Crisis

After returning to the Li residence, Lin Bei had not yet come back, so Chu Liang sat cross-legged to meditate, intending to reward himself during this quiet moment.

He entered the White Tower, where a faint golden ghostly shadow was imprisoned. Chu Liang had previously wondered whether the White Tower was a sinister artifact, refining souls to exchange for treasures. But he later realized it was not so; the tower did not interfere with the dissipation or reincarnation of souls. The golden phantom it extracted seemed more like a mark, merely proof that he had indeed slain such an evil spirit.

The most direct evidence was the ghost before him, as well as the cat spirit earlier; both were formed from ghostly entities, their bodies mere soul phantoms. If the White Tower refined their actual souls, then their forms within the tower should mirror those outside. Yet, that was not the case; inside the tower was only a mindless golden shadow.

Thus, this was merely a tower of positive energy, encouraging the slaying of demons and evils.

With that thought, he casually pressed the "Refine" character.

Boom—

After the light faded, he caught the treasure in his hand, discovering a crystal-clear white jade talisman.

[Soul Exchange Spell]:

Allows you to briefly swap souls with another body, lasting three breaths. Recommended for use within the same species; entering a different species will not be a pleasant experience. Three breaths may be short, but sometimes, it is enough.

Chu Liang pursed his lips, somewhat disappointed by this reward.

Strictly speaking, such a jade talisman was not a true talisman; it merely stored a spell. Practitioners could preserve a spell in a complex manner and store it in these jade talismans. The higher the grade, the better the storage effect; a white jade talisman like this could retain at least eighty percent of its power.

Sometimes these talismans proved invaluable, enabling instant casting of complex spells or storing defensive spells for juniors. However, their use was limited, and the cost of storing them was high, making them rather uncommon.

As for this Soul Exchange Spell stored in the talisman...

Chu Liang saw little practical use for it; he would rather have received an empty white jade talisman. Such rare material could fetch a handsome price in the Sword Transmission Hall. But a talisman filled with a trivial spell was far less valuable.

Just as the reward ended, Lin Bei returned from outside.

“How did it go?” Lin Bei asked.

“Very smoothly. The ghost in disguise has been eliminated,” Chu Liang replied.

“That’s good. Things went smoothly on my end as well. Yan Xiaohu has acknowledged me as his sworn elder brother, vowing to mend his ways and start anew,” Lin Bei laughed.

Chu Liang nodded.

He then recounted the details of the incident to Lin Bei.

“But it’s rather odd…” Having heard everything, Lin Bei was puzzled. “All those people bullied her, yet why does Situ Yan bear no grudge against Yan Xiaohu? He spent so long in fear, only to find he wasn’t even on her list of revenge.”

“Perhaps… it’s because Yan Xiaohu never discriminated against her for her appearance,” Chu Liang mused. “He extorted money from Situ Yan, but he did the same to others, and demanded as much from everyone. In that sense, he treated her equally. The ones who truly hurt her were those who gave her special treatment…”

“True enough… ah,” Lin Bei nodded, sighing softly.

…

Late at night, all was quiet.

Song Qingyi, having returned to Nanshan Academy, practiced her cultivation for a while before lying down to rest.

Cultivators at the Human Threshold still needed sleep to restore their spirits. Only at the peak of the Divine Will Realm, where essence, energy, and spirit were perfected, could one substitute sleep with cultivation. Yet even then, nothing quite matched the comfort of a solid night's rest.

Shortly before dawn, she was awakened by faint, sobbing cries.

“Hm?” Song Qingyi sat up, confirming that the intermittent weeping was drifting in from outside her window.

She dressed quickly and leapt out the window.

This was a residence specially arranged for her by the academy, set apart from the other instructors’ lodgings, with no one living nearby.

Who could be crying?

Following the sound, she soon spotted a small figure curled in a corner, hair tied in two buns, crying with its back to her.

“Little one?” Song Qingyi approached. “What’s wrong?”

With the matter of the ghost in disguise settled, she was not overly cautious. Yet the instant the child turned, a wave of thick, chilling aura surged toward her, tightening her chest as she instinctively leapt back!

But it was a fraction too late.

She caught a glimpse of the child’s face—blackened, hideous, twisted blood vessels, shattered like a rotten watermelon. In her mind, a sharp clang resounded, as if a heavy hammer struck deep into her soul.

Though her reaction was swift, she was still caught off guard, freezing in place for a moment.

At that instant, several gnarled, black-nailed ghostly hands burst from the ground, clutching her ankles!

Song Qingyi bit her tongue hard, regaining clarity, and drew her Inch Heart Ruler to sever the ghostly hands.

But a fresh wave of icy cold swept over her back!

She could only feel extreme cold, her body stiff and immobile.

From an outside perspective, one would see a white-robed female ghost with hair obscuring her face pressed against Song Qingyi's back, her hands gripping Song Qingyi's shoulders.

“Who are you?” Song Qingyi, though restrained, did not panic. She asked calmly, for so many ghosts appearing at once could not be mere coincidence.

Someone must be behind this.

“Heh heh, so it’s the young lady from the Hall of Gentlemen…” a raspy, unpleasant voice sounded nearby.

A tall figure, clad in a black robe with a hood, slowly stepped out. The voice was ancient, but the frame and posture did not match an elderly person, giving an eerie impression.

“You should never, ever have destroyed the ghost in disguise I painstakingly crafted,” the black-robed figure’s tone was resentful. “I promised her she could kill three of her enemies here, then focus on harvesting living souls for me. Who could have guessed… it was all over, she was ready to leave with me… and you had to kill her right then…”

“I am very angry…”

“You must pay the price…”

The black-robed figure’s chilling words made the darkness before dawn feel even colder.

Song Qingyi said nothing more, but suddenly formed a hand seal with her left hand. A golden light rose into the air—the half page of golden scripture.

It ascended, casting a clear radiance; the ghostly hands binding her smoked black, with hissing sounds and agonized shrieks filling the air.

“Ah—”

The ghostly hands and the white-robed ghost retreated, allowing Song Qingyi to regain her freedom. She did not attempt to attack the black-robed figure, for the recent battle had made it clear his cultivation far exceeded her own—at least a Golden Core stage practitioner, and one with sinister methods.

Escaping was now the priority.

She spun and darted away, but the black-robed figure did not pursue. Instead, he smiled bizarrely, producing a large black iron slingshot.

His right hand pulled it taut and, with a light command, released: “Go!”

Whoosh—

A streak of lightning cut through the night.

Sss.

Song Qingyi shuddered in midair, the sound of a sharp weapon piercing her, though there was no wound. She suddenly froze, then crashed heavily to the ground.

Bang!

After landing, she felt frozen all over, unable to move even a finger, and a name flashed through her mind.

Soul-Piercing Nail.

A demonic artifact of the Underworld King Sect, invisible and intangible, piercing the soul. One strike, and both soul and body are immobilized.

Footsteps approached, growing ever closer as the black-robed figure came over. With a flick of his finger, invisible threads seemed to pull Song Qingyi upright against her will.

“Come with me,”

The black-robed figure chuckled eerily, striding forward. Song Qingyi, her body stiff, followed behind, seemingly unable to escape.

Yet.

In an unnoticed corner, the half page of golden scripture that had protected her had quietly vanished…