Eastern main branch of the Blood Phantom Sect.
A big building stood, towering above the sky. There are more than five hundred rooms stacked one by one, vertically and horizontally, in a cube shape.
In one of the rooms.
"Master! A news has passed from our branch guards."
A handsome young man clad in a black robe was respectfully kneeling on one leg outside of the room. He looked like a modest scholar with an upright attitude. However, it was one of the main branches of the Blood Phantom Sect, there was no way there was going to be an upright person.
Inside the room, the blood-red curtains flowed in the air, revealing a figure sitting on the chair leisurely. The figure's face is unreadable because he is wearing a white wooden mask. His entire body is covered with loose-fitting robes, without any visible part of the body. Additionally, he is wearing black gloves. If one sees this figure, they will mistake him for a wooden sculpture that looks very much alive.
He let out a long sigh before the words came out from behind the mask.
"Finally done it! I was expecting you to do it even earlier." His voice sounded like a door cracking.
"Gu Shen, what's the matter?" His voice echoed from inside the room.
Outside, his disciple continued. "Someone… from the second-ranked disciples betrayed our sect. It seems he killed Gui Ling and somehow broke the tracking talisman and is currently on the run. His name is—" Before he finished his sentence, his master's voice came out of the room. "Hei Qin."
"Ah!...yes, master, him. So, what are your orders?"
"Don't concern yourself with this matter. Do the task I assigned to you. As for him… hmm… leave it to the other second-ranked disciples."
"Yes, master!"
Without disturbing his master any further, Gu Shen took his leave.
Inside the room. Hei Qin's master sat there, calm and composed. He didn't even flinch an inch, as if he were really some kind of wooden doll. It was strangely eerie. No one knew what kind of thoughts were running through his head.
"Shen Pian. The sect leader is calling you and the other branch masters for a meeting. Come quickly!"
An elderly voice echoed around the room.
"Finally, you called. How many days have I already waited for this meeting? I almost thought it was a vacation for me… haha."
Shen Pian laughed with his creaking voice.
"Enough! The sect leader was busy. Did you think it was easy to have a conversation with those righteous hypocrites?" the elderly voice said in a stern tone.
"As far as I know, they are the ones who asked for an audience with our leader," Shen Pian said.
"Tch!"
Without continuing the nonsense with Shen Pian, the elderly voice disappeared.
"He always runs away like this… in the middle of a conversation. How rude!"
***
In the Blood Phantom Sect's forest.
Hei Qin's Qi blade met Xuan Ye. An unexplainable event occurred, surprising both of them.
The Lantern of Parting, which was in Hei Qin's other hand, acted bizarrely. The blue flame had now turned white and was slowly spreading over Hei Qin and toward Xuan Ye.
The white flame didn't burn anything. Yet, both of them screamed in pain.
Under the clothes of Xuan Ye, more and more red threads came out and slowly formed into different kinds of faces.
Meanwhile, in Hei Qin's mind, various kinds of memories flowed through his head.
He felt like he was living multiple kinds of lives in a second—children, men, women, old people, rich, poor. The memories kept flowing like water that came out of a damaged dam.
He tried to pull his hands back, but he couldn't. So, he tried to gather Qi in his hands. The Qi slowly gathered in his hands and then blasted. Both of them were thrown to opposite sides of each other.
"Cough, cough, cough…"
Hei Qin coughed blood. He shook his head in dizziness, and his eyesight was veiled in darkness as the blood flow to his brain stopped for a second.
He slowly stood up, wiping the blood from his lips. As his eyesight returned to normal, he looked at Xuan Ye, who was in a weird state.
His entire body was slowly floating in the air along with the Lantern of Parting. The threads with various faces were observed by the Lantern of Parting.
"It's all ghosts! As I suspected, his entire body is made of ghosts. That's why I always feel creeped whenever he is nearby."
The Lantern of Parting observed all the ghosts that had gone out of control within Xuan Ye and slowly landed on the ground.
Thud!
Xuan Ye's body also fell to the ground. He slowly began to regain his consciousness and sat up, shaking his head. "Hey! Hey! Wait a minute, I am not here to fight or capture anything. Let me explain."
He quickly said, afraid of another unwanted fight.