"Soul-Snaring Ghost Sound"
The name surfaced in Fairy Zi Ling's mind almost without thought, bringing a chill to her heart.
This was an innate spell of high-level demon ghosts. Once deployed in battle, it could cause opponents whose cultivation was far inferior to reverse the flow of blood throughout their bodies, leaving them unable to control themselves as they danced wildly in a frenzy. It was an extraordinarily insidious ghostly technique!
She had been careless enough to mistake the sound she first heard for an ordinary ghost wail, and naturally, her heart was filled with regret.
Watching herself about to lurch forward, step by step, drawn helplessly into that frenzied dance by the ghostly weeping, Fairy Zi Ling was gripped by terror beyond measure.
At that very moment, a man's sharp cry of "Ha!" rang in her ears. The sound was not loud, yet it struck like a thunderclap, sending a shudder through her soul. Her legs went weak, and she collapsed to the ground.
But immediately after, she discovered with delight that she had regained control of her body. This brought her immense relief, and she couldn't help but gaze gratefully toward the front.
She had heard clearly — the voice belonged to Han Li.
"Fellow Daoist Zi Ling! With your level of cultivation, as long as you guard your mind, this ghost sound cannot find a way in. You simply let your guard down." Han Li's steady voice sounded once more beside her ears.
Fairy Zi Ling's face flushed slightly. She gave a soft "Mm" and then, somewhat embarrassedly, rose from the ground. Guarding her mind, she walked toward Han Li.
Only when she reached his side did she notice with surprise that Han Li stood perfectly still, his eyes fixed forward, staring intently at something.
Following his gaze, the sight that met her eyes made her heart clench.
Not far ahead, within the ghostly fog, thick black mist churned ceaselessly, and flashes of green and red light pulsed through it from time to time. Deep rumbling and the same ghostly sound that had just made her lose control of herself interwove once more.
Within it, the black-robed demon cultivator was directing a peculiar fiery red hammer that sprayed out countless tongues of blue flame as he fought endlessly against a blurred black ghost shadow.
The ghost shadow was shrouded entirely in mist and had conjured a thumb-sized green bead that radiated pitch-black Profound Yin cold energy, trapping the black-robed figure within and clearly holding the upper hand.
As for the Cry Soul beast — said to be able to "devour souls and spirits" — it was entangled from a distance by two humanoid ghostly creatures covered head to toe in green fur.
These two monsters, aside from their pointed heads and the white-bone short tridents each gripped in both hands — each several feet long — were otherwise identical to ordinary green-haired zombies. At this moment, they brandished their bone tridents, spewing out pale green ghost fire, ceaselessly attacking the Cry Soul beast.
The Cry Soul beast, in turn, shot golden radiance from its nostrils. No matter how fierce the ghost fire, once it was swept up by that golden glow, it was drawn entirely into the beast's belly without a trace.
At first glance, the Cry Soul beast actually appeared to have the clear advantage.
The two green-furred monsters dared not approach within a zhang of the beast, only attacking from afar with the ghost fire on their bone tridents, seemingly very wary of that golden radiance.
However, this also meant the Cry Soul beast was pinned down by the two creatures and could no longer come to the black-robed cultivator's aid.
"Ghost Yakshas!"
The moment she saw the appearance of the two green-furred monsters, Fairy Zi Ling gasped and blurted out the name.
"What — do you recognize these things, Fellow Daoist Zi?" Han Li's interest was piqued, though he didn't turn his head as he asked.
"I'm fairly certain. Though this is the first time I've seen them in person, they match exactly what the texts describe. They're an exceedingly rare type of zombie — one of the few ghostly creatures that can move about in daylight and roam freely between heaven and earth. No wonder they dared approach the Cry Soul beast despite its intimidating aura. Since they possess physical bodies, as long as they aren't caught at close range by the beast's soul-siphoning light, they should be able to keep it occupied. After all, this Cry Soul beast is clearly still young and inexperienced — apart from its soul-siphoning divine light, it hasn't mastered any other abilities." Fairy Zi Ling stepped forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with Han Li, and explained in a voice soft as orchid fragrance.
After hearing this, Han Li's expression betrayed nothing, but inwardly he sighed.
Though this woman's cultivation wasn't high, her breadth of knowledge was far beyond what a rogue cultivator like him could match.
He had read plenty of texts in Yellow Maple Valley before, but at the time his cultivation had been too low — many of the truly valuable and classified materials had been beyond his clearance.
As for the texts he'd purchased after arriving in the Wandering Star Sea, while there were many, they hadn't been systematically organized by a sect. They either overlapped with each other or missed entire topics.
Under normal circumstances, this wasn't obvious. But at moments like this, when it truly mattered, his lack of knowledge became painfully apparent.
It seemed that if he made it out of this alive, he really ought to visit the Wonderful Sound Sect to systematically study some of their texts. Surely they wouldn't refuse their nominal Elder!
While Han Li was lost in thought, the situation in the field shifted once more.
The blue flame of the fiery flying hammer had finally been completely smothered by the black Yin energy from the ghost shadow's green bead. The flames guttered, on the verge of total extinction — a dire situation indeed.
The black-robed cultivator was both alarmed and furious!