Stranger Danger

“What the hell are these things? Why can he see them and not us? Does it have something to do with that monster still inside the shrine? I’m gonna kill him!”

Shangguan Hongjin was a woman of action, so she immediately took off toward the memorial hall. Halfway there, she lifted her thumbs, unsheathed her sabers, and transformed her vast saber intent into two snow white dragons. She then launched them straight toward the big man covered in memorial tablets.

Her saber intent instantly crushed the big man into mincemeat. However, Shangguan Hongjin also let out a muffled groan of pain before collapsing on the ground, spasming. Her contorted expression suggested that she was in deep pain, and her energies were in complete shambles.

“Miss Shangguan!” Pedant Earth exclaimed in shock. He immediately ran up to her and dragged her away from the memorial hall.

Ye Qing noticed Shangguan Hongjin’s action as a matter of course. In fact, he had been planning to do the exact same thing until Shangguan Hongjin did it for him.

Unfortunately, it looked like the counterattack had ended in abject failure. He could see the mincemeat scattered across the floor of the memorial hall slowly gathering together and transforming into a ball of flesh due to some sort of unknown energy. The memorial tablets on the flesh ball remained unchanged, nor were the silhouettes affected in the slightest.

If anything, it was Shangguan Hongjin who suffered huge damage for her effort. He could feel her being assaulted by an unimaginable wave of pain after she turned the big man into mincemeat. It was such a pain that she had nearly fainted there and then.

Thankfully, her life wasn’t in danger.

“Hah… hah… what the fuck was that? That hurt!”

“Are you alright, Miss Shangguan?” Pedant Earth asked urgently.

“Do I look alright to you?” Shangguan Hongjin sounded fed up to put it mildly. “That hurt so bad I could’ve died there and then!”

The second she turned the big man into mincemeat with her saber intent, a massive wave of pain had assaulted her. She felt as if someone had crushed every flesh, blood and bone in her body. It was no wonder the pain had nearly killed her.

“Oh right, did that monster die yet?” Shangguan Hongjin asked.

“No. I think that thing is unkillable,” Pedant Earth answered slowly and thoughtfully.

“What? Are you saying that I suffered all that pain for nothing?!”

Shangguan Hongjin was so pissed that her voice rose an octave. “It’s bad enough that these monsters are invisible, but you’re telling me they’re unkillable as well? What do I need to do, destroy the fucking memorial hall?”

“Destroy the memorial hall? That’s it!”

Shangguan Hongjin was just venting, but her words sparked a memory in Pedant Earth. He hurriedly shouted in Ye Qing’s direction, “Warrior Ye, leave those things alone! They’re endless no matter how many times you kill them, so just forget them and attack the memorial hall!”

“The memorial hall?”

Ye Qing was seconds away from calling a retreat when Pedant Earth’s cry reached him. Without hesitation, he knocked back an entire swathe of silhouettes with his sleeves before jumping into the air and launching a palm strike at the memorial hall.

Buzz…

The air shook, and demonic qi rolled in like clouds. A massive demonic hand covered in demonic runes descended right on top of the memorial hall.

“Nethercall Demon Hand”

“Nethercall Demon Hand” was a palm technique from “Call of the Nether”. To put it simply, the practitioner created a demonic hand from demonic qi and unleashed it at their enemies. The greater one’s spirit and astral qi, the more powerful the demonic hand would become. At the highest level, it was said to be capable of plucking celestial bodies from the sky and crushing the Nine Nether into bits.

For the first time, the silhouettes reacted differently. As if Ye Qing had touched their reverse scale, every single silhouette opened their mouths in a soundless roar and pounced toward Ye Qing. The memorial hall itself was twisting and shaking a little as massive, invisible tentacles extended out of the door and windows to block the descending hand.

Boom!

The two forces met, and the demonic hand was torn to shreds by the tentacles. However, the tentacles were flailing, and the memorial hall was shaking violently from the impact.

The silhouettes in particular suddenly stopped in their tracks as if they had suffered tremendous damage. A good number of them disappeared into nothing just like that.

“I didn’t realize that the building itself was the main body. Interesting.”

If it wasn’t for Pedant Earth’s warning, he would have thought that the memorial hall was just an ordinary structure just like the rest of the buildings in the village. That was because he hadn’t sensed any anomalous presence from the memorial hall until now.

“Hahaha! I knew it! It’s a Ghost Shrine!”

Pedant Earth could neither see the invisible tentacles nor the invisible silhouettes, but he could see Ye Qing’s “Nethercall Demon Hand” suddenly breaking into pieces and feel the twisted energies that suddenly washed out of the memorial hall.

“Ghost Shrine? What’s that?” Shangguan Hongjin asked curiously.

“A building where humans offer sacrifices to ghosts is known as a spirit shrine, a building where humans offer sacrifices to humans is known as a living shrine[1], a building where ghosts offer sacrifices to humans is known as a nether shrine, and a building where ghosts offer sacrifices to ghosts is known as a Ghost Shrine.”

Pedant Earth launched into a lengthy explanation, “The Ghost Shrine is a Phenomenon-class Stranger, but despite its classification, its power is immense and anomalous. On the surface, a Ghost Shrine looks just like any other shrine. In fact, most people are unable to see or perceive its anomaly just like an ordinary human cannot perceive a ghost. Hence the name.”

“A Ghost Shrine houses ghosts, and most humans cannot perceive its ghosts in any way. The inability to perceive the ghosts also prevents a human from being able to kill the ghosts. The ghosts have no such restriction though. They can harm a human just like normal.”

“Only those who possess a vast reservoir of vigor, strong yang energy, a clear mind, and a bold heart can see the ghosts it produces, and only those who can see the ghosts can kill them.”

“However, so long as the Ghost Shrine itself isn’t destroyed, it can produce an infinite amount of ghosts. Not only that, the longer you fight the ghosts, the stronger they become.”

“Ghost Shrine and ghosts? Invisible and unkillable? What an anomalous Stranger. This is the first time I heard anything like it,” Shangguan Hongjin commented.

“I read about it from an old book. I failed to put two and two together immediately because I haven’t actually seen it with my own eyes until now.”

Pedant Earth replied, “The Ghost Shrine’s anomalous powers make it nigh unkillable for someone who knows nothing about them. It’s also why it can be more dangerous than even a Disaster-class Stranger despite being classified as Phenomenon.”

“For someone who has heard about the Ghost Shrine though, it is exactly what it is: a Phenomenon-class Stranger.”

That was what he said, but there were very few Ghost Shrines in the world, and even fewer people who had heard about it. If Pedant Earth didn’t plunder ancient cities and tombs for a living, if he hadn’t read countless lost books and ancient records due to his experiences, he wouldn’t have known about the Ghost Shrine as well. It was why most people who ran into the Ghost Shrine met a gruesome end.

“So, you’re saying that destroying the Ghost Shrine is all we need to do to deal with these invisible ghosts?” Shangguan Hongjin climbed to her feet and stared at the memorial hall with excitement.

“According to the books, yes,” Pedant Earth answered while shooting her a strange look. “What are you planning, Miss Shangguan?”

“What else? I’m gonna give it a taste of its own medicine!” Shangguan Hongjin uttered through gritted teeth.

Earlier, she had fallen for the Ghost Shrine’s trap and nearly died from sheer pain. Now that she knew exactly how to kill the Stranger, why on earth wouldn’t she murder the fuck out of it?

She was Shangguan Hongjin, and she did not enjoy her benevolence or vengeance served cold.

1. Refer to chapter 477. ☜