"The ghost... the ghost is back!"
Even Zhou Qiaoling, who had the highest sanity among them, couldn't help but gasp in fear.
"Don’t panic! We have the Evil-Warding Copper Coin!"
Zhong Yi raised the coin tied with a red string, waving it around frantically.
In the oppressive darkness, it felt as though ghosts lurked in every shadow.
Mu Yawen pulled out a Spirit Lantern and shone it around.
No ghostly figures were visible, yet the chilling, suffocating presence clung to them like a second skin.
The three of them were certain.
The ghost,
was right beside them!
"Let’s head for the door first... Junior Sister Zhou, try communicating with it again!"
Zhong Yi gripped the copper coin tightly, forcing himself to stay calm.
"Alright..."
Zhou Qiaoling nodded timidly, her earlier bravado completely gone.
"You..."
"Do you know Old Demon Lu...?"
"......"
A brief silence followed.
But all three of them noticed something unsettling—
Faint breathing could be heard from the other end of the Spirit Jade Slip!
"Heh... hehehe..."
A bone-chilling, hysterical laugh erupted from the Spirit Jade Slip.
"Old... Demon... Lu...!!"
Each word was heavier than the last.
The trio froze, their breath catching in their throats.
At the mention of "Old Demon Lu," the ghost spiraled into madness.
Its shrill, deranged voice scraped against their ears like nails on a chalkboard.
"Give me back my life... Give it back!!!"
"It’s so cold here... so cold..."
"Giggle giggle... hahahaha..."
At the same time,
Black resentment, thick as smoke, gushed out from the Spirit Jade Slip!
"RUN!!"
Zhong Yi sensed imminent danger and shouted. The three of them bolted for the door.
Then—
BANG!
The door slammed shut on its own!
Despair filled their eyes.
A closed door meant only one thing—
The ghost had begun its hunt!
After a moment of frantic thought, Zhong Yi turned around, facing the ghost now striding rapidly toward them from the end of the hallway.
He took a deep breath and raised the Evil-Warding Copper Coin.
"Junior Sister Zhou, Junior Brother Mu... Go. Now!"
"If it kills me, the hunt will end... and the door will open."
"The evidence is clear—this has to be a Wraith!"
"My life in exchange for our team’s victory... It’s worth it!"
"Don’t worry about me, just—... Huh?"
Mid-sentence, Zhong Yi glanced back.
Zhou Qiaoling and Mu Yawen were already sprinting full-speed toward the door, nearly there.
Zhong Yi’s lips twitched.
Well. So much for noble sacrifices.
Meanwhile, the live-stream chat was having a field day watching the elite disciples suffer inside the illusion.
[LMAO, what the hell did Old Demon Lu do to these ghosts? They go berserk at just his name!]
[Fellow cultivators, I take back my earlier arrogance... I lasted half an incense stick in that illusion before dying...]
[Is the illusion really that scary? I don’t believe it.]
[The last guy who said that pissed his pants.]
[Respect to Senior Brother Zhong! Sacrificing himself for the team!]
......
"Trade my life? Not necessarily!"
Zhong Yi stared at the Evil-Warding Copper Coin in his hand, a glimmer of hope still burning in his eyes.
"This coin can block one hunt! It might not kill me!"
As the ghost drew closer, he mustered his courage and charged forward on trembling legs.
"Coin, BREAK ITS POWER!!!"
Three seconds later, Zhong Yi learned another hard truth.
The Evil-Warding Copper Coin only worked when placed on the ground...
......
Now spirits themselves, Zhong Yi and Zhou Yue exchanged wry smiles.
Watching Mu Yawen and Zhou Qiaoling return safely to the carriage, they both felt a flicker of relief.
"Old Zhong... You didn’t guess wrong again, did you?"
"No way! All three pieces of evidence matched, and the constant candle-blowing fits the Wraith’s behavior perfectly. If it’s not a Wraith, I’ll eat my words live on stream!"
Just as Zhong Yi finished his confident declaration, the results screen popped up.
[Entity Type: Mimic Spirit]
[Score: 0]
"???"
"WHAT?! Mimic Spirits can copy any ghost’s traits!!!"
"Damn it all, go eat crap instead!!!"
[P.S. Finally hit 500k words, folks. If you’ve made it this far, drop a five-star review, yeah? That May incident really tanked the ratings... Love y’all.]
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
spital. Good news: I've bound a system. Bad news: I'm still a baby. "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, do not bully the middle-aged for being poor — Divorce Comeback System." "Your marriage may have failed, but your luck in love has never run dry. Your childhood sweetheart, out of contact for twenty years, reappears. Her beauty remains, yet her eyes are brimming with tears." [Listen to the childhood sweetheart's sorrowful story.] Chen Zhi looked down at the diaper he was wearing, then at the little childhood sweetheart crying her heart out beside him, and fell into deep thought. Can anyone relate? I'm having a midlife crisis at an age where even rolling over is a struggle.
mance] After transmigrating for eighteen years, Lin Qi lived as an utterly ordinary herbalist in the countryside. One day, he kindly brought home a sickly, beautiful girl covered in blood. They married in a flash and began their blissful, intimate life together. Right then, his long-delayed system finally activated. [Warning! Host detected in contact with the "Crimson Calamity," the world-ending witch!] Lin Qi looked at the adorable wife currently curled in his arms, who couldn't even open a jar lid and trembled at the sight of a mouse. Lin Qi: "System, are you insane? This is clearly just a weak and delicate sickly girl!" Thus, Lin Qi treated the system as a "Contrast System," where taking care of his wife made him stronger. Combing his wife's hair rewarded him with [Free Attribute Points]. Taking his wife out for sunshine rewarded him with [Forbidden Spell: Arcane Explosion]. Lin Qi: "This soft life tastes so good!" ... Yet, in the eyes of outsiders: The strongest Beastkin Assassin: "That man dissected a Beast King with a common skinning knife! That was a show of force towards the powerful!" The Holy Son of the Radiant Church: "I infiltrated his home as a tutor, but he had me babysit the children... He must have seen through my disguise!" The World-Ending Witch, Felucia: "I hid all the way in the countryside. How is it that the husband I married on a whim is stronger than I was at my peak?"
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
