Seeing the scene where her ghost body separated from her human body, Qi Xu finally understood why the four of them had run away from her so quickly.
Putting herself in their shoes, if Qi Xu encountered such a situation and inexplicably saw a person suddenly collapse to the ground while an evil ghost identical to her stood up on her body, she would run too.
She would even complain about having only two legs and wish for more—damn legs, run faster!
The actions of those four just now made sense. They must have spotted her ghost body emerging at some point. So, in their eyes, she was the ghost, the potential threat.
Meanwhile, their Tiger Granny had hidden perfectly without revealing a hint, so she still looked like the good person!
The thought made Qi Xu seethe with anger, but she still had to chase after them. Otherwise, those four might not survive! With that in mind, Qi Xu floated up, wrapped herself in black fog, and pursued them.
Qi Xu’s speed was fast, but her appearance was terrifying. Honghong glanced back and nearly fainted from fright. Qi Xu wore black ancient-style robes with fluttering hems, surrounded by thick black mist—she looked just like a murderous evil ghost!
She knew it! That black fog was definitely suspicious! See? Proof positive!
Honghong immediately shouted, “Split up and run!”
The four exchanged glances, their eyes filled with determination, as if saying to each other: We have to survive!
Qi Xu really felt exhausted. In horror movies, this was the worst taboo! They were truly a group of inexperienced humans!
She locked onto her target—Honghong, who was with Tiger Granny, as the most dangerous. She had to catch up and protect her! Qi Xu moved swiftly and soon reached Honghong. But in the next moment, her face darkened. The one beside Honghong wasn’t Wolf Granny at all. It was Xiaoxue, draped in a red headscarf.
The fog had interfered with her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have mistaken her.
The fog wasn’t just blocking her physical sight. After fully transforming into her ghost body, Qi Xu understood that this white fog was also condensed yin energy, just like her black fog. Tiger Granny’s own yin energy wasn’t strong, or rather, it was extremely good at hiding. Combined with the thick yin energy fog blanketing the mountains, even Qi Xu in her ghost body couldn’t see clearly.
This was also why Qi Xu had reverted to her ghost body. The yin energy was too dense. Even in her living human state, surrounded by such thick yin energy, her ghost body would emerge, greedily absorbing it.
After so long, it had been enough time for her ghost body to sneakily reveal itself.
The white fog hadn’t thinned despite Qi Xu absorbing so much, which showed just how dense the fog and yin energy were.
Most importantly, Qi Xu herself had been too anxious, chasing too fast, and hadn’t noticed that the one with Honghong was Xiaoxue, not Tiger Granny.
In that instant, Qi Xu sensed something was wrong.
Tiger Granny was clearly an evil ghost. There was no reason it would let live humans go. It was probably the evil ghost that had abducted children across provinces. How could it possibly cooperate with Honghong and Xiaoxue? In Qi Xu’s eyes, Honghong and Xiaoxue were living humans, not little ghosts under Tiger Granny’s command.
That meant Tiger Granny had agreed to this on its own, or perhaps Honghong and Xiaoxue had initiated it, and Tiger Granny had simply gone along.
Qi Xu didn’t blame Honghong and Xiaoxue. They weren’t bad people; they were kind-hearted. In their eyes, Tiger Granny was just an ordinary old lady, elderly and slow on her feet, unable to outrun the “evil ghost” Qi Xu. Xiaoxue had put on Tiger Granny’s headscarf, and the two running together probably made for a bigger target.
Qi Xu floated in front of the pair. They were both terrified—Xiaoxue, being emotional, was on the verge of tears—but they held hands, determined to fight this evil ghost to the end.
Qi Xu had no time to deal with them right now. She was pondering why Tiger Granny would cooperate with them… and let four juicy morsels slip away. Then, she recalled the hungry, green-glowing gaze Tiger Granny had fixed on her…
“!” Qi Xu whipped her head around. She got it.
Damn it, she’d fallen for Tiger Granny’s lure-the-tiger-from-the-mountain trick! Qi Xu gritted her teeth, ignored Honghong and Xiaoxue, and sped back instead. That damn Tiger Granny’s target was her! It might have been planning to devour her from the moment it trailed behind!
Qi Xu had left quickly and returned just as fast. When she got back to the original spot, she saw Tiger Granny standing beside her human body, its hand transformed into a massive tiger paw, poised to strike her body.
Black fog surged forward in that instant, forming sharp spikes that stabbed at Tiger Granny’s paw. Tiger Granny recoiled in pain.
But Qi Xu didn’t dare approach. She feared getting too close to her body and being sucked back in. As a ghost body now, dealing with Tiger Granny was a piece of cake. But if she returned to her human body, the tables would turn completely.
Then she’d be the one running!
Yet Tiger Granny seemed overly clever. It had spotted Qi Xu’s hesitation and didn’t stray far from her human body, lingering nearby. Its yellow eyes scanned the surroundings, greed plain in them.
But it seemed to know it couldn’t seize her human body from Qi Xu alone. So it decided to try another approach, using its cunning brain.
A gurgle gurgle rumbled from its throat, like the sound of the stray cat under their dorm that purred when scratched on the chin. But the stray cat’s purr was cute and soft, while Tiger Granny’s only sounded grating to Qi Xu.
Tiger Granny spoke, “Interesting, interesting. Your fate constellation is too intriguing.”
Qi Xu wanted to play it cool, like a mature adult, but she was just a pure-hearted, foolish college student with zero acting skills. Even as she warned herself inwardly not to show any expression, Tiger Granny’s words struck right at her core.
Qi Xu had always wondered why she was so strong after turning into a ghost. Her strength was excessive. If she were an optional character in a game, the developers would get flamed for miles, and she’d be a must-pick or ban in every match.
Though Qi Xu felt her fully clear-headed self was still growing, she was already extraordinarily powerful. And the more time she spent in her dazed state, the more skills she mastered when clear-headed. Given time, her clear-headed state could match her dazed strength.
Even now, she was ghost-defyingly strong. First off, she could absorb yin energy… which seemed like a standard skill, but other ghosts absorbed it slowly and needed to harm people for resentment to grow stronger. Qi Xu was different—she just stood there, and yin energy from the whole world kissed up to her.
Including from other ghosts. She absorbed at will. That alone let her lord over all ghosts.
Beyond that, her vision as a ghost differed from her human state. As a living human, Tiger Granny looked like a person with a tiger head to Qi Xu. But from her ghost body’s view, she saw Tiger Granny’s true state.
It wasn’t one ghost—it was two.
A tiger ghost and an old lady ghost twisted together. The tiger was stronger but brainless, partially devoured by the old lady. Entwined, they devoured each other, growing together. From a ghost’s perspective, it looked even more terrifying than from a human’s.
She was already this strong, and Xia Zhiming had told her before: the greater the resentment on one’s body, the stronger the ghost.
Qi Xu truly didn’t understand why she was so strong. She harbored no resentment. At most, she occasionally griped that she was unlucky and fate was unfair to her, but she held no hatred toward anyone or the world.
Qi Xu genuinely felt her life was pretty fulfilling and happy, aside from bumping into ghosts. From childhood, aside from getting pneumonia at eight from playing near water, she’d been healthy—minor colds at worst. Her family wasn’t wealthy, but she’d never lacked food or clothes, and her parents doted on her, especially her mother, to the point of spoiling.
Under such circumstances, Qi Xu hadn’t turned rotten. Her college entrance exam scores were good, she got along well with people, and she was pretty in an approachable way. Anyone who saw her would sincerely praise, “What a lovely girl!”
By contrast, her parents were very ordinary, leading some to wonder if she was truly their biological child. But her features closely resembled theirs; without blood ties, she couldn’t look so similar.
Truly, her life from childhood had been smooth, so no hating the heavens or resenting others. Meaning her strength didn’t come from hating others. That left only one possibility—others hated her.
This left Qi Xu even more baffled. She got along well with everyone and had a good personality. How could she inexplicably draw such hatred?
Now Tiger Granny clearly knew something and wanted to use it as leverage against her. Qi Xu desperately wanted to appear nonchalant, but she was dying to know what was going on. Her seemingly dull eyes burst with thirst for knowledge.
“…” Qi Xu opened her mouth but didn’t know how to question Tiger Granny. She stared at it, waiting for it to continue. But Tiger Granny was a sly ghost.
As a fusion of tiger and ghost, its cunning was astounding to Qi Xu.
As this subtle calm settled between them, someone suddenly shattered it.
“I’ve been busting my ass half the day, and you’re here philosophizing about ghost life’s mysteries with this tiger ghost?”
Qi Xu turned her head. She didn’t need to look to know it was Xia Zhiming.
