Chapter 48: Shadows of Ghosts

That way of putting it made it sound like I was just standing on the sidelines watching.

I was clearly putting in a massive amount of effort, but I was pinned down by the black mist and simply couldn't free my hands.

"Put some strength into it, will you!"

Xu Wei practically roared those words.

Yet somehow, hearing that sounded a bit weird to me. If those words came out of a young woman's mouth, it would be totally normal, but shouted by Xu Wei, it gave me the creeps.

A real man cannot be told he's not up to the task!

"Break!"

I felt as though I was summoning every ounce of strength I had ever possessed in my life.

Suddenly, the inscriptions carved along the heavy sword began to shift, continuously reassembling themselves.

From deep within the inscribed greatsword came a series of mechanical clicking sounds.

A few seconds later, the inscribed heavy sword seemed to become countless times sharper. The black mist that had previously blocked all strikes was instantly breached.

The greatsword smoothly slashed down onto the coffin.

The coffin lid had already regenerated. I yanked the inscribed sword free and brought it down once more.

With every single blow, a fresh crack seemed to spiderweb across the coffin lid.

After more than a dozen heavy strikes, the coffin lid could no longer hold its shape and shattered entirely.

From within the coffin, an even denser wave of black mist surged outward.

"How dare you ruin my plans! I'll have you all die for this!" A woman's eerie, sarcastic voice echoed from within that mass of dark vapor.

The voice possessed terrifying piercing power, echoing straight into the heart of every single person present.

I shuddered all over, as if a sudden, freezing gale had swept right through me, sending a chill deep into my soul.

"Not good! This is a ghost mother on the verge of fully forming!"

Within our group, Xu Wei suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, "The Hariti Mother of Ghosts! Once it takes complete form, there won't be many people left in this entire world capable of stopping it."

A ghost mother?

Hearing that term, everyone froze in their tracks.

The ghost mother was one of the most ferocious and vicious evil entities in existence, a hundred or a thousand times more terrifying than a red-robed specter.

Some members of our group were already wavering, quietly preparing to make their escape.

The moment a ghost mother emerged, all thoughts of resistance vanished from everyone's minds.

"Bang!"

A gunshot rang out—Xu Wei had fired his weapon. "Whoever dares to run, don't blame my gun for being ruthless! Everyone listen up, Li Sanshui and I will draw the ghost mother's attention, and the rest of you find a way to destroy that coffin!"

Hearing this, some people didn't dare disobey.

The gun in Xu Wei's hand was covered in dense, engraved talismans; it was effective not only against evil entities, but against living people just as well.

The firearm possessed the destructive power of a standard weapon, meaning a single shot would essentially guarantee death.

Xu Wei raised his tactical baton and rushed forward to engage the ghost mother in close combat.

Li Sanshui refused to lag behind either, drawing a peach-wood sword as he darted agilely around the battle.

The two of them were exceptionally strong, considered top-tier figures within the ancient capital, yet facing the ghost mother, they still lacked sufficient power and were repeatedly knocked flying.

Fortunately, both of them possessed immensely rich combat experience. Every time they faced mortal danger, they managed to dodge by the skin of their teeth. Even so, in less than a minute, they had already sustained numerous injuries across their bodies.

As for the rest of us, we crowded around the edge of the coffin.

"Hah..."

The corpse resting inside the coffin was breathing in a steady, rhythmic pattern.

The succession of breaths seemed eerily methodical, and those with weaker willpower inevitably found themselves unconsciously syncing their own breathing to the frequency of the corpse.

Within mere seconds, a few people were coughing up blood uncontrollably.

"Attack!"

Someone let out a loud roar, and everyone brandished their ritual implements and magical tools, striking directly at the coffin.

Yet before those magical artifacts could hit the coffin, dozens of ghostly phantoms materialized in mid-air, intercepting every single blow.

Instantly, the shrill shrieks of tortured spirits echoed endlessly.

These ghosts were using their very souls as a living wall, blocking the space directly above the coffin.

Have they all lost their minds?

Looking at this overlapping wall of ghostly phantoms, my scalp prickled with dread.

But I knew we couldn't drag this out any longer. If we delayed and Xu Wei or Li Sanshui were gravely injured through any slight carelessness, the rest of us would likely find it impossible to withstand the ghost mother's onslaught.

"Break!"

Wielding the inscribed greatsword as if I were chopping firewood, I brought it down with a single stroke, shattering a ghostly phantom into pieces.

Gradually, the phantom wall formed by the spirits in front of me was reduced to a mere, thin layer.

Just as I prepared to bring my sword down again, I caught sight of a familiar ghostly figure—it was the old man I had seen earlier while defending the perimeter.

He was the one who had saved me last time.

Why hasn't he fled?

For a moment, my hand froze, unable to deliver the blow.

"There's a gap right here!"

Someone shouted loudly, and a dozen magical tools slammed into the old man's phantom shadow.

In a split second, the old man vanished.

And because of that single missing section, the entire barrier of spirits rapidly began to collapse in on itself.

A pang of guilt tugged at my heart.

That old man must have had some unspeakable hardship; he was originally a good person, yet he had been forcibly imprisoned here by the ghost mother and compelled to obey her commands against his will.

Instantly, a surge of burning anger began to gather within my chest.

The world of the living belongs to the living; why should evil entities be allowed to wreak such havoc?

You're courting death!

"Move aside!"

I gripped the inscribed greatsword tightly and drove it straight down into the coffin.

"Clang!"

A crisp metallic sound rang out, as if the longsword had struck solid rock.

The next second, a massive recoil surged back through the blade, knocking me off balance instantly and leaving the web of my hand completely numb.

Inside the coffin, the corpse slowly sat up.

Countless magical artifacts struck the corpse, only to be violently bounced backward.

With so many people attacking at once, is it still impossible to suppress the ghost mother?

"Hurry the hell up and move faster, you bastards!"

Not far away, Xu Wei was cursing furiously, his entire body drenched in blood.

That blood clearly didn't belong to Xu Wei; it must have come from Li Sanshui.

Both of them were reaching their absolute limits, struggling to hold on.

Our side was in no better shape either. The corpse seemed to possess a conscious will; the ghost-mother's offspring residing within its body manipulated the physical shell, launching a sudden strike against the crowd before attempting to flee toward the perimeter.

Clearly, whether it was the ghost mother or its progeny, they were deliberately stalling for time as well.

Once the ghost mother finished off Xu Wei and Li Sanshui, the remaining task would be to wipe us out one by one.

"Snap!"

A long whip coiled tightly around the corpse. This whip was also crafted from specialized ritual materials; the moment it wrapped around the corpse, it began to hiss and crackle with energy. However, the damage it inflicted on the corpse was minimal.

The overwhelming Yin energy emanating from the corpse continuously eroded the spiritual properties of the whip.

"Give me a hand!"

Li Yiran shouted to the rest of us.

Without hesitation, a dozen people lined up behind Li Yiran, helping her pull down hard on the whip.

The whip temporarily managed to bind the ghost mother's corpse in place.

There was no time to lose. I hoisted the inscribed greatsword, lunged forward with a stride, and brought it down heavily upon the corpse.

This strike finally pierced through its defenses!

A massive gash was carved into the shoulder of the ghost mother's corpse.

I raised the sword to stab again.

This time, my target was the corpse's abdomen.

To capture the bandits, you must first capture their leader; I'll wipe out this ghost spawn first!

"Die!"

The longsword thrust forward in a flash. But unlike the previous slashing strike, this time the blade failed to advance even an inch further.

However, the runes carved along the length of the inscribed greatsword began to spin once more.

This time, rather than simply increasing the sharpness of the sword, the inscriptions detached themselves from the blade, slithering outward and beginning to spread across the body of the ghost mother's corpse.