Chapter 64: Lingering Spirit

Chapter 64: Lingering Spirits

The Demon Clan Elder's literary refinement was not inferior to Chu Jingxi's.

However, that was only in regard to poetry and song. Fox clans that possessed nine tails were born with certain innate talents. The earliest nine-tailed fox ancestor, in order to seduce different targets, had taught herself thousands of languages, all of which were passed down through the bloodline.

The last entity with such a rich language pack had been the System.

As it turned out, what came down through the blood was either a virus or a priceless treasure.

And Chu Jingxi—he was currently making use of someone else's treasure. Seeing the Demon Clan Elder begin communicating, he immediately showered her with over-the-top flattery: "Senior, you're incredible."

After a long moment, a voice came through from across different spatial dimensions, teeth gritted: "Tell it to keep baaing."

The Rock Antelope let out a baa in its ancient, creaky voice.

Throughout the whole exchange, the Demon Clan Elder occasionally replied with a single: "Mm."

Rock Antelope: "Baa."

After a few hundred baas, the Demon Clan Elder: "Mm?"

The second that questioning tone slipped out, everyone's eyes moved at once—something was up!

The Demon Clan Elder never minced words. Without waiting for Chu Jingxi to ask, she came right out and said: "It says it caught a strange smell around the wood earlier."

The Rock Antelope's sense of smell was roughly fifty times that of an ordinary cultivator. Chu Jingxi quickly asked: "What kind of smell?"

"It can't describe it either, only that it felt very unpleasant—like smelling it would make your emotions spiral out of control."

You shouldn't stay distracted too long during seclusion. Once the key info was delivered, the Demon Clan Elder cut the transmission on her own terms.

Before returning to her meditation, her last thought was: she wondered who'd be tagging along with Chu Jingxi to take a beating this time.

Completely clueless that he was being trashed from across space, Chu Jingxi stroked the docile sheep's head with one hand while spinning a paintbrush with the other, as if weighing some decision.

Yan Zizhan looked over and said: "Beasts sense danger better than cultivators do."

What was lurking around that wood might not be a blessing.

Chu Jingxi held the same view. After twirling the brush six or seven times, he started giving the Rustless Copper Bell its orders.

**

Old battlefield, edge of the inner city. Zhao Gang had been camped there for a while. According to data collected by Recording Stones in recent years, the spots around the old battlefield with the most unexpected incidents weren't the usual deep zones, but the central area closer to the inner city.

Spiritual energy tides had burst out here more than once.

Tides at battlefield ruins were common—but only if powerful cultivators' corpses were rotting there. The old battlefield could barely cough up a few corpses.

Seeing Zhao Gang dragging his feet on giving orders, a cultivator from the Immortal Alliance couldn't help asking: "Aren't we moving on?"

Zhao Gang didn't answer. After a moment, he said: "Within the previously marked area, we've already tossed out a bunch of pathfinding stones and found squat."

He reasoned: "If a dead immortal really wanted to hide a legacy to test future generations, would they use the 'hiding in plain sight' trick?"

The boundary between the inner and outer city was easy to overlook.

'They would.'

An unexpected bell tone chimed in, mixing fake sweetness with a creepy edge that gave everyone goosebumps.

The Immortal Alliance cultivators froze, then spun around in a flash, weapons aimed at the source.

The Rustless Copper Bell's rep had long since spread through the cultivation world—even one of them was hard to mistake.

Once the initial shock wore off and they recognized the bell, Zhao Gang's face soured. He ground out three words through clenched teeth: "Chu Jingxi."

It hit him fast: they'd been tailed the whole way. Chu Jingxi was using him like a 'sheep,' sent out to till the field.

Even though he was pissed, Zhao Gang still stopped the cultivators next to him from attacking: "Let's hear what it has to say."

The Rustless Copper Bell wouldn't show up for no reason.

'Ah, so nasty yet so patient. Too bad I've already got a master—otherwise I might take a liking to you.'

That sudden twist caught everyone off guard.

The Rustless Copper Bell was telling the truth. It loved luring people down shady paths, but that hobby required the target to be pure-hearted without exception—otherwise, what was the fun?

It hovered by a few chunks of wood: 'Per the Rock Antelope's info, studying this wood might turn up an opportunity.'

When someone handed over intel out of the blue, everyone felt it was like a weasel wishing a chicken a happy New Year.

Zhao Gang glanced at the plain-looking wood, smile not touching his eyes: "Not an opportunity—more like something sinister."

The Rustless Copper Bell didn't deny it.

'The one over there told me to pass along a message: he's had rotten luck today. The spots he steered you to earlier all turned out to be dead ends, so he doesn't plan to come to the old battlefield personally.'

'My master, who never strays from the straight path, plans to wait till you succeed, then rob you blind.'

The group's already grim faces went even darker, like someone had dumped them in a dye vat.

Had half the crap they'd been through lately been staged by Chu Jingxi behind the scenes?

"I've never seen such a shameless bastard!" A cultivator let out a bitter laugh on the spot, standing behind Zhao Gang and saying: "We can head back, round up more people, and come again."

But Zhao Gang stayed quiet for a long beat.

Not just him—even the guy who spoke found his own words fading out uncertainly.

As the first crew to find the treasure, they could definitely skim the most off the top. Not to mention the most precious thing was never the treasure itself, but the inheritance.

Rumor had it that during the first great war, some lost half-step divine techniques were left behind! If they could get one... the thought had barely taken root before greed started surging out of control in everyone's chests.

They all knew Chu Jingxi was playing their desires, but nobody could say no. Only one outpost manager kept his head: "Once we're back, Chu Jingxi will probably stir up trouble among the immortals here, spark infighting, then swoop in to rob us blind."

Zhao Gang's brow was knotted tight, but in the end, he chose to check the wood.

In truth, he was just putting on a show of holding back his anger.

Long ago, Zhao Gang had secretly dug an escape tunnel on the outer edge of the old battlefield. Chu Jingxi thought he had it all figured out, but who'd end up doing the sewing for whom was anyone's guess.

After running every check and still coming up empty, Zhao Gang stood there mulling it over.

He didn't actually think Chu Jingxi was lying about this.

After a moment, Zhao Gang swiped his palm over his spatial ring, and a ton of Recording Stones clattered to the ground. He ordered the other cultivators to go through all the visual data gathered in recent years right there on the spot: "Anything that captured this area—go through every bit of it carefully."

Years of effort, over a thousand days and nights of scheming, tens of thousands of recordings—the crew dove into the work, combing through everything three times over.

From dusk until dawn the next day, the Immortal Alliance cultivators were nearly at their breaking point, yet Zhao Gang was still at it.

It wasn't until the next sunrise that he finally found a clue.

"It's the light."

Everyone looked at him.

Zhao Gang narrowed his eyes. "The problem isn't the wood—it's the hundred-meter radius around it. Recording Stone number 360, Recording Stone number 780..." He rattled off over a dozen numbers. "In several frames, the sun's clearly out, but this patch of ground has no shadows whatsoever."

That kind of thing usually means spatial disturbances or some other anomaly at that time.

The timestamps on these Recording Stones were just before the Si hour (around 9–11 AM). Zhao Gang squinted up at the sky. "At most half an hour, and we'll have our answer."

--

The patient waiting in the old battlefield turned into a story told under the bell's clapper.

'Just past the third ke of the Si hour, spatial disturbances hit. Zhao Gang split his people into three teams—one to explore, one for backup, and one to keep me from following,' the Rustless Copper Bell said viciously. 'I'm just one bell against all of them—no way I could break through. I don't know the exact situation now.'

Inside the Warship, Chu Tiannan couldn't help but say when he heard this: "Zhao Gang does have real skill."

He actually found the key.

Chu Jingxi raised an eyebrow, agreeing. "I told you, you need smart people to scout."

But the Rustless Copper Bell figured if Chu Jingxi dropped his morals and did things like Zhao Gang, it wouldn't take three years—three days, tops.

That guy's a total fool.

Yan Zizhan agreed with that.

Before the Rustless Copper Bell could complain more, its clapper went wild, and all its bells started shaking hard.

Clang, clang, clang—amid the chaotic ringing, Yan Zizhan suddenly looked up at the distant battlefield. Without a second thought, he tossed Chu Tiannan toward the Warship with one hand.

Only the Chu family can activate the Warship. Before Chu Tiannan could even find his footing, Chu Suye had already beaten him to it, activating the Warship's second form. At almost the same time, an immortal shot up from the nearby mine outpost, clearly sensing something too, and yelled, "Defensive positions!"

All the outpost cultivators tensed up. A few Rock Antelopes were shaking, and Chu Jingxi's lazy look had long gone tense.

They were still a ways from the old battlefield, but everyone could feel this huge, terrifying dread filling the air.

"What's going on?" He looked at the Rustless Copper Bell.

'Spatial disturbances hit the old battlefield. Weird blood mist is leaking out of the cracks. Any cultivator who smells it goes crazy. Zhao Gang and a few others got out—they're running for their lives.'

It all happened so fast—even the Rustless Copper Bell, right there on the scene, didn't react in time, let alone the others.

"What about you?"

'I ran faster than them!'

"..."

You could tell it ran like crazy—every bell on its body was straining on instinct.

When the energy in the air first started changing, Chu Jingxi tried to contact his family, but the Message Talisman didn't work.

This thing is useless at every critical moment, like it's secretly working for the enemy.

Before he could finish griping, Yan Zizhan called him out. Standing on the deck, he felt the shift in the world firsthand and couldn't help but suck in a breath.

The sunlight turned into a single color, like a blood waterfall against the sky, casting weird shadows everywhere.

The whole space suddenly felt like it was under a giant lid—they were the fish about to be cooked.

The Rustless Copper Bell had to deal with this apocalyptic scene and also manage its clones' escape: 'The blood mist is about to catch up!'

Losing one bell wouldn't kill it, but it'd lower its potential.

'Zhao Gang says he wants to talk cooperation, saying—'

Chu Jingxi said coolly, "Ignore him. How big is the blood mist's coverage?"

'A small whirlwind—not huge, but it moves fast.'

Chu Jingxi thought a second. "Go the other way. You can absorb some of the negative energy—you should be able to get through."

'What if it keeps chasing me?' it asked, but it had already dove headfirst into the mist, leaving Zhao Gang and the others stunned.

"It won't," Chu Jingxi reasoned. "I think Zhao Gang and his crew either took something or set off a forbidden curse, which is why the blood mist is after them."

The cultivators who went crazy before all got out alive, and they never caused anything like this.

Chu Jingxi, like Zhao Gang, liked to weigh his options, but he made decisions ten times faster than Zhao Gang ever could.

He looked at Yan Zizhan. "Go stall the immortal at the outpost with some small talk." Then he quickly told the other two, "While the outpost cultivators are distracted, get the imprisoned cultivators and beasts onto the Warship."

The Rock Antelope came over to nuzzle him gratefully, but Chu Jingxi said seriously: "If they get worse and completely lose it, I won't hesitate to kill them. Got it?"

The Rock Antelope froze, then nodded seriously.

Everyone split up. Before long, Chu Suye, who was handling the transfer, came back with a cold face. "Good thing we were fast."

Any later, and the guards underground would've started their 'cleanup.'

Clearly, the Immortal Alliance saw these prisoners and beasts as ticking time bombs. When she insisted on taking them, nobody really stopped her.

Before she could finish, Yan Zizhan suddenly appeared.

"The immortal here can't get messages out either."

Yan Zizhan casually set up a formation around the Warship's cabin so the transferred cultivators and beasts couldn't break out.

Chu Jingxi went quiet. So it was a spatial lockdown—no one was going anywhere.

"Is the blood mist still after you?" he asked the Rustless Copper Bell.

The bell from the other direction answered, 'No.'

That confirmed what Chu Jingxi suspected. Putting it all together, his look turned firm. "Head to the old battlefield."

Chu Tiannan quickly steered the Warship toward the old battlefield. "Going there now is suicide!"

"The blood mist didn't chase the Rustless Copper Bell—the problem's with Zhao Gang and his crew. If he actually makes it back to the outpost, the mine here won't be safe."

Chu Jingxi gripped the railing, staring at the weird scene ahead. "On the flip side, with him drawing the blood mist away, now's our best shot at exploring the old battlefield."

Not to mention there's still a backup escape route.

The Beast Taming Sect was a moderate distance from the mine—maybe outside the lockdown zone. With something this obvious, they'd definitely contact other forces once they noticed, or else it's mutual destruction.

Maybe by the time I find the treasure, the reinforcements from outside will have arrived.

The warship continued heading north.

A shadow passed overhead. Inside the stronghold, a cultivator from the Immortal Alliance watched the hundreds-of-zhang-long warship charge straight toward the old battlefield and asked the immortal, "Are we going too?"

One look from the immortal, and the questioning cultivator immediately shut his mouth.

No matter how powerful the immortal was, there was no way he could know what was happening at the old battlefield from a distance.

With the situation so unclear, blindly following Chu Jingxi and his group would only make things even more unpredictable.

"Hold position," the immortal said after a moment's hesitation. "But be ready to move at a moment's notice."

With that, he risked flying up to over ten thousand zhang to get a closer look at the eerie blood-red mist.

It was subtle, but he still caught a faint stench of decay in it.

The immortal frowned, uncertain. "The Ghost Clan?"

...

The Ghost Realm.

Some time had passed since Gold Immortal Xuanlu had been brutally devoured and his power divvied up. The Ghost Clan had been unusually quiet lately. All their remaining spies in the Primordial Continent showed no signs of activity, and the Ghost Realm hadn't sent out a single Ghost Cultivator. Even when the realm barrier kept replaying humiliating images of their failures, they just channeled their rage and frustration into training harder.

You could say this was the quietest the Ghost Clan had been in a century.

One of the Ghost Generals who had shared in Xuanlu's power was now heading with the other commanders to meet the Ghost King.

With war looming, the Ghost Clan held an assessment every ten days, and Ghost King Wuxiang would personally oversee the training. Those who ranked high would even get individual rewards.

"Doing nothing is actually the best move," the Ghost General said solemnly.

Every attempt at scheming had been a waste of effort, and they'd finally realized that just focusing on their own cultivation brought the fastest progress.

The other Ghost Generals couldn't argue with that.

Who even knew what they'd been so busy with all this time.

They were just nearing the Nether Training Grounds when the Ghost General at the front sensed something off in the atmosphere.

At the elevated seat, Ghost King Wuxiang looked no different from usual today, but his aura was three parts colder than normal, carrying an ominous sense of a coming storm.

His long, ashen-gray fingers were slowly turning a ring that seemed almost alive. The Ghost Generals' hearts tightened at the sight, and they almost dropped to their knees on the spot.

It wasn't out of fear—this ring was the relic of Ghost Emperor Wuliang from before his death.

The Ghost Clan's reverence for Ghost Emperor Wuliang came from the bottom of their hearts. Centuries ago, after being gravely wounded, the Ghost Emperor could have lived decades longer, but he burned his lifespan instead, using the Blood Curse Art to shroud fate, scattering his soul into the blood sea to enhance its corruptive power. He even stripped the bones from his own body, claiming he would forge a terrifying army for them.

That ring carried the last faint trace of Ghost Emperor Wuliang's will, capable of mobilizing the army he'd left behind at critical moments.

From above came Ghost King Wuxiang's stiff, cold voice: "The Sovereign's hidden card may have been discovered."

The temperature around them dropped several degrees, matching the shift in the Ghost Generals' expressions.

Hadn't they said that card was hidden deeper than fate itself? Even digging three feet down wouldn't find it. Even within the Ghost Clan, few knew its exact location.

How could it suddenly be discovered?

No cause, no effect, no logic—one commander blurted out instinctively, "Did Chu Jingxi do it?"

Ghost King Wuxiang above only vaguely sensed the will transmitted through the ring, unaware of the full picture, yet he said nothing in response to the comment below.

The Ghost Generals gnashed their teeth. The one who'd just said it was better not to provoke him was now completely black-faced.

Just what kind of pest had crawled out of some forgotten corner to ruin their plans time and again, nearly becoming the Ghost Clan's nemesis?

He even suspected, "Chu Jingxi must have died a long time ago."

Now he was haunting them like a ghost!

Author's Note:

Chu Jingxi: Didn't you guys summon me? The ghost strikes first—this time, he's truly been wronged.