Chapter 59: Female Ghost Sister Lan, Wielding Dual Sabers, Slashes Through an Entire Street

"Should, perhaps, probably not... wait, that means she will. What kind of strength does your grandmother possess?" Qin Feng asked.

"She is a ferocious ghost," Fang Xiaolan replied with a serious expression.

"Just a ferocious ghost realm? And you called her powerful. I thought she was something special. Never mind, follow me from now on and serve me well. If she dares to come, I will scatter her soul to the winds!" Qin Feng declared with absolute confidence.

Earlier, his junior aunt had told him that the realms of malevolent ghosts, in ascending order, were wandering souls, wild ghosts, fierce ghosts, baleful ghosts, ferocious ghosts, ghost soldiers, ghost generals, ghost kings, and ghost emperors. A ferocious ghost was equivalent to a purple-furred jiangshi. Although it was one realm higher than him, corpses were naturally the bane of malevolent ghosts. Combined with his mastery of Taoist arts, he had no fear of a ferocious ghost. Even a ghost soldier-level entity was something he could face head-on.

Presently, his jiangshi army was expanding, and he urgently needed sentient beings to command and manage it. Relying solely on the peach tree demon was far from enough, and even the addition of Fang Xiaolan was not sufficient. He intended to keep expanding his jiangshi army. The greater the number, the better he could ensure his own safety.

"Big Brother Corpse, you are far too kind," Fang Xiaolan said, deeply moved.

She had assumed Qin Feng was going to chase her away, never expecting that he would be willing to risk her grandmother's vengeance just to keep her. She was merely an early-stage fierce ghost—who was she to be valued so highly by Big Brother Corpse?

"I said, serve me well, and I will not treat you unfairly," Qin Feng smiled faintly.

Then, looking rather puzzled, he asked, "By the way, how did you die?"

"My stepfather pressed me into a water vat and drowned me. He killed my mother too. I was consumed by anger and resentment, and after dying, I turned into a malevolent ghost and hacked him into pieces," Fang Xiaolan said, gritting her teeth as dark mist billowed around her.

"No wonder you were all wet. I thought you were just some delinquent punk tied up and thrown into a river to drown," Qin Feng remarked.

After all, Fang Xiaolan kept threatening people with calling a thousand men to hack them to pieces; anyone would have drawn that conclusion.

"I was! Back then, everyone called me Sister Lan, and I had thousands of subordinates under my command. Once, I started at East Street with twin blades in hand, hacking my way all the way to West Street—slash, hack, slash, hack, without even blinking an eye. If I have any blame, it's that I was too careless, otherwise I would have hacked my stepfather to death!"

"Really?" Qin Feng muttered inwardly in astonishment.

Had she not said so, he never would have guessed Fang Xiaolan was once a triad boss. With her petite, delicate, and slender figure, she had supposedly held twin blades and cut her way through an entire street? He simply could not picture the scene.

"Of course it's true! I'm from the neighboring Jingshai City, and I've been dead for over thirty years. If Big Brother Corpse doesn't believe me, you can go to Jingshai City and ask who Fang Xiaolan was thirty years ago," Fang Xiaolan said with a proud expression.

She had been a person of some standing and reputation during her lifetime, after all. Whoever dared to cross her would get their fingers chopped off at best, or be minced up to feed dogs at worst.

It was just that... while she had been a badass in life, she had been thoroughly pathetic in death. Over the years, following her grandmother, her sharp edges had been completely worn down.

"Alright, I believe you," Qin Feng chuckled bitterly.

Fang Xiaolan didn't say anything more; she could tell from Big Brother Corpse's expression that he didn't believe her at all. But it didn't matter—a hero shouldn't dwell on past glories. If he didn't believe it, so be it.

"Stop!" Qin Feng suddenly raised a hand, signaling the jiangshi army to halt.

"What is it, Big Brother Corpse?" Fang Xiaolan asked.

"A Taoist practitioner is heading our way," Qin Feng frowned, a flash of puzzlement crossing his eyes.

Could it be the vanguard of the Sun-Brilliance Sect? Or perhaps the Five Elements Sect? Or Mount Longhu? Did they arrive this fast?

No, it shouldn't be them. There were only two people, and no other auras followed behind them. One of them was merely at the initial stage of the Soul-Exiting Realm, and the other at the initial stage of the Qi-Control Realm. Feng Yang and the others had clashed with him and knew his strength; they certainly wouldn't send such weak Taoist practitioners to deal with him.

To call them weak was relative, of course—their strength was already formidable. The Soul-Exiting Realm allowed one's soul to leave the body, after all. In the past, if he had encountered a Taoist practitioner of that level, he wouldn't even have had a chance to run away. But for him now, the Soul-Exiting Realm was indeed very weak.

"Taoist practitioners? Oh no, they must have been drawn here by the corpse qi! Big Brother Corpse, let's run!" Fang Xiaolan blurted out immediately.

The other party consisted of Taoist practitioners, and a fear born deep within her soul told her they should flee immediately. If they were late, they wouldn't get away. The methods of these Taoist practitioners were terrifyingly cruel, especially when dealing with demons and malevolent ghosts like her—they would invariably reduce them to utter annihilation and scatter their souls.

"Run? They should be the ones running, not us," Qin Feng smiled contemptuously.

If there were reinforcements behind these two, that would be one thing, but there clearly weren't. The Soul-Exiting Realm and Qi-Control Realm were simply not qualified to make him run.

"Ah, right! With so many jiangshi, we might as well fight them to the death!" Fang Xiaolan suggested.

"..." Qin Feng was momentarily speechless.

Just how terrified of Taoist practitioners was this girl? She had actually jumped straight to fighting to the death. Still, since she was unaware of their actual strength, such a remark was perhaps to be expected.

"Master, the corpse qi is right ahead. With such dense corpse qi, I'm afraid this jiangshi's strength won't be weak. Are we really going over there?" At that moment, a sweet female voice drifted over.

Ever since breaking through to the mid-stage furry jiangshi realm, his hearing had expanded to cover a radius of over ten miles, and his sense of smell for auras had reached sixty to seventy miles.

"Disciple, how can you inflate others' prestige while dampening our own spirit? People of our generation should forge ahead in the face of difficulty."

"But the corpse qi is truly dense..." The woman hesitated, leaving her words unfinished.

"Enough, say no more. Tonight, your master shall uphold justice on behalf of heaven, slay this jiangshi, and bring glory to our sect!"

"Sigh..." The woman let out a long sigh.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The two of them, one following the other, swiftly darted and sprinted through the forest, soon arriving directly in front of Qin Feng.

Qin Feng looked closely and saw a middle-aged Taoist priest along with a pretty, delicate young female Taoist. The female Taoist was quite young, at most nineteen, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, with a slender figure and twin ponytails.

"Furry jiangshi? Hopping jiangshi? So many hopping jiangshi? Boundless Heavenly Venerate, I can't even see the end of them..." The middle-aged Taoist's voice was trembling.

It wasn't out of fear, but rather excitement—a fact clearly visible in his thrilled and ecstatic eyes.

"Master, so many jiangshi appearing together in a line like this, and without even a corpse-driver, it's clearly abnormal. We'd better run. You've already gotten senior brothers and the others killed; this disciple doesn't want to die." The female Taoist's voice was trembling out of genuine fright.

Whenever they encountered demons or fierce ghosts, strong or weak, her master would always charge in first. But the moment they couldn't win, her master would run faster than anyone, completely disregarding the lives of his disciples. More than fifty senior brothers—in the span of a single year, only she was left.

That she had survived to the end was neither due to luck nor strength, but because her master never took her out of the sect—she was a harbinger of bad omens; whatever good she predicted wouldn't happen, but whatever bad she spoke of invariably came true.

This time, coming out of the sect to Pine City was simply because her master had no disciples left and was forced to bring her. And yet, before they even reached Pine City, sensing powerful corpse qi nearby, her master's old bad habit had flared up again.