Xia Heng frowned. "It could also be someone stronger, someone beyond our social circle."

"To be safe, pick up the pace."

Social circle? An idea suddenly struck Wu Zhong. "Brother Xia, a rumor is still just a rumor. The persona the Ghost Gods have created for me might not be impossible to use."

"Rather than remaining passive and letting our enemies search mountains and scour seas for me, we might as well use them against each other."

Xia Heng raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How do you plan to strike back?"

Wu Zhong spread his hands. "First, let me ask: when someone accepts a mission, only the person who posted it knows, right?"

Xia Heng nodded. "That's right. Like the mission where I escaped Xunyang City, only I knew that Yang Chunsha had accepted it. Well, the club's operators definitely knew too."

Wu Zhong grunted. "Since that's the case, aren't you very rich? We can offer an even larger bounty on me. We can have Master Luo help us, and not many people know he has come to help us yet."

"As long as our bounty is the highest, anyone who accepted other missions to find us will definitely accept our bounty too."

Not everyone in the mercenary world was wealthy. Golden mercenaries as rich as Xia Heng were extremely rare.

Most mercenaries might earn a great deal of wealth in a year, but they also spent a great deal every year. Maintaining their strength was costly.

Xia Heng wore a strange expression. "You want to use this method to find out who's coming after you?"

"Exactly!" Wu Zhong said. "Rather than being left completely in the dark, not knowing who they are or when they might suddenly attack us, we might as well seize the initiative."

"We'll be the clients! That'll save us from having to guard against thieves every mile of this thousand-mile journey!"

Xia Heng's expression turned a little purple. "So we'll act as the clients to fish for their whereabouts, feed them misleading intelligence, and maybe even make them fight each other like dogs, right?"

Wu Zhong clenched his fist. "Right. Night Wanderer has fallen too. Without him causing trouble, the enemy is out in the open while we remain completely hidden."

Xia Heng gritted his teeth and cursed. "Tch, I hate bastards like that the most. One piece of bad intelligence can get people killed."

Wu Zhong went blank. Apparently, someone had done this sort of thing before—having the hunted party pose as the client and screw people over—and Xia Heng had suffered badly because of it.

"Then forget it..." Wu Zhong sighed.

To his surprise, Xia Heng shook his head. "No! We're doing it!"

"I want to be this kind of client for once too!"

"..." Wu Zhong was speechless.