“Scare? People? Game?”
The words circled twice in Lin Gui's mind.
For a moment, he didn't react.
After a few follow-up questions, he understood what the other party meant.
Out of gratitude for Lin Gui delivering news from afar...
...these ghosts wanted to invite him to join their "game."
That is... dressing up as ghosts to frighten the living people passing through the area.
"It's far too—bor—ing—around here normally—"
The ghost's "voice" drew out long, leaking a suppressed excitement.
"We can't touch anything, there's no sense of feeling, and we can't even feel the wind."
"Aside from floating around and nagging, we can't do a thing."
"Whitestone City is a dead land; we don't see a single breather for months."
"Finally, a few are here..."
The voice let out a couple of sinister chuckles, his mental ripples brimming with eagerness.
"Don't we have to give them a warm welcome?"
Lin Gui's expression became a bit strange.
He could roughly imagine it.
A bunch of ghosts so bored they were practically molding, suddenly discovering targets they could scare...
The scene would likely be quite a spectacle.
He initially wanted to refuse.
His delivery tasks were still lined up.
There were several city-states still ahead.
But as he turned his head, he met Eve's purple eyes.
She didn't speak, but simply tilted her head slightly, her eyes shining with unconcealed curiosity.
There was even... a flicker of expectation.
Lin Gui recalled how she had quietly helped with transcribing the letters all along the way without a single complaint.
She had transcribed fully one-third as many letters as Lin Gui had.
In the very beginning, Eve had actually written even faster than Lin Gui.
However, in order to increase efficiency, Lin Gui had revived the research spirit he had long since abandoned.
Combining Levitation with his already exquisite mana control, he had developed his second original Novice Magic.
Novice Wind Magic—Multi-Pen Transcription.
By using Levitation to control pens, he could split his mind three ways and transcribe three letters simultaneously.
While efficiency tripled, it had nearly caused Lin Gui's head to explode.
This led to him harboring a deep loathing for this spell.
It was simply too taxing on the brain, like constantly pushing the limits of his spirit every second.
If he kept using it, he felt he might develop schizophrenia.
Fortunately, the subsequent city-states had been very small.
Several were even smaller than Caran City.
Therefore, there hadn't been many letters to transcribe.
Lin Gui had been able to breathe a sigh of relief.
This also applied to the Holy Saintess, who had suffered along with him.
So, when it came to Eve's expectations, Lin Gui would still fulfill them.
"Alright then."
After putting away the organized items into Storage, Lin Gui spoke.
"Then let's go have a look."
Truth be told.
He was also a little curious.
How exactly did these ghosts intend to toy with those... unlucky bounty hunters?
Lin Gui activated his Shroud of the Gloomy Night and carried Eve as they sat sideways on his staff.
The staff floated up, silently following the glass bead leading the way.
Snowflakes drifted sparsely, dyeing the ruined walls of Whitestone City a pristine white.
They glided past the collapsed clock tower, through the empty square, and over the deathly silent streets.
The ghost floated lightly, clearly familiar with this path to the extreme.
Lin Gui glanced around himself.
The Shroud of the Gloomy Night was functioning normally.
However, the glass bead ahead "saw" them without any hindrance.
It even stopped occasionally to wait, as if saying "Keep up."
Lin Gui was not surprised.
The Shroud of the Gloomy Night could fool the perception of Legendary experts, but it couldn't fool the most ordinary ghost.
This was not a matter of spell tier, but of fundamental opposition.
Existing concealment magic, whether it was the Shroud of the Gloomy Night or the secret arts of Epic assassins...
...were all designed to mask physical or energy characteristics like energy fluctuations, body temperature, scent, and light and shadow.
But a ghost's "sight" relied on direct perception at the soul level.
What they "saw" was the outline of the soul itself.
Therefore, even the highest tier of concealment technique...
...looked like clear glass in their eyes.
Lin Gui maintained the Shroud of the Gloomy Night now not to hide from the ghosts.
He was hiding from what might appear next.
The living people.
He didn't want to be discovered here by passing bounty hunters.
Even more, he didn't want to run into unnecessary trouble over a farce.
He just wanted to be a proper onlooker.
The staff glided past the last street and turned into a relatively intact residential area.
The leading glass bead slowed down, bobbing slightly up and down.
A suppressed excitement came through the mental ripples:
"We're almost there."
"Those guys are right inside the old tavern."
Lin Gui followed the ghost and floated in through a broken window on the second floor of the tavern.
They landed on a rotten crossbeam, where the scene in the hall below was clear at a glance.
At first sight, he saw those few "unlucky bastards."
There were five in total, their attire a mixed bag yet radiating a sense of competence.
The leader was a scar-faced assassin wearing form-fitting dark leather armor, with poisoned daggers tucked at his waist.
He was an assassin.
Behind him were two others; one carried a cloth-wrapped longbow, his gaze as sharp as a hawk's.
He was a ranger.
As for the other three, their specific classes could not be determined from their equipment.
One was burly, carrying a heavy net gun with barbs.
The remaining two wore warriors' leather armor but carried weapons that looked like staves yet functioned like wooden sticks.
Their equipment was very strange.
Additionally, in the corner lay two elderly men on the verge of death.
They were the dying ones essential for hunters entering the Wall of Sighs.
Currently, these five people were huddled in the center of the tavern, talking in low voices.
"I didn't expect that relying on a few geezers near death would actually let us into this godforsaken place."
The man carrying the net gun grinned, his voice hoarse.
"This is the Wall of Sighs, after all."
The ranger nearby nodded, his eyes never leaving the window.
"Yeah."
"The greatest forbidden zone from the past... who would have thought the way to break it would be discovered by a group of hunters who are a disgrace to the profession?"
He paused, his tone laced with a bit of malice.
"But the price is just highway robbery."
"Two old fogies about to croak, and they cost one and a half million gold coins."
"If they kick the bucket halfway through..."
The ranger turned his head and glanced at the old men in the corner.
"I'll go back and slaughter his whole family."
"That ugly brat wouldn't even be worth anything sold to the red light district."
"Taking our money and acting so happy about it."
"Might as well use them to vent some frustration."
In the corner, the two curled-up old men trembled all over.
They began to cough violently, their breathing rapid, as if they might pass away at any second.
Their wizened hands clutched their chests tightly, their eyes wide.
They were filled with terror.
"Hey, don't take it so seriously!"
The scar-faced assassin smiled and waved his hand, his tone light.
"It's just a joke."
He walked over to the old men, squatted down, and gave them what seemed like a kind smile.
"We're the good guys. How could we do something like that?"
The old men's lips quivered, and a faint flicker of hope flashed in their clouded eyes.
"Re... Really?"
"Of course it's true."
The scar-faced man's smile deepened as he patted an old man's shoulder.
The others looked at each other and suddenly burst into roars of laughter.
The laughter echoed through the empty tavern.
It carried unconcealed mockery and naked contempt.
It was the casual trampling of the weak by the strong, something they were well accustomed to.
Rate on N.U.
