To the west of the Yan River was a wasteland engulfed in an eternal black fog that obscured both eyesight and Divine Will.
Wandering souls drifted about this wasteland throughout the year.
Wandering souls could be considered the most basic lifeform of the Nether Domain. Despite being dumb and lacking intelligence, they were widespread and numerous, like the ordinary people of the mortal plane.
But while they were as numerous as “ordinary people”, they were actually all on the level of Spirit Disciples, such was the power level of the Nether Domain.
After taking control of the Yan River, Tang Jie began to expand toward the wasteland, with these wandering souls as his hunting targets. Wandering souls currently presented no threat to him, and even if a hundred of them gathered together, he could still retreat without injury. The only thing he needed to worry about was that the turmoil of intense combat would weaken the effects of the Nether Traversal Art, so he tried to keep his fights short to avoid drawing over a more powerful existence.
Occasionally, Tang Jie would try to hunt more powerful prey.
Today, as usual, Tang Jie left the Yan River for the wasteland.
The heavy fog hanging over the place grew thicker the deeper one went, so thick that one could hardly make out one’s hand in front of one’s face.
Tang Jie didn’t mind, walking alone through the darkness while silently counting his steps.
He raised his head and gazed into the darkness, upon which sinister laughter came from the distance.
It was a low and gloomy laugh, as if a woman was weeping and laughing at the same time, a mournful wind blowing all the while. Hearing it caused one’s body to shiver involuntarily.
Tang Jie simply smiled and said, “Just a puny resentful soul with a few tricks. Hurry up and show yourself!”
He blew hard, upon which all the fog scattered, revealing a wispy black figure in the distance.
This was a resentful soul, the upgraded version of a wandering soul, but many times stronger than one, equivalent to a Spirit Master. They served as the ghost soldiers of the Nether Domain.
After being forced out, the resentful soul screeched and lunged at Tang Jie. The shriek jabbed into Tang Jie’s mind like a needle and gave him a splitting headache.
Tang Jie grunted and bellowed, “Stop!”
The resentful soul’s sonic attack was neutralized by Tang Jie’s own, and he gathered a white light in his hand and fired it at the resentful soul. Upon being struck by the light, the resentful soul screamed and flickered before completely fading away.
But Tang Jie knew that the resentful soul wasn’t dead yet. it had simply retreated after suffering a loss and would quickly return.
With the retreat of the resentful soul, the black fog returned, once more engulfing all in darkness.
The soft laughter once more rang out around Tang Jie.
It was the same ghost from before, unwilling to accept defeat.
In the past, Tang Jie would have simply blown the ghost to dust with a single breath, but the current Tang Jie could only cautiously fight. The resentful soul hid within the fog, constantly changing positions.
Tang Jie looked around, unable to figure out where it was. Suddenly, he heard a gust of wind behind him, and hastily lunged forward. But to his surprise, the resentful soul appeared on his side, scratching at his shoulder, upon which Tang Jie felt his entire arm freeze up. ŘΝo͍ᛒË𝓢
The resentful soul attacked again, this time aiming for Tang Jie’s heart.
This kind of resentful soul specialized in absorbing vitality, and if it were allowed to touch his heart, his vitality would immediately be sucked away. Suddenly, Tang Jie roared and hastily backed away, his hands forming signs as he created a barrier. The resentful soul charged into the barrier, and as they collided, the barrier began to melt away while white smoke began to rise off the ghost’s body. The resentful soul shrieked and kept going, Tang Jie’s barrier only able to block a single strike from it.
Just when that icy hand was about to touch Tang Jie’s chest, Tang Jie bellowed, “Shake!”
He had not entered the Dao of Truth, so this shout couldn’t emulate the power of Law Speaking, only the power of the regular Four-Nine True Words.
The shout made the resentful soul tremble.
Tang Jie had originally used the Four-Nine True Words to shake the souls of ghosts, so it naturally worked now. His palm flashed as he unleashed lightning at the ghost. His avatar was an Immortal, meaning that he had all kinds of spell arts in his mind. Though he was limited by his cultivation, he still had all the experience and understanding of spell arts that an Immortal should have. This Palm Lightning was the perfect counter to the resentful soul, and it screamed as it was turned into a wisp of smoke.
The resentful soul hadn’t been weak, and it even had the innate terrain advantage, being in the Nether Domain, allowing it to shift around unpredictably in the fog. Any cultivator besides Tang Jie of the same level would definitely have been slain.
Tang Jie massaged his arm, and the wound inflicted by the ghost began to heal.
Thankfully, he cultivated both his body and his arts, meaning he had a terrifying amount of blood energy, which allowed him to essentially ignore this scratch. The average cultivator would have simply lost an arm.
However, using the Four-Nine True Words just now had caused quite a stir, and Tang Jie could sense turmoil in the surrounding area, a sign of a large number of ghosts converging on his location. It was clear that some of his life signature had leaked out in that battle.
Tang Jie was unable to deal with so many ghosts at the moment, so he retreated.
But as he was retreating, Tang Jie felt like something was wrong.
This sensation came entirely from instinct.
He began to run forward with all his might, but rather than disappearing, the sense of danger only grew stronger and stronger.
Tang Jie realized that he wouldn’t be able to make it back to the Yan River in time, so he decided to burrow into the earth.
The soil of the Nether Domain was an amalgamation of decayed matter and death energy, so it had a powerful corrosive effect. But Tang Jie ignored all of this and dug into the earth until only his eyes were exposed. He didn’t dare to use an art to dig even deeper, for this would leave behind intense spell art traces that would only serve to expose him. Thus, he used this kind of digging art that barely left any traces at all.
Not long after he had burrowed into the soil, a huge bat-like figure flew into view through the fog.
While there were many flying ghosts in the Nether Domain, few actually used wings to fly.
Thus, the appearance of this dark silhouette made Tang Jie tense.
A few moments later, the silhouette landed nearby, and Tang Jie could make out that this figure was a physical existence with a savage blue face and a mouth that flared outward, with two large fangs protruding from both the top and bottom. Its head bore two red horns, and its entire body was smooth and furless. It possessed sharp claws, long membranes extending from its arms, and a fork gripped in one hand.
A Yaksha!
A name appeared in Tang Jie’s mind.
It was a Yaksha!
The Yaksha was a ghost of the Nether Domain, but unlike other ghosts, it was a native. In this aspect, it couldn’t actually be considered a ghost, because ghosts came from the souls of the deceased. Meanwhile, Yakshas were truly creatures that were born in the Nether Domain, and it was only because they lived in this domain that they were categorized as ghosts.
Of course, because they lived in the Nether Domain, they had many commonalities with ghosts, like their love of darkness, their appetite for vitality, and their cruel natures.
It was clear that this Yaksha had been attracted by that bit of vitality Tang Jie had leaked during his battle.
The Yakshas were nobles of the Nether Domain, high-level existences who were Celestial Heart at the weakest.
This wasn’t a strength that Tang Jie could deal with at his current level, so he could only hold his breath and remain motionless in the soil.
The Yaksha seemed confused as to why the vitality it had sensed had suddenly disappeared.
It paced around and sniffed at the air, its inky eyes looking around as if to try and find anything in hiding.
Tang Jie silently lay in the dirt.
Upon realizing that it was a Yaksha, he had even buried his eyes so that nothing was showing.
The Yaksha gradually lost its patience and let out a guttural howl.
Raaaa!
This roar was like a clap of thunder in Tang Jie’s ears, and anyone else would have jumped up.
But Tang Jie didn’t move.
The Yaksha saw that there was no movement and muttered, “It seems I was mistaken. There are no humans here.”
Yakshas were nobles of the Nether Domain. Their intelligence was on par with humans, and they possessed the ability to speak.
After this comment, the Yaksha took flight and left.
But Tang Jie still lay silent.
He lay in the soil, letting its poison eat into his body.
After some time, finally, that dark silhouette reappeared.
The Yaksha had returned.
Or perhaps it had never left.
After looking around and finding nothing, it flapped its wings and truly departed.
Once the Yaksha had vanished, Tang Jie slowly sat up.
“When you try to trick someone next time, try not to use human tongue, idiot.”
While Yakshas were considered highly intelligent in the Nether Domain, they were nothing but fools in Tang Jie’s eyes. If he were that easily fooled, he might as well kill himself now.
Brushing off the dirt on his body, Tang Jie headed to the Yan River.