Chapter 31 – Constant Sneak Attacks

Su Ming ordered the Blood Soul Ghost and the Ice Crystal Turtle to strike directly at the spirit beasts attacking the ghost domain, baiting the Pseudo-White Tiger.

The Blood Soul Ghost and the Ice Crystal Turtle appeared instantly near the beast horde. Guo Dong had long anticipated Su Ming’s sneak attack and directly commanded the Pseudo-White Tiger to strike.

Guo Dong: “You fell for it!”

The Pseudo-White Tiger launched a surprise assault, injuring the Blood Soul Ghost and the Ice Crystal Turtle. Had it not been for the Ice Crystal Turtle’s defense, they would likely have suffered severe wounds.

Su Ming, as expected: “The White Tiger excels at offense—truly worthy of its reputation.”

Guo Dong was startled, suddenly sensing a shift in space as the Pseudo-White Tiger was transported far away.

“Not good, it’s a trap!”

Guo Dong realized he was too far from the White Tiger. Because he had to issue commands to over a thousand spirit beasts simultaneously, check their progress, and observe the surroundings, he had reduced his perception of the ambient aura to conserve the mental energy needed for control.

He hadn’t expected Su Ming to use the ghost domain’s authority to teleport the Pseudo-White Tiger away directly.

Guo Dong hastily connected to the Pseudo-White Tiger’s perspective. By then, the Sword Ghost had already arrived. A gap of one realm made it impossible for the Pseudo-White Tiger to resist—it would likely die soon.

Guo Dong cursed: “Damn it! Su Ming, you bastard! If you’ve got the guts, let me out and we’ll fight fair and square!”

Meanwhile, Su Ming was hiding in a cave. Activating the spatial authority here had consumed an enormous amount of energy. His hands were trembling, his face pale, and his lips quivered.

The chef ghost swarm replenished Su Ming’s spiritual power, while the Vermilion Bird also slowly transferred energy to prevent any suspicion from the livestream.

Chef Ghost Leader: “Why do I feel like my underlings have turned into rechargeable batteries?”

Su Ming paused for a moment to recover, then said: “Go check—is the White Tiger dead?”

The Chef Ghost Leader looked outside the cave. The battle between the Sword Ghost and the Pseudo-White Tiger had reached its climax. The Pseudo-White Tiger was covered in wounds, unable to flee and unable to win.

The ghostly qi here was dense, so Guo Dong couldn’t pinpoint the location and couldn’t arrange for the Azure Dragon to provide support.

As the skill Armor Breaker was unleashed, the biting ghostly qi transformed into countless blades that tore the Pseudo-White Tiger’s body apart, reducing it to ashes.

At the same time, the remaining sword qi struck directly at the spirit beasts attacking the ghost domain. Nearly half of them were instantly reduced to dust.

Guo Dong was dumbfounded. He hadn’t realized that the teleportation hadn’t actually sent it far at all—because he had panicked, he failed to discern that the Sword Ghost was in that forest thick with ghostly qi.

The ghostly qi-filled forest had interfered with Guo Dong’s judgment—this too was Su Ming’s plan.

He had learned from Yun Shang that Guo Dong had little practical combat experience. His only real battle had been against the Flood Dragon.

But the Flood Dragon had toyed with them like children, using no real tactics at all. Guo Dong had zero experience with such schemes and tricks.

Guo Dong burned with rage, but he forced himself to calm down. The Pseudo-White Tiger was dead, leaving only the Pseudo-Azure Dragon. One more mistake and things would get truly troublesome.

Moreover, he guessed that Su Ming must be in a bad state right now. The Blood Soul Ghost and the Ice Crystal Turtle were injured, the Sword Ghost had just fought a major battle, and only the Chef Ghost Leader and a bunch of useless chef ghosts remained.

Guo Dong: “As long as I play it safe step by step, once the passage opens, I can get out.”

Su Ming also drew in a sharp breath. He had originally expected Guo Dong to send out the Pseudo-Azure Dragon or the soul-binding ghost, thinking that if he could take the opportunity to eliminate the soul-binding ghost and kill another batch of spirit beasts, things would be much easier.

Su Ming had recovered considerably and sat down to think carefully. At this moment, the ghost domain was nearly broken through. Since the Pseudo-Azure Dragon was serving as an anchor to stabilize the space, and her spiritual power was insufficient, she couldn’t forcibly repair the ghost domain.

She carefully observed Guo Dong’s lineup—there were still over five hundred spirit beasts, one Pseudo-Azure Dragon, and a soul-binding ghost. This wasn’t going to be easy.

Su Ming asked Blood Soul Ghost, “How are your injuries?”

Blood Soul Ghost replied, “The ghostly qi here is very abundant. I’ve mostly recovered by now.”

Su Ming said, “I want to launch another surprise attack, take out those minions, get those beast cores, and heal Ice Crystal Turtle. It’s hard for spirit beasts to recover from injuries in this ghost domain.”

Blood Soul Ghost said, “I’ll follow whatever my master commands.”

Guo Dong looked around, his nerves stretched taut. He didn’t dare be careless at this moment, observing carefully, but his mental energy was being drained excessively as a result.

The soul-binding ghost stood off to the side, never expecting to have been set up by Zhao Pei. The original plan was to have Guo Dong’s Pseudo-Azure Dragon and Pseudo-White Tiger severely wound Su Ming’s subordinates, then extract Su Ming’s soul for interrogation. But now they couldn’t even see the person…

At Su Ming’s command, Blood Soul Ghost and Chef Ghost Leader charged out. Chef Ghost Leader hurled the soup he had just finished brewing, splattering it everywhere. The purple soup bubbled with skull shapes, corroding the flesh and blood of the spirit beasts.

Su Ming watched the effect and remarked, “I told you their soup wasn’t meant for drinking…”

Blood Soul Ghost’s eyes flashed wide, and Blood Curse marks appeared on all the spirit beasts. A thunderous explosion echoed throughout the entire ghost domain.

Guo Dong cried out, “Azure Dragon…”

Because so many spirit beasts had exploded, a cloud of blood mist filled the air. The pungent stench of blood assaulted Guo Dong’s senses, and he couldn’t hold it back—he vomited.

The Pseudo-Azure Dragon’s body stiffened. Having not received complete instructions, it had no idea what to do.

This was the consequence of having its consciousness erased. If it had consciousness, it would have known through their tacit understanding what its partner wanted to do. But in that very instant, Sword Ghost activated Hidden Kill and directly slew the soul-binding ghost.

Actually, Su Ming had gotten lucky. She didn’t know that Guo Dong had never been exposed to such a stench of blood.

Still, she had a contingency to protect the two ghosts—activating another spatial transfer. But it seemed that wouldn’t be necessary now.

Blood Soul Ghost and Chef Ghost Leader retreated under the cover of the forest. The spirit beasts had been reduced by more than half, and there was no longer any way to continue breaking through the ghost domain.

Far away at the military camp, Zhao Pei spat out a mouthful of blood. The soul-binding ghost was dead, and as backlash from the contract, Zhao Pei was also severely wounded.

But that wasn’t the most critical issue. The company commander had already brought men to drag him into the interrogation room. What awaited him was a personal visit from the commander himself…

Back on the battlefield, Guo Dong couldn’t believe he had been toyed with by Su Ming the entire time. He was furious. If only he had a domain of his own…

Su Ming said, “No more waiting. Strike while he’s still rattled—hit him now!”

Several red talismans tore through the air toward Guo Dong. Guo Dong drew his sword to withstand them, but he hadn’t expected the blazing flames to burn his skin directly.

Guo Dong screamed in pain, “Ahhh—”

Su Ming hadn’t expected the combustion talismans painted with Vermilion Bird’s blood to be this powerful. Combined with the spiritual power Vermilion Bird had just given her and the red talismans’ inherent fierce aura, the burning effect was doubled.

The Pseudo-Azure Dragon washed Guo Dong’s body with water, gradually soothing the burns.

Su Ming boldly walked to within less than a hundred meters of Guo Dong. At this moment, if the Pseudo-Azure Dragon were to strike, Su Ming’s position would be the most dangerous.

Su Ming taunted, “What’s wrong, mama’s boy? Is that all you’ve got?”

Guo Dong’s voice trembled: “I absolutely… will… not let you get away with this!”

At that moment, the principal of Vermilion Bird Academy secretly rejoiced—it seemed Su Ming still had a chance to win.

The sect master slammed the table in fury, unable to contain himself. In his eyes, Su Ming’s use of the ghost domain was outright cheating. According to the match rules, the one who left the stage first lost.

The principal of Vermilion Bird Academy produced the route map: “Sect Master, look—Guo Dong was the first to leave the stage. Doesn’t that mean our Su Ming won long ago?”

The sect master forced himself to swallow this indignation. At this point, all he wanted to know was where the formation had come from, and who had just suppressed it. That person was definitely Su Ming’s accomplice!

Shi Zhanlong hadn’t expected the formation to fail, the soul-binding ghost to die, and the chance to interrogate Su Ming to slip away. He believed that with Li Xiang’s intelligence, how could he possibly fail to notice…

Meanwhile, the Black-Robed Man had already injected a wisp of black energy into the body of that military expert. It had taken two full days to finally complete the cover-up that “Wugou” had arranged, and the military expert had hardly noticed a thing.

Now, all that remained was to kill that military expert. Then, among those present, only the sect master would be left as a Grandmaster Realm expert.