Chapter 372 - Qing He County (2/2)

“South… South-east.”

Yi Qing paused, then turned to fly toward the south-east.

After about an hour – with intermittent screaming along the way – the group finally came to a civilised area. From afar, they could even see a couple of villages. The three of them landed. Song Ren was scared stiff. His ghostly body was even more translucent now. He looked like he could dissipate at any moment.

The moment they landed, he tried to act tough and get to his feet. After regaining his composure, he cleared his throat, cupped his fists and bowed to the two others. “I apologise!” He was once again a composed gentleman. It was almost as if he had not been the one who had been panicking the entire journey over here. Of course, one would not be able to tell if not for his trembling legs.

“Left or right?” Yi Qing pointed to the two paths that lay ahead of them. They would probably come to the town centers if they travelled any further up. There were too many mortals there, and the group could not fly too far above ground since they had to keep their eye on the land. In order to avoid any unnecessary attention, they decided to walk the rest of the way.

Song Ren looked left and right. There was a hint of joy in his eyes as he pointed to the path on the right. “I recognise this place! Let’s go this way. We’ll arrive at the county in about two hours.”

“Let’s go.” Yi Qing nodded, turned to take two steps, then realised then Shen Ying had not moved. She was looking at the path on the right in a daze.

“Master?” Yi Qing called out to her.

Shen Ying regained her composure and pointed to the sky. “Chef… is the weather very bad over there?”

“Weather?” Yi Qing paused. He released his divine perception to scan the path on the right side. His eyes widened. Not far away, the sky above the city seemed to be suppressive and dark. The entire city looked like it was being wrapped up in darkness. There were cold and fierce Yin winds. Ghost Qi filled the air. It looked like an absolute ghost town.

Yi Qing’s heart jumped. What strong Yin Qi. Apart from the Underworld, this was the first place he’d been in that was like this.

“Master?”

“Let’s go over!” Shen Ying nodded.

Yi Qing drew his flying sword to bring the group over to the city. In a blink of an eye, they arrived in front of it. It was obvious that the Yin Qi over here was much thicker. The skies were clear the entire way as well, but now, in front of them, dark clouds filled the skies.

It was completely silent the city. All they heard was the sound of the wind rushing past their ears. Looking up, they saw three words written on the gate: Qing He County.

This was Qing He County! Yi Qing frowned and turned to look at the now even paler Song Ren. He had an inkling of what happened over here. He walked forward into the city.

“Are we… going in?” Song Ren’s voice was trembling. He had subconsciously plastered himself against Shen Ying.

Yi QIng’s expression darkened. He wanted to go and check things out, but now he pulled the ghost a distance away from Shen Ying. Stay away from my master, bastard!

“Master, the Yin Qi over there is terribly overwhelming. There is not one living person inside.” Not only that, there was a lot of ghost Qi there. It was likely that most of the ghosts in the city had never entered the Underworld. hey were just wandering around that city. “There are so many ghosts here in the mortal world… It looks like there’s something strange about that city.”

“Mm.” Shen Ying nodded. She tossed the fruit in her hand aside and retrieved another one from Yi Qing’s pocket out of habit.

“We will only find out the real reason for that if we go in.” Yi Qing glanced at the city gates once again. “Master, it’s dark inside. Don’t walk too far away from me.”

“Oh.”

Yi Qing was just about to walk into the castle again. After thinking for a moment, he turned and grabbed Shen Ying’s hand with a very serious expression. He was really afraid she would get lost!

“Exalted… Exalted Immortal.” Song Ren was positively afraid by now. “There won’t be… ghosts in that town, right?”

“…” *Did he forget what he was? *

“You can remain here,” Yi Qing instructed. He turned and started to walk into the city. This was such a huge ghost city – there was no way they could just ignore it.

Song Ren watched as the two of them got further and further. As the cold winds continued to slap at him, he gritted his teeth and chased the duo.

The moment they entered the city, the Yin Qi around them became palpable. It chilled them to their bones. Song Ren trembled subconsciously. The two people in front of him, however, remained unaffected by the cold winds and walked on steadily. Song Ren flew faster to catch up with them.