Chapter Sixteen: The Secret Arts of the Ghost Path

(1/3)
He Chang'an glanced back, then took off running. Unable to provoke these beings, he decided to head back to the city first.

All he heard was a muffled boom, followed by howls and screams from the depths of his soul, as well as unspeakable, seductive sounds that left his face pale and legs weak.

It seemed there were two enormous entities clashing near the academy. One was likely a ghost, for He Chang'an recognized the wailing cries; the other—could it be a demon?

He didn't bother to distinguish further. Their power was terrifying, enough to crush him with a flick of the hand.

He scrambled and stumbled for a mile before stopping—he couldn't run any farther. His body could endure, yet his mind was dazed. A chill radiated from his brow, threatening to invade his mind.

The ghostly mark on his brow had been activated.

Perhaps the female ghost who kept him under her protection was now battling the demon in the academy. In that case, hurry up, great demon—kill that female ghost!

He Chang'an looked back a few times, his expression uncertain, then decided to sit and meditate, circulating his energy through his body.

...

Soon, He Chang'an opened his eyes, his expression odd.

The female ghost's mark on his brow seemed capable of being refined by the "little black rod" in his spirit sea.

The cold, ghostly energy released by the mark, when circulated through his body, entered his dantian and was transformed into strands of pure spiritual energy.

Delighted, He Chang'an immediately worried again. He was still weak—any ghost above the Yellow Page rank could kill him with ease. If the mark was fully refined, would it attract that "old fiend"?

Forget it, he dared not continue refining. The taste of an eagle devouring a chick was hard to describe...

He stood up and slowly walked toward the city.

One thing was certain: in this strange Tang Dynasty, the academy of Weiyang County had truly become a perilous "ruin"...

...

Meanwhile, within Weiyang Academy, a bizarre battle was underway.

(2/3)
At the academy's dilapidated gate, a scholar in white stood with a cold expression. In his left hand, he held a "Sage's Work," and in his right, a ruler. A gentle aura of righteousness flowed around him, enveloping him in a yard-wide shield.

Beside him, Li Yishan sat cross-legged on the ground, his face pale and blood at the corner of his mouth, healing his wounds.

Inside the academy gate, black mist billowed. At its center sat a female ghost with disheveled hair. Around her, faces of the dead appeared and vanished, dissolving into the foul, pungent black mist.

Under her control, the faces opened their eyes, twisted in agony, and screamed as they surged toward the scholar's shield, biting, clawing, and corroding.

The shield trembled but did not break. Yet it visibly thinned.

The scholar sneered, flipped open his book, and raised the ruler toward the ghost in the courtyard, scolding, "Only villains and women are difficult to nurture!"

The ruler became a phantom, five feet wide and thirty feet long, square and proper, imbued with the dignity of the teacher's way, smashing into the black mist.

With a hiss, countless twisted faces dissolved upon contact, evaporating instantly into wisps of smoke.

The female ghost hiding in the mist abruptly opened her eyes, shooting two crimson beams. Her pale, sinister, slender face showed a hint of surprise.

Just as the ruler phantom was about to strike, the ghost opened her mouth with a piercing scream, firing a gray bead the size of a pigeon egg.

With a loud bang, the ruler phantom shattered.

The bead was caught by the ghost's long tongue and flashed back into her body.

A flush crossed the scholar's face, then faded to extreme pallor. Blood slowly seeped from the corner of his mouth, and his hand holding the ruler trembled.

"Senior brother, you should leave," Li Yishan said, opening his eyes and managing a bitter smile. "This ghost has at least three hundred years of cultivation, has absorbed the vital energy of over a hundred people, and is about to advance to the Soul-Capturing Ghost stage..."

"Hmph, demons and monsters are hardly worth mentioning!" the scholar scoffed. "Yishan, focus on healing. Let me use my righteous energy to obliterate this fiend!"

"Senior brother, don't!" Li Yishan cried, alarmed. "Righteous energy is hard to nourish. It's not worth risking your cultivation for a mere ghost!"

"Hahaha, what are we scholars for? Teaching? Worrying for the country, managing the world?" The scholar laughed toward the sky, his stern face filled with heroic spirit. "Wrong! Utterly wrong! A scholar cultivates righteous energy for the sole purpose of destroying fiends like this one!"

He opened the "Sage's Work," ruler in hand, reciting, "To learn and regularly practice..." and stepped forward.

He recited, "When friends come from afar..." and stepped forward again.

(3/3)
He recited, "If a gentleman is not solemn, he is not respected," and continued forward...

In a few breaths, the scholar in white stepped through the academy gate, his shield shining so intensely it could not be looked at directly.

Li Yishan paused, stood up, took out a "Sage's Work," grabbed a brush, and followed his senior brother into the academy.

"Senior brother, if we do not succeed, we shall die with honor. I have learned much from you," Li Yishan said, raising his brush and writing the character for "benevolence" in midair, the size of a human head.

"Good. Today, we either succeed or die with honor," the scholar replied, infusing his ruler with righteous energy and swinging it at the densest part of the black mist.

Meanwhile, the female ghost saw the two scholars stepping into the academy, competing with her in "inner power," a fierce look flashing in her eyes...

...

A couple more miles and He Chang'an would reach the city. He breathed a sigh of relief, muttering, "Unless I reach the ninth level of the Qi-Eating Technique, if I leave the city again, I'll let that little nun keep me..."

Suddenly, his expression changed drastically.

His head split with pain, his mind blurred.

A needle pierced his brow, then a hole opened—his ghostly mark was reactivated.

A thin black thread, visible to the naked eye, was drawn out and floated toward the academy at a steady pace.

At the same time, he was shocked to see hundreds of black threads above Weiyang County, all drawn by some strange force toward the academy.

He Chang'an understood instantly: the female ghost was casting the ghostly secret art "Spinning Silk and Peeling Cocoon," attempting to absorb all her "male pets'" vital energy at once.

This technique was recorded in the "Ghost-Hunting Manual." If the ghost was powerful enough, she could simultaneously strip the vital energy, blood, and cultivation of thousands of hosts, turning them into medicine dregs.

The hosts would be left as nothing more than husks...

Was the old fiend about to break through to the Soul-Capturing Ghost stage?

Damn—she kept seven or eight hundred men at once? So he wasn't her only beloved man? She seemed so graceful, but she was actually a sly green tea!

Bah—ghost scum!

No time to complain. In just a few breaths, He Chang'an was dizzy, weak in the waist and knees, drenched in sweat, soon soaked through...