Hearing Old Ban's question, Zhang Ruoxi answered with a trembling voice, "I don't know if it's a specter, but it has no physical body… and right now it seems very, very angry!"
"When it gets close, use a Divine Soul attack. Ordinary attacks won't work on them. Don't be afraid, Miss. With your Cultivation, ordinary specters can't hurt you—only those ghost generals and ghost commanders with deep cultivation are dangerous. You need to stay calm!" Old Ban warned in a rapid-fire manner. He had clearly been through many such encounters and had his own ideas about how to deal with them.
Zhang Ruoxi took a deep breath upon hearing this, her Divine Sense ceaselessly probing her surroundings as she kept close watch on the specter's movements.
After being attacked, the specter truly seemed enraged. Its blurred facial features twisted into a hideous grimace, and its semi-transparent body retreated a step deeper into the Strange Fog before it whipped up a gust of yin wind and lunged at Zhang Ruoxi with bared fangs and outstretched claws.
Before the attack even arrived, a piercingly sharp shriek rang out. The sound was not only ear-splitting but also carried a peculiar strand of Divine Soul power that sought to tear through the defenses of Zhang Ruoxi's Sea of Consciousness.
Thanks to Old Ban's warning, Zhang Ruoxi kept her mind tightly guarded. Though her face had gone a little pale, she didn't make a sound. The moment the specter lunged to within three inches of her face, she suddenly erupted with pure, refined Divine Soul power.
The specter's semi-transparent body shattered like a droplet of water slamming into an impossibly hard wall, splitting apart in every direction before dissolving into nothingness amid a blood-curdling wail.
"Phew…" Zhang Ruoxi let out a soft breath, gradually calming herself.
After personally destroying a specter, she found that these eerie things weren't all that impressive, so her fear faded considerably.
Old Ban spoke from up ahead, "The small specters and minor ghosts in this place—someone with my level of Cultivation can deal with them easily, so as long as you don't panic, you'll be fine. The only thing to watch out for is that some specters have Cultivated special abilities in this peculiar environment. Those abilities are all Divine Soul attacks and are truly hard to guard against. If you have any Divine Soul-defending Artifacts, now would be the time to activate them, just in case."
He hadn't bothered to remind Yang Kai of these things. He knew that an Emperor Realm powerhouse didn't need his reminders.
Zhang Ruoxi stuck out her tongue and said, "I don't have any Divine Soul Artifacts."
She only had two Artifacts on her entire body. One was the Phoenix Splendor Robe that the Sacred Spirit Qiongqi had given her, and the other was the Myriad Beast Seal that Yang Kai had handed down to her.
Hearing this, Old Ban said nothing more and focused on leading the way up ahead.
Along the journey, specters and malicious ghosts came to harass them from time to time. But because Old Ban knew this passage like the back of his hand and chose routes that were extremely safe, they didn't encounter any truly powerful entities. The specters that did dare to bother the three of them naturally met grim fates.
Yang Kai hadn't lifted a finger. Every specter was left to Zhang Ruoxi to dispatch.
Half an hour later, Zhang Ruoxi had grown completely accustomed to the encounters. Gone were the jitters she'd felt at the beginning. When a specter attacked, she could put it down without so much as a change in expression.
Though the interference of the Strange Fog made it impossible for Yang Kai to determine their position or direction of travel, judging by Old Ban's route, they weren't walking in a straight line but rather winding and twisting through a highly tortuous path.
Every so often, Old Ban would stop to examine the surrounding terrain before adjusting his direction.
Sometimes he would even stand in one spot for a long stretch, doing nothing at all, before finally moving on after what felt like an eternity.
Yang Kai had realized his earlier guess was correct: this man was the best guide in the Desolate City for a reason—he had mastered a safe passage in and out of the Forbidden Grounds.
But this was, after all, the man's secret and the very capital on which his livelihood depended. So Yang Kai hadn't been so presumptuous as to pry into it.
After half a day, Yang Kai had no idea where they had ended up. After Zhang Ruoxi casually dispatched another specter, Old Ban—who had been leading the way up ahead—suddenly stopped in his tracks. His nostrils flared rapidly, drawing in quick, sharp breaths.
Yang Kai raised an eyebrow, realizing that Old Ban had likely sensed something. He immediately extended his Divine Sense and focused intently on the man's movements.
He watched as Old Ban sniffed the air for a moment before his expression changed drastically. He bellowed, "Stay close to me. Don't fall behind for even a single step!"
The words had barely left his mouth before his figure shot forward, racing ahead at breakneck speed.
Throughout the journey, Old Ban had been extraordinarily cautious, never daring to rush ahead even slightly. His current urgency was a clear sign that he had discovered something alarming.
Though Yang Kai lacked Old Ban's experience, a primal sense of crisis had already begun to stir in his heart, as though some kind of danger was closing in.
He was an Emperor Realm cultivator now, and his instinctive perception was razor-sharp. The moment Old Ban moved, he knew things were turning dire.
Without hesitation, he channeled his Emperor Essence and enveloped Zhang Ruoxi within it. His steps fell in rapid succession as he kept tight to Old Ban's heels.
Zhang Ruoxi said nothing, but the tension and unease on her small face spoke volumes.
The three of them wove through the Strange Fog at great speed. They had barely sprinted for ten breaths' time before Old Ban suddenly gasped sharply, his forward-rushing figure lurching to a dead stop. He pushed off with his toes and shot backward while shouting, "Fall back!"
Yang Kai's reflexes were naturally swift. Though he had been following not far behind Old Ban, the instant the man retreated, Yang Kai was already falling back as well.
At the same time, Yang Kai's Divine Sense locked onto a certain spot up ahead with unwavering focus. He could sense that something about that place was different.
*Crack…*
Before Yang Kai could get a clearer look, a peal of thunder exploded overhead. A bolt of purple light descended from the heavens and struck the earth, blasting out a crater nearly thirty feet across. Everything within the crater's radius was reduced to nothing—incinerated to ash and dust.