Terrifying yin energy permeated the air. White frost rapidly formed around the female ghost in white, spreading toward the flower beds and stone flagstones. Wherever it passed, moisture in the air condensed, crackling as it froze into white rime.
The chill continued to spread without ceasing, surging toward the surrounding buildings.
A Dominator-grade vengeful spirit would often trigger powerful anomalies. Freezing the ground to frost on contact was mere child's play; snow in midsummer was hardly rare.
*Damn it, has my luck just been utter shit lately?* Spurred by the chill of the yin energy, the hairs on the back of Zhang Yuanqing's neck stood on end.
"Evil creature!"
Xi Zhe roared, fishing a handful of gold sand from his robes. He sprinted several paces forward and hurled it.
The gold sand scattered through the air and clung to the white-robed vengeful spirit, emitting firecracker-like crackles and pops, but it was quickly extinguished by the surging yin energy pouring from her body.
However, the white-robed female ghost manifested before their eyes, no longer ethereal, becoming distinctly visible.
Seeing this, Xi Zhe tossed aside his bamboo cylinder, drew a short blade inscribed with talisman runes, and sprinted forward. With a fierce leap, he slashed toward the female ghost.
*Crack!*
Mid-leap, Xi Zhe's head suddenly twisted one hundred and eighty degrees, his face spun completely to the back, and the flesh at his neck twisted into hemp-like cords as jagged bone fragments jutted out.
He tumbled straight down, dying without a sound.
Using her telekinetic power, the Dominator-grade vengeful spirit had directly snapped his neck.
On the other side, Fu Xin'ou retrieved a porcelain vial from his robes, uncorked it, and poured a dark-red liquid over his short blade. Treading gang steps, he incanted under his breath.
Only when a faint golden glow lit up along the short blade, granting it an enchantment, did he let out a low, heavy shout and slash that faint golden light through the air from a distance.
The white-robed female ghost unleashed a shrill shriek. The vast yin energy was like cold water poured into boiling oil, crackling and popping violently as more than half of it vaporized in an instant.
"Die, evil creature!"
Fu Xin'ou bounded forward in swift strides, leaping over the corpse of his companion Xi Zhe, and cleaved the female ghost into dispersing wisps of green smoke.
The very next second, the ghost materialized behind Fu Xin'ou, pressing flush against his back.
Fu Xin'ou's body abruptly froze. With trembling pupils and a terrified expression, he raised his blade to slash his own carotid artery.
*Whoosh—*
A mournful whistle of wind suddenly arose. With a sharp *clang*, the short blade cutting toward his throat was struck aside as if hit by a heavy blow and sent flying.
It was a wind blade released by Zhang Yuanqing.
Having saved Fu Xin'ou, Zhang Yuanqing swiftly pulled out Little Red Riding Hood and shook out Commandery Princess Yinyao.
The moment she appeared, the princess glanced around and was startled by Fu Xin'ou in the distance. She hurriedly patted the Cat King Speaker in her waist pouch with her small hands.
—She had strapped this prop on again.
The Cat King Speaker emitted a static crackle: "Audio not found!"
Commandery Princess Yinyao grabbed her megaphone and screamed, "A Dominator-grade instance? Are you out of your mind?! Are you crazy?! I want to go back into the hat!"
Cat King Speaker: "Recording successful!"
It then replayed the princess's terrified scream from a moment ago.
Zhang Yuanqing didn't have time for her nonsense and commanded directly, "If you don't want to die, summon your Master for me."
A summoning ritual required stellar or lunar energy to ignite the materials, followed by constant calls to the summoned party in order to transmit the voice across space.
Thus, Zhang Yuanqing had no choice but to call upon Commandery Princess Yinyao's help.
The moment the princess heard she was to summon her Master, she perked up, took off at a run, and took over her master's position.
Zhang Yuanqing sprinted off as well, floating up amid swirling gusts of wind. Golden light condensed in his palm into a dagger. The instant he collided with Fu Xin'ou, he plunged the dagger into his back.
The golden light dagger pierced the flesh, setting off sizzling black smoke. Shrieking, the white-robed female ghost was bounced right out.
She drifted toward the flower beds and lifted her head, which hung limply against her neck, revealing a deathly pale face bleeding from all seven facial orifices and a pair of white pupils weeping black blood.
Then, she vanished once more.
Zhang Yuanqing gave a soft grunt and tapped his forehead with one hand, painting on an unruly Blue Face to boost his endurance by fifty percent. At the same time, thick, pitch-black energy welled up in his eye sockets.
Just as he finished these two steps, the ghost emerged behind him, completing her possession.
A normal vengeful spirit had limited methods of attack: nothing more than illusions, telekinesis, and possession. Though this white-robed female ghost had touched the Dominator stage, her power came purely from raw strength; she had not undergone specialized refinement.
She did not possess the ability to spread pathogens, like the Ghost Bride did, for instance.
Yet even so, the moment she possessed him, Zhang Yuanqing—who had activated both Blue Face and Spirit Devouring—froze entirely. His muscles and joints stiffened rapidly, a monumental chill invaded his body, and even his divine power of the sun was suppressed.
—Although the divine power of the sun inherently countered yin entities, it was too diluted to form an absolute suppression against a Dominator-grade vengeful spirit.
*So this is a Dominator-grade vengeful spirit... even more terrifying than I imagined. A Night Walker's Spirit Devouring and divine power of the sun are completely suppressed in reverse, and even the full fifty percent resistance from Blue Face couldn't keep her from possessing me...* Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts grew sluggish, and his muscle tissue deteriorated rapidly.
Beside Xi Zhe's corpse, the tip of the short blade tilted upward bizarrely, adjusted its angle, aimed straight at Zhang Yuanqing's chest, and shot forward with a sharp whistle.
Yi Chuanmei and the Ghost Bride had suffered heavy wounds in the aircraft cabin and nearly had their souls scattered. Currently recuperating inside his body, they clung to a mere breath of existence; if released now, they would be instantly devoured by the white-robed female ghost.
As for Little Doubi, a mere infant spirit newly entered into the Saint stage, he was completely out of his depth.
And facing a Dominator-grade vengeful spirit, Zhang Yuanqing dared not attempt Astral Travel to control objects with his spirit.
*Clang!*
A figure intercepted the blade's trajectory and knocked it aside.
It was Fu Xin'ou.
The triangle-eyed Fu Xin'ou grabbed a handful of gold sand from his robes and flung it over Zhang Yuanqing.
Amid crackling explosions, the white-robed female ghost was bounced out, shrieking as she used her yin energy to snuff out the gold sand.
*These ancient cultivators are full of treasures.* Zhang Yuanqing breathed a sigh of relief inside. This was precisely why he had gone out of his way to save Fu Xin'ou.
Since the instance had arranged two companions for him, they were bound to serve a significant purpose. With the three of them joining hands, the success rate of taking down the vengeful spirit was high. If he had let Fu Xin'ou follow in Xi Zhe's footsteps, he would definitely die alone in this instance.
Even if he weren't killed by the white-robed female ghost right in front of him, he would perish in the subsequent dangers—the side quest required slaying ten yin creatures.
Having regained his freedom of movement, Zhang Yuanqing immediately drew out a pitch-black full moon with slightly stiff fingers and pressed it against his forehead.
In an instant, his aura turned wicked and noble, resembling a monarch of the night or a duke of hell. Though the lunar aura enveloping him was not as overwhelming as the female ghost's, its quality was countless times superior.
The yin energy around the white-robed female ghost stagnated, seemingly suppressed.
With vine-like patterns branded across half his face, pitch-black, viscous energy welled up in Zhang Yuanqing's eyes once more as he unleashed Spirit Devouring upon the white-robed female ghost.
He parted his lips, and the lunar energy gathered into a vortex of currents, enveloping the female ghost.
The ghost immediately surged with her own yin energy to resist, and the two sides locked in a stalemate.
Seizing the opening, Fu Xin'ou retrieved the porcelain vial, poured the dark-red liquid over his blade, stepped through the gang steps on the fly, and chanted an incantation. Once the blade condensed a beam of golden light, he thrust it straight into the ghost's chest.
Amid a piercing shriek, the ghost's form thinned noticeably, more than half of her yin energy vaporizing away. No longer capable of contending with Zhang Yuanqing, she was swept up by the vortex of yin energy and swallowed into his belly in a single gulp.
Zhang Yuanqing did not devour her, but instead used lunar energy to seal her within his stomach. Once he ascended to the Dominator stage in the future, he could refine this white-robed female ghost into a spirit servant.
It was a pity that after suffering multiple consecutive strikes, most of her yin energy had been depleted. Refining her later would undoubtedly cost a fortune in repairs.
Just as the battle concluded, Xi Zhe's fingers suddenly twitched. Immediately afterward, he sat up violently, his neck clicking and snapping repeatedly as his backward-facing head twisted back into place.
He drew in a deep breath with a loud gasp, like a diver breaking the surface of the water, panting heavily.
*Is this guy a Wood Demon? Fuck, he died the moment the fight started, then came back to life the moment it ended. Why do I feel like he's putting on a show for me?* As Zhang Yuanqing scrutinized Xi Zhe, he heard the princess shout through her megaphone:
"Yuanshi Tianzun, the materials are almost exhausted, and Master isn't responding!"
Zhang Yuanqing took fright. Leaving his two companions behind, he sprinted over to Commandery Princess Yinyao's side.
The scroll radiated a faint glow, and the materials covered beneath it resembled grayish-white charcoal, retaining only a sliver of residual warmth.
Just as Commandery Princess Yinyao said, the spiritual energy of the materials was nearly spent.
*Why isn't there any response? Is the Dominator-grade instance too high-level, so the Empress can't cross over? Did she say something like that before? Wait, that's not right either. She also said she fought bosses of the same tier in instances...*
*If she couldn't enter a Dominator-grade instance, how could she have fought enemies of the same level? If the summoning fails, all is lost. I won't even need to worry about the crisis in reality; the vengeful spirits in this instance alone will finish me off...*
As thoughts raced through his mind, Zhang Yuanqing shoved Commandery Princess Yinyao aside. "Let me!"
Before the materials' spiritual energy could completely run out, he dropped to both knees and kowtowed deeply. "We beseech the Empress to appear!!"
The very next second, from high up in the pitch-black, brooding sky, a golden streak of light pierced through the barrier like a meteor and crashed down with a deafening boom.
Commandery Princess Yinyao was utterly dumbfounded!
Chapter 601