Translator: Cinder Translations
Blood was still dripping from the seven orifices of the male cultivator, and his limbs twitched intermittently, as if he was enduring immense pain during his escape.
Lao Chun had a speed-boosting talisman attached to him and was wrapped in a red silk ribbon, the other end of which was held by Zi Yi.
Zi Yi was carrying Lao Chun as they ran.
However, due to the poor condition of the male cultivator behind them, his speed was slightly slower than the two in front, and he could not catch up.
As soon as Song Wen finished speaking, he continued, "They are fleeing."
"They are being pursued by two vengeful spirits."
"Not good, they're turning towards us."
After finishing his words, Song Wen turned and ran deeper into the cave, with Xuan Ye following closely behind.
The vengeful spirits pursuing the three were evidently very powerful; otherwise, the three wouldn't have been fleeing in such a disarray.
As soon as Song Wen and Xuan Ye left, the Liu father and daughter became terrified. They didn't even stop to verify if what Song Wen said was true and followed them out of the cave.
The cave they were hiding in was only a few meters deep. If the vengeful spirits noticed them, they could easily be exterminated, leaving them no place to hide.
The commotion caused by the fleeing group immediately caught the attention of the three escaping cultivators behind.
"Fellow cultivators ahead, could you please stop and help us fend off the vengeful spirits? Running away is not a solution," the Qi Cultivator at the eighth level suddenly called out.
Xuan Ye and Song Wen remained unmoved; only a fool would help them fend off the enemies.
It's likely that as soon as they engaged with the vengeful spirits, the others would escape on their own, leaving them to fight the spirits alone.
Unfortunately for the Liu father and daughter, their abilities were too weak. Especially Liu Mu, at only the third level of Qi Cultivation, even with a speed-boosting talisman, she severely slowed down her father's escape.
In just a few breaths, the two were caught up by the three cultivators from behind.
Zi Yi and Lao Chun overtook the Liu father and daughter directly.
The Qi Cultivator at the eighth level looked at the Liu father and daughter with disdain.
"Damn it, what bad luck. We finally encountered two living people, thinking we could use them as cannon fodder to block the vengeful spirits. But who would have thought it would be you two? With your strength, you can't even block the spirits for a moment."
This male cultivator was one of the three who had previously captured the Liu family.
After moving forward for several dozen meters, the male cultivator noticed that Xuan Ye and Song Wen, who were at the very front, had suddenly stopped.
"Stop running, ahead is a dead end."
Song Wen shouted loudly to everyone in the cave.
Ahead, a hundred meters or so away, the passageway came to a halt, blocked by thick rock.
Reluctantly, Song Wen searched around with the beetle's ability, confirming that there were indeed no exits.
Song Wen felt frustrated; they had followed the map to this point, and only entered this side path after encountering the Liu family. Unexpectedly, they were trapped here.
"If you don't want to die, everyone prepare to fight."
Zi Yi and Lao Chun arrived in front of Song Wen and nodded slightly, acknowledging each other.
Meanwhile, the Qi Cultivator at the eighth level let out an eerie laugh.
"Haha... Heaven is not unkind to me, Yan Gu. At this critical moment, I've encountered four fellow cultivators. It seems my life isn't destined to end today."
It turned out that Zi Yi and Lao Chun had also encountered Yan Gu while escaping.
After parting ways with Song Wen and the others, Zi Yi and Lao Chun, without the guidance of the familiar Xuan Ye and relying only on a simple map, quickly got lost in the complex underground cave system.
They spent a lot of time finding the right direction again and had barely made any progress before running into Yan Gu.
Yan Gu, who had thought he was doomed, suddenly saw Zi Yi and Lao Chun and decided to lead them into disaster, dragging Zi Yi and Lao Chun into the mess.
"Everyone, don't worry too much. The two vengeful spirits have had a lot of their yin energy drained by me and two other fellow cultivators. Their strength is less than fifty percent of their peak. If we join forces, we still have a chance to kill them."
No one paid attention to Yan Gu; everyone was busy preparing their means of defense.
The Soul-Breaking Awl floated in front of Song Wen, its murderous aura swirling. As the name suggested, the Soul-Breaking Awl was an artifact specifically for dealing with ghosts, perfect for confronting these two vengeful spirits.
Xuan Ye summoned both the Sheep-headed Ghost and the General Ghost, which floated beside him, one on each side.
Zi Yi and Lao Chun each released a corpse puppet, revealing that they, like Song Wen, were also corpse cultivators.
Yan Gu's artifact was the most unusual. He wore a necklace of eighteen human skulls around his neck and held a wooden fish made of human skulls in his hand.
Yan Gu turned out to be an extremely rare Evil Buddha Path cultivator.
The Liu father and daughter, who had arrived last, hid in a corner of the rocky wall. They had no courage to participate in the battle and were ignored by everyone.
At this moment, the two vengeful spirits drew closer, and everyone could see their appearances clearly.
The two vengeful spirits were of different sizes.
The larger one was over ten feet tall, a slender green-faced female ghost with the cultivation of the seventh level of Qi.
The smaller one was less than a meter tall, with short limbs and resembling a dwarf. It was a white-faced male ghost with the cultivation of the eighth level of Qi.
The green-faced female ghost moved rapidly on all fours, her limbs brushing against the ground as she advanced quickly.
The dwarf ghost rode on the back of the green-faced female ghost, maintaining a bizarre smile on his snow-white face and occasionally making murmuring sounds.
Song Wen was the first to launch an attack, sending the Soul-Breaking Awl like an arrow toward the dwarf ghost's head.
The dwarf ghost's eerie smile remained unchanged. It used its short arms to deflect the Soul-Breaking Awl, which was knocked away even before it could come within half a meter of it.
Xuan Ye's two ghosts, as well as Lao Chun and Zi Yi's two corpse puppets, also launched their attacks.
The General Ghost swung a long knife at the green-faced female ghost lying on the ground, while the Sheep-headed Ghost clawed at the dwarf ghost.
The two corpse puppets attacked the dwarf ghost from both sides.
Suddenly, the dwarf ghost howled towards the sky, and a fierce yin wind blew through the cave, sending sand and stones flying.
The attacks of the two ghosts and the two corpse puppets were all blocked by the howling yin wind, and all four were blown away by the powerful wind.
This violent yin wind seemed to consume a lot of energy, and the dwarf ghost did not continue to release it. It quickly stopped its attack.
At this moment, Yan Gu's attack began.
He threw the wooden fish into the air, took the human skull necklace from his neck, and began to spin it continuously.
The two items were actually a set of artifacts.
At the same time, he rapidly chanted complex scriptures.
The wooden fish floated in the air, emitting bursts of white light that enveloped the two vengeful spirits below.
The white light seemed to have a restraining effect on the vengeful spirits. The yin energy on the two vengeful spirits rapidly dissipated, and in just a few breaths, their bodies seemed to have partially dissolved.
However, Yan Gu's condition was very poor. The white light from the wooden fish was unstable, fluctuating in intensity.
It was clear that Yan Gu's sea of consciousness had been severely injured.
The dwarf ghost looked up with a resentful gaze at the wooden fish in the air, seemingly having suffered greatly from it before.
The dwarf ghost suddenly leaped from the back of the green-faced female ghost, charging towards the wooden fish through the white light, seemingly intent on destroying it despite the pain.