Only when pushed into a corner did Bai Xiaochun think to fight fire with fire. Furthermore, he made the decision only after some detailed consideration, as well as the understanding of souls that being a heavenly necromancer gave him.
Back in his flame conjuring days, he had seen souls consume each other on numerous occasions, and yet hadn’t been completely certain of his new strategy. But when he saw the ghost face’s excited expression, and heard his exclamation, he blinked a few times, then breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, he felt a bit sorry for the Succubus souls.
“This old ghost has probably been hungry for tens of thousands of years….”
As the ghost face lunged forward with an excited shout, the beautiful, flirtatious Succubi looked at him with flashing eyes. Then, instead of fleeing, they actually began to rush toward him and surround him.
Bai Xiaochun looked on, stunned, unsure of who was making the first move, the ghost face or the Succubi. The group of souls tumbled off into the mists, until they were impossible to see clearly….
Excited shrieks and shouts echoed out, leaving Bai Xiaochun bewildered as to what was going on.
“Can that old ghost handle it…?” he thought. A moment ago, he had felt sorry for the Succubi, but now, he wasn’t really sure what to think. As of this moment, he could still feel their power tugging at his soul. Knowing that he couldn't dare to get any closer to them than he already was, he gritted his teeth, sat down cross-legged, and began to focus on meditating, ignoring anything else that was happening.
Bai Xiaochun could ignore what was happening, but the spirit automaton could not. He anxiously descended into the mists to see what was happening, and then… didn’t come back out.
Twenty hours passed. Eventually, the ghost face appeared, shivering and looking very pleased with himself. His cultivation base was almost completely back to normal. After returning to Bai Xiaochun, he looked at him for a long moment and briefly considered doing something to him. However, even though he had his cultivation base back, Bai Xiaochun had left a deep shadow on his heart, and after muttering to himself a bit, he decided not to interrupt him. Instead, he floated quietly back into Bai Xiaochun’s bag of holding.
Next to emerge from the mists was the spirit automaton. His expression was a mixture of fear, disbelief, and shock as he looked over at Bai Xiaochun, and specifically, his bag of holding.
“Heavens! How could a soul like that even exist…?” The spirit automaton had apparently suffered an unimaginable blow, and was not able to recover at the moment. Thinking back to what he had witnessed within the mists, he suddenly felt a bit sick.
It was in that moment that, without warning, the ghost face floated back out of Bai Xiaochun’s bag of holding.
“Hold on, I need a bit more….” Licking his lips, he shot back toward the depths of the mists.
The spirit automaton shivered, and had to suppress the urge to cry. To most people, this place was a pink hell, but to this old ghost, it was like a holy land.
The spirit automaton couldn’t help but worry what would happen if the old ghost kept going. He could theoretically wreck the entire level, and completely deplete the bit of the Dao Essence of Life and Death that the sovereign had left behind in it.
“Damn you, Bai Xiaochun. You shameless cheater! You and everybody you have working for you are all completely and utterly shameless!” Gritting his teeth helplessly, he chose to let Bai Xiaochun simply pass the level. Performing a quick incantation gesture, he caused the light of teleportation to spring up. Not daring to wait for even a moment longer, he sent Bai Xiaochun and the old ghost out of the level immediately.
As soon as they appeared out on the fan rib, the ghost face looked around in shock, then wailed, “No! I’m not fully recovered yet….”
Sadly for him, he wasn’t able to get back into the level no matter how hard he tried.
As for Bai Xiaochun, the fluctuations that had been tugging at his soul vanished as soon as he appeared outside. The heat inside of him faded away, and he opened his eyes to see the ghost face going crazy. At that point, his surprise turned into joy.
“Hahaha! It turns out I really am perfectly pure and clean. That couldn’t have gone smoother. Only a genius like me would have thought to fight fire with fire. Even a hard level like that was super easy to pass.” Shivering, he looked at the scowling ghost face, and suddenly found him to be much more charming than before. Grabbing him, he put him back into the Greatsword of the North. Of course, the ghost face wasn’t particularly happy about that, but because of the slave seal on him, he couldn’t even struggle.
Looking very pleased, Bai Xiaochun considered the overall situation again, and came to the conclusion that the spirit automaton was probably awake, and that he was the reason why the level had been so dangerous. Assuming that the spirit automaton was currently watching him, he cleared his throat and loudly said, “Hey little automaton, thanks for all your hard work. You know, there’s no point in resisting. Just wait until the grand and mighty Lord Bai has thoroughly subjugated you.”
With that, he sent out a thought, and vanished from the damaged fan.
After he was gone, the spirit automaton appeared, utterly discomfited, his face viciously twisted with rage. Clearly, Bai Xiaochun’s parting words had been particularly irritating to him.
“Shameless cheater! I'm never going to let you reach the end!! I swear that next time, I’ll definitely destroy you! Destroy you, ya hear!? Destroy you!” A howl of rage then echoed back and forth in the damaged fan.
The spirit automaton had been defeated so many times by Bai Xiaochun that he was being driven crazy. In fact, it was at this point that he started reviewing all of the later levels to try to figure out a way to screw Bai Xiaochun over.
Bai Xiaochun had just returned to Mistysea Prefecture, and already, something unusual was happening not very far away. One of the northern prefectures that bordered Mistysea Prefecture was Murkbreak Prefecture, which was controlled by the Vile-Emperor Dynasty. On the very edge of Murkbreak Prefecture, where it bordered Mistysea Prefecture, was a county by the name of Murknine County!
Murkbreak Prefecture had a total of fifteen counties, three of which bordered Mistysea Prefecture, and this was only one of them. Currently, it was evening, and one would have expected the entire county to be bustling with activity. Instead, the place was deathly silent!
There was nothing alive in the entire county; not even a single aura could be detected. Nor could a sound could be heard from animals or cultivators. Furthermore, Murknine County was filled with masses of spiderwebs.
There was so much spiderweb that the paths leading in and out of the county were completely impassable. Not even divine abilities or magical techniques could destroy the webbing. Any damage done to it was almost immediately repaired.
In the northeast corner of Murknine County were two old men with demigod cultivation bases and somber expressions.
“This spiderweb showed up three days ago, and in only a few days, has filled the entire county. The place is now completely sealed up, except for this spot right in front of us. Presumably, it's very dangerous inside. No one has come out, nor have any messages been received from inside. Should we go in, Brother Chen?”
“Celestial Ghostmother has given orders for us to go investigate. If we don't go in too far, and only stay for about an hour, we should be fine. We just need to find some clues and then get out.” Exchanging a glance, they blurred into motion, carefully entering Murknine County.
An hour passed, and the two demigods were nowhere to be seen. They had disappeared as surely as a clay bull tossed into the ocean. Except, not even a wave or ripple spread out to give any clue as to what had occurred. There were no fluctuations from magical techniques, and no sounds to be heard.
A few more hours passed, and the spiderweb began to spread to cover that final gap through which they had entered.
Just when that gap was about to close up, a head popped out from inside. It was none other than one of the old men from earlier, his expression that of terror.
“Celestial Ghostmother, save me…!” he screamed. Just as he was about to break free from the spiderweb, something grabbed him from behind and dragged him back in. “Noooo!!”
Then, the gap closed, and the man’s scream faded away. Murknine County was now completely sealed. In fact, from a distance, it almost looked like an enormous egg sac!