Chapter 558: A Hundred Years Ago? (1/2)

Lu Yun ignited a karmic fruit and used the virtuous merit it contained to heal the damage to his soul. This was a very strange combat art, one not even the Tome of Life and Death had sensed. If not for the blue-clad girl's timely surprise just now, he would’ve well and truly become a faceless ghost.

……

A large group of pale, faceless ghosts came floating in from the far reaches of the dark sky. They emitted no aura whatsoever and couldn’t be sensed by the consciousness. The only way to spot them was with one’s physical eyes.

As they approached, the immortals in the abandoned city hid themselves inside the ruined buildings, but Lu Yun could feel their line of sight locked on to the ghosts. Immortal energy infused the various weapons and treasures in their hands, ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

“A-are you really senior brother Lu Yun?” The girl clad in blue cautiously approached him.

“Do you know me?” Lu Yun blinked.

“Is there anyone in the world of immortals who doesn’t know you?” For some reason, the girl felt the last of her fears evaporate once she started chatting with him.

“Jing Dichen is my elder sister, my name is Jing Huaci,” she offered, a little shy. “I haven’t thanked senior brother yet for your pill. I wouldn’t be alive if not for you.”

Jing Huaci was the young princess of the Untroubled Sea who’d once been eaten by Beigong Chonglou, crown prince of the North Sea. Only a fragment of her soul had survived and in the end, she’d been resurrected by a Soul Restoring Pill that Yuying had refined.

“Oh, so it’s you. What’re you doing all the way out here?” Lu Yun frowned. Currently, most of his attention was focused on the faceless ghosts coming ever closer to them.

“I—” Jing Huaci also discovered that the ghosts had now surrounded the plaza. Squealing in fear, she hid behind Lu Yun.

“Senior brother Lu, please be careful. Those faceless ghosts like to... eat people!” She paled even further at the word ‘eat’, plainly struck by awful memories.

“Remember not to go barging into random places in the future.” While lecturing her, Lu Yun went on the offensive and struck out with his sword.

A beam of violet sword light streaked across the emptiness and slashed at the faceless ghosts. Containing several of his sword arts, as well as Violetgrave’s sword dao, the attack fell onto its target with world-ending momentum.

“Don’t!!” Seeing him act, nearby immortals turned pale with fright, but his sword struck true before they could react.

Pfft!

The faceless ghost puffed into white smoke and vanished into thin air.

“So it’s a corpse, not a genuine ghost.” Lu Yun inhaled sharply. Faceless corpses untraceable by the consciousness were even more of a threat than ghosts. He could restrain ghostly beings, but the same didn’t apply to corpses.

“Is it dead? Did Lu Yun just... kill a faceless ghost with a single strike?!” an immortal hidden nearby exclaimed with visible astonishment.

“Senior brother Lu, you’re so strong!” Jing Huaci applauded with sheer delight.

“Waaaaa—” One of the faceless ghosts in midair shrieked before turning into a blur and throwing itself at Lu Yun. Previously inscrutable by the consciousness, it sharpened into mental focus as a terrifying presence of death erupted from it.

“What a formidable death will! These faceless ghosts must be people killed by the illusions from earlier. Only…” Opening his eyes wide, Lu Yun read the lives and deaths of the ghosts with the Spectral Eye. Then, with a backhanded stroke, he turned the incoming ghost to ash with a flash of violet sword light.

“A hundred years! They died here a hundred years ago… But… has it been a hundred years already?” Trembling, he noticed that each of these thirty-something corpses was someone he recognized. They were all people who’d followed him inside the tomb through the tunnel dug by the Scaled-Dragon King!