Chapter 57: Burning Soul

Overestimating your own capabilities!

The dark figure let out a cold snort and suddenly vanished from beside the tree.

Huang Ying opened her eyes, and the wooden sword behind her dropped to the ground with a soft thud.

I reached into my pocket, checked the items I usually had on hand, and pushed them back in. All of them were meant for driving away ghosts and were completely useless against that dark figure.

Right at that moment, the fallen leaves around me, along with the weeds on the ground, gravel, and dirt, began to stir restlessly.

Then, these objects slowly rose into the air, finally halting at chest height.

I glanced at Huang Ying. As expected, it was her doing. She stood in place as gentle gusts of wind swirled around her, lifting the hem of her skirt.

The floating stones and leaves lingered in the air for only a second before scattering in all directions. The gravel pelted against the trees, producing a flurry of crisp noises all around.

Since I was standing very close to Huang Ying, I was spared from the onslaught.

The noise faded into absolute silence. Huang Ying and I scanned our surroundings, but the dark figure was nowhere to be seen.

Vanished into thin air? That was impossible. Nothing could vanish into thin air; he must still be hiding nearby.

Just then, Huang Ying suddenly frowned, her expression turning unusual.

"Damn it, I'll fight you to the death!"

I picked up the peach wood sword from the ground, chanted an incantation under my breath, and watched as the peach wood sword levitated into the air. Then, I thrust my finger forward fiercely.

"Go!"

At my command, the peach wood sword shot out, tearing through the void and leaving a trailing arc as it vanished into the woods.

With the limit of my soul power, this was the best I could do.

The wooden sword whistled through the air, the sound echoing into our ears from the surrounding forest.

A few seconds later, the rustling sound stopped abruptly, replaced by a sharp, crisp crack.

"Phew..." I let out a heavy breath. Controlling that thing still took a fair amount of effort.

Two seconds later, a dark figure slowly emerged from the forest, holding two broken halves of the peach wood sword.

As he drew closer, we could finally see his appearance: dressed in a black suit, his face wearing an expression of unyielding severity, much like a stern, old-school tutor.

"It really is you!"

From the very first moment I saw him earlier, I had my suspicions. Capable of such strength and able to put Huang Ying in such a passive position—as far as I knew, there were only two people who fit the description: my grandfather and this man in the suit.

The chances of it being my grandfather were extremely slim, which left only the man in the suit!

"Step aside!" The man in the suit pointed his broken sword at me, his face utterly devoid of expression!

Step aside? Was that even possible?

"Who on earth are you?" I demanded. Huang Ying stood to the side, frowning as she stared fixedly at the man in the suit.

The man in the suit did not answer me. Instead, he said coldly, "Step aside!"

I still didn't answer him. My clenched fists had already made my choice for me.

"Very well, don't blame me then!"

With that, the man in the suit began to walk toward us slowly.

Seeing him approach, Huang Ying immediately closed her eyes, and a faint white halo instantly emerged around her body.

"Courting death!" The corners of the man's mouth curled upward as he extended his right hand, forming a sword-finger gesture.

There are many variations of sword-finger gestures, the most common being the Daoist and martial arts styles.

The Daoist sword-finger, also known as the sword incantation, is not merely a pose; its true purpose is to gather momentum and sustain a continuous attack.

The man in the suit stopped about five meters away from us.

His lips began to move silently, and a few seconds later, a blinding blue light appeared on his fingertips.

"Soul-Harvesting Art?"

When I used to perform soul-harvesting rituals, this was the exact incantation I chanted.

Before I could react, Huang Ying suddenly pulled me close to her side and closed her eyes.

A wave of white radiance wrapped around Huang Ying.

The sight was utterly surreal—to think human power could reach such heights.

The Soul-Harvesting Art was something my grandfather had taught me. Its core principle is that a human's soul and physical body are two independent entities; with certain external forces, these two entities can be separated, and the Soul-Harvesting Art serves as the catalyst for that separation.

"Huang Ying, can you handle this?" I asked. I had once heard my grandfather chant this incantation over the phone. Even without chanting it in person, ghosts decades old had been utterly powerless against it. Now, this man in the suit was chanting it from five meters away. Back at the hotel, Huang Ying had already warned me that this man was dangerous, and now, I couldn't help but worry about her.

Huang Ying didn't speak. She bit down hard on her lower lip, and it was obvious she was enduring immense strain.

A minute later, I once again felt that agonizing sensation of my soul being peeled away. Though not entirely overwhelming, the feeling was distinct and unmistakable the moment it began.

I looked up and noticed thin wisps of white smoke rising from both my head and Huang Ying's. These wisps formed delicate threads that drifted straight up into the air before dissipating.

Those were our souls. Huang Ying was reaching her limit; back at the hotel, I could already tell from her expressions that she was no match for this man in the suit.

"Damn it!" I cursed, breaking free from Huang Ying's grip and lunging forward. The moment I broke away from her, the agonizing sensation magnified tenfold. I could actually see the white smoke streaming from my own head with my naked eyes.

"Don't you fucking push your luck!" I yelled. We had never provoked him in any way; he was just picking a fight for no reason.

Since my Daoist arts couldn't match his, I would rely on sheer brute force. I rushed forward and threw a punch at him.

My fist landed against his body as if I were striking solid stone.

I withdrew my fist and realized I had no strength left at all. No wonder that punch had felt like hitting a rock.

Seeing my soul rapidly dissolving, Huang Ying immediately spread her arms and slowly levitated into the air.

Boom...

A sudden burst of blue flames erupted from Huang Ying's body.

"Stop!" Huang Ying abruptly opened her eyes.

This time, every trace of tenderness in her eyes was gone, replaced by a terrifying surge of soul fluctuations. I glanced sideways to meet her gaze, and an icy chill immediately pierced the depths of my soul.

The man in the suit watched Huang Ying, now engulfed in blue flames, his expression turning serious in a way it never had before.

"Burning the soul?" The man muttered under his breath, immediately lowering his right hand. The peeling away of my soul finally ceased.

Huang Ying looked like a blue fire phoenix dancing in the air. Her eyes were locked onto the man in the suit, and wherever her gaze fell, even the grass and trees became coated with a layer of white frost.

Huang Ying hovered in mid-air staring down at the man, while the man stood on the ground waiting for her next move. I felt like a mere spectator, completely clueless as to what was happening.

Suddenly, Huang Ying moved. She brought her hands together in front of her chest and then threw them wide open. A deep blue phoenix materialized right before her.

I stared at the glowing orb, my scalp tingling instantly. The power contained within it was terrifying.

The moment the man in the suit saw the blue phoenix, he vanished from where he stood.

Yet at that exact instant, another streak of blood-red light appeared.

That blood-red beam came from the outer perimeter of the public cemetery. Piercing straight through the void with unstoppable momentum, it slashed toward a corner of the cemetery.

Bang...

The trees there splintered apart, and the man in the suit kicked off the ground, leaping out from behind the trees just in time to dodge the strike.

A person airborne is at their most vulnerable, exposing the maximum number of fatal flaws. Seizing the opportunity, Huang Ying released the blue phoenix in her hands.

The blue phoenix hurtled straight toward the man in the suit. He swept his hands through the air, conjuring a human-sized blood talisman in the void to block its path.

Boom...

The blue phoenix collided with the blood talisman in a massive explosion. Both vanished at the exact same moment, and the shockwave blew the man in the suit flying backward.

He braced his hands against the ground and struggled to his feet, but right as he did, the red beam of light struck again.

Catching sight of the beam, the man immediately pushed off the ground to leap upward, but it was too late. The beam struck his left arm squarely, sending him plummeting from mid-air while his left shoulder sparked with tiny crimson glows!

"The power of a Ghost King?" The man in the suit dropped to one knee, clutching his left shoulder with his right hand as he looked toward the outer edges of the cemetery.

Huang Ying descended to the ground, crossing her arms over her chest as an even larger blue phoenix materialized behind her.

Upon seeing this, the man in the suit pushed off the ground with his right hand, flipped backward over a dozen meters away, and turned to flee at top speed.

The moment the man left, the phantom of the blue phoenix behind Huang Ying vanished, and she collapsed to the ground as the blue flames extinguished.

"Hee hee hee hee, all of you shall die!" Just as I was about to check on Huang Ying's condition, an eerie woman's laughter echoed from the empty void.