After transmigrating into the body of the protagonist's childhood friend, he was targeted by a

Deep in the mountains and forests, a delicate-skinned boy trembled and screamed at the top of his lungs, "Help! Someone, please help me! I'm so scared!"

The sound was sharp and loud, carrying far through the woods.

A rustling sound came from the nearby bushes, startling several rabbits and pheasants into scattering in all directions. Even the crows in the trees flapped their wings and flew away in disgust.

Half an hour passed, and not only did no evil creature appear, but not even a large wild animal showed itself.

Master Qingcheng, his legs numb from crouching in the bushes, lowered his voice and asked Wen Wuqing beside him, "Could we be mistaken? Maybe it's not an evil spirit at all, but someone playing tricks?"

Wen Wuqing frowned: "That shouldn't be the case. The constable's soul was indeed half gone. Mortals don't have that ability."

Lin Zhixu leaned against a tree and did not participate in their discussion.

He sensed that Li Erniu was idly poking at the bark of a tree with a twig not far away, one after another, at a steady rhythm, clearly also getting a little impatient.

He glanced again at the little boy who was still wailing. The child's voice had gone hoarse from wailing for so long, but he was still diligently squeezing out tears.

His dedication deserves an award.

Just as everyone was about to have Yun Ling withdraw and discuss countermeasures again, a cold wind blew in from not far away without warning.

Immediately afterwards, a thick cloud of black mist rolled out from the distant dense forest at an astonishing speed, heading straight towards Yun Ling.

Everyone gripped their respective magical artifacts tightly at the same time.

Lin Zhixu gripped the hilt of his sword, about to strike first, when Yun Ling let out a scream and sprang up from the rock like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

With his short legs swinging rapidly, his robes billowing in the wind like a ball, he dashed towards their ambush location in the blink of an eye.

The speed was outrageous; everyone stared in disbelief.

Everyone stared in disbelief as he ran past them, the wind he created whipping up fallen leaves from the ground.

If it weren't for the fact that his feet were actually still on the ground, they would have thought the child was flying.

Master Yunhe stroked his long beard, his chin slightly raised, his face full of pride.

Stunned, aren't you?

Do you really think he takes a useless little brat with him when he goes out?

This kid may not be good at anything else, but he's fast. The man who dared to bring him here must have some confidence.

As for why he runs so fast, that's a long story, but it's all thanks to his excellent teaching.

The others couldn't help but give him a thumbs up.

Indeed, appearances can be deceiving.

Lin Zhixu withdrew his gaze and turned his attention back to the black mist that had caught up to them.

Yunling was indeed fast, but the black mist was even faster and was about to catch up.

"superior!"

Lin Zhixu drew his sword and charged forward, slashing at the black mist.

The mist was cleaved open by the sword energy, churned for a moment, and then gathered again.

Lin Zhixu frowned, used the momentum to land on a horizontal branch of an ancient tree, and glanced down at the sword blade.

The spiritual energy attached to the sword was being eroded by the remaining black energy, emitting a very faint hissing sound.

Wen Wuqing's talismans followed closely behind, three spiritual talismans nailing into the black mist in a triangular formation, exploding into a dazzling golden light.

The black mist was blasted into disarray, but it instantly reformed, like a punch thrown into water, the force being dispersed and absorbed, causing no real damage.

A few wisps of black smoke spread along the ground, just passing by the bushes where Li Erniu was hiding.

He looked down at the wisp of black smoke that slid past his feet, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly, his eyes showing disdain.

He used the toe of his shoe to grind the wisp of black smoke that was still emerging into the soil, causing it to let out a barely audible, high-pitched wail before nonchalantly raising his head to continue watching the spectacle.

The black mist seemed to be enraged, abandoning its pursuit of Yun Ling and suddenly turning around to pounce on Lin Zhixu.

A blurry human face vaguely emerged from the swirling mist, twisted and ferocious, its mouth wide open, emitting a piercing cry that seemed to pierce the very soul.

Lin Zhixu was jolted, and countless fragmented images flashed through his mind in an instant, causing his sword strike to slow down by half a beat.

"Be careful!"

Taking advantage of this brief opening, Wen Wuqing struck again. His green robe fluttered as he flicked his fingers, sending out several more talismans that forced the black mist back a bit.

Master Qingcheng and Monk Huiming also joined the battle from the flanks. Their talismans and Buddhist light intertwined, barely suppressing the black mist in place.

Lin Zhixu snapped out of his brief daze and realized that although the black mist had been suppressed, it was still slowly gathering again.

This thing is not afraid of pure physical attacks, nor is it afraid of low-level spells. Continuing to wear it down like this will be disadvantageous for them.

He flipped and leaped down from the treetop, the tip of his sword quickly drawing several array patterns on the ground. Without looking up, he said to Wen Wuqing, "Bring a few more of those talismans and put them on the array's core."

Lin Zhixu also channeled spiritual power into the array's core.

Wen Wuqing responded immediately, and the talisman was precisely embedded into the array pattern nodes drawn by Lin Zhixu.

Master Qingcheng tossed out several talismans to fill the gaps.

The monk Kong Huiming tossed the prayer beads into the air, and spiritual energy sprinkled down to reinforce the array base.

Master Yunhe, pulled by the black mist, coughed up a mouthful of blood, feeling as if his internal organs were about to shatter.

"Hurry! I can't hold on much longer!"

The group increased their spiritual energy output, and a large amount of spiritual energy was drawn by the formation, forming a huge net of light that trapped the black mist in the center.

The black mist struggled violently within the net, emitting a piercing shriek, and its volume shrank inch by inch.

As the black mist dissipated, a white figure gradually came into view.

The man's white clothes were already tattered, and his exposed skin was covered with black cracks, as if it had been eroded from the inside by some force. The cracks spread from his neck to his cheeks, and his entire face was almost covered by cracks, making him look both creepy and eerie.

He knelt on the ground, panting heavily, his eyes filled with resentment.

Li Erniu leaned closer, examined her for a moment, and said with disdain, "She's really ugly. Why do you bother with all this weird stuff? With that face, you don't even need to do anything; just standing there is enough to scare people to death."

Everyone: "..."

The man in white suddenly looked up and glared at him, letting out a hoarse growl as if he wanted to pounce and bite him, but was firmly suppressed by the formation and could not move.

Master Yunhe walked over, clutching his chest.

He glanced down at the man in white a few times, then turned to Master Qingcheng and Monk Huiming: "You two have more experience dealing with ghosts, so take a look and see what kind of person this guy is."

Master Qingcheng took two steps forward and circled the man in white several times, his brows furrowing more and more as he looked at him.

Suddenly, he raised his hand and lightly probed the man's forehead, his face showing confusion: "Strange, although there is yin energy surrounding him, the aura doesn't seem to belong to a ghost. Ghosts have no physical form, but this person has a body of flesh and blood."

"It looks more like a human."

Others: "A person?"

"If he is human, where does his ability to extract souls come from?"

Wen Wuqing also frowned. From what he knew, human cultivators did indeed have some evil arts that could control souls, but most of them came at a great cost.