Chapter 48 - A Beautiful Coincidence
Luo He spent several days in the mountains practicing how to be a proper ghost that could pass for a human.
At this moment, the afternoon sun was just right.
Holding his umbrella, he squatted in the bamboo forest, reaching out to stroke a snow rabbit that was digging a hole in the ground.
The rabbit's ears twitched; it curiously raised its fluffy head and looked around, but found nothing unusual.
Luo He stood up with satisfaction.
By now, he could already freely choose whether to conceal his figure, and at the same time, he could perfectly feign physical effects including footprints and his hair being moved by the wind.
However, there were still two problems he couldn't solve.
One was that he had no shadow under the sunlight; the other was that he couldn't produce sounds like footsteps.
But this wasn't a major issue.
The white-clothed woman had told him before that as a ghost creature, he needed to absorb soul power to live.
The conditions for finding heavenly materials and earthly treasures were rather harsh, but if he were to absorb the life force of ordinary people for a long period, even if he controlled his intake, it would inevitably cause them harm.
After several days of thought, he decided to find a cultivator who could get along well with him, to be his travel companion... or rather, a mobile food pantry.
If it were a cultivator, that little bit of lost vital energy could be quickly replenished by absorbing spiritual energy, and there wouldn't be any serious impact.
Then, the main problems were how to find a cultivator willing to be "sucked" by him, and how to reach a friendly transaction.
Mm, this was indeed somewhat difficult.
However, it wasn't as if Luo He had no bargaining chips.
Thanks to that somewhat unlucky young girl from that day, Luo He believed not rushing down the mountain was the correct choice.
He spent some time exploring his own soul body and, as a result, received some unexpected pleasant surprises:
One was a change in his spiritual soul itself.
When he had directly faced the lightning tribulation, and that immortal's finger flick, it wasn't all bad.
Although his physical body was destroyed, his severely traumatized spiritual soul had unexpectedly fused with a trace of that divine lightning which executed the world's rules.
Luo He used his spiritual vision to examine his soul body and saw, amidst the vast majority of gray, a trace of utmost firm and yang thunder-purple.
This remnant breath of the lightning tribulation, besides greatly enhancing the toughness of his spiritual soul and expanding his soul power storage limit…
Also added a touch of yang nature to his spiritual soul, which should have originally been purely yin.
What specific changes this would bring, Luo He couldn't yet know, but he vaguely felt it would definitely be of great use in the future.
The second... made Luo He feel a myriad of emotions welling up.
Luo He twirled his fingertip, and a small, beautifully shaped sword emerged from within his body, moving with his fingertip.
This was the Autumn Maiden Sword, or rather, the sword soul of the Autumn Maiden Sword.
The Tianchen Sword Sect's seven ancient spirit swords passed down not only the spirit swords themselves but also those vicissitudinous sword souls that had experienced thousands of years of glory.
Only when a sword shatters can the sword soul detach from the spirit sword.
Luo He didn't know when the Autumn Maiden Sword had broken, nor when the Autumn Maiden Sword Soul had found him.
In short, it just latched onto him like this and wouldn't leave.
"Why bother..."
Luo He shook his head and smiled; the tiny Autumn Maiden Sword also shook its head along with him.
However, Luo He didn't actually mind it latching onto him, because it was truly very strong, and also very useful.
Luo He had tried it out. As a newborn ghost spirit, his cultivation from his previous life was completely wiped clean; the only resource he could utilize was the soul power exclusive to ghost spirits.
And his current soul power, let alone dealing with cultivators, was just about enough to kill a chicken.
But if the Autumn Maiden Sword Soul was in hand, then it was a different story.
Even if its main body had dissipated, its blade edge, tempered over a thousand years, was still immensely powerful.
Especially now in Luo He's hands, he could even use it to bypass the physical body and directly slash the spiritual soul.
That is to say, deal true damage.
Of course, this was also limited to opponents who had a spiritual soul; if it were a corpse puppet or something similar, he would be helpless.
However, it was worth noting that the Autumn Maiden Sword Soul was essentially an artifact soul, different from the A'Jiao Umbrella in his hand.
A'Jiao was a soul artifact, a combination of an artifact soul and a carrier; it had a physical entity, it was just that its material was special, allowing Luo He to wield it even without using soul power.
In terms of form, A'Jiao was somewhat more perfect than the Autumn Maiden Sword Soul.
If there was a chance, Luo He also wanted to transform the Autumn Maiden Sword Soul into a soul artifact like A'Jiao.
After all, whether it was a sword or a person, streaking around in a soul state wasn't exactly comfortable.
And Luo He's current goals were also to raise his soul power level as much as possible, and to find a way to regain a physical body.
This would be a long journey, but Luo He didn't mind this point.
For him, this current world was still so fresh.
"Alright, let's go into the city today."
He recalled the Autumn Maiden Sword into his body, planning to wait until nightfall to go into Xianfeng City and take a look.
Besides satisfying his own vigorous desire for exploration, he also wanted to try his luck and see if he could find some news about wandering cultivators.
He had already thought it through; he planned to find a wandering cultivator whose situation wasn't too smooth to be his host... no, partner.
He could provide the other party with some guidance in cultivation and swordsmanship, and in critical situations, he could even help him make a surprise move to defend against enemies.
And the price for all of this would only require feeding him a little bit of human vitality at regular intervals.
No matter how one thought about it, it was a very good deal.
To smoothly conclude a transaction, a suitable set of clothes was clearly indispensable.
Luo He looked down at himself; in an instant, mist swirled, and afterwards, his clothes transformed into a plain and elegant, cyan-white straight long robe.
He could use his soul power to change the style of his clothes, although this didn't have much significant meaning for a ghost.
However, his soul power was currently not abundant, and he couldn't replicate those exquisitely beautiful clothes with flourishing decorations and intricate details.
This long robe would just about do.
Luo He walked to the side of Deer Drinking Creek. He slightly solidified his soul body, and his current appearance was reflected on the river's surface.
Mm, not bad; a young man holding an umbrella. At least at first glance, he wouldn't give people any sinister impression.
Just as Luo He was leaving, he suddenly sensed an unusual presence appear in this bamboo forest.
Perhaps because he and this bamboo forest had mutually nurtured each other, he was very sensitive to changes here.
At this moment, he sensed an unfamiliar aura enter this place, and it also carried a considerably heavy blood qi and the aura of demonic arts.
It was completely out of place with the tranquility and peace of everything here.
That demonic art, Luo He was still very familiar with it; it was precisely the Remnant Moon heart method he had cultivated for a period.
Generally speaking, wherever people from Demonic Sects appeared, there was bound to be trouble.
Luo He didn't want everything he had just planned to suffer setbacks inexplicably.
Luo He pondered for a moment and decided to follow it and see.
Anyway, most attacks below the Nascent Soul level would have no effect on him, a ghost who was formerly a Golden Core cultivator; at worst, he could still run.
Thinking of this, Luo He then followed that aura.
It had to be said, this person who had run into the bamboo forest was quite resourceful.
Based on her route of travel and the traces left behind, Luo He deduced she ought to have been chased here by someone, and probably had also suffered injuries that were not light.
She had cleverly chosen the place in this bamboo forest where the auras were most chaotic—that is, the place where Luo He had awakened at that time—as a temporary hiding spot.
At the same time, she continuously left other faint traces around to mislead others; as soon as those traces disappeared, she could immediately grasp the distance between the other party and herself.
If Luo He weren't a ghost, he might also have been fooled by her.
Leisurely following along the path, the sky indeed turned from afternoon to near dusk.
Finally, Luo He walked before a stone cliff that looked unremarkable.
But he knew this was just a trick of the eye; that person was hiding inside.
Just as he was planning to conceal his figure and sneak in quietly, the illusory art arranged before the stone cliff suddenly disappeared.
Similarly, several sharp blood spears pierced through the air, stabbing straight towards Luo He.
And then, passed right through his body.
"......"
"......"
Luo He looked at the woman standing panting in the rock cave, blinked his eyes, not having expected such a coincidence could exist in this world.
And that woman, the moment she saw Luo He, was also stunned on the spot.