25: Chapter 25: Departure, Heading to Ghost Domain Manor!

He took another look, and the number of replies was zero.

Three days had passed, and no one had taken it.

That made sense; most testers capable of dealing with ghosts around the Level 2 Ghost Domain had been requisitioned by the Demon Suppression Division to the front lines, and those who hadn't been requisitioned looked down on this kind of civilian bounty.

Five hundred thousand was a huge sum to ordinary people, but for two-star testers, they could earn it by taking on a few official missions.

It wasn't worth doing this kind of work.

But it was different for Lin Ye.

He was short of money right now, extremely short!

Lin Ye brought his phone a bit closer and carefully looked at the location provided in the help post.

Donglu Villa District, Qingzhou City, No. 28 Longyin Road, a detached villa.

He was stunned for a moment, swiped out of the post, opened the map, and compared it with the location of tomorrow's assessment ghost domain.

The two coordinates almost coincided, and the straight-line distance was no more than one kilometer.

"Such a coincidence?"

He put down his phone and stared at the ceiling for two seconds.

Then he sent a private message to the person asking for help: "Tomorrow afternoon, I'll contact you after I arrive at the scene."

After sending it, he tossed his phone beside the pillow and lay flat on the bed.

The spring bed let out an overburdened groan.

He kept his eyes open in the darkness, several thoughts spinning in his mind.

Hunting ghosts could yield demon cores.

Not just wandering ghosts, all ghosts would leave behind a core after being slain, and the higher the grade, the better the effect.

And the function of the core, besides tempering weapons and exchanging for merits, had one most important feature.

Shortening the cooling time for returning to the other world!

One month.

Testers needed a full interval of a month to return to their bound world!

But if they could accumulate enough demon cores, especially high-tier cores, this cooling time could be drastically shortened.

Given the current situation, as long as he killed enough and high enough level, he wouldn't even need to wait a month to enter the Classic of Mountains and Seas again.

Kunlun Mountain, xuanyuan sword fragments, that true origin of thunder deep within Leize...

All of these were waiting for him.

"Judging by the improvement speed from the first time, going a few more times, I will truly be invincible in the world!"

Lin Ye was even somewhat looking forward to tomorrow.

A Level 2 Ghost Domain, twenty wandering ghosts, a late-stage Resentful Spirit core.

These weren't obstacles, they were nourishment to shorten the cooling time!

But money was also very important.

The Tester Association would definitely tilt resources toward him; his score of shattering the dynamometer and setting a record meant the rewards wouldn't be few.

But completing the approval process above would take at least half a month.

Layer upon layer of approval, qualification review, resource allocation—none of these steps could be rushed.

And the rent was due next week.

Relying on others was not as good as relying on oneself.

He was going to that area tomorrow anyway, so it was on the way.

"Take a bath and go to sleep!"

Early the next morning, the sky was not yet fully bright.

A military-green bus of the Demon Suppression Division was parked at the school gate of Qingzhou University, with four black off-road vehicles lined up in front and behind.

Captain Zheng leaned against the bus door, holding a cup of steaming soy milk in his hand.

Seeing the students walking over in twos and threes, he put down the cup and counted the headcount.

"Is everyone here? Get on the bus."

The bus started and drove along the main road toward the outskirts of the city.

Outside the car window, the lights on both sides of the street went out one by one.

The sky turned from black to gray, and from gray to white, as if chasing after the bus.

But the closer it got to the outskirts, the darker the sky became...

A huge gray fog cloud hung over the distant skyline, like a rag covering the sun.

The atmosphere in the carriage became increasingly stifling as the fog approached.

At first, people were still chatting and joking.

Wang Zheng was boasting in the back row with a short boy next to him, saying that he was in the Shadow Escape Plane yesterday.

He used substitution jutsu to toy with a mid-tier ninja, and the short boy laughed and cursed him for boasting without drafting a text.

But gradually, the laughter disappeared.

A thin layer of mist began to condense on the car windows, carrying an eerie cold tone.

Su Tang sat in the window seat next to Lin Ye, and the Silver Moon Wolf lay at her feet, staring fixedly at the gray fog, its throat continuously emitting low whimpers.

"It's scared."

Su Tang said in a low voice, placing her hand on top of the Silver Moon Wolf's head to comfort it; after all, it was still just a cub.

Lin Ye glanced at the Silver Moon Wolf.

This combat-type monster, which could rank in the top ten even in the Monster Contract Plane, already had its tail tucked between its two hind legs at this moment.

This reaction basically told him that the female ghost in the fog was definitely more than simple as written in the data.

"The closer we get to the villa, the more the temperature has dropped by nearly ten degrees."

Wang Zheng spoke suddenly, reaching out to touch the car window glass, which was chillingly cold.

"The range of this ghost domain is much larger than what we saw yesterday."

The carriage fell silent for a few seconds, and several people quietly wrapped their coats tighter.

Right amidst this gloom, Jiang Xiaohong suddenly stood up from his seat.

He walked two steps toward Lin Ye's direction and sat down in the row right in front of Lin Ye.

"Lin Ye,"

His volume was just right for everyone in the carriage to hear.

"About yesterday's dynamometer, we haven't finished talking yet. Shouldn't you explain to everyone how on earth you shattered it?"

Several companions behind him turned their heads at the same time.

Wang Zheng looked at Lin Ye with a half-smile.

A boy named Zhou Peng was next to him.

He came out from the Barbaric Martial Arts Plane, scoring 71 points on his initial test, and was Jiang Xiaohong's dormitory roommate.

He had been whispering to Jiang Xiaohong ever since getting on the bus, and at this moment, he also turned his body around.

"I heard,"

Jiang Xiaohong said with a hint of casual banter in his tone.

"There isn't no way to take shortcuts with that dynamometer thing. For example, using some kind of disposable item to multiply the output in a short time, and it fails right after the test. That stick of yours... looks wrong."

Lu Wanqing sat in the back row, her lips moving as if she wanted to say something, but she was nudged in the elbow by Zhou Peng next to her, swallowing her words back down.

Su Tang was about to speak when Lin Ye reached out and pressed her wrist.

"If you feel unconvinced, according to the Tester Regulations, you can challenge me right now. The rules allow it, and I accept. You can make up for the merit points deducted afterward yourself."

If the occasion weren't inappropriate, Lin Ye could shatter him with a single punch.

Jiang Xiaohong's smile froze for a split second.

"You've got quite a big mouth."

He moved his fingers, and a thin purple-black line of spell power slithered between his fingers like a living creature.

The air pressure in the carriage suddenly dropped a bit lower.

The curve of his lips held a half-smile: "Forget it, once we enter the ghost domain, it will naturally become clear, but well..."

"Just don't hold us back when the time comes; we aren't going there to be babysitters for certain people."

Zhou Peng chimed in from the side: "The villa ghost domain is a battlefield that only the strongest testers of our batch deserve to enter. Brother Jiang analyzed it for us all night yesterday—the weaknesses of the late-stage Resentful Spirit, the flaws of the illusion, the movement patterns of the wandering ghost horde, everything is figured out. If he dares to say he's confident in getting the core, then he's truly confident. As for certain people, anyway, stop hiding; whether you're human or ghost, it will all become clear once we go in."

His voice wasn't loud, but it could be heard clearly in the quiet carriage, obviously meant for Lin Ye.

Jiang Xiaohong waved his hand, signaling Zhou Peng to say no more, then leaned back in his chair with a resolute tone.

"I am confident I will slay the female ghost and take the demon core directly. When the time comes, I'll let everyone see who the true genius is!"

"..."

Lin Ye thought to himself, is it possible that no one wants to steal your genius title?

Forget it.

Once they reached the ghost domain, without supervision, he could just find any random place to kill this kid, and coming out, he'd say he was seduced by a female ghost and died.

Several students huddled around Jiang Xiaohong in the carriage nodded one after another.

They were all small faction members Jiang Xiaohong had recruited before getting off the bus.

Someone patted Jiang Xiaohong on the shoulder and said, "Brother Jiang has got this."

Someone glanced sideways in Lin Ye's direction and sneered.

The bus's speed gradually slowed down.

Ahead, the thick gray-white fog stood like a wall spanning across the end of the road.

Behind the fog wall, the roof outlines of a few villas could be vaguely seen, and in front of one of them, two red dots were slowly lighting up...