Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

After passing through the illusion array, the luxurious carriage carved with black coiling dragons continued another hundred meters or so along the path before finally stopping.

Xu Yuan stepped slowly down from the carriage. As he looked around at the strange scene, his brows gradually drew together.

Seen from above, the enormous black abyss looked like the mouth of some gigantic beast, devouring every scrap of light around it. Within a thousand feet of it, thousands of ancient trees had turned a deathly gray-white. Their branches were twisted, their leaves had all fallen, and waves of ominous ghostly qi drifted from them.

Xu Yuan sent out his soul sense and could clearly feel that the source qi in the area had undergone some unknown mutation. According to the ancient texts, if a person breathed in this altered source qi for too long, their body would slowly become corpse-ghost-like.

“Roar!” A long, piercing cry like the scream of an eagle thundered down from the sky. After the cry rang out, waves of shadow swept over the eerie forest, where not a single leaf remained.

Xu Yuan followed the twisted branches of the surrounding trees and looked up. Dozens of enormous flying demonic beasts, each with a wingspan of several hundred feet, were skimming low over the mountain forest like storm clouds rolling across the sky.

Every one of them had wings even wider than Xu Changge’s massive black eagle mount.

And at this very moment, each of those dozens of flying beasts was gripping an enormous cloth sack in its sharp talons. The sacks were huge, even larger than the beasts themselves. They hung heavy and bulging. Blood faintly seeped from some of them.

Xu Yuan’s brows tightened slightly as he murmured under his breath, “What are those...”

“Corpses. Stop staring, kid. Those sacks are all full of corpses.”The Sage’s remnant soul spoke calmly in his mind, as if this were nothing worth mentioning.

Corpses? Xu Yuan’s pupils abruptly shrank.

The very next moment, the Sage’s words became reality. Under the control of the cultivators riding on their backs, the giant birds methodically dropped the sacks from their claws over the enormous abyss.

As the sacks passed through the array above the abyss, they were instantly burned away, revealing countless corpses inside. But those bodies appeared for only the briefest instant before they were swallowed completely by the inky black mist below.

In the next breath, after devouring those countless corpses, the strange black fog suddenly surged. It billowed upward, crashing again and again against the massive array inverted over the abyss. The sizzling sound of burning echoed through the withered, deathly silent mountain forest.

A series of records related to ghost fog surfaced in Xu Yuan’s mind.

Corpses nourished Yin. If left untouched for long, they gave birth to strange fog. Sunlight could not enter it, and within it one could not see even their own hand. From inside would come the cries of ghosts and the howls of wolves. No ordinary person who entered would ever return, and even cultivators with shallow cultivation would find it hard to come back alive.

The Chancellor was using corpses to feed ghosts.

“Heh.” The Sage’s remnant soul chuckled softly, then reminded him in his mind, “Brat, someone’s coming.”

An old man with a withered face and a hunched back, so thin he looked like a living corpse, suddenly appeared in the eerie dead forest.

Almost at the same time, a cold flash sliced through the silent woods. A black sword wreathed in sinister chill appeared at the old man’s throat. Ran Qingmo gripped the sword hilt, her eyes faintly cold as she stared at the old man who had suddenly approached.

Xu Yuan watched the scene before him, his gaze narrowing slightly.

“He’s a Grandmaster. A strange one.” Before Xu Yuan could even ask, the old grandpa he carried around with him had already given the answer.

The air fell silent.

The ugly, withered old man swept his lifeless eyes over Xu Yuan, then glanced at Ran Qingmo holding the sword. His lips suddenly split into an eerie smile.

“Heh heh heh...” The old man’s laughter sounded like dry bark scraping together. For some reason, Xu Yuan immediately thought of those villains who always went kekeke before getting beaten to death.

His expression unchanged, Xu Yuan cupped his hands toward the old man. “Sir... may I ask who you are?”

Even with a blade at his throat, there was no fear in the old man’s voice. It remained rough and hoarse, like someone grinding against ancient tree bark.

“This old servant would not dare accept the title of sir. By order of the Chancellor, this old servant guards this ghost fog. Third Young Master, you may simply call this old servant Old Ghost.” As he spoke, the withered old man paused, then cracked another grin. “Third Young Master, might you ask the Third Young Madam to move her sword away?”

Looking at that eerie smile, Xu Yuan glanced sideways at Ran Qingmo.

Ran Qingmo glanced back at Xu Yuan, then silently sheathed her sword.

Xu Yuan cupped his hands on Ran Qingmo’s behalf in apology, still choosing to address the man as sir. “Sir, forgive the offense just now. Qingmo was only protecting my safety.”

After the blade was removed, the withered old man shook his head and shakily returned the salute. “This old servant knows his appearance is unpleasant. It was this old servant who dirtied the Third Young Madam’s eyes.”

With that, the withered old man slowly turned around and began leading the way.

“Third Young Master, please follow this old servant. The Eldest Young Master has already explained the details. The carriage may be left here. Servants will come handle it.”

The shaded path formed by gray-white, twisted ancient trees stretched on for another hundred meters or so. Xu Yuan and Ran Qingmo followed quietly behind the old man.

The path was silent from beginning to end.

Suddenly, the Sage’s remnant soul spoke in Xu Yuan’s mind.

“This man is quite loyal to your father. At the very least, he has guarded this ghost fog for thirty years. Ghost qi has entered his body, leaving him half human and half ghost. He suffers every moment of every day. I doubt he has many years left.”

Xu Yuan looked at the hunched, withered back leading the way ahead and said nothing. The moment he saw the old man’s appearance, his soul sense had already felt the strange aura spreading from him. That aura shared almost the same source as the mutated source qi in the surroundings. It was ghost qi. Some ancient texts had recorded this kind of state.

They walked out of the woods in silence. The dozens of giant birds circling in the sky were still calmly and methodically feeding all kinds of corpses into the black abyss below.

There were humans, demonic beasts, and barbarians.

And just as Xu Yuan followed the old man out from beneath the trees and onto the open ground surrounding the enormous black abyss, one huge cloth bundle happened to be dropped from the sky by a giant bird.

As the formation burned the massive bundle away, Xu Yuan caught a glimpse of what was inside. His steps halted instinctively. Those were... living people?!

The crowd fell into the black fog. Most of these living people were martial apprentices, and Xu Yuan even spotted several cultivators among them.

They struggled desperately, trying to escape beyond the formation, but suspended in midair with nothing to push off from, they could only watch helplessly as they plunged toward that eerie black mist.

Screams, curses, and sobs tangled together, then were quickly swallowed by the black fog.

Then came the second bundle, the third, the fourth...

The old man ahead seemed to notice Xu Yuan’s reaction. He slowly turned his head back. “Third Young Master, your mercy should not be wasted on these people.”

Xu Yuan focused his gaze and looked up.

As he spoke, the withered old man glanced at the screaming crowd trying to flee, and the corners of his mouth split into a strange, savage grin.

“These people were all death-row prisoners sent here from the jails of the various counties around Stillwater. Most of them are murderers and bandits who killed for profit. Their deaths are no loss. And besides, the murderous aura on them is strong. They are the most suitable for raising malicious ghosts. Heh heh... heheh... hahaha...”

By the end, the withered old man seemed to lose control of himself. A low, mad, sinister laugh suddenly slipped from his throat.