A World Worth Protecting

If it were someone else, who was timid and afraid of spirits, he would be quaking in his boots right this moment. He might scream and retreat hastily in fear. However… both the white-robed woman and the seven children beside her could never have guessed that the person they were facing at this moment was completely unafraid of the supernatural. Wang Baole even began to look slightly impatient.

Just as an eerie atmosphere descended upon them and the white-robed female spirit lunged at Wang Baole, the latter glared and, without the slightest hesitation, lifted his right leg and sent it kicking with a thunderous boom.

The kick landed on the female spirit. It seemed to go right through its spiritual form and land directly on her true form. The female spirit shrieked as she was flung a hundred feet away.

“You dare put up this act when that’s all you’ve got?” Wang Baole snorted. He raised his right hand and unleashed Soul Guidance. Multiple images appeared in his hand, layering over one another to form an enormous, frightening black ghoul’s hand. The chill surrounding them intensified with the appearance of the hand. If the eerie winds that had appeared alongside the female spirit could be described as a vicious demon, then the winds that erupted at this moment from Wang Baole’s person would surpass the demon lord!

His Soul Guiding Hand yanked, and the facial features on the female spirit reappeared on her face. They formed an incredulous, shocked expression. The female spirit screamed and tried to escape, but it was too late. In a blink of an eye, she was caught by Wang Baole’s Soul Guiding Hand.

The female spirit with her illusory form couldn’t even put up a fight. Wang Baole grabbed her by the neck and dragged her before him.

“There’s nothing wrong with playing dress-up as the devil, but to do it in front of me?” Wang Baole glared. He grabbed the female spirit and raised her up in the air, then slammed her back down onto the ground. That didn’t seem to appease him. He raised his foot and kicked the female spirit repeatedly. The female spirit’s screams grew increasingly pitiful with each kick.

Her cultivation could rival a perfected Core Formation realm cultivator. Before Wang Baole though, she was as fragile and vulnerable as a piece of paper. She couldn’t unleash her power at all. It was as if she had met her match!

The aura that she exuded, which should have instilled fear in all living creatures, was useless against Wang Baole. There was no doubt… that as a Dark Child, Wang Baole had encountered millions of souls in his Dark Dream, plenty of them far more terrifying than this female spirit. Some might have massacred an entire world, but they had all been obedient and submissive before Wang Baole, afraid to cause trouble.

After all… the Dark Sect was a powerful entity that ferried souls. As a Dark Child, if Wang Baole had been frightened by this insignificant spirit, he believed the ancestors of the Dark Sect who had fallen would be so furious they would come back to life.

The female spirit’s cries grew more and more pitiful as Wang Baole continued punching and kicking her. She began to beg for her life to no avail. Her transformation from her previous terrifying self was simply too sudden and shocking, and her seven children were all stunned. Two were so terrified that they started crying.

These were real tears, not the eerie weeping that had been conjured earlier. It sounded horrible though. Wang Baole glared.

“Silence! I’ll eat you if you start crying again. Start singing!”

The two weeping children trembled at his shouting and stopped crying immediately. They continued to shake. They wanted to cry but dared not do so. They wanted to run but dared not do so. They could only watch as their mother suffered abuse under Wang Baole’s fists and kicks, beaten to the point where her spirit might just disintegrate and turn to dust.

Trembling, they began to sing.

“Mother, Mother, I’m starving…”

“Mother, your finger doesn’t taste good at all. I’m so hungry. I want to eat something…”

“Don’t hit me. Don’t kill me. Don’t skin me. Mother, I’m in so much pain…” The children’s voices shook as their singing echoed in the air. This was the first time they realized how frightening they sounded. They frightened even themselves as they sang.

Wang Baole began to tire of the singing. With a wave of his hand, the seven children retreated hastily and escaped. Their young minds had equated Wang Baole to a demon. He was beyond terrifying.

After the children fled, Wang Baole continued to kick the female spirit until she passed out. Her body seemed ready to turn to dust. He grabbed her and dragged her before him, his eyes popping out as he glared and snorted.

“This is my first time seeing puny spirits like you dare appear before me. Fine. Let me think about all the ways I can eat you,” Wang Baole said coolly. He had seen a few Dark Sect disciples secretly snacking on spirits in his Dark Dream. The Dark Sect sect was enormous, so no one would realize it if one occasionally ate a few souls. There was no use even if one found out. The Dark Sect had, after all, the ultimate jurisdiction over souls.

He hadn’t eaten one before, but he knew how to do it. With his current severe shortage of snacks, Wang Baole had been waking up in the middle of the night starving. He swallowed his saliva and licked his lips as he stared at the female spirit.

However, he restrained himself from eating the spirit. He thought it more prudent to inspect his surroundings first. He imprisoned the spirit, then walked towards Fang Mu’s corpse. He had an ugly expression on his face after the inspection was done.

Based on the Dark Sect’s knowledge of spirits, Wang Baole inspected the corpse and concluded that Fang Mu hadn’t been killed by a spirit. He had died from a soul search. There were no other injuries on him. He had been overpowered instantly by someone, and then his soul had been forcibly searched. His brain hadn’t been able to withstand the search and had collapsed into itself. His spirit had disintegrated and turned to dust.

This was an extremely cruel way to kill someone. Wang Baole fell silent. After a round of inspection, he kept Fang Mu’s corpse. They were all Federation Seedlings. Now that he had fallen, Wang Baole couldn’t leave his corpse in a foreign land.

Frustration bubbled in Wang Baole amidst the silence. Even though everyone had been mentally prepared for the worst when they had arrived on the ancient greenish-bronze sword, he still couldn’t help but sigh when he witnessed death with his own eyes.

He soon got his emotions in order. He lifted his head and stared at the golden beetle. With a single step, he arrived at the crater. He found two corpses inside.

One of them belonged to a middle-aged man. He had the robes of the Vast Expanse Dao Palace on. They were torn and damaged. He had died quite some time ago and had a strong smell of death on him. Even though he had died, the spirit energy that continued to exude from his body made Wang Baole’s pupils contract.

The other person that had perished alongside him was not a cultivator from the Vast Expanse Dao Palace. It was someone with three heads and six arms… a member of the Never-Ending Clan!

They had clearly had an intense battle and eventually perished together. This beetle had clearly been the cruiser of one of them. After their deaths, the beetle had perished as well, and it had ended up being buried on this elevated plain.

The lands had since changed. The Sea of Fire rose. Perhaps, in the near future, everything here would disappear alongside another transformation of the land.

The valuable items in their storage bags were no longer there, and there was no identity token to be found. Wang Baole didn’t believe that they had been destroyed. He believed someone had taken them.

There was a slight possibility that the one who had taken them was also Fang Mu’s murderer.

They killed Fang Mu and set up an ambush here… Wang Baole didn’t find anything of value after his search. He left the beetle and released the female spirit. He grabbed her neck and shook her violently. The female spirit came to immediately. After seeing Wang Baole’s face, she screamed immediately and started shivering like a leaf in the wind.

“I’ll eat you if you make any more noise!” Wang Baole said coolly.

The female spirit shut her mouth immediately. She continued to tremble. However, she dared not say a single word.

“Speak. What’s going on here?” Wang Baole stared at the white-robed female spirit and asked slowly, his voice calm. However, as the words landed, the female spirit began to tremble again. She dared not hide anything from Wang Baole. She extended her indistinct consciousness outwards.

“The Never-Ending Clan… manipulated… drew you here… to kill you…”

“Hmm?” Wang Baole’s pupils contracted when he heard that. With a series of hand seals, he sent a Dark Fire straight into the spirit’s forehead. It flew back shortly. This was a minor spell that Wang Baole had learned during his time at the Dark Sect. It could verify whether a spirit was telling the truth. He started interrogating the spirit in detail. After a long moment, his face darkened. He finally understood what was going on. A member of the Never-Ending Clan, who was still alive, had manipulated this spirit and led her to this place. His intention had been to kill Wang Baole.

It was clear that the Never-Ending Clan member didn’t realize that he was a Dark Child. The one thing that he didn’t fear was a soul.

Countless thoughts sped through Wang Baole’s head. He had only one clue from a female spirit who didn’t possess the clearest of minds. Regardless, he could still sense the depths hidden beneath the Vast Expanse Dao Palace and the ancient greenish-bronze sword.

There are still Never-Ending Clan members alive? Wang Baole gasped. He decided that it would be best for him to leave this place as soon as possible. He was about to deal with the female spirit when…

In the distant empty plains, the seven little spirits that had escaped appeared again, meekly and trembling in fear.