The Wounded at the Front
The blood hairpin fell and dissolved into a wisp of crimson smoke. The Ghost Bride wailed shrilly, her spirit body twisting and breaking apart.
"Ah!" She flew into a rage, her ghostly claws abruptly lengthening into sharp hooks as she clawed madly at the Dao soldiers. Her long black hair twisted like venomous snakes toward the nearest soldier.
"Creak..."
A pale red membrane of light blocked the nether hair and claws. After forming ranks, the Dao soldiers had layered and reinforced their formation with its power, creating a battle formation that strengthened the attack and defense of those fighting the enemy.
The membrane buckled and bulged under the Ghost Bride's claws. It looked thin, yet it continued to protect the Dao soldiers from harm.
A long spear slashed down, grievously wounding the surrounded Ghost Bride again. This time, her solid spirit body nearly fell apart. Wailing, she turned into a streak of red light and tried to flee.
But it was too late. The formation's power protecting the Dao soldiers suddenly flashed, turning into an invisible cage that forcibly cut off the Ghost Bride's escape.
The ten Dao soldiers were now inside the cage with the Ghost Bride. Unless she could break through their blockade, she was trapped in a fight to the death with no escape.
Long halberds flashed like lightning, their cold glints accompanied by the Ghost Bride's piercing screams.
Seemingly summoned by the Ghost Bride, the elite wronged soul under attack by the Yin soldier corporal and the Dharma Protector Wronged Soul risked injury to come to her aid, only to be driven into a panicked retreat by several Mind Blasts from the Dharma Protector Evil Eyes.
A few breaths later, the Dao soldiers finally stopped, revealing the Ghost Bride, no longer recognizable as human.
A mass of crimson spirit light writhed, trying to reform her spirit body, only to fall apart again and again. Clearly, the powerful ghost was at death's door.
The Bright Light Lamp in Lin Xu's hand moved at his will. A chain of candlelight coiled like a spirit snake, drawing the ghost, too weak to struggle, into the lamp in an instant.
The candle flame flickered for a few breaths before finally settling down.
"It worked!" He breathed a sigh of relief, unable to keep the smile off his face.
Once he transformed the Ghost Bride, he would have another Dharma protector deity under his command, one comparable to a hero.
With her unique nature, it would not take long to gather a ghost tide of considerable size.
With some planning in secret, that would be enough to affect the balance of power between Xuanwei Monastery and the dungeon!
Perhaps the day I can be my own master isn't far off...
A cool sensation flowed through him, and Lin Xu calmed down again.
He glanced at the elite wronged soul fleeing in disarray. With the Ghost Bride captured, the wronged soul, freed from restraint, clearly intended to run.
But it was too late for that. Under Qiuqiu's command, the three Dharma Protector Evil Eyes took turns firing Paralysis Rays, interrupting the wronged soul's movements again and again.
Caught between the Yin soldier corporal and the Dharma Protector Wronged Soul, it fell, and after a dozen breaths or so, the battlefield was completely quiet.
The bridal procession that had attacked them had been wiped out. Its remnant souls scattered like sparks in the Yin wind.
Lin Xu put away the Bright Light Lamp, gently stroking its surface with his fingertips as he felt the soul within gradually grow docile.
The night dew grew heavier, and the wilderness returned to deathly silence. Only the Dao soldiers remained in formation, awaiting their next orders.
"Set out!" He glanced at the supply convoy guarded by the militia.
The convoy slowly set out in the morning light, its wheels rustling softly as they rolled over the frosty, withered grass on the wilderness trail.
There were no further complications, and the convoy reached the camp without incident.
Though the camp was only a kilometer or two away, practically within reach, it knew nothing of the attack on the supply convoy.
Such was the cruelty of the Spirit Realm: the mist cut off the flow of information, leaving places a stone's throw apart as unable to communicate as if they were at opposite ends of the world.
After entering the camp without trouble, Lin Xu left the militia to unload the supplies while he wandered through the camp, observing.
A large eyeball floated above and to Lin Xu's left, curiously surveying the camp.
It was clear that, during the time it had followed him, Qiuqiu's intelligence had improved noticeably, and it was no longer as stiff and unresponsive as it had been at first.
It seemed Xuanwei Monastery's vanguard had already encountered and engaged the dungeon forces. Wounded soldiers lay in makeshift tents in the camp, moaning softly.
The air was thick with the mingled smells of herbs and blood. Lin Xu crouched beside a wounded soldier, staring at the festering patches glowing an eerie green around the wound, a typical symptom of corrosion by the dungeon's poisonous mist.
Lin Xu frowned as he watched the eerie green rot slowly writhe around the wound, eating into flesh and blood as if it were alive.
"Why hasn't anyone treated a wound like this?" He frowned at the physician tending the soldiers nearby.
The physician's expression was wooden, as though blind to the wounded man's suffering. "The poisonous miasma has entered his marrow. Medicine cannot cure it; he can only wait for his life to end."
The physician's voice was dry, his eyes utterly untroubled.
Lin Xu sneered and brushed his fingertips over the soldier's festering skin, quietly sending a wisp of magic power into it.
The eerie green around the wound suddenly surged, struggling like a living thing.
In the state of Thought Overclocking, every detail of the eerie green poisonous miasma's pathways appeared in his spiritual sense. It had already intertwined and formed a symbiosis with the wounded man's meridians, flesh and blood, like roots buried deep in rotting soil.
The slightest touch of magic power made the eerie green poisonous miasma lash back at the meridians like a nest of startled snakes. The wounded soldier grunted, cold sweat pouring down his face.
Lin Xu's expression did not change. His spiritual sense cut like a blade, tracing the toxin's pathways upstream and splitting open more than twenty hidden branches in an instant.
The Bright Light Lamp trembled slightly, and a wisp of golden flame leaped from his fingertip, precisely burning through the main root. The stench of scorched flesh and blood instantly spread. The wounded man's convulsions gradually ceased, and the rot stopped spreading.
The spirit lamp in his hand shone, and a green radiance rose from its wick, winding around the wounded man's arm like a vine. Wherever it passed, the remaining eerie green rot rapidly withered away.
As the green light traveled, the severed meridians reconnected, and new flesh quickly replaced the rotten tissue. Within a few breaths, the wound had closed and scabbed over, leaving only a faint mark.
The wounded man's breathing gradually steadied, and a faint flush returned to his pale face.
Lin Xu withdrew his hand and frowned as he looked around the tent. "Conditions at the front are too poor. Leaving these wounded here is as good as waiting for them to die. They need to be sent to the rear to recuperate as soon as possible."
The physician made no comment on his medical skill, merely stepping forward with a wooden expression to examine the soldier.
NPC humans were like that, lacking emotion and adaptability. They looked like puppets with preset programs.
Lin Xu glanced at the wounded in the tent. Besides the militia, there were also several outer disciples of Xuanwei Monastery. Their injuries were just as serious, yet no one was helping them.
Without casting any more spells to save them, he went deeper into the tent, his gaze falling on an inner disciple dressed in a cyan Daoist robe.
Name: Xu Mingyuan [gravely injured, unconscious] Race: human Identity: inner disciple of Xuanwei Monastery Class: Daoist Level: 4 Strength: 11 Agility: 10 Constitution: 12 Spirit: 3 (17) Intelligence: 11 Charisma: 10 Health: 87/131 Magic power: 41/191 Skills: Lampwick Spirit-Refining Method (Basic Chapter) · blue (expert), Beast Taming Technique · cyan (advanced), Wandering Spirit Beast Taming Manual · purple (beginner): can command low-level spirit beasts and understands beast speech; Equipment: Dao Rhyme Bright Light Lamp, Profound Light Eight Trigrams Robe, Beast Taming Ring Evaluation: an inner disciple of Xuanwei Monastery, skilled in beast taming