Ascending to Immortality by Slaying Spirits

Chapter 177 Purifying the Ghost Realm, Nascent Soul Old Ghost
The small boat stopped at the riverbank, and Lin Le led Ling Muzhu off the boat.

Even in daylight, this place is eerily terrifying, with twisted and grotesque trees and howling winds like crows.

This is the effect brought about by the demon realm.

When a ghost gains sentience and officially becomes a ghost cultivator, it will continuously expand its ghost realm, centering on its own corpse, and twist the energy of heaven and earth into yin energy for its own cultivation.

A large amount of yin energy is released from the ghost realm, turning the surrounding environment into a ghost realm so that the ghost realm can expand further.

Ling Muzhu was somewhat afraid of this eerie and strange atmosphere, and shrank behind Lin Le.

But Lin Le didn't stand in front of her as before; instead, she kept some distance from her: "Senior Sister, you are a cultivator. Are you afraid of such evil spirits?"

Ling Muzhu's body trembled slightly: "But I always feel like something is watching me, and that thing is very, very strong!"

Lin Le stood aside and said, "Senior sister, don't be afraid. That ghost is not as strong as me."

"Really?" Ling Muzhu asked softly.

Lin Le nodded seriously: "Really."

Having received Lin Le's affirmation, Ling Muzhu took a deep breath to calm herself down.

Ling Muzhu, you can do it! Don't let your junior brother down!

After cheering herself up, Ling Muzhu said to Lin Le, "Junior brother, let's go."

Lin Ledao said, "Okay."

As soon as he finished speaking, a ghostly figure suddenly rushed out of the bushes and headed straight for Ling Muzhu.

Ling Muzhu was startled and immediately ran towards Lin Le.

But upon closer inspection, Lin Le was nowhere to be seen.

The eerie wind had already arrived. Ling Muzhu had no time to think. She instinctively used the leaping technique she had practiced for many years, leaping twenty or thirty feet high to dodge the approaching ghostly figure.

The ghostly figure turned around and continued to pounce on Ling Muzhu in mid-air.

Upon closer inspection, Ling Muzhu realized that the ghostly figure was actually a half-illusory brown fox, and its aura was so weak that it wasn't even at the first level of Qi Refining.

Sensing how weak the ghost fox was, Ling Muzhu felt much more at ease. She stretched out her hand, and her natal magic weapon, the Jade Phoenix Sword, appeared in her grasp.

She looked at the charging fox demon and said, "Fox demon, take this!"

Having said that, he slashed down with his sword.

The sword energy was sharp and fierce, instantly splitting the ghost fox in two.

The ghost fox immediately dissipated as yin energy.

Landing on the ground, Ling Muzhu let out a long breath: "A mere little ghost, easy to deal with!"

Pfft! Laughter suddenly came from the side.

It was Lin Le. He couldn't hold back any longer. He hadn't expected that Ling Muzhu, who looked so mature, could speak like a character from a picture book, with a whole repertoire of words.

A blush suddenly rose on her fair face, and Ling Muzhu suddenly realized what childish things she had just said.

"Junior brother, can you forget what you just said?" Ling Muzhu looked down at her toes, which she couldn't see, and twirled the dirt with them.

"What are you saying? I didn't hear a thing. My senses were completely clouded by that fox spirit's illusion technique, so I don't know anything," Lin Le said seriously, his lips pursed.

"Yes, yes, it was all that ghost fox's doing!" Ling Muzhu nodded like a chick pecking at rice, her chest bobbing up and down.

Lin Le continued forward, saying, "Let's go, let's suppress the ghost realm."

“Alright!” Ling Muzhu stepped forward quickly, gripping the Jade Phoenix Sword tightly in her hand.

This time, Ling Muzhu walked aggressively at the front, slashing down any ghosts that lunged at her with a single sword strike, as ruthless as a female demon.

This scene continued all the way to the edge of the White Sand Battlefield.

Just as Ling Muzhu was about to rush in headfirst, Lin Le stopped her: "Alright, Senior Sister, do you not want to fight those ghosts in their home turf?"

"Oh." Ling Muzhu nodded blankly, standing behind him like a well-behaved little wife, except that this little wife was much taller than her little husband.

Lin Le looked toward the white sand battlefield, where it was said that some top-grade spiritual artifact had appeared, causing more than a dozen Golden Core cultivators to fight over it, and eventually even Nascent Soul cultivators joined the fray.

However, it turned out that no top-grade spiritual artifacts were found here; it was just a trap.

The Nascent Soul True Monarch was killed, and his forces were also wiped out here.

But unexpectedly, this place had some special characteristics. The gathering of yin energy made it a breeding ground for ghosts, and decades later, the ghost realm erupted here.

Unable to gauge the strength of this ghostly realm, Bai Hongguo reported the matter up the chain of command to the Xuan Tian Sect, requesting the sect to send someone to handle it.

Golden light emanated from Lin Le's body, condensing into a golden dragon. The dragon was so realistic that it looked majestic and awe-inspiring.

"Go." Lin Le's lips moved slightly, and the golden dragon crashed into an invisible barrier.

Under the golden light, the barrier gradually turned grayish-red.

The barrier began to shrink, and a large amount of Yin energy, illuminated by the golden light, regained its essence and dissipated as pure Qi of heaven and earth.

This drove the ghosts in the Ghost Realm mad; it was digging up their very roots.

In an instant, all sorts of ghosts emerged from the ground, surging towards Lin Le like a tidal wave.

But under the golden light, they melted quickly, like the snow beside the bonfire.

They didn't even get within ten zhang of Lin Le, let alone touch him.

The ghosts wailed in agony, until finally a powerful ghost could no longer bear it.

call!
A dark shadow flew out from the depths of the ghost realm, turning into a black line that pointed straight at Lin Le's head.

But the result is still the same.

Under the golden light, the dark shadow, like an arrow shot into the water, was quickly worn down and slowed down.

The shadowy figure revealed its true form: a long sword, pitch black and without any luster.

However, as the golden light shone, a large amount of black energy rose from the sword, eventually turning it into a rusty longsword that fell to the ground.

Lin Le couldn't help but take another look at it, because it was also a ghost, a sword ghost.

Upon seeing that the Sword Demon couldn't even touch Lin Le within three feet, a towering black aura surged from the depths of the Ghost Realm.

Three hundred armored soldiers, each wielding a long spear, marched in orderly ranks toward Lin Le.

Their auras condensed and transformed into a gigantic black tiger, ten zhang long, leaping above their heads.

Military formation?

Looking at the black tiger exuding the aura of a fifth-stage Golden Core cultivator, Lin Le raised an eyebrow slightly, seemingly feeling somewhat looked down upon.

Black Tiger stepped forward, and with each step, a black skull imprint appeared beneath his feet, giving him a rather fierce and imposing appearance.

"Roar!" The black tiger roared, its voice carrying a power that could shake one's very soul.

Ling Muzhu trembled involuntarily at the shout and shrank behind Lin Le, feeling that only this small body could give her enough sense of security.

Lin Le's eyes remained completely unmoved; this roar was not as exciting as Guo Wanglong's roar.

"Get out!" Lin Le's voice wasn't loud, but it resounded throughout the world.

Innate Divine Power: Great Thunder Sound!

With a single shout, Black Tiger was struck as if by lightning.

The black tiger, which had just been exuding a menacing aura, immediately transformed into a cloud of black mist and dissipated, along with the three hundred ghost soldiers whose armor was shattered, clearly indicating that they had suffered severe injuries.

The black mist, along with the ghost soldiers, retreated back into their shells, seemingly brewing something.

Lin Le calmly watched the black mist shrink, but the golden dragon above his head became even more ferocious.

Ling Muzhu looked at Lin Le with admiration. She hadn't seen many people fight, but judging from this scene alone, apart from Xu Lingzi, Lin Le was stronger than anyone else in her memory.

The golden light and the ghostly aura continued to consume each other, but before long, the black energy suddenly erupted again. A large, bluish-gray hand, five or six zhang wide, emerged from the ground and slammed into it.

With a rumble, the ground trembled, and using his hands for support, a grayish-blue giant, a hundred feet tall, rose from the ground.

With a blue face and fangs, hair and beard like a lion's mane, and its body covered with ferocious patterns, the next second, an eye the size of a human head opened from all those patterns, its pupils moving erratically, making it look incredibly eerie.

This hideous and terrifying appearance startled Ling Muzhu so much that she scurried behind Lin Le like a frightened sheep.

What's funny is that Lin Le's body couldn't completely conceal her voluptuous figure.

Lin Le sized up the hundred-foot giant. Although its aura had reached the first stage of the Nascent Soul realm, it was not substantial and could only be considered a pseudo-infant at best.

He exhaled a breath, and the Yin-Yang Twin Swords flew out. His body shone with spiritual light, clearly indicating that he had made great progress.

Indeed, the Sun and Moon Spirit Pearl that Lin Le bought was a sixth-grade spiritual material, more than enough to be the main material for a high-grade spiritual weapon.

Now, the Yin-Yang Twin Swords, tempered by spiritual energy, have not reached the level of superior spiritual weapons, but they have reached the level of perfect mid-grade spiritual weapons.

Hunyuan.

The Yin and Yang swords merged into one, becoming a long sword that was half black and half white.

With divine intervention, the Yin-Yang sword vanished, and only a second later did a piercing sonic boom resound.

Boom!
A hole four or five feet wide appeared in the chest of the hundred-foot-tall demon.

Although Lin Le could not use his magical power, this did not prevent him from using his divine sense and physical body, which were already comparable to those of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Not on the chest?

Lin Le squinted, then opened his eyes again.

No problem, just wipe them out completely.

The Yin-Yang Sword moved back and forth across the hundred-foot-tall ghost at a speed unimaginable to it. With each booming sound, a hole appeared in the hundred-foot-tall ghost's body.

Ling Muzhu, who was perched on Lin Le's shoulder, watched helplessly as the hideous and terrifying ghost turned into a tattered rag doll.

Boom! The demon, whose feet were smashed to pieces, fell to the ground, sending up a wave of earth four or five feet high.

The Yin-Yang Sword flew back to Lin Le's side silently, without causing a ripple.

Lin Le watched quietly as the ghostly figure recovered, the golden dragon above its head still relentlessly eroding the ghostly realm.

After a while, the demon recovered and stood up. Just as he was about to let out a roar, a huge hole suddenly exploded in his head.

Lin Le made a sword-finger gesture and drew a line.

A towering pillar of fire erupted from the ground, engulfing the hundred-foot-tall ghostly figure.

Abyss of Purgatory!

Life and death cycled in the flames, gradually eroding the demon and turning it to ashes.

Lin Le's expression remained unchanged as he sheathed the Yin-Yang Longsword, thinking to himself:
'As expected, just a puppet.'

Within his inner vision of supernatural powers, there was no increase in merit or killing karma, clearly indicating that he had not eliminated the true ghost.

After waiting for a while, Ling Muzhu put her hands on Lin Le's shoulders, looked around like a wary little deer, and asked, "Junior brother, is it resolved?"

"Not yet," Lin Le said calmly.

"Ah!" Ling Muzhu immediately shrank behind Lin Le again, which made people want to laugh.

Time passed slowly, and the ghost realm shrank little by little. Eventually, the true master of this ghost realm could no longer contain himself.

An old ghost with flowing long hair floated out and bowed respectfully to Lin Le, saying, "I beg you, Venerable One, to spare my life. I have not harmed many people since I was born."

Lin Le simply stared at it indifferently, without saying a word.

Seeing that Lin Le showed no sign of relaxing, the old ghost continued, "If you, sir, are willing to spare my life, I am willing to serve you like a servant, riding on your ox and galloping on your back!"

Lin Le remained silent, while the golden dragon in the sky continued its slow advance.

The old ghost gritted his teeth: "I beg you, sir, to spare my life. I am willing to hand over a clue to a treasure and offer it to you."

Lin Le remained silent, but the golden dragon of light accelerated even more rapidly. It wasn't that Lin Le was exerting force, but rather that the Ghost Realm itself was about to give out.

Seeing that Lin Le was unmoved by reason, the old ghost's face twisted into a ferocious grin as he growled, "You won't listen to reason, so you'll have to suffer the consequences!"

As soon as he finished speaking, countless ghostly figures appeared, transforming into thousands of old ghosts that surrounded and rushed towards Lin Le.

Lin Le finally made a move, gripping the Yin-Yang Longsword, and then swept it, causing a light drizzle to fall!

This is a sword move from the Azure Sky Sword Manual, a thousand threads of rain.

The fine rain pierced through the old ghost's many illusions, forcing out the old ghost who was directly attacking Ling Muzhu.

In the old ghost's eyes, Ling Muzhu, this female Daoist, exuded pure Yin energy, which was even more alluring than top-grade Yin energy.

If he could take over this body, the old ghost could feel that he would undergo earth-shattering changes.

However, Lin Le already knew that the old ghost's target was Ling Muzhu, so he was naturally on guard.

The gold ring that had been hanging on Ling Muzhu's hand fell off at some point and shot out as a golden light.

"Ah!" the old ghost cried out in agony.

A large hole was torn open in his chest.

This was nothing to the ghost; it could be easily concealed with its ghostly aura. But the old ghost was horrified to discover that the healing was no longer possible.

The ghost baby is gone!
It looked up at Lin Le again and saw that Lin Le's fingers were tightly gripping a black doll that looked similar to its own and was only an inch in size.

But that wasn't some black doll; it was its nascent soul!
"No, please spare my life, Master!" The old ghost knelt on the ground, crying and begging Lin Le.

His voice was so sorrowful that even Ling Muzhu felt a pang of pity upon hearing it.

But she wisely didn't interfere with Lin Le.

At this moment, Lin Le felt no emotion whatsoever; in fact, he even felt a little like laughing.

A golden dragon descended, its energy flowing into Lin Le's fingertips.

Enveloped in rich golden light, the ghost infant rapidly melted away until it left no trace.

The ghost infant was purified, and the old ghost also dissipated amidst wails.

The golden dragon surged forth once more, crashing into the unclaimed ghost realm.

Without its master, the ghost realm was even more vulnerable and was completely purified in less than a quarter of an hour.

Lin Le brought Ling Muzhu to the center of the former Ghost Realm.

With a thought, the soil surged like a fountain, and soon a pile of debris was turned over.

Rare spirit stones, some yin-attribute spiritual materials, and a tattered long banner.

Ten Thousand Soul Banners?
Lin Le couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Such standardized magical artifacts are quite common in the world of ghost cultivators, ranging from the Hundred Ghost Banner of magical artifacts to the Thousand Ghost Banner of spiritual artifacts, then to the Ten Thousand Ghost Banner of treasure artifacts, and finally to the Ten Directions Ghost Banner of Dao artifacts.

Further up, there seemed to be celestial artifacts, such as the Ghost and God Banner.

With a wave of his hand, Lin Le grasped it, and then with a shake, thousands of ghosts appeared.

If Lin Le hadn't converted some of them, there would have been even more ghosts.

But now it's not much different.

With a sweep of golden light, Lin Le completely converted these ghosts.

After weighing the Ten Thousand Ghosts Banner again and glancing at the embroidered ball at his waist, Lin Le had an idea.

(End of this chapter)