57. Defeating the Phantom Army and Reaching Level 11

The ghosts in the woods had no idea that Su Yu had just slain their companion.

Sensing Su Yu's approach and the surging spiritual energy radiating from him, the ghosts emerged from the forest all at once, like sharks smelling blood.

One, two, three...

In the blink of an eye, a full 18 ghosts crawled out!

For a moment, black mist blotted out the sky above the forest.

The ghosts lunged ravenously toward Su Yu.

Devouring Su Yu, whose spiritual energy was exceptionally dense, would be far more beneficial than consuming a whole busload of ordinary humans; not a single ghost was willing to miss this opportunity!

Moreover, trailing right behind the 18 ghosts was a massive, completely crimson ghost measuring 2.5 meters in length. Fixing its blood-red eyes intently on Su Yu, it transformed into a crimson beam of light and lunged at him from the flank.

"Oh no! My calculations were off!"

Su Yu's expression shifted drastically.

According to the news reports from his past life, there should have been only 8 ghosts!

How did it suddenly turn into 19?

And on top of that, there was even a red Tier-1 ghost among them. How was this possible?!

...

When the Skrulls created ghosts, they categorized the ghosts' tiers based on the principle of the "dispersion of light": red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Among them, red represented a Tier-1 ghost.

Had he known there was a Tier-1 ghost leading the pack and a total of 19 ghosts waiting here, given Su Yu's cautious nature, nothing could have dragged him over here.

But now...

"That's not right!" Su Yu's thoughts raced. "I remember that during the first week after the great upheaval, the Skrulls hadn't produced any Tier-1 ghosts yet. Why are there already some on the third day in this timeline? Did something go wrong somewhere?"

However, Su Yu had no time to ponder this.

After using [Blink] once more to dodge the ghosts' encirclement, Su Yu launched a counterattack against them.

A massive bolt of lightning flew from Su Yu's hand, connecting to six of the ghosts.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Before the six ghosts even had time to react, they exploded into six patches of black mist.

After the upgrade of Su Yu's [Chain Lightning], the number of simultaneous targets it could attack had increased from four to six.

Thus, with a single strike, he instantly wiped out six Tier-0 ghosts!

The surrounding ghosts were stunned, never expecting Su Yu's spell to pack such immense power!

Yet they only paused for a fraction of a second before once again lunging at Su Yu.

Thick black mist heavily enveloped Su Yu.

"[Ice Armor]!"

Sturdy ice crystals wrapped around Su Yu, shielding him from the attacks of the outer ghosts.

The ghosts' assaults landed on the [Ice Armor], producing only a series of crackling impact sounds without inflicting any actual harm on Su Yu.

Seeing this, the blood-red ghost brought its hands together and began to chant.

A crimson line shot out from the tip of its claw and tethered itself to Su Yu.

Simultaneously, Su Yu felt an overwhelming wave of drowsiness wash over him, a sleepiness so profound it nearly made him close his eyes and drift off instantly.

Alarmed, Su Yu viciously bit down on his lip.

The fishy taste of fresh blood flooded his mouth, and combined with the stimulus of intense pain, it jolted him completely awake.

"[Earth Spike]!"

A massive stone stalagmite thrust up from beneath the red ghost's feet, blasting it directly into the air and interrupting the hypnotic beam it was casting.

[Earth Spike] was a Tier-0 spell for earth-attribute mages; its damage was low, but it could launch targets into the air, providing formidable crowd control.

Furthermore, now that it had been upgraded to epic quality, once the red ghost fell back to the ground, it would suffer an additional 1-second [Stun] effect, rendering it completely incapacitated.

Su Yu understood the principle of "capturing the ringleader first" all too well.

Taking advantage of the time the red ghost was crowd-controlled, he first froze the surrounding Tier-0 ghosts with [Frost Nova], used his final [Blink] to escape the encirclement, and then continuously bombarded the red ghost's main body with [Lightning Bolt].

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Lightning bolts as thick as a baby's arm were unleashed from Su Yu's hands in rapid succession.

The red ghost's defense was not high either; under the combined damage of three [Lightning Bolts] and the [Earth Spike], its main body exploded into a mist of blood.

The other ghosts were dumbfounded by this sight. Breaking free from the control of [Frost Nova], they abandoned their attack on Su Yu and fled in all directions.

Of course, Su Yu was not about to let them go.

[Chain Lightning] and [Lightning Bolt] were cast without interruption; not a single ghost managed to escape Su Yu's range, and all of them were wiped out!

...

"That was too close! I almost capshed this time! If I had fallen asleep just now, my life would have been over."

After slaying all the ghosts, Su Yu let out a sigh of relief and managed a wry smile. "Fortunately, my spells are numerous and powerful; otherwise, dealing with this pack of ghosts would have been truly troublesome... But then again, why are there so many ghosts here? This is completely different from my past life!"

He checked his mana pool; less than a third remained.

"It seems I must be extremely cautious next time."

Su Yu shook his head, crossed his legs on the ground, and began to absorb the spiritual energy released upon the ghosts' demise.

"Ding! You have killed [Soul-Control Ghost lv8], gaining 640 experience points."

"Ding! You have killed [Resurrected Ghost lv9], gaining 810 experience points."

"Ding! You have killed [Hypnotic Ghost lv18], gaining 2,600 experience points."

...

After absorbing the released spiritual energy, a tempest swirled around Su Yu as his level surged to 11!

This saved him at least two hours of leveling time in the game.

Of course, saving time was secondary.

Being able to rescue over four hundred vibrant lives from the clutches of the ghosts felt far more valuable than anything else!

"However, this kind of thing will continue to happen in every corner of the world. I can save a fraction of the people, but countless others are still destined to perish at the mouths of the ghosts."

"Unless... I can manufacture the 'Spirit-Seeking Ruler' ahead of time?"

"Heh, how is that possible?"

Su Yu shook his head, banishing this impractical thought from his mind.

The "Spirit-Seeking Ruler" was the government's ultimate weapon against ghosts in his past life.

Wherever the "Spirit-Seeking Ruler" went, ghosts were slaughtered like cutting vegetables and melons.

However, manufacturing the "Spirit-Seeking Ruler" required the assistance of at least one minor spiritual energy spring.

In his past life, it was only after eight months that the nation of Huaxia exerted its utmost strength to wrest the very first spiritual energy spring from the Skrulls and manufactured the "Spirit-Seeking Ruler," allowing the nationwide ghost population to be effectively curbed.

"The Spirit-Seeking Ruler is out of the question, at least in the short term! I can only hope the government will detect the threat posed by the ghosts early on."

Su Yu stood up, dusted off his clothes, and walked toward the spot where the red ghost had fallen.

"Now let me see what on earth happened here, and why a Tier-1 ghost appeared so early?"

Su Yu channeled his magic and began searching for the red ghost's memory fragments.

...

After advancing to Tier 2, the Priest class would learn a signature skill called [Thought Steal], which allowed them to search the memory fragments of ghosts and learn the entire process of how they were manufactured.

The Mage class also possessed a similar spell called [Soul Search] that could achieve comparable results.

Su Yu did not know [Soul Search], but he had known it in his past life!

He still remembered quite a few of the underlying principles of [Soul Search].

Although he wouldn't be able to learn the entire manufacturing process of the ghosts like he could in his past life, retrieving some key information was entirely within his capability.

Su Yu closed his eyes and began casting the spell.

Five minutes later, the soul search concluded.

Yet at this moment, Su Yu's expression underwent a massive transformation, and he couldn't help but blurt out a vulgarity: "What the hell! Is this for real?!"