The Geared Immortal

Into the border Part 2

/*unedited*/

The dark and gloomy atmosphere inside the misty Death Valley can make someone who has a weak will and enters it unconsciously quiver as Goosebumps would cover their bodies and their hearts be filled with fear.

Shin Jiao immediately traversed the place after he landed.

He carefully scanned his surroundings and put up his guard against the ghastly creatures around him.

Although these creatures could not harm him physically, if not careful he could fall into their sinister enchantment and be possessed by them.

As these ghosts have been powerful cultivators while they were alive, the resentment they have felt made them stay in this place and be trapped, unable to ascend to the next life. The faces of each of these ghosts varied from the way they died. Some have their limbs missing and there are those who carry their head with them. Shin Jiao can also see many beast clan ghosts among these ghastly figures, and their number is as boundless as the cultivators in this area.

While Shin Jiao is walking some of the ghosts would attack him. However, because of the thin film of holy Qi surrounding his body, those who attack him would wail in pain.

"This place is huge, how can I find the Soul flower." Shin Jiao muttered.

Suddenly a ghost sitting on a stone with his head lowered slowly lifted his head. The ghost seems to be in good condition as his head looks clean and his armor still intact.

This man accidentally died on the battlefield after taking an unknown poison. He was killed by his own comrades because of envy and some petty conflict. Since he could not accept his death he decided to stay in this place, wanting to have a chance to see his family once again in the kingdom of San.

As a sand warrior of the kingdom of San, this man has served the kingdom with honor. A few months ago when the whole empire declared that the demons are attacking, he volunteered because of his anger after some misunderstanding with his woman.

He found out through the rumors that while he was away, that the woman he loved is seeing another man, hence he became angry and immediately volunteered to go to war without hearing her out.

Now that he is dead, he regretted his decision and wanted to go back to the kingdom of San. But no matter how hard he tries he could not escape this huge valley. Plus there are those powerful phantoms that would devour the souls of weak cultivators who would accidentally stray towards their territory.

So the man didn't dare to go anywhere and stayed in this place. A few months have passed since then and he just waited and waited for days to go by. While waiting, his heart started to suffer because of the pain and anguish from his resentments, while his human consciousness is starting fade. Sooner or later, he would turn into one of these mindless ghosts who roam around this place without any consciousness.

Suddenly the man noticed a human among them. But when he saw that the human has a way to protect himself from the likes of him, he hesitated and didn't move.

Suddenly he heard something which made him feel hope.

The man lifted his ghost head and looks at Shin Jiao.

As Shin Jiao's figure was about to leave, the man immediately rushed towards him.

"Wait!" the man said in his ghastly voice.

Upon hearing this, Shin Jiao turn his head and saw a ghost who is not like any of the ghosts he had seen before.

"This man's consciousness has not yet faded… what a strong will." Shin Jiao thought as he observed the floating transparent figure floated towards him.

"You… you said that you are looking for the Soul flower right?" the man asked.

"Yes… you… you know that you are already dead right? I wonder why you can still maintain your consciousness." Shin Jiao said.

"I… I don't know. I just want to return to the kingdom of San, and see the woman I loved before leaving this world… Senior… If I may, I want to make a deal with you. I just want to return… I can guide you to where that flower is."

Upon hearing what the ghost said, Shin Jiao, knitted his brow.

"How would I know that you would not deceive me? You are already a ghost what use would you have in returning and seeing your woman?"

"Senior, this is my resentment. I don't know why I can still remember everything, but it seems that my will is too strong. But these days, I can feel my mind being corroded with something dark and my consciousness is already starting to fail me."

"So you wanted to escape this place and see the woman you loved before leaving, right?" Shin Jiao asked.

Though he didn't know why Shin Jiao can feel the sincerity under that ghastly voice.

…

The man is called Hun Jingan, and he told Shin Jiao his story. The two made an agreement to help one another.

And so, Hun Jingan told Shin Jiao about what he heard from the other ghost in this place.

The Soul flower is only one of the lower types of herbs in this place. It is known that many herbs thrive in an environment where death Qi is abundant. These rare herbs could not be obtained easily, because of the danger the Death Valley pose. Even the battles are only fought in some parts of the valley where the death Qi are sparse.

In this area, no one dares enter unless they are familiar with death Qi or their cultivation level is already in a nascent realm. But the herbs in this place are of no use to nascent realm cultivators, so this place is left untouched for thousands of years.

But right now, a single man and a ghost are slowly approaching a part of the plain where the death Qi and the number of ghosts are many.

"What a thick death Qi… If a devil cultivator would enter this place, then they would become strong in a short time." Shin Jiao muttered.

When the ghost Hun Jingan heard this, he showed a sneer on his semitransparent face.

"Senior Shin would be right if not for those…" he said as he pointed towards the side where tall ghastly figures of around 2 meters are standing.

The whole area is almost dark purple in color because of the thick death Qi, and the color of the ghost with the strongest cultivation is dark reddish.

The tall ghastly figures that Hun Jingan is pointing at have that dark reddish hue.

"Those are high-level ghosts?"

"Yes, senior… in this place, we call them wraiths. They are the ones devouring the souls in this place who would not obey their commands."

"Hmm… so what's the purpose of the ghost in here then?"

"Well, every dawn, we would gather together and fight each other a non-ending eternal battle."

"The army who would lose will have part of their soul devoured by those wraiths until none would be left in that cultivator's soul… That is also the reason why they are the strongest ghost cultivator in this place."

"Then how can we get past them?" Shin Jiao asked.

"I'm also clueless about that senior."

Shin Jiao did expect this answer because this ghost named Hun Jingan is also trapped in this place and only obeys the law imposed by those so-called wraiths.

Shin Jiao didn't know how long this would take, so he decided to give an instruction to Qian Li to go to the border castle and wait for him there.

Although a bit reluctant, she obeyed.

She decided that if Shin Jiao is not back in three days, she would jump down and enter that place even at the cost of her life.

After getting confirmation from Qian Li, Shin Jiao heaves a sigh of relief.

Then he began to observe the surrounding ghosts and the wraiths. After a while, he devised a plan on how to walk pass those 2 meters tall wraiths.

His plan is simple. All he has to do is to use the most direct way to keep those wraiths away. And that is by tweaking an explosive grenade and turning it into a holy bomb.

"You have to take a few distances away from me. After this thing exploded you follow behind me, okay?" Shin Jiao said as he immediately threw the tweaked bomb.

BOOM!

The loud explosion reverberated through the air followed by sounds of wailing ghosts.

Shin Jiao didn't wait for the light to rescind as his figure immediately dashed forward through that wide opening in the purple miasma.

When Hu Jingan noticed Shin Jiao's figure he too followed behind.

It didn't take for the two to be able to pass through that blockade of ghosts.

While running away, Shin Jiao was shocked by the number of wraiths and normal ghosts that were exterminated. He also noticed the white smoke like thingy that flew through the sky.

"Hmm… what are those smokes?" Shin Jiao muttered while thinking.

"That is the release senior. Since they were exposed to holy Qi, then their ghostly body and resentment were forcefully purified. When I was alive, many said that the soul can be extinguished. But in truth is cannot. For our souls are eternal and unending. It can only be imprisoned and corrupted, but not destroyed."

"Really? That's… that's a very satisfying truth. How… Oh, never mind." Shin Jiao said as he didn't want to ask more.

He is still alive and didn't want to bother with the dead.

After a while of running, the two came upon a small lake. And around that lake lays a beautiful garden.

"What a wonderful place in a really foul atmosphere."