Jiang Ming had three pendants hanging around his neck, his black hair simply tied behind him, sitting cross-legged at the center of the Mountain God Temple in the village.
"Screech—"
After sharpening the iron knife, Jiang Ming carefully wrapped it layer by layer with a cloth strip and hung it on his back. With the cloth strip tightened, Jiang Ming's back already bore a longbow, a short knife tied to his waist, and a quiver hanging at his hip.
Jiang Ming looked outside, reminiscing about the previous battle.
This battle was as if he had truly reincarnated in the Jiuzhou Cultivation Realm for a lifetime, as if he were Li Jin. Jiang Ming quickly adapted to Li Jin's martial arts cultivation, but the sudden changes still left him feeling a bit dazed and dreamlike, with the sensation of reality and illusion clashing.
While Jiang Ming was lost in thought, dawn broke in the east, bringing daylight.
The evil spirits that were rampant in the night temporarily retracted their fangs, as light dispelled darkness, leaving remnants of evil spirits unknown in dark places.
Jiang Ming grasped the three pendants hanging on his neck.
Two of them were left behind by the Jiang Family, and one was found in the Mountain God Temple, providing Jiang Ming with a slight amount of Spirit Points, considered unexpected wealth.
However, Jiang Ming did not abandon these items extracted with spiritual qi, as they might still bear a trace of the Mountain God's aura. Just like before, Jiang Ming's original body had thus avoided disaster, and perhaps at some point, he could rely on the remaining aura to bluff his way through a situation.
This was also Jiang Ming's greatest safeguard besides having late-stage Acquired Mortal Martial Dao cultivation.
Jiang Ming now had 1.58 Spirit Points, and needed just 0.42 more to initiate the next simulation.
Apart from those two Black Monkeys, no other ghostly creatures came at night in the village. The residual might of the Mountain God and the Great Evil still lingered, but this might would eventually dissipate.
"The road from Jiang Family Village to Evergreen City is the main road, which can't be completely safe, but in the daytime, it can barely ensure basic safety..."
Jiang Ming walked out of the village, heading towards the main road according to his memory.
The so-called main road was merely a small path two miles away.
The Human Race used these small paths to connect villages and towns with the cities, forming a linked system.
Even though it was daytime, the forest still held a chill.
To reach the main road, two mountains had to be crossed, on which the villagers of Jiang Family Village had originally pioneered a simple path.
"Roar—"
Suddenly, a deafening roar resounded.
Massive sound waves shook the mountain rocks, causing the leaves in the forest to tremble.
Jiang Ming instinctively gripped the short knife at his waist, and although he turned to follow the roar, he realized the sound was loud yet distant, not from this forest, or even nearby, but from somewhere far off.
With a light step, Jiang Ming reached the top of the tallest giant tree, flipping and crouching on a sturdy branch, peering through the leaves into the distance.
His pupils shrank sharply, spotting a silhouette on the horizon resembling a bronze giant standing on the earth.
The giant was massive, and though Jiang Ming couldn't make out the features clearly, he squinted enough to discern the giant's general body characteristics.
The giant was slender yet had a bulging belly like that of a ten-month pregnant woman. The giant bent over, struggling to dig with its disproportionately slender arms into the earth, unaware of what it sought.
What is this?
"Whoosh!"
Jiang Ming, in an instant, executed the motions of drawing an arrow and nocking it, sending an arrow flying into the darkness.
The arrow carried flames ignited by qi-blood, a technique Jiang Ming devised by infusing qi-blood onto his weapons.
Jiang Ming's archery, though lacking, was nonetheless novice-level, thanks to his prior time with the Hunter Team. Combined with the body control of a late-stage Acquired Martial Artist, he couldn't compare to a Divine Archer but had indeed entered the archer's ranks.
The arrow traced a fiery arc in the sky, plunging fiercely into the ground.
"Pfft."
The sound of it piercing flesh echoed, as the arrow skewered a Black Monkey's slender body, pinning it to the ground.
"Why are ghosts appearing in daylight?"
This thought flashed in Jiang Ming's mind.
"Boom—"
The next second, the exceedingly quiet forest erupted into chaos, with darkness surging through the woods. One by one, ghosts crawled out from the darkness.
Every shadowy spot in the forest seemed to spawn assorted beings in a frenzy.
It was as if hell had broken loose, filling the dark forest with endless wails, screams, illusions, and roars.
Countless limbs struggled and climbed outward, and countless eyes fixated intensely on a single spot, eyes filled with frenzy and excitement.
Jiang Ming's heart skipped.
Then, he saw countless fine chains emerging from the darkness, binding these specters and forcefully dragging them back into the shadows.
It was as if countless evil spirits trying to break free from hell were restrained back into the abyss.
Yet, a few specters managed to break free from the chains, rushing swiftly into the distance.
The number of ghosts breaking free wasn't large, they fled through the forest gloom towards the giant's direction.
The commotion ceased, the specters either departed or were again confined in darkness, and all seemed like an illusion, as the forest returned to a serene state, with birdsongs once again heard from the treetops.
Jiang Ming didn't know what had transpired, crouching on the tree, hesitantly looking back in the original direction.
His pupils narrowed needle-like, for where the giant stood, light had vanished, as though that area was stripped from daylight, with countless fine black lines pouring in, leaving what happened in there unknown.
"What is that place, why has such a change occurred? Wasn't it said that specters don't appear during the day?"
Jiang Ming now held too many questions in his heart.
And Jiang Ming only knew the location of Evergreen City. His original self was merely the son of a village chief in a mortal village and knew too little about this world.
As Jiang Ming retracted his gaze, his palms grew slightly sweaty, an inexplicable sense of dread emerged. Even though his eyes had looked away, no longer pondering, an obscure shadow swayed in his mind.
Jiang Ming shook his head vigorously, trying to dispel it from his mind.
Yet, as he did so, the pain and shadow in his mind gradually faded. Contrary to comfort, Jiang Ming felt frightened—this shadow seemed not to leave but to hide, Jiang Ming sensed an inexplicable foreboding.
"Whoosh!"
In his anxious state, slight noise arose below, prompting Jiang Ming instinctively to draw and shoot an arrow.
The probability of encountering ordinary humans in the wild was quite low, especially when the sole nearby human settlement, Jiang Family Village, had perished.
"Humph."
A pained grunt echoed.
"Is it a person?" Jiang Ming was taken aback, yet his alertness remained undiminished.
Confirming no specters would appear in broad daylight, Jiang Ming cautiously advanced to investigate.
A slender figure, holding her arm, slumped on the ground. The girl dressed in red, her outfit fluttering, with an arrow through her right arm, pinned to a tree.