"What are they doing?"

"I just calmed 'them' down. With the dragons leaderless and no one stepping up, the Yangxu ghost army will collapse without a fight. The Mo Village crisis is averted, and you deserve some credit for that."

This aligned with Ni Dongmei's analysis back then, except she hadn't mentioned that this so-called collapse without a fight required her intervention.

It was this very intervention that almost killed Fang Yue!

Immediately, Fang Yue, hands on his hips, began to scold her relentlessly, causing Ni Dongmei's expression to darken.

After a while, she finally said, "Stop complaining! Find the tail and bring it back. Both I and Mo Village will reward you handsomely."

Rewards?!

Fang Yue's face changed instantly, replaced with a flattering smile.

"As expected of the great Ni Dongmei! You understand human nature so well! I understand, I completely understand your good intentions. You want to train me, to temper me. As the saying goes, no pain, no gain. I don't blame you! I don't blame you at all! And I will definitely carry out the mission you assigned!"

Hehe! Everything's negotiable with rewards!

The main reason was that Fang Yue couldn't beat that woman.

She was an elder of the Jibing Sect. Even a clone was beyond his capabilities.

After chatting with Ni Dongmei for a while longer, Fang Yue suddenly asked, "By the way, does the great Ni Dongmei happen to know about the Xiongyuan Dan (Fierce Origin Pill)?"

"Just ask directly. Don't beat around the bush. Maintaining contact with you from this distance consumes a lot of my clone's energy."

"...Um, well, it's like this. When I fought Guizhi (Ghost Knowledge) earlier, I took the Xiongyuan Dan, and then..."

Fang Yue suddenly felt a little uneasy.

Even though his eyes had cleared up after the Xiongyuan Dan wore off, and the black blood no longer stained his eyes...

During the pill's effects, he had briefly transformed into the unique form of a black-rank early-stage ghost.

If Ni Dongmei found out and treated him as a ghost... where would he even cry?

Again, Fang Yue couldn't beat Ni Dongmei.

But Fang Yue could control Old An!

So, the safest approach was to wait until he returned to Mo Village and ask Old An in person. Even if there were any problems, he could suppress Old An to resolve them. Unlike Ni Dongmei, who might suddenly kill him, leaving Fang Yue defenseless.

On the other side, Ni Dongmei waited for a long time without hearing the rest of Fang Yue's explanation, and couldn't help but say impatiently.

"Why are you dragging this out? It's just a Xiongyuan Dan. Did your inner energy surge and you feel like your potential has been overdrawn?"

"People from small places are just that. They dare to eat pills that overdraw their potential.

"If the aftereffects are serious now, return to the village immediately. I'll find someone else to retrieve the tail."

"I remember once, someone took the Xiongyuan Dan and ruined their martial arts foundation, becoming a cripple. You should be careful."

Even so, Ni Dongmei noticed that Fang Yue only seemed a little weak. Considering the normal side effects of the Xiongyuan Dan, his condition was considered mild.

Some people even became paralyzed on the spot.

So, she felt that Fang Yue didn't need to ask about the aftereffects at all. In his current state, he could just return to the village, take some medicine, and recuperate. He was the lightest case of Xiongyuan Dan side effects she had ever seen.

"So, taking the Xiongyuan Dan is so dangerous... Luckily, I'm still okay. I just feel a bit weak." Hearing Ni Dongmei's words, Fang Yue seized the opportunity and nodded in agreement.

"Well, it's good that you're alright. Bring back the tail soon. I'll give you some medicine to nourish your body when you return to the village."

Fang Yue was overjoyed.

"Thank you, great Ni Dongmei!"

"Okay, I need to rest now. Contact me when you find the tail."

"Yes!"

As Fang Yue finished speaking, he felt the faint coolness on the meatball gradually fade away, indicating that Ni Dongmei had disconnected.

It had to be said that this thing was quite useful, comparable to an ancient mobile phone.

However, Ni Dongmei had mentioned that it still had distance limitations and a relatively long communication range.

Putting away the meatball, Fang Yue pondered Ni Dongmei's words and couldn't help but mutter.

"Potential overdraft... The power my potential overdrafted was... ghostly power?"

Fang Yue scratched his head, feeling confused.

Was he special? Was this Xiongyuan Dan special? Or were all players special?

The nature of vagrants... what was it really?

All along, Fang Yue had regarded vagrants as bodies similar to ordinary NPCs, created through unknown ghostly methods.

But now it seemed... If the vagrants themselves were the problem, then it meant that the bodies of the vagrants were vastly different from those of the native NPCs!

Could it be... that all vagrants were essentially ghosts??

This thought startled Fang Yue.

If that were the case, then he should stop killing ghosts and start killing humans to seize their lifespan!

Fortunately, such a crazy idea only flashed through Fang Yue's mind and didn't take root. After all, without any information or clues, he didn't know the truth.

But when he returned to Mo Village, asking Old An should reveal a glimpse of the truth.

"Mehh!"

In the distance, he could see some scattered Yangxu ghosts approaching in this direction.

But killing Guizhi (Ghost Knowledge) hadn't inflicted any ghost curses, and the earlier ghost curse on the Yangxu ghosts had already been dispelled by Fei Baidan. Fang Yue was now free of debt. Unless those Yangxu ghosts discovered that he was a human, they shouldn't cause him any trouble.

Suppressing his thoughts, Fang Yue moved away, lit the human soul torch, found a slightly safer place, sat down cross-legged, and began to meditate to recover his inner energy.

While meditating to recover his inner energy, Fang Yue would occasionally hear system notifications in his ear, informing him that negative effects had been removed.

Breath of the Night was working continuously!

When the morning sun rose, shining on Fang Yue's face, he finally exhaled heavily.

Fortunately, Breath of the Night had cleared all the negative statuses before dawn.

Otherwise, having a stack of debuffs resembling a killing spree during the day would be truly devastating.

The only frustrating thing was that the danger level of the wilderness during the day increased exponentially for Fang Yue!

Without Breath of the Night, and with his medicine exhausted, Fang Yue had to be extremely careful. If he lost health, he could only rely on natural recovery to slowly heal!

Also, there would be no "mobile blood spring" to provide healing during combat.

In short, his strength was greatly weakened, and his stats were reduced by 20 points!

Fortunately, killing Guizhi (Ghost Knowledge) had granted him quite a few stats. Compared to himself when he left the village last night, he had made a small improvement, at least he was a bit tankier, thanks to the 50 points of force neutralization!

Without thinking too much, Fang Yue opened the stats panel, his gaze shifting...