WBICDPH Chapter 62 Part 1

Chapter 62: Shrouded in Clouds and Mist

From a distance, the thick fog enveloping Shuangxi Village looked like layers of dark clouds sinking to the ground. Gray mist churned and rolled, blotting out the sky and swallowing the entire village within it.

Strictly speaking, with a puppeteer involved behind the scenes, this case was definitely beyond a mere seventh-rank task. It had already exceeded the difficulty level appropriate for their year-end assessment. If they wanted to play it safe, they should head back to the mountain immediately, report the situation to their teachers, and choose a different seventh-rank task to start over.

But Miss Hua wasn’t too keen on that idea. To her, it would be no different from running away at the last minute.

Lin Jin thought it over and agreed. Everything about the puppeteer was still speculation; they had no proof that something more than the red-clad spirit was at work here. They might as well grit their teeth and press on. Besides, they had Xiao Yunkong with them. If they really encountered an enemy that the two of them couldn’t handle, they could just duck behind their senior brother. No shame in that. He was, after all, the pinnacle of combat power in the cultivation world—why not make use of him?

Xiao Yunkong, for his part, didn’t care either way. Whether there was a puppeteer or not made little difference to him—it only meant killing one enemy instead of two.

He wouldn’t interfere with his junior brother and sister’s decision. So he simply stood to the side, silently watching the two agree to quietly follow them into the dense fog.

Knowing Lin Jin had a fragile constitution, Hua Nanzhi took the initiative to walk in front with her blade drawn, while Xiao Yunkong stayed behind, the two of them protecting him between them.

The gray mist inside Shuangxi Village was even thicker than Lin Jin had imagined—so thick he couldn’t even make out Miss Hua’s conspicuous red outfit just two steps ahead.

Frowning slightly, he tucked the small creature from his shoulder into his robe and took out a Light-Congealing Talisman from his storage ring, trying to illuminate the path ahead.

But the intense beam from the fifth-rank talisman couldn’t pierce the fog. Instead, it seemed to be swallowed whole by the mist, vanishing without a trace.

Pressing his lips together, Lin Jin discarded the talisman and said, “This isn’t fog.”

“Huh?” Hua Nanzhi turned to look at him, then waved her hand through the swirling gray mist before her. “Then what is it?”

Lin Jin didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he pulled out another talisman from his ring.

This time, he didn’t even need to channel spiritual energy into it. The golden talisman burst into light the moment it appeared and instantly burned to ashes.

Only then did Lin Jin say with certainty, “It’s a ghostly aura.”

“What?!” Goosebumps instantly rose on Hua Nanzhi’s arms. “But back in primary hall, didn’t our teacher say a ghostly aura is something invisible and intangible? Like the spiritual energy of heaven and earth?”

“Yes. But the one I just used was a seventh-rank Soul-Detecting Talisman. It only reacts to ghostly aura. If a ghostly aura is present, it burns on its own—the denser the aura, the faster it burns. You saw how quickly it ignited just now. That means the ghostly aura around us is concentrated to a rather terrifying degree.”

To prove his point, Lin Jin took out an eighth-rank Soul-Detecting Talisman. It burned just as quickly as the seventh-rank one.

“A ghostly aura is formed from the soul’s power mixed with negative emotions like resentment, grief, sorrow, and pain. In that sense, it is indeed somewhat similar to spiritual energy. When spiritual energy is refined by cultivators, it can become tangible spiritual power. So if ghostly aura is dense enough and further refined by certain methods, in theory, it too could become corporeal.”

Seeing the confusion on their faces, Xiao Yunkong added the explanation.

He had barely finished speaking when he suddenly seemed to sense something. His tone shifted.

“Be careful.”

Before they set out, their senior had instructed Xiao Yunkong to protect his junior brother and sister’s safety while still allowing them the chance to face danger on their own, so they wouldn’t grow overly reliant on him. True to that instruction, Xiao Yunkong had released his spiritual sense upon entering the fog, keeping watch over their surroundings. He gave a warning when he sensed something amiss—but he made no move to draw his sword.

“Ring—”

A strange bell chime suddenly echoed from the distance.

At the same time, judging by the subtle shifts in the surrounding breeze, Lin Jin sensed something moving continuously within the fog ahead of them.

“Who goes there? Stop playing tricks!” Hua Nanzhi gripped her Howling Moon Saber and scanned their surroundings warily. No one responded.

“Ring, ring—”

The bell sounded again, faster this time.

“Someone’s approaching,” Lin Jin said.

Unlike Xiao Yunkong, he couldn’t probe with his spiritual sense. He could only rely on the unique perception granted by his special constitution to detect faint fluctuations in the surrounding aura.

Almost the moment he finished speaking, a faint dark silhouette appeared behind the fog in front of them. Soon, a creature burst through the mist, baring its fangs and claws as it lunged at them.

It was called a creature because it had the body of a man, but a bull’s head mounted on its shoulders.

Neither Lin Jin nor Hua Nanzhi had ever seen anything so bizarre. Both were startled, and Hua Nanzhi, standing at the front, cried out as she swung her saber down at the bull-headed monster.

As the young lord of Chixia City, even a random bead plucked from Hua Nanzhi’s ornaments was a priceless treasure. The saber she carried at all times as her life-bound weapon was even more extraordinary.

It was said that the City Lord of Chixia, Hua Wujiu, had once spent a fortune commissioning dozens of high-ranking artificers to forge this nine-ringed blade for his beloved daughter. During its forging, he had thrown in numerous priceless inherited artifacts and treasures as foundational materials. As a result, the finished Howling Moon Saber surpassed even ordinary Heaven-tier weapons. The mere airflow created by a swing of its blade could slice through iron like mud—let alone when paired with Miss Hua’s ferocious, unstoppable fighting style.

Fearing the next moment would be too bloody, Lin Jin reflexively closed his eyes.

To his surprise, however, her strike did not sever the bull-headed monster’s head.

When he opened his eyes, Hua Nanzhi was still frozen in her slashing posture. Her saber had stopped abruptly just an inch from the creature’s neck.

Looking closer, he saw a stream of frigid spiritual energy blocking the blade, halting its descent.

Surprised, Lin Jin turned to glance at Xiao Yunkong behind him, unsure of his intent.

Before he could ask, a “thud” sounded from the direction of the bull-headed monster.

The creature that had just lunged at them was now sitting on the ground, trembling. Its head had tilted oddly to one side.

“?”