"What is this?" Johnnie asked the wicked ghost village chief.
The village chief looked scared. He swallowed hard, looked around for a mont, then said:
"This is a gift from the Red-Haired Ghost King’s ssenger. Every ghost in the village has one."
"After we eat, we all have to go to this statue and stare at it."
"And the Red-Haired Ghost King sends people to replace these statues from ti to ti. If I calculate the ti correctly, the ssengers should be here tonight."
After hearing the village chief’s words, Johnnie fell into deep thought.
The "eating" the village chief ntioned was actually eating ordinary ghosts. That ant this statue was keeping them from being affected by negative emotions.
But what was this strange, creepy statue, exactly?
Johnnie couldn’t figure it out.
"My Lord, there’s sothing else." the village chief suddenly rembered. "Once, sothing went wrong, and I didn’t watch the statue as the Red-Haired Ghost King ordered. That night, I went completely crazy and attacked other ghosts in the village."
Johnnie nodded. This made his guess even clearer.
"My Lord, I guess I’m not needed here anymore. Can I go now?" The village chief looked at Johnnie nervously.
Johnnie gave him a cold look and shook his head. "No. You die, and so do the other wicked ghosts."
The village chief’s face twisted into a stiff smile. His voice trembled as he said."M-mighty one, you must be joking. You just said that if I cooperate, you would think about letting go."
Johnnie shook his head again, correcting him. "I didn’t say I would consider letting you go. What I’m thinking about is how to make you suffer as you die."
He hadn’t forgotten that these wicked ghosts had just killed and dismbered a normal pregnant ghost, and cooked it.
Letting them live?
That was impossible.
After hearing the answer, the village chief’s black eyes flashed with a fierce light. He didn’t want to die — so the only choice left was to fight.
Without hesitation, the village chief rushed toward Johnnie.
But as soon as he left the ground and flew into the air, he was hit by the flying sword and fell heavily to the ground, landing at Johnnie’s feet.
Johnnie casually lifted his foot and brought it down, pinning the wicked ghost village chief under his sole.
The village chief struggled desperately, his black eyes filled with anger and unwillingness as he stared at Johnnie.
Suddenly, Johnnie felt a pair of eyes on him. He turned around — in the room, only he, Dragon Soul, and the fallen village chief were there.
"What’s wrong, Johnnie?" Dragon Soul noticed Johnnie’s reaction and asked.
Johnnie frowned slightly. He checked again, but the feeling had already gone. It was like it had never been there in the first place.
He slowly looked around the room. Everything else seed normal — no strange signs at all.
Eventually, his eyes landed on the strange statue.
"This thing is weird." Johnnie said slowly. "I felt like it was watching ."
Dragon Soul left Johnnie’s shoulder and flew around the statue a few tis, but found nothing unusual.
With no clues to follow, Johnnie had no choice but to wait.
The village chief had said that the Red-Haired Ghost King’s ssengers would co tonight. Maybe they would know more about the statue, and about the Realm of the Dead.
But before that, Johnnie still had sothing to deal with.
He looked down at the village chief, still lying on the ground but not yet dead.
...
Smoke rose from the village, making the quiet place even quieter. Only the burning wood made occasional sounds.
Johnnie sat silently on a chair, watching the dozens of big pots around him. His expression was calm.
Just as he was about to add more firewood, Dragon Soul suddenly lifted his head and looked toward the village outside.
"Who are you?" a voice said.
Johnnie didn’t rush to stand up. Instead, he threw the firewood he had just picked up into the fire.
The flas in the Realm of the Dead were different from those in the real world. They were burning, but there was no heat — just a strange, cold feeling.
A few ghost-like figures in red robes, with long, red hair hiding their faces, were staring directly at Johnnie. They asked again:
"Who are you?"
Johnnie slowly stood up. He gently lifted the lid of the pot and revealed the still-living wicked ghost village chief inside. Then he looked at the ssengers.
"You need to find soone here. As for who I am — that doesn’t matter."
When the Red-Haired Ghost King’s ssengers saw the village chief’s terrible condition, their bodies shook slightly.
They moved fast, splitting apart and quickly surrounding Johnnie.
The red-robed ghosts all spoke at the sa ti."Looking for trouble? Are you so stupid soldier from another Ghost King’s army?"
"Daring to break the rules — don’t you fear war?Give back the statues right now!"
Johnnie quickly noticed sothing strange. First, the ssengers’ words suggested that there was more than one Ghost King in this area.
Second, these Ghost Kings seed to follow so kind of unspoken rule — they didn’t interfere with each other.
More importantly, they didn’t care about the wicked ghost village chief or the other ghosts — they were only worried about where the statues had gone.
It seed like the ssengers automatically assud he was here for the statues.
But why were these strange statues so important?
Johnnie’s gut feeling told him that sothing big was going on in the Realm of the Dead — and it was all connected to what was behind these statues.
As Johnnie was thinking, the Red-Haired Ghost King’s ssengers suddenly started attacking. From their red hair, which had covered their faces, long strands shot out like branches, spreading wildly.
"Ghost Hair Storm!"
A wave of tiny red hairs gathered together, forming a red flood that rushed toward Johnnie at full speed.
Johnnie instinctively tried to use his Immortal Art to deal with the ssengers right away, but he was just a spirit now — he couldn’t use any Mana points at all.
So, he had no choice but to quickly dodge the attack, barely avoiding the ssengers’ attack.
"You actually dodged it? You’re not so nobody, are you? Who’s your Ghost King?" one of the ssengers slowly lifted his head, revealing a face covered in long, red hair.
He looked at Johnnie. That attack, Ghost Hair Storm, was a combined move from all of them. It was strong and fast. Only soone with real power could have dodged it.
At first, the ssenger didn’t think Johnnie was that strong — he didn’t sense any strong Soul Power coming from him.
But now, after seeing how easily Johnnie escaped, he realized Johnnie might be more dangerous than he thought.
"Give us back the statues, and we’ll pretend nothing happened. You know as well as I do — soon, the one who owns them will co to take them back."The Red-Haired Ghost King’s ssenger was starting to feel nervous.
Johnnie just said calmly."What if I don’t?"
"Then you die."
A loud shout rang out, and the ssengers attacked again.
But before they could even send out their red ghost hair, they saw sothing impossible.
Behind Johnnie, several flying swords suddenly appeared out of nowhere. They gave off a deadly cold energy and locked onto the ssengers.
"Using soul to form objects — you’re a Ghost King!"
"What? He’s a Ghost King?"
"A new Ghost King? No, he must be from another area!"
The ssengers beca completely panicked. Their red ghost hair trembled, showing their fear.
Johnnie used his Soul Power to control the flying swords, sending them flying toward them.
The swords flashed like lightning. The Intent of the Sword roared. Even as a spirit, Johnnie could control the swords with his soul — after all, his Sword Way had reached the Sword Soul Realm.
In the blink of an eye, the red ghost hair that filled the sky snapped apart, falling silently to the ground like leaves in the wind.
Except for one Red-Haired Ghost King ssenger, Johnnie didn’t hesitate — he killed the others instantly.
[Ding, you have killed stage 9, wicked ghost,****####]
[Ding, you have killed stage 9, wicked ghost, ****####]
...
Another strange ssage popped up again. Johnnie just ignored it and slowly walked toward the last ssenger.
The ssenger’s soul body was trembling, and he shouted at Johnnie: "The annual Offering Ceremony is coming up! Why are you attacking us now? Don’t you fear the anger of that being?"
The Offering Ceremony?
What was that?
Johnnie thought for a mont, then controlled a flying sword made of Soul Power and pointed it at the last ssenger. "Talk."
"What? Talk about what?" The ssenger was confused.
He didn’t even know what to say — how could he?
Johnnie spoke again: "Tell everything you know."
Johnnie had no other choice but to question him like this. If the ssenger realized he didn’t know anything, he might lie to him.
As the ssenger kept talking, Johnnie’s brow grew tighter.
The Realm of the Dead used to be very calm. Most ordinary ghosts could live normally there.
So ghosts were lucky and could go into Reincarnation. Those who were unlucky — ghosts who had done bad things in life — didn’t get to go into Reincarnation, but they also didn’t get punished. They just stayed until no one in the real world rembered them, and then they would disappear and die.
But one day, the Realm of the Dead had a big earthquake that lasted for a whole day. Everything changed after that.
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