Lu Xuan returned to his room, still finding it hard to believe. After learning that Wang Ruhai had been possessed by an evil spirit, he tried feeding him a few spiritual fruits and unexpectedly uncovered the truth about the spirit.
"However, while this method seems quite unique, its actual effectiveness isn’t as great as I imagined," Lu Xuan analyzed. "I only learned about the spirit's identity, but not its abilities or weaknesses. Generally, spirits wouldn’t just eat something given by a stranger for no reason."
As for how to deal with the spirit once he discovered its presence, Lu Xuan had no intention of exposing it or taking on the role of a demon hunter to cleanse the evil. He had three choices: wait, escape, or eliminate the spirit. Waiting for the spirit to reveal itself was too passive. Escaping wasn’t ideal either since he wasn’t familiar with this secret realm, and leaving alone might lead him to encounter other evil spirits or monsters.
"It's best to eliminate it, but I want someone else to do it," Lu Xuan thought to himself. "Reporting brings a moment of joy, and continuous reporting brings ongoing joy..."
As night fell, in the house where Li Jianfeng lived, a small paper ball suddenly fell inside, thrown from an unknown direction. Before it landed, Li Jianfeng, who was sleeping on his bed, opened his eyes sharply and sprang up, rushing outside.
Outside, the moonlight was cool and there were no signs of anyone around. Li Jianfeng held a heavy knife in his hand, his gaze sharp, and the scar on his face looked even more menacing in the night.
He scanned the surroundings with his spiritual awareness. The entire camp was eerily quiet, with only the faint sounds of breathing coming from the tents. With a serious expression, Li Jianfeng returned to his room and deftly opened the paper ball with the tip of his knife.
A crooked line of writing appeared: "Be careful! Wang Ruhai has been invaded by an evil spirit!"
It was clear that the writer tried to disguise their handwriting, using their non-dominant hand. Li Jianfeng’s expression didn’t change. He focused his spiritual energy, and a deep black flame erupted from the knife tip, turning the paper into ashes.
The next morning, Lu Xuan yawned as he stepped out of his room. Last night, he had used the Hidden Spirit Cloak to remain invisible while warning Li Jianfeng with a paper ball. Then, worried about potential dangers, he collected the remaining three Ghostface Stone Mushrooms on the mountainside.
He hadn’t slept much after returning, so he felt a bit tired. When he arrived at the dining area in the camp, many cultivators had already gathered. The chill in his chest made him feel more awake.
As he ate, he observed Li Jianfeng and Wang Ruhai. Everything seemed normal, just like any other day. His warning paper seemed to have vanished without a trace.
"Something's wrong!" a middle-aged Spiritual Plant Cultivator rushed in, panicking. "It seems like Daoist Xia is missing!"
"I didn’t find Daoist Xia around, so I went to check his room, but he wasn’t there either."
"Do you think something happened to him?"
This caused a stir among the cultivators, their faces showing concern as they whispered among themselves.
"Calm down! What’s there to panic about? Let’s search the mountain first," Wang Ruhai commanded sternly.
Groups of people scattered to search the mountainside but still couldn’t find any trace of the missing cultivator.
"Daoist Xia might have encountered an accident, or he might have just left for something. Everyone, stay calm and be vigilant," Wang Ruhai reassured the more than ten Spiritual Plant Cultivators present. "With many high and mid-level cultivators here, even if a monster or evil spirit invades, it won’t be our match."
Lu Xuan blended into the crowd, feeling uneasy and worried about his own safety. Wang Ruhai quickly devised a plan. He and Li Jianfeng, the strongest cultivators, decided to take turns keeping watch at night to ensure the safety of the Spiritual Plant Cultivators.
In this tense atmosphere, the speed of the cultivators picking Dragon Beard Grass slowed significantly. Soon, night fell.
A shadow suddenly appeared in the camp, moving under the moonlight, as if searching for something. Once the target was confirmed, the figure lightly sliced their forehead, and a pale skin mask silently fell away, revealing the muscle tissue underneath.
The pale mask wore a strange smile and floated toward a wooden house. Suddenly, a flash of a blade came swiftly, aiming to cut the mask in half. The mask fluttered in the wind, narrowly avoiding the sharp blade.
"What are you? How dare you occupy Daoist Wang’s body!" Li Jianfeng emerged from the shadows, holding his heavy knife.
Initially, he thought the paper ball was just a prank or that someone was trying to stir up trouble between him and Wang Ruhai. But after discovering a missing Spiritual Plant Cultivator during the day, he took the warning seriously and stayed up all night, waiting for the evil spirit to show itself.
"Who am I? I am Wang Ruhai!" The pale mask grinned wider, spreading out to reveal Wang Ruhai’s face.
"Bold evil spirit, how dare you invade a cultivator of the Wang family! Prepare to die!" Li Jianfeng shouted, his knife igniting with deep black flames as he shot toward the strange mask like an arrow.
The commotion in the camp had already awakened everyone. Most of the cultivators present were at mid-level Qi training, skilled in planting but not in combat. Seeing the terrifying mask in the air and recalling Wang Ruhai’s high-level cultivation, they instinctively felt fear of the spirit and many fled the camp.
Lu Xuan felt the same. Although he had quickly exposed the spirit using his reporting method, teaming up to fight it was out of the question for him. He activated two first-grade Swift Talismans on his legs and dashed through the night.
Following his memory, he didn’t run deeper into the secret realm but instead headed toward the outskirts, hoping to escape quickly.
"Once I get back to the market town, I must find a way to buy a lightness technique," he thought as he leaned against a large tree after running for nearly half an hour.
After obtaining the White Light Orb, he had been waiting for the rewards it would bring. He had hoped to get a lightness technique, which would save him a lot of time in training due to the experience package he possessed.
Plus, his spiritual stones had been hovering around the line of sufficiency, so he prioritized buying spirit seeds and young spiritual beasts, leaving him no opportunity to learn a lightness technique.
In this situation, a lightness technique would be very useful, allowing him to run faster than other cultivators. Just that benefit alone was enough.
"Lu Daoist, I finally found you! I’ve been looking for you for a long time," a familiar voice suddenly called out. Li Jianfeng appeared not far in front of him.
"I’ve dealt with Wang Ruhai and the evil spirit in his body. Come back to the camp with me and continue identifying the Dragon Beard Grass," he said with a smile, which made the scar on his face look even more menacing.
"Stop right there!" Lu Xuan pulled out a silver-white sword blade.
"What's the code?"
"Code? What code?" Li Jianfeng asked, confused.
"The code to prove you’re not an evil spirit. I suspect you’ve been contaminated. If you want to prove yourself, you can say the code we established before."
Lu Xuan pointed the sword blade at Li Jianfeng, speaking in a serious tone.
(End of Chapter)