Chapter 4 Earthbound Spirit

Chapter 4: Bound Spirit

The underground parking lot on the second floor was vast.

Li Yi walked alone on the muddy ground, his body tensed, alert to his surroundings.

“Knowing that this place is haunted and many people have died, these people still insist on acting alone. It seems they are determined to gamble with their lives. That Crow is really malicious, drawing such a big picture. Who could resist that?”

“At first, they just wanted to give it a try and earn a few tens of thousands of yuan, but now they don’t even care about their lives. Even I can’t help but look for qi objects in this situation.”

“After all, such an opportunity might only come once in a lifetime. Everyone wants to improve too much.”

Li Yi mused while searching with his flashlight.

The area illuminated by the flashlight was limited, and the presence of abandoned buildings and load-bearing pillars further increased the difficulty of the search.

Most importantly, Li Yi didn’t know what he was looking for.

Because he didn’t recognize qi objects.

“While there’s no Danger Zone yet, I’ll just wander around a bit and then go back. Don’t go too far and get lost. This time, I’ll be content with earning some money. I can’t risk my life for a qi object of uncertain authenticity. As for what others do, that’s their business; I can’t be blindly swept along.”

Li Yi had calmed down considerably at this moment, and he immediately slowed his pace.

After walking a short distance further, he felt that his search area was probably sufficient, so he did not go deeper.

He swept his flashlight left and right. If nothing unusual appeared, he would turn back.

But soon, from the darkness not far away, Wei Li’s voice came.

“I seem to have found something here. Although I don’t know what it is, I think it’s very unusual. If you’re interested, you can come closer to me.”

“Found something? Good, I’m coming.” Wang Hu’s voice responded.

Zhang Kaiwen also said, “Wait for me, I’ll be there soon.”

Then, several beams of light in the darkness began to converge in one direction.

“It’s not far from me. I’ll go and see. If I don’t get any information, I probably won’t get paid in the end.” Li Yi thought for a moment and, with a hint of curiosity, moved closer.

Soon, several people converged in one area.

Although they were far apart, their flashlights shone in the same direction.

It was a slightly raised grave mound, but it seemed to have been dug up long ago. Several broken gravestones were scattered nearby, along with some sacrificial items. However, the damaged grave was very peculiar; it was not a product of Earth at all, but rather resembled a very new ancient tomb.

“Is that my illusion?”

Li Yi shone his flashlight on the grave mound, only to find a halo of light around it. But as the flashlight’s beam moved away, the halo vanished into the darkness.

“It’s not an illusion. It really seems to be a little different there.”

His heart, which had calmed down, pounded once more at this moment.

Could that be the qi objects they spoke of?

He couldn’t be sure.

But the location wasn’t far. If he got closer to look, he would know.

However, he wasn’t the only one with that thought.

Yet, at this moment, everyone tacitly refrained from acting rashly, because Wei Li’s flashlight was not pointing at the grave mound, but at the surrounding ground.

They saw that around the grave mound, dead people’s arms had eerily grown out of the ground. Those arms were covered in mud, twisted and deformed, looking extremely bizarre. And the further they went, the more numerous they became. What was even more terrifying was that they vaguely saw something wriggling in the mud.

“No wonder Wei Li didn’t dare to go forward.”

Li Yi’s heart tightened. He had a premonition that once they stepped into this area, they would suffer unimaginable and terrifying attacks.

Once an accident occurred, their chances of survival as ordinary people would be extremely low.

So Wei Li wasn’t kindly informing them, but rather, he wasn’t confident in crossing this area himself and needed others to help him test the waters.

“The path is right in front of you. There are risks, but the rewards are great. How you choose is up to you.”

Wei Li, wiping his glasses, said unhurriedly, “If you turn back now, getting the remaining 100,000 yuan won’t be a problem. But you need to think carefully before making a choice.”

Everyone remained silent, falling into a brief quiet.

They were both hesitating and seemingly waiting for someone to take the lead.

However, at the same time, on the first floor of the building.

The tall woman was standing in an abandoned room, eyes closed, motionless.

She had been in this posture for some time, and now a smile suddenly appeared at the corner of her mouth: “They have indeed safely reached the core area. I determined their location through some movements, and so far, none of the five people have died. The previous deduction was true: ordinary people will not be targeted by the vengeful spirits wandering downstairs.”

“Because they haven’t activated their Spiritual Medium and can’t see the vengeful spirits, they won’t be attacked. People like us, who have stepped into cultivation, can see many things that ordinary people can’t. In fact, as soon as we enter the first basement, we would be attacked by many vengeful spirits, and there are even more vengeful spirits on the second basement level, densely packed. If we rushed in with our strength, we would die miserably,” Crow said in a deep voice from the side.

“Thinking of the countless dangerous vengeful spirits lurking around those five people, my hair stands on end. But sometimes I still envy them; not seeing means not having, and not having means not being afraid. Otherwise, how could they reach the core area so easily? They would have been scared to death long ago.”

The tall woman continued, “Avoiding attacks from unseen vengeful spirits is only the first step, but the things there are not simple; they have formed Bound Spirits. Once you get close, you will die terribly.”

“These people are of high caliber and very cunning. They won’t approach rashly. Most likely, they’ll just take a quick look from afar, snap a photo, and leave,” Crow said after a moment of thought.

“That works too. With just one photo, I can determine the precise location. Then I’ll gather a few friends and charge in again. As long as the action is fast enough, taking the item won’t be difficult.” The woman said, then suddenly let out a soft “Huh.”

“What’s wrong?”

The woman suddenly opened her eyes and immediately said, “Damn it, that Wang Hu wants to snatch the item from the Bound Spirit’s hand. His actions have caused a riot of the entire area’s departed souls. We can’t stay here anymore; we have to retreat from this building, otherwise, we will also be affected.”

“Then all five of them are dead for sure.” Crow’s expression changed slightly.

The two quickly evacuated the Danger Zone, while he instructed his other subordinates to stay away from the area.

At this moment, on the second floor of the underground parking lot.

Wang Hu rushed forward with large strides. He leaped forward, his feet landing precisely on a spot on the ground. Under normal circumstances, his body should have sunk into the mud by now, but it didn’t, because beneath his feet was a car buried in the mud.

The car became his stepping stone, allowing him to quickly approach the solitary grave.

But even though he had thought of this method, his actions had already triggered a series of terrifying reactions.

“Ah! Ah!”

Painful wails began to echo in the darkness. In the soft mud, many twisted and grotesque corpses writhed. They opened their mouths, their expressions pained, constantly approaching Wang Hu. The muddy arms, now swaying like wild grass in the wind, tried to prey on anything they could touch.

“What the hell are these things?”

Such a sight made people’s hearts pound.

Wang Hu leaped forward again, avoiding a terrifying arm reaching out from the mud, but this time his luck seemed to be bad. The parking space ahead appeared to be empty; there was no car beneath the mud.

Immediately, nearly half of his tall body sank in.

As his movements slowed, the corpses in the nearby mud writhed and struggled, surging towards him. In just a few seconds, Wang Hu was surrounded by those terrifying things, seemingly about to drag him into the mud and completely engulf him.

“Body, you damn well move quickly!”

He roared, his muscles tensed, and under a powerful will to survive, he erupted with unimaginable strength.

Wang Hu actually broke free from the mud’s grasp and quickly climbed onto the roof of a nearby car.

But the Danger Zone had not been lifted, because even more corpses were surging towards him.

At this moment, however, Wei Li moved. He stepped through the soft mud, approaching the solitary grave at the fastest speed he could manage.

The terrifying corpses in the mud were all attracted to Wang Hu, which was an opportunity for him.

“I have nothing to lose. If I don’t fight now, when will I?” Zhang Kaiwen immediately took off his shoes, also attempting to cross the dangerous area in front of him.

The three of them were gambling with their lives at this moment.

“Go, or not go?”

Li Yi was thinking rapidly at this moment. He was very tempted, because the path in front of him had cars as stepping stones, and the corpses in the nearby mud had been drawn away by the others.

He was confident that he could smoothly cross this dangerous area and reach the vicinity of the solitary grave.

But that was all.

Li Yi didn’t know, nor did he consider, whether there was danger in the solitary grave, whether qi objects existed, or whether he could return safely.

Because the next moment, he too charged out.

“I want to improve too!”