Cha Ghost

Cha Ghost

"Old ghost, stop sleeping. Wake up and take a look—what kind of evil trick is this?"

Although Xiao Liang was unafraid, he had no intention of taking unnecessary risks. He immediately shook the Heaven-Earth Bracelet and woke the Hundred Tribulations Daoist.

The fellow's Golden Core was on the verge of shattering. Although he had used a secret technique to restrain the cracks in it and prevent them from worsening in the short term, he had become increasingly useless.

He spent most of his time asleep, clinging to life that way. Even Xiao Liang could only wake him occasionally.

The Hundred Tribulations Daoist turned into a wisp of green smoke and drifted unsteadily out of the Heaven-Earth Bracelet. The smoke condensed into the head of an elderly man with an immortal air, though his gaze was utterly sinister.

"Little demon, don't trouble this ancestor over every little problem. You must learn to overcome danger yourself. Otherwise, how will you survive in the cruel cultivation world?"

"Cut the crap. Did you figure anything out?"

The Hundred Tribulations Daoist glanced at the strange blood mist before him and smacked his lips. "This ancestor is an old Golden Core cultivator. How would I have the time to study Qi Refining Stage spells? There are far too many things capable of creating this sort of blood-mist phenomenon."

"Things like the Blood Boiling Technique, the Blood-Reversing Spirit Array, or any number of demonic artifacts can easily drain a person's blood essence and produce blood mist."

"However, this ancestor just swept the area with Golden Core Stage spiritual sense. There is no danger nearby for now."

Only after hearing that last sentence did Xiao Liang nod to Qin Long in satisfaction. He stepped onto the corridor and continued forward cautiously.

The furnishings and layout of the Grand General's Manor's inner courtyard were even more luxurious than those of the outer courtyard.

After a while.

The three passed by a garden filled with rare flowers and plants seldom seen outside.

This should have been a place where the flowers competed in beauty, yet within the blood mist, even the brilliant blossoms seemed somewhat eerie. There was not even the usual chirping of insects around the plants' roots.

Whoosh~

An unusual gust of wind sounded behind Xiao Liang. He spun around sharply, pouring spiritual power into his eyes. They gleamed brightly, yet he saw nothing.

Only a cluster of flowers and grass swayed gently.

Swoosh!

On the other side, Qin Long formed a sword with her fingers and suddenly slashed out a thin strand of sword qi at a certain spot.

It cut through the blood mist but struck nothing, merely shearing off a section of a corridor pillar.

"Something's here!"

Xiao Liang said with certainty.

"And it seems to move very fast!"

Qin Long nodded and added.

If one person sensed something, it could have been an illusion. But the chance of two cultivators receiving spiritual warnings at the same time was exceedingly low.

Thus, the two slowly moved closer, almost standing back to back as they warily surveyed their surroundings.

Only Pandora fluttered her wings, tilted her head, and skipped along at the very front. Ahead of her was the corridor's bend.

"Roar!"

All of a sudden, a hideous female ghost with a half-ethereal body floated down upside down from above the corridor. Her face was white as powder, her features indistinct, and she was nearly face-to-face with Pandora.

She let out a vicious, piercing shriek that carried a trembling force. Bloody tears flowed from her eyes as her sharp claws stabbed straight toward Pandora's crown, a truly horrifying sight.

Had an ordinary person been here, they would likely have been scared out of their wits by the sudden appearance. How could they possibly have had the will to resist the female ghost's attack?

But Pandora was an anomaly. Provoked, her eyes glowed red, her canine teeth protruded slightly, and she released a roar even fiercer and more violent than the ghost's.

"ROAR!!!"

That roar seemed to carry the innate baleful aura of a Flying Corpse. It stirred up a gale that actually blew the half-ethereal female ghost's face out of shape and scattered it apart.

She no longer looked so horrifying. Instead, she looked somewhat comical.

That was not all. Pandora beat her wings, then drove a fist into the female ghost's chest, blasting her into several exploding fragments in an incomparably brutal scene.

Seeing Pandora encounter an enemy, Xiao Liang hurried forward, intending to pick up a fragment for inspection. Before he could touch it, however, he saw it dissolve into the blood mist.

A few steps farther down the corridor, an identical female ghost appeared out of thin air.

The same powder-white face, the same blurred features, and only deeply buried resentment within her vacant gaze.

Then came a second one!

A third!

"Interesting. There's more than one?" Xiao Liang froze for a moment, then sneered.

At that moment, the corridor before the three of them was densely filled with these strange female ghosts. Their arms hung low as they floated in midair.

None of the female ghosts had feet. Only their bloodstained long skirts drifted slowly in the wind.

Pandora charged ahead without the slightest concern for the ghosts' ghastly appearances. Every punch and kick of hers contained terrifying force.

She charged into the swarm of female ghosts like a tiger among sheep. Letting them strike back as they pleased, every punch she threw caused a female ghost to explode, making it emit a strange cry like a woman sobbing.

Yet more than a dozen female ghosts floated through the air, spreading their claws as they attacked Xiao Liang and Qin Long.

Xiao Liang activated the Tianshan Demon-Subduing Hand and struck out with his palm, colliding with a female ghost. He discovered that although she had no physical body, her strength was not weak, at least comparable to a cultivator at the first or second level of the Qi Refining Stage.

Wooo~

Just as Xiao Liang was about to increase his spiritual power and send the female ghost before him to the afterlife, she shed bloody tears and let out a strange mournful cry.

Those ghostly things had screamed at Pandora before, but she had not reacted.

Unexpectedly, the sound struck Xiao Liang, causing his consciousness to blur.

Alarmed, he bit the tip of his tongue hard and forcibly awakened himself.

When he opened his eyes, the sight before him shook Xiao Liang to the core.

Qin Long wore a bloodthirsty smile as she drew the sword from her waist and swung it at his neck. She was so fast that there was no time to dodge.

He could only close his eyes and await death on instinct.

"Little demon, wake up! You've fallen for it!"

At that moment, the Hundred Tribulations Daoist's urgent voice rang out in his heart. Along with a stream of spiritual power entering his glabella, the world before Xiao Liang instantly collapsed.

When he opened his eyes again, his vision blurred. There was nothing ahead of him. Where was Qin Long, charging at him with her sword?

Qin Long had not drawn her sword. She was some distance away, entangled with five or six female ghosts, under even greater pressure than he was.

One hideous female ghost had taken advantage of Xiao Liang's hallucination to circle around to his side and was just about to launch an attack.

Now that he had regained his senses, Xiao Liang activated the Tianshan Demon-Subduing Hand with all his strength and smashed her into fragments with one palm strike, causing her to vanish.

"Ordinary spells do little damage to these Cha Ghosts. Use your Fire Chi Pearl to ignite the Sun True Fire—it can restrain most evil entities!"

The Hundred Tribulations Daoist instructed him from within. That wisp of spiritual power that had stimulated Xiao Liang just now was sent by him. Otherwise, Xiao Liang would have thought he had opened his eyes and broken free of the interference, when in truth he would still have been trapped in the illusion.

As the saying went, those who listened to good advice would never go hungry.

Xiao Liang raised his hand and took a fiery-red spirit pearl from the Heaven-Earth Bracelet. It was as large as an infant's fist, resembling agate throughout without a trace of impurity.

As a thread of Sun True Fire emerged from Xiao Liang's dantian and flowed into the Fire Chi Pearl, the artifact seemed to gain a soul.

Then Xiao Liang called out to Qin Long and Pandora.

Once the two drove back the female ghosts and retreated behind him, he puffed out his cheeks and blew. The golden flame dragon appeared once more, destroying every evil entity before them completely.

For a short time, even the blood mist around them was completely evaporated.

"Good thing this treasure is truly excellent. Combined with the Sun True Fire, it makes gods and ghosts alike flee!"

Xiao Liang had expended a portion of his spiritual power. While catching his breath, he stroked the Fire Chi Pearl with satisfaction.

"Little demon, don't celebrate too soon. It's not over yet!"

Accompanied by the Hundred Tribulations Daoist's cold snort, before long, blood mist gathered in the shadows around the bend ahead in the corridor. Female ghosts began emerging again, as though they were endless.

(End of Chapter)