Chapter 866: Ghouls

Intense tainted energies seemed to be coming out of the mouth of the spacious, unfathomable cave, around which numerous corpses were piled up.

Nie Tian took a quick glance at them, and realized that they belonged to different races.

Xie Wanting’s air-transportation spiritual tool continued to approach. When they were about a few dozen meters from the mouth of the cave, she stopped and asked, “Do we go inside and explore?”

Yin Yanan seemed somewhat edgy as she said, “We’ve explored the Bloody Grave Mountain Range for some time now, but we haven’t found anything truly valuable. If what you said is true and the Bloody Grave Mountain Range does hold countless precious spiritual materials, where are they then? I say we go inside this cave and explore.”

Xie Wanting then turned to fix Nie Tian with an inquiring look.

Nie Tian nodded.

After flying to the mouth of the cave, Xie Wanting said, “As wide as the cave is, it’s not fit for air-transportation spiritual tools to fly in it. I suggest we travel on foot.”

“Alright." Nie Tian took the initiative to jump off the air-transportation spiritual tool and walk into the cave.

As he did, he unleashed his unique bloodline power to scan his surroundings.

Faint ghostly flames could be seen on some of the corpses at the mouth of the cave. The flames contained toxins that were very harmful for any creatures with flesh and blood.

However, since they didn’t emanate any sort of energy, Nie Tian’s worries were eliminated.

Nie Tian waved his hand, beckoning for the girls to come. “From the look of it, these corpses aren’t ghouls, or haven’t turned into ghouls yet.” 

After Xie Wanting put her air-transportation spiritual tool away, the four of them started marching slowly into cave.

The cave was so spacious that it would allow more than a dozen people to walk side by side.

However, the tainted energies in the cave seemed to be much more intense than the tainted energies outside. Traveling in it, they had to consume even more power to ward them off.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

After marching about a hundred meters into the cave, five evil spirits suddenly flew out of a small tunnel in the cave wall.

Yin Yanan and the girls’ expressions flickered slightly as they saw them pouncing on them, and hastily urged Nie Tian to take his Spirit Pearl out.

However, Nie Tian didn’t do so right away.

“What the hell are you doing, Nie Tian?!” Yin Yanan asked with an anxious expression.

When the evil spirits were only three meters from them, they experienced stabbing pain in their heads. Wisps of the evil spirits’ gruesome auras infiltrated their minds and started to bewitch their minds into leaving their seas of awareness.

Frightened looks spread across their faces.

Only at this moment did Nie Tian summon his Spirit Pearl from within his ring of holding.

As soon as the Spirit Pearl appeared, cyan light burst forth, engulfing the five evil spirits.

Like a powerful magnet, the Spirit Pearl bound the five evil spirits down completely. The evil spirits sensed the unfavorable situation, and thus screamed madly while doing their utmost to struggle free.

However, no matter what they did, the evil spirits couldn’t escape the Spirit Pearl’s magnetic field. Instead, they flew uncontrollably into the Spirit Pearl one after another.

Immediately afterwards, Nie Tian sent a wisp of his soul awareness into the Spirit Pearl, and discovered that the evil spirits were purged and split into more discarnate souls via some profound soul magic.

And thanks to them, more details of the Bloody Grave Mountain Range part of the star map were drawn.

At the same time, the Spirit Pearl seemed to have grown slightly more powerful after refining those fierce evil spirits.

With a smile, Nie Tian said, “From now on, do not panic if evil spirits pounce on us. This special tool I gained from the Phantasms will be able to absorb them after they come close enough.”

With one hand on her chest, Xie Wanting was still badly shaken as she said, “I was totally scared. I thought you were bewitched by those evil spirits.”

The four of them then moved out again.

They ran into a few more groups of evil spirits along their way.

Nie Tian took care of them with the same method by taking out the Spirit Pearl after they came close enough. Too late to escape, all of them were sucked into the Spirit Pearl.

After absorbing the evil spirits, the cyan light the Spirit Pearl emanated became even brighter as its soul grew stronger.

“Not only can it help me take care of the evil spirits in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range, but it also grows stronger during the process. This is not bad at all.” A faint smile appeared at the corner of Nie Tian’s mouth as he suddenly had a feeling that even if he didn’t get to collect any precious spiritual materials during this trip, he would benefit a great deal from it, since just the evil spirits alone would help his Spirit Pearl grow significantly stronger.

A quarter hour later...

The four of them came to a place in the spacious cave where more than a dozen corpses were scattered on the ground.

From the look of it, they hadn’t been dead for very long, since they were still wreathed in residual flesh auras.

CRACK! CRACK!

Strange, bloodcurdling sounds suddenly came from among the corpses. Nie Tian narrowed his eyes to take a closer look at the scattered corpses, and then said in a low, cold voice, “Ghouls!”

At this moment, Xie Wanting and the girls also noticed that there was a different kind of corpse crouching over the others.

They were completely naked without a single shred of cloth covering their bodies. Most of them seemed to be outsiders, like Demons, Phantasm, or Fiends.

They were covered in fine white hair, and their eyes were hollow, and didn’t have the slightest spark in them.

At this moment, they were crouching over other corpses, ripping flesh off their bones and cracking their bones with their teeth, as if they were having quite a feast.

Three of the dead corpses were already gnawed away, with nothing but a few large bones left.

A foul smell pervaded this area of the cave.

It was a woman’s nature to be disgusted by scenes like this. Xie Wanting, Yin Yanan, and Mu Biqiong all had disgusted looks on their faces as they subconsciously wanted to get out of the cave.

The scene of ghouls swooping out and munching on rotted internal organs came with such a strong impact that they almost threw up.

“This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,” Yin Yanan said, frowning and covering her mouth and nose with one hand.

She had already formed a ward of frosty aura around her to keep the tainted energies away, so she couldn’t actually smell the rotted foul smell in this place. However, she still covered her mouth and nose, as if only in this way would she feel better.

Eyes narrowed, Nie Tian stood in place and examined the ghouls closely without saying anything.

As he had expected, the ghouls carried a special aura, which was rather similar to the death power that Bonebrutes carried.

However, unlike pure death power, the aura these ghouls carried seemed to be a mixture of corpse toxins and death power, which reeked of rotted flesh.

Almost all of the ghouls had been outsiders. It was unknown what had turned them and allowed them to form the special mixed aura around them.

Furthermore, since they didn’t have souls, they seemed to only be able to ‘live’ in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range. Once they were separated from the unique environment here, they would instantly collapse and die.

The ghouls had apparently sniffed out Nie Tian and the girls’ fresh life force, yet they didn’t come to attack them right away. Instead, they were still focused on the corpses they were munching on.

“We agreed that I’ll take care of the evil spirits, and you’ll take care of the ghouls,” Nie Tian said with a plain tone.

The girls’ expressions froze as soon as they heard these words.

None of them had known what ghouls really were until they saw them personally now. The scene of them feasting on the corpses was so repulsive that they couldn’t bring themselves to fight them.

It was as if a mere touch from them would give them nightmares.

Nie Tian gave a cold harrumph. “You all knew that there were ghouls in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range, so as long as we’re here, we’ll run into them from time to time. Right now, they’re busy eating those corpses, but once they’re finished, they’ll come for us.

“Imagine this: if they killed you, then you’d become the corpses they feast upon...”

“Stop it!” Yin Yanan shouted.

Though very reluctant, she stepped towards the ghouls.

“I know this is probably not the best time to summon you, but I kinda have to...” Yin Yanan said inwardly.

Then, the eighth grade Frost Blood Python slithered out of her waist.

As soon as it separated itself from Yin Yanan, an alarmingly large amount of tainted energies converged on her.

As powerful as it was, it was apparently unadapted to the tainted energies, and thus hastily covered itself with armor made of ice.

The tainted energies gathered around it were much more corrosive than the ones around Nie Tian and the girls. Even with its eighth grade bloodline power, it seemed to be having a difficult time keeping them away.

Nie Tian saw fine fissures appearing on the pieces of ice covering its body, as if they could shatter at any moment.

With a low hiss, the Frost Blood Python hastily summoned its bloodline power to fill the area of the cave with frigid cold.

In the next moment, everything around them was frozen, including the ghouls, the corpses, and the cave walls. With all of them turned into ice sculptures, even the foul smell seemed to be largely lightened.

“Something is shining under those corpses,” Mu Biqiong said with a surprised expression.