Chapter 30: Come, come, you base things, you lowly creatures—perish, every one of you, beneath the weight of my righteous aura!

"So... that’s it? It’s over?" Bu Weiwei always felt that this trial shouldn't have been passed in such a manner.

"I told you, it tests wisdom. Wisdom is not the same as intelligence. Intelligence is about performing best within a pre-set framework, but wisdom is about jumping out of that framework entirely. Using conventional methods to solve that problem wouldn't have been so easy." Qin Xi looked completely natural, showing no guilt whatsoever for having just tricked someone.

A-Ling recalled the trial just now, feeling a bit bewildered. The challenge hadn't been difficult; in fact, she had figured out the answer long ago. It was just that Qin Xi’s words had completely bypassed the problem, passing the test in a way she never could have imagined even if she had racked her brains.

She began to doubt herself. Was she lacking in common sense? One of the goals of her journey was to experience things she couldn't learn from books, and today, she had truly seen something new. Perhaps... this was the intended way to pass. Her thinking had been too rigid, too reliant on book knowledge.

"I have certainly gained much... haha," A-Ling muttered to herself, followed by a self-deprecating laugh.

"What are you mumbling about?" Bu Weiwei felt something was wrong. This straightforward girl who had just joined them—she wasn't going to be corrupted by someone like Qin Xi, was she? He was the abnormal one! Don't fall into the abyss, girl!

...

A few little ghosts were skulking in the woods, staring at the four people approaching.

"Boss, the master gave orders. Shouldn't we go and harass this group?"

"Right, Second Brother. We need to scare them and test their mettle!" The Boss, clearly the strongest of them, spoke with authority. "If they stop here... it proves they aren't worthy of passing our trial!"

"I love scaring people who are afraid of ghosts! Just thinking about them scared out of their wits makes me excited!"

"But what if we scare them to death? Will they turn into ghosts and come looking for revenge?"

"...That is a possibility." The Boss pondered this; it did seem tricky. "In the ghost world, it's best to leave a way out. Let’s just scare them half to death; no need to actually kill them."

The three ghosts let out a series of eerie chuckles: "Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh..."

"They’re coming..."

The three ghosts crept stealthily behind the four, ready to jump out at any moment and shout, "Boo!" to give them a fright.

But just then, one of the four suddenly stopped. It was a white-haired girl with a cold, flawless appearance. Her white eyelashes fluttered as if she were looking at something.

The three ghosts felt no appreciation for this peerless beauty, because the girl was looking right at them!

"Second Brother, Third Brother, you are both invisible, right?"

"Of course we're invisible, Boss."

"Hell!" the Boss cursed under his breath. "Then why is she looking at us?"

It was impossible for someone in the Qi Refining stage to detect their refined spiritual-body invisibility, so there was no way she could be looking at them. But what was going on?

"I don't know... maybe she's looking at something behind us?" Second Brother also felt something strange, even sensing a hint of fear.

"Something behind us?" The Boss suddenly felt a chill in his soul-body and slowly turned his head to look behind. Nothing. Was it haunted? No, wait—they were the ghosts...

The Boss looked back again and found that the girl’s gaze had shifted elsewhere. Perhaps the previous incident had just been a coincidence. Damn it, what a disgrace. As a ghost, he had almost been scared by a human. Since ancient times, ghosts scared humans; there was no logic in humans scaring ghosts! They had become ghosts precisely because they were scared to death in their previous lives; their courage was naturally small. If they were scared as humans and scared as ghosts, wouldn't their deaths have been for nothing?

The Boss grew angrier the more he thought about it. He didn't care about scaring them to death anymore; if he was going to scare them, he’d go big!

"Second Brother, Third Brother, we'll surround them from three angles. They'll see me first, and they'll run in the opposite direction..." The Boss pointed in one direction. "Second Brother, you ambush them there. After they see you, they'll change direction again, and then Third Brother, you wait for them in that direction."

"This way, three scares in a row, I guarantee they'll wet themselves!" The Boss laughed sinisterly.

"Yes!"

The Boss sent the others to their posts and approached the four alone. His target was the white-haired girl who had scared him earlier. He had overheard their conversation and learned her name was Jiang Baiqiu.

"Let's see how much nerve a little girl has. I'll scare the life out of you."

The Boss had crept within three feet of Jiang Baiqiu. All he had to do was reach out and place his hand on her shoulder; that heavy, chilling sensation would be enough to shatter the little girl's nerves.

The Boss slowly extended his hand...

Suddenly!

Jiang Baiqiu whipped her head around, her icy gaze locking onto the Boss's face. It was the scent of death.

"Waaaaaaaaah!!!"

The Boss shrieked in terror, his soul scattering in a panic, exploding into fragments. It would probably take days to recover. Seeing their boss explode, the Second and Third brothers rolled on the ground in fear and scurried away.

"Why are these ghosts such cowards?" Jiang Baiqiu stood with her hands on her hips, highly dissatisfied with this batch of ghosts.

...

Light filtered through the sparse treetops, casting mottled shadows on the rugged path.

"I'm tired, Qin Xi..." Jiang Baiqiu slumped, her face drooping. They had been walking for quite a while.

Qin Xi felt a bit exhausted too, but he looked around and noticed the scenery hadn't changed much; it was impossible to tell how far they had traveled.

"How long have we been walking?" Qin Xi asked, tilting his head.

Bu Weiwei looked at the sky. "Probably six or seven hours... but there’s no day or night here, so it’s hard to tell time."

"Then let's take a break and get something to eat."

Seeing this, A-Ling unloaded the stone tablet she was carrying on her back, along with the supplies tied to it. She had been carrying the luggage the whole way, as she was strong, and the total weight of the luggage was barely a fraction of the stone tablet. Furthermore, she had chosen not to put her things in a storage ring to increase her training load.

Just as everyone began taking their food and water out of their packs, a sudden change occurred.

"Ah!!!" Jiang Baiqiu shrieked.

Qin Xi immediately looked at her, asking with concern, "What happened?"

"My spirit liquid... it’s all gone!" Jiang Baiqiu’s eyes welled up with tears. "A whole gourd! And it was the purest spirit liquid!"

"Huh?"

Jiang Baiqiu pointed to her waist, where the once-full gourd now hung empty.

"I spent several spirit stones to buy that liquid! It was my favorite grape flavor! I bought several flavors, and I’d already finished the others... I was saving my favorite for last!" Jiang Baiqiu’s voice was truly shrill. "And now it’s gone!"

"…You spent the spirit stones I gave you for food and water on a gourd of spirit liquid?"

"It’s good for you too after I drink it!"

"You just like drinking it..." Qin Xi thought back to their time on the flying boat.

"Anyway, it’s lost! It must have been those ghosts when I wasn't looking!" Jiang Baiqiu was filled with righteous indignation. "How outrageous!!!"

"I want, I want, I want to exterminate them all!"

"But aren't you a sword spiritual root? How can you fight without a sword?" Qin Xi asked.

"Who says I can't slay ghosts without a sword? Is a sword really such an inconvenient object?"

With that, Jiang Baiqiu snapped off two tree branches that looked like swords. She swung them around like a child, but at the same time, a scorching power surged through them! It was Haoran Zhengqi (the noble energy of righteousness); she had imbued the branches with it!

She brandished the branches, the soaring righteous energy lighting up the entire forest. She let out a shout, filled with boundless rage, and began to run down the path!

"Little ghosts, come out! I’ll exorcise every single one I see! Come, come, come, you lowly, base creatures, all of you die under my righteous energy!"