Chapter 162 The Blade's Cry Buries the Soul

The expression on Chen Mu's face had turned into an undisguised bloodthirsty smile. Dark golden light swirled in his eyes, and Jie power roared through his Meridians, forming a confrontation with the surrounding Yin Qi, yet strangely stimulating his killing intent.

He killed faster and faster, growing more and more insane, with a terrifyingly high efficiency.

Often, just as Qi Huan had struggled to finish off two or three Ghostly Creatures, a large area around Chen Mu had already been cleared.

But there were simply too many Ghostly Creatures. The resentment accumulated in the Yangu Pit over hundreds of years bred an endless supply of them; as one batch died, more immediately surged out of the thick fog, and their strength was slowly increasing.

Wounds began to appear on Chen Mu's body.

A sharp claw hidden in a pile of skeletons seized the moment he was busy slaying enemies in front to ambush him, leaving three wounds on his right arm so deep the bone was visible.

But he seemed not to notice. The pain only stimulated him, making the blood-red color in his eyes deepen and his smile grow increasingly ferocious.

"Come! All of you, come! Kill! Kill you all!"

Meanwhile, Qi Huan noticed something was wrong.

Chen Mu's blade technique had changed; from its initial precision and efficiency, it had become frenzied.

He no longer sought to kill with a single blow, but instead used the most explosive and cruel methods to slay the Ghostly Creatures.

Battlefield wraiths were cut in half at the waist by him, only for him to follow up with another strike to split their skulls. Drowned vengeful ghosts were hacked into several pieces, and he would repeatedly hack at infant spirit evils in a manner bordering on torture until that piercing wail completely disappeared.

After the Ghostly Creatures were hacked, the red and white filth solidified from Yin Qi and resentment splashed all over him, dyeing him into a blood-soaked figure.

"Chen Mu!"

Qi Huan slashed open a lunging drowned vengeful ghost and shouted sharply.

"Wake up! We should retreat; we have already gone deep enough!"

As they went deeper, the pressure on Qi Huan grew greater and greater. He had already abandoned active attacks and switched to a defensive stance, with his Five Cloud Hands Qi transforming into clouds and mist to protect his body, struggling to resist the siege of the Ghostly Creatures.

He snatched a moment to look in Chen Mu's direction, and the horror in his heart grew heavier.

Chen Mu was still killing, his efficiency still terrifying, but what Qi Huan saw was no longer that calm, rational companion who planned before acting.

What he saw was a madman immersed in the pleasure of slaughter.

Chen Mu no longer even avoided unnecessary attacks, often trading injury for life, as if his body were not his own, but merely a tool for slaughter.

"Chen Mu, wake up, we should retreat!"

Qi Huan swung his blade to force back a battlefield wraith while using his Qi to transmit his voice.

Chen Mu's movements paused slightly, and he turned his head to look at Qi Huan.

Just that one look made Qi Huan feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

Indifferent, hollow, as if looking at an unimportant object.

Qi Huan even caught a trace of impatience in the depths of his eyes regarding his own clamor.

Chen Mu did not respond; he turned his head and walked toward the depths without hesitation.

"You're fucking insane!"

Qi Huan was so angry he cursed loudly, but he could not pull away; the surrounding Ghostly Creatures were entangling him tightly.

Chen Mu could not hear him, or perhaps he did not care; there was only burning killing intent in his heart.

He no longer calculated his Moves, nor did he think about strategy; he only enjoyed the pleasure of plundering Lifespan.

[Plunder Lifespan: Five Years]

[Plunder Lifespan: Eight Years]

[Plunder Lifespan: Twelve Years]

...

The notification sounds were continuous. Chen Mu glanced at his panel, where the total amount of plundered Lifespan was rising rapidly, and combined with his previously remaining Lifespan, it was about to approach three thousand years!

This number made his heart beat wildly.

"Almost there... almost there... more... I want more..."

Unknowingly, he had already penetrated several miles into the Yangu Pit.

The surrounding mist was dense, visibility was less than ten meters, and the ground beneath his feet began to become soft and sticky, with every step sinking half an inch; it was meat-mud formed by the long-term decay of corpses mixed with soil.

Qi Huan had long been left behind by him, and Chen Mu did not care about his situation.

In his world, only the Ghostly Creatures and his blade remained.

"Roar!"

The mist in front suddenly rolled violently, a roar shook the bone powder into the air, and a massive figure slowly walked out of the mist.

It was a Ghost General riding a skeletal warhorse, clad in tattered armor, holding a rusty long spear, with two clusters of dark red ghost fire burning in the eye sockets of its skull.

The aura it emitted had reached the threshold of the Heart-Awakening Realm. Although it was a bit unstable and clearly formed by swallowing and Fusion, that pressure far exceeded all previous Ghostly Creatures.

Chen Mu stopped, panting slightly, licked the bloodstains on his lips, and a light erupted in his eyes that had never been seen before.

"Finally... a decent one has arrived."

His plundered Lifespan was about to break through the three-thousand-year mark; the jumping numbers on the panel brought a distorted sense of satisfaction, but also made the emptiness and irritability in his heart sharper.

If I kill this one, I will definitely be able to plunder more!

Chen Mu grinned viciously, neither dodging nor avoiding, and charged straight up.

The Ghost General also charged on its horse; the skeletal warhorse's hooves stepped out ghostly green flames, and the long spear emitted a shrill scream.

The power of this spear strike far exceeded all previous Ghostly Creatures.

Chen Mu, however, seemed not to see that fatal spear strike, staring only at the Ghostly Creature. The moment it was about to pierce his chest, his figure flashed strangely.

The long spear grazed past his ribs, cutting a slit in his clothes, and the cold Yin Qi invaded his body.

Chen Mu did not care; he lifted the soul-slaying blade from bottom to top, the blade edge with absolute precision, hacking at the wrist bone of the Ghostly Creature holding the spear.

"Crack!"

The wrist bone snapped on impact, the long spear fell from its hand, and the Ghostly Creature let out a silent roar, its other hand grabbing toward Chen Mu's head.

Chen Mu did not dodge or hide, but instead met it head-on.

"Puff!"

The bone claw grabbed Chen Mu's shoulder, tearing the flesh and leaving five bloodstains deep enough to see bone, and cold, resentful energy poured in frantically, attempting to erode his vitality.

Chen Mu seemed unable to feel the pain; his blade had already pierced into the Ghost General's eye socket.

The blade twisted, and the dark red resentful fire was suddenly extinguished.

[Slayed Resentful Spirit Ghost General, Plunder Martial Dao Lifespan: One Hundred and Eighty-Seven Years]

A majestic heat flow poured into Chen Mu's body like a flood; the three-thousand-year mark had been Breakthrough.

The pain from the claw wound on his shoulder was piercing; shoulder, chest, ribs, there was almost no intact place on his whole body, and blood soaked his robes, dripping onto the ground.

But he was laughing.

Because the plundered Lifespan had broken through three thousand years, because he had become stronger again, because...

Wait.

Chen Mu's smile suddenly froze; the soul-slaying blade vibrated violently, and a chill that went straight to the Divine Soul came from the blade, mixed with countless broken images, crashing into Chen Mu's Sea of Consciousness.

"Ugh, ah!"

Chen Mu groaned, his figure staggering.

That was not the cold and orderly information of the System notification sound, but a massive, chaotic impact filled with negative emotions.

His consciousness began to blur, and reality and illusion intertwined.

He saw countless bizarre and grotesque images; those were not his own memories, but came from the hundreds of Ghostly Creatures he had slain.

Soldiers charging and being pierced through the chest by spears, women holding children being pushed into deep pits and buried, generals sighing with unwillingness before committing suicide after defeat, the confusion and resentment of lonely ghosts in endless years...

These were not clear memories, but the most primitive traces of existence at the moment of death, the brand left behind when life faded away.

They poured in reverse into Chen Mu's Divine Sense through the soul-slaying blade.

Too many!

Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands!

Every Ghostly Creature he had slain left a trace like this at the moment of death.

Usually, they were orderly stripped and converted by the System, but when the quantity increased sharply and cracks appeared in Chen Mu's mind due to killing intent, these accumulated traces of death finally found an outlet to vent.

Chen Mu's eyes were crimson gold, the veins on his forehead bulged, and the hand holding the blade was trembling slightly.

He felt he was about to be drowned.

Swallowed by countless deaths, countless resentments, and countless instances of unwillingness.