Nanyun was over nine hundred kilometers away from Qingmeng Mountain. After the old fox pointed out the general direction, Nan Zhi rode the wind southward, arriving near the site of the incident at Songhe Cemetery in just half an hour.
Only now did she slowly begin to realize the difference between divine abilities and techniques.
When casting a technique, the amount of spiritual energy consumed from the body varies depending on the scale of the spell. Although an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator can fly through the air, it is extremely taxing on their spiritual energy. Therefore, when most cultivators travel, they choose to use dharma treasures like flying swords to preserve their strength.
After all, if one flies a great distance to face an enemy only to land with an empty sea of qi, wouldn't that be seeking death?
Divine abilities, however, were different.
The divine abilities she had comprehended were innate talents of the Witch race. They did not require the consumption of spiritual energy; they were invoked by her will and performed at her whim.
Legend has it that when Chiyou fought the Yellow Emperor, his eighty brothers each possessed unique skills—calling the wind, summoning the rain, and sending sand and stones flying. They triggered heavenly phenomena that made the Yellow Emperor's army suffer miserably. It was only with the help of the Lady of the Ninth Heaven that the Yellow Emperor was able to turn defeat into victory.
The Witch race possessed such powerful innate divine abilities, yet they eventually vanished. One could not help but feel moved by how the path of cultivation was ever-changing, with fortune and calamity being so unpredictable.
...
Major airports in Nanyun had received notifications early on. Countless flights were canceled and runways were closed. Even flights already in the air over Nanyun were forced to make emergency landings at nearby airports.
【Dear passengers, due to the severe fog today, all flights at Nanyun International Airport are temporarily unable to take off. We deeply apologize for the flight delays and offer our most sincere apologies. According to the notice from the Meteorological Bureau, the duration of the heavy fog over the airport is unknown, and it may be accompanied by mirages and other strange sights. To ensure your personal safety and to restore flight operations as quickly as possible, please stay away from the runways and avoid filming or taking photos of the fog...】
【Dear passengers……】
At the airport terminal, countless travelers looked through the glass, raising their heads to watch the aggressive, vast white fog. Their faces were filled with amazement.
Above Nanyun, a vast white fog filled the sky. Massive masses of clouds slid rapidly across the backdrop of the sky as if they were alive.
Its speed was too fast.
In almost the blink of an eye, the fog swept across the sky. The damp mist invaded along the ground, leaving the area outside the terminal nearly a complete white void.
With every breath, the thick, milky-white mist entered their lungs, making people feel refreshed as if their hearts and lungs were being soaked by spring rain.
Countless tourists held up their phones to take photos frantically, wanting to record this miraculous scene, but the white fog was gone in an instant. In the blink of an eye, it had already moved forward.
The roads around Songhe Cemetery were under emergency martial law. Cordon lines were pulled high, red and blue lights flickered, and sirens wailed. The six intersections leading to the cemetery were all blocked off.
“No passage ahead!”
“Stop! Stop! No one is allowed through for now!! Please cooperate!”
“For your safety, please cooperate!”
Traffic police directed the flow of cars with all their might, barely managing to stop the last wave of traffic outside the cemetery.
The car owners and passengers stuck on the highway did not complain. Instead, they all stepped out of their vehicles, watching with shock as the vast white fog swept toward them.
The sky was grey, the fog was vast, and the wind swirled through the withered grass.
The yellow of autumn was being stained, swallowed, and assimilated by an endless expanse of white...
The fog arrived strangely and quietly, like a milky-white colossal creature howling as it charged straight at them!
“Whoosh...”
It was the sound of the wind.
The moist, humid air vied to enter their lungs. Everyone's hair, eyebrows, and even eyelashes were dotted with moisture.
A gust of wind seemed to blast overhead, bringing with it a long, deep tiger roar.
Men, women, children, the elderly, reporters, police, drivers, and office workers—everyone present heard that long, profound tiger roar that seemed to be etched into their very souls.
A faint figure stood amidst the clouds. It seemed like an illusion, or perhaps a projection of a falcon falling into the mist, vanishing in a flash.
Some screamed in terror, some took deep breaths, some were lost in panic, and some even tried to chase the dark shadow within the white fog.
Everyone pulled out their phones in unison, recording this moment of shock.
“What... what is that? Is there a person in the fog?”
“Holy crap! There really is a person! Look! It looks like a woman! She has hair!!”
“I caught it!! There really is a shadow of a person!!”
“Someone is flying in the sky!”
“Something must have happened up ahead! Didn't you see the police blocking the road?”
“My phone won't go through!”
“Mine too! There’s no signal!”
“I can't make any calls! What's going on?!”
【The Mountain Lord is passing through. Repeat, the Mountain Lord has arrived in Nanyun. The Mountain Lord is passing through!】
Official personnel responsible for tracking the Mountain Lord’s movements were in black sedans, desperately chasing the white fog. A female voice repeated over the communication system:
【All units attention, the Mountain Lord is passing through! The Mountain Lord is passing through, do not initiate conflict! Wait for the fog to dissipate!】
【All units attention: Do not initiate conflict! Wait for the fog to dissipate!】
【Wait—all units attention! A criminal suspect named Li Dapeng, suspected of using supernatural powers to commit murder, has appeared near Songhe Cemetery!】
【He is heading toward Songhe Cemetery! Repeat! Li Dapeng is heading toward Songhe Cemetery!】
【Do not pursue! Do not pursue!!】
...
...
...
“Is this the man-eating yaksha from the cemetery?”
Nan Zhi, carrying the old fox who was nearly on the verge of vomiting, slowly landed at the highest point of the cemetery. Her golden tiger eyes fell upon the strangely shaped Greater Ghost.
It was over four meters tall, with three rounded lumps on its forehead and eyebrows that looked like overgrown weeds. It had a green face, red teeth, and was completely naked and withered.
It was bare all over, looking like a plucked vulture. It had no gender-identifying organs, and its flesh-colored belly was bloated and high, sloshing with a “clunking” sound as it moved, like a fleshy gourd filled with half a bottle of water.
This Greater Ghost just lay there in the cemetery, its two arms draped over hundreds of stacked tombstones. Beneath its withered, massive feet were piles of smashed ash urns.
“Thump!”
“Thump!”
“Thump! Thump!”
A sound like a beating drum came from the yaksha's belly, but it was nothing else but the souls of the dead it had swallowed. They were screaming and wailing inside, their ghostly hands desperately pounding, struggling to break out of the stomach.
“Mountain Lord, this yaksha... this yaksha is quite formidable. At first, it only dug up corpses in the cemetery to eat, but now that cremation is everywhere, there aren't enough corpses to fill its belly. So, it started going to nearby crowded areas to snatch people to eat.”
Hu Ban'er stared at the yaksha's bloodthirsty eyes, a flash of resentment appearing in his own:
“This thing doesn't just eat people; it even eats little spirits with a bit of intelligence! A while ago, a Chu Ma disciple of my Hu family brought two little spirits to negotiate with it, and it chewed that disciple's bones to pieces!”
Nan Zhi flicked her tail and voiced the doubt in her heart: “Don't humans have firearms? How can they not even deal with a single yaksha?”
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