Chapter 761: Yin Soil (2)

The surroundings were completely empty. If even the adults of Longchang refused to come here, there had to be something hiding in this place that terrified them.

The closer I got to the gate, the more uneasy I felt. This was the Animal Realm, located on the side of reincarnation. What we found here definitely wouldn't be exactly the same as the story the Old Granny had told.

"Stay close to me." I kept a tight grip on the girl's wrist. Her body temperature was steadily dropping; time was slipping away, yet my plan had only just begun.

The night wind rattled the low shacks, scattering jutting bamboo poles and dry straw mats. In the freshly overturned soil, the remains of what had once been living people could faintly be seen—pale skeletons riddled with deep bite marks.

The sky had neither stars nor moon. As we advanced through the darkness, our feet occasionally kicked against shattered skulls.

"Hell is probably no worse than this." I took the lead. Longchang's back door was right in front of us. Past the dilapidated shacks and low flat-roofed houses lay a boundless expanse of darkness.

"Why do I feel like it's even more dangerous outside Longchang?" No grass grew, and no flowers bloomed. Ancient trees, growing as crooked as venomous snakes, twisted and knotted together. A faint killing intent seeped through the silence. I didn't know where it came from, but it pricked at my will like the tip of a needle.

"Junsheng, which way should we run?" The girl stood beside me. She didn't try to persuade me to return to Longchang, nor did she seem afraid. It was as if as long as I stood by her side, the road ahead was full of hope and possibilities.

"If we're going to put on a show, we have to do it right." I pulled the girl's arm closer and tore a few strips of cloth from her sleeve. "Stay right here. I'll be right back."

The territory outside the Longchang Ancient Buildings was far more dangerous than Longchang itself. Clutching the strips of cloth, I carefully stepped out the back gate.

The soil under my feet grew damp. I couldn't tell if it was mixed with blood or something else, but it stuck to the soles of my shoes and wouldn't shake off. Even more bizarrely, the dirt beneath my feet kept shifting, as though countless bugs were writhing within it.

The soil here was different from that of the Yang Realm. Having practiced ghost arts, I could sense that the earth was saturated with countless wronged souls and spirits. They just seemed to be suppressed by some kind of power, unable to escape.

'Could this be Yin Soil?' Opening the Spleen Aperture required absorbing Yin Soil True Essence. I paid close attention to the ground beneath my feet, my heart stirring slightly. 'I just don't know how to bring this stuff back to the Yang Realm. This is a rare opportunity for me.'

My physical body couldn't cross into reincarnation, so I had to find a way to bring the Yin Soil back with me.

'Even traversing reincarnation with my will requires a remnant soul as a vessel, a boat of sorts. If I want to bring this Yin Soil back, I'll probably need to find something to store it in.'

Without my Judging Eye, I was practically blind in the Animal Realm. I had to bend over just to see the path beneath my feet, let alone make out anything a few meters away.

'I need to head back quickly. This place is way too unnatural.' I felt my way to the ancient tree closest to Longchang's back gate and hung the strip of cloth I had torn from the girl's coat on a branch. I adjusted it a few times to make it look as natural as possible, as if it had snagged there by accident.

'I wonder if this will fool them.' As I stared at the ancient tree, I suddenly noticed the tips of the branches trembling slightly. The experience accumulated from over a dozen live streams made my pupils shrink. I reacted almost instantly, throwing my body forward and diving straight to the ground.

Branches slashed my remnant soul, leaving behind a series of cuts. The girl's terrified scream rang out from behind me. Ignoring her and keeping my head down, I scrambled back to my feet the moment I hit the dirt and darted straight into the pitch-black bushes.

Only after separating myself with those grotesquely shaped ancient trees and putting a safe distance between us did I dare to look back.

In the spot where I had just been standing, branches and stems were snapped in half. A Phantom Pig, even larger than the one I had seen in the Red Building, raised its sharp tusks. Shaking its head, it emerged from the thicket.

The monster was nearly two meters tall, radiating an aura of brutal, bloodthirsty ferocity. Compared to the bipedal pigs in the Longchang Community, this thing was clearly far more threatening and lethal.

"Junsheng!"

The girl stood at the back gate of Longchang, her eyes full of worry.

"Stay right there!" Seeing that the girl intended to step out of Longchang to draw the Phantom Pig's attention away from me, I quickly snapped at her in a low shout, "Wait for me there! Absolutely do not come out, and don't distract me!"

Junsheng's remnant soul was vastly different from a flesh-and-blood body. If I were in my own body, I would have several ways to kill this Phantom Pig even without the aid of the Blood Fox Killing Intent. But the situation now was entirely different; Junsheng's vessel was simply too weak. His nature was inherently timid, and upon seeing the Phantom Pig, his entire body began to tremble uncontrollably. Faced with this life-and-death crisis, his consciousness and memories were actually showing signs of awakening prematurely.

In any other situation, this would definitely be a good thing, as I could ask Junsheng many questions. But under these circumstances, his continuously awakening memories were instinctively starting to wrestle with me for control of the body. I knew he wasn't doing it on purpose, but right now, it was undoubtedly driving me toward a dead end.

When fighting an opponent several times stronger than oneself, the slightest negligence could be fatal, let alone having one body fought over by two souls with completely opposite personalities.

My calves quivered. As I stared at the Phantom Pig just a few meters away, my mind remained calm, but this body wouldn't stop shaking.

"Running away now is just slow suicide! You'll only drag that girl down too. Don't you want to save her?"

I muttered to myself and viciously punched my own arm a few times. Finally, I ruthlessly bit the tip of my tongue. That sparked some improvement, allowing me to fully regain control over Junsheng's remnant soul.

During that delay of a few seconds, the Phantom Pig had already pulled its tusks free from the broken branches of the ancient tree. Its cloudy eyes locked onto me. The beast seemed almost curious, realizing that the lifeform standing before it was quite different from the prey it usually devoured.

Daoist techniques, ghost arts, and all sorts of protective methods were completely unusable. I had to use Junsheng's remnant body to evade the Phantom Pig's attacks and flee back into the Longchang Ancient Buildings.

I silently recited the Profound Truth Mental Method. Although this body lacked any foundation in cultivation, the Profound Truth Method possessed the ability to calm the mind and focus one's energy. Reciting it silently in my heart allowed me to concentrate my attention even further.

Defeating the Phantom Pig was out of the question; right now, my only thought was making it back alive. As someone from the Yang Realm, the Animal Realm was essentially a death trap for me.

The leaves swayed as a gust of night wind blew past. Without warning, the Phantom Pig violently exploded into motion, charging straight ahead. Tusks leading the way, it smashed right through the ancient vines and trees blocking its path. It was like a locomotive running at maximum horsepower, barreling toward me at high speed with no regard for the consequences!

My original plan was to dodge to the side the moment the Phantom Pig charged. As long as I could avoid its initial attack, I could smoothly slip back into the perimeter of the Longchang Ancient Buildings. But when I actually faced this monster, I realized I had been overthinking it. Let alone Junsheng's remnant soul, even if my main body were here, I wouldn't be able to take this Phantom Pig's charge head-on.

A fierce gale kicked up, whipping sand and gravel through the bushes. The Phantom Pig's momentum was utterly unstoppable. If I tried to run to either side, it would definitely catch up to me. At this point, I couldn't even bother trying to get my bearings; I just spun around and sprinted wildly toward the thickest cluster of trees.

I didn't dare to look back. The sound of snapping vines constantly echoed behind me, and the wind roared frantically in my ears. It had been a long time since I had run for my life like this.

The trees gradually grew denser. The plants in the Animal Realm were incredibly strange. They grew completely askew, and many of the branches bore patterns that resembled human faces. Whenever I occasionally brushed against them, they weren't rigid like the trees in the Yang Realm. The texture was bizarre, feeling exactly as if I were pressing against human skin.

Crash!

As I sprinted madly, a deafening crash echoed behind me. I glanced over my shoulder. It seemed the Phantom Pig had never encountered prey as slippery as me. In a fit of rage, it had just bowled over a massive old tree as thick as a large bowl. Black mist spewed from its snout, and its eyes were now swarming with tiny, black granular specks.

'This guy seems to be genuinely furious now.' I had witnessed a similar phenomenon when I fought that other Phantom Pig back in the Yang Realm. Whenever a Phantom Pig's eyes changed, it meant they were enraged, and their attacks would become far more relentless and frantic.

I looked toward where the large tree had fallen. Faintly, mixed in the wind, I could hear what sounded like the pained moans of a living person. Bright red liquid gushed rapidly from the snapped trunk of the old tree, looking exactly like human blood.

I didn't recognize any of the things in the Animal Realm, and now wasn't the time to be curious about them. I quickly retracted my gaze, roughly confirmed my direction, and resumed running for my life.

The Phantom Pig's appearance made me realize the true danger of the Animal Realm. Reincarnation was incredibly difficult to cross, and every domain had its own rules. Even though this Phantom Pig wasn't truly made of flesh and blood, its existence proved that the Animal Realm was far from desolate. There might even be far more terrifying monsters lurking here.

The Phantom Pig pursued me relentlessly. After running another dozen meters, I slowly began to realize that something wasn't right. After smashing into that ancient tree, the beast seemed to have gotten much smarter.

It was no longer charging wildly. Instead, it was consciously herding me in a specific direction.

Although I had figured out its intentions, the moment I tried to veer off in another direction, the monster would violently accelerate to block me.

After sprinting for roughly a hundred meters, the surrounding trees completely obstructed my line of sight. Dense branches and leaves blotted out the night sky; I couldn't even see the Longchang Community in the distance anymore.

'If this keeps up, even if I somehow survive the Phantom Pig's hunt, I'll end up lost in this thick forest.' Barely a moment after this thought crossed my mind, before I could even devise a countermeasure, a gust of foul, reeking wind blasted straight into my face.

I frantically slammed on the brakes. Fixing my gaze ahead, my pupils trembled violently.

Resting directly in front of me were four slightly smaller Phantom Pigs. They were crouched inside wooden coffins, spewing putrid breath from their snouts.

Pinned down by pair after pair of freezing, murderous eyes, no matter how bold I was, I didn't dare to make any reckless moves now.

There was no escaping this. This had to be their herd. That massive Phantom Pig from earlier had simply been driving me here all along.

'The beasts on this side of reincarnation really aren't simple. They're just as cunning, suspicious, and smart as humans.' Deeply encircled and with my escape route cut off, I stood alone in the thick forest. I couldn't even see the Longchang buildings anymore, let alone hope for someone to pass by and save me.