After the ghost-hunting master descended the mountain, his fame spread throughout the capital.

Just as she adjusted to the darkness and stench inside the cave and prepared to continue...

Suddenly, several cold, sticky auras drifted from the depths of the passage, accompanied by rustling whispers and eerie laughter:

"Hehe, it's the life force of a living person..."

"Oh, where did this young lady come from? With such delicate skin, what's gotten into you that you'd come to ditch our filthy, smelly fairy cave?"

A slick, flippant voice rang out, laced with mockery.

"It's been so long since I've tasted the essence of a living person, especially such a fresh and beautiful young girl..." another greedy voice chimed in.

Along with these chilling words, several indistinct shadows seeped out from the filthy stone walls and silt on either side of the passage.

Most of them have distorted faces and mutilated bodies, exuding a strong aura of resentment and filth.

It was clearly a violent death, and was nourished by the yin and filth accumulated in this place over the years. In order to avoid reincarnation, it could only devour the yang energy of living people to strengthen itself.

They automatically ignored Wang Dazhuang, who had little yang energy to absorb, and surrounded Jiang Dusheng without any scruples. They stretched out their claws, which were covered in black energy, and let out lewd laughs, trying to touch her and absorb the life force from her body.

Jiang Dusheng was already seething with anger because he was forced to crawl into this latrine-like place, and he was looking for a place to vent his frustration. These few blind evil spirits were practically delivering themselves to his doorstep, asking for a chance to be exorcised.

Her eyes turned cold. Without even looking, she pulled out several talismans from her sleeve, infused them with spiritual power, and tossed them to her side without raising her head.

"Shut up! Get out!"

The talisman spontaneously combusted without wind, bursting into a burst of intensely yang golden flames.

"what!"

"It's a Taoist priest! Run!"

A mournful wail suddenly rang out, and the two evil spirits at the forefront were swept by the golden light. Their souls hissed and emitted wisps of green smoke before instantly dissipating.

The other evil spirits were also affected by the residual power of the golden light, and were so frightened that they dared not stay any longer. They scattered and fled in all directions, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Silence returned to the passageway.

Seeing this, Wang Dazhuang shook his head, "Why did you provoke her?"

Half an incense stick later, Jiang Dusheng squeezed out of the filthy, narrow hole, her body still covered in sticky mud and rotten leaves, the pungent stench almost enveloping her entire body.

Standing in the overgrown wilderness outside the city, she didn't bother to tidy her disheveled appearance. She immediately faced the open field, closed her eyes, and cleared her mind of all distractions, focusing her spirit into her inner world.

Time is tight.

Since Emperor Cangqi was determined to take Xie Jinchen's life, the trap he had prepared for him had probably already been laid out layer by layer not far from the city.

Every moment of delay increases Xie Jinchen's danger.

She extended her right hand, joined her index and middle fingers together, gathered spiritual energy at her fingertips, and drew lines in the air.

Golden light danced with her fingertips, condensing into runes.

The runes took shape and floated in front of Jiang Dusheng, trembling slightly and emitting an aura that was of the same origin as her spiritual power.

Jiang Dusheng's eyes snapped open, locking onto the golden rune in the air, and he uttered a clear shout:

"Boundless heaven and earth, a journey of ten thousand miles!"

"With my lifeblood, I will guide the way!"

She pricked her index finger, flicked it, and a drop of blood fell into the center of the talisman.

"The Five Elements guide the way, the Eight Trigrams pinpoint the location!"

"With the talisman as the guide, the divine light manifests!"

"Xie Jinchen—Appear!"

As the last word "appear" was uttered, the tracking rune suddenly shone brightly, followed by a golden beam of light shooting from its center towards the southeast.

The golden beam of light lasted for a moment, then began to slowly condense, eventually turning into a golden point of light above Jiang Dusheng's palm.

The light spot seemed to have its own life and direction, always steadily pointing southeast, and as Jiang Dusheng's thoughts shifted slightly, it could vaguely convey a sense of distance.

"Found it!" Jiang Dusheng felt reassured and tightly gripped the warm golden light in his palm.

After determining the direction, she pushed her movement technique to its limit, channeling spiritual energy into her legs. She moved like a wisp of smoke, swiftly heading southeast in the direction indicated by the golden light.

Fifty miles away, a black pine forest.

It was dusk, yet the forest was shrouded in darkness, filled with a chilling cold that cut to the bone.

On the ground covered with withered branches and fallen leaves, dozens of ghostly figures stood indistinctly.

They came in all shapes and sizes; some were missing limbs, exposing their white bones; others were bloated, like swollen corpse sacs…

Without exception, they were all shrouded in a dense, impenetrable black aura of resentment, completely blocking out the last rays of sunlight from the forest, creating their own ghostly realm.

Dozens of pairs of eyes, some scarlet, some pale green, were fixed on the only living person standing in the forest.