Chapter 6

Qi Xu was now a ghost!

Wasn’t it totally normal that humans couldn’t touch ghosts? In so many movies and shows, those heartbreaking stories of unfulfilled romances between humans and ghosts—where you could see but not touch—happened all the time. So, for a ghost to be untouchable by humans was perfectly normal!

Qi Xu was thrilled. She bounced along for a few steps. All those people who had previously pinned her to the ground and piled on top of her couldn’t touch her at all now. This gave her a cocky, superior feeling. But this sensation didn’t last long before it was shattered.

A ghost charged straight at her. Although humans couldn’t touch her, ghosts could. That ghost barreled toward her like a cannonball and slammed her flying backward, its arms wrapped tightly around her waist. This impact made the jade pendant set at her waist jingle crisply.

When Qi Xu looked down at it, the ghost lifted its face. To be honest, Qi Xu couldn’t tell if it was a male ghost or a female ghost because its face was rotted beyond recognition. A chill ran through her, and she instinctively raised the copper coin sword in her hand and thrust it down at that hideous face.

Perhaps because she had become a ghost, she was far more decisive than usual. A person who wouldn’t even kill a fish at home managed to easily stab the copper coin sword into something humanoid-like in that moment. Ghostly blue flames ignited on the copper coin sword in her hand. The next instant, the ghost shrieked and then turned to ashes and vanished.

Qi Xu felt like she could strut around again. She was super strong this time! Look, she had taken down an earthbound spirit just like that.

Qi Xu swung the copper coin sword around fiercely, looking powerful and unstoppable. In no time, she had eliminated several earthbound spirits. But it was right at that moment that the Stone Spirit stirred. As it walked, its stone feet thudded against the ground. Even the floor trembled along with it.

This overwhelming pressure was something the lesser ghosts didn’t have. Qi Xu gripped the copper coin sword tightly with both hands and instinctively glanced back at Xia Zhiming outside the door.

She was just an ordinary person, after all. She didn’t have that “keep your eyes locked on the enemy, never look away” kind of resolve. In the instant she turned her head, the Stone Spirit’s stone hand clamped down on her head and smashed her to the ground. Qi Xu didn’t feel any pain because she was a ghost and had no physical sensations.

The Stone Spirit was truly formidable, nothing like those small fry. In the moment it lunged at her, Qi Xu actually sensed it and hurriedly tried to counter with the copper coin sword in her hand. But the copper coin sword, which had been invincible before, was now useless. It was knocked straight out of her grasp.

It spun clattering on the ground a few times before landing.

Instinctively, Qi Xu sensed that the situation was bad. Her head felt dizzy. It had been like this all evening—her mind never fully cleared. So much had happened tonight that her brain felt like glue. This blow made her vision blur even more, her mind rippling like waves.

She had a constant feeling: if the Stone Spirit caught her, she was in big trouble. Her head was so dizzy; she felt like she might pass out at any moment.

Qi Xu still looked toward the outside of the doorway. In her daze, she only saw Xia Zhiming beckon to her, then cup her hands into a megaphone shape and shout toward her, “Remember not to harm living people! I’m running first!” With that, she really saw Xia Zhiming sprinting rapidly outward.

—Wait, you’re running? What about me?!

Before Qi Xu could think further, her vision went black in waves. She also heard the Stone Spirit’s voice: 【Your life belongs to me now.】

Was she some kind of weirdo? Why was it fixating on her?

After this thought surfaced, she had no energy left to think of anything else because her head really was spinning. In the next moment, she lost control of her body and fell completely unconscious.

Her body—or perhaps it should be called her soul—didn’t turn into a helpless salted fish waiting to be slaughtered after losing its owner’s consciousness. Instead, at that instant, her limp hands on the ground clenched into fists. She stood up under the Stone Spirit’s large hand, as casually as if she had just tripped accidentally in daily life. She straightened up and lightly patted the dust off her knees.

With her movements, the jade pendant set jingled crisply.

This completely different state made even the Stone Spirit retreat a step. It stood behind the crowd of people and ghosts, its eyes flickering with alarm as it watched Qi Xu. Qi Xu was very different from before. Her eyes were vacant, icy cold. Though they seemed to look at the Stone Spirit, they lacked focus, making them eerily lifeless.

It was precisely this Qi Xu that made the Stone Spirit hesitate to act rashly.

But its hesitation didn’t mean it would abandon its assault on Qi Xu. It still had all these people and ghosts at its command. With a wave of its large hand, it pointed at Qi Xu and uttered three words: 【Kill her!】

Under its command, the ghosts had been hesitating—after all, Qi Xu had taken out quite a few of them with that copper coin sword earlier. But seeing the copper coin sword fallen nearby bolstered their courage. After just a few seconds of pause, they lunged at Qi Xu.

For some reason, the ghosts felt an extraordinarily sweet fragrance emanating from Qi Xu’s body. It seeped into their bones, like a cold blue lotus from the abyss, exuding a faint, alluring scent that tempted every ghost to pluck it.

They only knew one thing: tear her apart, devour her, and they would become the king among ghosts!

Their brief pause was unremarkable—most people wouldn’t even notice it. But to their ruler, it was glaringly obvious. The Stone Spirit could sense that the moment they had their own thoughts, they showed signs of breaking away from its control. Alarmed, it turned its gaze to Qi Xu.

She still stood there, her pitch-black robes making her figure appear exceptionally solemn. Under the glow of the blood-red lanterns, she remained cloaked in black, untouched by the red light. It was as if all light falling on her was absorbed completely.

When she had first transformed into this state, it had been the same. But until just before standing up, her aura hadn’t been very noticeable. Now, it was impossible to ignore.

The ghosts lunged at her from all directions—ghosts of all shapes and sizes, ragged and tattered. The fastest one, with the greediest eyes, stretched out its inhuman fingers toward her eyes. But it froze mid-air, unable to advance another inch.

Qi Xu maintained her aloof, distant expression. She didn’t even open her mouth, yet a voice echoed in the minds of all the ghosts—Kneel.

The power of this voice was immense. All the ghosts shuddered. By the time they reacted, an unknown force had pinned them firmly to the ground. Even the Stone Spirit struggled to resist. It instantly reverted its legs to stone form to barely hold on without looking too pathetic.

Yes, pathetic.

Under this command, all the ghosts looked utterly pathetic. They knelt prostrate on the ground, knees on the floor, heads pressed to the earth, unable to move an inch.

But unlike the ghosts, the hypnotized humans charged at Qi Xu as per the Stone Spirit’s intent. Qi Xu’s eyebrows twitched slightly. Her lips moved, repeating Xia Zhiming’s earlier words: “Don’t… harm living people…”

The Stone Spirit’s heart jolted. It swallowed nonexistent saliva. In this moment, it seemed to find a glimmer of hope.

It had hoped to use the living humans to restrain Qi Xu, but in the next instant, she slowly floated into the air. Even the towering Stone Spirit had to look up at Qi Xu in midair.

At some point, the full moon had slipped out from behind the clouds. Silver-white moonlight poured down like water, falling behind Qi Xu and outlining her figure with a glowing halo. Her disheveled hair fluttered gently in the night breeze, while her unfocused eyes stared down at the Stone Spirit.

—Its wild ambition to have living humans seize Qi Xu was dashed too, because humans couldn’t fly.

The Stone Spirit wanted to do something more, but it saw Qi Xu gently raise her hand… The copper coin sword lying on the ground seemed summoned. It flew straight up, brushing past the prostrate ghosts and claiming a few unlucky ones along the way.

The copper coin sword hovered quietly before Qi Xu, strands of ghostly blue flames clinging to it. The blue grew deeper and more profound than when she had held it earlier.

A voice screamed in the Stone Spirit’s mind: Run! Run! Or you’ll really die here!

Instinctively, before the copper coin sword could chase it down, the Stone Spirit levitated into the air. It didn’t dare fly higher than Qi Xu, fearing it would just be serving itself up on a platter. It kept at a height that avoided obstacles and fled outward. As it left the Earth God Temple, the temple’s walls and stones seemed to gain sentience, suddenly surging toward Qi Xu in attack.

But Qi Xu was no longer the same; she was ridiculously strong now. The stones couldn’t touch her at all, blocked by some force. Some were even slapped away. The copper coin sword pursued the Stone Spirit relentlessly.

Qi Xu turned her body, gazing in the direction the Stone Spirit fled. Her mind was still foggy and dizzy, in an unconscious state, but she remembered some things. For example: Xia Zhiming had said earlier that if it fled, it would be in that direction.

The Stone Spirit seemed to be fleeing valiantly in exactly the direction Xia Zhiming had mentioned.

—Huh? Why was it running?