“She was supposed to be killed by Jie Jia, wasn’t she?!” Chen Mu exclaimed in frustration.
“They couldn’t be planning to double charge by intentionally holding something back, could they?!” Chen Mu’s heart skipped a beat.
In his previous life, when he’d get his scooter’s tires patched, he had encountered such swindlers.
They would fix the inner tube but leave the steel wire that punctured the outer tire. A few days later, it would be punctured again, and he would have to go back to them!
The possibility made Chen Mu’s forehead almost explode with rage!
Suppressing the anger in his heart, he tried to remain calm and watched the long-haired woman closely, saying cautiously and quietly, “We have no past grievances nor recent enmities, you have no need to target me.”
“How about I go my way, and you cross your bridge—what do you think…”
A gush of foul and frigid air suddenly assaulted Chen Mu.
The little paper man on his forehead fluttered loudly.
Chen Mu’s face turned awful in an instant.
“I’ve moved frequently and cautiously, glancing back three times with every step on night walks, all to avoid encountering things like you. I’ve clearly been avoiding you…”
“My former self was an honest scholar, and I’m just a homebody.”
“We’re both good people!”
Chen Mu glared at the ghost before him.
“Aren’t all you ghosts and evil spirits supposed to seek revenge only against those who have wronged you?”
“Scions of great families commit countless evils, yet you don’t go after them!”
“But me, a mere average good person, you won’t let go of!”
“I get it, you’re not really the kind of ghosts that follow the rules of retribution. You’re just a group of bullies, taking advantage of the weak and helping the cruel.”
A look of dejection appeared on Chen Mu’s face.
“It’s you who have made me recognize once again the cruel loathsomeness of this dog-eat-dog world.”
Chen Mu looked up emotionlessly.
“My life is here, if you have the guts, come and take it!”
Wuu wuu wuu…
Countless Iron Lotus Seeds were suddenly fired.
The long-haired woman’s figure, however, vanished into thin air.
The Iron Lotus Seeds pierced through the air, all hitting the opposite wall, leaving a dense patch of holes.
The next moment, a cloud of black smoke suddenly appeared before Chen Mu like a cannonball emerging from its chamber, carrying a massive impact that slammed heavily into Chen Mu’s chest.
Caught off guard, Chen Mu was immediately flung backward, crashing into the wall behind him.
Bang!
The green brick wall immediately cracked with a large web-like pattern.
Ugh!
Chen Mu let out a muffled grunt as droplets of blood involuntarily sprayed from his nostrils.
The black smoke dissipated abruptly and streamed quickly from both sides under his ribs, disappearing into the wall behind him in a flash.
Before Chen Mu could recover, an equally strong force suddenly hammered into his back.
Chen Mu was instantly sent flying.
He tried to roll his eyes backward, but all he caught with his peripheral vision was a wisp of black smoke disappearing behind him.
However, before his figure could touch the ground, the black smoke miraculously appeared to his left in mid-air. The next instant, the rolling, surging black smoke unapologetically slammed into Chen Mu.
Boom!
Chen Mu’s figure, like a discarded ragdoll, spun in the air as he was thrown out of the room.
The wooden window shattered like fragile biscuits, disintegrating instantly.
Chen Mu, having lost his balance, seemed set to crash hard but mid-air he twisted his waist and swung his legs uncannily, like a cat falling from a tree, adeptly adjusting his posture.
Thud!
Dirt flew up as Chen Mu landed with his knees slightly bent, steadying himself on the ground.
He immediately looked up sharply, glaring hard at the broken window.
A large mass of black smoke drifted slowly out from inside the window.
The black smoke was at least a meter in diameter; with its smoke surging left and right, and its edges dissolving and reappearing continuously.
The ghost was intangible yet substantive, skilled in horror transformations, possession and devouring souls, bringing death to the living.
Hum!
The black smoke suddenly vanished from its place, and the next moment, reappeared right in front of Chen Mu.
Bang!
A pair of pitch-black hands opened wide, firmly Fenging in front.
The ferociously approaching black smoke, as if a stop button had been pressed, was halted mid-air.
Chen Mu stared at the black smoke within arm’s reach, cracked a smile showing his bloodstained crimson teeth, “Got you!”
The next moment, his hands turned into claws and he fiercely grabbed into the smoke in front of him.
The originally ethereal black smoke felt like the cold and slippery tentacles of a squid when caught by Chen Mu.
Accompanied by a sharp, piercing screech, the black smoke violently shuddered, and a tremendous force exploded from his palms.
Your journey continues with mvl
Even with the power of his four successful Shape Cultivations, he still couldn’t prevent his tightly clenched hands from being slowly pried open.
With blood at the corner of his mouth and his fingers, clamped on the black smoke, gradually being forced apart, Chen Mu laughed crazily.
“Want my life? I’ll knock your teeth out!”
“Five Ghosts Moving Mountain!”
The five paper men stuck to his head instantly floated to his forehead.
Then they suddenly began to spin, like a pitch-black drill bit, rapidly burrowing into the black smoke in front of him.
Squeak, squeak, squeak…
It sounded like a knife scraping glass, an excruciatingly sharp explosion of noise suddenly burst forth.
Hum!
The black smoke, in the form of ghosts, vanished in an instant.
Chen Mu immediately retracted the Five Ghosts, pressing them against all parts of his body, bearing the pain in his entrails and back, he surveyed the courtyard cautiously.
The crescent moon hung high, with moonlight like water spreading across the courtyard.
There was silence all around, the hissing of insects was nowhere to be heard.
The air, which should have been muggy, was unusually filled with a chilling coolness.
After a long while, Chen Mu finally confirmed that the sudden ghost entity had indeed disappeared.
Still, Chen Mu didn’t let his guard down, fearing there might be other ghosts lurking in the yard.
He dared not enter the room. After swallowing two Iron Lotus Seeds Pills, he sat in the pavilion in the yard, enduring until the sun rose the next day before he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
…
“Ghosts dislike sunlight and emerge at night. The sun’s out, so there should be no more trouble,” Chen Mu said as he lifted his shirt to reveal a bruise on his chest.
Just moving his arms caused his back to ache as if pricked by needles.
His left arm was equally swollen and sore, also covered in bruises.
It was his upper left arm that had been hit when he was knocked out of the room last night.
“Lucky for the Shape Cultivation,” Chen Mu felt a shiver run down his spine.
Without the robust physical quality provided by the Shape Cultivation, the blow from the ghost could have killed him.
“No wonder only Shell Soul experts can barely save their lives in the presence of evil spirits.”
Soul Strength can touch ghosts.
Without the impervious Shell Soul covering the entire body, one simply can’t withstand the physical impact of a ghost entity.
“Not to mention the most tricky issue of Possession.”
Chen Mu spread out his hand, and a wisp of black smoke tumbled as the little paper man emerged.
Last night, the five paper men stuck to his head, and it was they who successfully prevented the ghost from possessing him.
This was also the reason why Chen Mu initially dared not use the Five Ghosts Moving Mountain Curse.
The moment the paper men left his body, he might have been possessed and died immediately.
It wasn’t until he had firmly grasped the ghost with his Soul Strength that he dared to use the Five Ghosts Moving Mountain Curse to devour the ghosts.
Chen Mu looked at the small paper men bound with red threads with mixed emotions, “No wonder they are called Five Ghosts Paper Men.”
The tumbled black smoke, alternating between tangible and intangible, converging and dispersing unpredictably.
The performance of the Five Ghosts Paper Man mirrored that of the ghost entity.
The Thousand Mountains Sutra also noted that Ghosts are needed to make a Five Ghosts Bag.
“I should have thought of this earlier.”
He took out the blood-circulating, bruise-healing ointment from the Five Ghosts Bag and applied it all over his body.
He then took another Iron Lotus Seeds Pill to treat the injuries to his internal organs.
Chen Mu sat quietly in the pavilion, recuperating until noon when the sun was at its fiercest, before he stood up, went inside the house, and tidied up the disordered room.
Looking at the walls covered in spiderweb-like cracks, Chen Mu felt lucky to be alive.
If he had been slightly negligent last night, he wouldn’t have lived to see today.
“Jie Jia, you have committed grave sins!”
If it wasn’t for that old man holding back, would he be in this sorry state now?