Killing a ghost

After several minutes of ascending to the mountain peak, the ground smoothed out to a plateau.

Han Yan was the first to notice the silver fox, which was growling at them.

"It wants us to stay back," she said.

Bian knew the silver fox wanted them to go away. Although he had only spent some time with it, that was enough for him to dote on the little vixen. He wasn't going to forsake it here.

"It's alright, little silver, we are here for you," Bian reassured it.

The silver fox's ears twitched as its growl softened, but its posture remained tense.

Suddenly, the air in their front was distorted as if caused by extreme heat, but there was only a chill on the mountain top.

The silver fox slowly grew quiet, its growl replaced by a fearful whimper.

A semi-transparent fox appeared in their front. Its fur was darker than the night and its nine tails were slithering behind like a mirage.

It had no pupils, only an empty socket where its eyes were supposed to be. Yet, Bian felt those empty sockets lock onto him, and a chill went down his spine.

'An actual ghost. It's my first time seeing one.' And although he wanted to thrive in the feeling of fear, he was working on a short schedule here.

An indigo light spread out with him as the epicenter. The malevolent creature was ready to pounce on the intruders when it was suddenly stunned by the indigo light.

In that light, a small indigo film coated the transparent sinister entity. It raised its paws to its face, visibly startled by the coating covering it.

"Tian Blow!"

Man Tian appeared by its side in an instant; a devastating punch to the ground smashed its head in.

Boom! Rah!!

The nine-tailed ghost fox growled in anger. Its body turned to a plume of black smoke and rushed towards Man Tian.

The black smoke encased his body, but just as he had appeared by its side, he disappeared before the attack could fully encase him.

He wasn't teleporting but moving at a speed that made it seem like he was warping space.

The black fog condensed back into the visage of the nine-tailed ghost fox, now angrier than it had ever been before in its life.

Shua!

From a distance, Han Yan sliced out with the golden blade, cleanly cutting off one of the tails. Its transparent body dimmed as another punch from Man Tian sent it reeling.

Bian stepped away from the conflict and approached the silver fox. He picked up the little critter, which watched with eyes wide open as they fought off the once invisible tyrant of Ghost Mountain.

Of course, without Bian's Empirical Aura, even the explosive attacks of Tyrant would have been useless against a foe that couldn't be touched.

Shua!

Another tail fell off the body of the nine-tailed ghost fox, which was looking more and more corporeal by the moment.

Having lost four tails without having the ability to land a decisive counter, it instantly sought to flee, disappearing from their sight like a ghost.

Just as Bian was about to give chase, he heard a chuckle escape from Han Yan's lips.

She seemed to tug on air and a meteor slammed into the mountain top. Bian, who could perceive everything clearly, saw the ghost fox, which had been fleeing, suddenly disappear and forcefully crash where they were.

He could sense some deep powers at play, similar to probability and plausibility manipulation. It was another power which could bend reality—causality.

Instantly, Bian's brow furrowed while Man Tian engaged the nine-tailed ghost fox.

"I thought you could only use the Falsified-Sky sutra as a means to attack through cause and effect?"

Han Yan gave a lazy smile and responded, "That is true, but my super body allows for more flexibility with cause and effect. It's just not as pronounced as your powers."

"My powers require the target to have extreme negative or positive karma before I can affect their causal chain."

She looked at Man Tian, who was ruthlessly attacking the tenacious fox, not letting it escape for a second time.

"Since the fox has so much negative karma around it, I might not be able to intervene with its actions, but I can change the outcome. In exchange, its negative karma gets used up," she briefly explained.

Bian had to consider her in a new light. Her power was just too terrifying.

In simple terms, an event had occurred. The cause of the event was the ghost fox running away. The consequential effect should have been it gaining distance from the team.

Han Yan had changed this effect to her favor instead, directly causing the fox to reappear where it ran from. Its speed didn't decrease in the slightest, and it crashed into the ground.

With a battle cry, Man Tian ripped out the last tail of the ghost fox. He threw the morbid creature upwards and crouched down to gather energy.

"TIAN SKY STRIKE!" Without hesitation, Man Tian used his strongest move to finish off the ghost fox. A devastating uppercut connected with the jaw of the creature.

In a gory display, its head was ripped away from its body along with its spine, flying a few feet into the air. The shockwave of the blow sent tremors through Ghost Mountain.

Since the creature died in the light of the Empirical Aura, Bian was the one who got the kill announcement.

[Super Creature Nine-tailed Ghost Fox killed. The beast soul had been acquired. The flesh is edible, and you may consume the life essence of the Nine-tailed Ghost Fox to gain 0 to 10 super geno points randomly.]

[Beast soul of Nine-tailed Ghost Fox: Gem]

Man Tian cleaned off his sweat as he dug out the life essence of the Nine-tailed Ghost Fox. He approached Bian and asked with a smile.

"Did you get the beast soul?"

"Of course I did, but it's not one we can use just yet. It's a gem-type beast soul which can raise the rank of another beast soul to super class."

"Oh."

Bian was just relieved that his powers actually worked on the ghost fox. If not, things could have turned out ugly.

He stared at the silver fox in his arms, which had grown restless. It wanted the life essence of the Nine-tailed Ghost Fox.

Without giving it a second thought, Bian handed the life essence over to little silver, and Han Yan summoned the little angel to eat up the ghost fox.

The little miscreant acted fast, devouring the body and all nine tails in under a minute. Once she was done, her body began to glow as she returned to Han Yan's soul sea and began her evolution.

"One more on the way," Bian smiled.

"How about little silver?" Han Yan asked. It just greeted them and leapt somewhere with the life essence.

"Little silver has a lot of gene locks opened, but its fitness is lagging behind. Let it develop here in the mountains." Bian waved goodbye to the creature and walked off.

"Are we traveling before to the shelter?" Man Tian asked. The golden growler would take a few more days to evolve, then they could leave and get to their destination lightning quick.

"We aren't going to the shelter just yet. We have one more interesting spot to visit." Bian sped up as they rushed down the mountain.

After a week of running at top speeds, they finally reached the base of the mountain. Bian could hardly keep up with the two who had nearly complete gene points.

He had to activate jade body several times to overtake them.

"Was... it... really necessary... to sprint for... an entire... week?" Han Yan gasped for breath as she asked.

They had been running full force for one whole week, which would have been impossible for every other surpasser without maxed-out super gene points.

"It's just to... get some exercise in... before what comes next." Bian was also panting. It felt good to go all out, and although he wasn't as exhausted as his teammates, he still worked up a good sweat.

Buzz!

Suddenly, a golden bug flew towards them. Man Tian swatted it away, but the bug flew up again.

He squinted his eyes and smacked it, finally killing it. Its defense was a bit stronger than an average sacred-blood creature, but what really caught his attention was the lack of a kill announcement.

"Hey Bian, you haven't learned to keep beast souls even without activating your powers, right?" he asked with a tinge of concern.

With their conditions, they weren't ready to fight right now. The golden growler might have finished its evolution, but it wasn't a battle pet. The holy angel was still evolving.

Bian shook his head, meaning he didn't steal Man Tian's kill. That was when they could hear it.

Buzz! Buzz!! Buzz!!!

Several buzzing sounds echoed as the sky was literally blotted out by the same type of creature Man Tian killed earlier.

Since they were as tough as sacred-blood creatures, this meant it was a swarm of drones, controlled by a super creature.

Just as a slight look of discomfort slipped on Man Tian and Han Yan's face, an indigo light spread out from their side and rippled to the horizon.

Bian took out a blood quill and launched it towards one of the many bugs.

The creature fell to the ground with a thud, and like invisible strings had been cut, several more followed after it.

All the creatures and even the controller all died, because of the death of a single drone in the Empirical Aura.