A light breeze blew past, and Wei Xicheng twitched his nose—he could smell blood. His current body’s senses weren’t particularly sharp; its physical limitations were significant.
He glanced at Zi Daoren without betraying any emotion. He could smell the scent of blood, yet Zi Daoren remained completely indifferent.
Wei Xicheng spoke calmly, deliberately taking a few extra sniffs. “Daozhang, do you smell anything?”
“What smell?” Zi Daoren’s eyes narrowed, a sharp gleam flashing through them. This was the side of him that he had been concealing—the forceful and domineering nature beneath his usual mild demeanor.
“Blood.” Wei Xicheng took two steps back and covered his nose and mouth. “It’s awful.”
“Where is it coming from?” Zi Daoren pulled out two yellow talismans from his robe, his expression growing wary. He knew that today, luck was truly on his side.
“Over there.” This time, Wei Xicheng wasn’t lying. He pointed toward the depths of the red soil. The strong stench of blood was indeed coming from that direction, but no matter how he looked, he couldn’t see anything unusual there.
His left eyelid twitched—a bad omen.
Sure enough, Zi Daoren grabbed the back of his collar. “Little Daoist friend, lead the way. Let’s take a look.”
“I think something’s wrong here. Maybe we should go back.” Wei Xicheng subtly exerted force, but the grip on his collar didn’t budge.
“You still haven’t found your friend.” Zi Daoren smiled, but in this eerie environment, his once-kind expression now seemed increasingly unsettling.
Wei Xicheng’s heart sank. He suspected that Zi Daoren’s true intention was never to help him break the seal—his real goal was finding Yu Beiyan.
But right now, he was at a disadvantage with no room to negotiate. His earlier words had merely been a test, and now that he understood the depth of Zi Daoren’s schemes, he wasn’t going to sit idly by.
Stepping onto the red soil he had previously avoided, Wei Xicheng instantly felt a coldness seep up from the ground, spreading through his entire body. The chill pierced into his bones, making him shiver involuntarily.
“Your friend is truly impressive,” Zi Daoren remarked, mistaking his reaction for fear. Now, he no longer bothered to conceal his intentions. “Even injured, he still managed to escape from me. But thanks to you—” He chuckled, shaking his head. “That bead alone wasn’t enough for me to track him down, but it did lead me straight to you.”
“I didn’t expect the aura on you to be even stronger than on the bead itself. Truly, ‘searching high and low, only to find it with no effort at all.’” Zi Daoren flipped his hand, releasing his grip on Wei Xicheng’s collar—only to clamp his fingers around his throat instead.
For a brief moment, a strange look flashed in Wei Xicheng’s eyes before he quickly concealed it.
The icy energy from the soil seemed to treat his body like a conduit. When Zi Daoren’s hand touched his skin, the chill transferred straight through him—flowing out through Zi Daoren’s palm.
Where it had gone was obvious.
Though the cold hadn’t lingered in Wei Xicheng’s own body, it still left him trembling. Zi Daoren, however, remained oblivious to the eerie phenomenon. The currents of air beneath his feet grew denser and denser, yet he noticed nothing.
Wei Xicheng pressed his lips together. He was practically being dragged forward, but he deliberately avoided looking down—lest Zi Daoren realize what was happening.
“When this matter is settled, I won’t treat you unfairly.” Zi Daoren, seemingly pleased with the benefits he foresaw, smiled. His expression was calm and refined, his demeanor now resembling that of a true master. “My junior brother happens to need a body with decent potential. You should consider yourself lucky.”
Hearing this, Wei Xicheng’s gaze finally turned ice-cold.
It seemed the seal inside his body had more significance than the original plot ever revealed.
The so-called “master” who had once passed by wasn’t acting out of pure goodwill when he concealed the original body’s abnormal constitution—he had his own hidden agenda all along
Protecting the original body was nothing more than a selfish act.
At this moment, however, Wei Xicheng still didn’t know what had happened between Yu Beiyan and these two Daoist brothers.
The two of them moved quickly, yet after two or three hours of walking, they still hadn’t reached the source of the bloody scent. By now, even the slowest person would have realized that something was wrong.
Although they were on the outskirts of the city, there shouldn’t be such a vast expanse of desolate land—let alone one completely devoid of people.
Zi Daoren took out his compass once more, gave it a quick glance, and then swiftly put it away. “No wonder.”
Wei Xicheng remained silent and simply followed Zi Daoren’s lead as they changed their path. After circling around in place a few times, their surroundings suddenly opened up.
But the sight before them was so overwhelming that Wei Xicheng’s eyes ached at first glance.
A vast sea of red filled his vision, accompanied by an overpowering scent of iron. He coughed lightly twice—the stench of blood was so thick it made breathing difficult.
When his eyes finally adjusted to the scene, his pupils constricted sharply.
Yu Beiyan was curled up beside a rock, his body slumped slightly, one hand clutching his chest, his face twisted in pain.
He didn’t seem to notice anyone approaching, his eyes shut tightly, motionless.
Wei Xicheng tried his best to control his expression, but Zi Daoren still caught the subtle change. However, he didn’t press the issue. Instead, he pulled out a talisman, smeared it over his eyes, and in an instant, his pupils turned pitch black—so dark that even the whites of his eyes disappeared.
“Found him.” Zi Daoren tossed Wei Xicheng to the ground and strode toward Yu Beiyan. “Today, you’ll learn who you should never have provoked.”
Yu Beiyan’s eyes snapped open at the sound of his voice. The sharp gleam in them made Zi Daoren hesitate for a fraction of a second. Realizing his own momentary pause, Zi Daoren’s anger flared even more.
Wei Xicheng gritted his teeth against the bone-chilling cold and opened his system panel. The energy bar was still nearly empty. He placed his hands on the ground, feeling for the remnants of power left in this body, slowly drawing the cold from the ground into himself.
“Don’t.”
Yu Beiyan let out a soft hum and forced himself to stand up. He turned to Zi Daoren and said, “I have no interest in tangling with you. Why are you chasing me so relentlessly?”
Yu Beiyan had never been one to waste words, but now, he had no choice.
Wei Xicheng’s body in this world had too many limitations—he couldn’t let him take any risks.
If the system retaliated against them with full force, everything they had done so far would be for nothing.
“I’m just curious about how you increase your strength.” Zi Daoren chuckled. “If you obediently tell me, I’ll give you a quick death.”
Yu Beiyan was of no real use to him—his willpower was too strong to be easily refined.
But thinking back to the scene he and his junior brother had witnessed that day, Zi Daoren couldn’t resist pursuing the topic.
He had never before encountered a ghost that could devour all forms of energy, nor had he ever heard of such a method to grow stronger. The very idea made his and his junior brother’s hearts itch with desire.
If they could obtain this technique, raising a ghost to power would be their shortcut to the heavens.
Yu Beiyan removed his hand from his chest and pointed at Wei Xicheng, who was still lying on the ground. “Let him leave first, and I’ll tell you.”
Zi Daoren coughed lightly and sneered, “Him? He can leave.”
Just an ordinary person. If he wanted to find him again, he could do so at any time.
Yu Beiyan stepped past Zi Daoren and walked toward Wei Xicheng.
“Stop!” Zi Daoren barked.
“I’m just saying a few words to him. No need to be so nervous.”
Zi Daoren’s face darkened as he stared at the two men.
Yu Beiyan crouched down beside Wei Xicheng and lowered his voice. “Didn’t you promise me you wouldn’t rush? Don’t act on impulse. Even if it’s not possible now, there’s always the next world. Be good and go back first.”
He meant what he said, but his spiritual form had already been severely weakened from fighting against the world’s rules imposed by the system.
When he had finally regained his strength, he encountered the Daoist brothers. A brutal battle ensued—he managed to kill the junior brother, but Zi Daoren remained unharmed.
Yu Beiyan barely escaped with his life, but he hadn’t expected that the red bead he accidentally dropped would become the very thing that led Zi Daoren straight to Wei Xicheng.
He smiled wryly and knelt on one knee beside Wei Xicheng.
If he had known this would happen, he would never have taken that bead just because of a momentary bout of jealousy.
Now, he felt strangely at peace.
This world might very well be the last one he could stay in, but for Wei Xicheng, it wasn’t.
He had already taken control of most of the system—if Wei Xicheng put in a little effort, he would surely find the remaining loopholes and break through.
Eventually, he would return to the real world.
Even so, Yu Beiyan couldn’t bear to let Wei Xicheng suffer.
And he absolutely didn’t want him to watch as he disappeared.
“Be good. Find me in the next world, okay?”
A wisp of his spiritual energy formed and gently brushed over Wei Xicheng’s eyes.
Wei Xicheng felt a cool sensation sweep over him.
When he opened his eyes again, Yu Beiyan was gone.
He turned to look at Zi Daoren. Judging from his expression, Yu Beiyan was still there—he just couldn’t see him anymore.
The vast expanse of red, the turbulent currents of energy, the overwhelming stench of blood—everything had vanished.
A wave of panic surged in Wei Xicheng’s chest, but to his surprise, Zi Daoren looked even more enraged than he was.
“What a waste!” Zi Daoren roared and lunged forward.
Wei Xicheng instinctively rolled to the side—right into the spot where Yu Beiyan had been moments before.
Just then, the system panel popped up on its own.
The energy bar instantly overflowed, and even the previously locked additional energy slot filled to the brim.
Wei Xicheng couldn’t see what was happening, but from the way Zi Daoren staggered backward, he could tell Yu Beiyan was fighting back.
“What’s going on?” Wei Xicheng asked.
Zi Daoren’s face was as dark as storm clouds, his eyes fixed coldly in Wei Xicheng’s direction, saying nothing.
Wei Xicheng seized the opening and boosted his physical stats to the highest level allowed in this world.
He stood up, his voice calm as he called out the name of the ghost.
“Yu Beiyan.”
A low chuckle drifted through the air.
Wei Xicheng felt another cool sensation over his eyes.
“You really are my lucky star.”
.