Chapter 156: 157. Chapter 157: Ghosts and Gods Collecting Lifespan

157. Chapter 157: Ghosts and Gods Collecting Lifespan

Listening to the countless whispering sounds outside, Li Yi felt a sense of horror.

It is conceivable how many wronged souls and fierce ghosts were wandering outside this wall. He was in the house, feeling as if he had fallen into an endless dark world. He was isolated, separated, and there was only one living person around him, and a sense of loss arose spontaneously.

"Sure enough, as I expected, on the night of the first day of the month, the Yin aura underground rises and fills the entire world. On this day, there will be particularly many ghosts, and they will become more terrifying than usual."

Li Yi took a deep breath at this moment. It seems that tonight is very difficult to endure.

Practitioners like him can see ghosts, hear many movements and sounds that ordinary people cannot hear, and can feel the intrusion of Yin aura... These things mixed together make him very uncomfortable.

It is better for ordinary people to fall asleep and sleep until dawn, seeing nothing and feeling nothing.

Wait.

Suddenly.

Li Yi remembered something. He made such a big noise just now. Rong Niang and Zhao Qian sleeping in the inner room couldn't have heard nothing, right? Even if they were really asleep, it is reasonable to say that they would be woken up.

Although martial artists are not evolvers, their five senses are how much stronger than ordinary people.

After realizing that something was wrong, Li Yi rushed into the inner room immediately.

Afterward, his eyes shrank suddenly, and he saw a weird scene.

He saw a ghost he had never seen before standing next to the bedroom. The ghost was nearly two meters tall, and its limbs were blue-black and strong. A piece of white cloth was wrapped around its head, and a large black character seemed to be written on the white cloth: "Longevity".

At this moment, this tall ghost was holding a hollow bamboo as a straw, extending one end of the bamboo to Rong Niang's face, and then took a heavy breath.

In Li Yi's evolver's vision, a clean white aura emerged from Rong Niang's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and then was sucked into that section of bamboo.

And the originally black-purple bamboo actually had a small section that turned white, as if that aura was stored in that bamboo.

Li Yi then discovered that after losing that white aura, several black hairs on Rong Niang's head turned white instantly, and even a few small wrinkles appeared on her face. Her whole person seemed to have aged a lot instantly, but this change was very subtle and almost imperceptible, but it could not escape his eyes.

After sucking away Rong Niang's aura, the ghost aimed the bamboo at Zhao Qian on the side, seeming to want to repeat the same trick and absorb her aura as well.

All of this, Rong Niang and Zhao Qian, who were sleeping, had no perception.

No.

Even if they were awake, they wouldn't be able to discover it.

Because they were just martial artists, not evolvers, and their eyes could not see ghosts. Only Li Yi could see it here.

"What exactly are you doing, you beast?"

Li Yi's eyes shrank at this moment, turning into vertical pupils, shining, and at this moment, he rushed over like a fierce tiger, threw a punch holding the knife coin, and smashed it toward the ghost's head.

Although he didn't understand the ghost's behavior, he could sense that this ghost seemed to be trying to steal something from Rong Niang and Zhao Qian.

The ghost with the word "Longevity" on its face seemed not to have expected that it would be seen by Li Yi. It was somewhat surprised, and its tall body turned slowly. However, what greeted it was not Li Yi's greeting, but a punch that came rushing toward it.

This punch emitted a strange light in the darkness.

This kind of light was even more fierce than the Qi and blood of Meridian Cultivation experts, capable of fighting against ghosts and gods and killing fierce ghosts.

"Bang!"

As soon as the fist strength sounded, the head of the ghost, which could not be touched before, suffered a heavy blow and was smashed by one punch. However, there was no blood or broken bones after the head was broken, it just turned into a group of thick and cold aura, dissipated on the spot, and then merged into this

However, after its head was destroyed, the ghost did not fall; its body could still move, though it was somewhat clumsy, stumbling as it ran toward the outside of the house.

Its tall body ignored the obstruction of the door, actually passing straight through it.

"A punch couldn't kill it?" Li Yi's expression changed, and then, without further hesitation, he immediately gave chase.

Since one punch couldn't kill it, he would just throw a few more; he refused to believe he couldn't kill this ghost.

Breaking through the door and window, Li Yi moved with agility and instantly charged out.

However, the moment he rushed out, his expression changed.

In the courtyard outside, all sorts of people were wandering about; these people were ethereal, lacking physical bodies, and their faces were pale with dull gazes—they were actually countless wronged souls and fierce ghosts. These ghosts were just like people seen everywhere on the street, wandering aimlessly throughout the entire Sanyang City.

And the ghost whose head Li Yi had just smashed was still stumbling toward the outside of the estate, and all the wronged souls and fierce ghosts blocking its path along the way were quickly knocked aside.

Seeing this scene.

He immediately gave chase. While the ghost had not yet gone far, Li Yi vaulted over the courtyard wall and killed his way over. This time, he not only used the knife-coins but also employed the Guidance Technique.

Under the enhancement of the Guidance Technique, the hand holding the knife-coins shone brilliantly, and an energy field became dazzling and eye-catching.

Even the eyes of an ordinary person could see the radiance of the energy.

Under such circumstances, the tall ghost took a punch to its back and was instantly blasted open with a huge hole; subsequently, its entire body could no longer be maintained, and it fell heavily to the ground, then dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Sure enough, knife-coins combined with the Guidance Technique are the nemesis of ghosts; they can easily kill fierce ghosts." Seeing this scene, Li Yi felt a bit more confident.

It was a pity that the cosmic energy of this world was not abundant, and the energy field of the knife-coins had also weakened; otherwise, the ghost would have already died from that punch just now.

After the tall ghost died, nothing remained except for the black-purple bamboo it had been holding; one end of the bamboo appeared white, and this was a change that only occurred after absorbing Rong Niang's aura.

Li Yi had intended to pick up that bamboo to take back and study, but when he saw the scene on the street, he froze in place.

The originally empty street was now filled everywhere with various wronged souls and fierce ghosts. Moreover, apart from these ordinary wronged souls and fierce ghosts, there were many ghosts like the one he had just killed; they all looked the same—tall, a full two meters, with their faces wrapped in white cloth, on which the character for "longevity" was written.

Such ghosts were constantly walking in every part of Sanyang City. They unscrupulously broke into every household, and when they came out, the black-purple bamboo in their hands had already turned white; it was clearly the same as before, having stolen something from the living.

The most eerie thing was that the entire city was completely silent.

No one discovered it, and no one resisted; it seemed as if everything was just as it should be.

"What on earth... is happening in this world?" Li Yi felt a chill down his spine.

He understood that he seemed to have discovered some of the horrors and secrets hidden in this world, while the people of Sanyang City, whether they were experts in Meridian Cultivation or ordinary commoners, were completely unaware of this. Everything was kept from them because they could not see the ghosts; they had no idea what the ghosts breaking into their homes had done to them, nor did they understand what those ghosts had stolen.

Suddenly.

The crying of a living person came from a nearby house. Although the doors and windows of that house were tightly shut and no one had come out, Li Yi, standing on the high courtyard wall and looking out, could vaguely see shadows moving inside the house by the light of an oil lamp, and at the same time, the crying coming from that house grew more frequent.

Li Yi listened carefully for a moment and immediately understood.

At night, an old person in that house had passed away.

And following the old person's passing, a ghost just like the one before walked out slowly and unhurriedly. The segment of black-purple bamboo in its hand had been dyed white. This whiteness, in a daze, reminded Li Yi of the white talisman paper that the old man at the Ghost Street had handed to him back then.

White talisman paper was used for signing with a thumbprint and could be used to sell one's own lifespan.

And the old person's passing... the loss of some kind of aura from the living, ghosts wandering the entire Sanyang City... and finally, Li Yi had heard Rong Niang say that people in the Four Seas and Bazhou did not have long lifespans, almost always dying around fifty.

This series of things connected in Li Yi's mind, and finally, he arrived at a terrifying conjecture.

Could it be that these ghosts were collecting the lifespans of the living?

The more he thought about it, the greater the possibility became.

Because Li Yi had seen with his own eyes that after Rong Niang had a portion of her aura stolen by a ghost, she instantly aged a bit.

That portion of aura was perhaps Rong Niang's lifespan.

It was just that the lifespan taken at one time was very small, so it was usually not noticeable, but the Four Seas and Bazhou also had twelve months in a year; if it were like this every month and every year, how much lifespan would be lost? Even the longest-lived person could not withstand such harvesting.

So, was this the reason why people in the Four Seas and Bazhou were generally short-lived?

Li Yi was shocked by this conjecture of his; his expression shifted uncertainly, and then another question arose.

On the first day of every month, so many ghosts collectively collected lifespans; for thousands of years, where had these lifespans gone? They couldn't have just vanished into thin air.

Moreover, the ghosts' actions were clearly organized and premeditated; it did not look like a natural phenomenon.

Just as Li Yi was thinking.

Perhaps because he had killed a ghost that was collecting lifespans, a squad of government runners appeared on the otherwise eerie street from out of nowhere. No, those were not government runners; they were also ghosts, because their forms appeared ethereal and unreal. However, compared to other ghosts, this squad of runners seemed very fierce; wherever they passed, the wronged souls and fierce ghosts on the street would unconsciously yield a path.

"Are they coming for me?" Li Yi's vertical pupils glowed, and he felt hostility.

The leading runner was dressed in black clothes, with a ghost-headed saber hanging at his waist; his face was livid and ferocious, and his hollow eye sockets were pitch black—there were no eyeballs at all.

"Disturbing the ghosts and gods in collecting lifespans is considered a great disrespect and deserves death."

This ghost runner actually had consciousness; staring at Li Yi, he spoke slowly, his voice hoarse and cold.