Qi Wu also accepted the Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost's yin energy, suppressing his own yang energy to an extremely low level. However, his constitution was so strong that even with yin energy invading his body, he did not cough up blood like Chu Qingjiu.
In fact, the yang energy within him was fighting back, digesting the invading yin energy bit by bit. His Extreme Yang Body truly lived up to its reputation as something ghosts despised.
Qi Wu supported the weakened Chu Qingjiu as they walked into the brightly lit Ancestral Hall.
Inside the Ancestral Hall, a circle of people had already gathered. Dressed in outfits resembling Daoist robes, they all sat cross-legged in meditation.
An Underworld Walker dressed in black sat in the middle, his eyes closed and his lips murmuring incessantly.
He held a lantern in one hand and a very tall, thick stick of incense in the other.
Those were the Yellow Springs Lantern and Guiding Incense, used to guide the way.
People whose souls had left their bodies had to enter the Ghost City along a path formed by the Guiding Incense. They had to return to their bodies before the incense burned out-in other words, before the path disappeared.
On their return, they would see a brightly shining lantern. That was the Yellow Springs Lantern, which guided them back. As long as they followed its light, they would be safe.
If they lost their way in the Ghost City, their souls would be trapped, leaving their bodies in a half-alive vegetative state.
They would not be dead, yet they would never wake again. That was the sign of a lost soul.
Five people in Daoist robes had already left their bodies. A circle drawn in cinnabar surrounded them, protecting them.
This was a barrier they had set up to prevent interference from Fierce Ghosts.
Their preparations were extremely thorough.
"They've already been inside for a while. If you can't find the soul before they do, I'll kill you."
The Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost spoke with a soft laugh, looking utterly relaxed and at ease.
Her words, however, were anything but reassuring. They sent a faint chill down their spines.
Chu Qingjiu had already regained his composure. He said softly, his voice weak, "All you need to do is wait for the result."
He turned his gaze toward the spot where the players' memorial tablets stood. There were seven places in total, and the empty one belonged to him.
The table behind the tablets had originally been empty, but now a tall, imposing Buddhist statue had appeared there, wearing a Crown and a Ritual Robe, its expression stern.
-it was King Yama.
Holding his memorial tablet, Chu Qingjiu walked toward the empty spot and slowly set it back in place.
Rumble-
The Buddhist statue of King Yama suddenly shuddered as though coming to life, lowering its head to gaze down at this insignificant ant.
At that moment, a dark red city gate three meters tall appeared behind King Yama. It looked just like the gates of Fengdu Ghost City.
Now came the first problem: how to get King Yama to open the gate for them.
The answer was simple.
-money could make ghosts turn a mill, and money could make King Yama open the gate for him.
With an indifferent expression, Chu Qingjiu pulled a thick stack of Ghost Money from his pocket. Each note had a denomination of one hundred million, and the stack was roughly twenty centimeters thick.
"A small token of appreciation. I hope it is to your liking, my lord."
At the sight of that thick stack of money, the closed city gate opened a crack. Gray-black mist seeped through the gap, stirring gusts of cold, ghostly wind inside the Ancestral Hall.
The Underworld Walker's lantern flickered in the wind, on the verge of going out. The once-straight path also swayed and twisted, affecting everyone walking through the Ghost City.
The Underworld Walker cursed inwardly and chanted another string of incantations Chu Qingjiu could not understand before finally steadying the flickering flame and the scattering column of incense smoke.
"Let's go."
Chu Qingjiu spoke softly.
The three of them entered the Ghost City without trouble.
The Ghost City's dense yin energy made Chu Qingjiu frown and cough. Once inside, they saw many bizarre-looking ghosts running stalls.
Their wares were anything but normal: shriveled human hands, undeveloped infants, and fresh severed heads.
There even seemed to be a faint scent of blood in the air.
Ghosts came and went through the Ghost City, and a constant clamor filled the streets. Aside from the strange appearances and abnormal wares, it was not all that different from the human world.
But with the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade underway, every kind of ghost and monster was present. Finding Wang Peiling among so many souls would be like searching for a needle in the ocean.
They knew only Wang Peiling's name. Without her birth date and time or a personal possession carrying her aura, finding her was nothing but a fool's dream.
The Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost naturally knew Chu Qingjiu had no chance of finding Wang Peiling, but she was not kind enough to warn him. Since he had sounded so confident, she would simply kill him if he failed.
"Big brother, how are you going to find her?"
Looking at all those ghosts, Qi Wu began to worry.
Chu Qingjiu said calmly, "There's no hurry. She'll show up on her own."
The Xu Residence had personally hired the Underworld Walker, so he was bound to have Wang Peiling's birth date and time, as well as her personal possessions. His group would definitely be able to find her soul.
That was why Chu Qingjiu had never intended to search for her himself. He planned to let others do the work and reap the rewards.
Five people would be chasing Wang Peiling's soul. They only had to see who was fleeing in panic to know which ghost was her, so all they needed to do was patiently wait for a chance for chaos to break out in the Ghost City.
"Hmm...? Why do I smell the living?"
Not far from them, a five-foot-tall monster resembling an enormous blue-green bird suddenly sniffed the air and spoke.
It was a Fiend Ghost, one of the strongest among evil ghosts.
The ordinary Nether Ghosts around it stopped in their tracks and sniffed hard at the scent of the living drifting through the air.
The Fiend Ghost kept sniffing, then suddenly turned toward Chu Qingjiu's group of two humans and one ghost and took several deep sniffs.
"Ah... over there. Humans have come in."
"What? Humans?"
The surrounding Nether Ghosts erupted into a commotion, shouting over one another and making Chu Qingjiu's eyelid twitch.
Because Qi Wu possessed the Extreme Yang Body, he strongly resisted the corrosive yin energy. His yang energy had inadvertently leaked out.
"Run."
With that, he grabbed Qi Wu and started running in the opposite direction from the Fiend Ghost.
The Fiend Ghost quickly locked onto their position. The wings on its back snapped open, and it flew in the direction they had fled, laughing loudly:
"Hahahaha... I haven't eaten fresh human flesh in ages. Today, I'm going to feast!"
All the ordinary lesser ghosts on the street scattered and hid, terrified of being caught in the attack. One by one, they cautiously poked their heads out to watch the unfolding scene.
The street, packed with ghosts only moments before, was instantly deserted. Only two humans and a Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost remained to face the menacing Fiend Ghost.
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