I moved rapidly before I would reach the fog area, since I'll probably be forced to slow down for quite a bit, I might as well get there faster and win some minutes.
The girl who moved ahead of me was nowhere to be seen, not that I could see her in this thick fog area nor will I risk spreading my divine sense too far.
I would have been confident in my soul ability if my Nascent Soul wasn't this heavily damaged. However, I still don't understand the full meaning of a damaged Nascent Soul and how it will impact me if I'm under the effect of possession.
So I might as well not take any great risks.
I slowly retracted my divine sense to a few hundred meters in front of me and moved in relative slowness through this area.
The path didn't seem to be too complicated as before, it was still full of trees, but not much. There were many paths to go forward and it didn't look as packed as before.
I headed forward slowly but warily. Making sure to spread my Divine Sense and retract it the moment I sensed something out of the ordinary.
Though most of what I sensed were creatures that lived in the swamp, I still retained my carefulness.
Soon I began sensing the presence of more pods ahead. It seemed like it's a group of cultivators that are working together.
I received a divine sense message immediately.
"Fellow Cultivator, do you mind joining us?" he asked.
"What for?" I asked.
"We're going to travel up ahead, as a group, we'll be stronger together," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"We devised a plan to have us rotate using our divine sense in exploring the area, we'll be led by one person at a time until we arrive at the Blue Dusk City," He said.
To be completely honest, his idea isn't bad. It's pretty smart, the fact that they can rotate divine sense means that they could easily lower the chances of them being possessed. At the same time, it will spread the danger instead of having everyone count on themselves.
"I'll have to refuse, sorry, I work alone," I said.
"Ah, it's unfortunate then," he said and soon I bypassed them, and headed forward.
The fact that I didn't want to join them was pretty simple. Like hell, if I would trust anyone here.
Wouldn't it be oh so easy for the one who is leading the group to just lead them to a trap? A cultivator with a good Divine Sense control can easily detect a group of wandering ghosts and would be more than capable of leading the whole group right into the middle of this ghost group.
Though I might sound paranoid, I was actually convinced of something from the girl I met before. Most people here know of the trials on this test. And I wouldn't be surprised if someone had come prepared with a tool to protect themselves from the ghosts here, and at the same time, he could lead the rest to their deaths and obtain a lot of benefits from their corpses.
I'm not trusting anyone who comes at me with goodwill.
Though it might sound hypocritical since I 'trusted' Xiao Feng, I actually still am extremely wary of his reason. Though I will not decline his assistance and sponsorship of my trial. I will definitely not be completely swayed to his cause until I'm completely sure of his motives.
For now, I'll work alone, though it's risky I'll be responsible for my own life and actions, instead of relying on someone else.
I increased my speed and bypassed the group of cultivators that were behind me. Not a while later, the atmosphere's temperature dropped massively.
'Here it comes,' I mumbled.
There was nothing in my divine sense radius, and before I could even retract it.
I saw it, something that would make any man have shivers running down their spine from complete surprise, and fear.
Two ghostly hands, far too beautiful, like those of a maiden, spread from behind me, and slowly crept up my own arms then a face of a woman, appeared right next to my own face, cheek to cheek.
She didn't speak or utter a word, but her hands grasped my hands from above and she spoke, in an oh so sweet voice, "Die for me."
Her words, as if spoken by the mouth of a goddess would make anyone do her bidding.
But…
"Euh, how about no?" I spoke, calmly as I could.
The beautiful maiden was no more, and the slim slick hands turned to those of a baleful crooked arm of a banshee.
Her disposition changed from that of a fair maiden to a wretched ghost of nightmares. And then she screamed.
So loud my ears felt like they were about to burst.
"Fucking bitch, shut the fuck down!" I cursed as I swatted away the arms. Which, for some reason felt physical more than ethereal.
She then spun and faced me her face close to my face, with teeth so damn sharp, twisted and rot infested.
"You should brush your teeth more often," I said.
She probably didn't like the joke as she immediately dove into me.
Yet, to both my and her surprise.
She found herself inside my sea of consciousness, and as she looked up to the weakened Nascent Soul, grinning with satisfaction at a prey captured.
My own Nascent Soul opened its eyes, the frail Nascent Soul that would have perished at the passing of a breeze, opened its eyes, showing two feral feline eyes… no, more like serpentine eyes.
A long, sleek tongue appeared from my Nascent Soul's mouth, it licked its lips and the Nascent Soul disappeared.
Appearing behind the ghost who was more than stupefied of the current scenario. My nascent Soul opened its mouth wide and sucked the baleful banshee inside it without hesitation.
The massive damage, wounds, and cuts on my Nascent Soul seemed to be repairing, although slowly, it was still a significant improvement to its state. It looked like it was healing.
"Hoo," surprised I gasped.
This place…isn't a danger zone. No, this is a fucking treasure trove!
I grinned, and against all-wise and carefulness of any cultivator here.
I spread my divine sense explosively around me. A feast for every ghost around me, my divine sense was like a beacon, beckoning everything around me a moving prey, for everything to come and feast on. An open invitation to a body they can possess and use.
In doing so, a couple of things happened.
First, I managed to get a good grasp of my surrounding. The group that was behind me was also included in my divine sense, and it proved that my paranoia was right.
Only one of the people there was alive. He had a talisman around him that blocked off the ghosts that were surrounding him while he leisurely pocketed the belonging of the dead cultivators next to him.
The second was. The girl from before was actually far up ahead of me and seemed to be struggling against a group of ghosts that were following her.
And finally, once my massive divine sense spread to its limit, all the ghosts, whatever the shit they were doing stopped and looked in my general direction.
And thus, a massive turmoil appeared as the entirety of the fog around me began spinning out of control, and instead of the stable thick fog that covered the area, it looked like a cyclone was about to manifest.
Ghosts, so many of them, of dead cultivators all funneled forward towards this blissful meal. Why wouldn't they, it was an open invitation. And their movement was enough to cause the fog to spin alongside them.
They came, with extremely huge numbers at me.
'Shit, I think I overdid it a bit,' I frowned, since the moment I realized how much shit I pulled towards me, I might have slightly peed my pants.
Several of the ghosts coming towards me weren't at the level of the banshee from before, oh no. There were actually souls of beasts and even a low-tier earth dragon.
Shit.
