Chapter 160: Perilous Ritual, Advancement

Li Feng was the only Ghost among the Four Heavenly Kings who could speak human language.

However, it was also a Ghost of few words.

It only showed a gleam in its eyes during Cultivation, proving itself to be a true Cultivation fanatic.

Li Feng was also the first Ghost to Cultivate three Lifebound Skills to the Peak Realm.

“Perhaps, the Peak Realm is one of the thresholds for a Ghost to advance to the Extraordinary Realm?”

Shi An withdrew his thoughts and asked Li Feng how it had sensed the “mysterious revelation” and what its “Extraordinary Ceremony” entailed.

Li Feng spoke with a hoarse voice.

“Not long ago, I went Deep in the Nightmare to fight and hone my skills. After slaying about thirty or forty Ghosts, I mysteriously understood that by continuing down this path, I could touch upon my Extraordinary Ceremony.

“This path is… slaughter!”

Indeed, when Li Feng was engaged in Cultivation, it didn’t just bury itself in hard training inside the training room. It would find some Ghosts to test its sword, hoping to achieve a breakthrough under external pressure.

Not long ago, Li Feng had directly confronted dozens of Ghosts and slaughtered them one by one.

Only its Ghostly body could accomplish this. Had it been a human, even the top experts in the Third Refinements Realm would be instantly submerged in the Ghost Tide.

Slaughtering its way through the Ghost Tide was no easy feat for Li Feng, and precisely because of this, it felt the mysterious revelation.

It also roughly understood the content of its Extraordinary Ceremony.

It was slaughter, but far more than just killing ordinary Ghosts that were mere small fry.

“I need to slaughter a Ghost group, and within this group, there must be at least three Leader Level Ghosts,” Li Feng explained.

Shi An’s expression changed slightly. He thought, “Is this the true difficulty one must face when advancing to Extraordinary? That makes sense. If an Extraordinary Ceremony were simply swinging a sword a thousand times, it wouldn’t have trapped so many brilliantly talented Dream Descenders.”

Li Feng was only a Leader Level Ghost itself. How difficult it would be for it to fight three against one, while simultaneously dealing with other ordinary Ghosts.

Even though there was a gap in strength among those at the Leader Level, and Li Feng belonged to the absolute top tier, fighting such a massive battle meant that even if it won, it would be a pyrrhic victory.

Shi An pondered, “However, finishing this battle means the Extraordinary Ceremony has been fulfilled, and the Dream Descender or Ghost will advance in a short time.

“Advancing and undergoing a transformation in a weakened state will definitely increase the risks by several or even dozens of times!”

He realized the dilemmas in the advancement process were far more than just these.

After someone at the Peak of Third Refinements Realm finished such a battle and wanted to advance and break through, they would need a safe location, wouldn’t they? A breakthrough required time. If they remained in the Nightmare World, the one breaking through would become Ghost rations in minutes.

Furthermore, the Nightmare World, completely permeated with a cold and sinister aura, was not suitable as a place for a breakthrough.

Shi An mentally listed the potential problems they could encounter during the process.

“However, this obstacle isn’t an issue for my Safe Zone. Li Feng can quickly return to the Safe Zone after the battle and use the training room to break through.

“Besides these, there’s also the obstacle of intelligence.

“Finding such a perfectly suitable Ghost group requires time and manpower.

“If we want the Extraordinary Ceremony to proceed undisturbed, we also need powerful experts to stand guard. Otherwise, even the slightest accident could disrupt and halt the ceremony.”

Fortunately, many of these “nearly unsolvable” problems were just minor issues to him.

Finding a Ghost group? He just needed to issue a quest.

Guarding the ceremony? He just needed to call upon Little Blood Turbid Ling and the others when the time came.

Shi An could see that it was almost impossible for a lone ranger or a Lone Wolf expert to advance to Extraordinary. There were simply too many areas during the advancement process that required external assistance.

Luckily, he wasn’t a Lone Wolf. The massive Safe Zone was his wings.

Shi An began preparing for Li Feng’s ceremony.

Finding the target, setting up the venue, preparing recovery items, and various Support Treasure Medicines—he handled all of these methodically, striving for foolproof perfection.

…

Meanwhile.

In the Present Realm, at the Headquarter of the Baijiang Strategy Bureau.

Over a dozen Captains and Deputy Captains arrived at the conference room and took their seats one by one.

The Ninth Captain, Xia Yuxiu, spoke up. “Regarding the matter of the intelligent Ghost, we have obtained precise intelligence from the Safe Zone. It’s a type of Ghost known as a ‘Pseudo-Man’!”

Xia Yuxiu proceeded to explain everything about the Pseudo-Men in detail.

Some of the Captains and Deputy Captains present were already aware of the situation. However, there were others who had either been in long-term Cultivation retreats or had just returned from the Nightmare World.

All of their eyes widened as they gasped in shock.

“Such a Ghost actually exists? Holy crap!”

“Could these Pseudo-Men have already infiltrated our Baijiang City? This kind of Ghost is too terrifying. They absolutely cannot be allowed to live!”

“The question now is, do we have a way to detect Pseudo-Men?”

“I heard the Research Institute is already looking into it.”

“What we know so far is that the higher our realm and the stronger our Life Force and Spiritual Power, the longer it will take for a Pseudo-Man to erode and replace us. However, there are also those in the Extraordinary Realm among the Pseudo-Men, and it’s highly likely that there is far more than just one. We must pay close attention to this.”

The Captains all wore solemn expressions.

They had absolutely no idea how many Extraordinary Realm experts existed within the Pseudo-Man race.

There might only be two or three, but there could also be twenty or thirty! They were practically entirely in the dark regarding the Pseudo-Men. Had the Safe Zone not informed them this time, they would have only realized that an intelligent Ghost was spying on them, without any clue as to what the enemy was or where they were located.

The concealment capabilities of the Pseudo-Men were simply too strong!

“Fortunately, we’re now aware of the existence of Pseudo-Men and can take targeted precautions.”