King of Creation
Chapter 443 - 437: Ghost Village Demon

Chapter 443: Chapter 437: Ghost Village Demon

"Brother Liu, can your Security Department finally breathe a sigh of relief now?" Inside a private room on the third floor of the Hero Tower, two middle-aged men were drinking and chatting.

Although they spoke in hushed tones, with Ye Zhen’s keen hearing and strength, he could overhear any conversation within a kilometer radius if he desired to listen.

"Indeed, these past six months have been incredibly stressful for me, look, I even have white hairs now. Speaking of which, this time, we really have the Lord Governor to thank for his help. If the Lord Governor hadn’t personally stepped in, who could have invited the reclusive Wanji Peak to act?" said the man surnamed Liu.

Suddenly, the other voice lowered significantly, "Brother Liu, I heard that’s not quite how things went."

"How so?"

"I heard that it’s mainly because one or two ghost villages also appeared in Wanzhou. Within ten thousand li of Wanzhou City is all Wanji Peak’s territory. Even if the State Governor didn’t ask for help, it’s unlikely that Wanji Peak would just sit back and do nothing!"

"So that’s it! No wonder our Yuezhou State’s Lord Governor couldn’t possibly have that much influence; it turns out the root cause lay there!"

"Right, but one or two ghost villages wouldn’t prompt Wanji Peak to mobilize their forces, right?"

"Brother Liu, have you forgotten our situation in Yuezhou State? Ghost villages always appear in remote locations, and when disaster strikes, the entire village perishes. Unless someone passes by or returns to the village, the incident remains unnoticed.

Four months ago, there were only three ghost villages discovered in Yuezhou State, but now, I’m afraid the number has risen to seventeen or eighteen! If one or two ghost villages have been found in Wanzhou, can the situation be any better?"

"That does make sense! However, now that the demon has gone to Wanzhou, we can finally relax a bit! Alas, such are the times, let’s drink to that!"

....

In fact, upon hearing this news, Ye Zhen’s first reaction wasn’t about the whereabouts of the Blood Demon, but instead, he thought of Bai Xin from Wanji Peak, whom he met during the Black Dragon Ranking competition.

The reason Ye Zhen remembered Bai Xin was because of her Sword Manual of Extinction, which could stand up against his own Sword Heart Enlightenment.

At that time, Ye Zhen had noticed that the Sword Manual of Extinction shared similarities with his Sword Heart Enlightenment and had thought of finding a way to study it if the opportunity arose.

However, the Sword Manual of Extinction is the Sect Guardian Secret Scripture of Wanji Peak; not even outsiders like Ye Zhen, nor Wanji Peak’s True Disciples or Sect Elders, are allowed to view it.

Bai Xin was able to learn it because she is the Direct Disciple of Wanji Peak’s Sect Leader Fang Rujie, who is also the designated successor, allowing her access to the Sword Manual of Extinction.

After gathering information at Hero Tower, Ye Zhen headed straight for the Yuezhou City Government Office. Upon presenting the Golden Order from Qingluo Sect’s Sect Leader Guoo Wanfeng, even the resting State Governor was startled into action.

There was no helping it; Qingluo Sect’s Sect Leader Guoo Wanfeng was rising in prominence recently, overshadowing Fuh Dongxing, the former Sect Leader of the Phantom Divine Sect, which had long dominated the national religion. If not for the close ties between the Phantom Divine Empire’s royal clan and the Phantom Divine Sect, the leadership of the national religion might have already changed hands.

Even so, Fuh Dongxing, who previously held the sole title of the National Master, had been demoted to Left National Master, while Qingluo Sect’s Sect Leader Guoo Wanfeng was directly appointed as Right National Master, effectively stripping half of Fuh Dongxing’s power.

And even then, this was a compromise made by the Phantom Divine Sect towards Qingluo Sect. In terms of power and influence, Qingluo Sect was somewhat stronger.

In such circumstances, once Guoo Wanfeng’s Golden Order was presented, even some highly confidential intelligence was laid out before Ye Zhen.

Fifteen minutes later, after verifying the intelligence, Ye Zhen hurriedly left Yuezhou City, mounted on the Cloud Winged Tiger King Kitten, heading straight to the more northern Wanzhou. Of course, he also had a map conveniently taken from the Yuezhou State Governor’s house.

Half a day later, Ye Zhen arrived at Wanzhou State City, just seven thousand li from Wanji Peak. Following the same approach, after presenting Guoo Wanfeng’s Golden Order, Ye Zhen obtained the latest information about the ghost villages within Wanzhou.

The so-called ghost villages referred to those villages where all the people mysteriously disappeared.

The Wanzhou authorities didn’t blame the long-quiescent Blood God Sect for this affair. Including Wanji Peak, they merely believed that some demon practicing evil techniques was causing trouble.

Nevertheless, Wanji Peak had already dispatched elite forces to hunt down the demon.

Wanji Peak not only sent out search parties but also issued a massive reward; whoever provided clues about the Ghost Village Demon would be rewarded with ten thousand Low-Grade Spirit Crystals, tracking down the Ghost Village Demon warranted one hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Crystals, and slaying the Ghost Village Demon would earn a reward of one million Spirit Crystals!

After all, if ghost villages proliferated within the territories of Wanji Peak, it would directly impact Wanji Peak’s influence.

Without delay, Ye Zhen headed for a small village in the western part of Wanzhou called Eagle Fortress.

According to the intelligence Ye Zhen obtained from the Wanzhou State Governor’s office, Eagle Fortress was the latest discovered ghost village, reported by the local government two days prior.

Even with a map, finding a small village with a radius of less than a kilometer amidst mountains was no easy task.

After resting for half the night, Ye Zhen finally reached Eagle Fortress early the next morning as the morning fog cleared.

Surprisingly, despite Wanji Peak’s substantial reward offer, very few martial artists had come to search for the so-called Ghost Village Demon; it was almost deserted.

Of course, this had to do with rumors about the strength of the Ghost Village Demon.

Among the several ghost villages that had already appeared, many had martial arts heritages, including one hidden and declined Martial Arts Family.

Even a declining Martial Arts Family had three or four Martial Artists with Cultivation at the Fourth or Fifth Stage of the Spirit Transformation Realm, but they were still utterly eradicated by the Ghost Village Demon, with no living creatures left behind.

There were rumors that the Ghost Village Demon might be a Martial Artist at the Soul Sea Realm, or even at the Peak of the Fifth Stage of the Soul Sea Realm, utilizing some evil secret technique in an attempt to forge veins and break through to the Vein Forging Realm.

With such rumors circulating, very few Martial Artists were brave enough to seek the reward.

You need to be alive to enjoy the fruits of your labor, after all.

So, when Ye Zhen arrived at Eagle Fortress, he saw not a single soul, and everything within the village remained as it was before it was destroyed and became a ghost village.

After spending over one hour, Ye Zhen had traversed every inch of the village’s land and ultimately found several anomalies.

There were signs of struggle and escape within the village, like flower vases shattered in panic and broken rice bowls during frantic flight.

In many households, dinners were found just served on the table, uneaten or half-eaten.

Eerily, not a trace of blood was discovered throughout the village.

Based solely on this, Ye Zhen was seventy to eighty percent sure that this place had indeed been attacked by the Blood Demon.

Only the surreal blood-sucking, blood-controlling, and blood-transforming techniques of the Blood Demon could slaughter nearly a thousand people without spilling a single drop of blood. No one else could accomplish this.

Let alone Ye Zhen, even the Sect Leader of the Qingluo Sect, Guoo Wanfeng, or any other Vein Forging Realm being, could easily massacre a town or village, but leaving no blood behind was absolutely impossible for them.

Some households’ dinner leftovers had not yet dried up but were just beginning to sour and stink.

Based on this alone, Ye Zhen could determine that the time when Eagle Fortress turned into a Ghost Village was within three to five days.

In other words, either the Blood Demon or the legendary Ghost Village Demon passed through Eagle Fortress three to five days ago.

Following the trail from Yuezhou State, and based on the frequency and reports of Ghost Village sightings from two states, it was evident that the so-called Ghost Village Demon was very bold, or rather, incredibly arrogant.

Usually, after committing heinous acts in one place, a person would flee thousands of miles immediately.

But the Ghost Village Demon would not; it would continue committing brazen crimes in the vicinity.

Looking at the sequence and trajectory of Ghost Village appearances across the two states’ reports, the next Ghost Village typically appears within a thousand miles of the last.

The intervals between these appearances are mostly between one and ten days.

If deduced from this pattern, since the attack on Eagle Fortress occurred around three days ago, following the past rule, that Ghost Village Demon would act again, or perhaps has already acted.

Moreover, within a thousand miles from Eagle Fortress.

With a thought to his Divine Sense, Ye Zhen summoned the Cloud Winged Tiger King Kitten, which was sniffing around. As before, the Cloud Winged Tiger King Kitten searched the entire village and its vicinity but found no trace of the villagers or livestock.

The next moment, after some instructions from Ye Zhen, he and the Cloud Winged Tiger Cub set off in different directions, marking an area to search for suspicious villages within a thousand miles radius.

As it turned out, Ye Zhen’s deductions from the reports from the two states were entirely correct.

A little more than two hours later, approaching noon, the Cloud Winged Tiger King Kitten led Ye Zhen to a small village backed by mountains and situated by a river.

This village was not large, with approximately two to three hundred households, around a thousand people in total, and could be considered a small fishing village nestled amidst mountains and waters.

Under normal circumstances, noon would be the time when kitchen smoke rises, but this little fishing village was utterly silent at this time.

There was not only a lack of kitchen smoke, but not even the bark of a dog could be heard.

Ye Zhen’s expression suddenly darkened, just like the previous villages, with not a single living creature in sight.

However, Ye Zhen still found a clue!

Steamed buns had only recently been taken out of the steamer inside the houses, and the tea sitting in the cups had not yet turned sour. There was almost no dust on the tables and chairs!

Two days!

After a careful search, Ye Zhen concluded.

This village had become a Ghost Village no more than two days ago. Maybe just yesterday, it had been attacked by what might be the Ghost Village Demon from the Blood Demon.

Since this village had become a Ghost Village just one day ago, perhaps the Ghost Village Demon was right now in the act or in the process of seeking the next distinctive target.

Ye Zhen felt that maybe he could find this Ghost Village Demon.

"Roar!"

Suddenly, the Cloud Winged Tiger King Kitten, searching outside the village, let out an anxious low roar, rushing Ye Zhen to hurry over.

Outside the village, the Cloud Winged Tiger King Kitten was uneasily growling at an abandoned brick kiln.

"Here?"

At the kitten’s nod, the Red Jade Spirit Armor suddenly emerged from Ye Zhen’s body. With a squeaky sound, he pushed open the kiln door.

Hiss!

A sharp intake of breath sounded suddenly from the corner of Ye Zhen’s mouth as he encountered a scene that seemed like a hell on earth, leaving him in shock.

Whiz whiz whiz!

Almost the instant Ye Zhen gasped, several glaring Warning Talismans burst into the sky from not far away!(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation tickets, monthly tickets at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)