Chapter 78: Making a Move
The Soul-Gathering Bead moved incredibly fast, seemingly about to smash into a wall. But precisely at that moment, it abruptly halted in mid-air, as if colliding with something unseen.
A phantom silhouette materialized at the point of impact, and with its appearance came a terrified shriek.
This silhouette was none other than the male ghost who had just vanished.
The male ghost had just disappeared before everyone's eyes, and the illusions plaguing the Wu family members had dissipated with his absence. It had seemed as though the male ghost had truly hidden himself, unwilling to directly confront Yang Haoran and the other two.
And indeed, that was the case. The male ghost had left, but then he returned, concealing his Yin Qi and spiritual body, lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity.
The male ghost, in doing so, thought he could pull the wool over their eyes. However, he had underestimated a Night Watcher's ability to sense Yin Qi. The moment he reappeared, Yang Haoran perceived it.
As it happened, Yang Haoran was not in the best of moods. Sensing the male ghost's reappearance, he decisively brought forth the Soul-Gathering Bead.
The Soul-Gathering Bead was a vessel for capturing ghostly entities, possessing a powerful suppressive effect on them. The moment it successfully struck the male ghost, a tremendous suction force immediately emanated from within the bead, aiming to draw the entire ghost into its confines.
Amidst terrified screams, the male ghost's body twisted. His face contorted in horror as he struggled with all his might, resisting the immense pulling force that entangled his spiritual body.
His panicked wails echoed throughout the entire villa. Seeing this, Old Master Wu and the others quickly retreated to a safe distance. The male ghost had just subjected them to illusions that nearly killed them, and they were still shaken. Upon seeing him reappear, they instinctively recoiled.
Ma Ling and Wang Yiming also ceased their bickering. Their gazes converged on the Soul-Gathering Bead; they seemed to recognize it.
Yang Haoran paid them no mind. Seeing the male ghost's desperate struggles, his expression turned cold. He channeled his Spirit Power with full force, and his outstretched left hand began to emit plumes of black smoke.
Simultaneously, black Yin Qi billowed from the Soul-Gathering Bead. A massive hand, coalesced from Yin Qi, extended from within the bead, seizing the male ghost and pulling him towards its depths.
“No! Don't! ”
The male ghost's resistance began to falter. His spiritual body integrated bit by bit into the Soul-Gathering Bead. At this rate, it would only be a moment before the male ghost was completely absorbed into the bead.
However, just at that moment, Yang Haoran seemed to sense something, and his gaze sharply darted towards another spot.
There was nothing there, utterly empty.
The power of the Revealing Talisman Wang Yiming had used earlier had faded. In such circumstances, if a ghostly entity intentionally concealed its spiritual body, it would be utterly invisible to the naked eye.
“Ghost Eye! ”
With a low growl, Yang Haoran activated his Ghost Eye. His black eyes, devoid of whites, were like two obsidian gems set in his sockets. Dark Yin Qi emanated from them, lending him an eerie and mysterious aura.
With his Ghost Eye activated, the world in his sight transformed. A female ghost was rushing towards the Soul-Gathering Bead's location, apparently intending to rescue the male ghost.
At this moment, Yang Haoran was already channeling all his Spirit Power. With the male ghost on the verge of being absorbed into the Soul-Gathering Bead, if this female ghost intervened, all his efforts could very well be for naught.
The female ghost wasn't foolish. She understood her own strength. For ghostly entities of their caliber, their greatest reliance was on inducing illusions to eliminate their targets.
While they were far more formidable than common spirits, they hadn't yet successfully ascended to the Evil Spirit realm. Their mastery of illusions was rudimentary at best; effective against ordinary people, but far from sufficient to affect those with true abilities.
Therefore, the suddenly appearing female ghost did not attack Yang Haoran. Instead, she rushed towards the trapped male ghost, attempting to rescue him from the Soul-Gathering Bead.
This sight caused Yang Haoran to frown. All his power was concentrated on subduing the male ghost, leaving him unable to spare any strength to intercept the female ghost. If she got close to the Soul-Gathering Bead, it was indeed possible she might snatch the male ghost away.
Just as the female ghost was about to reach the Soul-Gathering Bead, a Black Leather Case suddenly flew through the air and violently smashed into her.
The female ghost shrieked in agony, actually being sent flying by the impact of the Black Leather Case.
Logically, this shouldn't have happened. Spirits, as ghostly entities, have no physical form, and thus physical objects cannot cause any harm to their spiritual bodies. In layman's terms, spirits are immune to physical attacks.
Yet, here and now, the female ghost had actually been struck and sent flying by the Black Leather Case, which was quite astonishing.
However, Yang Haoran quickly discerned the reason. A faint aura of light enveloped the Black Leather Case, clearly indicating it was empowered by some force, which enabled it to harm the female ghost.
“Hic! Do you really think I don't exist? ”
Ma Ling burped, a look of disdain on her tipsy face. With a wave of her hand, the Black Leather Case returned to her grip.
The one who had suddenly intervened was none other than Ma Ling.
With Ma Ling's interception, the female ghost's hope of assisting the male ghost was naturally shattered. The male ghost, already struggling to resist, let out a resentful wail at that moment, his spiritual body twisting as he was yanked into the Soul-Gathering Bead by the Yin Qi-formed hand.
Having captured the male ghost, Yang Haoran did not stop there. With a flick of his smoke-billowing left hand, the Soul-Gathering Bead shot rapidly towards the female ghost.
The female ghost saw this and tried to flee. However, at that very moment, the hand that had extended from the Soul-Gathering Bead vanished. Simultaneously, streams of Yin Qi coalesced before the female ghost, once again forming a hand, which then gripped the female ghost's neck.
The female ghost had no physical form and was immune to physical attacks, but this hand, formed from Yin Qi, was a special entity. It firmly gripped the female ghost's neck.
The female ghost struggled to break free from the hand's restraint, but it held her neck like an iron vice. She couldn't escape, nor could she disperse her spiritual body; she was completely immobilized.
The Soul-Gathering Bead was upon her in an instant. Its powerful suction force caused the female ghost's spiritual body to twist and deform. Gone was the arrogance she had shown when provoking Yang Haoran; her face now held nothing but terror and panic.
Spirit Power had a strong suppressive effect on ghosts, but this female ghost's strength was no less than that of the male ghost who had just been captured. Thus, she wasn't immediately absorbed into the Soul-Gathering Bead by Yang Haoran.
“Ghost-Slaying Talisman! ”
Wang Yiming's voice rang out at that moment. A talisman, like a flying dagger, struck the struggling female ghost's spiritual body. The talisman adhered to her spiritual form and then spontaneously ignited without flame.
The female ghost's spiritual body was not incinerated by the burning Ghost-Slaying Talisman. She appeared unharmed, continuing to struggle.
In an instant, however, the Ghost-Slaying Talisman burned to ash and fell away from the female ghost's spiritual body. The very moment the talisman's ashes completely detached from her form, the female ghost's spiritual body seemed to be cleaved by some sharp object. Amidst desperate screams, streaks of white light flashed, and her spiritual body was cut into pieces.
Before these fragments could coalesce again, a swirl of Yin Qi swept them up, and all the pieces were sucked into the Soul-Gathering Bead.
The two ghosts who had previously provoked Yang Haoran and his companions, and had even intended to devour Yang Haoran, were now successively captured by him into the Soul-Gathering Bead.
This scene brought a sigh of relief to the Wu family members, and also to Wang Yiming.
However, Yang Haoran's expression did not improve. He still wore a dark face, his Ghost Eye scanning the surroundings.
“Don't be careless, there's a bigger one in this house. ”
Yang Haoran's voice was very low. His warning caused the Wu family members, whose nerves had just relaxed, to tense up once more.
“There's still a bigger one? Stronger than those two just now? ”
Wang Yiming's expression shifted. The two ghosts Yang Haoran had just captured into the Soul-Gathering Bead seemed formidable enough to him, but now, hearing Yang Haoran's words about an even more powerful entity still lurking in the villa, how could he not be shocked?
“Where is it? This young lady will teach him how to be a person— oh, hiccup, I mean, how to be a ghost,” Ma Ling asked with a burp.
Yang Haoran's brow furrowed tightly. He too wanted to know where this ghost was.
Upon entering the villa, Yang Haoran had sensed the presence of three streams of Yin Qi within. All three were powerful, but one in particular was far stronger than the other two. Given a Night Watcher's acute sensitivity to Yin Qi, he was certain his perception was not mistaken.
Yang Haoran knew his own capabilities. So, upon first entering the villa, he had made an assessment. With his current strength, dealing with one of the two slightly weaker ghostly entities, while troublesome, wouldn't be a major issue.
However, if he faced both simultaneously, the likelihood of capturing them would be small. And if he added that big one into the mix, he was certain he would have no chance of victory whatsoever, and would very likely lose his own life.
The reason he hadn't immediately chosen to leave, but instead followed Guan Hai into the villa, was precisely to gather more information from the Wu family members before calling for reinforcements.
Although the three ghostly entities were troublesome and not something he could handle alone, he wasn't the only Night Watcher in Lecheng. Calling for other helpers to subdue the three ghosts would surely earn him a significant amount of Soul Qi from the Emissary of Death, Deng Feng.
At that time, Yang Haoran was indeed calculating thus. But what he hadn't anticipated was that Old Master Wu had also invited experts like Wang Yiming and Ma Ling.
Their appearance made Yang Haoran temporarily abandon his plan to call for reinforcements. One reason was that it would take some time for help to arrive, but that wasn't the main reason. The primary reason was that Old Master Wu had already invited experts, and for him to call for more help would not only be a slap in Old Master Wu's face, but also in the faces of Wang Yiming and Ma Ling.
So, he decided to observe the situation. If Wang Yiming and Ma Ling proved to be lacking in ability and couldn't subdue the three ghosts, it wouldn't be too late to call for reinforcements then.
Yang Haoran had always known there were three terrifying ghosts in the villa, which was why he hadn't rashly made a move. While preserving his own strength, he also wanted to gauge the abilities of Wang Yiming and Ma Ling.
However, Guan Hai almost succeeded in self-harm under the male ghost's influence, and this enraged Yang Haoran. Thus, he temporarily altered his plan. Having held back until now, he decisively made his move.
The effect of his move was excellent. With the assistance of Ma Ling and Wang Yiming, the two ghosts were successively captured into his Soul-Gathering Bead in a short amount of time. He had originally thought his actions would provoke the strongest ghostly entity, but he hadn't anticipated that the most powerful one would not only fail to appear but even its aura would become undetectable.
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