Chapter 037: The Spirit Wraith

Through the glass bead, Su Cheng was surprised to see a tiny white figure drifting back and forth inside.

Ye Shenwei glanced at the transparent bead, a captivating light flickering in her striking eyes as she clicked her tongue in amazement. “Wow, you’re lucky—turns out you got a baby spirit ghost.”

A… baby spirit ghost?

“The white silhouette inside the bead, is that the Hundred-Eyed Ghost?” he asked.

Ye Shenwei shook her head and patiently explained, “The Hundred-Eyed Ghost has already been utterly destroyed. This should be a newborn spirit ghost, just having condensed its spiritual form.”

“Spirit ghosts are extremely rare in game dungeons. If you take good care of it, it can become a powerful companion at your side. But my attributes don’t match well with spirit ghosts. For you, though, it should be quite useful.”

According to Ye Shenwei, spirit ghosts were akin to pets or retainers for players in the game world, but their potential and value far surpassed ordinary pets. With the right nurturing, they could become formidable allies.

It was much like the shikigami summoned by the little monk Yichan—not only could they aid in battle, but they could also handle tasks such as detection, tracking, and reconnaissance.

There was one key difference: a shikigami’s strength was entirely dependent on the spiritual power of the onmyoji who summoned it, while a spirit ghost could grow independently, even to the level of a Ghost King boss.

Though rare and precious, the baby spirit ghost had little use for Ye Shenwei. Besides, the Hundred-Eyed Ghost had been defeated almost entirely by Su Cheng; she had only delivered the final blow and felt it would be inappropriate to take the spirit ghost as her own.

Su Cheng, not one for pointless politeness, accepted the translucent bead.

“Player Su Cheng has acquired a low-grade spirit ghost. Would you like to bind it to your soul?” The system’s voice chimed from his phone, and Su Cheng chose to bind it without hesitation.

After completing the soul binding, Su Cheng attempted to summon the spirit ghost.

In the next instant, a semi-transparent little girl in white appeared before him.

She seemed very fragile, shivering in the cold wind as if the slightest breeze might scatter her away.

A newly formed spirit ghost was indeed delicate—so much so that not only could it not fight other ghosts, but even a slight distance from the player could cause its spirit to dissipate. However, as long as the summoning player survived, the spirit ghost could always be reconstituted even after being scattered.

Yet nurturing a spirit ghost was a long and arduous journey. Raising one to the level of a Ghost King required not only time but also vast resources.

Many professional players who followed the onmyoji or exorcist paths had been driven to ruin by the effort of raising a single spirit ghost.

Su Cheng glanced at the baby spirit ghost before him and beckoned, “Come here.”

Bound to him by their soul connection, the little ghost seemed to feel an innate sense of closeness to Su Cheng, drifting toward him at his call.

Though she was a spirit ghost, the little girl in white was exquisitely adorable, a world apart from those gaudy, seductive creatures outside.

“What a cute little girl,” Ye Shenwei’s eyes sparkled, wanting to reach out and pinch the little one’s cheeks.

Girls always had a soft spot for adorable things, and Ye Shenwei was no exception.

But the baby spirit ghost seemed especially timid; with a whoosh, she darted behind Su Cheng, peeking out from behind him with a frightened look at Ye Shenwei.

“She seems to be afraid of you,” Su Cheng said with a helpless smile. The aura Ye Shenwei exuded was far too powerful and brimming with killing intent—ordinary spirits wouldn’t dare approach, so it was only natural for the baby ghost to be afraid.

“By the way, why don’t you give her a name?”

Su Cheng looked at the expectant little ghost girl, pondered for a moment, and said, “Let’s call you Su Bai.”

“Yes, Master,” the little girl replied obediently.

“Uh… that title sounds a bit dubious, easy to misinterpret. Let’s change it,” Su Cheng said, feeling uncomfortable at being called ‘Master’ by a tiny girl.

“Alright, Daddy,” she called out with wide-eyed innocence.

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Daddy?

Su Cheng’s face darkened. He wanted to protest that he was still a pure and single man, who hadn’t even touched a girl’s curves—please don’t tarnish his reputation without cause.

“Miss!”

At that moment, Inoue Kaori and the little monk Yichan arrived on this floor as well.

The poor child Inoue Kaori seemed to have been scared out of her wits—she flung herself into Ye Shenwei’s arms and burst into tears.

After the members of the Ye Shen team had been scattered, each had ended up in a different folded space, encountering all manner of terrifying ghosts, and it had taken them quite some time to escape.

Except for Inoue Kaori, who was too frightened to search carefully, the others had all found some clues. After sharing what they’d discovered, the plot gradually became clearer.

“The truth must be hidden on the top floor. We don’t have much time left,” Ye Shenwei said, gripping her knight’s lance tightly, her expression stern.

After clearing out the evil spirits that appeared by the stairs to the top floor, Su Cheng gathered a few soul fragments left behind by the slain monsters.

The baby spirit ghost consumed several fragments, and her once translucent form became a little more solid.

The best nourishment for a spirit ghost was the soul crystals dropped from dungeons, though some more unorthodox professionals fed their spirit ghosts on vengeful spirits or even human flesh, raising them into malevolent rakshasas brimming with sinister energy.

Rakshasa ghosts that fed on human flesh were indeed formidable in combat, but their aura became so overwhelming that they could easily backfire on their masters.

Naturally, Su Cheng didn’t want his little girl to turn into a terrifying rakshasa.

“So this is the top floor of the Five-Storied Pagoda?”

It looked like an ordinary Buddhist hall, with nothing of note except a single statue.

Miko Chiyo-hime stared at the statue, her eyes glinting with a peculiar light.

“That’s odd. Why isn’t there a prompt for the next quest?” Ye Shenwei wondered aloud.

Just then, a sinister, chilling laugh echoed above their heads.

“Found you.”

Inoue Kaori instinctively looked up and saw a massive black spider hanging from the ceiling. She screamed in terror.

“So the spider’s chased us here,” someone muttered.

Kyōhei Furukawa snorted and, without hesitation, fired a shot at the giant spider.

A silver bullet sliced through the darkness toward the spider-woman’s brow.

But this time, the spider-woman was prepared—she spat out white silk, weaving it into a round shield that blocked the bullet.

Ye Shenwei’s gaze sharpened, and her knight’s lance burst forth with a blinding holy light.

The dazzling radiance lit up the hall as if it were broad daylight, and black smoke began billowing from the spider-woman’s body as she howled in agony.

“Holy Light Thrust!”

With a cry like a queen on the battlefield, Ye Shenwei charged at the giant spider.

“So that’s a class skill?” Su Cheng’s eyes lit up. It was his first time seeing Ye Shenwei’s skill in action—imposing and seemingly very powerful.

A flash of light—her radiant lance pierced a hole through the spider-woman’s abdomen, her shrill scream echoing through the entire pagoda.

Ye Shenwei’s class skill, Holy Light Thrust, was a locking move; unless the enemy’s level vastly exceeded hers, it was impossible to dodge.

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What terrified the spider-woman most was that the holy light imbued in the radiant lance had a powerful suppressive effect on demons and ghosts. Were it not for her own considerable cultivation, she would have been slain by Ye Shenwei’s strike on the spot.

“Blue Monk, Byakuya—you two, show yourselves!” the spider-woman shrieked.

At her call, a one-eyed, barefoot old monk and a white-haired young man stepped out from the darkness.

“Useless trash. Before Lord Ghost King arrives, let me play with them for a bit.”

The white-haired youth drew his long sword, instantly appearing before Ye Shenwei and slashing at her.

Just then, Inoue Kaori suddenly leapt in front of Ye Shenwei, raising her shield to block the blow.

The blade struck the “Nurikabe’s Coffin Lid,” and the force sent Kaori stumbling back several meters—had her shield not been so strong, she would never have withstood the attack.

Such power—truly a high-level demon.

A chill ran through Ye Shenwei’s heart. Her class couldn’t display its full strength in supernatural dungeons; faced with monsters of this caliber, a single error could wipe out the whole team.

“Yichan, now!”

In the next instant, a towering figure appeared behind the white-haired youth.

“Shikigami? Pointless things,” the youth scoffed, swinging his blade and shredding the little monk’s summoned shikigami to pieces with a surge of terrifying spiritual power.

The Ye Shen team coordinated well, but against major demons like Inugami and Blue Monk, their strength was still insufficient.

“Mantra: Bind!”

A flash of spirit light, and four pillars of energy appeared around the white-haired youth, trapping him within.

Though Inugami was powerful, he was still a far cry from a thousand-year fox spirit. The fox could shatter the barrier in an instant, but Inugami could not.

At that moment, the one-eyed old monk stepped forward and appeared before Su Cheng, smashing his wooden mallet at Su Cheng’s head.

Su Cheng raised his blade to block, but the force sent him flying back into the wall.

As he landed, he slapped a talisman onto a crossbow bolt, raised his sniper crossbow, and fired at the old monk.

At such close range, the crossbow’s power was lethal, enough to kill a wild beast.

The bolt pierced straight through the old monk’s skull, boring a bloody hole in his forehead.

But the shot was not enough to kill the Blue Monk; it did, however, succeed in drawing his attention.

Suddenly, Su Cheng noticed that Chiyo-hime, who had been by his side, had vanished like a ghost and reappeared before the statue.

She reached out her pale hand and thrust it directly into the statue’s belly.

After rummaging inside for a moment, she drew out a strange clay figurine.

A sinister aura emanated from the doll, filling Su Cheng with deep unease.

“Kaori, cover me!” Su Cheng called, dodging past the old monk and heading toward Chiyo-hime.

“At last, I’ve found it,” Chiyo-hime murmured, clutching the bizarre and terrifying doll, her smile growing ever more radiant, almost dripping with allure. But at that moment, a gleaming blade pressed coldly against her slender white neck.

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