“Speed up. We need to get out of the woods fast.” 

After Chuyi 

said that,

we a

ccelerated. The gross smell of decomposing flesh became heavier. The rat-squeaking noise had 

also

 grown louder. 

Suddenly, some drops of liquid 

fell

 on my head. I thought it was raining, so I lifted my head to see. I then saw a body hanging on the tree. It was dripping blood. 

Countless fat

creatures that looked like bats were nibbling on that body. The liquid drops that fell on me were from 

the

 bites on the body. 

I couldn’t help

 but 

crouch and retch. Chuyi 

extended 

his hand as he wanted to cover my mouth. However, it was too late. 

At the moment I made the first sound, the bats all turned to look at us. As soon as they saw us, their eyes turned red

. They opened their 

mouths 

and revealed 

pieces of blood-dripping flesh on their teeth. 

“Run!” Chuyi shouted.

I didn’t hesitate

 and dashed 

away. 

A

 wind tearing noise arose behind us. I knew they were flying after us. I pulled myself together and turned around to see. They got Chuyi

. He 

was attacking the bats with 

both

 weapons in his hands. 

The bats were as big as chickens. If they bit 

a person

, they could pull out a large chunk of flesh. Moreover, 

because they lived

 in this place, they must have some toxins. That

 was

 why Chuyi looked troubled. Soon, they had bitten a few holes 

in

 his clothes. 

I slowed down

 and reached 

him with the Emei Piercer. Every time 

I

extended

 it, pungent blood 

poured down

. 

Although the 

bats were fierce

, there

 weren’t many of them.

Chuyi and I 

tried 

our best to kill them

.

W

e got most of them. A few bats flew back to the trees

 and looked 

at us in fright. 

“Holy 

moly

!” I looked at Chuyi

, whose 

clothes now 

looked

 like rags. 

Chuyi nodded and explained, “Those bats have feasted on carcasses for

 a long time

. Living in this place, it wouldn’t be strange 

if they hadn't

 mutat

ed

.” 

He suddenly stopped

 and looked 

at me with doubt. Following his eyes, I saw that I wasn’t hurt a bit. There 

were

 no tears on my clothes, either. 

“E

h

?”

I was dumbstruck for a moment. I was closer to the bats than Chuyi was, but they didn’t attack me. What happened? 

Chuyi looked at m

e and thought for a moment

. Then, he suddenly 

said

, “Not good!” 

At this

 moment, the bats hiding in the trees plunged

 forward, sneaking on 

Chuyi from behind. 

I instinctively controlled the Invisible Needle to stop one of them. Chuyi saw 

my expression

and

 knew he was in danger

. However,

 he couldn’t turn around 

in

 time. 

A few

bats

 bit him. Chuyi screamed

 and 

directly 

turned

 his back to me. I immediately stabbed with

 my

 n

eedle and killed

 the bats. 

“Are you okay?” I asked worriedly. 

Chuyi waved his hand. “I’m okay. We should run to the River of Unmindfulness.” 

For the re

mainder of our time spent running

, 

nothing

 unexpected happened. In 

the distance

, I saw the sky-reaching Yin energy coming from the river. 

When we arrived, I saw that the river had red water, which made it look like a blood river. Suddenly, a lot of bubbles 

arose

. 

Feeling curious, I 

went to check and 

found

 a beautiful girl waving at me. As I was about to walk to her, 

I felt a nudge.  

“I told you to wait outside. Look carefully

,

”

 nagged Chuyi. Then, he 

pinched a little mold 

from

 his bronze whip and smeared it on my temple. 

H

e pointed at the River of Unmindfulness

 and said,

 “Look who is calling you.” 

I turned and looked in that direction one more time. It was a girl with an open stomach. 

Her

 intestines 

were

 floating next to her. She was waving at me. 

Since 

I didn’t 

go to her

, she shot Chuyi a fierce look. Unwillingly, she sank back into the water. 

“The ghosts in this place 

can’t

 reincarnate. That’s why they want to pull 

people

 into the river to replace them. 

All those

 who come to this place have to cover their ears and eyes and keep running forward. Yet, 

y

ou are bold 

enough to deliver

 yourself in their hands

!

” 

While Chuyi was talking, he tied the eight-faceted Han sword with the bronze whip. Then, he threw them into the river. 

The weapons immediately

 sizzled. I gathered my courage and went to the river bank to see. 

M

any ghosts were screaming and running away. 

After around ten minutes, Chuyi read a spell to summon the eight-faceted Han sword. 

I now 

understood why he had tie

d 

them together. He didn’t know how to control the bronze whip yet. 

After being

 washed by the river water, the mold on the whip was gone. It was sparkling as if it 

was freshly made

. I reached out to untie the rope. Unexpectedly, the rope had become as tough as iron. 

“Don’t mind that. 

Once it gets

 out of the water, the Yin energy 

that has seeped

 in the rope will disperse into the air. Then, the rope will 

turn into

 a powder.” 

“

That’s amazing

!” I gave him a thumbs-up. Chuyi smiled at me, but it was a wry smile. I saw beads of sweat on his forehead. 

“Are you okay? What happened?” 

“I might have used a lot of Yang energy 

at

 the River of Unmindfulness. I just need to rest

.

 I’ll be 

alright

.” 

Chuyi smiled and urged me to walk. When we walked through the woods, I was surprised 

to see that

 all the

 bats’ corpses

 were gone

. Ev

en the blood on the ground was 

nowhere to be seen

! 

“Do you know what happened?” 

Chuyi’s face turned serious. Then, he 

fell

 on 

one

 knee. 

“Chuyi, why didn’t you tell me…” 

I confirmed 

there was something wrong with him

. I tore his shirt. 

His

 back had turned black

, and it looked horrible. 

The bat bites had turned purpl

ish

-red

, ad blood oozed from them.  

I had asked him 

earlier,

 but he said he was all right

 as he

 didn’t want me to be worried.

 I was fooled.

“Jiulin, I thought it was just some common corpse toxin. But now

... i

t 

appears that

 Yi Zhangqing 

was behind

 those bats. It seems she 

can

 use the Ghost Cutter already

,”

 Chuyi said intermittently. 

I got it now. 

It was n

o wonder those bats didn’t attack me

!

Yi Zhangqing 

designated 

Chuyi as their only target. 

We

 hadn’t expected 

her to act that quickly. 

However, we could confirm one thing

:

 She didn’t know that I was with Chuyi. Otherwise, I might have 

wound up

 even worse than 

him

. 

I 

put him on

 my back and ran. At first, Chuyi could still give me direction. However, after a while, he 

lost consciousness

. I had to use the Invisible Needle to sense the way out. Unexpectedly, even though the Invisible Needle pointed out that we just needed to move straight 

to reach

 the village where the trade conference was held, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get there. 

I recognized that I wasn’t lost

. Instead, 

I was in Yi Zhangqing’s 

illusion

. Fortunately, I had always kept the 

Illusory

 Mind Bell with me. I read the spell and jingled it. Eventually, I reached the village. 

The market in the center was still 

full of

ghosts

 and people. Most of the participants were gazing at the air, pointing and discussing 

the events

. I lifted my head to see. The flaming screen was there, but it was blank to us. Outside the crowd, One-

A

rmed Dragon and Yin

-

Yang Tiger were standing with a puzzled face. 

It seemed that 

after the battle had started, both parties couldn’t see what was projected on the screen.  

Chuyi was hurt

, so 

I knew I shouldn’t linger. I carried him directly to Zen Master 

Baimei

’s room. When we got there, Zen Master 

Baimei

 was studying his chain of mala beads. H

is face

 paled when he saw us. Before he started to talk, he helped me put Chuyi on the bed. 

Then, he quickly took out a set of knives and used 

a

 candle flame to disinfect a knife. He directly cut into Chuyi’s wound. Chuyi was awakened by the pain. He 

shouted and 

grabbed me with one hand while his other hand gripped the 

bedsheet

 tightly. Zen Master 

Baimei

 gritted his teeth

 and continued 

cutting. 

“There’s something 

i

n your back. We have to take it out now. Put up with it for a while, Chuyi!”

Zen Master 

Baimei

 said

 with a frown as he continued to work 

on Chuyi’s back. Every time he cut Chuyi’s back, the 

man screamed and wiggled

. His handsome face turned red

. Sweat covered 

his forehead

, and h

is eyes bulg

ed

. He 

couldn’t

stop

 groaning.