The Anomaly

The Flying Yaksha ventured deep into the ghostly land. Aside from inadvertently disturbing a few vengeful spirits, it encountered no particularly powerful ghostly creatures. This expanse was vast, with mountains of bones piled high. An untold number of ancient cultivators had perished tragically here, their souls imprisoned and their sanity entirely lost, reduced to vengeful spirits consigned to eternal damnation. However, the ghostly land had its limits. Upon reaching the very end, the Flying Yaksha touched a sheer cliff face. Heaps of white bones, broken swords, and shattered armor attested to how brutal the ancient battle had been. Aside from this, there was nothing noticeably amiss. Qin Sang commanded the Flying Yaksha to continue scouting along one flank, then voluntarily stepped out from the area covered by the demonic fire's aura. With a flicker, he plunged into the ghost mist and arrived before a small mound of skeletal remains. With a flick of his finger, he sent out a blast of sharp wind. *Crack!* A skeleton was struck by the blast and shattered on the spot. Disturbed by Qin Sang, several white shadows immediately burst from the bone pile and pounced toward him. These vengeful spirits gaped their mouths, their screeches dripping with boundless hatred. Sensing the aura of a living being on Qin Sang, they were far more frenzied than those the Flying Yaksha had encountered, lusting after his fresh, tender flesh and blood. Facing the clawing, thrashing vengeful spirits, Qin Sang's expression remained unchanged. He gave a cold snort and reached out a hand. True essence surged violently from his palm, forming an enclosing pouch that enveloped all the vengeful spirits before snapping shut. The vengeful spirits instinctively sensed something was wrong, but before Qin Sang, they had no power to resist. Wrapped in true essence, they were compressed into a fist-sized ball of ghost qi. Qin Sang beckoned, and the ball of ghost qi fell into his hand. The spirits shrieked incessantly within, pale ghastly faces surfacing in turn—mouths agape in screams, eyes hollow, their features contorted in agony. Qin Sang gazed coldly at the vengeful spirits; their shrieking had not the slightest effect on him. After a moment's contemplation, his gaze sharpened, and he uttered a soft cry: "Condense!" His true essence surged as mystifying, sinister restrictions surfaced. In an instant, his true essence turned pitch-black under their influence, radiating an eerie malevolence. At the same time, the black true essence began compressing inward. The vengeful spirits trapped inside let out agonized shrieks, their expressions turning even more bloodcurdling, yet they were utterly helpless to resist. Qin Sang was employing the secret technique obtained from Yi Tiannie to attempt condensing refined soul silk. Derived from the demonic and ghostly paths, this secret art was vicious and sinister. Unlike before in the Bear Mountain region, after these vengeful spirits were refined by the evil art, nothing remained of them; their spiritual nature had long decayed away, leaving them with no hope of entering the cycle of reincarnation. As the vengeful spirits vanished, a strand of refined soul silk appeared in Qin Sang's palm, wriggling like a living thing and coiling about his fingertips. Qin Sang looked pleased. "The vengeful spirits here really can be used to refine soul silk. Unfortunately, refined soul silk requires a banner pole to attach to in order to last. Since the banner poles aren't forged yet, I can only wait until the next time I enter the Hall of Seven Kills to come back and condense more. Still, this is a tremendous pleasant surprise. Judging from what the Flying Yaksha just scouted, the number of vengeful spirits in this space is immense—more than enough to craft over a dozen Ten Directions Yanluo Banners. Once I leave, I can focus entirely on preparing the spirit array to smelt the dark iron pillars..." Thinking up to this point, Qin Sang dispersed the refined soul silk in his hand and chose a direction opposite to the Flying Yaksha's, intending to map out every corner of the ghostly land to prevent any surprises. When he returned next time, he would need to concentrate solely on refining soul silk and would have no time for distractions. Qin Sang and the Flying Yaksha took left and right, scouring the ghostly land separately. Qin Sang unsealed his corpse core, shrouding himself in corpse qi to mask his life essence, seamlessly blending into the ghost mist as well. After conducting a general sweep, Qin Sang felt thoroughly reassured. The place was safe, inhabited only by vengeful spirits—an ideal location for refining soul silk. He ordered the Flying Yaksha to return, having decided to leave the Purple Mist Deathland and make his way to Heaven Tower. With plenty of time on his hands, he could conduct a thorough search for the ancient teleportation array inside Heaven Tower. Qin Sang's figure flickered repeatedly as he sped toward the ghostly land's exit. The Flying Yaksha was likewise rushing back, navigating the ghost mist swiftly and effortlessly. The ash-gray mist parted before the Flying Yaksha, carving out a path, while behind it, the mist churned as ghostly silhouettes seemed to flicker in and out of view. Right at that moment, Qin Sang, who was almost back at the entrance of the ghostly land, suddenly experienced a drastic change in expression. He halted abruptly and turned his head toward the Flying Yaksha's direction! Immediately following that, without a second thought, he activated both the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman and his sword evasion technique right inside the ghostly land. His escaping light tore through the ghost mist at astonishing speed as he hurtled forward, stirring up countless vengeful spirits in his wake. Before long, Qin Sang's figure materialized over a clearing. Gazing down at the empty ground, his face turned grim. The Flying Yaksha was nowhere to be found! Just moments earlier, Qin Sang had felt the Flying Yaksha come under attack. The ambush had come with extreme suddenness; silent and traceless, the enemy appeared from behind it, and the Flying Yaksha failed to notice a thing until the enemy was already upon it and struck. Due to the distance, Qin Sang had been unable to issue timely commands. In the face of this unexpected encounter, the Flying Yaksha could only rely on its instincts to respond. The Flying Yaksha had put up fierce resistance. The enemy's strength did not seem particularly formidable, unable to instantly overpower the Yaksha. Yet immediately afterward, something bizarre occurred. For some inexplicable reason, the Flying Yaksha suddenly gave up resisting. It was then dragged by an unidentifiable force straight into the depths of the ghost mist, vanishing without a trace. Even more shocking was that, while it was being dragged away, the link between Qin Sang and the Flying Yaksha rapidly blurred until Qin Sang lost all sense of it entirely. His connection to the Flying Yaksha was built upon the soul imprint inside its body, which meant that his soul imprint had either been obscured or erased by the assailant. This mishap had come without the slightest warning. Caught off guard, Qin Sang had only perceived a blurry shadow through the Flying Yaksha, unable even to discern what his adversary looked like. The moment Qin Sang sensed the anomaly, he had rushed over at full speed to rescue it, but he was still a step too late. The Flying Yaksha had been hauled deep into the ghost mist, gone without a trace. The place was empty and dead silent. "What kind of creature is lurking in the dark?" Qin Sang's face was flushed with anger. He and the Flying Yaksha had scouted separately and confirmed that only weak vengeful spirits inhabited this place. He never expected that an unknown ghostly creature lurked in the ghost mist, secretly watching them and abducting the Flying Yaksha. Not only could this creature lie in ambush and launch sneak attacks, but it also knew how to target his soul imprint. This indicated high intelligence, completely setting it apart from those mindless vengeful spirits. How could such an anomaly be born in this ghostly land? Aside from him, no one else in the cultivation world could have passed through the Nine Nether Demonic Fire to enter this place. Even if an ancient cultivator's soul had survived, countless eons would have long since worn away its sanity, reducing it to a muddle-headed vengeful spirit. Could one of the vengeful spirits have mutated? Qin Sang shifted his gaze, locking onto the direction where the Flying Yaksha had disappeared. He summoned the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner and gave chase at full speed. Every indication suggested that the adversary's raw strength was not exceptionally high, but its methods were extraordinarily bizarre. As his cultivation level broke through to higher realms, the Flying Yaksha's utility would diminish over time. Nevertheless, it still possessed the strength of the early Core Formation stage and remained a powerful asset. How could Qin Sang allow it to be snatched away for no rhyme or reason?