Jiang Nuo really did detect something wrong.
Rampaging Spiritual Power was trapped throughout the meridians. The slightest misstep could probably kill him.
No wonder Si Yan was so weak. He had an innate Spirit Body but didn't know how to clear his meridians.
Very kindly, Jiang Nuo drew off a little more Spiritual Power.
"All done."
He patted Si Yan's shoulder and sighed ruefully. "How tragic."
Si Yan: "..."
He silently withdrew his hand and said nothing more.
He began examining this strange place.
The cameraman had also recovered from his dizziness. Hugging his broken camera, he wanted to cry but had no tears.
Brother Cui hadn't said anything about this!
Their surroundings had turned completely white on all sides. They couldn't tell left from right, and standing there too long even made them a little dizzy.
Si Yan finally understood what Jiang Nuo had meant earlier about always assuming the worst.
"Are we... inside the wall now?"
"Yes and no. But you're so smart."
Jiang Nuo tossed out the compliment and tipped his chin toward Liu Lili, who was ahead of them.
Following his gaze, Si Yan saw that she seemed very familiar with this place. She walked slowly forward, completely unaware that the black aura around her was growing thicker.
Si Yan looked around as though he had never seen anything like this before.
"What kind of ghost is haunting her?"
"An earthbound spirit absorbed resentment and became a vengeful ghost."
Jiang Nuo pointed at their surroundings. "Formless and bodiless, it turns into vapor to seize souls."
The three followed Liu Lili. Whatever the vengeful ghost was hesitating over, it still hadn't appeared.
Meanwhile, Liu Lili's steps grew slower and slower.
They couldn't wait any longer.
Jiang Nuo suddenly quickened his pace and pressed two fingers to Liu Lili's shoulder, sliding them down her back. Golden light flashed briefly as he drew a talisman out of thin air and imprinted it on her back.
"Ah!"
Liu Lili screamed, her entire body shaking violently as the black aura and golden light tore at each other.
"Still refusing to come out?"
Jiang Nuo snapped. The golden light abruptly intensified, completely overpowering the black aura.
He caught Liu Lili as she collapsed and looked coldly at the black mass that had appeared in the space.
"If you borrowed resentment to create a soul, you'll have to pay it back."
As though it understood him, it split its enormous body into countless smaller forms that surged toward them, carrying bone-chilling killing intent.
Each smaller form bore a human face steeped in resentment.
They were all people whose resentment it had absorbed.
A cold gleam flickered in Jiang Nuo's left eye, and he struck without mercy.
Liu Lili had fainted on the floor, and someone had to watch her. Si Yan dragged back the cameraman, who wanted nothing more than to run far away.
"Watch her."
Although Si Yan was speaking to him, his eyes stayed fixed on Jiang Nuo, who was fighting the black masses a short distance away.
"O-okay."
The cameraman didn't dare look that way at all, afraid his already precarious scientific worldview would shatter completely.
"Mr. Si, you should come hide too..."
Before he could finish, he saw Si Yan effortlessly crush a black mass that had tried to slip through a gap.
The cameraman: "..."
He gave an awkward smile. Meeting Si Yan's sidelong glance, he sensibly zipped his lips.
However powerful the resentment it had absorbed, the vengeful ghost was ultimately only a manifestation of an earthbound spirit. It was defeated in just a few exchanges.
It had no physical form, but the earthbound spirit did.
Jiang Nuo scattered the black aura surrounding it, revealing the earthbound spirit's original form. It was actually a student too.
He had already lost his reason. His school uniform was tattered and bloodstained, and his grayish-white, sore-covered face was filled with resentment and rage.
"You saw wrong!"
As that roar rang out, countless echoes filled the space, like Tang Seng chanting sutras.
"Shut up!"
Jiang Nuo slapped him.
Smack!
The earthbound spirit was stunned by the slap. He glared at Jiang Nuo in disbelief. "You dare hit me!"
"So you can talk properly after all. Don't you get tired of repeating that same line all day?"
Smiling, Jiang Nuo delivered another slap to his spirit body.
He even found him too filthy to actually touch.
"Dispel the illusion."
"...I'll kill you! Ah-"
The earthbound spirit was hurled hard to the ground, his original form beginning to dissipate slowly.
"I said, dispel the illusion."
The smile on Jiang Nuo's face faded a little, making him inexplicably terrifying to behold.
Even a ghost feared death.
The earthbound spirit simply couldn't understand how a human without even a Celestial Master's talisman badge had beaten him so badly that he had nearly been annihilated.
In an instant, the pure white space returned to its original state, and they reappeared inside the storeroom.
It turned out they hadn't been inside a wall at all.
The earthbound spirit lay on the floor, panting loudly. He didn't dare provoke this vicious-looking man again.
His grayish-white eyes rolled a few times before fixing on the man behind Jiang Nuo, who was brimming with Spiritual Power. A trace of hunger appeared.
If I kill this man and absorb him, I'll definitely become even stronger!
After a cautious glance at Jiang Nuo, who was still checking Liu Lili's condition, the earthbound spirit suddenly sprang up. He shrieked as he flew toward Si Yan, ready to bite through his neck at any moment.
Si Yan's fingers stirred slightly. He lifted his eyelids and looked coldly at the earthbound spirit, his phoenix eyes icy.
He was about to strike when he caught Jiang Nuo moving in a flash out of the corner of his eye. His fingers curled, and he ducked his head to the side.
A second before the earthbound spirit could reach Si Yan and bite through his neck, Jiang Nuo appeared in an instant, seized him by the throat, and drove him hard into a bookshelf.
Jiang Nuo looked even colder and fiercer than before. His left pupil was dark and fathomless. One look made the earthbound spirit scream, as though he had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.
"Courting death."
Jiang Nuo murmured, his lips curving into a bloodthirsty smile.
"N-no!"
"Aaaaah-"
Before the earthbound spirit could even beg for mercy, fiery red flames suddenly engulfed him, burning him out of existence.
Jiang Nuo closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, his left eye had returned to normal, and his fierce, razor-sharp killing intent gradually subsided.
That was close!
The mission target nearly croaked.
Those were all his points!
Jiang Nuo sighed in relief and patted his chest. Turning around, he glanced at the petrified cameraman before his gaze settled on Si Yan.
He, too, stood frozen in place, as though he had suffered an enormous fright.
"Si Yan."
Jiang Nuo leaned closer and waved his fingers before his eyes. "Scared silly?"
His sleeve was tugged. Si Yan lowered his eyes, nodded, and murmured an assent.
Good grief, he really was scared silly.
Jiang Nuo hurriedly patted his shoulder. "It's okay, it's okay. That vengeful ghost has already been destroyed."
Without the slightest hesitation, he started absorbing Spiritual Power again.
Once he discovered that doing this would not harm Si Yan and could even help clear his blocked meridians, Jiang Nuo's last remaining scrap of guilt vanished.
Feeling that familiar warmth, Si Yan relaxed his furrowed brows and nodded at Jiang Nuo, looking quite docile.
"I couldn't help. I'm sorry."
The cameraman hesitated to speak.
Then who was the person he'd just seen effortlessly crush a ghost to death?
You really are so modest!
He opened his mouth, just about to speak.
Si Yan glanced over.
The cameraman promptly shut his mouth.
"Oh, it's fine."
Jiang Nuo, who was also a sucker for good looks, softened a little at the sight of the beauty looking sad. Instead of patting his shoulder, he stroked his head.