Chapter Eight: The Ghost General

At the stroke of midnight, the lamenting spirits outside Clear River Village suddenly fell silent when night deepened.

Shen Chang'an was somewhat surprised. He had thought that getting to sleep tonight would be troublesome, yet to his astonishment, those wronged souls had stopped wailing after dark.

Satisfied, he closed his eyes and was just about to rest when a thought suddenly rose in his mind.

“These vengeful spirits can’t possibly have quieted down for no reason. At midnight, humans sleep—do they need to sleep too?”

As he was thinking this, a vast surge of resentment suddenly welled up, making Shen Chang'an’s brow twitch.

“Damn it, so that’s how it is!”

He cursed under his breath and looked outside the house, where a hulking ghost clad in armor was striding toward him.

“No wonder they stopped crying. So a real menace showed up!”

Shen Chang'an’s expression darkened. The reason those ghosts had suddenly clammed up was entirely because of this newly arrived ghost general.

It was likely that more than half of them had been slain by this ghost general, and the moment they saw it, they did not even dare make a sound.

“Hmph, a ghost general...” Shen Chang'an licked his lips. In the afternoon he had purified more than a dozen people, and had wondered how such an insidious setup could possibly be left without a guard. Now it seemed they had not left it unguarded at all; the guard had merely run into trouble.

He studied the ghost general, and its attire looked strangely familiar, identical to that of the ghost soldiers he had seen before. It seemed to have belonged to the same faction as the Ma Suiyi he had let go earlier.

“So it really was...” Shen Chang'an’s face turned cold.

The ones who had slaughtered everyone in Clear River Village were the South-Guard Army.

Though he did not know their reason for doing so, it had undeniably enraged Shen Chang'an.

If they had merely killed people, he might disapprove, but he would have had nothing more to say. But now they were not only murdering, they were also using human souls to refine evil sorcery.

If Shen Chang'an stood by and did nothing, he feared a demon of his own making would take root in his heart.

The ghost general carried a massive crescent-bladed halberd and took two great steps forward. With a thunderous crash, its blade came slashing straight down at the house!

A shriek of tearing wind followed.

With ferocious force, the ghost general hacked the dilapidated dwelling to pieces.

Amid the shattered debris, a figure burst out like lightning, a metal staff in hand. It shot forward and struck squarely at the ghost general’s skull.

A faint blue glow flashed along the staff, and the power of the demon-banishing talisman erupted at once, smashing the ghost general’s head into fragments with a single strike.

But to a ghost general, that was not even a flesh wound.

Even without a head, it still swung the crescent-bladed halberd in a sweeping cut toward Shen Chang'an.

If it connected, Shen Chang'an would be cleaved clean in two.

Yet at that very instant, blue light flashed beneath the ghost general’s feet. Three demon-banishing talismans erupted all at once, exploding violently and blasting its lower legs apart.

Its legs shattered, its body lurched, and the halberd lost its aim, allowing Shen Chang'an to evade easily.

Then Shen Chang'an thrust with his staff, intending to smash the ghost general to pieces on the spot.

But the ghost general swayed lightly, and the body that should have fallen to the ground instead lurched toward Shen Chang'an!

It was a ghost. What did it matter if its legs were blown off? It could still fly!

Shen Chang'an’s attack failed, and before he could react, the other side had already clamped onto his staff.

“What?”

He stared in shock. The ghost general’s hands locked tightly around his weapon. Under the force of the demon-banishing talismans, white smoke billowed from its body, and its hands began to corrode away.

Yet at the same time, it had already closed in on Shen Chang'an. The ruined head reformed once more, and a black maw suddenly yawned open. Within it coiled a vicious aura thick as ink, which rapidly took shape in its mouth as a small ghost that lunged to bite and claw at him!

“Mother-and-child evil spirit? Damn it!”

Shen Chang'an had never imagined that the ghost used to refine this ghost general was actually a pregnant woman!

If one were to say this ghost general held a mouthful of white-tiger evil qi, Shen Chang'an might still understand. But within its mouth lurked another little ghost, a mother-and-child evil spirit. The sight sent a chill through him.

Just how inhuman did a person have to be to refine a ghost general from a pregnant woman?

Ordinarily, the best way to refine ghost soldiers and ghost generals was to gather corpses from battlefields. The Ma Suiyi he had let go earlier was a case in point; the ghost soldiers under him had all been collected from battlefields, and each soul retained the instincts of war from life, making them formidable in combat.

But the one refining this ghost general was clearly far more vicious. He had actually used living people to forge it—and not just any people, but a pregnant woman, refining her into a mother-and-child evil spirit.

At present, the little ghost was charging straight at Shen Chang'an. His staff was pinned in place, and he could not touch the ghost body itself. If that little thing pierced his throat, Shen Chang'an would certainly die.

At this critical moment, a talisman sprang from Shen Chang'an’s chest and ignited at once. In an instant, a crushing pressure spread outward, freezing the little ghost in midair.

Shen Chang'an had directly used his spatial transport ability to activate the talismans. Just now, he had used the same method to drop three demon-banishing talismans to the ground the instant he shattered the other side’s skull.

The little ghost in midair was halted. Shen Chang'an immediately released his grip on the metal staff, then hurled out several more demon-banishing talismans. The void caught fire, and the power that burst forth turned into a series of sharp blades, piercing the little ghost’s body and cutting it down on the spot!

The ghost general’s son had been slain, and it flew into a rage. It abandoned the staff and lunged directly at Shen Chang'an.

However, Shen Chang'an’s strength far exceeded its own. With its son gone, its power had already been reduced by more than half. How could it possibly be Shen Chang'an’s match?

With a thought, the metal staff returned to his hand. Several more demon-banishing talismans were slapped onto it, and he brought it crashing down from above with a single blow, smashing the ghost general’s body to pieces.

The ghost general dissolved into a storm of dust and ash. Thick, black fog billowed up and swallowed the sight, while a streak of blue light slipped away in the dark, trying to escape.

Shen Chang'an’s brow flicked upward, and his telekinetic force shot out at once, seizing the blue glow.

Then, with a slight exertion of force, the blue light shattered, leaving only a yellow paper talisman behind.

Shen Chang'an stepped forward and took the yellow talisman into his hand. The paper felt smooth and fine to the touch, while intricate patterns covered its surface, countless runes flickering upon it. Compared with the practical austerity of Green Willow Palace, this talisman was ostentatiously ornate.

Looking more closely, he saw that the bottom bore the words: “Ordered by Li Qingren of the Purple Star Palace.”