Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Old Woman, Soul Capturing Thick Soup _1
"Shadows?" The Head Escort looked down, puzzled. It was pitch-black, and nothing seemed amiss.
Then, realization struck him. "Damn it, it’s that Desolate Grave Old Ghost!"
The Head Escort had traveled far and wide. Previously, he had been oblivious, like being in the dark despite the light, so naturally, he hadn’t noticed anything. But after Wang Linchi’s reminder, he spotted the problem instantly.
Hearing this, all the escorts drew their long knives, their expressions turning vigilant.
The shadows of the group melded together, and from the center of their collective shadow, a wisp of green smoke rose and coalesced into a humanoid figure.
It appeared to be an old woman with a pitted face, dressed in an old fur-lined jacket.
However, Wang Linchi looked closer and realized that the "pits" on her skin weren’t pits at all, but clearly wormholes, from which white maggots occasionally dropped.
How terrifying is this Secret Realm, filled with either demons or ghosts? Wang Linchi felt increasingly uneasy.
The wilderness survival conditions were so harsh; he really didn’t know what to do.
"CAW CAW CAW... You all left in such a hurry, not even waiting to drink the soup this old woman brewed for you. I had to trouble myself to bring it over." As she spoke, the old woman pulled a bowl of thick soup from her fur-lined jacket. A rich, putrid stench emanated from it.
Wang Linchi had no choice but to use his Thought Field to block his sense of smell. The stench was unbearable. Given that his previous life was devoid of such things, adapting would indeed be a problem.
In contrast, the group from the Dart Bureau seemed unfazed. They had braved all sorts of terrible environments in the wilderness while escorting goods.
As for glamorous female escorts, they simply didn’t exist. With such figures, why would they become escorts? And if they did, how could they remain glamorous? They would likely become as dark and coarse as these burly men in no time.
"Attack!" the Head Escort yelled. All the escorts charged the Desolate Grave Old Ghost, long knives raised. As the blades made contact with the old woman, the decorative patterns on them began to glow, covering the steel with light.
It seemed to be some kind of enchantment.
When the long knives landed on the old woman, they cut through her as if she were butter, slicing off large chunks of stinking flesh.
Yet, the old woman seemed completely unconcerned. She continued her mad cackling, steadily holding the bowl of stinking soup amidst the flurry of blades.
Could this dilapidated temple be the Rooster Crow Temple...? Wang Linchi thought, his guard up. He hadn’t seen a Buddha statue when he entered, so the thought of gilding one hadn’t crossed his mind, and thus, he hadn’t considered this possibility.
Surely his luck couldn’t be *that* bad, to stumble upon the Rooster Crow Temple right after setting out.
"Wait, something’s not right!" Wang Linchi keenly observed. Although the Desolate Grave Old Ghost appeared to be continuously taking damage, she was not only uninjured but was actually accumulating power.
The soup in her bowl, initially only seven-tenths full, had now risen to eight-tenths. Within it, several small, dumpling-like or meatball-like objects bobbed faintly up and down.
Looking closer, he saw they were thumb-sized human heads. Even devoid of skin and facial features, by mentally enlarging their blurry outlines, Wang Linchi could tell these miniature heads were replicas of those belonging to the escorts.
Their shadows had been ensnared, putting them at a complete disadvantage.
In other words, they had been utterly blindsided.
Unfortunately, these escorts had bloodshot eyes and were panting like bulls.
Completely ignoring Wang Linchi’s warning, they continued their frenzied assault on the Desolate Grave Old Ghost, looking as if they had lost their minds.
"Young man, they’re all in the soup now. They can’t hear a thing," the old woman cackled.
"Would you like a bowl too?"
Wang Linchi’s warning had drawn the old woman’s attention. From the look of her, she had no intention of letting him go.
It seems I’ll have to take action myself, Wang Linchi thought. If only I’d known. I should have used the Soul Kind Page: Fanciful and Fickle to kill those escorts from a distance before they entered the dilapidated temple. Then I wouldn’t have this mess.
Just as the old woman was about to taunt Wang Linchi, she felt her body abruptly swell.
Before she could suppress it, she suddenly exploded.
Fortunately, her own power was considerable. She wasn’t blown to pieces like the Ghost Woodman. Instead, the internal explosion left her on the brink of death, and she couldn’t even hold onto the large soup bowl, which fell to the ground.
The soup bowl didn’t break. Strangely, even though the bowl tilted, the thick soup inside didn’t spill.
"This... this is..." The Desolate Grave Old Ghost started to speak, but then she felt her body swell and explode once more.
She had withstood the first one, but she couldn’t withstand the second. She exploded into countless fragments.
Her strength is equivalent to the early stage of the Black Iron Level. No wonder 100 spirituality points of Fanciful and Fickle weren’t enough to kill her instantly; it took a second blast, Wang Linchi quickly assessed. He had used 100 spirituality points from his Nine Revolutions Golden Core for the first Fanciful and Fickle attack, which hadn’t killed her. Only after using another 100 spirituality points for a second Fanciful and Fickle attack did he finally destroy her.
With the death of the Desolate Grave Old Ghost, the escorts immediately stopped their attacks.
However, in Wang Linchi’s Soul Vision, he saw that they hadn’t broken free from control; rather, they had died as a result.
The moment their miniature heads had been drawn into the large soup bowl, their fate was sealed.
They had been ensnared from the very beginning. They might have been saved if they had broken free right when they were first caught in the spell.
However, by the time they reached the dilapidated temple, the influence had already penetrated deep into their beings. It only needed a small trigger to turn them into part of the soup.
The difficulty is ramping up too quickly. I wonder how strong that Evil Tiger is.
His Golden Core was only at the Fourth Transfer. Including its inherent spiritual power, he only had 500 spirituality points he could freely command. He had just used two hundred of them.
It will take twenty minutes to recover, Wang Linchi estimated, considering the regeneration rate of his Golden Core’s spiritual power.
This was already very fast. Other White Porcelain level Awakeners probably couldn’t recover even one hundred spirituality points in an entire day.
His Soul Kind: Spiritual Corridor provided an additional 10% spiritual power recovery. This, combined with the inherent recovery capabilities of his Nine Revolutions Golden Core and Taoist Fetus, as well as the effects of the Soul Forging Method and Soul Secret Technique he had personally created to be perfectly compatible with himself, naturally resulted in a far greater enhancement than other Awakeners experienced.
The danger is significant, but the drop rates are truly high.
Wang Linchi looked at the two Excellent Level Soul Kinds that had condensed. One had formed after he killed the Desolate Grave Old Ghost. The other was more complex, having coalesced from the experiences of the escorts and the events they had undergone.
Besides these, there were the treasures from the escorts: their Rain Gear, long knives, and other items.
Of course, the main prize was the Desolate Grave Old Ghost’s soup bowl. This item was also a treasure, capable of being transformed into a Soul Device for an Awakener to use.