Chapter 568: The True Form of the Evil Spirit

Everyone looked at the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit before them with terror in their eyes.

Its entire body was crimson as blood, and the Red Bridal Veil exuded a thick, bloody stench; but even more terrifying was the belly of this "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit, which was actually sliced open and turned outward, empty inside, already rotted and decomposed, emitting a thick, nauseating stench of a corpse...

During the ten-day intensive training, Lin Youjian and Liu Su had told them many cases of Evil Spirits, hoping they would be mentally prepared.

But at this moment, the instant they saw this "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit, everyone still lost their composure, their hearts numbed with shock!

That bone-chilling cold and immense terror pierced through them in an instant!

They could all feel the horror of this thing before them!

Just then, a warm, intoxicatingly soft voice drifted out from beneath the Red Bridal Veil, rippling against the eardrums of everyone present.

"Child, where is my child? Where are you? Mommy misses you so much..."

That strange, intoxicating voice instantly stunned everyone present; the voice seemed to possess some kind of magic, capable of making one's entire mind sink into it...

Within Duan Rong's Spirit Sea, a burst of five-colored fluorescent light suddenly flashed around his Clear Glass Body.

Duan Rong suddenly snapped awake and roared with a cold expression.

"Move!"

The others, who had lost their composure, were instantly jolted awake by Duan Rong's roar.

They all knew the horror of the thing before them and wanted to leave this place, but the moment they were about to turn and leave, the crimson-as-blood Red Bridal Veil on the head of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit moved without wind, and one corner lifted gently.

A face was revealed!

In this instant, everyone froze there! That face seemed to possess infinite charm!

Duan Rong was also as if his feet were nailed to the ground, staring blankly at the face under the Red Bridal Veil!

It was actually the face of Lv Qingzhu.

"Qingzhu..." A look of sorrowful confusion flashed in Duan Rong's eyes. If his mind were clear, he naturally should have known how this Evil Spirit could possibly be Lv Qingzhu?

But what was important was not that face, but the mass of thick darkness at the soles of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit's feet; just in that instant, several imperceptible black shadows the thickness of an arm reached out.

Those black shadows were like tree branches, crisscrossing one another.

At the end of each black shadow was a pitch-black hand of shadow.

Those shadow hands had already grabbed the feet of every one of them.

And the moment a shadow hand grabbed Duan Rong's foot, he saw that face of Lv Qingzhu under the veil!

Not only did Duan Rong stand there with a sorrowful and strange expression, everyone present was looking at the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit and the face revealed under the lifted corner of the Red Bridal Veil with strange expressions.

It was just that everyone saw a different face! It was the deepest, softest place in their hearts!

Guo Tian's eye sockets were already brimming with tears, and his usually rigid face now had a hint of moving distortion. "Mommy!..."

Just then, several red dots suddenly flew out from deep within the mass of thick darkness at the feet of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit!

As those red dots flew, they grew larger and larger; they were actually several Red Bridal Veils!

Those Red Bridal Veils, as soon as they flew out, darted into the night sky, spinning on their own above the night sky...

Immediately, bursts of children's voices drifted out from those Red Bridal Veils spinning in the night sky, rippling through the quiet night air.

"The ugly girl is getting married, Sister Pomegranate is the matchmaker. Long handkerchief, hang on the door frame, short handkerchief, wipe the desk lamp, wipe the desk lamp bright and shiny, prepare the dowry in the apricot blossom garden, tie the knot in the peach blossom garden. Daddy gives me golden rings, Mommy gives me a water-dragon skirt..."

Just as that eerie, clear child's voice rang out overhead, everyone, who had been in a state of intoxication, looked up blankly.

And just as they looked up, beneath the Red Bridal Veils spinning in the night sky, ghost faces suddenly emerged; those ghost faces were clearly their own faces!

All of them were pale, wearing strange, rigid smiles!

Just then, an extremely cold aura suddenly came from the ghost faces under the Red Bridal Veils spinning in the night sky, and everyone could not help but shiver!

The instant that extremely cold aura arrived, those Red Bridal Veils spinning in the night sky suddenly drifted down slowly, actually moving to cover the upturned faces of the group!

And at this time, they were all like people possessed, actually kneeling down on their own, looking up with intoxicated faces; these men were now all in a shy, feminine posture, holding up orchid fingers, looking at their own ghost faces on the slowly descending Red Bridal Veils with strange eyes, as if they were affectionate women gazing at their lovers!

Among them, only Duan Rong stood there alone, not kneeling. He looked up blankly, watching with a strange expression as the Red Bridal Veil slowly descended in the night sky above his head; beneath that Red Bridal Veil was actually a ghost face of himself.

At this moment, high above the Cangqiong of Duan Rong's clear Spirit Sea, a ghost face suddenly emerged!

That ghost face looked just like Duan Rong, only it wore a pale, rigid, evil smile! It slowly descended from above the Cangqiong!

The Clear Glass Body sitting cross-legged within the Spirit Sea suddenly looked up at the ghost face that was about to cover its head!

At this moment, the Clear Glass Body suddenly erupted with five-colored light, and at the same time, the cloud-like Artistic Conception at its brow also rolled incessantly, flashing with white light!

And in this instant, Duan Rong suddenly snapped awake!

The moment Duan Rong woke up, he saw at a glance his own ghost-faced Red Bridal Veil falling from the night sky, and a chill instantly ran down his spine.

This was too evil!?

Duan Rong's eyes narrowed, and he shot a Soul Piercing Needle toward his own ghost face wearing the evil smile above his head!

During the ten-day intensive training, Lin Youjian and Liu Su had not told them whether the Soul Technique practiced in the Womb Treasury Sutra, such as Soul Piercing Needle or Fluctuating Confusion, could be used to deal with Evil Spirits!

Because no one in the Sect who had entered the God-Demon Relic before had been able to form a Soul Piercing Needle while in the Qi Cyclone Realm!

The Womb Treasury Sutra was not so easily mastered!

Lin Youjian and Liu Su did not know that Duan Rong had already achieved the thirteenth level of the Womb Treasury Sutra, and even if they had known, they could not have told Duan Rong whether Soul Piercing Needle and Fluctuating Confusion could deal with Evil Spirits! Because the two of them had absolutely no experience using Soul Techniques to deal with Evil Spirits themselves!

Therefore, in this regard, Duan Rong could only rely on himself to explore.

The reason Duan Rong shot out the Soul Piercing Needle at the first opportunity was because he felt that the Soul Piercing Needle could attack the ghost-faced Red Bridal Veil of himself that was falling from above.

That Red Bridal Veil had not appeared within his clear Spirit Sea, but that ghost face had appeared within his clear Spirit Sea.

Anything that could appear within his clear Spirit Sea must be a Divine Soul body!

Since it was a Divine Soul body, the Soul Piercing Needle could attack it!

The Soul Piercing Needle was a Divine Sense attack; it arrived almost the moment it was fired!

That ghost face wearing the strange, rigid smile was instantly pierced through by the Soul Piercing Needle, and with a "pop," it turned into a puff of white smoke and dissipated into thin air!

Just then, the body of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit trembled visibly, and an aura of resentment shrouded Duan Rong.

And at this moment, Duan Rong finally saw clearly that the face under the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit's Red Bridal Veil was not Lv Qingzhu's face at all; it was clearly a rotting, maggot-infested face!

At this moment, Duan Rong stood alone in the darkness, while the people around him were still kneeling there with strange, coy expressions!

Without the slightest hesitation, Duan Rong retreated rapidly, putting distance between himself and the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit, then fired two more Soul Piercing Needles toward the two ghost-faced Red Bridal Veils in the night sky!

The ghost faces above the heads of Guo Tian and Du Wan instantly turned into white smoke!

The reason Duan Rong used Soul Piercing Needles to attack the falling ghost faces the first time was that he did not attack the main body of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit!

For one thing, by attacking those ghost faces, he could save Guo Tian and Du Wan.

There was another, more important point: Duan Rong had not yet discovered the main body of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit!

He could be certain that the rotting, foul-smelling, and gruesome corpse was not the main body of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit, because he could not feel a single trace of Divine Soul fluctuation from that rotting, foul-smelling corpse with its belly split open.

Without Divine Soul fluctuation, it meant the Evil Spirit's main body was not inside that corpse!

If he used a Soul Piercing Needle to attack the rotting corpse that did not hide the main body, it would be like attacking a lump of rotten meat! It would be useless, purely a waste of a Soul Piercing Needle!

His Soul Piercing Needles required time to condense; every one used was one less he had!

Duan Rong used Soul Piercing Needles to destroy two more ghost faces! The body of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit trembled twice, and a corner of its Red Bridal Veil suddenly lifted without wind. At this moment, several ghost-faced Red Bridal Veils that were slowly falling in the night sky suddenly flew toward the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit!

Clearly, Duan Rong destroying three ghost faces in a row made the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit feel some pain; it summoned back the remaining Red Bridal Veils to avoid them all being destroyed by Duan Rong.

Those ghost-faced Red Bridal Veils floating in the night sky actually all flew into the dense darkness beneath the feet of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit, then disappeared into the depths of that dense darkness, as if they had merged into it...

In that instant, Duan Rong's pupils suddenly constricted; he finally knew what the main body of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit was!

The main body of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit was not that rotting, foul-smelling corpse wearing a blood-red dress. The main body of the Evil Spirit was that dense darkness beneath its feet!

That was the Evil Spirit!

And that rotting, foul-smelling corpse was merely a host chosen by the Evil Spirit!

Just as Duan Rong confirmed that the dense darkness beneath the Evil Spirit's feet was its main body, he suddenly discovered that, at some unknown time, trails of black shadows had reached out from that dense darkness, each shadow having a pitch-black shadow hand, and one of them was currently gripping his right ankle!

Even when Duan Rong retreated rapidly just now, that shadow hand had followed like a shadow!

Just then, after the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit retracted the several ghost faces, the blood-red veil on its head suddenly flipped up entirely, revealing a whole rotting, maggot-infested face!

Looking at the shadow hand gripping his foot and the Evil Spirit's rotting, maggot-infested face, Duan Rong felt a chill and nausea in his heart.

At this moment, the rotting eyeballs on that rotten face moved, seemingly staring at Duan Rong with venomous hatred, and as those two rotting eyeballs turned, two crawling maggots actually fell off...

The "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit suddenly raised both hands, its body moving without wind, and reached toward Duan Rong with its blackened hands!

Duan Rong had destroyed three of its ghost faces; it clearly now regarded Duan Rong as its target and had temporarily given up on attacking the others!

The moment the Evil Spirit started moving, Duan Rong retreated rapidly again!

He knew he absolutely could not let that dense darkness get close to him!

Since it could parasitize that corpse, it could also potentially parasitize him! After all, if not for his strong Divine Sense and the Clear Glass Body refined within his Spirit Sea erupting just now, that close-range ghost face would likely have already controlled him.

While retreating rapidly, Duan Rong suddenly flicked out three Soul Piercing Needles in succession!

The three Soul Piercing Needles, like silent nails, instantly nailed into the depths of the dense darkness beneath the Evil Spirit's feet!

Instantly, three puffs of white smoke rose up!

The body of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit suddenly stopped there, trembling like a sieve, and maggots on its face fell off in large numbers! At the same time, from the depths of the dense darkness at its feet, accompanied by bursts of white smoke, came a shrill, miserable scream!

It was also when the screaming started and the white smoke rose that the shadow hands that had been gripping everyone's ankles suddenly retracted, flickering as they retreated into the dense darkness!

The moment those shadow hands retreated, the other five people, including Guo Tian and Du Wan, finally woke up abruptly!

The moment they woke up, they saw the rotten face constantly shedding maggots amidst the shrill screaming and bursts of white smoke beside them.

Their breathing hitched, their faces turned pale, and they realized they were each kneeling there, making strange, coy, maiden-like gestures...

"Go!"

Duan Rong shouted, and everyone instantly realized what was happening, violently turning their heads to look at Duan Rong, who was standing not far behind them!

The crowd sprang up like springs and ran toward Duan Rong.

The three ghost faces that had been destroyed by the Soul Piercing Needles shot by Duan Rong—these three Red Bridal Veils had not been retracted into the dense darkness by the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit. It seemed that without the guidance of the ghost faces, these three strange Red Bridal Veils could not be directly controlled by the Evil Spirit.

After the ghost faces were pierced away, these three strange, blood-red Red Bridal Veils drifted in the dark night as if ownerless!

One of them landed not far from Duan Rong's feet at this moment!

As the crowd ran toward him, Duan Rong snatched up the Red Bridal Veil at his feet and took the lead in running into the darkness.

Since the Evil Spirit's main body could not directly control this Red Bridal Veil, and it seemed capable of completely merging into the Evil Spirit's main body of dense darkness, Duan Rong decided to study it, at least to see if he could use a Spirit Reader on it.

The group ran out from the firelight by the pool, and at this time, Jiang Hanyan and Su Xinjue finally hurried back holding torches!

When Lu Chu saw Su Xinjue following behind Jiang Hanyan, his heart suddenly turned cold; the Evil Spirit could actually transform into one of them to get close to them!

It was truly too evil!

Thinking back to that strange and terrifying scene when they woke up, the scene of them kneeling and making coy, maiden-like gestures! And that Evil Spirit with the rotting, maggot-infested face! And he had just seen his childhood lover in that rotting, maggot-infested face!

The moment he saw Jiang Hanyan and Su Xinjue, Guo Tian shouted to them: "The Evil Spirit is here! Run!"

"Evil Spirit!?"

Hearing this, Jiang Hanyan and Su Xinjue were both pale with fright. They turned their heads to look and saw that in the firelight by the pool, there was a figure covered in blood-red, standing there in a strange posture, and wisps of white smoke were rising from its side...

At this moment, the screaming of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit by the pool had stopped, and it slowly straightened its waist...

(End of chapter)