With bloodshot eyes, Bian kept treading forwards in the dark area.
It's been four days since he entered this region, and he was yet to see any indication that he had reached the center of the shelter.
'I was naive to think that it would only take around two weeks to reach the center. Maybe the zombie shelter was closer to the barrier than I thought.'
Multiple thoughts kept passing through his head as Bian took cover behind the rocks while moving forward.
The lands seemed to be empty—no trees, no grass, or any form of life. Just dark, heavy clouds overhead, occasionally lighting the area with bright flashes of green lightning.
'It's a good thing Bao'er isn't scared of lightning, or else this would have been a nightmare.'
Most children would be scared of loud noises like thunder, but Bao'er wasn't an ordinary child.
Always alert to his surroundings and used to seeing the same scenery, Bian immediately noticed an oddity up ahead.
He hid behind a large boulder and observed the dim light ahead with greater focus.
"It's moving," he muttered, wondering just what 'it' was.
"It's a ghost!" Bao'er exclaimed.
Of course, Bian had seen it too, but he tried to make sense of what he saw.
Then on second thought, this was the sanctuaries. There were dragons and immortal spirits; seeing a ghost wouldn't be out of the ordinary here.
Bian left his cover and approached the ghost ahead. As he got closer, he could make out more of its details.
It was a quadruped with stripes all over its skin. It looked just like a tiger, except its skin was a glowing blue and it was translucent.
A ghost tiger!
The ghost tiger didn't seem to have seen him. It kept walking around aimlessly, but Bian could see clearly that its feet floated above the ground.
He circled around the ghost tiger and moved on ahead, watching it intently to make sure it didn't discover them.
Bao'er tapped him twice and pointed into the horizon. A dozen more ghost creatures were walking around aimlessly.
Some resembled carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores, while others resembled more mythical creatures seen in the sanctuaries.
Ghosts everywhere—they seemed to be increasing as he kept moving forward.
'The tiger is the only one that is alone. I need to know more about these ghost-like entities.'
Bian turned back and went to face the ghost tiger.
He didn't engage it first but summoned the Scornful Bane, ready for anything that could happen.
Once he left his cover and the ghost tiger saw him, it wasted no time and pounced on Bian.
"At least now we know they're hostile!"
Bian said and dodged with a grunt.
The tiger was fast, but it wasn't impossible to keep up with. It was basically a ghost with the fitness of a primitive creature.
He didn't just avoid the lunge, but also retaliated with a swing from his katana.
And as expected, his strike went through the ghost tiger, dealing no damage whatsoever.
Instead, he had to retreat from an awkward position to avoid its attack once again.
Since he couldn't attack it, it might not be able to attack him. Such reasoning has killed countless other people, and Bian wasn't one to play with his life.
He had experience fighting ghost-like creatures, such as the nine-tailed ghost fox. The Empirical Aura could restrain the poltergeist and allow him to kill it permanently.
Unfortunately, up ahead was a sea of ghost-like entities. He couldn't afford to alert them all, because he was fairly sure he couldn't beat them all.
Why, you ask?
Well, it just so happens that he recently left a shelter filled with soulless zombies.
And now he encounters an area filled with multiple souls.
It didn't take a genius to put two and two together and figure out that these are probably the souls of the undead creatures from the shelter.
Since there were multiple sacred-blood zombies also, it meant some sacred-blood ghosts were lurking around—not to mention the hundreds of mutants also.
And he definitely hadn't forgotten that Eldritch, which was a berserk sacred-blood creature.
Whoosh!
Bian sidestepped, avoiding yet another pounce from the ghost tiger.
Not wanting to use the Empirical Aura yet, he thought of all his arsenals and which could potentially destroy a ghost.
'Of course!'
A grin broke out on his face.
He summoned the Solum Mirror and directed it to attack the ghost tiger.
The beast bounced up and away when it saw the Solum Mirror.
It turned tail to flee, but how could the mirror let it escape?
Without even moving, a suction force erupted from the surface of the mirror, and the ghost tiger was sucked in, despite its shrill screams and cries.
Bronze Solum Mirror [100/100]
[Maximum Soul Capacity Achieved. Advance the Solum Mirror?]
The counter for the Solum Mirror was already full—the absorbed ghost was basically wasted.
Bian looked at the sea of blue light ahead; each candle flame was a ghost.
He could surely max out the Solum Mirror, right here, right now, and have a super geno core.
But it wasn't the way he wanted it.
In the fourth sanctuary, geno cores could be strengthened at the spirit halls of shelters.
A strengthened geno core was better than a mundane one on the same level.
Some might call it greed, but Bian was unwilling to advance the Solum Mirror without strengthening it first.
With it already gaining a part of the black crystal and strengthened again at the spirit hall, the gap between him and the Executioners would shrink even more.
Besides, the sanctuaries were always full of livestock to fuel the mirror. He didn't have to only target ghosts.
"Let's go!"
Bian finally stopped hiding and unleashed the Empirical Aura.
A wave of indigo light spread far into the horizon, alerting the ghost creatures ahead.
Bleats, roars, and screeches were heard as they turned to where the light had spread from and saw a lone human.
Bian witnessed the sea of blue flames rushing towards him. The sea of flames was composed of tens of thousands of candlelights, with each light actually being a ghost.
Five of those flames were extremely faster than the others, leaving a streak of light in the dark skies as they approached Bian.
With a cold snort, a bronze mirror floated from behind him at a 'slow' speed when compared to the attacking ghosts.
The bronze mirror floated above him like a shield, but how could the ghosts take him seriously?
They might not have geno cores, but a mere bronze one wasn't going to threaten their lives.
The vast difference between them was covered in the blink of an eye as the five ghosts revealed themselves to be more massive than Bian expected.
They converged on him, looking like they wanted to eat him whole when suddenly, one of the ghosts pulled back.
It looked like an octopus with wings and several eyes dotted around its tentacles. It was the first to notice the oddity, but the other ghosts were a step too late.
A suction force emerged from the surface of the mirror, forcefully dragging the other four ghosts into it.
Screams of fear rang out as some creatures tried to attack the mirror while others tried to flee, but their attempts were futile.
Once they were affected by the suction of the Solum Mirror, it was like they had passed the event horizon of a black hole.
There was no turning back!
With a harsh vacuum sound, the four ghosts were sucked up like noodles.
The last ghost, which Bian recognized to be that of the Eldritch, didn't waste time and watch.
It fled far away from him, surpassing the sea of ghosts which also began their retreat.
But how could Bian let them go?
He dashed towards the retreating sea, making sure not to stray too far from the protection of the Solum Mirror.
A wonderful scene soon appeared, which caused Bao'er to clap her hands in delight.
Hundreds of ghosts were drawn from the ground into the air and finally into the tiny Solum Mirror.
From afar, it looked like a black hole causing spaghettification, which was quite the sight.
Bian was initially wary that the Eldritch ghost would plan a sneak attack, but it had long retreated into the distance, out of the reach of the Empirical Aura and out of sight.
He just casually strolled around, his geno core kept on consuming hundreds of ghosts and had already taken out over two thousand at this point.
Only the mutant ghosts were fast enough to escape before the Solum Mirror got too close.
The rest of the Primitive and Ordinary ghosts couldn't escape the chase of the Solum Mirror, but there were so many that Bian couldn't be bothered to chase them all.
They scattered around like headless chickens, and Bian stopped the Solum Mirror from giving chase.
His main goal wasn't to eradicate them all but to ensure his safety.
He deactivated the Empirical Aura, since he didn't need it at the moment, but kept his vigilance up as he kept walking forwards.
Back in the shelter, Bian had sensed around a hundred thousand zombies. Surely there were more ghosts than this.
Luckily, it seemed the sacred ghosts had gathered beforehand, and he had taken care of four already, with the fifth scared witless.
For them to have gathered, though, it meant someone might have recently poked the hive.
'I hope I'm just overthinking things.'
He looked at the ominous green flashes in the sky and continued on.