Chapter 158

157. Chapter 157: Ghosts and Gods Collect Lifespan

Hearing the countless murmurs outside, Li Yi felt a chill crawl up his spine.

It was easy to imagine how many vengeful spirits and malevolent ghosts prowled just beyond this wall; standing inside the room, he felt as if he had plunged into an endless dark world, isolated, cut off, the only living soul surrounded by death—a sense of utter disorientation arose.

"Indeed, just as I suspected: on the first night of the month, yin energy surges from below, filling the entire world. On this day, ghosts are especially numerous—and far more terrifying than usual."

Li Yi took a deep breath. This night would be hard to endure.

As an evolved one, he could see ghosts, hear sounds and movements ordinary people couldn't, and sense the intrusion of yin energy—all these things combined made him feel nauseous.

It's better to be ordinary: lie down and sleep, wake at dawn, see nothing, feel nothing.

Wait.

Suddenly.

Li Yi remembered something: he had made such a commotion just now—Rong Niang and Zhao Qian, sleeping in the inner chamber, couldn't possibly have heard nothing. Even if they were truly asleep, they should have been woken.

Warriors, though not evolved ones, still had senses far sharper than ordinary people.

Realizing something was wrong, Li Yi immediately rushed into the inner chamber.

Then his pupils shrank sharply—he saw a bizarre sight.

Standing beside the bedroom was a ghost he had never seen before: towering nearly two meters tall, limbs dark blue-black and massively thick, its head wrapped in white cloth, upon which a large black character was written: "Shou."

The towering ghost now held a hollow bamboo tube like a straw, one end pressed against Rong Niang's face, and drew in a deep breath.

In Li Yi's evolved vision, a pure white mist emerged from Rong Niang's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, drawn into the bamboo.

A small section of the originally black-purple bamboo turned white, as if storing that mist within it.

Li Yi then noticed that after losing the white mist, several strands of Rong Niang's black hair instantly turned white, and fine wrinkles appeared on her face—she had aged visibly, though the change was subtle, nearly imperceptible, yet not hidden from his eyes.

After draining Rong Niang's essence, the ghost turned the bamboo toward Zhao Qian beside her, seemingly intending to repeat the process and steal her essence too.

Rong Niang and Zhao Qian, still fast asleep, remained utterly unaware.

No.

Even if they were awake, they wouldn't notice.

They were martial artists, not evolved ones—their eyes could not see ghosts. Only Li Yi could see them.

"What the hell are you doing, beast?"

Li Yi's pupils narrowed into vertical slits, glowing faintly, like a tiger pouncing—he clenched a knife-coin in his fist and smashed it toward the ghost's head.

Though he didn't understand the ghost's actions, he sensed it was trying to steal something from Rong Niang and Zhao Qian.

The ghost with the "Shou" character on its face seemed stunned to be seen by Li Yi—it slowly turned its massive body, but what met it was not a greeting, but a flying fist.

That fist emitted an eerie glow in the darkness.

This light was fiercer than the blood qi of a Qi-Channeling expert—capable of resisting ghosts and gods, slaying malevolent spirits.

"Crack!"

The punch struck—the ghost's head, normally intangible, was shattered. No blood, no bone fragments—only a thick, icy yin mist erupted and dissolved instantly, merging back into the world.

Yet even after its head was destroyed, the ghost's body still moved, albeit clumsily, stumbling toward the door.

Its towering form passed through the door as if it weren't there.

"One punch didn't kill it?" Li Yi's expression changed—he didn't hesitate and chased after it.

If one punch wouldn't kill it, he'd hit it again. He refused to believe he couldn't destroy this ghost.

He smashed through the door and windows, his body swift as he shot outside.

But as he stepped out, his face darkened.

In the courtyard wandered countless figures of all shapes and sizes—bodies translucent, no physical forms, faces pale, eyes vacant: countless vengeful spirits and malevolent ghosts, drifting aimlessly through San Yang City like ordinary people on a street.

The ghost whose head Li Yi had shattered still stumbled toward the gate, and every spirit in its path was violently shoved aside.

Seeing this,

Li Yi immediately pursued, leaping over the courtyard wall before the ghost could escape—he didn't just use the knife-coin, but also activated the Guiding Technique.

With the Guiding Technique enhanced, the knife-coin in his hand blazed with radiant light, a brilliant energy field blazing forth.

Even ordinary eyes could now see the glow.

The towering ghost, struck from behind, instantly tore open a massive wound—its body could no longer hold together, collapsed heavily to the ground, and dissolved at a visible rate.

"Indeed, the knife-coin plus the Guiding Technique is the ghost's bane—easily kills malevolent spirits." Li Yi felt a surge of confidence.

Too bad the universe's cosmic energy here was scarce, weakening the knife-coin's field—otherwise, that first punch would have killed it outright.

After the towering ghost died, nothing remained except the black-purple bamboo it had held—one end now white, the result of absorbing Rong Niang's essence.

Li Yi moved to pick up the bamboo for study—but froze when he saw the street.

The once-empty road was now teeming with vengeful spirits and malevolent ghosts. And among them, many more like the one he'd just killed: towering, two meters tall, heads wrapped in white cloth, each bearing the black character "Shou."

These ghosts moved freely through San Yang City, brazenly entering every household—and when they emerged, their black-purple bamboo tubes had turned white, clearly having stolen something from the living, just as before.

Most eerie of all: the entire city was utterly silent.

No one noticed. No one resisted. As if it were all perfectly natural.

"What… is happening in this world?" Li Yi felt a chill crawl down his back.

He realized he had uncovered a terrifying secret hidden in this world—yet the people of San Yang City, whether Qi-Channeling experts or common folk, remained completely unaware, kept in the dark, for they could not see ghosts, had no idea what entered their homes, nor what the ghosts stole.

Suddenly,

A human sobbing came from a nearby house. Though the windows and doors were shut, Li Yi, standing atop the courtyard wall, could faintly see a flickering oil lamp inside—and shadows moving. The sobbing grew louder.

Li Yi listened carefully—and understood at once.

That night, an elderly person in the house had died.

As the old man passed, a ghost identical to the one before emerged slowly, its black-purple bamboo now fully white—a whiteness that, in that moment, reminded Li Yi of the white talisman the ghost-street elder had once given him.

The white talisman was used to seal a contract—to sell one's lifespan.

The old man's death… the loss of a living person's essence… the ghosts wandering San Yang City… and finally, Rong Niang had told him: people of the Four Seas and Eight Provinces rarely lived past fifty.

All these pieces connected in Li Yi's mind—and he reached a horrifying conclusion.

Could these ghosts be harvesting living people's lifespans?

The more he thought, the more likely it became.

He had seen with his own eyes: after the ghost stole part of Rong Niang's essence, she aged instantly.

That essence must have been her lifespan.

But each time, only a tiny amount was taken—so subtle, unnoticed. Yet the Four Seas and Eight Provinces have twelve months a year—if this happened monthly, yearly, how much lifespan would be lost? Even the longest-lived could not survive such harvests.

So this was why people of the Four Seas and Eight Provinces died so young?

Li Yi was stunned by his own theory—his expression shifted, then another question arose.

Every first night of the month, so many ghosts harvest lifespans together—for thousands of years, where did all these lifespans go? They couldn't simply vanish.

And the ghosts' actions were clearly organized, deliberate—not a natural phenomenon.

As Li Yi pondered,

Perhaps because he had killed one of the lifespan-harvesting ghosts, a squad of officials suddenly appeared on the eerie street—no, not officials. They were ghosts too, their forms translucent, unreal. But unlike other ghosts, this squad was terrifying: wherever they passed, the vengeful spirits and malevolent ghosts instinctively parted, clearing a path.

"They're coming for me?" Li Yi's vertical pupils glowed—he sensed hostility.

The lead official wore black robes, a demon-headed greatsword at his waist, face ashen and grotesque, eye sockets hollow and pitch-black—no pupils, no eyes.

"Interfering with the Ghost Gods' Lifespan Collection is grave disrespect. You must die."

The ghost official spoke with consciousness, its voice hoarse and icy as it fixed its gaze on Li Yi.