23 Stand Up…

The door of the storeroom opened.

A chilly gust came in, followed by an eerie wail and a woman's laughter as if a female ghost was wailing.

The air reeked of blood. Luo Hong widened his eyes out of caution as goosebumps exploded all over his body.

Something was not right!

He grabbed his sword and carefully walked out of the storeroom with his white robes fluttering along with the motion.

His first step outside the storeroom felt…sticky. It was red and gooey as though a tiny bloody stream flowed under his feet.

The two bandits who guarded the storeroom were dead. Their necks had been snapped and their bodies were still bleeding. Fear was the last thing they saw in their dead eyes.

What could have happened?!

The eerie gust came and fluttered Luo Hong's hair. Even his white robes danced softly.

The irritating and eerie laughter of a female ghost followed as though it was company to the spooky gust.

"A g-ghost?!"

Luo Hong quickly drew his sword. He held it tightly, seeking the tiny bit of support to his shaking heart.

"Evil beings?!"

As he breathed deeply, he suddenly remembered that Luo Feng from the Court of Judicial Review had said something about the village outside Anping County being massacred.

Evil beings had been responsible for the death of the village. 

Could this be an encounter with the said beings?!

He continued to breathe deeply while a bad feeling rose in his heart.

According to Luo Feng, the evil beings had been manipulated by man to do their evil biddings, or more precisely, evil cultivators. Man was the mastermind behind the wicked, not the supernatural, so he should not be afraid.

Luo Hong walked further and saw dead bodies scattered around the stockade.

Dead bandits were all over the place. It seemed like their heads had been chopped off after they passed out from drinking.

"Where's the chief of the stockade? He's an Eighth Grade Steel Bone cultivator, so he shouldn't have died this easily…right?" 

He took a deep breath and continued his search.

The ground was blanketed by blood. It reeked badly and caused one to retch. 

Soon enough, Luo Hong found what he was looking for.

Further away, Di Shan's buff and robust body was sitting on the throne that was covered in tiger pelt. His hand was holding his big saber as it stood beside him.

His head was lowered and his chest was heaving slowly. It seemed like he was still breathing.

A survivor! 

However, a moment after Luo Hong found Di Shan, the man's head slowly lifted up. The man's eyes were bleeding while his mouth was murmuring. His chest had been cut open and a bloody hand burst out from inside, clutching his beating heart tightly.

Behind Di Shan, the ghastly wailing of the female ghost got louder and clearer.

The black hair behind the throne spread out like a spiderweb, curling around Di Shan's neck and strangling him.

Crack!

As Di Shan's head was snapped by the hair, it fell off his body and rolled forward like a ball.

The woman was covered in ominous yin energy as she grinned at Luo Hong. She widened her mouth so much that her gums were showing.

The eerie smile numbed Luo Hong's scalp right away.

"E-excuse me?" 

Luo Hong planned to return to the storeroom. He somehow missed the storeroom's peace and warmth.

"Hehehe, my young lord, it's late. Do you want me to tend to you so that we can go to bed?"

The woman ripped Di Shan's heart out and started sucking on the blood. She looked at Luo Hong coquettishly, talking to him in a seductive tone.

'Bed! My! Ass!' Luo Hong looked rather gloomy. 'I thought Luo Feng said that the bandits aren't related to the evil beings. Why is this thing here in the stockade then?'

He turned around and ran for his life. He smelled death, and he knew that he would be dead if he stayed for any longer.

"Hehehe. My young lord, don't run. I'm lonely, I'm empty, I'm cold!"

The woman's eerie voice filled the air, echoing as though there were walls around Luo Hong.

The seductive woman suddenly appeared before Luo Hong in her revealing dress and snow white legs. Luo Hong did not even sense her movement.

If the woman could wipe the blood off her mouth, Luo Hong might take this encounter as a romantic one, but it was a different story now.

Luo Hong strongly believed as a boy, he really needed to learn how to protect himself.

"Are you the evil being who massacred several nearby village?" 

Since running was no longer an option, Luo Hong took a deep breath and calmed down.

"Hehehe, why don't my young lord have a guess?"

The seductive woman took a step forward, slowly moving closer to him. Her tongue was licking her lips and her eyes were gleaming sharply.

"I'll assume it's you."

There was nothing left to say, Luo Hong raised his sword at the woman.

The woman cackle with laughter.

"The yang qi in you is bold, I supposed my young lord is a Ruism cultivator?"

The woman nonchalantly sauntered forward. The ominous yin qi around he was rumbling and there was a hint of bloody sparkle hiding in between.

"Handsome and elegant, a gentleman, I like a Ruism cultivator's... HEART!"

"I'll kill you, take your skin and walk Anping County in the name of justice! Hehehe, I really like you because you come straight to death's door!" said the woman with a smile.

Her face suddenly turned ferocious, blood gushed out from her face and dyed her dress and body red, turning her into a ferocious ghost.

Luo Hong grinned bitterly.

'I knew something was wrong with this world! My evil plan is ruined again!'

He went through a lot to join the bandits, he thought he was on his way to earn Sin Level and yet it turned out that the bandits were wiped out!

However, his priority at the moment was to make it out alive.

The female ghost was terrifying!

The pressure from the female ghost was as strong as Zhao Donghan, who had an Eighth Grade Steel Bone cultivation, but her methods were much more mystifying.

Therefore, the female ghost, probably the one behind the evil being, should be an Eighth Grade evil cultivator!

It was then Luo Hong thought of something. His eyes gleamed sharply as the woman came closer.

"Hold up!"

The woman looked at Luo Hong in confusion.

"Miss, we are actually allies. Let me tell you something, I'm also an evil cultivator," said Luo Hong.

The woman cackled coquettishly when she heard Luo Hong's excuse.

The yang qi in his body was bold yet he claimed to be an evil cultivator? 

Did he just assume her as a woman with boobs instead of brains?

The woman did not bother to reason with Luo Hong. Her snow white legs moved and her figure strode forward swiftly, leaving afterimages in her trail.

She reeked of bloody energy and she was moving closer to Luo Hong.

Danger filled Luo Hong's heart. He swung the sword at the woman out of instinct.

Boom!

It was then Luo Hong felt a sharp stream of energy moving through his meridians and the energy was fired out from the sword, striking the woman as she charged forward.

Bzzt!

Luo Hong felt like a sprinting wagon rammed him over. Blood gushed from his mouth and nose as he fell, his hands and feet rubbed against the ground as he was sent flying towards Di Shan's headless body.

"Sword qi? You are a sword cultivator?!"

The woman screamed in her sharp and irritating voice as she looked at Luo Hong in shock.

The sword qi from Luo Hong was vast and powerful, which shocked her.

He might be a Ruism cultivator on the outside and claimed to be an evil cultivator but he was a sword cultivator in his core!

'Men! Hmph! Men's mouth is the ghost of lies!'

"A mere Ninth Grade sword cultivator's sword qi, yet its vast and powerful, but… I supposed you just got your meridians activated, how many slashes can you perform?!"

The woman charged forward again like an arrow let loose, bloody glimmers shone across her swiftly moving figure.

Luo Hong was over the moon when he realized his sword qi was effective against her, he latched on to the last life-saving straw.

He swung his sword fiercely and the sharp energy in his meridians gathered once again.

Bzzt!

The sword qi was fired out from his sword once again.

With death charging closer and closer, Luo Hong swung his sword ceaselessly, unleashing the sword qi at the woman one after another.

The woman was forced to the brink of going mad.

'Is he really a Ninth Grade sword cultivator who just had his meridians activated? He had probably unleashed seven to eight slashes at me!'

'If he was a normal Ninth Grade Sword cultivator, he would have depleted his strength at the second or third slash, how could he last this long?!'

On the other hand, after unleashing seven to eight sword qi, Luo Hong felt weak. He was covered in bruises and blood, looking as bad as he could get.

The sword qi in his meridians were also depleted.

He was exhausted that he could no longer fire sword qi at the woman. Bitterness rose in his heart and was apparent on his face.

The moment his sword qi was depleted, the woman appeared behind him with her dense bloody aura. It was so dense that it could suffocate him directly.

Her black hair curled around his neck and she said, "Going empty, I see?"

Her ghastly voice sounded in Luo Hong's ears.

Luo Hong quivered as death enveloped him whole.

"Hehehe, my young lord, I…will take your body as my vessel now!"

Kaboom!!!

The woman cackled. Her bloody aura erupted and was headed for Luo Hong's body.

Luo Hong thought he was going to die on the spot but then a powerful suction force appeared in his dantian, absorbing the bloody aura from the woman and stopped it from controlling his body.

The woman noticed that something was not right. 

A quick thought later, she sensed the pure yin energy at Luo Hong's dantian and her eyes widened in shock.

"You…" 

Luo Hong grinned in difficulty. "I told you I'm an evil cultivator. I'm an ally. Why don't you believe me?"

As his words subsided, he lifted his hand and curled his fingers into a claw, pointing it at Di Shan's headless body.

'I summon the shadow of the dead! Phantom Shadow…Activate!'

Luo Hong turned around and looked at Di Shan's body. He said in a hoarse voice, "Stand up…"