Chapter 403: Fifth World: The Cloaked Man's Darling

While the cultivators were evacuating the creatures lurking deep in the mist hid from Qie Ranzhe but how could he let them be? Bright red flames appeared on his palms as he ambled through the mist as though taking a casual stroll.

His hands drooped on either side of his body with his palms angled to the ground. Like flammable gas, the mist caught on fire with each step he took making the woman scream in horror.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! It hurts.... Stop, stop you are hurting me," she screamed like a little girl but Qie Ranzhe didn't stop. He intensified the attack intending to lure her out. The louder the ear-piercing screams the hotter the flames.

This went on until she showed herself crawling on the ground looking extremely pitiful. Her upper body and face had an extensive network of blue veins that made it hard for Qie Ranzhe to make out her facial features. Her lower body was enveloped by an endless stream of the dark mist that was now ablaze.

It seemed to be attached to her body as she crawled towards him looking pathetic. Their entire surroundings were on fire but Qie Ranzhe was unfazed as he crouched down before her. He could sense a formidable force embedded in her. A force that granted her this much dark Qi to wreak havoc. Qie Ranzhe recited an incantation while drawing symbols on her forehead.

This action had the woman arch her back as she screamed in terror. A blue fog parted from her with a painful ripping sound as though tearing itself from her like she was a scourge.

Once it was done separating itself from the woman it attempted to flee but Qie Ranzhe grabbed it and burnt it to ash. The fog made faint shrieking sounds as it fought to live but it was pointless and so it met its tragic end in this way. 

It was only then that Qie Ranzhe saw the woman's full appearance. She wasn't a woman at all. It was rather accurate to describe her as a girl. It was obvious as day that she was a ghost but Qie Ranzhe guessed she didn't know judging from her ecstatic appearance.

"I, I, I am back... I am really back to my old self," she said with tears wailing up in her eyes. She looked up to see the face of her saviour but her face sank when she recognized him.

In a swift motion, she kowtowed before him banging her head on the ground. "Young master Qie.... please forgive me. Young master Qie, have mercy."

Vexed, Qie Ranzhe replied, "Raise your head."

Trembling in great trepidation she raised her head with tears streaming down her cheeks. Qie Ranzhe studied her carefully but there was no feeling of familiarity so he asked, "What is your name?"

The girl bit her lower lip terrified to make a sound but she had to answer his question. "She-shei Lee," she said before closing her eyes in deep sorrow.

Qie Ranzhe was familiar with the name but he couldn't understand why she was here. Shei Lee was a servant girl in the Qie mansion who directly served his mother. Back then Qie Ranzhe's mother wrote him a letter like she always did but most of the things she wrote were usually trivial matters. The one time Shei Lee was mentioned, it was about her stealing his father's seal and a box of precious jewellery. Unfortunately for her, she had robbed the wrong person.

Master Qie was especially ruthless sending his shadow hounds to tear her to pieces after retrieving the stolen property. That was the only time he heard of the name Shei Lee. Now her pitiful ghost was kowtowing in front of him begging for forgiveness.

"Speak," he said in a calm yet tyrannical voice that had her trembling in fear.

"He-he, he made me do it but, but I got caught," she said before pursing her lips in panic, "when I, I was dying he asked me if I wanted to live and-and I said yes. But he turned me into this monster and told me to follow his instructions."

"Who? " he asked but as soon as his voice fell an arrow was shot straight into Shei Lee's head with a talisman attached to the arrowhead eliminating her feeble ghost. She screamed as her body scattered right in front of Qie Ranzhe.

Qie Ranzhe flung his hand dispersing the flames revealing the burnt town. In his peripheral view, he noticed a figure fleeing into the distance. He leapt up to the roof in hot pursuit but the culprit in a red demon mask was fast.

Having exhausted some of his strength extracting the demonic Qi in Shei Lee, he knew he wouldn't be able to catch up. In a swift motion, he took out a rare tracking talisman he had bought to track his unruly child and activated it before tossing it at the man's back.

The talisman accurately attached to the man's back as he used a teleportation talisman to getaway. The talisman turned invisible making it hard for the man to notice it.

Qie Ranzhe stood by the roof looking in the direction the man went but his attention was soon grasped when he felt a somewhat familiar Qi nearby. He leapt up in the air with his hands behind his back in an imposing elegant manner like he owned the skies.

He scanned the entire town only to see a familiar figure and a cloaked man engaged in a vicious battle. From the looks of it the cloaked man was winning so he dashed over intending to land a hand.

While Qie Ranzhe was planning to save the damsel in distress, Wen Qinxi was on the verge of collapse cursing this cloaked fellow ten times over. He didn't even know the identity of the man but he was called darling several times while getting his ass kicked.

This was undoubtedly the most humiliating and frustrating thing he had ever experienced since he decided to enter this game and help his boss out.

Wen Qinxi was kicked in the chest sending him straight into a wall but before he could recover he was suddenly grabbed by the neck and hovered ten meters above the ground. The man whispered in his ear saying, "You have to remember me," in a horrifying tone that made his blood run cold.

Wen Qinxi wanted to say something but he found he couldn't with his face turning red unable to breathe. He honestly thought he was going to die right then and there but lucky for him someone came to his rescue.

The cloaked man let go of his neck all of sudden causing him to fall to the ground as his vision dimmed. All he remembers is seeing Qie Ranzhe fighting with that man before his vision went black as he fell unconscious.