Chapter 94

A few clues were enough for Song Yi to think of many things.

For such a large-scale wave of ghosts to form, a settlement had most likely fallen.

But if a settlement had fallen, how could there be no news at all? Just like this settlement, there should have been messengers and fugitives.

Unless they had not fled at first, believing they still had the strength to fight, and had then been surrounded very quickly.

Why would they think they had the strength to fight, only to fall so fast? Because they had misjudged the scale of the ghost tide, because the ghosts had been hiding underground.

This was a long-planned attack. Today might not have been the day they intended to strike, but because someone had escaped to report the news, they had simply decided to bury the secret tonight.

Song Yi heard the rustling sounds coming from the tunnel and tightened her grip on the sword in her hand. She immediately said to the two of them, “Lin Ze, go find Teacher Yuan. Wenwen, gather Old Wang and the others together. Don’t scatter at a time like this. Keep looking for pits. If there are more, mark them immediately.”

She had to stand guard here.

This position was very important. It happened to be a critical node between the front and the rear. If the ghosts charged through from here, they would be surrounded in separate groups.

The two did not delay and split up to act.

At the very front of the defensive line, the power of the various restrictions had already been almost completely exhausted. For the most part, the cultivators were fighting the ghosts in rotating groups.

Someone had already sensed that something was wrong. Logically speaking, by this point, the ghosts should have been nearly wiped out. The ghost tide seemed to be showing signs of decline, yet there was also an eerie sense that it was being “kept alive.”

In gaming terms, it was like one batch died, and another batch spawned.

But this was not a game?!

The staff in Honest Yuan’s hand flew out and swept down a stretch of ghosts.

Then, while the ghosts struggled to get back up, Teacher Wang’s flying daggers swiftly sliced through their vital points. They had no concept of life or death. As long as their bodies remained intact, they could move. Only by cutting off the paths through which ghost qi spread, such as slitting throats or severing limbs, could they be deprived of mobility.

Just then, Honest Yuan looked back, and his expression changed. “Lin Ze, what are you doing here?”

“Song Yi said this might be a conspiracy. More ghosts are lying in ambush underground. We’ve been surrounded. We need to think of a way.”

Teacher Yuan’s expression grew solemn again. He quickly went to find the black-hearted shopkeeper and issued a warning: they needed manpower to support the flanks and rear, and they might even need to organize an evacuation.

This was the reason Song Yi had sent Lin Ze to find Teacher Yuan. Honest Yuan would believe her.

But the black-hearted shopkeeper looked ahead and murmured, “It’s too late.”

Because behind a slope, even more waves of ghosts were surging up, forming an encirclement around the entire settlement.

“Everyone, fall back! Shrink the circle! Concentrate our strength!” the shopkeeper roared.

The flanks and the rear both needed manpower, but they did not have enough people.

The breach where Song Yi was was still all right. She stood there alone, and she had the courage of one who could hold the pass against ten thousand.

She held her sword in one hand, her eyes lowered and restrained, as if she were spacing out. But anyone with a bit of insight would know that this was merely a state of extreme focus.

A ghost tried to crawl up. Her hand lifted, an arc of light flashed at the end of her sword, and the sword had already reappeared in her hand. The ghost that had crawled out turned into a pile of wreckage on the ground.

Some ghosts charged even faster and were clearly stronger, but they still could not escape that sword.

An onlooker swallowed. “What sword technique is that? It’s so strong.”

A sword cultivator answered, “That’s only basic sword technique. What’s strong isn’t the sword technique itself, but the person using it.”

Why was she not using a sword technique with greater power?

Because Song Yi knew that guarding this breach was only the beginning.

When spiritual power was limited, every bit that could be saved had to be saved. There was still a hard battle waiting afterward.

But the other places were not as easy as hers. Ghosts could pop out anywhere. The circle kept shrinking smaller and smaller. Having a smaller front to meet the enemy was a good thing, and also not a good thing.

At this moment, everyone knew this was a trap set by the ghosts. But what use was that? They were already lambs waiting to be slaughtered in this pit.

The black-hearted shopkeeper forced back the ghosts pouncing at him with one slash, looked toward Teacher Yuan, and estimated the situation. “Can I ask you to break out and take the children to retreat?”

Looking at the ghost tide coming from all directions, Teacher Yuan’s scalp went numb. “I’ll do my best to try.”

If they stayed here, even a one percent survival rate would be hard to count on. They might all be wiped out.

They had already lost the best chance to retreat, but if a few people covered the retreat and carved out a bloody path, perhaps a few might still survive.

They could only choose the least terrible option among the worst ones.

When Teacher Yuan saw Song Yi and saw the broken ghost bodies piled in front of her, he could not help freezing. No wonder there was so much pressure at the rear, yet things were still all right. The point with the greatest pressure had been held by her.

With her fighting strength, perhaps once they could no longer hold on, she could keep running, and her chances of survival would be higher.

“Song Yi, you’ve already done very well. We’ll retreat first,” Teacher Yuan said gently.

But Song Yi was focusing on sensing the qi currents around her. “Teacher, we can’t retreat. Retreating will make us fall into another one of their traps and let them defeat us one by one.”

Of course Teacher Yuan understood this principle, but standing firm here meant death. Retreating might still win a bit of survival for a few children.

But Song Yi shook her head. “No. This still isn’t a dead end.”

A blazing light burst from her eyes. “Teacher, I want to win. No, I’m going to win.”

Song Yi gripped the sword in her hand firmly, her momentum surging.

This was the first time she had to lead so many people to survive.

This was not something she was good at. The more people she did not understand, the more uncontrollable variables there were. But when had she not seized that thread of life from the thin line between life and death?

A sword cultivator would not retreat.

“Teacher, you were the one who told me to shoulder the responsibility I could shoulder.”

Compared with her previous life, her sword Dao had already changed. Her sword was indeed no longer as sharp and aggressive as it used to be, wounding others and wounding herself, but that did not mean her sword had learned cowardice.

Teacher Yuan sighed. “There are too many ghosts. We still don’t know what happened to the people who went to Sand City to send word, but tonight, we probably won’t be able to wait for rescue.”

“No. There is still rescue.”

While Teacher Yuan was utterly confused, Song Yi called Lin Ze and the others over. “Do you still remember those demon beast dens I pointed out on our way here?”

“I remember.”

“I don’t have time to go myself, so I can only ask you to do it.” She had them put on their “demon beast skins.”

Teacher Yuan was dumbfounded by the sight. This maneuver seemed like… it might not be impossible?

Song Yi had Teacher Yuan guard this pit for her first. Then she gathered momentum in reverse and split open a narrow path for Lin Ze and the other two.

After that, she leapt up, and sword qi fell like rain, like arrows, sweeping down a great swath of ghosts as she made as if to flee.

Song Yi was certain she had pulled aggro firmly. Those ghosts would rather let the three of them go than allow her to escape. With that, their actions would be much safer.

Seeing the ghosts gathering toward her, and feeling an icy-cold aura lock onto her, the corners of Song Yi’s mouth instead curled upward.

As everyone knew, demon beasts also loathed ghosts.

Of course, beyond the Human Realm, if you said humans and demon beasts had any “friendship,” that was pure nonsense. Under normal circumstances, everyone would ask Sand City for help. No one had thought of dragging demon beasts over.

It was not as if those demon beasts were raised by you. Did you think they would do whatever you told them?

But as fellow demon beasts, when facing ghosts, surely they had to lend a hand, right?

From a distance, Lin Ze and the others’ set of skins could pass for the real thing. They had also learned some superficial Sound Roar Technique from Song Yi. They could not speak beast language, but expressing emotion was no problem.

Nor were they truly going to negotiate. According to the plan, they would just howl wildly and attract as many demon beasts over as they could.

The demon beasts would definitely find it strange. Why was the fur only that of ordinary demon beasts, while the aura was that of an iron-eating beast, Iron Round’s? Finding it strange was exactly right. Wouldn’t they have to follow and take a look?

Iron-eating beasts had quite a bit of status among the various demon beasts.

Because there were very few of them left, and they were rather strong. If one could help and protect the young of their race outside, there would definitely be benefits.

Look at that. Reinforcements acquired.

The fierce battle at the settlement reached a white-hot stage, and the encirclement grew smaller and smaller.

A ghost had already pounced right at the black-hearted shopkeeper’s face, its sharp nails almost stabbing into his eyes. Fortunately, the tavern owner beside him formed a spell formula, used the void as paper to draw a talisman, and split the ghost sideways out, finally saving his life.

The cultivator whose whole body had been puppeted nearly got submerged by the ghost tide, but the advantage of having one’s whole body puppeted was that there was no need to worry about infection from scratches or bites. Taking advantage of the ghosts crawling all over his body, his cultivation method erupted, shaking all the ghosts around him into pieces.

Magical treasures were still flying chaotically over the battlefield. However, they were no longer relying on the spirit-energy within the magical treasures, but were being driven entirely by everyone’s spiritual power.

Many restrictions had already failed. Either their spirit-energy had been exhausted, or they had been destroyed by the ghosts.

The timid young man from before was repairing restrictions with sweat covering his head. He was not very good at fighting, but he was originally an array engineer.

At this moment, the sweat on his forehead was not because he was afraid, but because he was focused. “Hold on a little longer. This spirit-energy cannon can still be repaired.”

When Song Yi heard his voice, her eyes lit up. She drifted over, grabbed him, and said, “Repairing that won’t be very effective. Can you modify it and convert its energy into this instead? You know what this is, right?”

She handed over the few remaining blue bottles.

A spirit-energy cannon was still somewhat insufficient against this overwhelming ghost tide. They had to switch to another kind of energy.

The essential principle of a spirit-energy cannon was a kind of restriction that converted spirit-energy into a powerful attack. Then if they switched it to Heavenly Tribulation energy, it should be about the same, right?

What would the converted result be called? Heavenly Tribulation?

Song Yi was not very clear on the effect, but it was worth a try.

“You recognize these, right?”

The young man hesitantly nodded, then shook his head.

This seemed to be Heavenly Tribulation energy, but it also did not seem quite right.

Song Yi said, “No need to doubt it. This is Heavenly Tribulation energy. Though it’s defective.”

The normal ones had already been used up.

But this was meant to be used for attacking anyway. If it was not that stable, that counted as normal too, right? That was what Song Yi thought.

The young man had too many things he wanted to complain about. This is completely different, okay?! What if it blows me up before it even gets converted into an attack?!

With her bun-like face held sternly, Song Yi asked, “Are you afraid of dying?”

The young man nodded without the slightest hesitation, leaving Song Yi almost unsure how to continue. Shouldn’t an ordinary cultivator say something like, “Afraid of dying? Like hell I am,” at a time like this?

This generation of cultivators was no good.

Song Yi changed her line. “Then do you know? What you’re carrying out is a study unprecedented before and unsurpassed after. You will be the founder. Don’t you want to try?”

The young man’s eyes lit up.

For someone who did research like him, fieldwork might not necessarily be his strong suit, but if you told him he was pioneering a certain line of research, he could risk his life for it!

“I’ll do it!”

There was no need for Song Yi to keep egging him on. He had already shown extreme enthusiasm, staring at those defective products in a daze, then muttering a bunch of jargon Song Yi could not understand as he began dismantling and assembling.

“Everyone, stay away from me!” he shouted.

Song Yi had given him an idea he had never thought of. He was also a madman, so he simply fused all the energy together to create an ultimate strike.

The only issue was that if it went poorly, before it killed the ghost tide, it might wipe out their own people first.

The people around him could all feel that pressure and silently moved aside. But the ghosts probably also knew that the thing in this fellow’s hands was not good, and they surged toward him frantically.

Song Yi simply guarded beside him, chewing pills while harvesting ghosts without restraint.

From the moment she had joined the battlefield until now, she had not stopped to rest.

Even with pills helping her recover spiritual power, the overdraw on her divine sense was inevitable.

Someone wanted to swap defense with her, and she said with a pale face, “The strongest point of us sword cultivators is our strong endurance.”

Even at a time like this, she did not forget to advertise for sword Dao. It really made people not know whether to laugh or cry.

But what Song Yi said was also true. This degree of overdraw was nothing. Her sword grew stronger the more overdrawn she became, and only then could she cut out a path to survival on the line between life and death.

“How much longer do you need?”

“Half an hour.”

Song Yi gritted her teeth. The encirclement was closing tighter and tighter. She was thinking about whether to use her strongest strike early when she heard howls coming from outside the encirclement.

Demon beasts were gathering in twos and threes, joining the battlefield.

These demon beasts were probably a bit bewildered. Hm? Had their eyes been playing tricks on them just now? It seemed like they had seen four-legged beasts turn into two-legged beasts?

What was going on?

But the wave of ghosts was right in front of them. There was no time to think that much!

Beast roars linked into a continuous wave.

The pressure on the human side suddenly eased.

They had won everyone more time.

But it was still not enough.

The demon beasts who had suddenly joined had caught the ghosts off guard, but the ghosts reacted very quickly, and the battle once again became deadlocked.

They lacked the decisive combat power.

Song Yi’s gaze shifted toward the young man.

The young man was scratching his ears and cheeks. “We’re missing an emitter… It can’t cover all these ghosts…”

“What does that emitter do?” Song Yi did not understand some of the specialized terms of this era. “It just expands the attack range?”

“A kind of booster. Not only attack range, but also a power-enhancement effect…”

Song Yi nodded. “I understand. We don’t need that thing.”

The young man: ?

“A human-flesh emitter works better. I’ll teach you a principle. When necessary, a cultivator can serve as any part.”

Under the young man’s stunned expression, Song Yi snatched up the modified spirit-energy cannon. “Everyone, get out of the way! Find a way to keep the ghost tide in the middle!”

In any case, her sword move had almost finished gathering momentum. It could just happen to serve as the emitter. Conversely, her sword itself was very strong, but it lacked spiritual power. This boiling power happened to complement her.

Song Yi leapt into the air about ten meters up and activated the spirit-energy cannon. Then she pressed all the energy into her sword. She held the sword down with both hands, an abnormal bluish-green color surfacing on her face, and then she slashed down through the void.

Her broad sword did not touch any person, any beast, or any ghost.

But within this sword domain, all things fell silent and perished, like the might of the Heavenly Dao.

No spiritual power spilled out, but heaven and earth lost their color.

Even those who had hidden far enough away could feel that sensation pressing against their chest until they could not breathe. Those who had not dodged quickly enough even began bleeding from their seven orifices.

The ghosts fled, wanting to run underground, but just as one could not evade the Heavenly Tribulation no matter where one was, so what if they fled underground?

One sword settled heaven and earth.

Those strong enough, or lucky enough, to escape the sword domain were quickly harvested by the humans or demon beasts who came back to their senses.

Song Yi seemed frozen in midair. Then the child fell like a kite with its string cut.

Teacher Yuan caught her.

Looking at the crimson patch at her dantian, Teacher Yuan’s tiger eyes filled with tears. He fed her several pills and then roared, “Medical cultivator! Is there a medical cultivator? Save her!”

Her life had only just begun.

Song Yi blinked. At first, she wanted to say she was fine. But seeing him like this, tears gathered in her blinking eyes, and she said in a weak voice, “Teacher, I still have one wish that hasn’t been fulfilled. I didn’t get full marks in Moral Education. I haven’t even graduated from elementary school…”

Teacher Yuan could not hold himself together. “Good child, hold on. As long as you make it back alive, I’ll give you full marks in every subject. You’ll successfully get your graduation certificate too.”

“Yay!”

Teacher Yuan: ?

Why did he feel like the child’s tone before and after was not quite the same?

He touched the blood at Song Yi’s stomach, and the feel was not quite right. He could still tell the difference between blood and other things. Song Yi was supposedly almost done for, yet her friends Li Wenwen and the others had not come forward. Instead, they were off to the side making strange snickering noises…

Something was not right.

Teacher Yuan’s sluggish brain finally turned the corner.

He roughly probed Song Yi’s body with spiritual power. Her spiritual power was exhausted, and she truly was weak, but that was all. She had not suffered any internal injuries at all.

He held the child and shook her, shaking out a lot of broken armor, as well as a pocket. The happy fruits inside had been crushed flat, and the red-black juice squeezed out of them had dyed her outer robe red.

“Ahem… Teacher, the fighting was too fierce just now. Splitting my attention to take food and drinks out of my storage pouch would waste a bit of spiritual power, so I separated out another pocket for easier access.”

I didn’t say anything, okay? You imagined all of that yourself!

The tears in Teacher Yuan’s eyes evaporated into thin air.

This misunderstanding was also related to Honest Yuan being overly tense. Back then, his mind had gone completely blank. He had thought the child was already gone and had focused only on stuffing pills into her and feeling miserable, forgetting to check her body at the first moment.

Under normal circumstances, she really should not have been able to hold on.

She was like someone who had endured a Heavenly Tribulation that did not match her current realm. It was already good enough that she had not been struck until her soul scattered.

But Song Yi was, in the end, someone who had a cheat. Not only was the strength of her divine soul far beyond others of the same level, but that Heavenly Tribulation was not a true Heavenly Tribulation. It could even be said to share the same source as the energy that tempered her sword, so it counted as “one of her own,” and the damage had already been reduced a great deal.

Besides, when she said she was not afraid of death, she really was not afraid. But when it came to surviving cautiously, that was also real. She wore no less armor than Li Wenwen and the others.

Song Yi said innocently, “Teacher, does what you said just now still count?”

She could get full marks! She could be recommended for graduation on the spot!

“Awoo—Teacher is going to hit a child! He has no teaching ethics! I’m a hero, hey, everyone, help me stop him! Boohoohoo, destroying the bridge after crossing the river, cooking the hound once the hares are dead…”

The child was chased all over by Teacher Yuan, her mouth spouting a chaotic mess of idioms.

It was probably because the pills Honest Yuan had fed her had been too effective. She had not even been able to maintain her weakened state for very long.

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