Chapter 00044: Soul Snatching
# Soul Snatching
Chapter 44
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 44: Soul Snatching
The tension was unbearable.
A few people couldn’t hold their breath any longer and gasped for air, their heavy breathing drowned out by the howling wind.
But the hundreds of wandering resentful spirits in the air suddenly froze, their gazes snapping toward the source of the noise.
Before the unlucky few could even take a proper breath, the resentful spirits lunged at them, crashing into their heads.
With a soft *puff*, the three life flames on their bodies were instantly extinguished.
No one dared to intervene in such a situation.
To the onlookers, it seemed as though the victims briefly froze for a couple of breaths after the spirits entered their ears and noses.
Then, they clutched their heads and let out agonized screams.
Their eyes turned bloodshot, drool dripped from their mouths, and they looked as if they were suffering from rabies.
Unlike the puppets controlled by the Three Corpses Worms, they didn’t attack the people around them.
Instead, they ran around aimlessly, rolled on the ground, or crashed into walls.
Dozens of resentful spirits were now crammed into the same sea of consciousness, quarreling, pulling, and attacking each other.
It felt like dozens of firecrackers exploding simultaneously inside their heads.
Who could endure such torment?
In just over ten breaths, these people collapsed, bleeding from all seven orifices, and died.
The onlookers were terrified.
The faster their hearts beat, the harder it became to hold their breath.
Most people were now struggling, their faces turning blue and purple.
Yet, the resentful spirits continued to pour out endlessly.
When would this nightmare end?
It was either suffocate or have your brain pierced by a resentful spirit.
Within a few breaths, five or six more people chose the former.
He Lingchuan and Nian Songyu were holding up better, as martial artists naturally had stronger lung capacity.
However, He Chunhua’s face had turned a deep purple, and it was clear he couldn’t hold on much longer.
He Lingchuan didn’t care about anything else.
He grabbed Sun Fuping’s sleeve and mouthed the words, “Do something!”
As a martial artist, his skills were useless against resentful spirits.
Perhaps Sun Fuping also felt the time was right.
With a flick of his sleeve, he shook off He Lingchuan’s hand and walked into the center of the army, raising his staff.
He stuffed something into the mouth of the beast-shaped ornament on the staff and then slammed it into the ground.
A yellow glowing barrier appeared, centered around the beast’s head, enveloping everyone inside.
A protective barrier!
Sun Fuping shouted, “You can breathe now!”
The group felt as if they had been granted a reprieve.
Some bent over, coughing violently from breathing too hard.
Even He Chunhua was visibly angry. “Why did you wait so long to act, State Preceptor?”
If he had acted just a dozen breaths earlier, those five or six people wouldn’t have died.
Sun Fuping’s expression was grave. “This illusory barrier doesn’t last long, and its effects aren’t as strong as the life flames. I only use it as a last resort. Can you predict how much longer the resentful spirits will keep pouring out?”
No one could.
He Chunhua had no retort.
The soldiers looked at Sun Fuping with mixed emotions, but he paid no heed.
“Saving the majority is the priority,” Nian Songyu said. “What do we do now?”
“We wait,” Sun Fuping replied, his eyes fixed on the pool. “Only when the resentful spirits stop coming out will we take the next step.”
Now that they had a moment to breathe, the group finally had the chance to observe the resentful spirits swirling in the air.
“Huh,” Situ Han muttered. “Most of the spirits coming out now are human-shaped, and there are even some armored riders on horses.”
These spirits galloped on their steeds, brandishing swords and roaring as if they were still on a battlefield, locked in endless combat.
“The spirits of fallen soldiers are the most numerous, and their resentment is the strongest,” He Lingchuan said, then gasped. “Look at that one!”
The resentful spirits emerging from the pool had started as bizarre, shapeless forms, then became mostly human-shaped, and now they were growing increasingly massive.
Though resentful spirits had no physical weight, the one He Lingchuan saw looked like a fusion of seven or eight spirits.
It had seven arms and eight legs, with pairs of eyes on its chest and shoulders.
An ordinary resentful spirit standing before it would be like a person standing before an ancient banyan tree—there was no comparison in size.
The pressure it exerted on the living was also on a completely different level.
Seeing this monster, Sun Fuping actually seemed relieved. “Just as I thought.”
He Lingchuan frowned. “What do you mean?” He hated it when people spoke in riddles.
It was like they were asking for trouble.
“When resentful spirits are trapped together for too long, some begin to devour and merge with others, forming new, powerful entities—like raising gu,” Sun Fuping explained, pointing at the monster. “It seems the spirits are emerging in order of strength, from weakest to strongest. That means our ordeal is almost over.”
The seven-armed, eight-legged monster crawled out of the pool, seemingly ready to follow the others upward.
But as soon as Sun Fuping finished speaking, it suddenly turned its head.
Its sixteen eyes blinked in unison, staring directly at the barrier!
He Lingchuan felt a chill run down his spine.
This thing’s gaze was far more terrifying than Nian Songyu’s. “Can it see us?”
“Shh!” Sun Fuping quickly silenced him.
But it was too late.
The sixteen-eyed monster clearly sniffed the air, then began crawling out of the pool, heading straight for the barrier.
The monster’s movements were awkward and uncoordinated, even stumbling at times.
But Sun Fuping knew this was only because it had just entered the mortal realm and hadn’t fully adapted yet.
The illusory barrier didn’t offer real protection—it couldn’t, or it would provoke the resentful spirits’ aggression.
Its purpose was to conceal the living, making it impossible for the dead to detect the scent of flesh and blood.
However, among the countless resentful spirits, there were always a few with unique abilities, less easily deceived.
From the way the sixteen-eyed monster was acting, it hadn’t completely seen through the barrier, but it was suspicious and determined to investigate.
To the monster, the area covered by the barrier seemed devoid of living beings, but it could faintly sense a trace of vitality, like sparse fireflies flickering in the night.
When it tried to focus, the sensation blurred.
This piqued its curiosity, and it wanted to get closer for a better look.
As it was about to collide with the barrier, Sun Fuping barked an order, “Baishan, Qingshui! Raise the Soul-Calming Banner!”
Two attendants behind him rushed to the front of the group, standing at the edge of the barrier.
They produced a massive white banner from somewhere and began waving it at the sixteen-eyed monster.
The banner was covered in dense black and red symbols.
As it fluttered against the wind, the symbols seemed to float and rotate, accompanied by faint chanting in the air.
The banner looked like nothing more than a wooden pole with a piece of white cloth, but the attendants struggled to wield it, requiring both hands and the combined effort of two people.
They swung the banner in a rhythmic, repetitive motion, as if drawing the infinity symbol “∞” in the air.
At the same time, Sun Fuping stepped in front of the group and signaled for them to close their eyes.
But the command came a bit too late.
As soon as the white banner appeared, everyone’s eyes naturally followed its movements.
After it swayed twice, several people’s gazes became fixed, as if drawn by a magnet.
They began walking toward it.
One of them passed by He Lingchuan, who quickly grabbed his shoulder and closed his eyelids for him.
The man struggled briefly, then went still.
Others followed suit, restraining their entranced companions.
(End of Chapter)