Chapter 59 – Ghostlands

The next morning, Su Ning left early, healed Baihe, and hurried to the inn.

Today was her first night staying in the wild, so she made sure to pack plenty of snacks and drinks—everything she could get her hands on.

The innkeeper watched Su Ning behave like a bandit and felt a pang of distress. Su Ning didn’t care—she was just afraid of suffering in the wild.

After handling the provisions, the three of them set out for the Ghostlands. Today, Qiao Duoduo and Houyang wore the couple outfits, catching plenty of attention as they walked through the streets.

Only Su Ning, walking beside Duoduo, felt out of place. She silently vowed to make proper team uniforms soon; otherwise, she truly felt redundant.

---

Ghostlands

A vast stretch of scorched earth, with several semi-transparent humanoid ghosts drifting about. The wide plains occasionally had blackened tree stumps—so charred, it was hard to tell if they were trees or charcoal. The entire area exuded death and decay, which made Su Ning’s heart skip a beat.

Perhaps due to her bloodline, Su Ning noticed that the semi-transparent ghosts actually had labels above them: “Lv.14 New Ghost”. She felt a sudden surge of bloodthirsty intent.

“Level 14 monsters, be careful everyone.”

The three stepped off the road into the Ghostlands. Houyang positioned himself in front of the two girls, giving off an aura of a lone warrior holding back thousands.

Despite his stance, his words remained cautious.

At the edge of the area, Duoduo counted the nearby ghosts and immediately unleashed a volley of arrows. Unexpectedly, the new ghosts’ physical defenses were so low that her arrow rain reduced several of them by 80% of their health.

Moments later, the monsters, realizing the threat, let out piercing, agonized screams.

“Psychic attack!” Su Ning’s first reaction was to heal herself, Duoduo, and Houyang in turn. Fortunately, their HP was high enough to survive, but the screams were unbearably sharp.

They quickly finished off the remaining 20% HP of the new ghosts. Houyang focused on nearby enemies, both to protect those close to them and to give Su Ning opportunities to land killing blows. Su Ning used the Moonlight Curse to finish off any remaining low-HP ghosts.

With several final blows landed, the first wave ended. Su Ning, thinking of purifying her bloodline, examined the corpses she had killed but couldn’t find any energy cores.

Growing angry, Su Ning grabbed a small dagger, pierced straight into a new ghost’s heart, and pulled it out.

The prompt appeared:

“Beep, congratulations! Player has obtained the energy core of the current new ghost.”

“I found it! I found it!”

Su Ning excitedly called Houyang and Duoduo over. But seeing the bloody heart in her hands, the two hesitated to approach.

“Su Ge, you just dug out a heart… and you still want to stay here tonight?” Houyang admired Su Ning’s resolve, but staying overnight covered in blood was another matter.

Su Ning glanced at her own bloodied hands. Normally, she would have thrown away something this disgusting immediately. Now, with a face of disgust, she placed the heart into her backpack.

Duoduo was equally disgusted—not that she didn’t want to comment, but she genuinely didn’t know what to say.

Su Ning wiped her hands with a tissue, smelled the blood, and asked a philosophical question:

“Why do ghosts even have blood?” She muttered to herself, “Why is ghost blood red? Why are ghosts semi-transparent? Why is the smell so strong?”

“That’s enough. Let’s continue.”

Duoduo finally stopped her rambling.

This time, Su Ning didn’t extract hearts. She carried the whole corpse in her backpack, planning to work on them quietly one by one later at night—a slightly twisted scene.

---

Second Wave

The three had earplugs and padded ear protection, fully equipped. Su Ning worried about healing, so she made them each hold a healing pill in their mouths. Any HP loss would be immediately countered.

Duoduo again unleashed a volley of arrows. With the ear protection, Su Ning could heal immediately and noticed that the mental attacks were greatly weakened.

The trio lost only about half as much HP as the previous wave, though there were a dozen new ghosts.

After letting the new ghosts scream for a while, Duoduo stopped attacking, Houyang handled nearby enemies, and Su Ning sniped from a distance.

Another wave of cleanup completed.

“Should we expand the area?” Duoduo asked.

“No, safety first. We don’t know the situation well yet. A sudden event could be dangerous,” Su Ning replied.

Houyang silently nodded in agreement. They decided not to expand and maintain controlled attacks.

Whether it was Su Ning’s foresight or a fluke, it worked.

In the afternoon, as the first wave of new ghosts’ screams lingered, Su Ning hadn’t yet healed Houyang fully when an opaque, solid creature appeared in the crowd. It looked part-human, part-monkey, hunched over, covered in brown fur, with ten long black claws curved like hooks.

A black light flashed, and Houyang let out a cold grunt, falling to the ground. Duoduo immediately aimed an arrow, while Su Ning rushed to fully heal him.

Looking up at the creature:

Lv.15 Corrupted Wild Monkey. Despite Duoduo’s attack, it still had half its HP. Surrounding new ghosts were about to encircle them.

Su Ning used Moonlight Curse to deal with the source of trouble first.

With one strike, the Corrupted Wild Monkey fell. The trio quickly eliminated the remaining new ghosts.

Checking the monkey’s corpse, Su Ning found a treasure: a Corrupted Energy Core, which could double the purification of her demon bloodline—a perfect find.

Meanwhile, Duoduo helped Houyang back onto the road.

“Hubby, are you okay?” Duoduo asked, checking for injuries.

Houyang got up, spun around, and signaled:

“I’m fine, don’t cry. I’m not hurt!”

Seeing Duoduo’s tears, Houyang felt distressed and held her close. She sobbed quietly.

“Wifey, I’m okay. It doesn’t hurt.”

Annoyed, Duoduo broke free and kicked him playfully:

“You’re fine, you’re fine… You’re the toughest! Nothing ever hurts you!”

Houyang patiently showed her the scratches on his shorts—three bluish-purple marks.

“See? It hurts a little, but it’s okay. The pants are tough, don’t cry.”

The two silently embraced, while Su Ning—no need to ask—was still busy collecting corpses.