Chapter 48: Beautiful Coincidence
Luohe spent several days in the mountains practicing how to be a ghost that could pass as human.
Now, the afternoon sun was perfect.
He crouched in the bamboo grove holding an umbrella, reaching out to touch the snow rabbit digging a hole in the ground.
The rabbit’s ears twitched, and it curiously raised its fluffy head to look around, but didn’t notice anything unusual.
Luohe stood up, satisfied.
By now, he could freely choose whether to conceal his form, and perfectly mimic physical effects including footprints and hair moving in the wind.
However, there were still two problems he couldn’t solve.
One was that he had no shadow in sunlight, and the other was that he couldn’t make footsteps or other sounds.
But that was fine.
The woman in white had told him before that as a ghost, he needed to consume soul power to survive.
Finding rare treasures of heaven and earth seemed too demanding, but if he continuously fed on the life energy of ordinary people, even if he controlled his intake, he would inevitably harm them.
After thinking about it for several days, he decided to find a cultivator who could get along with him as a travel companion… or rather, a mobile food source.
For cultivators, the small amount of energy lost could be quickly replenished by absorbing spiritual energy, without serious consequences.
So the main problem was how to find a cultivator willing to be fed on by him, and how to achieve a friendly exchange.
Yes, this would indeed be difficult.
However, Luohe was not without bargaining chips.
Thanks to that somewhat unfortunate young lady he had met, Luohe felt that not rushing down the mountain had been the right choice.
He had spent some time exploring his soul body and discovered some surprising benefits:
The first was the transformation of his soul itself.
Facing the heavenly tribulation and that immortal’s finger wasn’t all bad.
Though his physical body was destroyed, his severely damaged soul had unexpectedly merged with a trace of the divine lightning that executed the world’s rules.
When Luohe examined his soul body with spiritual sight, he saw a hint of tough, masculine purple lightning amidst the predominantly gray mass.
This remnant of the heavenly tribulation not only greatly enhanced his soul’s toughness and expanded his soul power storage limit…
It also added a touch of yang energy to his originally pure yin ghost soul.
Luohe couldn’t yet know exactly what this change would bring, but he vaguely felt it would prove very useful in the future.
The second discovery… left Luohe with mixed feelings.
Luohe twirled his fingertip, and a beautifully shaped small sword emerged from his body, moving with his finger.
This was the Autumn Lady Sword, or rather, the Autumn Lady Sword’s soul.
The seven ancient spirit swords of the Tianchen Sword Sect passed down not only the spirit swords themselves but also the sword souls that had weathered thousands of years of glory.
Only when a sword breaks can its sword soul leave the spirit sword.
Luohe didn’t know when the Autumn Lady Sword had broken, or when the Autumn Lady Sword soul had found him.
In any case, it had attached itself to him and wouldn’t leave.
“What’s the point…”
Luohe shook his head with a smile, and the little Autumn Lady Sword also shook its head.
Luohe didn’t mind its attachment, because it was truly powerful and quite useful.
Luohe had tested it. As a newly formed ghost spirit, he had completely lost all cultivation from his previous life, and the only resource he could use was the soul power exclusive to ghost spirits.
And his current soul power was barely enough to kill a chicken, let alone deal with cultivators.
But with the Autumn Lady Sword soul in hand, things were different.
Even though its physical form had dissipated, its blade, tempered over thousands of years, remained formidable.
Especially in Luohe’s hands now, he could use it to bypass flesh and strike directly at the soul.
That is, dealing true damage.
Of course, this was limited to opponents with souls. If faced with a corpse puppet or something similar, he would be helpless.
It was worth noting that the Autumn Lady Sword soul was essentially a tool soul, different from the Ajiao umbrella in his hand.
Ajiao was a soul tool, a combination of tool soul and carrier with a physical form, just made of special materials that Luohe could control without using soul power.
In terms of form, Ajiao was somewhat more perfect than the Autumn Lady Sword soul.
If given the chance, Luohe also wanted to transform the Autumn Lady Sword soul into a soul tool like Ajiao.
After all, whether sword or person, running around in soul form wasn’t exactly comfortable.
Luohe’s current goal was to increase his soul power level as much as possible and find a way to regain a physical body.
It would be a long journey, but Luohe didn’t mind.
For him, this world was still so fresh.
“Good, let’s go into the city today.”
Recalling the Autumn Lady Sword into his body, he planned to enter Xianfeng City after nightfall.
Besides satisfying his personal strong desire to explore, he also wanted to try his luck and see if he could find information about some rogue cultivators.
He had already decided to find a rogue cultivator in somewhat difficult circumstances as his host… no, partner.
He could provide some guidance in cultivation and swordsmanship, and in critical situations, he could even help deliver unexpected attacks against enemies.
And the price for all this would just be regular feeding of some human energy.
It seemed like a good deal any way you looked at it.
To successfully complete a transaction, suitable clothing was obviously essential.
Luohe looked at himself, and in an instant, mist swirled around him, transforming his clothes into an elegant, straight-cut long robe in cyan and white.
He could use soul power to change the style of his clothes, although this didn’t have much significance for a ghost.
But his soul power wasn’t abundant now, so he couldn’t replicate those ornate clothes with complex details and elaborate decorations.
This long robe would do.
Luohe walked to Deer Drinking Creek and slightly solidified his soul body, reflecting his current appearance on the water’s surface.
Hmm, not bad. A young man holding an umbrella, at least at first glance wouldn’t give anyone a sinister impression.
Just as Luohe was leaving, he suddenly sensed an unusual presence entering the bamboo grove.
Perhaps because he had nurtured and been nurtured by this bamboo grove, he was very sensitive to changes here.
Now, he sensed an unfamiliar aura entering the area, carrying quite heavy blood energy and demonic cultivation energy.
It was completely at odds with the quiet harmony of this place.
Luohe was quite familiar with that demonic cultivation technique; it was the Remnant Moon Method that he had practiced for some time.
Generally speaking, wherever people from the demonic sects appeared, nothing good would follow.
Luohe didn’t want his carefully laid plans to be disrupted for no reason.
After brief consideration, Luohe decided to follow and see what was happening.
After all, most attacks below the Nascent Soul realm had little effect on him, a ghost who had been a Golden Core cultivator in life. At worst, he could always run away.
With this in mind, Luohe followed the aura.
The person who had run into the bamboo grove was quite clever.
Based on their route and the traces left behind, Luohe deduced that they were being chased here and had probably suffered significant injuries.
They had skillfully chosen the most chaotic spot in terms of energy in the bamboo grove—where Luohe had awakened—as a temporary hiding place.
Meanwhile, they continuously left other faint traces to mislead others. As soon as those traces disappeared, they would immediately know the distance between themselves and their pursuers.
If Luohe weren’t a ghost, he might have been fooled too.
Following leisurely all the way, the sky truly changed from afternoon to nearly dusk.
Finally, Luohe arrived at what appeared to be an ordinary rock cliff.
But he knew this was just an illusion; the person was hiding inside.
Just as he was about to conceal himself and sneak in, the illusion in front of the cliff suddenly disappeared, and at the same time, several sharp blood spears broke through the air, shooting straight at Luohe.
Then they passed right through his body.
“…”
“…”
Luohe looked at the panting woman standing in the rock cave, blinked his eyes, not expecting such a coincidence in this world.
And the woman, seeing Luohe, was also stunned on the spot.