Quentin Yuan stepped forward, quietly gazing at David Wu. The ghost within his body emerged, but the other three members grabbed Quentin, seemingly trying to stop him.
"Don't worry, nothing will happen. If we don't try, we'll never get out, and we won't find anyone else either, right? Think carefully—everyone has a reason they have to go back, don't they?"
David Wu kept persuading them, still hesitant. The other three did not let go of Quentin Yuan.
"Someone has to do it. Since you adults aren't willing, let me handle it."
Quentin Yuan brushed aside the three behind him and walked forward slowly.
At last, I understood the cause of David Wu's death. The moment Quentin Yuan dug out David Wu's organs, the black mist surrounding the well began to rise, wrapping around David Wu and slowly devouring him until he vanished completely before the eyes of the Ghost Burial Squad.
The hope that had appeared was shattered once again. Quentin Yuan wanted to try what David Wu had done, but none of the other three made a move.
I regained consciousness. The village was now utterly calm, the festive commotion gone. I stood up once more, sensing I might have found a breakthrough.
David Wu was dead, and his organs had vanished—devoured by those things that move against time. Where they went might be the key I can pursue.
"What are you planning to do?"
Isabelle Frost asked, and I smiled at her.
Isabelle Frost, I leave it to you. After I leave, please find a way to give them despair—make them regain their fighting spirit.
"It's best not to act recklessly."
Isabelle Frost spoke, but at that moment, I knew clearly inside that I had a way to get in there.
The Five Elements are the foundation of this world. Whether human or ghost, neither can escape them. Although I don't know how the five internal organs—mirroring the Five Elements—are connected to the black mist that devoured David Wu's organs, the only method I can think of is this.
Right now, I possess the power of all the Five Elements. All I need to do is go to the well and release the power of the Five Elements—it should be devoured.
"I can't waste any more time here. I have to hurry back."
As I spoke, I floated up with a whoosh and instantly arrived beside the well. Isabelle Frost took on my appearance and appeared with the Ghost Burial Squad, while the villagers began fleeing in all directions.
Thinking back, Yvonne May's primal instincts were truly clever. She split the Darong Clan into two groups in this world—bandits and villagers. No matter which side won, her instincts would be nourished.
I focused intently on the well before me, then began tossing the bodies of dead villagers into it one after another. Suddenly, an anomaly erupted—the dead villagers instantly turned into wisps of white mist that sprayed from the well and drifted outward, followed immediately by a surge of black mist.
But soon, that black mist, about two meters away from the well, seemed to be pulled back by something.
“Well, you finally came out, huh? Heh, I don’t know what you are, but I have questions for you.”
As I spoke, I quietly raised my hand, peeling back the layers to release the power within me, unraveling it thread by thread—five pure forces, the Five Elements.
Then my power began to change. Sure enough, the black mist reacted, absorbing my energy. Soon, my whole body started to twist. At that moment, the white mist around me grabbed hold, as if trying to drag me out of the black mist. In the struggle, I screamed in pain.
Two incredibly strong forces pulled at my body, tearing at my ghost soul. Belle shimmered with a fiercely bright pink glow.
Cecilia used her charm to stabilize my nearly torn-apart ghost soul. I forced myself to hold on, and just then, a voice echoed in my mind.
“Don’t go over there. Don’t go….”
I recognized the voice—it was the power form of Yunmei that had secretly slipped into my instinctive space before. The Chronostone. He had tried to expel me from this world before, and now he was trying to stop me from being devoured by the black mist.
“Let go….”
I roared, but the white mist behind me still refused to let go, determined to hold on. It wanted to devour my black mist, but seemed about to give out, fading and retreating back into the well.
“I told you to let go—can’t you hear me?”
I roared again. With a boom, everything around me shattered into rubble. The black mist on my body condensed into a translucent black evil spirit on my back, howling.
As my instincts manifested, the black mist swirling before me suddenly surged, its power growing stronger. The white mist faded. My entire being felt shredded, and I lost consciousness within the black mist.
When I opened my eyes, I was stunned. I was in a boundless, dim space, filled with countless drifting objects.
All these things could be found in the living world—there were islands, lakes, buildings from ancient times to now, even modern stuff like TVs and cars. Everything was here, even sky and farmland, all floating chaotically around me like trash.
Beside me was a black TV, its screen still glowing, but only static—no signal at all.
I grabbed a phone, pressed the power button. It lit up, but had no signal. Just an ordinary phone, nothing special, yet it floated here in this space.
The whole space shifted between light and dark. All kinds of clothing mixed in, everything from the living world existed here—even food and drink.
As I marveled, I sensed something hurtling toward me from afar. The moment I drew Hell’s Sentinel, I heard a guttural cry. My chest was struck, smashing through a car and falling downward. With a thud, I landed in a floating field, mud splattering, flattening a whole patch of wheat.
It felt real. I grabbed a handful of mud and floated upward, the mud flicking off my body.
The figure before me had spiky hair, a body shrouded in black, and a mouth split wide as if grinning. His whole body was streaked with three colors—red, yellow, and black—all tangled together. He looked nothing like the faceless ghosts or the Grieving Ghosts.
He was simply human-shaped, but the murderous intent he held for me was overwhelming.
“Want to play? I’ve been training lately. Playing with you could be fun.”
With a guttural cry, the figure made a sound that wasn’t human—more like some strange animal, though I couldn’t tell what. It was bizarre.
Suddenly, a black sphere flew toward me—created and hurled by that figure. Not knowing its power, I didn’t dare be careless and dodged.
With a boom, the black sphere smashed into the field, and instantly, the entire field vanished, engulfed by a fierce black light.
Just as I was pondering its power—strong but not fast—the figure vanished. The field below me, which had just disappeared, returned to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.
“I already told you not to come, but you still did.”
I heard it—the voice of Yunmei’s power form. I turned and saw something very similar to the black figure from before, but this one was white.
“Are you Yunmei’s instinct?”
I asked, and the figure shook his head, then nodded.
“I am Jules—you can call me that. That rude guy just now was Chen, Zhang Qingyuan. Now that things have come to this, do you still want to solve it? Look—everything here is the product of accumulated time. If something triggers it, this power will erupt, and the living world will be thrown into chaos.”
“What exactly will happen?”
I asked. Jules’ pitch-black eyes stared at me.
“There’s a huge secret sealed in here, and we’re not just Yunmei’s instincts—we’re the guardians of something shared by the Eight Ancient Clans.”
I stared in astonishment at Jules as he slowly approached me, then pointed into the distance. In the sky, golden characters appeared—Ji, Jiang, Yao, Ying, Si, Yun, Gui, Ji.
I gazed in wonder—these were the Eight Ancient Clans. Suddenly, I remembered something: Ji Yuner always called Yunmei ‘sister,’ and their relationship seemed unusual.
The eight clans all have something in common—the ‘female’ radical in their surnames.
“What does it all mean?”
I asked, and Jules looked at the eight characters and said:
“In the living world, the true bloodline inheriting these surnames was severed a thousand years ago. Among countless branches, no one can inherit it now. So Yunmei bore it all alone, took on the instinct. But she can’t bear it—the power of that lord is beyond her reach. So she had to abandon her instinct.”