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

As incantations were slowly uttered from his lips, a fierce aura, like a captive beast breaking free of its chains, suddenly erupted from the deepest part of Xie Jinchen's body.

Centered on Xie Jinchen, a visible dark red shockwave exploded outwards, instantly sending several fierce ghosts flying. Their souls emitted a hissing burning sound and screamed in agony.

The air around him seemed to distort and boil, and the jade prayer beads on his wrist suddenly broke and scattered on the ground.

Xie Jinchen slowly raised his head, his dark eyes sweeping over the surrounding ghostly figures without any emotion, a cold smile curving his lips.

At the same time, twenty miles away, Jiang Dusheng, who was running wildly in the direction indicated by the golden light, suddenly felt his heart clench without warning.

A strong feeling of palpitation instantly swept over her entire body.

It was as if an invisible thread connecting her to someone had been suddenly pulled.

Jiang Dusheng stumbled and almost fell to the ground, but he managed to steady himself by bracing himself with his hands.

It's the feeling of the vow...

The vow she made that night suddenly echoed in her mind, and at this moment, it was crystal clear:

"Xie Jinchen, I want your primordial spirit to be eternally imprisoned, never to enter the realm of impermanence. Though your form may dissipate, your spirit will not perish; though the calamity ends, your consciousness will endure. I want your existence to last as long as mine, intertwined with cause and effect."

This is not merely a vow made in the heat of passion, but a covenant established based on the cause and effect of their relationship and their respective destinies.

"Thank you! Jin! Chen!" Jiang Dusheng squeezed out these three words through gritted teeth, his eyes instantly turning cold and fierce, surging with shock, anger, and a trace of panic.

Without any further hesitation, and without even bothering to regulate her chaotic breathing, she slashed her hands, quickly forming blood-red runes in the air and imprinting them on her legs.

"Traveling thousands of miles in a flash, shrinking the distance to an inch."

"Using blood as a catalyst, we soar through the air!"

"disease!"

With a sharp shout, the crimson rune shone brightly.

Jiang Dusheng's speed suddenly increased several times, and his figure almost turned into a blurry streak of light.

Following the golden light, she rushed to the black pine forest at top speed, where this was the scene that greeted her eyes.

The already dark forest was now shrouded in a thick yin energy and a dark red malevolent aura.

In the clearing in the woods, Xie Jinchen stood tall, his black robes fluttering in the wind.

He slightly spread his hands, and the dark red evil energy transformed into countless scarlet threads, spreading out from his palms and drawing into the souls of dozens of vengeful ghosts around him.

Those threads didn't devour; they were more like...controlling and absorbing.

The vengeful spirits let out mournful and desperate howls, and their souls visibly thinned out.

Their malevolent energy was being forcibly drawn away by the scarlet threads, flowing back into Xie Jinchen's body and nourishing the surging malevolent energy around him.

Xie Jinchen's murderous aura rose steadily, making the fierce and malevolent aura between his brows even heavier, like a demon from hell.

Jiang Dusheng immediately saw that Xie Jinchen was using the evil energy within his own body as a conduit to devour the resentment of these vengeful ghosts and strengthen himself.

While this approach might quickly eliminate these vengeful spirits in the short term, it's like drinking poison to quench thirst. If he's not careful, absorbing too much mixed resentment will backfire on his mind, causing him to fall completely into the demonic path and never recover.

Seeing this, Jiang Dusheng did not hesitate at all. She flipped her wrist, and the Buddhist beads on her wrist flew out and turned into a stream of light, hovering three feet above Xie Jinchen's head.

The prayer beads slowly rotated, each bead radiating a soft golden light that enveloped the body.

The Buddha's light diligently cleansed away the malevolent energy and external resentment that were trying to erode Xie Jinchen's mind, protecting the clarity of his spirit.

At the same time, Jiang Dusheng moved even faster. She pointed her fingers and drew rapidly in the air. Several "Five Thunderbolts Extinguishing Evil Talismans" flashing with purple-gold lightning instantly took shape and shot towards the evil spirits that had not yet been completely controlled by the scarlet threads.

"Heaven and earth are boundless, the universe borrows its power, the five thunderbolts are summoned to shatter evil and vanquish all wickedness!"

"Imperial Edict!"

She shouted sharply, her voice echoing through the forest.

"Boom!"

Several bolts of purple lightning exploded among the ghosts; the extremely yang and powerful lightning was the nemesis of these evil spirits.

In an instant, lightning crisscrossed and raged, drowning out the cries of ghosts and howls. Those hideous ghostly figures, like snow meeting the scorching sun, quickly melted away, turning into wisps of green smoke and dissipating.

In the blink of an eye, the battlefield, which had been filled with ghostly figures, was now nothing but a mess and the lingering yin energy gradually dissipating.

Jiang Dusheng rushed to Xie Jinchen in one stride, put the Buddhist beads back on his wrist, and then grabbed his wrist.

Her fingertips surged with spiritual energy, ready to forcefully probe into his meridians, suppress the violent baleful aura, and prepare to withstand the possible backlash.

However, she was slightly taken aback when her spiritual energy touched Xie Jinchen's meridians.

The anticipated out-of-control and rampaging evil energy did not appear.

Although the power within Xie Jinchen's meridians was surging, and the dark red evil energy was even mixed with the resentment of the vengeful ghosts he had just absorbed, everything strangely maintained a relatively stable balance.

Moreover, although his own spiritual fluctuations were weak and disordered, they were not completely submerged by the baleful aura. There was also a faint golden light at his spiritual center, which echoed the golden light protecting her Buddhist light.

"What's going on?" Jiang Dusheng asked in surprise, looking up at Xie Jinchen.

Xie Jinchen was looking down at her, the blood-red lines in his dark eyes not yet completely faded, reflecting her stained, anxious, and confused face.

He didn't speak immediately, but just gazed at her quietly.

Jiang Dusheng felt a sudden tightness in his chest under Xie Jinchen's gaze, and couldn't help but call out again, his voice trembling slightly without him even realizing it: "Xie Jinchen?"

The next moment, however, he slowly uttered a sentence in a slightly hoarse voice, made from the use of his killing intent:

"Jiang Dusheng," he wrinkled his nose, his gaze sweeping over her robes which reeked of a suspicious odor, "did you accidentally fall into some uncleaned ditch on your way here? Or... is this kind of peculiar incense all the rage in Changling City lately?"

Jiang Dusheng: "..."

All her worries froze instantly, then were replaced by a nameless anger.

Jiang Dusheng expressionlessly released his grip on his wrist, turned around, and started to leave.

As soon as I took a step, my wrist was firmly grabbed by a hand.

Immediately afterwards, an irresistible force came, pulling her backward and causing her to fall into a menacing embrace.

The pine wood mingled with the stench of blood, yet also carried a unique, refreshing coolness.

Xie Jinchen took the opportunity to put his arm around her, and the two of them fell together onto a pile of relatively dry dead leaves nearby.

Xie Jinchen's voice sounded above her head, weary, but his arms were tightly wrapped around her, "I'm tired."

Jiang Dusheng struggled for a moment but couldn't break free. He scolded her irritably, "Didn't you say you thought it smelled bad? Why are you hugging me? Let go."

Xie Jinchen chuckled softly, a slight vibration coming from his chest that tickled her eardrums and dispelled the last trace of the grim and sinister atmosphere around them.

"Just kidding," he said in his usual teasing tone, "You smell better than this filthy stuff, even if you were just pulled out of the mud."

Jiang Dusheng gripped his wrist again and asked in a deep voice, "What exactly happened? Why didn't you lose your senses this time?"