Chapter 77: Chapter 78: The Murderer
“Sister, what on earth happened just now? Why did you suddenly scream and run off?” Ye Xin squatted down, helping Liu Yueqian, who was frightened to the ground, “If it wasn’t for Little Qian giving us the token, I’m afraid Sister would already be lost in the dense fog.”
Lin Qian was also curious, looking at Liu Yueqian and waiting for her to explain.
They had been walking fine just moments ago when suddenly Liu Yueqian let out a piercing scream behind them, her Soul Power surging, her sword light overflowing, as she madly dashed into the dense fog.
If it wasn’t for the tactical map, which could pinpoint Liu Yueqian’s location through the previously given token, she might have lost her way in this Dead Land.
The fog within the Dead Land made it hard to see anything. Even after breaking through to the Nirvana Realm, when one could project their Soul Consciousness outside their body, the dense fog limited its reach to merely two or three zhang, and beyond that, it was impossible.
Without a token to locate her position on the tactical map, finding Liu Yueqian would’ve been like searching for a needle in the ocean.
“I… I felt like someone was watching me from behind, and when I turned around, I saw a three-year-old child smiling at me,” Liu Yueqian spoke shakily, describing the child’s appearance.
“Later, I realized you guys had walked far away. I wanted to catch up, but then I found that you had suddenly sped up and left me behind.”
“When I turned around again, that child was actually sticking close behind me, and you guys had disappeared ahead.”
Liu Yueqian’s words cast a shadow over everyone’s face, turning Ye Xin, Wang Lanxin, and Zhu Xiaojia, these three women, deathly pale.
Lin Qian frowned, shaking his head gently, “How could we possibly abandon you? Right after you screamed, you charged into the fog. We located you correctly with the token I gave you and found you.”
Liu Yueqian’s face turned pale, speaking incredulously, “Indeed, earlier you guys seemingly vanished in front of me, but then you appeared behind me. Could it be that what I saw earlier wasn’t really you?”
A cold smile appeared on Lin Qian’s face as he surveyed the depths of the surrounding mist, “I fear that in these dense fogs, there are some things causing mischief.”
For some reason, at this time, the eerie silence surrounding them seemed to shroud everyone’s hearts in a layer of darkness.
But Lin Qian alone remained calm and unfazed, showing not the slightest hint of fear.
The Thunder Soul Power emanating from the Thunder Night Sword was inherently the nemesis of all sorts of sinister and ghostly entities.
Soul Power awakened in the Nirvana Realm was supreme, the peak of eminence; how could mere evil spirits and demons invade?
“According to me, although there is no undead activity during the day, there may well be such ghostly entities disturbing our minds,” Lin Qian speculated, looking around and speaking to Liu Yueqian, “I’m afraid what you experienced just now must have been an Illusion Technique cast by one of these ghostly entities.”
Ye Xin looked at Lin Qian with some worry, “Little Qian, what do we do? Sister discovered it timely this time, but if we get delayed for long, what then?”
Lin Qian nodded at Ye Xin’s words, understanding that this was indeed a problem.
“Here’s what we’ll do: I’ll envelop you all with my Soul Power. With my Thunder Soul Power, we should be able to prevent this from happening again,” Lin Qian suggested after some thought.
Hearing Lin Qian’s suggestion, Ye Xin stepped forward and grabbed his hand, “But doing so will consume a great deal of your Soul Power, can you handle it?”
“Brother’s wife, don’t worry about that,” Lei Qian laughed as he heard Ye Xin’s concern about Lin Qian’s consumption of Soul Power.
Ye Xin turned back, curious, looking at Lei Qian, “Really? Does Little Qian have a lot of Soul Power?”
Lei Qian gave a wry smile, gesturing behind him to Ding Zhirong and the other four, “Before coming here, every day the five of us would gang up on our boss and fight from dawn to dusk. He hasn’t rested once from start to finish, yet his Soul Power has never run dry.”
After hearing this, Ye Xin looked at Lin Qian in astonishment, while the latter just spread his hands innocently.
In Lin Qian’s body lay the Huaxia Empire with Sky Trace behind, continuously pouring in nature’s spiritual energy, refining his body and transforming it into pure Soul Power.
It could be said that as long as the Huaxia Empire stood, Lin Qian would never have to worry about running out of Soul Power.
Lin Qian stood at the forefront, with Soul Power emanating from his body, crackling as it merged with the red-gold Thunder, and erupted forth.
The red-gold Thunder Soul Power emerged from Lin Qian and immediately formed an inverted pot lid shape, enveloping the entire area within several zhang.
Eventually, the group continued to advance into the depths of the Dead Land under the protective barrier of Thunder that Lin Qian had condensed.
After some time, Lin Qian had indeed prevented anything like the previous incidents from happening again by covering everyone with the Thunder.
The once panicked Liu Yueqian also calmed down, heaving a sigh of relief.
It wasn’t that she was particularly faint-hearted; it was just that the previous event was too unimaginable.
“Hmm?” Suddenly, Lin Qian’s expression changed, and he hurriedly rushed in a certain direction.
Since everyone was enveloped in Lin Qian’s Soul Power, although they did not know what had happened, they also quickened their pace.
“Little Qian, what’s happened?” Seeing the change on Lin Qian’s face, Ye Xin asked with concern.
However, just as Ye Xin finished speaking, without waiting for Lin Qian to reply, she had already learned the reason.
Because Lin Qian had already stopped in his tracks, in front of them on the cracked black earth lay a Swift Soldier.
At that moment, something had pierced through the chest of the Swift Soldier, and blood seeped from the wound, streaming into the black earth.
As they looked at the Swift Soldier, everyone except Lin Qian showed a look of astonishment.
The corpse of the Swift Soldier on the ground suddenly caught fire violently, along with the soft armor he was wearing and the two daggers that lay on the ground.
Eventually, both the Swift Soldier’s body and soft armor, as well as the daggers, turned into a handful of black ash on the ground.
The others didn’t understand what was happening, but Lin Qian knew; his Huaxia Empire’s army could only count as half alive, with artificial intelligence controlled soldier puppets.
The Huaxia Empire’s soldiers had bodies similar to those of flesh and blood, but they weren’t actual flesh and blood bodies, and after death, they would turn into ash along with their equipment, just like in games from his previous life.
The death of a soldier was not a loss to be mourned, because after the Empire followed him through the reincarnation, the production of soldiers was still like in the games of his previous life, directly created from resources in the barracks.
Moreover, Lin Qian had witnessed the creation process himself.
The massive barracks had a furnace, and upon throwing resources into it, soldiers would walk out of the barracks’ gate, almost no different from the games of his previous life.
If Ye Xin and the others knew that these Ninth Level Nirvana Realm Soul Martial soldiers Lin Qian was commanding were created in such a manner, who knows what they would think.
“There shouldn’t be any undead activity during the daytime, Little Qian, why would your subordinate…” Ye Xin looked at the handful of black ash on the ground with uncertainty, her expression very grave.
Lin Qian stared at the ashes, sliding his hand through the void under the puzzled gazes of the others.
After a while, Lin Qian spoke coldly, “The murderer, I know now. Truly unexpected.”