Only I Cultivate
Chapter 58: Passage

Chapter 58: Passage

Despite the one-realm difference between them, Feng Fan didn’t allow himself to be intimidated. He had faced worse and lived to tell the tale.

Black chains wrapped around his right fist as he punched toward the bear’s gaping maw. Just before fist and fangs met, the chains ignited in black flames. The bear shrieked in pain and rolled to the side before its teeth could even graze his hand.

Not wasting the opportunity, Feng Fan summoned another chain in his left hand and hurled it toward the bear, which had just regained its composure. The chains wrapped tightly around its neck.

Ignoring the restraint, the bear lunged at him again; this time opting for a swipe of its paw rather than a bite. Its massive left paw arced toward Feng Fan’s collarbone, but he leaped five meters into the air just in time to evade the blow.

With a graceful midair roll, he landed on the bear’s back and straddled it, tightening the chain around its neck. The bear howled, its upper body twisting backward in a desperate attempt to lessen the pain.

His right fist, still wrapped in chains, ignited once more. He drove it straight into the bear’s head, forcing both of them to the ground. They tumbled together for several meters before Feng Fan managed to pin the bear beneath him.

The combination of chains and flames had inflicted significant damage—chunks of the bear’s head were charred and mangled. Taking advantage of his dominant position, he let the chain around the bear’s neck vanish before summoning it again.

With both chains now tightly wrapped around his fists, he pummeled the bear’s skull like a machine gun. The bear barely had time to let out a single wail before the next blow crashed down.

Punch after punch sent fragments of flesh and bone spraying across the ground. The soul possessing the bear felt its life force slipping away, unable to withstand the barrage of attacks.

Feng Fan only stopped attacking when his breathing grew ragged. It was only then that he noticed both the bear and the soul that had possessed it were long dead. Standing up, he surveyed the battlefield around him.

While he had taken his time dealing with one enemy, the others had already finished off the rest. But the fight had been far from easy; he could tell that all four of them had spent a substantial amount of spiritual energy.

Worse, they couldn’t afford to stop and rest, as doing so would only benefit the ghost controlling this zone. With each passing day, a ghost would grow stronger within its own domain.

"Let’s keep moving. I can feel we’re close to finding the mastermind," Luo Li said, her gaze fixed on the graveyard ahead.

This time, the four of them entered the graveyard without much resistance. They braced themselves for an immediate attack, but to their surprise, nothing happened. Whatever force had tried to keep them out had vanished into thin air.

"This is really weird. They sent so many enemies to stop us, but now that we’re here, they just gave up?" Wu Yunru muttered skeptically.

"Let’s see what we can find inside. Stay alert," Luo Li warned.

Feng Fan approached Wu Yunru and gave him a playful shove. "Come on, lucky boy, use your charm for something!"

Wu Yunru stumbled forward and fell on top of a gravestone, immediately throwing curses at Feng Fan. But his eyes widened when he noticed what was lying beside him—a Ouija board.

"Damn it, who the hell would mess with such an ominous thing inside a graveyard?!"

Feng Fan raised an eyebrow at the board. ’I didn’t expect a Ouija board to be a thing here. That might explain the dozens of spirits roaming around... but the timeline doesn’t add up. The attacks and the moment Huang Xiaotong first saw the ghost that killed her are too far apart. These should be two separate cases... but where would her attacker be, then?’

Suddenly, Feng Fan realized why the forest surrounding the graveyard had felt so familiar; it resembled Aokigahara, Japan’s infamous suicide forest.

Not only did someone mess with a Ouija board inside a graveyard, but they also did it at the center of a notorious suicide forest. It would be more surprising if nothing had gone wrong...

’Is this forest the same as Aokigahara, or are the similarities just a coincidence?’

While Feng Fan’s thoughts raced, Lai Niu and Luo Li approached the Ouija board. Luo Li picked it up and channeled a bit of spiritual energy into it.

"Someone opened a passage with this; that’s why so many ghosts are wandering around the village. But... normal humans can’t activate these things, and no Hunter would be stupid enough to use one inside a graveyard and leave the passage open. Something doesn’t add up," Luo Li said, her brows furrowing.

Feng Fan was slightly surprised by her explanation. The board’s function seemed similar to what he knew from Earth, but also different in some way.

"Can we close the passage?" he asked.

Luo Li nodded. "We can, but it might be dangerous. We’ll need to focus our spiritual energy to seal it, and I have a feeling that whatever has been sending those ghosts to attack us might be waiting for this moment."

Feng Fan frowned. ’If that thing really is what I think it is... then it would make sense. What a sneaky bastard.’

He was starting to believe that whatever had killed Huang Xiaotong was the mastermind behind all of this.

"Luo Li, is it possible for a ghost to use a Ouija board?" Feng Fan asked.

"They can’t do it alone," she replied. "But if one or more humans start using it, ghosts can inject their spiritual energy into the board and activate it."

Feng Fan’s face darkened. "So, whatever caused this passage to open was smart enough to trick humans into using it, unleashing hell inside Red River Village."

"Even if we know it’s a trap, we don’t have much choice. We must close the passage," Luo Li said, her face hardening as she stared at the Ouija board in her hands.