Crumbling ruins, the vast underground palace, mostly covered by wild forest vegetation.
Walking westward for a while, the omnipresent phosphorescent skulls around illuminated a red silhouette clearly.
It was a gaunt, emaciated woman, hunching deeply, her posture bizarre, her shoulders and head almost buried in the ground.
The ground where she stood was covered with white wild grass and a sea of dark blue flowers, burying most of her upper body.
The red dress on the woman was particularly tattered, resembling an ancient bridal gown seen in a coffin, scattered among the flowers, exuding an indescribable eerie beauty.
At the sa ti, the woman’s muffled, mournful voice intermittently emanated from the ground:
"Ouch... it hurts so much..."
"Save ... save ..."
The woman was a great distance from Baili An and his group, but her intermittent sobbing seed uncannily close.
Even Baili An, with his unseeing eyes, could discern that this woman was a ghost that had died many years ago, yet he could not fathom the depth of her resentnt.
"Save ... save ..."
Her crying voice was full of helplessness and pity, and the surroundings were eerily silent; she seed incapable of pulling her upper body out of the ground.
Neither Baili An nor Su Jingyin Bai Shuang were afraid of ghosts; all three of them approached without hesitation.
"It hurts so much... save ..." The ghost seed only capable of saying these phrases, but strangely, as they approached, the sound’s volu did not change at all, as if it emanated from right beneath their feet.
Baili An approached the ghost from behind and gently tapped her back, saying, "Need a hand?"
The red-dressed ghost on the ground reached out with a bony hand painted with bright red nails, rapidly clawing towards Baili An’s wrist.
Her sharp nails scraped across the back of his hand, making a piercing sound akin to a knife scraping a steel plate,
yet it did not harm him at all.
Painful yet furious, the ghost’s hand shook violently, as if realizing she had encountered a tough foe, her claw-like ghost hand abruptly recoiled.
Baili An grabbed her wrist, smiling, "Didn’t you ask to save you? Why hide?"
Amidst a shrill and terrified scream from beneath the ground, Baili An yanked forcefully, scattering the wild grass and blue flowers, sending clumps of wet soil flying, pulling the ghost’s body out.
Tiny stinging blood pearls spurted from the deep pit.
The sll was exceedingly foul.
Su Jing frowned, Bai Shuang’s face filled with disgust, both hastily retreated to avoid the spray of blood, fearing contamination by its deadly stench.
Baili An steadied himself and the ghost, her bent body slowly straightening up.
But even as she turned around, Baili An could not see the ghost’s face clearly.
Because this ghost had no head; from her neck, a scarlet scar was visible, and several uneven blood vessels protruded from the ghastly, rotting stump, bubbling with fresh blood.
Even Baili An, who thrived on fresh blood, felt no appetite at such a sight.
The ghost’s emaciated shoulders slumped oddly, her body contorted into a terrifying hanged ghost posture, staring straight at Baili An:
"You’re standing... on my head..."
As soon as she spoke, Baili An felt sothing burrowing beneath his feet. Su Jing looked towards the source of the sound and saw a swollen, unrecognizably deford human head erging from the ground.
Beneath the long black hair, the blood-soaked wild grass frad her eyes, pallid and wide, her lips painted crimson and repeatedly opening and closing as if chewing on sothing.
Bai Shuang’s eyebrows twitched, suddenly shouting loudly, "She’s eating your shadow! Move quickly..."
A horrifying explosion interrupted Bai Shuang’s words.
The head under Baili An’s feet burst into a mix of red and white brain tissue, but amazingly, none of the filth touched Baili An’s clothes, and the ghost’s black hair was scattered by the wind.
Bai Shuang squinted at Su Jing, his dark pupils narrowing slightly, but he said no more.
Su Jing stood indifferently, watching indifferent hairs fluttering in the air and winding back into the ghost’s hands; the threads tangled into clumps, and a ghastly white face slowly erged from the knotted black hair.
Her crimson mouth opened and closed twice, as if savoring sothing delicious, blissfully murmuring, "What a sweet taste..."
The ghost hugged her own head, her pale pupils grotesquely rolling, her eyes glowing green with madness, smiling deliriously, the head dancing in her hands as if about to fling itself at him to take a bite: "Why is your shadow so delicious! Give another bite please..."
Before she could finish, the sea of flowers at her feet suddenly blazed intensely, the crimson flas reflecting the madness turning into terror in her eyes.
She had never seen such flas in the depths of the underground palace, shrieked sharply, her hair wildly growing and enveloping her entire body, like a black mist she passed through the sea of flas and fled.
The delicate blue flowers curled up and blackened in the fierce fire.
With her snow-colored skirt flickering in the firelight, Su Jing walked into the fire with an emotionless face, pulling out Emotion Slayer, its clear light reflecting in the flas, appearing ready to relentlessly pursue the fleeing ghost.
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