Chapter 29: The Cat Cries at Midnight (3)

  In the sparse woods and thin fog, a flickering fire appeared and disappeared, its light sometimes green, sometimes blue, changing colors. In the vast black night, such a fire appeared, and from afar, it didn't seem bright and warm, but instead seemed to exude an eerie chill. With the faint, flickering light, one could see people's shadows in the mountain valley, and the river flowing ceaselessly.

  Su Qi's eyes were fixed on the lush scenery in the mountain valley, and her heart was filled with a chill that pierced through her bones. She had been to this mountain valley before, from freshman to senior year, going in several times for outdoor practice with her teachers and classmates, just collecting tree specimens. But Su Qi was absolutely certain that there wouldn't be so many people in the valley, where only thorny wild grass grew, unmanaged for years, taller than humans, making it hard even for animals to move around. How could it suddenly change into a place teeming with people?

  "How is this possible?" Su Qi whispered in shock and horror, the scene before her making her want to turn around and run away.

  Su Qi's intense unease and fear stirred up a inexplicable emotion in Lu Ke's heart. He furrowed his brow, gently pressed down on Su Qi's slightly trembling shoulder, and pulled her into his side, whispering, "It's just an unremarkable ghost tribe."

  "Good heavens! How can there be so many gathered here?" Shu Ruiwen ignored Lu Ke and Su Qi, his eyes fixed intently on the Ghost Market as he muttered to himself, analyzing, "For a ghost to reincarnate, it requires the alignment of heaven, earth, and human fortune, but the most difficult part is continuously gathering spiritual energy to maintain the spirit body from dispersing. But today, with the thin spiritual energy between heaven and earth, where did so many ghosts gather such abundant spiritual energy?" Could it be a Spiritual Pulse? A bold conjecture suddenly appeared in Shu Ruiwen's mind, but the Heavenly Earthly Spiritual Pulse had long been extinct. Moreover, if there really was a Spiritual Pulse here, how could he not feel it?

  Shi Ruiwen's muttering fell into Su Qieruo's ears, which was undoubtedly a kind of comfort in disguise. It explained the unknown things clearly and lifted the mysterious veil, so it wouldn't make people afraid anymore. After listening to Shi Ruiwen's words, Su Qieruo suddenly recalled what Lu Ke and Shi Ruiwen had described about the ghost tribe before. Now she understood that if the ghost tribe didn't have the maintenance of spiritual power, they would also disperse. The fear in her heart gradually faded away. "What are these ghosts doing?" Su Qieruo's normal thinking was restored as she was no longer affected by the fearful emotions.

  "I don't know, let's go take a look." As soon as he thought of the possibility of having spiritual veins, Shi Ruiwen immediately became excited and rushed into the mountain valley with great enthusiasm.

  "Wait!" Lu Ke saw that Si Ruiwen was about to act recklessly and immediately spoke out to stop him.

  "Huh?" Ruiwen suddenly turned his head, narrowing his eyes to warn Lu Ke, "Do you want to fight me for the spiritual vein? I don't mind having a battle with you here."

  Lu Ke looked at Jiang Ruowen with disdain, "You're going down now will only make things worse, the ghost is gone, where are you going to find it?"

  Lu Ke's words reminded Xi Ruiwen that if he rushed down now, the ghost tribe would definitely scatter and flee, and he might also disperse the ghost tribe's hard-earned spiritual body. Judging from the current situation, these ghosts had only gathered their spiritual energy and acted on instinct without possessing spiritual intelligence. The method of severe punishment was ineffective against them, so they could only be observed as they plotted slowly. Xi Ruiwen turned around and walked to Su Qiuruo's side, picked up the ball of fur tightly holding onto Su Qiuruo's pant leg, and smiled complacently, "How could we forget about this little cutie Mao Tuan?"

  After listening to Si Ruiwen's words, Mao Tuan's small body trembled even more violently, and at first glance, it seemed as if he had epilepsy. However, Mao Tuan still didn't forget to gaze up at Su Qi with his big round eyes, looking pitifully for help, although the possibility of being saved wasn't very great, but he still had to try.

  Su Qi Ruo felt that Xi Rui Wen was bullying others ever since she saw the humanoid form of Mao Tuan. Every time, he would speak while holding Mao Tuan's neck, treating him like a toy. "What are you doing holding Mao Tuan? Let it go quickly." Su Qi Ruo said as she went to rescue Mao Tuan from Xi Rui Wen's grasp.

  Shi Ruwen nimbly dodged Su Qi Ruo, grasping the neck of the ball of fur and swinging its small body back and forth. "What are you afraid of? Which ghost tribe doesn't avoid you when they see you? Hmm, did little cutie encounter something extraordinary? Quickly tell grandpa about it!"

  "Meow——meow——meow——" The ball of fur didn't dare disobey Shu Ruiwen's meaning, let alone the fact that it was now a small cat. Even if it transformed into human form, it still wouldn't be a match for Shu Ruiwen! "Meow——meow——meow——" The ball of fur meowed and wailed for a while before Shu Ruiwen finally put it down with satisfaction.

  "Why didn't you say so earlier!" Si Ruiwen said with disdain, patting his hands as if afraid of getting fur on himself.

  "What else did you say?" Su Qi felt that Mao Tuan's cat call had conveyed a lot of information.

  "There is a malevolent spirit lurking underground, and these ghost tribes in front of us are just tools for the evil spirit to collect spiritual energy everywhere. They are also food." Lu Ke explained to Su Qi Ruo, dispelling her doubts.

  Su Qi Ruo thought for a moment and realized that this wasn't much different from the demon tribe's method of plundering spiritual energy. It was all about big fish eating small fish, and small fish eating shrimp. However... Su Qi Ruo suddenly thought to herself, "Wait a minute, I'm also someone else's cultivated spiritual energy source!" Was her fate going to end up like these little ghosts, becoming someone else's food? No way! She had to save herself! Lately, she had been spending all her time with Lu Ke and Shen Rui Wen, and had almost forgotten about their original purpose. She didn't even have a basic sense of crisis awareness anymore. If things kept going like this, wouldn't she just be at the mercy of others? But... Su Qi Ruo suddenly thought to herself in despair, "How can I fully awaken my inherited abilities?" If she couldn't fully awaken them, then everything she was thinking about now was pointless! Was she supposed to go around plundering other people's spiritual energy like Lu Ke and Shen Rui Wen did? But aside from the Water Control Technique, she didn't know any techniques for plundering spiritual energy...

  "What are you thinking?" Lu Kes saw Su Qi's reaction to the evil spirit was unexpectedly calm, and instead seemed distracted, so he coldly called out to bring her back to reality.

  "What?"

  "Aren't you afraid of evil spirits?" Lu Ke asked helplessly. Su Qi's brain wasn't working properly and he had already suffered from her temper before. If he made her angry again because of this, he was afraid he would be driven to death by her.

  "Why worry?" Su Qieruo asked back, "Isn't it said that the ghost tribe is also a spiritual body? If they lack spiritual power, they will disappear. Since so, what's there to worry about?"

  Lu Ke closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she was really going to be driven mad by Su Qi Ruo.

  "Do you know why Mao Tuan Xiao Ke Ai is afraid?" asked Shi Ruiwen with a smile. Su Qi was so angry that his face turned iron blue, and he looked like he was about to explode if Su Qi asked another question.

  "Why?"

  "It's because the furball is the best vessel for the ghost tribe! Hehe, it's what you call being possessed by a ghost."