Chapter 12 - The Ghost's Revenge.

"Old man, where are you all from? What happened recently?" Xu Xuan asked after seeing the group devour the dry rations.

"This old man is the eighth in his family, and they all call me Ba Lao. My family was originally farmers outside Dongping City. This year, I worked hard farming all year, but not only did I not get a single grain of rice, I actually owed the local officials dozens of measures of rice. There was no other way, we could only flee and become refugees. Otherwise, the whole family would be captured and sacrificed to the Chitu God."

"What exactly is this Chitu God?"

"You mustn't speak of a deity like that, it's a great disrespect. The Chitu God will bring down disaster." Hearing Xu Xuan's words, the old man couldn't help but say, "Although you are both powerful individuals, the other party is a deity after all."

"What are your plans now?" Mo Li asked, looking at Ba Lao and the others.

"We plan to find a distant place and resettle. I heard that Western Chu is good; they are all Chu people, and the Hegemon of Western Chu seems to treat the people of Chu very well. Oh, both of you are Qi Practitioners, so you must have a way to save us, right? Please help us! If this continues, we will surely die." Ba Lao seemed to have thought of something and suddenly spoke to Xu Xuan and Mo Li, trying to kneel before them as he spoke.

"Don't rush to kneel. What's wrong? If it's about travel expenses, we can still help you."

"No, it's not about travel expenses or food and drink. Both of you are capable. Since you two could kill that thing that appeared in the village, you must also be able to help us." As he spoke, the old man eagerly tried to prostrate himself before Mo Li again. However, before Ba Lao could react, the Automaton beside Mo Li moved first. It came to the old man's side, one on each side, and helped him up, not accepting his kowtow.

In fact, all along the way, Xu Xuan had noticed that Mo Li seemed to dislike kowtowing and never accepted anyone's prostrations.

"What exactly did you encounter?" Mo Li asked, looking at them.

"We..."

Before Ba Lao could say anything, the man who had come with them suddenly showed a look of horror on his face.

"She's coming! She's coming again! This time it's me! Help!" The man cried out, then got up and scrambled away.

Seeing this, Xu Xuan looked around in confusion. Because neither he, nor anyone else present, including Mo Li, saw anything unusual.

Amidst the night, the forest remained peaceful, with no sound other than the occasional crackling from the bonfire.

The surrounding trees swayed as usual. No matter how they looked, there was no trace of anything appearing here. Even Ba Lao and the others who came with him looked around in a daze mixed with terror.

"Anyway, let's go after him," Mo Li said, instructing the Automaton to pick up the bewildered Xiaoyu, then ran with Xu Xuan after the fleeing man.

...

"Ahhh! No, don't come over! Help me!"

Accompanied by heart-wrenching screams, Xu Xuan and Mo Li quickly found the man's location. At this point, they noticed the man was on the ground, pushing himself backward with his hands, while looking in terror at a spot in front of him.

One of the man's legs was severely twisted and deformed.

However, his actions, in the eyes of Xu Xuan and Mo Li, were completely like struggling with thin air.

"Help! That little girl! That little girl is going to..." Seeing Xu Xuan and Mo Li approach, the man seemed to find a savior and shouted at them. But before either of them could react, a row of teeth marks appeared on his neck out of nowhere. Immediately after, a whole chunk of flesh disappeared as if bitten off by something, and blood spurted from his neck.

And the man began to constantly try to push the air, as if something was riding on him.

But clearly, he couldn't touch anything, only watching in terror as something approached him.

Seeing this, Xu Xuan's steps, which were about to rush forward, instinctively paused. There was no way around it; the impact of such an invisible thing was simply too great.

However, Xu Xuan quickly reacted, directly channeling Qi to control his sword, and shot the Chiyou Sword from his back towards the man. At this moment, Mo Li made a gesture as if to stop Xu Xuan.

But Mo Li's action was ultimately a step too late.

The Chiyou Sword flew to the man's front, and the next second, it seemed to pierce something and floated in mid-air.

"There is indeed something, and it's something invisible." But in the next second, Xu Xuan felt the sensation of having pierced something on the sword disappear. At the same time, Xu Xuan noticed that the man was already dead. Read at Novels Haven (novelshaven.com)

"What is this exactly? Is it also a demon?"

"A ghost, undoubtedly some kind of ghost." Mo Li suddenly spoke, "There are many kinds of evil spirits in this world, and one of them evolves from humans. Only by doing wrong things will one invite a ghost's revenge."

"So that's how it is, no wonder it's invisible and intangible."

"Now the problem is, you just tried to stop the ghost from taking revenge, which means you will probably enter that thing's kill list." Mo Li said to Xu Xuan with a suddenly serious expression, "Let's go back and ask what happened."

After speaking, Mo Li turned and walked back towards the bonfire. At this moment, Xu Xuan noticed that Mo Li's expression had somehow turned cold. Unlike her usual gentleness, it exuded a coldness and indifference that kept people away. For some reason, Xu Xuan even saw in her an aura that only those in high positions would possess.

"My lady, is Sanzi'er still savable?" Back at the camp, Ba Lao looked at the expressionless Mo Li and asked somewhat timidly, but he immediately shut up. Mo Li's expression at this moment was too different from when they first saw her, causing a sense of fear to rise in his heart.

"Tell me, what exactly happened? Why did you provoke a ghost's revenge?" Mo Li said coldly to Ba Lao.

"What are you talking about? This old man doesn't understand. We are just ordinary farmers, how could we have the ability to do anything bad! Qi Practitioner, you saw it, we are so hungry, how could you ask this old man to offend anyone, I don't have that ability!" Hearing Mo Li's words, the leading old man just looked bewildered, and the remaining three men behind him also looked at each other, then all shook their heads, indicating that they had not done anything worth being avenged for.

However, hearing their words, Mo Li's expression grew colder and colder.

"Think carefully, what exactly have you done? If you don't want to die, you'd better tell the truth, otherwise, we can't save you." Hearing their words, Mo Li directly returned to the campfire, holding the bewildered Xiaoyu, and started warming herself by the fire again.

Xu Xuan was also straightforward, taking out the remaining wine and sitting aside to continue drinking.

Seeing that neither of them was willing to help, Ba Lao and the men were clearly panicked. But this time, no matter what they did, the two on the opposite side would not help them.

"I know, I'll tell you, okay! I'll tell you!" Finally, one of the men couldn't bear it anymore and shouted loudly at the two. The reason was simple: another person among them saw the so-called 'little girl' and screamed in terror.

However, this time the man did not run away, but knelt before Mo Li, constantly kowtowing.

"Save me, I'll tell you, I'll tell you everything, we did do something heartless, but we had no choice!" But before the man could finish speaking, a pair of handprints appeared on his leg. Almost simultaneously, Xu Xuan's long sword was drawn and shot behind the man.

However, to Xu Xuan's surprise, this time the man who saw the 'little girl' floated in mid-air and flew towards a distant tree.

Xu Xuan's flying sword also did not feel any sensation of hitting something. It was clearly dodged.

As for Mo Li, she covered Xiaoyu's eyes. After the flying man hit the big tree, he seemed to be lifted up by something again. His entire head was forcibly twisted several times by some strange force, eventually detaching from his body, dying a truly miserable death.

However, after the previous few