The laughter was ear-piercing and unnervingly eerie. The surrounding temperature plummeted, and a sudden, bone-chilling cold swept through the air...
"Giggle, giggle, giggle!"
"Will you play with me?"
Nangong Ning felt a gust of wind whip past her side.
Looking up, she saw Xu Xian darting forward. Holding a two-meter-long mountain-cleaving greatsword, he carved a perfect arc through the moonlight and struck straight down.
Boom!
As the heavy sword slammed into the ground with the force of his foundation establishment cultivation, a deep crater was instantly gouged into the clearing. Dirt and stones flew everywhere, and fallen leaves swirled in the chaos.
Nangong Ning blinked, momentarily dazed. "So fierce!"
When Xu Xian had said he wasn't afraid of ghosts, she had assumed he was just acting tough—who isn't afraid of ghosts? Now, she believed him. Without a second thought, he had raised his sword and struck.
Unfortunately, the strike hit nothing but air.
Amidst the rising dust, a ghost infant hovered in the sky. Its face was contorted and hideous, flickering between a smile and a sob in a state of utter madness.
"Giggle!"
"Wah, wah!"
"Why did you hit the baby? The baby is so small. Does Daddy not like the baby? Daddy is bad; Daddy deserves to die. The baby is going to eat Daddy up..."
"Hahaha!"
"Jie, jie, jie!!"
Xu Xian’s reflexive second strike missed again. Looking up, he saw the ghost infant opening its toothless, bloody mouth and lunging toward him. He raised his sword to strike back, not forgetting to curse as he did so.
"Bullshit! I haven't even taken a wife yet. Who are you calling 'Daddy'? Take this!"
"Daddy is bad. The baby wants to eat Daddy."
His blade swept across the air, missing once more. Although the ghost infant had no visible cultivation, its movements were incredibly swift, drifting here and there like the wind...
Xu Xian swung three times in rapid succession, but he couldn't even graze its clothes.
He cursed under his breath. "Dammit."
Nangong Ning pressed her fingers together to form a sword gesture. With a flick, she released a strand of sword qi aimed straight at the ghost infant.
It was a nascent soul strike.
Though she didn't use her full power, its speed was faster than the wind. The ghost infant couldn't dodge in time and was pierced through, letting out a shrill, piercing shriek.
"Ah!"
Nangong Ning flipped her wrist, pointing upward, and whispered a single word.
"Bind."
The whistling sword qi braked sharply in mid-air, then reversed course instantly. In a flash, it transformed into a sword-rope, binding the tiny ghost infant tightly.
The ghost infant struggled frantically, trying to break free from the confinement while letting out a sharp, savage howl.
"Wah, wah!"
"It hurts, it hurts!"
"Mommy is bad too! Mommy is hitting the baby! The baby is going to eat Daddy and Mommy both! Eat them all!"
Xu Xian retracted his sword and stabbed it into the ground. Looking up at the ghost infant suspended in the air, he let out a heavy sigh and frowned. "Phew... it really is a ghost."
Nangong Ning stepped out from the bamboo forest and stood beside Xu Xian. She looked at the ghost infant with an expressionless face, then glanced at Xu Xian. "Little Grand-Uncle, your son doesn't look like you at all."
Xu Xian was speechless. "He's your son."
Nangong Ning knitted her brows. "He called you 'Daddy'."
Xu Xian retorted disdainfully, "He called you 'Mommy' too."
Nangong Ning fell silent for a moment before saying, "Alright, I admit that joke wasn't funny at all."
Xu Xian agreed. "It wasn't."
They looked at each other and both broke into a small laugh. The eerie atmosphere became even stranger, though not in the same way as before.
The tiny ghost infant was still struggling and screaming, baring its teeth and alternating between crying and laughing in a fit of madness.
Xu Xian asked with lingering fear, "What on earth is this thing? It calls everyone 'Daddy' and 'Mommy'."
Nangong Ning smiled without saying a word and snapped her fingers.
With a sharp crack, the ghost infant that had been screeching incessantly suddenly went still. Its head slumped like a puppet with its strings cut, and it fell straight onto the clearing. Upon impact, it shattered into pieces, and a pool of crimson, foul blood seeped out from beneath it.
Xu Xian went numb.
"A puppet?"
Nangong Ning said calmly, "It seems Little Grand-Uncle was right. There are no ghosts in this world—only people playing tricks."
Xu Xian sheathed Wait and said crossly, "Scared the life out of me. It was pretty convincing, I'll give them that."
Nangong Ning stared at the crimson stain on the ground and said slowly, "This is a blood puppet. It was convincing because it was made from a living person."
"A living person?"
Xu Xian was startled, his eyes flashing with shock.
"Yes, a living person."
Hearing this, Xu Xian looked back at the remains of the ghost infant on the ground. A chill ran down his spine, and his initial shock quickly turned into a cold fury.
This child looked to be at most a month old. To turn a child less than a month old into a puppet...
Even without knowing the process or the theory behind it, just the thought made his skin crawl. Was this something a human was even capable of doing?
"Those animals."
Nangong Ning looked up at the moon, her presence commanding and stern. She spoke in a deep voice, "Vile creature, surrender now, and I may grant you the mercy of a whole corpse."
Her voice was infused with nascent soul power, booming like a Great Bell and carrying far into the distance.
As the sound echoed, the bamboo forest swayed, and the moonlight seemed to dim.
Xu Xian found it bizarre. He looked around and instinctively took a step back to position himself protectively in front of Nangong Ning.
"Jie, jie, jie, jie!"
"The little girl from the Wendao Sword Sect certainly has a big mouth."
A sinister laughter arose out of nowhere. It came from far away, yet sounded as if it were right next to their ears. Even with his foundation establishment cultivation, Xu Xian couldn't discern which direction it was coming from—nor could he tell if it was a man or a woman speaking...
Alarm bells immediately went off in his head.
Xu Xian knew for a fact that this was an expert.
Nangong Ning’s momentum did not waver. With a flick of her sword-sleeve, she dispelled the surrounding chill and barked, "Slinking in the shadows and playing tricks—do you dare to show yourself?"
The person gave a mocking cold laugh. "Heh... if you want to see me, let's see if you have the ability first."
As the voice fell, the crowns of the surrounding bamboo forest began to shake violently. The sounds of crying and laughing returned.
"Giggle!"
"Wah, wah!"
"Will you play with me?"
"Will you play with me??"
Pairs of blood-red eyes, like crimson fireflies in the deep night, began to light up one after another, dotting the surrounding bamboo forest. There were countless numbers of them.
Immediately after, ghost infants in red clothing drifted out from the bamboo forest, slowly closing in on the two from all directions.
Were they surrounded?
Had they fallen for a ruse?
Was it a trap?
These thoughts flashed through Xu Xian's mind in an instant. He was certain now—they had been set up.
Gripping Wait in his hand once more, Xu Xian stood back-to-back with Nangong Ning. Despite his nerves, he braced himself for a life-and-death struggle.
"Holy... why are there so many? Ning, what do we do?"
Nangong Ning didn't say a word. She summoned her life-bound earth sword and drew a circle at Xu Xian's feet. In the blink of an eye, a formation was complete, glowing with a milky-white sword light. An earth sword hung suspended directly above Xu Xian's head, gleaming with a sharp, cold light.
Xu Xian was momentarily dazed. "This is?"
Nangong Ning instructed, "Little Grand-Uncle, do not take a single step outside this circle until I return."
Xu Xian nodded in a daze. "Alright!"
Nangong Ning drew another sword, held it in her hand, and slowly raised it before slashing horizontally.
Clang!
The sword hummed, and a gust of baleful wind whipped through the area.
Within a hundred meters, a chilling sword intent ravaged everything in its path. The red eyes of the blood puppets made from infants instantly went dark, and they collapsed to the ground in unison.
She flicked her wrist and struck again.
A cold sword light cut through the moonlight. Wherever it passed, the bamboo forest shattered inch by inch under the sword qi, turning into fine powder. Nangong Ning followed the strike, charging out like a shooting star in the polar night, vanishing in the blink of an eye...
Xu Xian stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly ahead. He swallowed hard.
"Incredible!"
The nascent soul stage... truly was terrifyingly powerful!
Rate on N.U.
