Chapter 22: Where’s The Promised Soul-soothing?
Soul Soothing Technique activated.
That pure white light enveloped all the ghosts and monsters in an instant.
And the ghosts and monsters that had originally been stirring and gathering toward Jiang Ce froze in place in that instant, like zombies that had lost their target.
Seeing this, Jiang Ce also breathed a sigh of relief.
Those ordinary ghosts naturally went without saying; they definitely became good babies. The eighth- and ninth-rank vengeful spirits should also be restricted to a certain degree, but for that one seventh-rank vengeful spirit, Jiang Ce wasn’t sure it would obediently submit.
After all, the Soul Soothing Technique didn’t have any offensive effects; its function of making ghosts and monsters lose their will to fight and become stable was more inclined toward support.
So to completely resolve the vengeful spirits, a battle was probably still unavoidable.
With a slight thought, Jiang Ce made his decision: first find a way to quickly take out the seventh-rank vengeful spirit, then deal with the others at eighth rank, and after that handle the ninth rank.
Because according to normal logic, if any could resist the effects of the Soul Soothing Technique, it would be the strongest ghosts and monsters that broke free first.
But just as Jiang Ce settled on this simple plan and was about to figure out how to deal with the seventh-rank vengeful spirit, a sudden change occurred.
The ordinary ghosts, which Jiang Ce had imagined should remain stable the longest, were actually the first to grow restless, and the restlessness quickly turned into a riot.
Jiang Ce was inevitably startled, because he was utterly shocked to discover that these ghosts had become even more violent than before for some unknown reason, and their strength had also received a terrifying boost. Among them, the ghosts with stronger malice even had a sense of oppression approaching that of ninth-rank vengeful spirits.
This was something Jiang Ce couldn’t understand and couldn’t accept.
If the ghosts were already this exaggerated, then the vengeful spirits…
Before Jiang Ce could imagine what the vengeful spirits would become, reality had already given him the answer.
Ninth-rank vengeful spirits surpassed eighth-rank ones, eighth-rank vengeful spirits surpassed seventh-rank ones, and that strongest seventh-rank vengeful spirit had reached a level of strength that even Jiang Ce couldn’t estimate.
Jiang Ce had yet to step into sixth rank, so without a benchmark, he could only be sure that the seventh-rank vengeful spirit was at least sixth rank, because the density of malice on its body and its sense of oppression were absolutely beyond what seventh rank could compare to!
This sudden change made Jiang Ce feel his scalp go numb.
How was he supposed to fight this?
Not only had they all gotten stronger, but they had also become so restless. Staying here was just pure suicide.
His first reaction was to run.
Although these ghosts and monsters had inexplicably become incredibly powerful, their physical bodies had been dead for many years and lacked intelligence, which was still an irreparable flaw—and this was also what Jiang Ce relied on to dare face so many ghosts and monsters.
If he couldn’t beat them, he could still run!
But before he could even take a step, a scene that left him dumbfounded occurred.
First, those ordinary ghosts, which originally didn’t dare approach the vengeful spirits at all, charged fearlessly at the vengeful spirits, while those farther away simply attacked the ghosts beside them.
The vengeful spirits were even less merciful: one swipe of a claw meant the death of two or three ghosts. Once the ghosts around them were killed, they charged at nearby ghosts to continue the slaughter.
That seventh-rank vengeful spirit was especially exaggerated; it didn’t just simply kill ghosts and monsters lower than it in rank. After killing one, it bit off the head and swallowed it whole. After several rounds, it grew stronger the more it killed, and even showed signs of further evolution.
The entire lobby descended into chaos in an instant, and the number of ghosts and monsters was rapidly decreasing.
But the strangest thing was that all the ghosts and monsters acted like they couldn’t see Jiang Ce at all, engaging in desperate slaughter against their own kind, leaving Jiang Ce both baffled and a bit awkward.
“No… bros, stop biting, it’s dead already.”
“Hey, little ghost, look at me!”
“Ouch, who bumped into me? Oh? No need to kneel, pretty polite…”
“No, you there, why sneak attack?”
“Holy shit, you’re ganging up now? Can’t win fair and square, kinda embarrassing for ghosts.”
Amid Jiang Ce’s one-man stand-up, happy times passed joyfully, and soon, only that initial seventh-rank vengeful spirit remained in the field.
Jiang Ce swallowed hard; at this point, it had grown to a level even more incomprehensible to him.
Besides being terrifyingly scary, Jiang Ce couldn’t find any other words to describe it.
But contrary to Jiang Ce’s expectations, the true man 1v1 showdown ultimately didn’t happen. The seventh-rank vengeful spirit blankly looked around, found no more ghosts and monsters to slaughter, then thrust its sharp claws straight into its own throat, yanked out its head along with its spine, collapsed limply to the ground, and after a moment, turned into a cloud of black mist and vanished from the spot.
This bizarre scene that defied the common sense of physics stunned Jiang Ce in place, and after a long while, he muttered:
“Turtle turtle, this must be sacrificing Newton to pull out its own spine, right?”
And once he fully calmed down, silently staring at the Soul Soothing magic array in front of him, doubt and confusion gradually filled his fragile heart, his expression twisting more and more until he finally couldn’t hold back and yelled unwillingly:
“Where’s the promised soul soothing? This crap all acted like they’d injected two pounds of adrenaline, and went berserk punching their own kind—this really isn’t Shock Soul Technique? Did I fucking learn it wrong somewhere? Or am I doomed to never use any normal stuff in this lifetime?”
Jiang Ce knelt powerlessly on the ground, clenched his fists and pounded the floor hard, then helplessly roared at the sky:
“Who the fuck wouldn’t curse evil cultivator after seeing this shit?!”
And at the same time, on the top floor of an abandoned unfinished building one kilometer away from the manor, a young man wearing sportswear but old BJ cloth shoes on his feet had his pupils shaking.
“Evil cultivator!”
He was the one sent by Tide Old Man to monitor Jiang Ce. Although his cultivation wasn’t high, he mastered extremely profound movement sorcery, plus the ability to see ten li away, making him very suitable for reconnaissance.
In fact, as soon as Tide Old Man realized Jiang Ce was no simpleton, he contacted this young man. Jiang Ce hadn’t even left the three streets around Chen Mian’s home before he was targeted and locked on.
The young man had done this kind of thing many times, usually just playing the role of a stalker, recording the target’s daily routine, reporting back, and that was it.
But he never imagined that this guy, who looked just like a street bum, would pull off something so earth-shatteringly outrageous on the first day of tracking—something unprecedented in his career.
Trembling, he dialed the phone:
“Hello? Master Ye, yeah, it’s me. I found him. No, didn’t lose him.”
“He came out from your place, directly grabbed a bike and rode to the southern suburbs.”
“Don’t worry, he doesn’t live in the southern suburbs. Wait, let me finish.”
“Then he set up a formation inside an abandoned villa.”
“What kind? Lemme think, it felt a bit like Maoshan soul-summoning array, but many parts were different. Yeah, you say…”
“Yeah yeah, exactly that. How’d you know?”
“Oh okay. Then he took out a wooden fish and knocked it while muttering something.”
“Dunno, too far. I didn’t learn any hearing-related sorcery, can’t hear.”
“Got it. Then nearly a hundred ghosts and monsters appeared in that villa, seventy or eighty ghosts, seven or eight ninth-rank vengeful spirits, and a few whose strength I couldn’t gauge.”
“He first activated that formation. After a burst of white light, those ghosts and monsters froze.”
“Then came the part I can’t understand: not even ten seconds later, those ghosts and monsters suddenly rioted, and for some reason, their strength got a massive boost.”
“No, he didn’t fight them. The ghosts and monsters fought among themselves, and in the end, only the strongest one was left.”
“I dunno, I couldn’t even tell how strong it was. Anyway, felt like it could slap me dead with one paw.”
“After it was done, the last one yanked out its own head and spine completely, then fell down dead.”
“He’s kneeling on the ground pounding the floor now, looks really frustrated.”
“Dunno, feels like raising gu, but it failed. But one thing’s for sure: he’s definitely an evil cultivator!”
“No landmarks here, dunno the address. How about this: you call people first, I’ll head back now, max ten minutes. Wait for me to guide.”
“Uh, wait, might take longer. My legs are a bit weak now, need to recover first. Too scary.”
After hanging up, the young man looked fearfully at that demon-god-like back view, jumped down from the unfinished building, bounded a few times into the distance after landing, then vanished.
Jiang Ce knew nothing about what had happened one kilometer away.
So he just let out a long sigh, then took out the bronze statue and placed it on the ground in front of him.
“Whatever, doesn’t matter. Just eat as much as you can, don’t waste it.”
