My gaze swept quickly across the reeds, and the sparks of fire transformed into dark silhouettes in my vision.

Many people, hands gripping the reeds, squatted in the water, watching me from afar with sneers.

My eyes moved from one figure to their feet, where I saw a pair of ankles, pale and bloated from being submerged.

The person, under my gaze, stood up from the water, slowly raising a foot covered in water.

The instant the person's ankle emerged from the water, my left hand suddenly lashed out. The Soul-Chasing Cord coiled around my wrist shot backward like a sharp arrow, plunging half a foot into the earth behind me. With a fierce upward jerk of my left hand, a figure was yanked into the air by my Soul-Chasing Cord.

As the figure plummeted to the ground in my peripheral vision, the ghostly figures by the water's edge surged forward, charging straight at me.

I glanced sideways at the swiftly approaching figures. The Midnight Blade, drawn from behind me by my right hand, flashed upwards diagonally. The Yin wind howled as the blade rose along my shoulder and back, brushing against the chain in my left hand as it swept through the air. At the same time, the Soul-Chasing Cord in my right hand lashed out horizontally like a long whip.

The sound of the Midnight Blade tearing through flesh and the explosion of the Soul-Chasing Cord shattering ghosts erupted around me in quick succession.

Fireflies danced in the air, and reed catkins filled the sky. Greenish phosphorescence mingled with scorched reed flowers, scattering in all directions. The Soul-Chasing Cord and Midnight Blade fell from the sky simultaneously.

Turning, I raised my hand and caught the Midnight Blade, pointing the blade at the water's surface. The two Soul-Chasing Cords hanging from my wrist vibrated intensely against the ground. The buzzing sound was like two venomous snakes raising their heads and flicking their tongues, warning enemies not to act rashly.

When the reed catkins settled before me, my expression darkened slightly.

Those who had surged from the water were not ghosts, but symbol soldiers controlled by warlocks. Someone had buried a soldier talisman in the reed marshes by the shore. That was why, when I shattered the ghostly figures, I saw only reed catkins and no phosphorescence.

Was it Old Liu Tou who made the move?

As the question arose in my mind, I saw ripples spreading across the water beneath the reeds.

Seeing the ripples exploding in layers at the water's edge, I took a step back.

Before my heels had fully settled, raging flames shot into the sky from the reed marshes. Flames taller than a person moved like fiery dragons, hugging the riverbank as they swept downwards. In an instant, a hundred meters of flames blazed, turning half the sky a fiery red.

The reeds suddenly ignited. I had no time to consider the cause of the fire. I quickly used the dragon-head buckle on the Soul-Chasing Cord to secure the Midnight Blade's hilt and threw the blade into the heart of the fire.

The whistling Midnight Blade spun in the air, hilt first, blade tip pointing backward, as it plunged into the raging flames.

When the Midnight Blade was half a foot from the flames, the hand bone on the hilt suddenly splayed its fingers, like a ghostly claw reaching out to grab the dancing flames.

The fire snakes that had been waving in the air were blown to both sides by the Yin wind stirred up by the ghost hand, allowing the Midnight Blade to plunge straight in and seize something deep within the reeds.

When I pulled back the Soul-Chasing Cord, the Midnight Blade's ghost hand was already clutching something.

Before I could see what the Midnight Blade had grasped, I heard a burst of footsteps behind me. Old Liu Tou and a large group of villagers came rushing over from the distance.

When Old Liu Tou saw me standing by the water, he trembled with rage: "It really is you! I knew you were up to no good! Folks, he dared to set a fire. Beat him to death!"

The villagers, without caring whether what Old Liu Tou said was true or false, raised their shovels and hoes and charged towards me.

The moment I pulled my blade back, I took off running. When I wanted to run, even a wildcat couldn't catch me, let alone these ordinary villagers. I simply turned a corner not far from them, and they lost sight of me.

What they didn't know was that I was actually standing less than twenty meters away from them.

After absorbing Yin energy, I was essentially a ghost with weight. None of them had opened their Yin-Yang Eyes; how could they see me?

As the villagers walked back, I followed them, strolling along with them towards the village.

The person walking in front of me said in a low voice, "Things are strange tonight! Grandpa Liu was knocking on doors like a madman, asking if anyone had heard anything. Did you hear anything at your place?"

"You know, I actually did hear something. I heard a noise coming from under our water vat. It sounded like someone scratching the bottom of the vat with their fingers."

"Nonsense. How could a person crawl under a water vat?"

As the two were talking, I heard someone say in a hushed voice, "The strangest thing is that the reed marshes caught fire. Think about it, when have the reed marshes ever caught fire? When we were kids, the elders always said: 'The water spirit lives in the reed marshes.' They never let us go there. Think about it, who's ever seen reed marshes catch fire?"

Hearing this, I couldn't help but frown slightly. This Yu Lou Village seemed more complex than I had imagined.

Outside the village, there were not only water guardians, but also protective soldier talismans.

I roughly calculated the distance of the fire along the riverbank. The flames had burned down from upstream. The starting point of the fire was near the water pit where Wang Li Shi had drowned, and the place where the fire died out was right in front of Old Liu Tou's house.