Chapter 13 Hunting

After Yala's previous explanation, Su Zhou knew that ghosts also had levels.

The most common ghosts were the white shadows and black shadows that Su Zhou could see before. White shadows were remnants of souls without much attachment, their true spirits gone, and could only be considered secondary derivatives of spiritual energy. In a high concentration of spiritual energy, they would quickly decompose into pure spiritual energy. Black shadows were remnants of souls with resentment and obsession, possessing malice. Although they would also be decomposed by high concentrations of spiritual energy, before decomposition, they could possess people, causing lethargy.

A higher level included wandering souls and vengeful spirits, which had a certain degree of intelligence, like the little girl wandering soul and the old soldier wandering soul Su Zhou had seen before, possessing their own thoughts and wisdom.

However, wandering souls of this level could not casually approach humans, because their intelligence was built on fragile spiritual energy structures. This ensured they would not be decomposed by spiritual energy, but they would be interfered with by the life force of some physically strong people, losing power or even memories, which was the foundation of their existence.

Vengeful spirits, on the other hand, did not need to worry about these things, because their memories were not important. What mattered was malice, the obsession to hurt others. This obsession vibrated spiritual energy, which could create all kinds of 'spirit sounds.' The effects of spirit sounds varied depending on the different obsessions of different vengeful spirits. Wandering souls could naturally create spirit sounds as well, but most did not have the ability to harm other creatures.

Of course, wandering souls and vengeful spirits of this level did not have true spirits, but because they were derivatives of souls, they still had some spirituality remaining. After being killed, they might drop some spiritual energy crystal fragments, which was also the purpose of Su Zhou's hunt this time.

Only at the next level would ghosts re-nurture true spirits and transform into a new kind of spiritual lifeform – of course, this would have nothing to do with the original person, like a flower blooming on a corpse.

The path of ghost cultivators was to transform themselves into spiritual lifeforms while supporting the existence of their own true spirits.

At this moment, the late-night residential area was silent. Even the plaza dancing crowd had dispersed. There might be a few people walking on the quiet streets, but it didn't matter much.

What Su Zhou cared about was never these people who couldn't detect his whereabouts, but the ubiquitous surveillance cameras – some old districts or new districts might not be fully covered, but in the urban area where he lived, dense surveillance cameras had long enveloped ninety percent of the area. If he didn't want to be discovered, he had to take the road less traveled.

At least, he couldn't walk in the building, otherwise, if a patrol officer mobilized the building's surveillance, they could easily discover that Su Zhou hadn't returned late at night with a big wooden spear, which was extremely suspicious.

So, let's jump!

Standing on the edge of the balcony, Su Zhou felt no fear in his heart. Instead, he was filled with eager excitement.

Without hesitation, he took a decisive step and allowed his body to fall from the seventh floor, plunging towards the solid concrete ground.

Whoosh—

At this moment, he could feel the wind. Su Zhou could hear the rushing air whistling in his ears – the ultimate sense of freedom appeared during the fall, and then returned to calm. He chuckled and closed his eyes, feeling the 'spirits' around him.

Spirits, magic, spiritual energy, or any other name for the extraordinary system, were all the same thing in the end. Su Zhou could feel that, in the short moment of his fall, because of this overly intense action, the surrounding spiritual energy began to spontaneously gather around his body, applying a 'floating' force.

Su Zhou knew that he could release this force at any time. If he succeeded in opening his spiritual perception, he could also use his own power to bless these spiritual energies, allowing him to glide in the air.

—Helped by the wind, not doomed to fall!

*Pa!*

Like jumping down from a meter or two high, making a slight *pa* sound, Su Zhou dodged into the shadows the moment he landed on the ground – he mostly knew where the nearby surveillance cameras were, and many were pointed out by his father, Su Bei, when he showed off his eyesight.

Not even having time to praise his father's teachings as useful, Su Zhou carried the wooden spear and easily left the residential area by taking advantage of the tree shadows and wall blind spots, and blended into the Fuh River riverside woods next door.

Hongdu Hongcheng has a very high greening rate, more than forty-two percent, and the residential area where Su Zhou lived reached sixty percent. Other things might be lacking, but tree shadows were unbelievably abundant. He easily arrived at the depths of the small forest around the river and walked quickly along the river, away from the street.

Until he heard the 'spirit sound.'

“Aieeeeee——”

A strange roar flowed in the wind, a sound that made ordinary people feel uncomfortable and made superhumans feel a headache. Su Zhou stopped and immediately activated his spirit sight, looking around.

"Listening to this sound, this vengeful spirit feels a little stronger than the average I've encountered before."

With spirit sight, it was much better than just relying on luck to see some shadows in the past. In just a moment, Su Zhou found the source of the spirit sound.

It was a cloud of gray-black mist, flashing with gaunt human faces, and arms and torsos covered with sores and cysts, all appearing diseased. These limbs did not seem to belong to the same person. They should be a vengeful spirit born from the fusion of many dark shadows.

Noticing someone approaching, this vengeful spirit began to act, rushing towards Su Zhou at high speed, far faster than a human running a hundred meters. Even Su Zhou felt that he could not surpass the other party in terms of speed.

"It should be a plague spirit formed by the convergence of the spirits of disease and suffering. The spirit sound will reduce a person's immune function, causing the spread of diseases such as influenza."

Easily identifying the other party's origin with Yala's help, Su Zhou eagerly gripped the spear in his hand. Facing the incoming spirit body, he was not nervous or afraid at all. Instead, in the next moment, he stepped out, swept the wooden staff horizontally, and struck the plague spirit that was still screaming and emitting spirit sounds!

*Whoosh!*

The enchanted *chou* wood moved rapidly in the air, creating a gust of wind that made the fallen leaves fly. This simple and direct blow could probably dent a large piece of even sheet metal, and at the tip of the spear, the spiritual energy blade shaped by the 'evil dispelling' rune brought up a translucent arc of light.

But facing such a fierce attack, the vengeful spirit did not dodge or avoid it. It met it head-on, screaming as it pounced, and then—

Then it was blasted into fireworks by Su Zhou's spear, exploding and scattering in all directions.

“Aieeeee??!”

The vengeful spirit was still screaming, but its entire spirit body had been blown up. Under the cover of the 'evil dispelling' arc of light, all the dark shadows were rapidly dissolving. All its obsession and malice were turned into nothingness in the spiritual light driven by holy water and Su Zhou's blood. It looked as if Su Zhou had swept out a gray firework with one spear.

Soon, in a few seconds, the screaming disappeared. The vengeful spirit was completely purified, leaving only a small piece of crystal fragment with a gray luster falling from mid-air to the ground, leaving Su Zhou standing dumbfounded in place, still maintaining the sweeping posture.

"Isn't this—this is too easy, right?!"

Shocked, Su Zhou subconsciously asked Yala. He walked slowly over and picked up the crystal fragment. His tone still had a deep sense of regret: "How did I kill it with just one stick? Didn't you say that vengeful spirits are difficult for ordinary exorcists to deal with?"

"Otherwise? Are you an ordinary person?"

Yala seemed to have foreseen this scene, and it hung on a strand of Su Zhou's hair, revealing an 'it should be like this' expression: "Although you haven't awakened your spiritual sense, you have been listening to spirit sounds for ten years, and you have excellent mental resistance. In ancient times, even without extraordinary talent, you would be a good exorcist."

"You must know that if there is no mental resistance, ordinary exorcists will feel dizzy and even hallucinate when they hear spirit sounds… What's more, you are carrying a magical artifact that can be considered quite good, plus the strong blood energy that comes with this body, ordinary vengeful spirits can't get close to you at all."

—A guy who can ‘awaken’ before the recovery of spiritual energy, even in ancient times, is a naturally Dao body with gifted supernatural powers.

Thinking of this, the teenager could accept that he might have left the novice village before the arrival of the new era.

"One is really not enough—I want to find more vengeful spirits to play with."

After regretting for a while, Su Zhou gave an evaluation of this hunt. He raised his hand, looked at the crystal fragment in his palm, and thoughtfully said, "However, this thing, is it the so-called 'spiritual energy fragment'?"

The gray crystal was only half the size of a fingernail, and its mass was very light, one could even say it was just a cloud of air.

"Yes, a specialty of ghosts, a naturally condensed spiritual energy fragment."

Yala looked at this spiritual energy fragment, then shook its head and said, "The quality is too poor… Alas, vengeful spirits without true spirits will be completely purified even if they are illuminated by a protective crucifix, and the spiritual energy will return to the heavens. Otherwise, I would let you take the crucifix to sweep around, that would be the most efficient."

"What is this thing for? As a magic circle material?" Su Zhou carefully pinched the spiritual energy fragment, using a little force, and found that this crystal, which looked fragile, was unexpectedly a bit hard, at least harder than a lobster shell, and not so easy to break.

And Yala used the tone of a Zheng country person: "Eat."

"Eating ordinary food and exercising can strengthen the body. Similarly, only eating spiritual food and exercising can strengthen spiritual power."

"Although this spiritual energy fragment is of low quality and filthy, eating too much can also make people awaken successfully and achieve transcendence. Of course, this kind of achievement is far less perfect than a ritual plus a demonic core, and even before awakening, one might go crazy."

Speaking of this, Yala reminded, "It's okay for you to eat one or two of these spiritual energy fragments occasionally, but you can't take them regularly."

"Otherwise, it will pollute the spiritual power in the body, making it difficult to advance?" Based on the experience of various traditional novels, anime, games, and TV series, Su Zhou licked his lips and guessed with some excitement: "Or will I see hallucinations because of madness?"

"It will cause diarrhea."