Main Text, Volume Two, Chapter Eighty-Six: The Blue-Robed Priestess

Ye Yu’s words jolted Yu Mu awake. Of course. Was this not exactly like the Devil’s Slope the man selling Bullspirit Grass had once described?

While cultivating in Tranquil Heart Valley, Yu Mu had also asked Lu Zihao and the others about the lands around Eagle Ridge. According to them, Devil’s Slope was a place of extreme peril. At times, creatures of terrifying power appeared there—beings before whom even Heaven-Bearers had to retreat.

And this place was already close to the edge of Eagle Ridge, nearing the domain of the Free City. It lay between the two cities, though slightly closer to Eagle Ridge.

It seemed they had lost their way by no small distance this time...

Even as the two spoke, the creatures of the ghost realm were already charging toward them. The zombie moved slowly and posed no immediate danger, but the skeleton monster was astonishingly nimble. A bone blade formed in its hand, and in the blink of an eye it was upon them.

Ye Yu had always been most helpless against such creatures, and could only hide behind Yu Mu. Yu Mu swung the wooden staff in his hand; with a crack, it struck the skull dead on.

The skull shattered into powder, and from within drifted a cluster of dim blue ghostfire.

Yu Mu opened his mouth and inhaled, drawing it straight inside. At once he felt the power of the undead within him grow slightly stronger. What he had absorbed from the skeleton was akin to the spirit within a cultivator’s inner core.

Unfortunately, this skeleton had been far too weak, no different from the yin spirits in the Saint King’s Tomb. The ghostly essence within it was truly limited.

For ghostly beings, aside from cultivation and absorbing yin energy, the fastest way to grow was by devouring the deathly essence of their own kind—just like demons. That was why people so often spoke of demons and ghosts together.

With the skeleton destroyed, the zombie slowly lumbered forward as well. Corrosive fluid dripped from its body, evaporating into a yellow-green miasma that spread all around it.

This miasma carried both plague-poison and a slowing effect. If it clung to one’s body, one would likely lose a layer of skin even if nothing worse befell them.

Yu Mu whirled his staff and smashed the creature more than a dozen times, yet the zombie did not budge in the slightest. He then transformed into bear form, but the result was no different.

“What a hard zombie body,” Yu Mu could not help exclaiming.

This kind of creature was not only immensely strong, but astonishingly tough from head to toe. That swollen layer of rotting flesh also seemed to rebound and soften incoming force.

Aside from being slow, the thing appeared to have no weakness at all.

The zombie paid no attention whatsoever to Yu Mu’s attacks. No one knew from where it had produced a battered cleaver; swaying with every step, it kept pressing forward.

“If even this can’t kill it, what do we do?” Seeing Yu Mu fail again and again, Ye Yu grew frantic.

Yet Yu Mu remained utterly calm. He took out his gourd and tipped back his head to drink. The moment the liquor touched his lips, he gave a start, and then his face lit with wild delight.

Who would have thought that after sitting in the gourd for some time, the wine would become incomparably mellow and delicious, its quality no worse than honey wine or Immortal’s Drunken Dream and other famed brews?

If those peerless wines were truly stored inside it, what would they become?

And what if they were left there even longer?

Yu Mu was full of quiet joy, but Ye Yu was so angry she wanted to pinch him hard a few times. At a moment like this, he still had the leisure to drink?

Yu Mu swallowed several mouthfuls first, and only at the end, with some reluctance, spat one out.

In truth, the gourd grew upon his own body, so he could absorb the wine’s power directly from within it. What he was doing now was merely indulging the pleasures of the palate.

Whoosh—

A stream of blue flame instantly ignited the zombie. Yu Mu looked on in overwhelming delight. It was not only the quality of the wine that had improved—even the power of the wine-flame had increased greatly.

These wines had clearly been touched by the spiritual aura of the peach tree, and had become something extraordinary.

Ye Yu was an expert in poisons. The moment she saw this, she immediately took out a pill and said, “Quick—take this. It can keep the plague-poison from spreading.”

Yu Mu shook his head. “No need. This wine-flame of mine can extinguish pestilence and banish ghosts.”

“Ah...!”

Ye Yu found herself less and less able to understand the man before her.

A moment later, the zombie turned to ashes. Amid the ashes appeared a yellow-green bead.

A ghost core!

Creatures of the ghost realm were not quite like cultivators of this world. Some of them evolved into other forms of ghostly beings—for instance, skeletons could evolve into zombies. Of course, others retained their original form all the way until they cultivated to the supreme realms of Skeleton King or Zombie King.

In truth, the ghost realm, the demon realm, and the path of cultivation all led to the same destination in the end. Once one reached the pinnacle, one ascended to the immortal realm, becoming a ghost immortal or a great demon—existences no different from immortals themselves.

If the road to the immortal realm were open at this moment, Ghost Servant would ascend at once and become a ghost immortal. Though the states of life differed from realm to realm, the final result was much the same.

Yu Mu wrapped the zombie’s ghost core in spiritual energy and handed it to Ye Yu. Zombie plague-poison was extremely vicious, and even he did not dare absorb the ghostly essence within it. Since Ye Yu excelled in poison arts, it was just right for her to study and make use of it.

Ye Yu accepted it with great care. It was also her first time coming into contact with something from the ghost realm, and her curiosity was stirred. She turned it over and over, examining it with meticulous attention.

Yu Mu smiled bitterly to himself. If Ye Yu managed to thoroughly understand it, then her path of fire and poison would surely gain yet another skill. For him, that was absolutely not good news.

But under the present circumstances, there was no helping it. This place was perilous in the extreme. The more capable his companion became, the more assurance they would have of survival.

The two continued onward. After they had not gone much farther, a human-shaped mass of black mist suddenly drifted out before them. It possessed only part of a human form; below the waist it was nothing but a cloud of vapor, and the sight immediately reminded Yu Mu of those beings that floated out of enchanted lamps.

It was exceedingly insubstantial, its shape flickering and wavering. In its dark head burned two dim crimson ghostfires, seemingly its eyes.

From time to time a black hollow flashed into view, like a mouth. Only its arms looked somewhat normal, though even they shifted between substance and illusion.

“A wraith!” Yu Mu recognized it at once.

A wraith was the evolved form of a yin spirit, a creature of soul-body. It had already developed rudimentary awareness, excelled at soul attacks, and could also cast simple ghostly sorcery.

Yet this wraith was very strange. It did not attack them at all, and seemed to bear them no hostility. Stranger still, when Ye Yu saw it, she showed none of the fear she should have. Instead, she stepped past Yu Mu and moved toward it.

“What are you doing?” Yu Mu caught hold of her at once.

“It’s all right. It means no harm. It seems to have something it wants to say to me.” Ye Yu’s words were deeply peculiar, impossible to make sense of.

Yu Mu said in astonishment, “Have you gone mad? A wraith is only a ghost creature that has just begun to develop intelligence. It acts almost entirely on instinct. How could it possibly have thoughts?”

But Ye Yu seemed bewitched. Not only did she ignore Yu Mu’s warning, she even reached out to touch the wraith. Just as her slender jade-like hand was about to meet it, the wraith suddenly let out a soundless roar.

Yu Mu instantly pulled Ye Yu behind him. Looking again, he saw that the wraith seemed to have been frightened by something and vanished without a trace.

“Who’s there?” Yu Mu’s voice came low and brief.

The space before them abruptly blazed with light. A dazzling radiance shone so fiercely that neither of them could nearly keep their eyes open. Yu Mu’s pupils contracted, and he cried out, “You?”

The light shifted to the right, revealing a figure behind it. The person wore a blue robe with a hood, and was none other than one of the two female followers of the Sacred Sun Church whom Yu Mu had seen in the Saint King’s Tomb.

Though her face was shielded by light, Yu Mu recognized the source in her hand. It was the very supreme light-spirit crystal with which he and Meng Fang had exchanged for the Ghost King Body.

At this moment Yu Mu was using the Ghost King Body, and in the presence of that spirit crystal he felt extremely uncomfortable. He immediately dispelled his ghostly form.

The blue-robed priestess recognized Yu Mu as well and said in equal surprise, “How have you come to be here?”

“We lost our way and wandered into this place by mistake. Then magical beasts pursued us, so we entered the cave to hide for a while,” Yu Mu explained.

“Oh, so that is what happened.”

“And why have you come here?”

The priestess gave a soft sigh. “Some time ago, Sister Naye and I passed through here. Unexpectedly, we were chased by a silver-plumed fierce bird. In the midst of fleeing, I became separated from her, so I have remained nearby searching ever since. Today I happened upon this cave, and it seemed to conceal some deeper mystery, so I entered to investigate.”

So the gray-robed churchwoman had gone missing. No wonder she was here alone.

“Have you discovered anything?” Yu Mu asked again.

The priestess shook her head. “Not yet. I only came in not long ago. There are too many branching passages here, and ghost creatures run rampant. After wandering in circles, I no longer even know where I am.”

Yu Mu smiled faintly. “I do sense a vast fluctuation of deathly spirit deep within this cave. Why don’t we travel together and go take a look?”

The priestess gave a slight nod. “Very well.”

The two spoke quite amicably, when a cold snort suddenly came from behind them. Ye Yu’s expression had become most unpleasant. Whether she was angry that the priestess had frightened away the wraith, or whether their temperaments were simply at odds, no one could say.