Yin Wind struck his face. Amid a shrill ghostly howl, a pair of Ghost Claws shot toward Feng Ling at terrifying speed.
Feng Ling stood frozen in place, as if scared witless, while the Ghost Claws whistled toward his face. If they struck him, they would leave his face utterly ruined!
"Ghost-Repelling Art, decree!"
At the critical moment, the Dark Token flickered faintly. A repulsive force spread from Feng Ling's body and slammed Madam Pan Yuan's Ghost Soul back.
"A basic ghost technique!"
After searching his memory, Feng Ling found a Ghost Technique suited to him.
Though half-doubting it, the situation left no time to wait, so he simply treated it as a dead horse being used as a living one — and to his surprise, it actually worked, following the form just as he remembered it!
The repelled Ghost Soul of Madam Pan Yuan was stunned, and Feng Ling himself was astonished. He muttered inwardly, "Am I really a beginner?"
"You shameless wretch, give me your life..."
Madam Pan Yuan let out a bone-chilling, shrill ghostly howl and charged forward again, swinging her Ghost Claws through the Yin Wind. The Ghost-Repelling Art knocked her back again and again, but she refused to stop!
Was she brain-dead!? Charging in so recklessly...
Feng Ling maintained the Ghost-Repelling Art, his face gradually turning pale. He twisted the Token in his hand and switched techniques on the spot: "Ghost-Transcending Art!"
With a soft shout, beams of Golden Radiance poured down and enveloped everything. Madam Pan Yuan's Ghost Soul sank into a quagmire beneath the indiscriminate Golden Radiance, wisps of Black Qi rising from her as she struggled and wailed!
Wasn't this technique a bit too cruel?
Feng Ling couldn't help thinking so. Wasn't this supposed to be about Transcending Ghosts? This was clearly torturing one instead!
Feng Ling was indeed a cold-blooded Assassin, but he always struck cleanly and decisively. He would never make a target fortunate enough to die by his hand suffer even the slightest agony of death.
As an orphan raised by Assassins—"raised" was what they called it, but in truth they were cultivating a new Assassin—Feng Ling had to climb over countless comrades' corpses to survive the Assassin Training Camp and join the Assassin organization.
One moment, a comrade sat beside him, sharing their ambitions and dreams. The next, that same person became another cold corpse beneath his feet.
Feng Ling didn't know how others felt, but he had been in pain and lost. In his past life, he lived in the shadows and endured endless torment. Even after becoming the God of Assassination, he never knew a moment of peace.
Perhaps death truly wasn't frightening. What was frightening was a life worse than death...
Thinking this, Feng Ling couldn't help but increase the output of his Ghost-God Power. The golden radiance intensified, and Madam Pan Yuan's wails grew even more shrill.
There was no other way — if he eased off now, hoping to slow-boil her like a frog in warm water, then once she managed to drag things out until he ran out of strength, it would be him who died instead!
The Golden Radiance ground away large amounts of Black Qi, accelerating the transcendence even further!
"Fated one! Let her go..." An old voice rang out. Feng Ling's heart sank, and the Golden Radiance began to dissipate.
Was Feng Ling really that obedient?
No. A hand had landed lightly on his right shoulder from behind, and the voice had come from there as well.
The Token in his hand flared with light and released a burst of repulsive force, knocking the hand away. A translucent figure slid past him and landed beside Madam Pan Yuan's fallen Ghost Soul, which was trembling on the ground.
"Ling Weiyun!?" Staring at the ghostly old man who looked exactly like the body he himself now occupied, Feng Ling spoke the name aloud, identifying him at once!
"Why aren't you afraid of the Ghost-Transcending Art?" Feng Ling eyed the illusory old man warily, completely puzzled.
"You recognize this old man?" Ling Weiyun's Ghost Spirit Body helped Madam Pan Yuan's weakened Ghost Soul to its feet and asked its own body in surprise.
Two identical old men faced each other and spoke. The sight was bizarre!
Ling Weiyun called Feng Ling "fated one" because he could not understand what had happened to his own body.
He chalked it up to fate!
"How did Madam Pan Yuan die? And who was that impostor?" Feng Ling composed himself and got straight to business.
"Killed by an Evil Spirit Master..." At a nod from Ling Weiyun, Madam Pan Yuan's ghost soul, her face full of hatred, gritted her teeth and said in a trembling, grief-stricken voice: "Her heart was carved out!"
Feng Ling immediately returned to the decayed corpse and examined it closely. Sure enough, a gruesome bloody hole gaped in its chest. He had missed it earlier because of the poor lighting.
"Sigh, that impostor was most likely the Evil Spirit Master!" Ling Weiyun sighed, his expression forlorn. He had thought he could support his family for a few more years, yet never expected such a disaster to befall him.
Carving out the heart of a Sixth-Rank Ghost Spirit Master?
Then this Evil Spirit Master's cultivation had to surpass the sixth rank. Considering how he murdered Eighth-Revolution Ling Weiyun, he was most likely a Seventh-Turn Evil Spirit Master!
As Feng Ling continued questioning the ghostly couple, he learned that the Evil Spirit Master's goal was Ling Weiyun's Eighth-Rank Ghost Spirit Body.
To advance to the eighth rank, one had to either subdue eight Greater Ghosts and condense them into an eighth Ghost Spirit Body...
...or slaughter eight Ghost Spirit Masters and refine their Ghost Spirit Bodies directly into one!
Comparing the two, the latter seemed easier to pull off and easier to find targets for.
Once a Ghost Spirit Body left its host, it feared no Ghost Technique but could not unleash its abundant Ghost-God Power. It could do nothing but await pursuit!
Fortunately, there was a stroke of luck amid the misfortune—
Ling Weiyun's Eighth-Rank Ghost Spirit Body moved extremely fast. It fled in the instant before his death, leaving the Evil Spirit Master with the false impression that it had "vanished into thin air"!
After talking for a long while, at the suggestion of the two ghosts of Ling Weiyun's household, Feng Ling finally made a promise — he agreed to help the two ghosts avenge themselves, while also smoothly advancing a rank by absorbing their ghost spirit bodies in the process.
"Second-Turn Ghost Spirit Master!" Feng Ling opened his eyes. Sharp Radiance flashed in them before slowly fading.
A Ghost Spirit Body and a Ghost Soul were not the same. A Ghost Spirit Master cultivated the former, while even an ordinary person possessed the latter from birth.
The Evil Spirit Master had already devoured Madam Pan Yuan's Sixth-Rank Ghost Spirit Body, so the Ghost Spirit Feng Ling absorbed from her was incomplete—no more than an ordinary wandering wild ghost with a Ghost Soul but no Ghost Body!
Ling Weiyun's Eighth-Rank Ghost Spirit Body was different. It granted him boundless Ghost-God Power and remained intact. Thus, Feng Ling would not need to worry about exhausting his Ghost-God Power before breaking through to the eighth rank!
In fact, when he did break through to the eighth rank, he would even need to capture one fewer Eighth-Rank Greater Ghost!
Of course, this depended on the Ghost Spirit Body willingly allowing the Life-Tablet Token to absorb it. Otherwise, Evil Spirit Masters who forcibly seized several high-level Ghost Spirit Bodies would become walking human bombs!
Feng Ling's consciousness entered the natal Token. A faint point of light rose from the two ghosts' souls and shot toward the starry sky.
The two unconscious Ghost Souls then merged into one. Beside the Natal Ghost Spirit, a formless Ghost Spirit Body appeared—the mark of the Second Revolution!
Ling Weiyun had been at the eighth turn in life and possessed eight Ghost Spirit Bodies. After his death, only one Natal Ghost Spirit Body could survive.
The other seven Ghost Spirit Bodies would dissipate into energy and return to heaven and earth!
The Eighth-Rank Ghost Spirit Body emitted a soft glow within him, like a hidden source of energy behind his back.
Including it, Feng Ling now possessed three Ghost Spirit Bodies—enough to rival a Third-Revolution Ghost Spirit Master and fight a Fourth-Revolution Ghost Spirit Master!
As for the Fifth Rank?
Feng Ling wouldn't bother thinking about that for now.
Once one reached the Intermediate Ghost Spirit Master Realm, one could project Ghost-God Power outward and injure people from a distance. If Feng Ling encountered one now, he could only give them a wide berth.
Within the Weiyun Sect, an extremely swift black shadow flickered from one concealed corner to another. Anyone who noticed it had to marvel at the person's skill at hiding.
The figure was Feng Ling, who had stumbled upon a massive conspiracy and was sneaking back!
When Feng Ling returned to his residence, he spotted an old figure pacing outside his room, looking anxious.
"Second Brother Chen, is something wrong? Why aren't you going in?"
When "Ling Weiyun" strode in from outside the courtyard, Elder Lingchen froze for a moment.
"Big brother, it's an emergency! The Weiyun Sect might..."
"Shh! Let's talk inside first..."
Feng Ling pushed open the door and glanced around the pitch-black room. Elder Lingchen realized he had been too hasty, fell silent, and followed Feng Ling inside.
Every time a shell cracks open, a new life begins!
Life does not persist because of hope; hope exists because of persistence... Amid the world's chaos and troubles, may the Sage present every one of our esteemed readers with a Pure Land of the Soul.