Chapter 156

In front of the bone spirit, Zhou Shuo lunged forward, mounted the fallen Yao Feng, first two sword qi struck, piercing his body where his treasure protection had failed, then he reached out and snatched the large bamboo hat that could cover his body, revealing a panicked thin face.

"Hehe!" Zhou Shuo looked at the gaunt, ghost‑like fellow, bared his white teeth, unleashed a flurry of old‑style punches, and while wildly beating him he also manipulated the Divine Machine Hundred Reflections whip to release strands of golden light that probed inside his clothes, stripping off his miscellaneous items—all sorts of junk.

"Soulless puppet." After taking two strikes of the Non‑Heaven Sword Qi, Yao Feng's mind wavered; he then suffered several more old‑style punches, and more of his belongings were searched away. In desperation he shouted loudly, and a treasure that had been hooked out by golden threads from his body suddenly blazed with light.

Zhou Shuo suddenly felt a gust of wind ahead; a Yao Feng wearing a bamboo hat appeared out of thin air, reaching out with claws toward him, while the Yao Feng pressing down on him unleashed a tremendous force, making his body instantly feel off‑balance.

"Kid, I'll remember you." Yao Feng, aided by a puppet, broke free of Zhou Shuo's pressure, let out a sharp scream, snatched a wooden mask from a golden thread, then picked up his bamboo hat and placed it on his head; the purple curtain on the hat flicked, and with a crack he exploded into a cloud of mist that dispersed.

"He's gone." Zhou Shuo waved his hand and smashed the Yao Feng before him into two broken puppets that fell to the ground, then waved again to disperse the surrounding mist, but he saw a figure flash in the thick fog; moments later the view cleared, and looking around he saw nothing but the wailing shade—nothing else at all.

"Wow, this is the Spirit‑Communing Jade, plus the Shrinking‑Earth Ruler, the Dust‑Free Fan, together with his used pale paper puppets, soulless puppet, divine wood mask, and transformation card, as well as the Myriad Ghost Banner I snatched—what a hoard of treasures that monster had!" The bone spirit ignored Zhou Shuo's state, staring wide‑eyed at the treasures hanging in the air by golden light, which were the items Zhou Shuo had extracted from Yao Feng with his Divine Machine Hundred Reflections whip.

"Well, today wasn't a total loss, but speaking of that fellow in this labyrinth, can he get out?" Zhou Shuo looked at the girl staring wide‑eyed, at the few treasures pulled out by golden threads, and couldn't help raising his eyebrows.

"I don't know that either; he finally escaped by transforming, likely into a Mist Fairy, which my master said is a spirit from Penglai Island that rides the mist in and out. Hmm, although the netherworld differs from the yang realm, there are still many ways to exit directly." The bone spirit shrugged her delicate shoulders—this she didn't know.

"At a loss after all." Zhou Shuo took each item he had picked from Yao Feng's body into his hand, hearing the bone spirit's words he stomped his foot—Yao Feng must have already fled.

"What loss? You've already harvested these treasures, haven't you?" The bone spirit looked at Zhou Shuo's hand holding the jade ruyi, jade ruler, jade bi and assorted odds and ends—these are all fine magical treasures.

"If we could have kept him, there would surely be even more." Zhou Shuo looked at the girl salivating and indicated she lacked experience.

"You're really greedy—give me one!" The bone spirit pursed her lips, not hiding her desire for magical treasures.

"No problem, but you need to tell me what these two treasures do, and also what method you just used that let Yao Feng let his guard down and get hit?" Zhou Shuo handed over the treasures; although he had studied the Divine Machine Hundred Reflections, it wasn't his specialty, so he couldn't tell their functions. From the bone spirit's explanation it seemed she knew them all, and she appeared to have used some trick earlier to break through Yao Feng's defenses.

"Nothing much—just a trick we use in the netherworld, corpse poison." The bone spirit, hearing Zhou Shuo's follow‑up question, lowered her gaze slightly, said it offhandedly, then furtively glanced at him.

"Corpse poison? Extracted from corpses?" Zhou Shuo looked at the bone spirit secretly glancing at him, and raised his eyebrows.

"What, you look down on it?" The bone spirit saw Zhou Shuo's expression and instantly felt a bit offended.

"No, I once had a friend who also played with corpses just like you, and I even learned a trick from her back then!" Zhou Shuo's thoughts drifted; he recalled Liu Yan Yan, the corpse‑driver from western Hunan, who, when she spoke, seemed somewhat like the bone spirit.

"You still have such a friend? Our netherworld's corpse poison is refined from bones." The bone spirit looked at Zhou Shuo and was slightly surprised.

"She's probably similar, though I'd guess her practice isn't as advanced as yours—she learned corpse‑driving and stayed with corpses until adulthood." Zhou Shuo shrugged his shoulders.

"Huh!" The bone spirit showed a look of disgust—spending all day facing corpses, how revolting that must be.

"Alright, let's drop that—first show me what these things do." Zhou Shuo looked at the disdainful bone spirit, involuntarily amused, "What right do you have to scorn Liu Yan Yan? You also refine poison from corpses."

"This is the Spirit‑Communing Jade; it has the effect of attracting good fortune and avoiding misfortune. When facing an enemy, depending on the opponent's strength, the jade emits different lights, and it also has a treasure‑seeking function." Seeing Zhou Shuo say little, the bone spirit looked at his other treasures, then reached out and snatched a jade ruyi to explain.

"Anything else?" Zhou Shuo glanced at the green jade ruyi in his sister's hand, nodded slightly, and said, "It intelligently discerns enemies, avoids the strong and strikes the weak, plus it seeks treasures—a fine item."

"This is the Shrinking‑Earth Ruler; worn on the body it allows arbitrary movement." The bone spirit then picked up another piece of green jade short ruler.

"Interesting." Zhou Shuo nodded; during his fight with Yao Feng, the opponent had several sudden shifts, which must be this item's effect, though that move of his was quite formidable.

"This is the Dust‑Free Fan; I heard my master say it's a Buddhist treasure, its body is the bodhi tree, its mind like a bright mirror stand—constantly keep it clean, don't let dust arise; waving this fan can sweep away mental worries and dust." The bone spirit looked at the palm‑leaf fan in Zhou Shuo's left hand.

"Impressive, what about this one?" Zhou Shuo nodded at the last item in his hand—a golden‑yellow jade bowl that seemed to have no light at all.

"Let me think… ah, it's the Uncarved Jade Bowl—no wonder that fellow's defenses were so high just now." The bone spirit, holding the Spirit‑Communing Jade and the Shrinking‑Earth Ruler, swept her big eyes across the jade bowl twice, and they lit up suddenly.

"Kind of interesting—I wonder what other treasures that guy has." Zhou Shuo looked at the plain, unadorned jade bowl in his hand, raised his eyebrows, and thought, "The Uncarved Jade Bowl can even block Non‑Heaven Sword Qi, but in this battle my own spells and martial skills were insufficient; Yao Feng's move was very formidable. Fortunately I didn't use thought‑based techniques, or I would have damaged my soul. These basic arts and skills are becoming less usable; I need to hurry and train the Asura Zen techniques."

"Don't be too greedy in life—tell me, which item will you give me?" The bone spirit looked at the four treasures, her big eyes turned to Zhou Shuo with a hint of anticipation, having agreed to receive one item.

"One shouldn't be too greedy in life—tell me, which should I give you?" Zhou Shuo looked at the big‑eyed girl eagerly gazing at his sister, and a playful smile appeared on his face.

"I'm not human; I'm immortal white bone, so of course I hope you give me all these things." The bone spirit spoke with righteous confidence.

"I'm practically speechless." Zhou Shuo looked at his forthright sister, couldn't help curling his lips—this was really blunt!

"So you agreed?" The bone spirit's eyes lit up—truly giving everything to herself.

"I'll keep the Dust‑Free Fan and the Spirit‑Communing Jade; I'll study the Uncarved Jade Bowl and the Shrinking‑Earth Ruler, and give them to you once I've figured them out." Zhou Shuo looked at the somewhat impolite fellow and couldn't help curling his lips.

"Really? That Uncarved Jade Bowl is the strongest of these four treasures!" The bone spirit heard Zhou Shuo's words, not surprised, but upon hearing him promise to give her the Uncarved Jade Bowl, her eyes brightened.

"I'm also an artifact refiner; I have a defensive treasure on me, so this one is useless to me, and as for the Shrinking‑Earth Ruler, it's only for research purposes." Zhou Shuo raised his shoulders slightly; the Uncarved Jade Bowl, though powerful, isn't flawless—otherwise Yao Feng wouldn't have been caught off guard by corpse poison.

"Then when will you finish studying it?" The bone spirit looked pleadingly.

"First find a quiet place to talk about it, but do you remember why we came here? Not to find a person—rather, to find a ghost." Zhou Shuo raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Oh, if you hadn't said it I'd have forgotten—the netherworld ghost! Right, I also snatched a treasure from that fellow—a Myriad Ghost Banner—do you want to study it?" Upon hearing Zhou Shuo, the bone spirit likewise recalled it, and there was another matter as well.

"Bring it over, let's have a look." Zhou Shuo dumped several treasures into his personal space; since attaining the Nascent Soul stage he no longer needed a consumption pouch, keeping all his treasures inside his bodily space.

"Here, come quick—the netherworld ghost just ran this way." The bone spirit casually tossed a wisp of black qi to Zhou Shuo, then continued the pursuit according to her earlier attention.

"This is an evil‑path treasure!" Zhou Shuo caught the black qi the bone spirit threw; inside the black mist he saw a small banner filled with countless wicked ghosts and zombies, ox‑headed and horse‑faced spirits howling—it is an evil‑path treasure used to command the dead.

"Over here." While Zhou Shuo was examining the treasure in his hand, the bone spirit on the other side had located the shade previously pursued by Yao Feng—that shade is the Netherworld Ghost, a famous wronged soul within the hellish labyrinth; no one knows why it died, and drinking Meng Po's soup never works, so it wanders the labyrinth unable to reincarnate.

"Wen Xiu, I want Wen Xiu—but who is Wen Xiu, and who am I?" The shade lingered in the cave's corner, muttering like a madman, uttering delirious words.

"Was he beaten into idiocy, or has he always been like this?" Zhou Shuo looked at the translucent‑bodied male ghost wearing a hood, and couldn't help raising his eyebrows.

"He's always been like that, though we never heard him mention the name Wen Xiu before. Let's go back and ask Uncle Zhong Pang to look into it, untie his knot, so he can be reborn." The bone spirit stared at the foolish male ghost, observed him carefully, confirmed he had no other issues, and then spoke.

"Wen Xiu, Wen Xiu, where are you? Why don't you come find me?" Hearing the bone spirit's words, the originally dim‑witted male ghost hiding in the corner brightened his eyes, his gaze sweeping toward the bone spirit who was speaking to Zhou Shuo.