Special Yin Soul

Night fell.

Inside the Lonely Soul Ridge outpost.

Hu Donghan sat cross-legged in meditation inside a small resting hut, quietly calculating to himself.

"Lonely Soul Ridge is becoming more and more dangerous for me. It's no longer suitable to stay here. I'll spend one more day in Lonely Soul Ridge tomorrow, searching for Ghost Wraiths. If I still can't find one, then I can only leave Lonely Soul Ridge for now and hunt ghosts elsewhere."

"Come to think of it, my luck really does seem rather poor. Normally, after killing around a hundred Yin Souls, a Ghost Wraith might appear. I've been at Lonely Soul Ridge for nearly half a month and have killed more than a hundred Yin Souls, yet I haven't obtained a single Ghost Wraith. In the end, it's still because my strength is insufficient. If I had mid-stage Qi Refining cultivation and could hunt more Yin Souls, then after all this time, I should have captured a Ghost Wraith already."

I hope tomorrow brings better luck.

Early the next morning, before the sky had even brightened, Hu Donghan was already up.

After eating some dry rations, Hu Donghan rode his bone horse toward the outskirts of Lonely Soul Ridge.

After half a month of recovery, the number of Yin Souls and ghostly creatures in Lonely Soul Ridge had basically returned to normal. The number of outer sect disciples coming to Lonely Soul Ridge to hunt ghosts had also greatly increased. Hu Donghan could now see small groups of mid-stage and late-stage Qi Refining cultivators heading into Lonely Soul Ridge as well.

Once he entered the outskirts of Lonely Soul Ridge, Hu Donghan began looking for trouble with those low-level Yin Souls again. In the blink of an eye, an entire morning had passed. Though Hu Donghan had hunted another three Yin Souls, he still gained nothing.

Near noon, Hu Donghan finally discovered another Yin Soul in one area.

The Yin Qi within this Yin Soul was in complete disarray, and its body seemed vaguely transparent, as though it might disperse at any moment.

"This is a Yin Soul that has only just formed."

Based on its appearance, Hu Donghan made a basic judgment.

A newly formed lone Yin Soul, and at noon besides—its strength was likely not even eighty percent of its peak. Killing such a Yin Soul should not consume much.

After observing the surroundings from afar and finding nothing unusual, Hu Donghan stopped his bone horse. He then cast the Spirit Shield Technique over himself for protection. With a hand seal, he condensed a Spirit Force Bolt before him without releasing it—after half a month of fighting, Hu Donghan's control over the Spirit Shield Technique and Spirit Bolt Technique had grown stronger. He could now easily perform such simple tricks as condensing a Spirit Force Bolt without firing it.

After making all his preparations, Hu Donghan swiftly approached the Yin Soul. When he was roughly ten meters away, Hu Donghan waved his hand forward, and the unreleased Spirit Force Bolt shot out with explosive speed, blasting toward the Yin Soul.

Just as Hu Donghan believed that the Spirit Force Bolt would directly blast the Yin Soul apart, something unexpected happened—

The Yin Soul that was about to be struck by the Spirit Force Bolt actually reacted at the last instant. It lightly drifted to one side, narrowly evading half of the attack!

Though the Spirit Force Bolt ultimately still struck the Yin Soul, it did not blast it apart as Hu Donghan had expected. It merely destroyed half of the Yin Soul's Soul Body.

After half its Soul Body was blasted away, the Yin Soul first let out a shrill howl. Then, roughly three quarters of the Yin Qi that had not been particularly dense to begin with was drawn from its body, forming a ghostfire shield glowing an oily green before it.

The moment Hu Donghan saw this, his pupils contracted. He inwardly cursed, Not good, and rapidly retreated. After suffering the previous blow, however, the Yin Soul had already fixed its sights on Hu Donghan and directly pursued him. This Yin Soul was much faster than ordinary Yin Souls. The distance between it and Hu Donghan was swiftly shrinking.

"Damn it! I actually ran into one of those legendary Special Yin Souls! Its sensing range is ten meters just after gathering its Yin Qi, and it can even use spells. I really don't know whether my luck is good or bad. Special Yin Souls won't be easy to defeat. But after killing one, there's a fifty percent chance that it will produce a Ghost Wraith." Although Hu Donghan had encountered danger, he was not overly flustered. Based on the Yin Soul's earlier actions, he had already deduced some basic information about it.

For instance, this Yin Soul's sensing range should be around ten meters. The reason it had been able to evade the Spirit Force Bolt earlier was most likely because it sensed Hu Donghan's presence within ten meters and became wary in time. If Hu Donghan had been farther away, the Yin Soul might not necessarily have dodged that Spirit Force Bolt.

"Judging from the shield it has displayed, this should be a Special Yin Soul with strong defensive power. A Yin Soul with slightly stronger defense is always easier to deal with than one that possesses offensive spells. Moreover, after using this shield spell, much of its Yin Qi has dissipated. It probably cannot cast a second defensive spell. As long as I can break this Yin Soul's ghostfire shield, I'll still have a good chance of killing this Special Yin Soul!"

"Besides, even if I can't beat it, escaping a Yin Soul with such limited destructive power won't be too difficult. If I ride the bone horse, there shouldn't be much of a problem escaping. It's just a pity that the bone horse will flee in fright the moment it suffers any attack. Otherwise, if I made good use of it, the difficulty of killing this Special Yin Soul would decrease considerably..."

With a general plan already formed in his mind, Hu Donghan calculated the Spirit Force remaining in his body.

He had already used one Spirit Shield Technique and one Spirit Bolt Technique. Hu Donghan now had only enough Spirit Force left for four more Spirit Bolt Techniques. If he was accidentally struck by the Yin Soul, the Spirit Shield Technique would consume Spirit Force as well, leaving him able to cast even fewer Spirit Bolt Techniques.

"It's truly impossible to tell how strong a Special Yin Soul's attacks are. If I can figure out its attack strength and methods, perhaps I can avoid the ghostfire shield and directly attack the Special Yin Soul's Soul Body with a Spirit Force Bolt. That should allow me to kill it in a single strike..."

As he pondered, Hu Donghan had already condensed another Spirit Force Bolt in his hand. With a casual wave, he fired it at the Yin Soul's exposed Soul Body. However, the Special Yin Soul's senses were extremely sharp. The moment it sensed the appearance of the Spirit Force Bolt, it moved its ghostfire shield to block it. In the end, Hu Donghan's Spirit Force Bolt still struck the ghostfire shield.

When the ghostfire shield was hit, some of the ghostfire upon it instantly burst and burned away. Looking again, its ghostfire had become somewhat dimmer in color, though not noticeably so.

Hu Donghan swept his gaze over the ghostfire shield, his expression darkening—the ghostfire shield's defensive power was not weak. The remaining three Spirit Force Bolts might not be enough to break it!