Chapter 304 Red Spider

Rustle, rustle...

Delicate hands kept pulling at the jungle leaves on both sides, stumbling forward in a desperate run. Her thigh bore a bandage, but blood continued to seep from the wound, staining her pants and leaving bloody trails on the ground and lush foliage.

Behind her, several specters were hot on her trail. The waves and rustling sounds created by the dense jungle leaves being parted attracted the specters' attention, causing them to float after her.

Kela's breathing had become heavy; her luck was running out.

She had been injured during the day. The jungle terrain was undoubtedly the orcs' favorite, like fish in water, but the problem was that the opponent she encountered was also formidable—an unknown-ranked swordsman from the War Academy, wearing a red scarf and wielding a blood-red longsword. Kela had hidden in the grass but was discovered by him. With a swift motion, he sent a blade of energy. If she hadn't run fast, she would have already become a corpse.

But she had been chased for half the night. It was only because of the orcs' home turf advantage in the jungle terrain that she hadn't been caught, but she couldn't lose him either. It wasn't until the mist descended that the swordsman suddenly retreated.

Kela finally managed to catch her breath and had just bandaged her wound when she encountered these specters emerging from the mist. Her attacks had no effect on them. Instead, during the fight, one of the specters suddenly passed through her body, making Kela feel as if she were being consumed. In that instant, most of her energy was drained, leaving her dazed and unable to even lift her eyelids. She fell to the ground.

Fortunately, when she fell, a branch touched the wound on her leg, and the pain promptly pulled her back to reality. She was extremely drowsy, her eyelids heavy. Her energy had been severely drained in that moment, and she dared not linger in the fight. She had no choice but to flee desperately.

These specters weren't entirely incorporeal. They were more like ethereal beings. Although they could pass through living bodies, they seemed unable to pass through inanimate objects like stones or trees. This was Kela's only solace, as the dense jungle around her provided decent cover.

But she still couldn't shake them off. Instead, she had drawn two more specters in her wake.

The specters appeared when the midnight mist descended. If she could last until dawn, there was a chance they might retreat. Kela kept gritting her teeth and persevering.

But her body and soul were both severely wounded. Dawn was still far off, and she could feel her pace beginning to slow, allowing the specters behind her to gradually close the distance.

Kela's heart sank.

In her current state, there was no way she could last until dawn. Moreover, whether the specters would truly disappear at dawn was merely speculation, with no evidence to support it.

She couldn't keep running. Specters didn't tire. Continuing to flee would only attract more specters, and her stamina would further diminish, leaving her even less capable of resistance.

Was there any way to harm these specters? Physical attacks had already proven ineffective. Her only remaining option was...

Though her stamina had been depleted from the constant running, the damage to her nerves from the specter passing through her had mostly recovered. Determination flashed in Kela's eyes.

She had to give it her all!

Boom!

Kela wasn't one to hesitate. Once she made a decision, she assessed the terrain and, with a powerful leap, abandoned the more advantageous ground, propelling herself high into the air, clearing the not-too-tall jungle canopy.

Now high above, she glanced around. A thin mist covered the area, and as far as her eyes could see, there was still an endless expanse of jungle stretching toward the horizon.

This wasn't the time to look around.

Below and to the side, three specters had already broken through the misty forest and were chasing after her without hesitation.

Face to face, under the dim moonlight, Kela could clearly see the appearance of these specters.

To be honest, they were quite clean. They looked like white cloth-wrapped spheres, with only two dark eye sockets and a pale mouth exposed, resembling the pumpkin faces children loved to dress up as during the Festival of Souls.

Of course, the color was different. The mouths of the ghostly faces were slightly open, as if smiling. For them, there was no difference between the air and the ground. The only difference was that their prey no longer had the dense jungle to hide in.

Their prey was within reach!

But the next second, the prey turned around.

Kela couldn't fly, but simple levitation was no problem. Using the momentum from her earlier leap, she flipped backward, her soul power condensing. The tips of her feet stepped on the air wall formed by her soul power, and she used the force to leap even higher.

This time, she jumped higher and adjusted her angle slightly. The three specters were now perfectly aligned vertically in her line of sight, forming a straight line.

The window of opportunity was closing fast, and a fierce determination flashed in Kela's eyes.

A sharp crackle of electricity!

A Soul Javelin crackling with lightning shot out from her right hand.

Martial artists' soul power typically lacks elemental attributes, but orcs are different... Technically, Kela wasn't a martial artist. Her bloodline awakening gave her unique abilities, and Kela's ability was this soul spear imbued with thunderous force!

There was no cover around her at that moment. The jungle was perfect for escape but hindered her attacks. However, being in the air was completely different.

A faint golden lightning flickered in Kela's eyes, and her dark eyes turned blazing white in an instant.

"Kill!"

Fully immersed in combat mode, Kela's eyes were blazing white and colorless, like the divine figures on orc totems. With a powerful thrust, channeling all her strength, the Soul Javelin in her hand morphed into a lightning bolt, streaking toward the three ghosts lined up in a row!

Whoosh!

Thud thud thud...

The angle and timing were flawless.

A single javelin skewered three ghosts. The lightning javelin pierced all three ghosts instantly, and its remaining force shot into the jungle below, embedding itself deep into a massive tree.

Eerie wails echoed as they writhed in agony.

All three ghosts were pinned to the tree at once. Smoke billowed from their wounds as they thrashed in agony.

But Kela wasn't done yet. The ghosts' resilience was astounding, and this alone was not enough to destroy them.

Her body was descending, but the white light in her eyes had not faded. She slammed her hands together in front of her chest.

Crack!

Golden light erupted from between her palms.

The Soul Javelin quaked violently, and then...

Beast Technique: Thunder Sacrifice!

The javelin suddenly erupted with a surge of lightning, the golden javelin itself rapidly expanding, merging with the thunder, and exploding in an instant.

Boom!

The massive explosion obliterated the tree, and the shockwave extended over a hundred meters. The three ghosts, struck by this fierce thunderous blast, were completely annihilated, vanishing without a trace.

Success!

Kela's blazing white eyes finally returned to their original black color, and a hint of joy appeared on her face.

She had been practicing the Thunder Sacrifice technique for a long time, but it had always been hit or miss, with a low success rate. Mainly, her control over her soul power was not yet proficient, and the detonation often caused issues. But just now, in a life-or-death moment, she had easily broken through her mental barrier, executing it with ease.

Having dealt with a deadly enemy in one move and even breaking through her limits, it was hard not to feel elated. But the next moment...

Whoosh whoosh whoosh~~

Perhaps the explosion from the Thunder Sacrifice was too loud. Kela had just landed when she saw several new ghosts rushing toward her from the other side of the jungle.

Kela's expression changed drastically. The Soul Javelin and Thunder Sacrifice had nearly depleted all her soul power, and the excessive force had caused the wound on her leg to burst open. Blood was gushing out, and the pain was unbearable. Forget fighting; even escaping would be difficult!

In this life-or-death moment, she had no time to think. Her left hand reached out, desperately gathering soul power, and a faint golden light flashed in her palm.

*Snap~*

A few sparks crackled, but the spear didn’t form.

Seeing the wraiths rushing toward her in an instant, Kela sighed silently and was about to close her eyes and await death. Suddenly, a blast of freezing air rushed past her.

*Whoosh~~*

The wind was icy and biting.

"*Frostfall!*"

The three wraiths that had pounced on Kela suddenly halted. The cold wind slowed their charge, barely keeping them from being blown away. However, their ghostly forms began to solidify.

The essence of wraiths is also soul power, a form of energy that can be harmed. Energy-based attacks are clearly the most effective means of damaging them. Physical attacks could hurt them too, but Kela wasn’t strong enough.

Now that their movements were hindered, although the freeze wasn’t as deadly as lightning magic, it was still quite effective. The spherical bodies of the wraiths instantly seemed to freeze stiff in the cold wind, no longer as transparent as before.

Immediately after, a blade flashed upward from below, and one of the wraiths that had just been solidified by the cold wind was directly cut in half.

Meanwhile, a huge figure jumped behind Kela. One large hand pulled her to safety, while the other swung a massive club, smashing down hard on the remaining two wraiths.

"*Winter’s Frost!*"

It was Badeluo’s voice, shouting excitedly.

The odd, tusk-shaped club frosted over instantly. The two unfortunate wraiths, already hindered in their movements, were now completely frozen solid. The club shattered them into pieces, which then clattered to the ground.

"I took out two! Brother Ta, I got one more than you!" Badeluo, holding Kela with one hand, excitedly bellowed.

The Winter’s Frost team?

Kela was both surprised and delighted. Badeluo had already let her go, and she saw Xue Zhiyu and Aota were also there. The soul core of Frostheart in Xue Zhiyu’s hand was still emitting wisps of cold air. The *Frostfall* that had hindered the wraiths was clearly her doing. Aota lazily glared at Badeluo: "What are you so excited about? That’s because I didn’t jump up, just casually swung my blade from the ground!"

Badeluo scratched his head, embarrassed.

Meanwhile, Xue Zhiyu quickly stepped forward, noticing the blood on Kela’s leg: "We got here just in time. Are you okay, Kela?"

They’d been heading a different way from Kela, but Kela’s impressive spear throw while leaping into the air had caught their attention. They hurried over as quickly as possible, allowing them to lend a hand just in time.

Kela sighed in relief at seeing her friends, feeling fortunate but also puzzled: "Your Highness, how did you..."

They’d all entered separately, and Kela hadn’t seen a single person from Rose yet. However, the Ice Spirit team was surprisingly together, with three people already gathered.

"We got lucky. The three of us were teleported relatively close to each other," Xue Zhiyu explained. "Ice witches are rare, and we’ve got special frost marks. If we’re not too far apart, we can sense each other. Unfortunately, Jina, Tatashi, and Dongbuluo were probably teleported to other areas. It’ll be a while before we can regroup."

"What about you?" Xue Zhiyu noticed the injury on Kela’s leg and began tending to it while asking with concern, "Have you seen Wang Feng and the others?"

Kela shook her head and briefly recounted her experiences that afternoon, eventually bringing the topic back to Wang Feng: "We’re not sure where Captain Wang Feng is. He mentioned before that he had a way to locate people within a certain distance, but since he hasn’t found us, he’s probably not nearby."

Xue Zhiyu nodded, frowning slightly.

Meanwhile, Aota spoke up nonchalantly: "Alright, alright, my brother doesn’t seem like the type to die young. Why worry so much? When it comes to fighting, he might not be the best, but dealing with these strange things? I think he’s pretty good at it!"

Just as he finished speaking, a scream suddenly came from the pine forest to the left, accompanied by the sound of someone fleeing. Badeluo, who had been keeping watch, jumped down from the tree and excitedly said: "They’re being chased again, and there are several of them! All from Nine Gods. Let’s go, Your Highness, Brother Ta, Sister Kela, let’s grab some tokens!"

Xue Zhiyu nodded. Since Wang Feng wasn’t nearby, worrying about him now was futile. She could only focus on the task at hand.

Aota was right; Wang Feng always seemed to have unexpected ways to deal with these bizarre things... Let’s hope he’s okay!

...

Old Wang was just fine.

The tree hole’s camouflage was pretty clever, and even more so, the Insect God species excelled at concealment...

Whether it was his aura, scent, or even heartbeat, everything was under control. Of course, with his strength, he couldn’t stay in suspended animation for long, but the problem was... Old Wang had ice bees on guard!

Within a radius of several miles, he knew exactly where the ghosts and zombies were lurking. If anything got within ten meters, he’d go into suspended animation right away, and they didn’t stick around in one spot.

The only concern was those ghosts; these spiritual entities might just pass through the tree. But soon, Old Wang found this worry to be completely unnecessary.

Although ghosts had no physical form, they didn’t seem to like passing through things. They preferred to avoid obstacles and wander around like 'people'.

This totally put his mind at ease. No matter how crazy things got outside, Old Wang just sat back in his cave, watching the chaos unfold.

The night was a bloodbath, with people dropping left and right. This forest was a less populated area, but several groups of 'visitors' still showed up.

The first to barge in was Andy, who had already run far away, with two ghosts chasing him from behind.

This guy had the worst luck. First, he was hunted by a Fire Mage for half the night, just escaped, and then was chased by these ghosts. He must’ve thought Hei Wukai was around here.

Naturally, he came desperately and left disappointed. He ran through the whole rooster comb forest without seeing Hei Wukai, but instead attracted a zombie, which chased him all over the place, and he bolted east.

This time, Old Wang did not move again.

Saving people takes real strength. Old Hei's reputation could scare the practitioners of the War Academy, but scare ghosts? He must’ve lost his marbles.

After keeping watch most of the night, by dawn, there were few ghosts around, probably because there weren’t many people in this area. Old Wang was feeling pretty drowsy. Anyway, with the ice bees on guard, he dozed off into a deep sleep...

"Feng, Feng."

Groggy, he felt someone gently pushing him, the hand was white, slender, and gentle.

Old Wang half-opened his eyes, it was actually Sister Da.

She had on a flowing white dress, with a wedding veil draped over her head. She held a bunch of delicate roses, gazing lovingly at Wang Feng, her face slightly flushed: "Wang Feng, I misunderstood you, you are a brave person, I like you, let's get married!"

Old Wang opened his mouth, both surprised and delighted, he was all for it in his heart, but on the surface, he had to play it cool: "What kept you so long? Only now do you see how brave I am! Proposing marriage or something, I'll have to consider it..."

Seeing Sister Da's smile gradually freeze, Old Wang coughed twice, quickly grabbed her hand, and said with a full smile: "What I mean is, how can a woman propose? That’s just not how it’s done! Such things should naturally be done by me! Sister Da, a thousand words come to mind, but only three matter, I love you! If I must add a deadline to this love, I hope it's ten thousand years!"

Before he finished speaking, Old Wang suddenly froze because the hand he was holding didn’t feel like Sister Da's delicate skin. He quickly looked down and saw that the hand was thick, big, and black, with a glaring vein popping up.

Old Wang was shocked, and when he looked up again, Sister Da in front of him was gone, replaced by Mo Tong with a black line on his face, the rough muscles, the thick eyebrows and big eyes...

Damn!

Old Wang almost vomited, before he could react, his hand was fiercely thrown away by Mo Tong.

"Wang Feng, what are you doing! How dare you say such shameful things to me!" Mo Tong said through gritted teeth: "I've always told Yin Fu that you must have ulterior motives towards me, you are indeed such a person!"

Old Wang was both crying and laughing, just about to explain, but saw Mo Tong's big foot directly imprinting on his face: "Pervert, go to hell!"

"Ah!" Old Wang exclaimed, waking up from his dream, his body propping up, and his head hitting the low 'ceiling'. Fortunately, the walls of the root cave were soft, so it didn’t hurt, but he was a bit confused.

He gathered himself, patted his face, and connected his will to the ice bees on guard outside. The sky outside was already bright.

The sun was just rising, and the thin mist blanketing the land started to lift. The ghosts and zombies that had terrorized the night seemed to have disappeared.

Seems like things have settled down?

Old Wang yawned, stretched, and even had time to mull over life’s big questions.

What’s for breakfast?

That jerky Yinfu brought? Who eats meat this early?

Deer milk it is. No reason, just a manly thing!

Old Wang had a peaceful night, but for most, it was anything but calm. The weakest were eliminated, and many who were once driven had their ambitions tempered.

The illusion realm operates by its own rules. During the day, disciples from both sides are hunters, but at night, the hunters become the prey!

From here on out, both sides will hunt more cautiously, because everyone knows that if you’re hurt, surviving as prey at night will be a nightmare.

...

Inside the Fortress of Blades...

Dozens of crystal balls glowed with blue light, casting scenes from the Soul Illusion Realm onto a sand table at the hall’s center. These scenes were fragmented, mostly showing small local areas.

This is the League of Blades’ go-to method for scouting terrain.

The image data comes from the Soul Tokens given to each disciple on both sides. These tokens act as both ID and merit badges, with embedded runes that the crystal balls can detect. These scattered pieces of information are then processed by exorcists and integrated to reflect on the sand table, forming a three-dimensional projection of the first layer of the Soul Illusion Realm. Though not 100% accurate, the projection is about 70-80% reliable.

A voice nearby murmured updates.

"Number 367, killed by a ghost, Soul Token scattered."

"Number 411, killed by an enemy cultivator, Soul Token changed hands."

A clerk was busy jotting down the details, as these data would be needed for future comparisons when tallying the merits of the Holy Sanctuary disciples.

Daytime stats showed the Nine Gods were ahead, but luck played a role, so it was too soon to call.

However, the situation changed at night.

Yakray and several colonels were also standing in front of the sand table, but their interest was no longer in the few Soul Tokens being contested. What fascinated them more was the illusion realm’s terrain and the day-night shifts.

The five-layer Soul Illusion Realm was a surprise to both the League of Blades and the Nine Gods. No one could predict what kind of opportunities would appear in these five layers, nor could they foresee the level of danger within.

But just the ghosts that appeared in the first layer on the first night were enough to give the disciples from both sides a headache.

What about the second, third, or even fourth and fifth layers? Could these disciples handle them?

After all, the existence of the Soul Illusion Realm is limited in time, and neither the Nine Gods nor the League of Blades would sit idly by and let the unprecedented opportunities of the five-layer illusion realm disappear. If, after a month or two, the disciples from both sides still cannot advance to deeper layers, or if they are completely wiped out, then it might be necessary to send in higher-level experts.

Although the entrance has disappeared, such a vast Soul Illusion Realm, like expanding pores, is active internally, so new entrances will surely open again, likely within the range of Dragon City. When that happens, there will be new movements, and the exorcists from both sides are keeping a close watch, so there’s no need to worry about not being able to send people in.

Therefore, both sides are now trying to collect as much information as possible about the illusion realm, while secretly deploying experts in preparation for the next steps in response to various possibilities.

After a full day and night, the 500 scattered Soul Tokens had generated plenty of data, and the general outline of the Soul Illusion Realm on the sand table was complete, with only a few areas still left 'unlit'.