Chapter 206: No Place to Hide

The Ghostly Race cultivator's eyes suddenly narrowed, and in an instant, his body went limp, breathless.

The next moment, in a narrow alley within the Purplish Earth Bai family's territory, a gaunt young man, one of seven or eight vagrants lying there, suddenly opened his eyes. He was covered in grime.

The moment his eyes opened, he instinctively clutched his neck, his eyes wide with horror. He quickly looked around, taking a few shaky breaths before his expression settled.

However, the panic in his eyes could not quickly dissipate.

"What happened? That person just now..." This young man was indeed the Ghostly Race member. Though surprised when Xu Qing found his first identity, he hadn't thought much of it.

His second identity was located deep within the Zhou family's territory. He had been very confident, believing the other party couldn't possibly break in unless they contacted the Zhou family for assistance. And if they did, he could then uncover their identity.

He had even planned how to use this opportunity to escape, and at that point, he could even turn the tables and make the other party realize the terror of the Ghostly Race.

Moreover, although external teleportation from Purplish Earth was currently blocked, he wasn't particularly panicked. Such a situation, he reasoned, clearly couldn't last long; he estimated the blockade would be lifted in three to five days at most.

By then, no one would be able to find him. Even a Golden Core cultivator or a Nascent Soul cultivator might kill him once, but he would ultimately escape. In fact, he had experienced too many similar incidents. But this time, this Ghostly Race cultivator felt something was amiss.

Not only had the other party found his second identity incredibly quickly, but the person who arrived also felt even more bizarre than he was.

Especially the words the other party whispered to him, leaning close with intestines wrapped around his neck, made the Ghostly Race cultivator's heart tremble again.

"My master says hello. He told me to tell you that the game... has only just begun."

"The game has just begun..." the Ghostly Race cultivator murmured, his body trembling. He realized he was in trouble. The other party was not only powerful but also possessed extremely unique abilities.

"Should I activate that body?" The Ghostly Race cultivator hesitated, looking around. A hint of reluctance appeared in his eyes. He had prepared a backup body outside the city, ready for immediate use.

However, using it meant leaving the Purplish Earth capital, which made him hesitant.

After all, if he could just hide for a few more days here, the blockade might end.

"Perhaps it's just a coincidence!" The Ghostly Race cultivator took a deep breath, cautiously scanning his surroundings. The sky was now bright, and the other vagrants in the alley were gradually waking up. The Ghostly Race cultivator quickly got up and walked towards the alley's entrance.

His steps were somewhat weak. Although his innate abilities were powerful, each time he awoke after possession, the host body had already been consumed by him, essentially becoming a corpse.

After taking over a new body, his own strength was akin to a mortal's, requiring a period of recuperation to gradually recover his combat power.

Unless he had previously imbued the body with some of his innate power, but this method was too costly. Therefore, he had only left a trace of his divine soul in the body he prepared outside the city. As he walked quickly now, his mind was still racing.

"Damn it, usually I'm in the shadows and others are exposed, but this time it's the other way around. Who is that guy? I've never heard of anything so bizarre."

"Controlling others isn't right either; any control involves a certain aura flow, unless it's divine consciousness possession, but only Nascent Soul cultivators can do that, and not repeatedly. That person isn't a Nascent Soul expert; he gives me the feeling he achieves this through bizarre means." As the Ghostly Race cultivator analyzed this, he emerged from the alley, walking quickly and cautiously along the street corner.

He quickly walked towards the teleportation point in Purplish Earth.

He planned to stay near the teleportation array, waiting for it to be unsealed while also observing whether the mysterious person hiding in the shadows could find him again.

However, less than half an hour after he left, as he passed another alley, a hand suddenly emerged from the deep shadows, clamped over his mouth, and then fingers forced their way inside, prying his mouth open to prevent him from biting his tongue.

Everything happened too quickly. Although the Ghostly Race cultivator reacted, his current body was much slower. The next instant, a powerful force dragged his body directly into the alley. Muffled sounds escaped the Ghostly Race cultivator's mouth. His eyes widened as he tried to see his assailant's appearance, but he couldn't turn his head. Soon, he was brought into a dilapidated house.

With a thud, he was directly pressed onto the ground.

Only then did he clearly see the person in front of him: it was the middle-aged cultivator who had killed his first body yesterday.

The other party's eyes held endless coldness. The moment their gazes met, the Ghostly Race cultivator's mind reeled. The next instant, his jaw was forcibly dislocated, and the intense pain caused his forehead to bulge with veins.

With his jaw dislocated, he couldn't bite his tongue to commit suicide. And with his combat power not yet recovered, he couldn't find any other way to take his own life in front of the other party.

"Mmph..." Just as the Ghostly Race cultivator was about to make a sound, Xu Qing, standing before him with icy eyes, raised a hand, produced some poisonous powder, and sprinkled it onto the man's body.

This poisonous powder wasn't highly toxic; Xu Qing usually used it in mixtures. However, after some adjustments, its primary effect was to significantly increase the body's sensitivity to all stimuli.

Now, as the powder diffused and gradually penetrated the man's body, Xu Qing emotionlessly raised his hand and directly clamped down on the Ghostly Race cultivator's fingers.

*Snap, crackle.*

He crushed them one by one.

This agony made the Ghostly Race cultivator's body tremble. The poisonous powder's effect amplified the intense pain infinitely, turning it into a roaring storm in his mind, manifesting as piercing screams.

Even with his jaw dislocated, the sounds born of such extreme pain still uncontrollably escaped his throat, echoing throughout the surroundings.

Xu Qing listened to the sounds, his expression unchanged, only a rising hatred in his eyes. He completely crushed the man's hand into a pulp, then fed him a pill to keep him conscious.

Then he continued, because even though the Ghostly Race cultivator was screaming in agony, Xu Qing never saw the familiar look of fear in his eyes.

It seemed that from beginning to end, despite his screams and suffering, he wasn't afraid!

So Xu Qing's gaze grew even colder. Gradually, the man's entire arm turned into a pulpy mess, followed by his other hand, which Xu Qing also crushed bit by bit.

Then Xu Qing took out a dagger. As the Ghostly Race cultivator's screams grew weaker, he began to cut the man's legs, leaving no inch of skin untouched.

Blood pooled on the floor, yet the Ghostly Race cultivator was still alive, sustained by Xu Qing's medicinal pills.

And so the screams once again became piercing, but amidst them, a hint of defiance slowly appeared in the Ghostly Race cultivator's eyes.

"Do you know why I'm screaming? Because you're not the first to do this to me, nor will you be the last. I've already mastered a way to transmit my pain through sound."

A sound, produced by divine consciousness, emanated from within the Ghostly Race cultivator.

The screams became piercing again, and the sound continued to reverberate, as if he had split into two.

"Because I know you wouldn't dare just kill me. You're avenging Master Bai, aren't you? That old man was writing a letter when he died, I wonder to whom? It wasn't to you, was it?"

"Although I don't know how you found me, I imagine you're more interested in the cultivator behind me; you want to find the true culprit, right? I know all the answers you're looking for, but I... won't tell you."

The Ghostly Race cultivator's eyes were bloodshot, and his screams were incessant. Xu Qing raised his hand and punched, shattering the man's mouth. The minced flesh sealed his lips, preventing his screams from escaping. But then, a sound from within his body began to maniacally laugh.

"Do you know how I killed that old man? Haha, I originally wanted to possess that little girl, Tingyu, but I thought that wouldn't be fun enough. Guess who I ended up possessing?"

Xu Qing stopped, watching the Ghostly Race cultivator who was laughing maniacally. His eyes gradually narrowed, and a terrifying fluctuation slowly spread from his body.

This sight made the Ghostly Race cultivator's heart tremble. The words he had just spoken and his true thoughts still had subtle differences; he genuinely wasn't afraid of death, and he was accustomed to torture.

However, Xu Qing's ruthlessness still sent tremors through his spirit.

Especially the fact that the other party hadn't asked or said a single word from beginning to end.

It seemed the other party cared about nothing but immersing himself in the torture, particularly performing the actions with extreme proficiency, without the slightest hesitation, and even avoiding major blood vessels. This scene made him realize that such expertise indicated the other party had done this many times before.

"This is a madman, a pervert!"

Therefore, he wanted to provoke the other party, to make him finish him off. Although each of his possessed bodies had a pre-set, irreversible death time, this time, he wanted to die early. Xu Qing looked at the Ghostly Race cultivator before him. The totem on his back suddenly glowed, and black flames instantly rose. Instead of transforming into a Golden Crow, they merged into Xu Qing's right hand, which he then pressed onto the Ghostly Race cultivator's forehead.

The next instant, a tremendous suction force erupted. The Ghostly Race cultivator's eyes widened abruptly, his body withered in an instant, and a large amount of vital energy surged towards Xu Qing's right hand. Due to his extreme emotional fluctuations earlier, a faint wisp of primal mist finally appeared and was likewise extracted.

This wisp of mist was the Ghostly Race's primal power.

The first time Xu Qing acted, he hadn't extracted the opponent's primal essence. That was why this time he tortured him, causing severe emotional fluctuations, making it easier for the Golden Crow to absorb. In the instant before the Ghostly Race cultivator died, Xu Qing spoke softly, delivering the only words he said throughout this encounter, into the man's ear.

"It's not over. We'll see each other again soon."