Li Dong clearly paused in surprise: "Ah? Soul Dispersion Charms? What do you need Soul Dispersion Charms for?"

Though puzzled, he quickly went upstairs, his steps hurrying to the room next door. A moment later, he knocked three times on the door, then peeked in and said, "Luckily, we still have some in stock. I’ve brought you five, but my Lord, what do you need them for? The boss had instructed me to make sure you rest well here until you’re fully recovered before going out…"

Xie Bai, who had just managed to sit up from the bed, his back stiff and head lowered, seemed lost in thought. He didn’t respond to Li Dong’s question but instead reached out and, using a wisp of black mist, pulled the five thin paper talismans from Li Dong’s hand, flipping through them as he spoke, "He instructed you? What else did he tell you?"

Li Dong replied, "He said there might be some disturbances in the realm of spirits and demons these next few days. Even if nothing happens in the next few days, at the beginning of next month, chaos is unavoidable. He said these disturbances aren’t something I should handle, so he’d go personally. Feng Li and I are to stay at Tai Xuan Dao, to guard this building, after all, it’s situated directly above the realm’s nexus."

This request, though somewhat unusual, was not completely surprising to Li Dong. In the past hundred years, although there had been many minor and major events in the realm of spirits and demons, there were very few that actually required Yin Wushu’s personal intervention; most were handled by Li Dong alone. This exceptional reminder indicated the situation was unusually tricky.

To Li Dong, however, it seemed natural; after all, the entire realm of spirits and demons was under Yin Wushu’s jurisdiction. If he wanted to manage it, he would, and no matter how tricky, there wouldn’t be any problems.

So although he was perplexed and somewhat worried, he believed there was reason behind Yin Wushu’s instructions and obediently stayed at Tai Xuan Dao without following him.

Xie Bai nodded, not saying much, just motioning for Li Dong to close the door on his way out.

As the door clicked shut securely, Xie Bai carefully inspected the Soul Dispersion Charms in his hands. Past experiences made him extremely cautious, fearing that Yin Wushu might have countless eyes and would have interfered with everything in Tai Xuan Dao.

After confirming for a while, he breathed a nearly inaudible sigh of relief—evidently, Yin Wushu had not expected him to use the Soul Dispersion Charms, so these five talismans were perfectly normal, with no issues.

He lowered his head and circled himself, meticulously drawing an array, then placed four of the Soul Dispersion talismans on his head, shoulders, and heart. Each talisman turned into a faint golden rune that imprinted into his skin and then vanished.

After applying the four charms, he made a small cut on his left ring finger, squeezed out a drop of blood onto the last talisman, and slapped it on the array's central point as the blood stain spread.

His expression was exceedingly calm, as if he were performing an utterly ordinary task, but the reality was quite different...

The moment the last Soul Dispersion talisman was placed on the array's central point, Xie Bai closed his eyes, his body suddenly shook, and his already pale face turned even more colorless. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just a sickly pallor but a deathly ash-white.

He furrowed his brows sharply for an instant, his fingers clenching spasmodically on the bed's edge, clearly in severe pain.

This pain was even harder to endure than bone-chilling cold, for he was accustomed to the latter, whereas such acute discomfort was rarely experienced. It felt overwhelmingly tumultuous, imparting a profound sense of powerlessness, making seconds feel like years.

About four or five seconds later, the array beneath him suddenly burst into a ring of fire, burning along the circle to his shoulders and climbing to his head. After enveloping him entirely in flames, it extinguished as swiftly as a candle in the wind, making the whole scene seem like a mere illusion. Xie Bai remained with his eyes closed, his face pale and ashen, his spasming fingers suddenly relaxed, dropping his head as if drained of strength.

Just as the commotion subsided in his room, a gust of wind swept past outside the door, which was then forcefully slammed open, hitting the wall with a loud bang before bouncing back.

Lou Xianyue stepped in, holding the door open while exclaiming in a rush, "He asked you for Soul Dispersion Charms and you just gave them to him?! Are you crazy?"

Li Dong's voice followed immediately, "I was wondering that too, but what can just those five talismans do? Normally, they’re only enough to handle some minor spirits... Why didn’t you speak up then, sister!"

"Ptui! Wasn’t I just caught off guard—" Lou Xianyue cut herself off as she saw Xie Bai sitting quietly on the bed, head bowed as if deep in thought.

Lou Xianyue halted mid-step, and Feng Li and the merman, who were hurrying behind her, couldn’t stop in time and bumped into her and Li Dong, causing her to stumble forward and kneel on the ground.

As she lowered her body, she got a clear view of Xie Bai’s pallid, deathly pale face.

"It’s over..." Lou Xianyue murmured.

"What’s going on? What do you mean it’s over?" The three behind her were startled by her words.

Though Lou Xianyue wasn't highly skilled in combat, besides being fast and strong when rushed, she was particularly adept in two areas: divination and the mastery of charms and arrays. She quickly scanned the nearly faded array beneath Xie Bai, her legs gave way, and she sat on the floor.

"Soul Dispersion Charms might seem inconsequential on their own, capable at most of handling minor demons, not even someone like me," Lou Xianyue paused, pointing at Xie Bai, "but in special circumstances, they have another use."

She sighed and continued, "That is, using four to seal the three fires and the heart chakra, and one to suppress the array's central point, forming a complete charm array..."

She sighed and continued, "The array formed can separate the soul from the body. Ordinary people would instantly disperse their soul, but those with strong spiritual power and precise control over charms can completely detach their soul, freeing it from physical constraints to act independently."

Luozhu Sheng, who had just arrived at the doorway, caught this last part, his brow furrowing, "I know of this method, but the longer the soul is separated, the more dangerous it becomes, often leading to the soul dispersing. Why would he use such a method?"

Previously, they had only lingered outside the door, unable to see Xie Bai's condition clearly. Now that Lou Xianyue was pushed into the room and much closer to Xie Bai, she stared at Xie Bai's silent body for several seconds, then pointed at his wrist, "Is there something circling there?"

Prompted by her, everyone looked towards his wrist and, after carefully observing for a while, finally caught a glimpse of the traces of golden threads at the right angle.

Li Dong was immediately shocked, murmuring, "Isn't this the boss's usual method for binding people, how could..."

Everyone exchanged glances, realizing that the situation might be far more serious than they had imagined...

*

Meanwhile, about six or seven kilometers away from Guyang Street on Wan Mountain main road, the fully detached Xie Bai looked up at the sky, where rolling black clouds formed a long line stretching towards the extreme northwest.

He stood on the highway railing like a falling leaf, with cars rushing past him one after another, the winds they kicked up seemingly enough to blow him away.

Yet the drivers appeared unaffected, as if they couldn't see the clearly unusual black clouds overhead or the ghostly Xie Bai beside them.

In fact, his body appeared no different from usual at this moment. If Lou Xianyue and the others were here, a touch would reveal that his skin felt real, not like a disembodied soul.

The only difference was that he was too light, light as if he could disperse into the fog at any moment. His typically cold demeanor was even more pronounced now, adding a ghostly quality.

Behind him, the small black cat, loyal as ever, sat on the railing, looking up at him.

Just as Yin Wushu had told Xie Bai, the cat was extremely loyal, following Xie Bai wherever he went, daring to venture anywhere.

After figuring out his direction, Xie Bai didn't linger on the expressway, instead, he and the little black cat disappeared in the blink of an eye. Once he had separated his soul from his body, he found it extremely convenient to travel anywhere without even needing to open the Spirit Gate. Despite the dangers he knew were associated with using the Soul Dispersing Charm in this way, Xie Bai pressed on without pause. He didn't want to waste his limited time on the road, especially not to lose his life before even meeting Yin Wushu again.

As he approached the northwest, the situation on the roads became increasingly chaotic with scattered demons and even brawls breaking out. The aura of the demons grew more tumultuous and heavy, almost suffocating the area for miles around.

Because the demons drawn out were in such disarray, the air was filled with a malicious and foul stench. Xie Bai, unable to smell, only saw a vast expanse of dark, demonic energy below him, and the black clouds above thickened. The little black cat in his arms, unaffected by the demonic air, seemed agitated and continuously growled low in its throat, as if eager to leap down and chase the chaotic demons back to where they came from.

Fortunately, this area was extremely remote and devoid of human presence, otherwise, the chaos might have been unimaginable.

Xie Bai quickly passed through a hundred miles of wasteland ravaged by the chaotic spirits, circled around a sea of sand and fire and a sky filled with swarming insects, and approached a thousand miles to where the black clouds were thickest.

The ground where he stood was covered in deep snow, so thick that an ordinary person would sink to their knees, yet he hovered above it without touching the ground. From his perspective, he could see three mountain ranges stretching from right to left. One was clearly visible, while the other two were more obscure, barely perceptible.

The visible range on the far right was the Tian Mountain range, where Xie Bai had previously found Yin Wushu on a cliffside.

The other two, the Guha Mountain in the middle and the even more northern Goran Mountain, were two demonic mountains in the extreme northwest. While Tian Mountain could be fully seen by ordinary people, Guha sometimes appeared and disappeared, and Goran was completely invisible to the uninitiated.

These three mountain ranges, viewed from a distance, faded from dark to light, from solid to ethereal, serving as a transition from the human world to the myriad mountains of the spirit realm. Beyond Goran to the northwest was a realm of clouded snow and obscurity, beyond which no trace could be discerned.

Now, these three mountain ranges were covered in dark clouds, with three vortexes hanging upside down like three long dragons, swirling over the visible peaks of the mountain ranges, like pillars holding up the sky.

Xie Bai stroked the little black cat in his arms and frowned as he stared at these three heavenly pillars.

Seconds later, the black dragon over Tian Mountain suddenly dispersed, all being sucked into the black dragon atop Guha Mountain.

Subsequently, this second dragon also scattered, drawn straight into the black dragon over Goran Mountain, which instantly doubled in size. Even Xie Bai, several miles away, felt a surge of chilling cold and a faint pulling force.

The black dragon over Goran Mountain did not disperse like the first two but persisted for a while before beginning to roll and twist, moving further north of Goran Mountain.

"Found it," Xie Bai muttered as he petted the little black cat's head. As soon as the last word dropped, he and the cat completely vanished.

*

In the blink of an eye, he was already standing at the foot of the northern mountains beyond Guha Mountain. The rolling black dragon just whizzed past him, the wind it brought howling past and whipping up the snow into a blizzard that spun rapidly in the air, creating a dense fog that made it impossible to see what lay beyond the snow.

Xie Bai quickly flashed an attempt to follow the black dragon, but he was momentarily obstructed by the snow, and by the time he got through, the black dragon had vanished into a fog formed of clouds and snow, suddenly disappearing.

This fog acted like a boundary line, separating Goran Mountain and the world further north. Although it was only a few steps away, Xie Bai could feel a tremendous repelling force that made it impossible for him to advance further.

This force was so strong it felt as though the entire Goran Mountain was pressing down on him, making it nearly impossible to breathe and firmly stopping Xie Bai's progress through the snow fog.

As Xie Bai was bracing against this force and attempting to push through, a figure about two meters tall suddenly flashed out from the mist.

The figure appeared robust and muscular, with shoulders and arms so thick it was startling, visible intermittently through the fog. Its arms, which swung past, were almost thicker than Xie Bai's entire body and moved with an eerie flexibility like a boneless whip, creating a whooshing sound through the air. A casual swipe from such arms could smash someone against the solid mountain wall, turning them into a mush of blood and flesh.

The moment this figure appeared in the fog, Xie Bai realized it was Aoyin, the guardian of this mist gate. (NT: Aoyin is one of the ten major mythological beasts, it is shaped like a bull, with four horns and a long coat, sometimes represented with arms. Found of human flesh)

But after observing for a moment, he noticed that Aoyin seemed to be affected too, exhibiting unstable behaviour. Initially, Xie Bai thought Aoyin had appeared because he was trying to force his way through, but now it seemed that Aoyin was not targeting him specifically but was attacking randomly...

However, Xie Bai could not feel relieved because an indiscriminate attack from a being of Aoyin’s calibre, especially with such insanity, could be even more terrifying than a targeted assault.

Every attack carried a ruthless ferocity, each one potentially lethal with no regard for severity.

Aoyin roared, and his arms spread out. The thick upper limbs suddenly elongated like whips shooting out, quickly stretching tens of meters. The palms of the hands, sharp as tiger claws, gleamed with a cold, blade-like light through the fog, seeming capable of slicing off chunks of flesh or decapitating a person with ease.

The formidable height and the arms extending dozens of meters were enough to firmly block a group of people from crossing the boundary, let alone Xie Bai alone.

Aoyin, known for his fondness for human brains, especially those of lone individuals, was now, despite his unstable condition due to the fluctuations of yin and yang, still driven by his instincts. Half-hidden in the fog, besides his wildly unpredictable arm attacks, he even lashed out with his tongue, which was several meters long.

His tongue was long and thick, with well-defined muscles and a dark surface covered in hooks that could strip flesh down to the bone with a single lick.

As these three threats accompanied by howling winds rushed towards him, Xie Bai sidestepped and then leapt behind him, landing lightly atop a small peak and alighting on a sharp rock at the summit.

No sooner had he steadied himself than Aoyin’s arms crashed down onto the peak, with a deafening roar shattering the entire mountain. The glinting claw blades narrowly missed Xie Bai’s feet, slicing through the hard rock as though it were soft tofu.

The little black cat in Xie Bai's arms meowed a few times, seemingly warning him of the danger.

As the mountain crumbled, Xie Bai leaped lightly, soothing the equally agitated cat while using the wind generated by Aoyin's thrust to move closer to the mist.

Aoyin sensed his movement. Even as his arms hadn’t yet retracted, his tongue lashed towards Xie Bai, its barbed surface nearly grazing Xie Bai’s feet.

“What’s the point in tangling with someone like me, neither human nor ghost…” Xie Bai clicked his tongue, his face expressionless.

As he spoke, he stepped on Aoyin’s tongue, barely touching the barbs, and used it to spring into the air. Then, he conjured a strand of black mist, strong as the finest silk, which instantly wrapped around Aoyin’s face.

The mist tightly wound around Aoyin’s face several times, covering his eyes and binding him as securely as the sturdiest post. Xie Bai gripped the other end, bracing for Aoyin’s enraged response.

Sure enough, the already crazed Aoyin, now blinded, became even more enraged. He roared, causing snow to cascade down the slopes of Goran Mountain. He then waved his arms and tongue wildly, each strike with a force so tremendous it could rival, and even slightly exceed, the pushing force from the mist.

Xie Bai waited for just such a moment. He tugged on the black mist, using Aoyin’s frenzied strength to whip forward, overcoming the enormous pressure that felt like Mount Tai was pressing down, and landed just behind Aoyin, mere inches from the mist.

The collision of forces felt like a heavy blow, making him grimace and bend slightly at the waist. However, he had no time to care for these discomforts, as the guardian Aoyin sensed someone had breached its perimeter and was about to enter the forbidden zone. Instantly, Aoyin turned and bore down on him.

As the massive dark silhouette enveloped him from above, Xie Bai gritted his teeth and with a frosty expression, thrust his hand through the mist barrier separating the realms.

In the next second, he felt the oppressive force that had nearly made him vomit blood suddenly ease. The immense inertia sent him stumbling forward several steps before he could stop. He protected the little black cat in his arms with one arm while looking up to see a vast icy river before him, with the distant mountains glinting coldly. The black dragon that had vanished before now reappeared, howling a few hundred meters away from him.

Even without seeing inside the black clouds, Xie Bai knew who was there—

Apart from Yin Wushu, it could only be that being from beneath the ice.

 

Translator : DarNan