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“Li… Brother Li?!”
Guan Xiaoshun was stunned.
He had originally taken a defensive stance, ready to defend himself.
According to the safety warnings given before setting out, when encountering vengeful spirits, as long as one focuses their mind and doesn’t fall for the opponent’s Illusion Technique, these city spirits wouldn’t be able to kick up much of a storm.
Even though they were spirits from thousands of years ago, the resentful ghosts in the city were surprisingly weak, lacking the power of millennium-old specters.
They were more like residual thoughts left behind, with no other danger than using illusions to bewilder the living.
Theoretically speaking, as long as cultivators who have stepped into the Qi Refinement Realm travel in pairs and remain vigilant, there should be no risk when encountering vengeful ghosts.
But just as Guan Xiaoshun was about to defend himself using the technique provided, Li Muyang had grabbed him and started to sprint down the street.
Guan Xiaoshun hurriedly shouted, “Brother Li! Wake up quickly!”
He thought that Li Muyang had been deluded by a vengeful spirit and hence was behaving so strangely.
The young man tried to wake Li Muyang.
But just after Guan Xiaoshun finished speaking, a ghastly wind howled behind them.
A ghostly green fire fell at their feet, spreading an icy, bone-chilling presence.
Even though it was several meters away, Guan Xiaoshun could feel the deathly cold of the ghost fire.
If they were to be struck by this ghost fire…
Guan Xiaoshun swallowed hard and turned to look behind him.
A giant rat ghost, transparent and engulfed in a miserable green fire, sprinted under the moonlight, screeching as it chased after them.
The icy ghost fire burning around it flew towards Li Muyang and him, the temperature in the air dropping rapidly.
The ghost fire’s lethal power was visibly tremendous; if one with a body of flesh and blood were hit by it, they would undoubtedly suffer.
This time, Li Muyang didn’t need to drag him to run; Guan Xiaoshun began sprinting on his own, sweating profusely.
“This ghost can attack people?”
Weren’t all the city’s vengeful ghosts supposed to be incapable of attacking, only able to confuse with illusions?
Why was this giant rat so fierce?
Guan Xiaoshun was drenched in sweat and screeched in panic.
Meanwhile, Li Muyang, mid-sprint, glanced back at the half-transparent giant rat ghost chasing them.
The giant rat’s eyes, glowing with a faint green light, were fixed on them as if it had locked onto the two living beings.
The air faintly carried the resentful snarling of the giant rat, the cold ghost fire dancing wildly behind them, relentlessly pursuing the sprinting Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun.
The two of them ran for their lives without daring to stop for even a moment, quickly leaving the neighborhood behind.
But the giant rat ghost behind them was in hot pursuit.
As the distance between them closed, the giant rat was almost upon them.
However, Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun suddenly found that the commotion behind them had ceased.
There were no giant rat ghosts, nor was there any chasing ghost fire.
When they turned around, they saw the street behind them empty and silent under the moonlight, utterly devoid of any giant rat ghost.
The giant rat Demon King ghost that had chased them all this way was like an illusion.
Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun continued to run without daring to stop, but as they did, they kept looking back in puzzled alarm.
“Uh… Brother Li, what happened to the rat ghost?”
Guan Xiaoshun anxiously scanned the darkness, fearing that the next second, that terrifying rat would leap out again.
Li Muyang, however, had much more composure.
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“`
He squinted, shaking his head, “It seems that the giant rat ghost can’t leave this block. Once it runs out of the area, it automatically disappears.”
Although he was busy running away, he had kept an eye on the Red Flame King’s vengeful spirit chasing them from the corner of his eye.
He had seen with his own eyes how when the massive rat spirit dashed out from the street junction, an invisible force seemed to appear behind it, suddenly pulling it into the air.
Gone without a trace.
Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun stood by the side of the road on high alert for a good while, but the giant rat’s ghost did not reappear.
Only then did Guan Xiaoshun breathe a sigh of relief, still terrified.
“Such a terrifying rat, the mythological era indeed was fearsome, even the rats were so large.”
“I wonder if the cockroaches were big in the mythological era too…”
Guan Xiaoshun’s thought process was somewhat quirky, his first thought after narrowly escaping from the vengeful spirit was about cockroaches.
Li Muyang said, looking back at the empty block, “Anyway, we can’t enter there anymore, let’s go back and explain the situation to Brother Cheng.”
Tonight, the Outer Sect Disciples were sent out to look for the dog, with pairs assigned their specific areas to search.
However, within the block allocated to Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun, there happened to be a terrifying rat demon spirit… Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun headed back along the same route and found Cheng Feiyang, who was in charge of their group of Outer Sect Disciples.
They explained the situation to Brother Cheng.
Brother Cheng, formally known as Cheng Feiyang, stood out among the Inner Sect Disciples and was highly valued by Elder Yan, which is why he was able to take charge of the temporary leadership over more than a hundred Outer Sect Disciples.
Although he was called ‘Brother’, he was actually a year younger than Guan Xiaoshun.
A teenage boy, he was short, reaching only to Li Muyang’s shoulder.
When Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun returned early to their starting point, the small Brother Cheng from the Inner Sect, dressed in a white robe, was sitting on the steps, engrossed in solving a set of metal linked rings.
Made of metal wires, the nine rings interlocked with each other, appearing very complex.
When he saw Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun returning early, the little Brother Cheng quickly hid the linked rings behind him and stood up with a stern face.
“Why have you two come back early? Have you finished searching your designated block?”
The boy in the Inner Sect white robe tried hard to put on an authoritative demeanor.
Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun exchanged looks and bowed in unison.
“Brother Cheng, here’s what happened…”
Li Muyang recounted their encounter with the giant rat spirit.
Brother Cheng, the little one, clearly enjoyed Li Muyang’s respectful approach.
But after hearing the story, he frowned and said, “Nonsense! How could any remnant soul within Magic Sword City have the power to attack the living!”
“Take me to see for myself. I need to witness it!”
Brother Cheng, not believing in curses, insisted that Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun take him back to the scene.
Li Muyang estimated that the little Brother Cheng’s cultivation level… was said to be at the late stage of Foundation Establishment?
Although the previous encounter with the Rat King spirit was daunting, they had been unable to catch up with two Qi Refinement Realm Cultivators, so it was unlikely that Brother Cheng would capsize.
So, Li Muyang obediently took Brother Cheng back to the block where they had discovered the rat demon spirit.
It was still that place emanating an eerie and ominous shadow.
As Li Muyang approached with little Brother Cheng, a resentful and agitated voice suddenly came from the shadows.
The next second, a monstrous evil spirit, engulfed in a dismal green ghostly fire, leaped out from the darkness.
Startling and chilling.
With overwhelming resentment and a cold wind, it rushed towards Brother Cheng.
“Kill you… kill you!”
The wailing of the rat’s vengeful spirit spread far and wide under the moonlight.
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