Chapter 2467 — A Very High Level of Strength

Wei Zhao suddenly turned back, and was even more aghast—for behind the group, the scene was no longer as it had been when they came. The expedition car had long since vanished without a trace. Behind them now lay a tangle of narrow paths, dilapidated thatched huts of a desolate village, haphazard stone steles, and statues of things beyond naming—but of the road back, not a sign.

"Brother Wei Zhao, you noticed too?" Han Jingyi spoke up suddenly.

"Oh? You noticed long ago?" Wei Zhao looked at Han Jingyi, somewhat surprised.

"Mm." Han Jingyi raised the tablet in her hand. "Our satellite positioning coordinates have barely changed at all, yet the scenery around us is completely different. In other words, we may have run into the legendary ghost-wall—going round and round in circles the whole time..."

Wei Zhao stared at the tablet in Han Jingyi's hands, momentarily dumbstruck. This girl Han Jingyi always found a way to counter the unscientific by scientific means, and from that to dig out a solution—it left Wei Zhao both startled and delighted.

"Then... where is the expedition car?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Right here." Han Jingyi pointed at a coordinate on the map on the tablet. "I recorded it when we got out of the car earlier."

"So we've walked less than half a kilometer?" Wei Zhao stared at the map on Han Jingyi's screen in great astonishment.

"More or less, yes," Han Jingyi said.

"You're calm enough, using a positioning system to calculate our bearings at a time like this," Wei Zhao said in admiration.

"Because Brother Wei Zhao is here with me, that's why. With Brother Wei Zhao here, Jingjing isn't afraid, and can study these things at ease," Han Jingyi said with perfect seriousness.

The two were still talking when a hair-raising laugh suddenly came from ahead, making Wei Zhao's steps falter instinctively. He raised his head and looked forward. There, in front of Wang Xinyan and the others, a streak of white light flashed abruptly, and a misty shadow appeared out of nowhere!

The shadow resembled neither a human form nor any naturally formed mist—it was like the soul of some monster; and together with that chilling laughter, even the dullest among them could work it out now: this thing must be what the desolate village called a ghost!

"Ah!" Another bloodcurdling scream—it made Wei Zhao's heart lurch. It had not come from the ghost, but from Kang Jinglong. He had dropped flat onto the ground, his face ashen, shaking all over, and in an instant a wet patch spread across his trousers—clearly he had wet himself with fright.

You Panhu, though not so useless as that, was also trembling from head to toe. This unknown horror left his throat parched and his tongue tied. He was beginning to regret it now—he never should have listened to Kang Jinglong and come down here to explore. There really were unclean things in this desolate village!

Huang Mao and Zi Mao were cultivators; though not so wretched as Kang Jinglong and You Panhu, their faces were hardly a pretty sight either. Before something so eerie and inexplicable, even powerful cultivators had no idea how to respond.

"Who's there! Stop playing tricks! Show yourself, or I'll kill you!" Zi Mao was, after all, an expert of the Profound Rank—a lofty existence in the secular world. Facing this monster, he still had some nerve to draw on.

"Heh heh heh heh..." The ghost formed of that mist suddenly laughed, the sound as unsettling as ever. Then, all at once, Zi Mao seemed to have been seized by the throat—his mouth gaping as he gasped "hah, hah," wanting to say something and unable to get it out!

Before the crowd's astonished eyes, there came a "bang." Zi Mao, as though struck by some enormous force, was abruptly flung from where he stood and smashed into a stone stele more than ten meters away with a thunderous crash.

"Pff—" Zi Mao spat a mouthful of blood, plainly badly hurt. He struggled to rise, but the will was there and the strength was not; after two wobbles he lapsed into unconsciousness!

Huang Mao and You Panhu's faces were a picture of horror. When Zi Mao had spoken of "playing tricks," the two of them had even suspected that someone was out here putting on a ghostly act to frighten them—but now it was plain as day that this was nothing of the sort!

Zi Mao was an expert of the Profound Rank, and whoever could wound an expert of the Profound Rank so gravely must be an expert of what level? And the eeriest part was that neither of them had seen how the other side had struck—as far as they could tell, no one had struck at all, and yet Zi Mao had been flung through the air for no reason and smashed hard against the stone stele, his life or death unknown.

Wei Zhao, too, frowned at this "vengeful ghost" before them, his guard raised to its peak! Of course, Wei Zhao had not gone so far as to think of it as a ghost—back when they had gone tomb-raiding in the ancient tomb, hadn't Yu, the ringleader, also played the ghost to kill people?

By now Kang Jinglong was long since frozen in terror. Even Zi Mao being flung through the air scarcely surprised him anymore; he simply sat on the ground like an idiot, his face blank.

What struck Wei Zhao as strange was Wang Xinyan. From first to last she had not said a single word; she merely stood there. Though she had not turned back and Wei Zhao could not see her expression, he could tell from her posture that she was not afraid!

For Wang Xinyan stood perfectly steady—no trembling, no stumbling. That left Wei Zhao puzzled: since when had Wang Xinyan's courage grown so great? Earlier, in the expedition car, she had been quite resistant to getting out—how had she become a different person in such a short time?

"Wang Xinyan!" Wei Zhao thought, This bodes ill—when something is amiss, there is sure to be a demon behind it. Right now Wang Xinyan had likely fallen into some kind of trance!

After Wei Zhao's shout, Wang Xinyan showed no reaction at all—she did not even turn her head to glance at him. This only confirmed for Wei Zhao that Wang Xinyan must have been bewitched by something before her eyes...

Wei Zhao drew a deep breath and began compressing a true-qi bomb in his hand. This insubstantial, elusive thing was also the hardest thing to deal with. Wei Zhao did not know whether ordinary moves would work on it, but from the way Zi Mao had been flung through the air without warning, this thing before them was certainly no simple matter!

And most crucially, Wei Zhao could not use his golden finger to see through this thing's strength! That is to say, either the one before them was an outer-path expert of very high level—but that did not fit either, for at the instant he struck at Zi Mao, Wei Zhao still had not sensed his strength. In other words, he was no outer-path expert! RQ