Chapter 20: Encountering the Bride on the Highway

As the authorities and ancient clans scoured every corner for Xia Tianqiong, he had already driven away from Lin’an City, heading toward Jiuhua City, more than six hundred kilometers away.

Setting out just after three in the afternoon, by seven in the evening night had fallen, and he had covered two-thirds of the journey.

Traffic on the highway was thinning, yet Xia Tianqiong grew increasingly cautious.

The supernatural thrived most actively at night. Though his current strength allowed him to face most initial-stage spirits without fear, driving at high speed was another matter entirely. Encountering a spirit blocking the road could easily cause a fatal accident; even if he survived, injury was almost certain.

“I’ll stop at the next service area for the night and continue in the morning,” he decided, reducing his speed to the minimum limit on the highway.

That way, if something unexpected happened, he could still brake in time.

“Xia Tianqiong!” Suddenly, while driving, his expression stiffened, and he glanced around, as if searching for something.

He felt someone calling his name—not through sound, but some inexplicable sensation.

Yet, looking around both inside and outside the car, nothing seemed amiss.

Among spirits, several types employed calling a person’s name as a means to unleash deadly curses.

Xia Tianqiong couldn’t help but become vigilant.

But the next several minutes passed without incident.

A roadside sign indicated two kilometers to the Minggang Service Area, easing his tension slightly.

Then, from the left rearview mirror, a streak of red light appeared, growing brighter and more intense.

Focusing carefully, he saw a red sedan chair materialize out of thin air on the side of the lane, emitting a faint crimson glow.

In the darkness of night, it resembled a massive lantern—both alluring and eerie.

The sedan chair was carried by eight burly men dressed in blood-red garments, their faces expressionless, eyes milky white—undeniable signs of death.

Their steps were light, neither fast nor slow, but each stride covered dozens of meters.

Xia Tianqiong’s vehicle was cruising at over sixty kilometers per hour, yet the sedan chair was gaining on him.

“Bride of the Phantom Sedan Chair?”

The name flashed through his mind, tightening his entire body as he slammed the accelerator to the floor.

This was an extremely dangerous spirit—no, rather two spirits.

The sedan chair and the bride were separate entities. Their death curse was akin to the “Phantom Mother Seeking Infant” spirit, an ancient enigma never solved in the previous life.

Authorities had only rudimentary records on them; their rank remained unknown.

Even contracted spirit generals had lost two hunters to them.

Xia Tianqiong cursed his luck inwardly. Of all the spirits in the world, why had he encountered this unsolvable and perilous one?

The SUV shot forward with a sharp jolt, rapidly accelerating to 160 kilometers per hour in a brief moment.

At such speeds, a single misstep meant vehicle destruction and death.

He gripped the steering wheel firmly, eyes on the road ahead, but his peripheral vision watched the rearview mirror.

Suddenly, he was startled—the red sedan chair kept pace steadily behind, not falling farther behind but slowly closing the distance.

Clearly, this was a rule of some kind, making it impossible to outrun them by speed alone.

Gradually, the sedan chair caught up, running parallel to Xia Tianqiong’s vehicle on the highway.

Suddenly, a pale, slender hand slid out from the sedan’s curtain, lifting the veil to reveal a bride wearing a delicate wedding dress and a red bridal veil.

Though her face was hidden behind the veil, Xia Tianqiong felt an intense sensation, as if being watched by a fierce beast.

The spirits sealed within him—the delivery spirit and the infant spirit—shuddered as if gripped by fear.

He didn’t entertain any thought of resistance and immediately unleashed shadow teleportation.

“Will you be my groom...?” The soft, melodic voice drifted from beneath the veil. Before the final word was spoken, Xia Tianqiong vanished from the SUV.

In the next instant, he reappeared fifty meters away in a field, then vanished again, appearing even farther off.

The phantom bride hesitated briefly. “You run fast! And you don’t even listen to me finish speaking.”

Her tone carried a hint of complaint. Then, lifting the veil, a stunningly beautiful and exquisitely made-up face appeared.

Bright eyes, red lips, delicately arched brows—like a noble lady from an ancient era, she appeared perfectly human.

She gazed at Xia Tianqiong’s retreating figure, her brows knitting slightly.

“How can a living person possess the power of reincarnation?”

The sedan chair changed direction, seemingly intent on pursuing Xia Tianqiong.

The bride softly stopped them. “Forget it—the Prison Tower has manifested in the mortal realm. I must hurry there first. I will seek him again later.”

With that, the sedan chair continued along the highway.

After a short distance, it suddenly vanished into thin air, as if entering another dimension.

The night was thick and shadowed.

Xia Tianqiong could freely use shadow teleportation, but each jump covered only about fifty meters at most.

He teleported repeatedly until two to three kilometers away from the highway, noticing the red sedan chair had not pursued him further. Only then did he stop.

“Such a powerful spirit appearing at the very start of the supernatural descent?” he mused.

Earlier, when escaping, he had communicated briefly with the delivery spirit, the gamble-for-life spirit, and the mirror spirit. None recognized the phantom bride, but judging by her aura, she was at least a spirit general, possibly even a spirit king.

In the previous life, a spirit general was enough to annihilate a city of a million people; a spirit king was even more terrifying, capable of creating entire phantom cities in the mortal realm.

Standing in the wilderness, gazing toward the distant highway, Xia Tianqiong felt a surge of relief.

This phantom bride was likely just passing through, not intending to chase him—otherwise, escape would have been impossible.

His SUV was surely wrecked by now, and he dared not return to retrieve it.

Fortunately, the service area wasn’t far. He pinpointed the direction and teleported there directly.

In less than two minutes, he saw lights and large buildings ahead.

“Teleporting is faster than driving!” Xia Tianqiong couldn’t help but marvel. Shadow teleportation was truly useful at night—he could jump freely, faster than any car.

Only a small amount of underworld currency was consumed each time.

The infant spirit was now at the fierce spirit level, allowing teleportation of about fifty meters per jump. When it leveled up, the teleportation distance would increase.

If he could teleport hundreds of meters, or even kilometers at once, that would be formidable.

Lost in such thoughts, he stepped into the brightly lit service area.

It was already 7:30 p.m., bustling with cars coming and going.

Minggang Service Area was large, with the usual gas station, supermarket, and restrooms, plus a small mall, hotel, and restaurants.

Xia Tianqiong picked a random restaurant, ordered a few dishes, and sat down, contemplating his next move for tomorrow while waiting for his food.

Suddenly, a nearby conversation caught his attention.

“Did I just hit a person or a ghost?”

“Definitely not a person, or there would be blood and a body.”

Turning his head, Xia Tianqiong saw a middle-aged couple whispering.

At that moment, someone from another table looked over at the couple. “You also encountered something strange on the road?”

The middle-aged man hesitated, then asked, “You hit a ghost too?”

“Not exactly. I saw four or five cars crashed together, blood everywhere, but no one inside.”

“Maybe they were rescued?”

“No way. Police and ambulances were at the scene, but no one was there.”

The couple exchanged nervous glances.

Listening nearby, Xia Tianqiong realized he was not the only one encountering spirits tonight.

The arrival of spirits followed a pattern: increasing gradually to a peak, then tapering off for a while before stronger spirits descended again.

This gave humans a chance to catch their breath and, by contracting spirits, to enhance their own strength to fight back.

Outside the restaurant, on a vacant lot, a rectangular portal of light suddenly opened slowly, and a young man and woman stepped out before the portal vanished.

“Ghosts!” A driver stopped nearby, ready to get out, but upon seeing this, hastily drove off in fright.

“I told you to open the portal somewhere no one could see. Now people have witnessed it,” Bai Jingjing complained, holding a small black-and-white dog, addressing Bai Yichen beside her.

“With the large-scale spirit descent, strange things happen everywhere. We don’t need to worry about being seen like before,” Bai Yichen replied, scanning the area.

His gaze soon locked on Xia Tianqiong inside the restaurant through the glass window.

Taking out his phone, he compared photos. “He looks similar, but the age doesn’t match—this one’s too young.”

Before coming here, they had researched Xia Tianqiong, knowing he was a twenty-five-year-old youth.

But now, he appeared no older than eighteen.

Bai Jingjing turned around, letting the little dog face Xia Tianqiong’s direction. “Doggie, check if he’s the target we’re looking for.”

The dog was about half a meter long, resembling an ordinary countryside dog, but its eyes were lively.

Raising its head from Bai Jingjing’s warm chest, it suddenly spoke three words in a low, somewhat weary voice: “Xia Tianqiong.”

At the same moment, Xia Tianqiong inside the restaurant looked around again, sensing someone calling his name.

Like before, there was no sound—just a feeling.

“Could the phantom bride have come back?” he thought.

Before the phantom bride’s appearance, he had had this same sensation.

Tensing up, Xia Tianqiong prepared to teleport away at any moment.

Outside the restaurant, the little dog withdrew its head back into Bai Jingjing’s chest and repeated three words: “It’s him!”

The dog’s ability to accurately track him relied on its spiritual arts.

Bai Jingjing and Bai Yichen exchanged glances, their faces lighting up with excitement.

“He’s gotten younger.”

“That means his lifespan has increased.”

“In other words, he most likely contracted a gamble-for-life spirit from the mirror spirit clan!”

At these words, the two looked at Xia Tianqiong as if he were a priceless treasure.

Greed gleamed in Bai Yichen’s eyes. “If that’s true, his value is immense. We must bring him into the Bai family and put him to use.”

Bai Jingjing was thrilled. “I want to be eighteen again too. Let’s go inside and talk to him!”

“No. The Bureau said he has at least three spirits contracted. Recklessly approaching him to recruit might be unwise. We should test his strength first, then talk.”

Suddenly, an old beggar in tattered clothes emerged from Bai Yichen’s body.

Bent over, leaning on a small bamboo stick, holding a chipped bowl, he slowly walked into the restaurant.

He ignored everyone else and went straight toward Xia Tianqiong, seemingly invisible to the others.