The Ghostly Wedding Procession
The supply train moved slowly forward. Lin Xu held a dharma artifact compass, adjusting the party's course from time to time.
The environment in the Spirit Realm was not fixed and could change at any moment.
To ensure that the supplies reached the intended camp, the Daoist temple had prepared this dharma artifact for him to locate it.
"Almost there, another kilometer or two..."
Through the Evil Eye Dharma Protector's vision, Lin Xu spotted the camp in the distance and let out a sigh of relief. "We're almost there."
It had only been half an hour since they set out from the village, but he had expended no small amount of effort.
Avoiding dangerous enemies and finding suitable targets to "earn some extra income" had all been things he did along the way. What had truly kept him on edge was the uncertainty of the Spirit Realm.
Relaxing, Lin Xu subconsciously switched between the viewpoints of the different Evil Eyes, looking for dangers hidden in the mist.
"Huh? What's that?" Lin Xu glanced around and saw a procession moving through the darkness in an Evil Eye's field of vision.
The wedding procession scattered red flowers as horns blared and gongs and drums thundered. Carrying a bright red bridal sedan, it made its way through the mist.
The moment Lin Xu noticed the procession, the faint sound of horns echoed in his ears.
Only then did Lin Xu notice what was strange about the wedding procession:
Their expressionless, pale faces were painted with vivid red bridal rouge. Their wooden expressions stood in stark contrast to the brilliant red, giving them an eerie appearance.
Everyone in the procession was like a numb puppet, bound by invisible strings. Their every movement was stiffly synchronized as they skimmed lightly over the ground like a gust of wind, crossing dozens of meters in the blink of an eye.
Though the festive horns blared loud enough to shake the heavens, the entire procession maintained a chilling silence.
"Wedding procession ghosts!"
Lin Xu's heart jolted as he realized what they were.
In Central State's feudal era, marriages were governed by "the parents' command and the matchmaker's word." A bride might never have seen her husband before entering the bridal chamber.
Once married and inside the bridal chamber, she might discover that she had wed a white-haired old man or an ugly man with a fleshy, pockmarked face, and could only resign herself to her fate.
Some already had someone they loved, and some came from unhappy families. Resentment was bound to arise.
In the Spirit Realm, this resentment became wedding procession ghosts, wandering aimlessly through the depths of the mist.
As Lin Xu pondered this, the increasingly distinct sound of horns at his ears jolted him awake. "This is bad!"
Judging by the wedding procession's original course, it should have passed several hundred meters behind and to the left of the supply train. But only now did he realize that it was rapidly approaching the supply train!
In a daze, Lin Xu's vision blurred. Red candles flickered before him, and a woman sitting upright on a bridal bed slowly raised her head. Beneath her veil appeared a face beautiful enough to topple kingdoms, her peach-blossom eyes brimming with affection. "My lord, what are you waiting for? Today is our wedding day, the bridal candles are lit, and a moment of our wedding night is worth a thousand pieces of gold..."
A touch of rouge outshone the sunset, setting Lin Xu's heart aflame.
Just then, a cool sensation spread from between his brows, and Lin Xu abruptly came to his senses.
"Damn!" He immediately realized what had happened and cut off the view, but the increasingly close sounds of celebration made his face darken.
It turned out that in a strange place like the Spirit Realm, a shorter range of vision might actually be a good thing.
If the Dharma Protector Evil Eye had not seen through the mist and spotted the wedding procession, these wandering ghosts would likely have passed by, neither side encountering the other in the mist.
But it was too late to consider that now. With a thought, Lin Xu directed four Evil Eye Dharma Protectors to look at the oncoming tide of ghosts at the same time.
Wedding procession ghosts made people turn pale at their very mention because they did not appear alone or in pairs, but in crowds.
The core of the wedding procession ghosts is the ghost bride. As long as the ghost bride doesn't die, the ghost horde can recover quickly even if it's beaten to pieces...
Lin Xu's gaze fell on the center of the ghost horde, where eight sedan-bearing ghosts carried a bright red sedan. Intense Yin Qi spread out, binding every ghost in the procession into a single whole.
An invisible field of Yin Qi spread outward. Though the ghost horde was still hundreds of meters away, a chill had already crept in.
An individual ghost's spirit body was very weak, but when hundreds or thousands of ghosts gathered, they formed a domain-like force field that empowered the entire horde.
"This is a hero, a monster boss of the Spirit Realm!" Lin Xu took a deep breath as a bone-deep chill gripped his heart.
Wild monsters, bosses, and lords corresponded to human adventurers, heroes, and lords.
Even wild monster heroes spawned by the Spirit Realm possessed special domain abilities that could grant various bonuses to an entire army.
That was not all. As a wild monster boss, the ghost bride was a natural leader of ghosts, with considerable power to intimidate and attract the ghosts of the Spirit Realm. She could easily draw powerful ghosts of similar affinity to join her.
With one glance, Lin Xu sensed the intense Yin Qi emanating from three elite ghosts among the wedding procession.
One vengeful spirit and two hanged ghosts.
"Attack!" he ordered without hesitation.
Boom!
Four Soul Shock Blasts erupted at once. Violent waves of soul force spread out with the ghost bride at their center, tearing apart a great swath of ghosts in an instant.
A saturation attack!
Back in the village defense battle, after noticing the tremendous power of this psychic spell, Lin Xu had begun considering the Evil Eye Dharma Protectors.
Now, faced with a life-or-death crisis, he played his trump card at once!
"Aah!"
Amid the piercing screams, the bright red bridal sedan exploded on the spot. Intense Yin Qi burst outward like a violent shock wave.
The ghost bride's soul body twisted and flickered in the psychic shock waves, like a television with a poor signal.
Her bright red wedding robe stood out vividly among the gray-white figures of the wedding procession. The moment the ghost bride appeared, she became the center of attention.
A storm of Yin Qi swept through the wedding procession like a raging tide. The previously vacant ghosts in the horde jolted awake and let out piercing screams as their spirit bodies were frantically drained, becoming nourishing medicine that rapidly healed the ghost bride's wounds.
Some weaker wandering souls had so much soul essence extracted that their once-solid soul bodies immediately fell apart, dissolving into wisps of smoke.
More ghosts wailed and struggled as their once-solid soul bodies gradually became transparent and insubstantial, but they could not stop the ghost bride from taking what she wanted.
The ghost bride's method was vicious, but remarkably effective. Her soul body, which the four Soul Shock Blasts had nearly torn apart, barely managed to retain its form as it was frantically replenished with the essence of countless ghosts.
When the soul shock waves faded, the ghost bride's illusory, battered soul body reappeared at the center of the ghosts.
Name: Ghost Bride (boss) · Purple Race: Ghost Level: 6 Strength: 10 Agility: 17 Constitution: 0 Spirit: 16 Intelligence: 11 Health: 331/850 Mana: 1313/1600 Talent: [Night Parade of One Hundred Demons · Purple] On moonlit nights, she can summon ghosts that gather like a tide, welcoming her like a ceremonial escort. If she encounters one carrying a lantern to guide the way, she descends upon the mortal world in a blood-red sedan, captivating hearts and souls. Skill: Soul-Bewitching Wedding Decree · Purple (expert): Using a red thread through the heart as a catalyst, illusory sounds enter dreams, luring the target into lowering their own defenses and falling into an illusion of romantic tribulation. Paper Umbrella Soul Suppression · Purple (advanced): Upon opening an oil-paper umbrella, she releases the power of the netherworld, forming a barrier with a radius of ten zhang that suppresses Yang Qi and strengthens Yin-affinity spirit bodies. Blood Hairpin Nether Hair · Purple (expert): She uses her hair as blades and stains the edge of her hairpin with blood. Severed hair can become ten thousand strands of nether silk that bind souls and spirits. Those caught within it feel as though they have fallen into a prison of blood, their essence, Qi, and spirit devoured bit by bit. Evaluation: A love that heaven and earth would not tolerate, fulfilled through the ghostly path; a vow cast aside by human morals, witnessed by the dark of night. A wedding robe reflects all the frost of the mortal world. She wishes only never to be human again, preferring to be a death-dealing matchmaker in the eternal night.