Ye Bufan slowly walked to the side of the girl and stood for a long time, but she didn't react, as if she didn't know Ye Bufan was behind her.
"Are... are you alright?" Ye Bufan gently patted her shoulder.
"Wuwuwu..." The girl sobbed abruptly and slowly turned around.
"I can't find my eyeballs. Have you seen them?"
The girl's face startled Ye Bufan. Her complexion was ghastly pale, and her mouth was split open from ear to ear, exposing bare bone to the air.
Her eyes were hollow. Ye Bufan felt dizzy just by looking at them.
"Mental attack!" Ye Bufan exclaimed in shock, then retreated. He hadn't expected this ghost girl to follow him. She pressed her face close to Ye Bufan, letting out a "jiejiejie" laugh.
Ye Bufan felt utterly speechless. He hadn't anticipated that a ferocious ghost would be placed within the illusion array of the dense forest behind the mountain. What's more, he had come with good intentions, only to be targeted by her.
"Your eyes must taste delicious. Give me your eyes," the ghost girl's shrill voice made Ye Bufan's scalp tingle, her words carrying a hint of a bloody scent.
"Damn it!" Ye Bufan couldn't take it anymore and slammed his palm towards the ghost girl's face.
"Kid, stop struggling, it's useless... I..."
Before she could finish speaking, Ye Bufan landed a solid slap on the ghost girl's face, sending her flying.
She stared at Ye Bufan blankly, her eyes filled with disbelief.
"You... how can you hit me!" The ghost girl looked at Ye Bufan, and while he was not paying attention, she leaped up and lunged towards him, her fingernails turning black and instantly growing five to six centimeters long.
Ye Bufan's mind moved, and in an instant, the ghost girl's lengthened nails were sliced short.
The ghost girl stared blankly at her nails. Ye Bufan grabbed her by the neck, and she looked at him in terror.
"An ordinary cultivator would have a tough time dealing with a Foundation Establishment stage ghost like you, but I am no ordinary Foundation Establishment stage cultivator," Ye Bufan chuckled.
He recalled that when he was twelve, he had read the chapter on "Dao Fa Hui Yuan" in the Daoist canon, which recorded methods for dealing with ghosts and evil spirits in the Nine Provinces, and even some lightning techniques. Although those lightning techniques were superficial, they were more than enough for a ferocious ghost like this.
"Spare... spare my life..." The ghost girl struggled and begged Ye Bufan for mercy, but Ye Bufan tilted his head and looked at her. With a slight exertion of force, the "Chongxu Lei Jue" within him circulated, and an enhanced palm thunder entered the ghost girl's throat, causing her to instantly turn to ashes.
Ye Bufan stood in place. Although he was a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, the ghost's appearance was truly terrifying. If anyone else saw it, they would instantly lose all composure and become her ghostly prey.
"Strange, today is supposed to be about inheritance. What's the purpose of setting up such a ghost?" Ye Bufan suddenly felt something was amiss. This was nothing like the inheritance grounds Lin Xiaoyao had described to him.
After dealing with the ferocious ghost, Ye Bufan continued walking deeper into the dense forest behind Fayuan Temple.
Yuan Zhen watched Ye Bufan go deeper and deeper, falling into self-doubt.
"This is unscientific," Yuan Zhen stood outside the dense forest, feeling Ye Bufan's distance from him. He wondered if the array in the forest had malfunctioned and walked into the forest to experience it himself.
Five minutes later, Yuan Zhen emerged from the dense forest, looking disheveled, with dust all over his face and kasaya.
"This Ye Bufan is quite something. It seems Ye Qingyi was right; this person is a promising talent," Yuan Zhen muttered to himself. "Perhaps he can actually obtain what Master Fayuan left behind."
Yuan Zhen's gaze shifted to the dense forest, and he murmured again, "What exactly did Master Fayuan leave behind?"
Ye Bufan, who was also in the dense forest, was also very eager to know what Master Fayuan of Fayuan Temple had left behind in the dense forest, and why there were so many strange formations and trials.
After walking in the dense forest for a while, Ye Bufan found himself in a daze, arriving at the edge of a cliff. Moonlight cascaded down from the sky, and the river below sparkled.
"There's a place like this on the outskirts of the capital city?" Ye Bufan recalled the terrain of the capital's outskirts and concluded that there shouldn't be such a landscape. Therefore, he was certain this was another illusion.
"Finally, someone has arrived here," a strange and ethereal voice echoed by the cliff. Then, on the other side of the cliff, a peak suddenly rose from the ground, with a vast abyss separating them.
"Young man, welcome to the true first trial."
Ye Bufan guessed that this voice was probably Master Fayuan's.
"This is a ten-thousand-zhang abyss. If you wish to obtain my treasure, you must find a way to cross it and reach the other side. You are not allowed to use any magic, weapons, or any external force. Only then will you pass this trial," Fayuan's voice sounded.
Ye Bufan looked at the cliff in front of him, which seemed to be at the same height as this one.
"Hoo~" Ye Bufan took a deep breath. "I'd like to know, what is this trial testing?"
"It's not testing anything, I just want to see your determination to cross," the voice replied.
Ye Bufan suddenly laughed and said, "Then I understand."
As soon as his voice fell, Ye Bufan took a step towards the ten-thousand-zhang abyss. However, Ye Bufan did not fall. Instead, he was held back by an invisible force.
"Not bad," the voice sounded again, filled with surprise.
Ye Bufan stepped on air and walked towards the other side, reaching it in a short while.
Upon reaching the other side, the energy from the Dragon Emperor Token within Ye Bufan suddenly became restless.
"Hmm?" Ye Bufan quickly circulated the "Jiu Zhuan Tong Tian Jue," suppressing the energy.
"Could it be that what's in this dense forest is related to the Dragon Emperor Token?" This thought suddenly crossed Ye Bufan's mind.
After a brief pause, everything in front of him began to shift rapidly. Night turned into day, then the sun rose, and finally, Ye Bufan appeared in a forest.
"This place feels so familiar." Ye Bufan looked around and suddenly realized that this was near the sinkhole where Yamata no Orochi was sealed.
Ye Bufan's eyes widened, and then he saw a group of cultivators rushing towards them, with a colossal creature behind them – eight heads and a serpent's body, its tail still attacking the cultivators.