"So, this 'Living Underworld Envoy, Ye Bu Shou' – is he, like, different from ordinary underworld envoys? You mentioned before, big brother, that Ye Bu Shou was a reconnaissance unit in the Ming army, the absolute elite of the elite. Does that mean an underworld envoy Ye Bu Shou is also the elite of the elite among underworld envoys?"
"Get out of here!" I scoffed. "Do you even know your own capabilities?"
I wasn't being self-deprecating or modest. I was definitely trash. Although Bingbing was more agile, compared to the commanders of the Purple Qi sect (I'd seen all three of them, they were all Purple Qi), we were not even on the same level. How could we be called elite?
"That's true," Zheng Bingbing scratched his head. "Ah well, let's not worry about it. Being feared is always a good thing, in any case."
"That it is. Let's go, the sun's already high. I wonder if those ghosts in Heishan Baozi can stand the light." I started the Pajero and continued towards our destination.
There was a highway entrance ahead, but we couldn't take the highway. The highway was flanked by protective fences. If we went on it, our activity space would be limited to the width of the road. When we returned from the airport earlier, the range of ghosts I saw there was much wider than the road.
Following the navigation, I drove onto a service road, taking twists and turns until we were only a kilometer away from Heishan Baozi. Beyond that, there was no road, not even cornfields. Ahead lay a large expanse of abandoned land, overgrown with withered yellow grass and scattered with low-lying small trees. It could have been cultivated, but I guessed the local farmers were too afraid of the mass graves of Heishan Baozi to farm too close.
We both got out of the car. Zheng Bingbing was experienced in crossing this kind of wasteland. He found four bandages in the car and tied his pant legs tightly to prevent snakes, insects, rats, and ants from crawling into them in their panic. This was an essential survival skill in the wild and could not be taken lightly. Both men and women are afraid of animals crawling into their clothes; men might get bitten, but women would fare even worse.
Bingbing took a hiking pole and led the way. I followed behind. Since I had already used a lot of energy with the Qi-observation technique, I decided to conserve what I had left until we reached our location. It wasn't too late to activate it then. After all, we had the "Soul-Binding Token," so those wronged spirits wouldn't dare do anything to us.
As we walked, several small mounds suddenly appeared in the overgrown field. They were low in height, and some had stone tablets in front of them, but the inscriptions were gone.
"Are these graves?" Zheng Bingbing asked fearfully.
I activated the Qi-observation technique. Sure enough, a ghost was squatting on top of each mound, dressed in Republic of China era clothing. They were gaunt, their faces ashen, and they stared blankly at Zheng Bingbing and me. These graves should have been built by others over a hundred years ago when they first died. After so many years of natural weathering, it was good that even the mounds remained. As for the inscriptions on the stone tablets, they had all been eroded away by the wind and rain, leaving them as blank steles.
Speaking of blank steles, I thought of Wu Zhao again. When I see her again, I should ask her if she really was that female emperor.
If she was, I remembered that Wu Zetian lived to be eighty-two years old. Why did she look so young again after she died?
I extended my Qi-observation technique's vision. Well, I didn't need to extend it. My Qi-observation range was limited, and the entire field of vision was densely packed with spectral energy. It was likely that there was even more beyond the edge of my vision. Most of it was red, but there was also orange, yellow energy, and even two streaks of green. It seemed that after squatting here for over a hundred years, they hadn't reported to the underworld but had unlocked cultivation skills. Could this be called 'ghost cultivation'?
"Are you scared?" I asked Zheng Bingbing.
"...I can't see anything. What are you seeing?" Bingbing asked.
"They're all benevolent-looking ghosts," I lied with a smile to Zheng Bingbing. "They're all smiling and bowing to us, nothing to be afraid of!"
In reality, these ghosts had already awakened and were drifting towards me one by one.
Soon, they surrounded me and Zheng Bingbing.
Faces full of resentment approached continuously, surrounding me so tightly that not a drop of water could get through...