Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Twin Dragon Mount.
Ji Ye slowly reappeared in his new room as his faint silhouette gradually turned solid. He had experienced such an arrival many times by then, yet he could never get used to it. It was as if he had been pulled away from his home world and thrown into another in a second.
“It’s the master! The master is here!” someone yelled loudly as soon as he left the door.
He saw a group of Twin Dragon Mount settlers waiting for him outside, including Elder Hu.
“What’s the matter?”
“This is bad, master! Ducky was abducted by a ghost!” the old man answered Ji Ye with a fearful gaze.
“A ghost??” Ji Ye scowled. Geez. I just read about them on the forum, and one of them showed up here?
Commoners usually had no means of fending off ghosts. This must be why the settlers looked so panicked.
“Where is Chief Lu?” He looked among the chattering people but without finding the big guy.
“The chief took some men and went after that monster!”
“Where did they go? When did they leave?”
“That way!” Elder Hu pointed to somewhere around the base of the mountain. “They’ve been away for ten minutes or so.”
“All right. Let me get my weapon.”
Ji Ye returned to his room and checked his items.
He chose to take the “Black Serpent Sword” and the revolver this time, leaving his well-used crossbow behind.
“Tell the others to watch over the settlement. I’ll go assist the chief,” he told Elder Hu and headed in the direction he had been told.
While following the footsteps, he carefully went over all the clues he had learned about the settlements a moment earlier.
It seemed that the “distribution” of monsters around a settlement highly depended on the nature of the settlement. For example, a town taken out of medieval stories was very likely to be surrounded by fantasy creatures. Or, a city built upon steel and advanced technologies could be attacked by robot armies from time to time. As for Twin Dragon Mount, there were probably mythical monsters described in traditional eastern literature assaulting it.
Water Margin was mostly based on facts, though the book did add a lot of fanciful yo-kais, deities and whatnot between the lines. As a matter of fact, the 108 outlaws were supposed to be the descendants of imprisoned demons who could more or less wield some magic or supernatural abilities.
Since there was already a “dragon-blood serpent” living on the mountain peak, running into other magical monsters was very much possible.
However, Ji Ye didn’t think he’d have to deal with more monsters so soon. If everything went smoothly, he would probably summon more “outlaw heroes” to join the settlement who could use spectacular arts and spells to deal with ghosts and spirits. At the moment, however, he wasn’t sure if Lu Zhishen knew how to hunt ghosts.
Oops... Something’s up ahead. By using his exceptional survivalist expertise, he soon detected something moving not far from him.
“Hey, the master is here!”
It wasn’t a ghost, but several settlers. Ji Ye even recognized a few faces from the feast.
They were also carrying someone who wasn’t moving. A corpse.
“Master. We... We lost Ducky. The ghost got him.”
It seemed that Ducky died due to a broken neck caused by a strong strangling force, judging from the claw marks along his neck that looked terribly bigger when compared to common human fingers. His skull also had five small punctures from where clotting blood could be seen.
Telling from how Ducky’s face was left blue upon his death, he either suffered greatly or was looking at something horrifying during his last moments.
“So there is a ghost...” Ji Ye felt his mind grasped by tension.
This was the first time he had seen a dead person in the Land of Inheritance. And it sure felt different from seeing dead monsters. After all, a dead human NPC wasn’t much different from a murdered human in reality.
Ducky was one of the most sociable people at the settlement. This man had even offered him several toasts the day before, so Ji Ye knew him well.
Yet there he was, a cold body.
Ji Ye wasn’t spooked by the corpse in the least. But he did feel bothered by it. He wondered if “ghosts” could kill people like this. Or, was it just another common flesh and blood monster?
“Chief Lu is still chasing it. He—he told us to take the body back first,” a settler explained while trying to remain calm.
Most of them were coping with the loss of one of their friends just fine. Twin Dragon Mount used to be a bandit camp after all. The people there were not strangers to bloodshed.
If common citizens were there, they’d probably be rendered speechless already.
“You go ahead, I’ll help the chief.” Ji Ye ordered the settlers to leave and kept going forward.
Soon, he heard fight noises further away.
The size of the combatants made them stand out considerably while among the trees. One of them was of course, Lu Zhishen. His enemy appeared to be an even bigger entity with a humanoid body covered by thick, black hair. Occasionally, it would expose its red face from behind tha messy hair; it was too big and terrifying to be considered human. Not to mention that the creature had two pairs of sharp fangs sticking out from its mouth.
Its knee-level arms were also hairy, ending with a pair of claws that looked as big as water sinks. Even without using weapons, those nails were probably enough to directly carve someone’s heart out during close-quarter fights.
Lu Zhishen was wise enough to not fight the “ghost” using hands only. He was using a steel machete forged in the settlement to make up for the bodily disadvantage.
Whoosh!
Like a flash of lightning, the shiny blade went to the ghost’s neck.
“Roar!”
However, although evil spirit didn’t have any weapons in its hands,
on a pair of claws that were about the height of an ordinary person, they were covered in a layer of blurry yellow light. They slashed out without any fear, colliding with Lu Zhishen’s steel saber!
Clang!
The sound of rocks being struck vibrated Ji Ye’s eardrums, accompanied by sparks.
Lu Zhishen, who was born with divine strength and had activated the Primordial Chaos Force, failed to gain the upper hand in the collision. He was even sent flying back by the claws that were enveloped by the yellow light.
Extraordinary powers!
Ji Ye’s eyes turned cold.
Clearly, this evil spirit wasn’t an Ordinary creature, but at the Extraordinary stage!