Chapter 126: Devouring Ghosts

Phantom figures seemed to emerge within her mind.

Some were headless, some lacked legs, some dragged viscera dripping with garish colors across the ground, while the eyes of others were nothing more than deeply sunken sockets of blood...

All sorts of bizarre and terrifying appearances, of gruesome and unwatchable corpses, suddenly closed in with crying that shook the heavens.

Among them, Miss Yue even caught sight of the man she had brutally tortured to death the previous evening, chewing him to pieces bit by bit with her own teeth.

"What? Have the blood-offerings turned into ghosts? Want to come and demand justice from me?"

Realizing instantly that all these people had died at her hands, and after a brief moment of bewilderment, she threw back her head and laughed wildly:

"Become ghosts? Even as ghosts, you are still base, worthless wretches! What do you have to fight me?!"

Whipping up the Yin-Dou Rope in her hand, she savagely transformed it into a purplish-black beam of light and charged at the foremost figure, shattering it to powder with a deafening boom.

Before Miss Yue could indulge in secret pride, the approaching spectral figures seemed struck with terror by the blow and instantly vanished into wisps of black smoke.

Shortly after their disappearance, the scene before her shifted into an entirely different realm.

Heavenly flowers drifted down, brilliant golden light shone forth, red flames blazed brightly, and gorgeous rays of colorful mists radiated everywhere.

She suddenly found herself placed within a towering celestial palace of the floating firmaments. All around her, bright lights gleamed and myriad auspicious mists swirled. Moving to and fro were none other than exquisitely graceful beautiful men and women, with countless colorful butterflies revolving and flying around their bodies. It was dreamlike and illusory, and a strange, distant fragrance drifted over, causing her mouth and nose to subtly exude perfume.

"This is... did I succeed?!"

Amidst her hazy and muddled state, upon seeing this sight, a great wave of overwhelming joy surged up within Miss Yue's heart:

"Have I attained the Yin Spirit? Am I about to achieve the Dao?!"

She brushed aside a heavenly maiden who had stepped forward to bow, let out a giggling laugh, and casually seized a beautiful man dressed in precious yellow immortal robes. Stripping away his modesty garments with swift, practiced motions, she swallowed hard, preparing to consummate worldly desires with him.

Suddenly, an unusual sensation abruptly stirred deep within her mind.

Miss Yue gave a start, leaped abruptly to her feet, and turned her gaze backward in shock.

In the blink of an eye!

A red-and-white primordial pearl, wreathed in layers of thunder and fire, surged forward with the irresistible momentum of a thunderbolt. Transforming into a streak of flowing light, it shot straight toward the center of her brow!

With a soft "poof," the light and shadow shattered.

What beautiful men and women? What celestial palace of the floating firmaments? They all vanished utterly and completely.

Before her stood nothing other than a thunder-fire thunderbolt primordial pearl of peerless ferocity!

Regret filled Miss Yue's heart, and her eyes split open in agony.

Yet she only noticed the primordial pearl when it had already closed to such a distance that evasion was clearly impossible.

Seized by great panic, she spun and rolled desperately on the ground, but was nonetheless struck in the shoulder by the thunder-fire primordial pearl. A portion of her ghost body was thoroughly pulverized, and after a cry of pain, she tumbled backward.

Chen Heng did not let the matter rest. Pointing with his hand, the thunder-fire thunderbolt primordial pearl circled once more and continued its descent toward the fallen Miss Yue.

Only this time, it was blocked by a crimson beam of light emitted by the female ghost.

Look closely, and that crimson light was actually a skull dripping with blood.

In an instant, the thunder-fire primordial pearl and the skull collided dozens of times, sparking showers of starry fire. The concussive booms vibrated through the air as neither proved able to overcome the other, locked in a fierce, entangled battle.

"Ziying!"

Struggling and crawling back up from the ground,

Miss Yue caught sight of the horrific scene before her. Her pupils constricted, and she could not help but pound the earth heavily with her hands, hot tears streaming down her face:

"Damn it all, how on earth did you get yourself killed by me?! If you're dead, how am I supposed to steal your man to play with in the future?! This godforsaken, murderous heaven, how ungenerous it is to me! Life will be utterly devoid of joy from now on!"

A mere few paces away from Miss Yue—

Lay Ziying, who had inhaled the mirage vapor, grown muddled and hazy, and been struck squarely by the Yin-Dou Rope, instantly extinguishing her body and soul.

Her cultivation realm was naturally no match for Miss Yue's. After inhaling the mirage vapor, her consciousness had become so blurred and hazy that she was utterly incapable of escaping or breaking free.

Yet at that moment, Miss Yue had also been dragged momentarily into the illusion by the mirage vapor, mistaking her for a living person demanding her life.

With the strike of the Yin-Dou Rope, head and torso naturally parted ways.

Overwhelmed by a sudden surge of grief, Miss Yue was just about to wail a few more lines.

When the Qinglü Sword came flying like lightning. Though the blade had not yet arrived, it had already scraped her skin and flesh into burning pain, forcing her eyes to narrow so she could not look straight at it.

"I was careless for a moment and fell for your illusionary arts, thinking for a second that your bratty self had already secured the win?!"

Miss Yue wiped away the tear tracks from the corners of her eyes, a mocking sneer forming inside her heart.

Her ghostly form flicked with a shimmer of light, effortlessly dodging the slashing Qinglü Sword and shifting several zhang away.

She gave her shoulder another shake, and a sheet of murky yin light-screen burst out from behind her, ignoring whatever left-and-right thrusts and parries the Qinglü Sword attempted, blocking them all and producing only a continuous succession of clanging impacts.

Protected by the murky yin light-screen,

Miss Yue's expression finally relaxed. She looked forward and let out a sinister, giggling chuckle:

Taking a solid hit from your pearl without managing to kill me! Though I don't know how you managed to conjure up the aura of us ghost entities, it seems your divine powers are nothing special after all!"

"Just wait! I'm going to avenge Ziying and sit on you until you're crushed to death!"

Gently touching the wound that pierced clean through her shoulder from front to back, she burst into wild, ferocious laughter.

Chen Heng remained indifferent to her words. With a single flick of his long sleeves, he kept his mind divided to manipulate the two talismanic artifacts, continuing his battle with her amidst a howling tempest of wind and fire.

Every single strike of the thunder-fire thunderbolt primordial pearl caused the roof beams to shudder and crack audibly.

The Qinglü Sword radiated ripples of chilling radiance, slashing back and forth from left to right, overlapping into endless layers of sword shadows while clear, ringing notes resounded incessantly...

After they had fought thus for the duration of a cup of tea.

Miss Yue's heart had begun to harbor a faint panic, cold sweat gradually seeping out from her back as she entirely lost her previous arrogant demeanor.

Coming from a prominent background to begin with, she possessed some discernment. Her family's collection included not only texts on the Netherworld Ghost Dao, but quite a few classics of the orthodox immortal path as well.

The prenatal breath of the person before her was simply as vast as the sea and boundless as the abyss, seemingly inexhaustible no matter how much he drew upon it!

Even while wielding two middle-grade talismanic artifacts, he remained entirely composed and relaxed, without displaying the slightest sign of exhaustion.

In contrast, she herself was gradually running out of breath and strength, nearly drenched in cold sweat from the onslaught...

"I have no choice but to take a desperate gamble and cripple one of his arms first!"

Hardening her heart, Miss Yue suddenly threw back her head, pursed her lips, and exhaled a roaring gale that swept toward the Qinglü Sword, which was currently slashing at the murky yin light-screen.

This wind rose with immense and formidable momentum, resembling the stampede of hundreds of galloping horses. In an instant, it battered and destroyed the rooftop, shattering countless tiles in unison with ear-piercing shrieks.

Even the Qinglü Sword was temporarily trapped within this furious gale, drifting aimlessly to and fro, stripped of its freedom.

Spotting this opening without the slightest hesitation, Miss Yue sneered and directed the Yin-Dou Rope, transforming it into a purplish-black beam of light to strike at the Qinglü Sword.

This ghostly artifact was a protective and life-saving treasure specifically bestowed upon Miss Yue by Master Shanhu and Granny Feihua after she grew up and left home. It could be said to be the most formidable offensive means the female ghost possessed.

The notorious Three Ghosts of Red Eyebrow in the neighboring region had not even been able to withstand a single exchange against the Yin-Dou Rope before meeting their deaths.

Not only was the Yin-Dou Rope terrifyingly lethal, but it also possessed a horrifyingly foul and defiling power.

Almost any ordinary middle-grade talismanic artifact of the orthodox immortal path would have its spiritual radiance scattered and be thoroughly ruined the moment it brushed against it.

On several past occasions when she encountered immortal path cultivators who had come to slay ghosts and uphold the Dao, whenever she was driven into a disadvantageous position, it was precisely by relying on this trick to defile their talismanic artifacts that she managed to turn the tables.

The Yin-Dou Rope darted out like a long snake, accompanied by wretched, mournful light!

Just as it seemed about to firmly entangle the Qinglü Sword, the sound of sword-singing suddenly swelled, the light and shadow trembled, and the Yin-Dou Rope struck empty air.

"How can this be?!"

A jolt of shock ran through Miss Yue's heart.

During the combat, she had clearly seen that Chen Heng's mastery of the sword path had not yet even crossed the threshold; he had not even certified the most initial realm of "Killing Within Ten Steps," merely relying on the advantage of his talismanic artifacts.

Yet this series of shifting maneuvers, even if not quite "Killing Within Ten Steps," was not far off.

Having recalled the Qinglü Sword, Chen Heng noticed the drop in Miss Yue's aura, which clearly showed that deploying the ghostly artifact of the Yin-Dou Rope had also cost her dearly.

After continuing their entanglements for dozens of exchanges, he let out a clear whistle, his body vibrating as he swung his sleeve to unleash the Primordial Great Sun Divine Light.

In the blink of an eye, a blazing golden radiance flew forth, shaking the void and illuminating the entire space. It shone so brightly that the unconscious ghosts all around appeared as though draped in garments of morning mist!

Seeing the fierce momentum of this golden light, Miss Yue recognized its terror. Panic-stricken, she forcefully gathered her remaining meager strength and once again invoked the Yin-Dou Rope to meet it head-on.

The Primordial Great Sun Divine Light clashed against the Yin-Dou Rope.

The moment the two collided, the latter immediately suffered defeat, scattering countless wisps of black smoke like scorching sunlight melting snow.

Seeing that her normally infallible Yin-Dou Rope was actually no match for it, Miss Yue turned pale with fright and lost her composure, completely lacking the time to deploy any other means.

The murky yin light-screen she used for protection was pierced as easily as paper. A sweep of the Primordial Great Sun Divine Light instantly melted away half of her body.

Then, with a coiling squeeze, before she even had time to emit a shriek, her life was directly extinguished, leaving not a trace of breath.

Lacking a master to guide it, the skull that had been contending with the thunder-fire thunderbolt primordial pearl also lost all capacity for resistance. Its brilliance dimmed, and it plummeted straight to the ground, smashing out a small pit.

Having retrieved his talismanic artifacts, Chen Heng extended a hand in a beckoning motion.

Drawing with the force of a whale gulping the sea, he extracted a spiritual breath roughly the size of a child's arm from the pile of minced flesh into which Miss Yue had dissolved upon her death.

Gazing at it intently for a brief moment, he hesitated no longer, flipped his hand, and pressed that strand of spiritual breath straight into his own chest.

Boom!

A deep, echoing sound seemed to resound within his mind.

An intense chill settled over his heart and lungs, slowly dispersing into the circulation of his entire body, freezing his skin and bones to the core.

It was an entirely different sensation from absorbing the spiritual breath left behind by deceased cultivators...

If the spiritual breath of a dead cultivator was like a gushing spring splitting the earth—unruly, volatile, and restless—then the spiritual breath left by these ghost entities was like a pool of frigid water poured thunderously down from the crown of the head, causing every single pore to tremble and hands and feet to turn ice-cold.

Slightly steadying his aura, Chen Heng sat cross-legged at random, regulating his breath for several dozen breaths until he suppressed the bone-chilling coldness within the spiritual breath.

At that moment, the clothing on his body suddenly swelled slightly, and his sleeves fluttered without any wind.

Once that chilling coldness had been stripped away, all that remained of the spiritual breath was refined spiritual energy.

Every single acupuncture point greedily inhaled and exhaled, refining the energy into genuine prenatal breath and returning it into his body.

A moment later, feeling that the volume of his prenatal breath had increased yet again, Chen Heng opened his eyes, gave a light laugh, and rose to his feet with a flick of his sleeves.

His "Primordial True Origin" could comprehensively gather one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred types of spiritual energy attributes, known as "Dragon Heaven Illumination, True Beings Comprehensively Gathered."

Not only did he have no need to worry about the troubles of gathering Qi faced by ordinary Qi-practitioners, but he could also absorb the spiritual breath lingering within the bodies of deceased cultivators, claiming it for his own and refining it into his physique.

And since he could draw spiritual energy from the corpses of cultivators—

Then what about—

These netherworld ghost entities?

This hypothesis.

Ever since Ziying had first brought Chen Heng to this ghost manor and crushed a clamoring, unruly ghost entity to death right at the start, it had already been verified...

"So many ghost entities—they happen to solve my need for spiritual energy. As the saying goes, gain and loss are fickle, and misfortune and fortune lean upon one another... It seems this abyss has turned out to be a blessed land for me."

Gazing at the hundreds of ghost entities of all sizes lingering about, utterly bewildered by the mirage vapor, Chen Heng let the corners of his lips curl into a smile.

Had he engaged in such slaughter to extract spiritual energy from corpses outside the abyss, he would likely have been met with universal condemnation and pointed at by a thousand fingers.

Yet within the abyss.

His targets for spiritual extraction happened to be ghost entities that fed on human flesh and blood.

Even if this matter were to leak out, it would only earn him praise for subduing demons and upholding the Dao, without ever incurring excessive censure.

Moreover, within the abyss, ghost entities of all shapes and sizes were by far the most numerous. Like swarms of dense flies clinging to raw meat, they were everywhere, requiring no intentional search.

One could encounter them simply by taking a few casual steps.

In Chen Heng's eyes, these were simply moving, breathing talismans and coins, large and small!

In truth.

He had not failed to consider directly absorbing the murky yin Qi of the abyss to practice and cultivate his Qi.

However, human bodies and ghost entities ultimately retained their differences. The various principles of penal balefulness and nether gloom within the abyss were firmly entangled and indivisible from the one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred types of spiritual mechanisms.

For ghost entities, it might indeed be a great tonic.

But for an immortal path cultivator, rashly absorbing it would be no different than swallowing a potent poison.

After experimenting several times within the Primordial True Realm and obtaining results that invariably ended in severed intestines and death, Chen Heng had no choice but to reluctantly abandon this idea.

As for why one could not absorb the spiritual mechanisms of the abyss without risking one's life,

Yet one could extract spiritual breath from the ghost entities surviving within the abyss to strengthen one's prenatal breath—

This was no different from ordinary mortals being unable to drink seawater, lest they vomit and suffer diarrhea to the point of death,

Yet they could heartily consume the various fish, shrimp, turtles, and tortoises living within the ocean. Eating them was not only harmless, but could also satisfy the belly and invigorate the tendons and blood.

Between the two.

It was fundamentally the same principle...

"Mm..."

At this moment.

A four-armed ghost suddenly let out a muffled grunt, its eyelids twitching as though it might wake at any moment.

Without losing his composure, Chen Heng tossed the "Floating Jade Mirage Pearl" into mid-air, transforming it into a surging wave of water ten zhang long and three zhang wide that spread outward and pressed down heavily from above.

Wherever the rolling waves passed, mirage vapor diffused wantonly, plunging the ghost entities that had shown signs of waking back into muddled consciousness and dragging them once more into boundless illusions.

He walked slowly toward the four-armed ghost that had first made a sound, gazed at it for a moment, and then reached out to snap its neck.

Clenching his five fingers together, he captured a strand of spiritual breath.

"Hah..."

The moment the spiritual breath entered his body, it was first piercingly cold, followed immediately by the sensation of drinking sweet nectar.

Chen Heng narrowed his eyes slightly and let out a long breath.