Chapter 86

Chapter 86

Chapter 86: Encirclement

The battle was about to erupt.

Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan had no intention of retreating. Even facing this situation, they still gripped their weapons.

Considering the gap between their weapons and the ghosts’, Bai Zhengliu spoke a step ahead: “Mei brother, I’ll take the lead; you cover my flanks.”

At any other time, Mei Yinghan might have argued with Bai Zhengliu over this. But now, he understood that against the wandering ghosts, Bai Zhengliu was undoubtedly stronger, and the Twenty-Eight Generals would inflict greater damage on these creatures. So when he heard this, he didn’t object at all and quietly responded, “Understood.”

Before their words even fully fell, the ghosts were already upon them.

These ghosts were no longer like the head ghost before, which, besides disguising as one of the lotus pickers and trying to pull Bai Zhengliu into the crevice, had no other tricks. The ghosts now each had their strengths: some opened their mouths and spewed a torrent of ice and snow; others reached behind themselves, and without touching anything, a long butcher’s cleaver would be pulled out from their backs—

Bai Zhengliu frowned.

From his perspective, he could see the truth of the “cleaver.”

That wasn’t an ordinary tool—it was the ghost tearing open its own spine and forcibly pulling out its bones!

Even Bai Zhengliu, who was used to vengeful spirits, was somewhat shocked by the ferocity of these ghosts.

Fortunately, his mind remained steady. Though alarmed, his hands did not falter, and he slashed repeatedly at the ghosts before him.

Before long, many ghosts bore injuries, some had their arms severed, and some had half their heads missing.

This made their appearance even more terrifying and monstrous. Yet Bai Zhengliu moved among them undisturbed, still carefully searching for weaknesses in the ghosts’ attacks.

Then he slowly realized—

There were no weaknesses.

This was the key difference between fighting wandering ghosts and fighting living humans.

Against humans, one strike to the heart or neck could immediately incapacitate them, or at least severely wound them so they couldn’t rise again.

But the ghosts? They seemed to have no concept of pain. Even with only one arm remaining, they could still snatch up a weapon nearby and attack Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan!

The two’s stamina gradually began to fail. As time passed, their bodies were covered with bloodstains, both large and small.

These bloodstains only fueled the ghosts’ ferocity further. Not only that, but as the scent of blood spread, more wandering ghosts were drawn toward them.Bai Zhengliu even caught sight of the two vengeful ghosts who had previously disguised themselves as Yu Han and Han Shu. Compared to the many lotus-picker-disguised wandering ghosts, the two of them seemed somewhat out of place. Even in this situation, they remained standing in the distance, not joining in.

In a flash, Bai Zhengliu’s mind once again replayed his and Mei Yinghan’s discussion about these two wandering ghosts. It was clear—they weren’t lotus pickers, but Jianghu travelers. Yet even as Jianghu travelers, how was their origin different from the others?

He was about to come to an answer.

At that moment, a fierce gust of wind blew past Bai Zhengliu’s ear.

Startled, he hurriedly raised his saber to meet it. But Mei Yinghan was one step faster; long before the axe pulled from the lotus-picker ghost’s spine could strike down, he had already raised his longsword!

The moment the bone axe met Zhenxing, Bai Zhengliu heard a clear hum. Then came a muffled groan—Mei Yinghan let out a low grunt!

Bai Zhengliu immediately realized: “Mei brother, you—”

Had probably suffered new internal injuries from the shock!

Worse than the external wounds, internal injuries were more serious and troublesome. Bai Zhengliu’s expression immediately turned grim as he thought: “We can’t keep going like this.”

He scanned the surroundings. At this point, Bai Zhengliu knew he could not possibly slay all the wandering ghosts and vengeful spirits. The current plan had to be escape.

That said, truly escaping was no easy task.

The pain from his wounds, the anxiety over Mei Yinghan’s injury, and the frustration at the current situation all surged into Bai Zhengliu’s mind at once.

Despite the chaos in his mind, his hands never paused. He protected his vital points while shielding Mei Yinghan as best he could.

Unfortunately, it was all futile. The wandering ghosts grew more numerous and more dense. For a moment, Bai Zhengliu even saw the head ghost’s figure ahead through the crowd of wandering ghosts.

It wore a satisfied smile, giving Bai Zhengliu a very strong instinct: perhaps from the very beginning, the head ghost had already seen that he and Mei brother were putting on a performance. To the head ghost, this was simply a calculated plan—drawing them into its companions’ midst in an attempt to eliminate the two of them!

Bai Zhengliu gritted his teeth.

His shoulders went numb, blood flowed ever more, and he began to feel dizzy and exhausted… even a sense of “is it really going to end like this?”

But how could it? He hadn’t yet left with Mei brother, hadn’t yet saved the lotus pickers outside, and hadn’t yet revealed the truth about the harmful old ghost deep in Tianshan!

A strange force swirled in the saber master’s dantian, and his mind began buzzing intensely. It was as if his intent resonated with the Twenty-Eight Generals in hand. Blurred but perceptible, streams of flowing light once again appeared in the air.

Bai Zhengliu’s intense emotions awakened Yang Chun Yue in the saber.

The moment she opened her eyes, she first saw the scene outside. Even having faced countless crises before, the female general could not help but draw a sharp breath at the sight of the peril her two juniors were facing.The flowing light continued to spread.

Bai Zhengliu clearly felt the pain in his body begin to lessen, then dissipate… He devoted seventy percent of his attention to the enemies, twenty percent to Mei Yinghan, ensuring that Mei Yinghan could still hold up under the waves of attacks from the wandering ghosts. The remaining ten percent focused on Yang Chun Yue.

He saw the female general’s expression shift from grim to startled, and finally, a faint, almost imperceptible smile appeared.

Yang Chun Yue’s lips moved slightly, as if she said something or noticed something. Normally, Bai Zhengliu could read lips, but at this moment, his mind was too divided to see clearly what she said. It didn’t matter, because in the next instant, more streams of flowing light emerged from all directions, falling on the female general, the Twenty-Eight Generals, and the two young men.

Immediately, the two realized they seemed to have entered a profoundly mysterious state.

Yang Chun Yue guided them forward. Throughout the process, the wandering ghosts seemed completely unable to see them, allowing the two to walk out unimpeded.

The ghosts even jostled and questioned each other: “Where did those two living humans go? Speak! Did you take them for yourself?”

“What are you ranting about? I was just standing here properly, and you saw it!—Fine, fine, I get it. You must have taken the two living humans and tried to secretly offer them to the Master, framing me in the process!”

“Haha, living humans can’t just disappear right under everyone’s eyes. If it were for offering to the Master, why bother with such trouble? I’d say one of the dead ghosts simply wanted to take them for themselves!”

“Ugh!” With this, the wandering ghosts grew even more chaotic. Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan watched from the side, still unable to believe they had emerged completely unscathed from such a crowd.

They marveled for a moment, then turned to look at the female general beside them.

Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan both cupped their hands in salute. “Thank you for saving our lives, General.”

Yang Chun Yue smiled faintly, a bit wistful, and said, “It’s not I who saved you—it’s this mountain.”

At these words, both the saber master and the swordsman froze. Yet recalling the streams of light that had appeared from all around, they had a vague sense of the answer in their minds.

Still, that alone wasn’t enough. So Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan maintained a solemn tone as they asked the female general, “What do you mean, Senior? We are slow to understand—please explain, General.”

Yang Chun Yue, knowing the urgency of the situation, did not withhold information. “Walk this way first,” she said, pointing opposite to the wandering ghosts’ direction. “Do you remember the hairpin the merchant Qian Gui took out? And the bracelet in Lady Meng’s hand?”

Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan naturally remembered. Back at the Tan family, they had heard about these from Ma Er. Both items carried a special, usable power. But because Lady Meng’s resentment was so strong, she had polluted the bracelet’s power, allowing her to control a whole section of forest around the Tan family, and preventing Nie Qing’e and Lu Qing from resisting her.

Later, after parting ways with Qian Gui and the Emei family brothers, various parties mentioned that they would carefully search for objects similar to the hairpin and bracelet to harness their power for themselves.

Now, Yang Chun Yue nodded slightly and spoke in a tone of amazement: “I never imagined… that within Tianshan, there would be such a vast area of spiritual ore.”

Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan were stunned.

“Spiritual ore”?—As the name suggests, she was referring to a type of special jade-bearing mineral.

The word “spiritual” used here might feel unfamiliar, but it often connotes something connected to divinity. If the harmful methods in The Star-Gleaning Record are “yin,” and the talismans made according to its requirements are “yin talismans,” then a corresponding, divine-related object being called “spiritual” is quite fitting.As for “within Tianshan, there is such a vast area”… the eyes of the saber master and the swordsman both trembled, then they looked around.

Only now did they notice that after the others had left, the streams of flowing light had not dissipated, but continued to surround them, illuminating the path ahead.

Author’s note:

See you tomorrow (evening).