The instant the Grudge-Crying Ghost lunged at Fan Shang with its mouth open.
A cold gleam suddenly appeared in its pitch-black pupils, rapidly growing larger.
What was that? The entity wondered.
Then the cold gleam grew larger and larger.
The next moment, the entity saw it clearly.
It was an axe blade flashing with a cold gleam, a few traces of blood still clinging to it.
It wanted to dodge.
But... it was too late!
The axe blade had already filled its pitch-black pupils.
Then came the sound of a sharp weapon sinking into flesh.
Squelch-!!
Fan Shang cleaved the airborne Grudge-Crying Ghost straight to the ground with a single swing.
It collapsed like a dead dog.
Seeing this, Liu Tie immediately moved to help.
But Fan Shang's next move froze Liu Tie in place.
Fan Shang raised the Fire Axe high.
Then brought it crashing down.
A sound like meat being chopped rang out.
The situation Liu Tie had feared-Fan Shang accidentally getting restrained by the entity and letting it gain some distance-never happened.
Fan Shang simply pulled the Fire Axe out of the entity's skull.
Then a smile curled his lips.
And then...
"Heh, kill me? You're just a lousy entity, and you think you can kill me?!"
"Come on, kill me! Come on!"
As he grinned, the axe in his hands kept swinging down.
But that wasn't what concerned Liu Tie most.
What concerned him most was the Ghost Road on the highway.
He could see the eerie blue flames burning around Fan Shang on that Ghost Road, furiously scorching the black mist pouring from the entity.
Yes, they were burning it away relentlessly.
They were even about as effective as Lin Xue pushing her Sequence ability to its limit.
And that was why the entity's wounds were healing so slowly.
The entity's screams rang out without pause.
There was none of the difficulty Liu Tie had faced while fighting the Grudge-Crying Ghost.
Fan Shang was simply pinning it down and hacking away. Honestly, Liu Tie had thought he'd already overestimated Fan Shang's strength.
After all, he'd managed to escape alone from a group attacked by an entity and rejoin the convoy.
But now it seemed Liu Tie had guessed wrong.
Fan Shang had most likely survived by killing the entity that attacked his group.
Besides, this was the [House Guard] Sequence? What house was he guarding? One with a yard a hundred meters long and two meters wide, complete with eerie blue special effects?
Liu Tie suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to rant.
But this clearly wasn't the time.
"Waaah... Raaagh! Hu... human..."
The Grudge-Crying Ghost could no longer cry as the Fire Axe in Fan Shang's hands kept falling.
The Grudge-Crying Ghost, which had been spitefully plotting to kill the human before it, now felt nothing but pain-the indescribable agony of those eerie blue flames.
Fan Shang had hacked off its limbs. Every time it tried to heal its wounds, he chopped its limbs off again.
Over and over, again and again. After it had healed itself four times like this.
Almost all the black mist around the Grudge-Crying Ghost had been burned away.
Sensing death drawing near, even the entity felt an inexplicable surge of fear.
So it began to struggle, thrashing madly.
"Hu... human..."
Its remaining black mist restored an arm, and it suddenly clawed at Fan Shang.
Fan Shang, who had been watching its movements all along, lifted his foot and easily avoided the swipe.
But little did he know that the Grudge-Crying Ghost wanted him to dodge.
The instant his foot released it.
The Grudge-Crying Ghost scrambled up and crawled straight into the distance.
Fan Shang could even see a hint of mockery on its face.
As though it were sneering at him, saying, This was my real goal!
"No, we can't let it get away!"
Unlike Zhou Ping and Lin Xue, Liu Tie instantly snapped out of his shock at Fan Shang's overwhelming strength.
As a veteran who had survived a year in the Weird World, Liu Tie knew perfectly well to finish an enemy while it was weak.
If they didn't take advantage of its weakness now, who knew whether the Grudge-Crying Ghost would come after them later?
As he spoke, Liu Tie prepared to chase it down and kill it.
But Fan Shang suddenly spoke up to stop him.
"Brother Tie, there's no need to chase it."
"What? Fan Shang, you might not understand the consequences of letting this entity escape. If it comes after us again later..."
"That's not what I meant."
"?"
A question mark flashed through Liu Tie's mind.
But Fan Shang's next words immediately cleared up his confusion.
"What I mean is... it can't get away!"
"What do you mean, it can't get away?"
The entity was already about to escape the hundred-meter range. This time, Fan Shang didn't answer Liu Tie.
Instead, he let his actions explain everything.
Fan Shang lifted his foot and lightly tapped the ground. In an instant, a Ghost Road extended ahead of the Grudge-Crying Ghost, enclosing it within the road.
"Exactly what I said."
With that, Fan Shang surged forward.
The eerie blue flames coiling around him made him look like an underworld bailiff reaping ghosts.
He rapidly closed in on the Grudge-Crying Ghost, step by step.
[Yin Soldier's Borrowed Road]
Seeing this, the entity tried to struggle, tried to flee beyond the Ghost Road's boundaries.
But those last few meters might as well have been an impassable chasm.
It... was too slow.
"Excuse me, coming through!"
An icy voice, like that of a dead man, rang out behind the Grudge-Crying Ghost.
The next moment.
Several cold gleams flashed through the air.
Fan Shang hacked off the Grudge-Crying Ghost's limbs and head in an instant, then delivered several more blows to its skull.
Once he had chopped it to pieces, its agonized growls finally cut off!
Then the Ghost Road disappeared.
The Grudge-Crying Ghost on the ground also began to disappear, dissolving away.
Only a small skull remained.
Fan Shang crouched and picked it up. Looking into the eyes of the small, bluish-purple skull in his hand, he felt a sudden chill of revulsion.
"What is this thing?"
He couldn't help feeling puzzled.
But then an explanation came from behind him.
"That's something good that can drop after you kill an entity. Some special Sequences in the convoys can use it to make Sacrificial Objects and other useful things. You know what Sacrificial Objects are, right?"
"That half-stick of rotten incense I gave you earlier was one kind of Sacrificial Object. You've handled that incense, so you should know what they are."
It was Liu Tie's voice.
Fan Shang turned and saw the three of them approaching, with Zhou Ping supporting Liu Tie.
And beside them... was a black cat.
It was Little Black.
When Little Black saw Fan Shang looking over, it called out.
"Meow!"
Then it padded over to Fan Shang's feet and rubbed against his trouser leg.
After that, its enlarged body, now the size of a big dog, settled beside Fan Shang.
As though it were keeping watch over their surroundings.
But that tiny gesture was enough to make Fan Shang struggle to keep his composure.
For no other reason than that he hadn't seen Little Black anywhere from the start of the fight to the end. Was it the symbiotic creature, or was he?
Of course, Fan Shang only entertained the thought. With Little Black's current physique, a single swipe from the entity would probably have killed it.
It would probably only become genuinely useful after its bloodline was purified.
With that thought, Fan Shang couldn't help looking at the panel before him.
This time, the rewards were substantial.
[Ding, detected that the host assisted in killing a level 1 entity, Grudge-Crying Ghost. Survival Points +500] [Ding, detected that the host killed a level 1 entity, Grudge-Crying Ghost. Survival Points +2000]
Before you continue