Chapter 83: The Specter’s Chill and Love’s Fire

As everyone’s gaze remained fixed on the churning lake ahead, Su Liyue was abruptly struck by a chilling sensation at the nape of her neck, like a cold, wet viper slowly slithering up her spine, sending a shiver through her.

She whirled around, yet before her eyes could even register the anomaly lurking in the shadows, Lin Yueyao, standing right beside her, erupted into a heart-rending shriek.

“Ahhh—!!!”

The shriek was so piercing it nearly ruptured eardrums, causing Su Liyue’s heart to constrict sharply. She too was startled, though her fright stemmed more from Lin Yueyao’s sudden outburst than any other cause.

Following Lin Yueyao’s terrified gaze, Su Liyue saw a translucent specter hovering silently right beside them.

Its form was indistinct, resembling a canvas blurred by water, its ethereal outline subtly distorting in the ambient air.

Moonlight pierced through its insubstantial form, casting an eerie, elongated shadow upon the ground.

Even more terrifying, it slowly raised a hand with an elegance so gentle it was almost tender, lightly patting Lin Yueyao’s shoulder as if a polite gentleman greeting an old acquaintance.

‘Don’t tell me! This thing is actually quite polite?!’

“W-woo…” A choked whimper escaped Lin Yueyao’s throat, her legs turning to jelly, threatening to give way beneath her.

Mu Wanqing’s face was ashen, her staff trembling in her grasp as if eager to cast a spell, yet her lips were too taut with tension to utter a single coherent syllable.

Behind them, the two male wind mages were even more disheveled; one stumbled backward, collapsing unceremoniously onto the ground, while the other gripped his companion’s sleeve so tightly his knuckles turned white from the sheer strain.

The forest night, already inherently eerie, was now saturated with a fear so palpable it felt almost substantial.

A cold wind swept through the treetops, rustling with hushed whispers, as if countless unseen eyes were scrutinizing them from the encompassing darkness.

The ghost’s pupils, utterly devoid of whites, slowly rotated, scanning each person in turn, while a faint, almost imperceptible smile seemed to play upon its lips.

In that moment, Su Liyue suddenly realized that some fears required no guttural roars or hideous grimaces; their mere ‘existence’ alone was enough to shatter one’s resolve.

‘That’s right.’

Girls of this particular age always harbored an instinctive dread of specters.

Moreover, within this gloomy forest, every swaying tree shadow seemed to whisper secrets, and every wisp of night wind felt like the collective sigh of departed souls.

The fears festering in their hearts were steeped in the encroaching night, fermenting and ultimately swelling into a materialized nightmare.

Thankfully, as a transmigrator, she secretly rejoiced that her past life’s extensive viewing of horror films hadn’t been in vain; otherwise, she might have been just as utterly terrified by this sudden apparition as the others.

Before Su Liyue could even fully process the scene, Chixiao’s roar had already cleaved through the night sky: “Yueyao!”

Almost simultaneously, with a swift flick of his magic staff, a fireball spell, wreathed in a surge of heat, shot straight towards the ethereal specter.

The entire sequence of movements was executed with such seamless fluidity that not a trace remained of his earlier shock at the ghost’s appearance.

‘It seemed that boys in love sometimes defied all common sense.’

‘This guy… he was clearly scared stiff himself just moments ago,’ Ye Xingchen mused, raising an eyebrow. ‘Yet, upon seeing his girlfriend in peril, he instantly conquered his fear.’

Was it the primal instinct of a devoted lover, or had love simply granted him boundless courage?

Su Liyue stole a glance at Chixiao’s taut profile, suddenly finding that this impetuous fireball spell felt more genuine and profound than any whispered declaration of love.

If a stereo system were present at that very moment, Ye Xingchen would undoubtedly loop the song ‘Courage’ as his personal background music.

Especially when the classic lyric, “Love truly needs courage,” resonated, paired with Chixiao’s heroic fireball spell to save his beloved, it would undoubtedly be hailed as the year’s best background music.

The instant the flames touched the specter, the spirit twisted violently and began to incinerate, as if it had encountered its ultimate nemesis.

Yet, this process of incineration inexplicably instilled a primal fear, accompanied by the ghost’s final, grotesque struggles.

Only when the firelight had completely devoured the entire spirit did a pitch-black magic core drop to the ground with a distinct ‘clink’.

Su Liyue bent down, retrieving the magic core and carefully examining it between her fingertips.

“Bronze-grade magic core…”

She murmured, her brow furrowing involuntarily despite herself.

The sudden appearance of this specter, however, stirred a profound sense of doubt within her.

The fact that ghosts could be directly seen in this world made her wonder if… there was no underworld here.

On Earth, ordinary people were incapable of perceiving spirits, let alone the departed souls that were meant to return to the underworld after death.

Only solitary, wandering spirits might occasionally be perceived by those who cultivated.

After all, in the cultivation world, ever since a certain unknown master established the Six Paths of Reincarnation system, it had continuously guided humanity on Earth.

Through relentless self-cultivation, individuals could awaken as true cultivators, transcend the cycle of reincarnation, and ascend to higher-dimensional spirit realms, there to pursue the profound truths of life and unravel the mysterious intricacies of the cosmos.

“Ethereal demonic beasts aren’t actually very strong,”

Su Liyue explained, her gaze fixed on the newly manifested specters, her tone remarkably calm.

“The true difficulty lies in the psychological terror they inflict when confronted directly. Yet, my mentor once taught us that fire magic is their ultimate bane.”

In her perception, these specters were akin to the ‘Li’ trigram in the Bagua — empty at its core. Though they manifested in various forms, they were all essentially energy bodies, devoid of any true physical anchor.

As she spoke, she casually launched several fireball spells, each one precisely striking one of the five specters that had just materialized.

As the last specter twisted and dissolved into the firelight, this heart-pounding encounter finally drew to a close.

Mu Wanqing was the first among them to shake off her paralyzing fear.

She gently tugged on Su Liyue’s sleeve, her voice still carrying a faint tremor:

“Yueyue, you’re simply incredible! How could you not be scared in the slightest by something so utterly terrifying?”

“Scared?” Su Liyue countered, a mischievous smile suddenly playing on her lips.

“If you’d ever witnessed Sadako from ‘The Ring’ crawl out of her well, then you’d understand what true horror truly entails!”

As she spoke, she deliberately mimicked Sadako’s eerie movements, sending a collective shiver down the spines of Mu Wanqing and their three companions.

“D-don’t say any more…” Mu Wanqing’s voice was too shaky to form a steady tone.

“Y-yeah… let’s just call it a night, alright? Can we please find somewhere to rest?” Lin Yueyao, huddled tightly in Chixiao’s embrace, echoed tearfully, the tracks of her tears glistening in the firelight.

Ye Xingchen surveyed the rapidly deepening night around them, then nodded gravely:

“There are no immediate traces of demonic beasts nearby, so we might as well set up camp early. We can conserve our energy and head out to hunt gold-grade demonic beasts directly tomorrow morning.

This way, we won’t waste the night with no gains, and we can avoid potential ambushes from other teams.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Yueyao and the others collectively exhaled a long sigh of relief, as if granted a sudden reprieve.

Clearly, tonight’s harrowing encounter with the specters had left an indelible psychological scar upon these novice hunters.