Chapter 164: Grudge Spirits

"Yunfei..."

An ethereal voice drifted into my ears. I slowly opened my eyes. Qin Tian and Shiliu were nowhere to be found, and even that Kuiba had vanished. To my utter shock, the person standing right in front of me was none other than Xu Qinghuan!

I quickly scrambled to my feet, hurried over to Xu Qinghuan, and pulled her tightly into my arms. This woman, who had made it impossible for me to eat or sleep peacefully, whom I yearned for day and night, and missed every single second, was now truly and really standing right before me. Was this real, or was I dreaming? I pinched myself hard—it hurt. This was not a dream!

Feeling the residual warmth in my embrace, a stream of hot tears involuntarily slid down my cheeks. I gave a self-deprecating smile. Since when had I become so fragile? Back in the days of flying bullets, when I watched my best friend fall right before my eyes, I had not shed a single tear. Yet, for this woman, I had cried twice! Was I treating Xu Qinghuan as a shadow of Liu Tingting, or did I truly fall deeply in love with her? I couldn't even figure it out myself! Matters of the heart were always like this; those caught up in the midst of it were usually complete fools.

I held Xu Qinghuan by the shoulders, about to ask what on earth was going on. But just as I straightened her body, I saw a faceless woman. It was a face smooth as a mirror, entirely devoid of facial features. Terrified by this sudden and bizarre turn of events, I hurriedly retreated two steps. I could not understand it. Just a moment ago, I had clearly seen Xu Qinghuan, so how had she turned into a faceless woman?

With a trembling voice, I asked the woman before me, "Who on earth are you?"

Yet the woman did not answer my question; she just stood there facing me motionlessly. Although I could not see her expression, I had a faint, creepy feeling that she was smiling. I recognized this faceless woman—wasn't this the exact same woman who had repeatedly haunted my dreams? Why did she keep tangling with me? Was she human or ghost? Could I be dreaming again? But that pain from earlier had been so distinct. Before I could figure out what was happening, the woman had already stretched out her arms and tightly gripped my throat.

Damn it! Being grabbed by the neck again! Anger flared up instantly. Regardless of whether this woman was human or ghost, I was going to teach her a lesson today and show her what was what!

The pressure from the woman's hands gradually increased, and I felt my breathing start to grow difficult. Normally, I could hold my breath for three hours, and after taking the Essence-Consolidating Pill, that duration had more than doubled, so naturally, I shouldn't have feared her.

Yet, after a stalemate of half a minute, my chest felt as though it were about to explode—a horribly uncomfortable sensation, characteristic of oxygen deprivation. Why had my breath-holding technique failed? Choking with discomfort, a tear the size of a pea welled up and rolled from my eye. The woman's body gradually lifted off the ground, and I was dragged up into the air along with her.

If this kept going, I might really leave my life right here! Seeing that holding my breath was useless, I secretly circulated my inner qi, condensing a true demonic qi vortex, preparing to blast this woman with an energy bomb. I refused to believe it wouldn't blow her to pieces!

The inner qi rapidly condensed, though the demonic qi seemed to lag slightly behind the speed of the inner qi. Finally, half a minute later, an energy sphere took form. As I was nearing my absolute limit of oxygen deprivation, I quickly unleashed the true demonic qi sphere straight at the woman. To my astonishment, the sphere passed right through her body, as if she were not a physical entity at all, but merely empty air!

I froze on the spot. This woman was actually immune to my attacks? Could she really be a ghost? I had always been an atheist, but now that I had arrived in another realm and witnessed all sorts of mythological entities that only existed in fairy tales, I could not help but harbor doubts about the woman before me!

The instant the true demonic qi sphere passed through the woman's body, my fist punched directly toward her chest. At that moment, I couldn't care less about propriety between men and women; saving my life took precedence, and besides, who knew what kind of monster this woman was! I certainly didn't want to die cluelessly at the hands of this freak!

My fist once again passed right through the woman's body. My breathing became increasingly difficult. I wanted to stop breathing, but every time I did, all my internal organs screamed in terrible agony. Although the woman was choking my neck and making breathing hard, it wouldn't kill me instantly. So I closed my eyes, refusing to look at her featureless face any longer, and concentrated on gathering my laser vision. Whether I would succeed or fail depended entirely on this gamble!

I channeled all the inner qi and demonic qi within my body into my eyes. The moment I opened them, laser beams would instantly pierce the enemy's body. The only problem was that the woman in front of me didn't seem to have a physical form; I had no idea if my half-baked laser vision could harm her.

Sensing that the inner qi and demonic qi had condensed sufficiently, I snapped my eyes open. Two intense golden beams shot straight out from my eyes. The woman's body paused, her hands loosened, and I crashed down to the ground.

Sitting on the floor, I looked up at her. Those two golden beams had indeed pierced completely through the woman's body, yet they seemed to have caused her very little damage. She merely stepped back slightly before lunging at me once again.

Like a ferocious tiger, the woman pounced downward at me from above. I felt a fierce, violent gale blowing—so strong I could not keep my eyes open. The figure of the woman grew larger and larger in my vision...

Suddenly, I felt my body move. A pair of strong, powerful hands hauled me up from the ground and pulled me away at top speed.

"Are you okay?" Shiliu asked, gripping my arm.

At that moment, I noticed the woman had vanished. I had no idea when Shiliu had appeared, but thank goodness she arrived in time, or I really would have lost my life there! I took a couple of heavy gasps of fresh air and said to Shiliu, "I'm fine. Did you see that woman just now?"

Shiliu raised an eyebrow. "What woman? I only saw a gust of black wind. How on earth did you provoke a grudge spirit?"

"A grudge spirit?" This was the first time I had ever heard that term. Could the grudge spirit Shiliu mentioned be that woman?

"A grudge spirit is a lifeform that is neither human, god, nor demon; it exists outside the Three Realms and beyond the Five Elements. The formation of a grudge spirit stems from many factors, usually because they suffered a grave injustice and died with hatred in their hearts, unable to enter the cycle of reincarnation after death. Thus, they linger in places they were familiar with in life, or follow people they knew. However, grudge spirits never harm anyone without reason; they only seek out their own enemies for revenge. Could it be..." Shiliu stopped mid-sentence.

Shiliu's words left me full of perplexity. It seemed that woman truly was some ghostly entity, which thoroughly shattered my materialistic worldview. Yet Shiliu's words also confused me deeply: grudge spirits never harm without reason, seeking only vengeance against their enemies. I distinctly remembered never having killed a woman! Every single person who had died by my hands was a man; I had always respected women. So what was the deal with that faceless woman just now? And why had Shiliu suddenly stopped talking halfway through?