In the starry night, three shadows hushed across the streets. From one of the shadows, bulky and large, another smaller, thin shadow emerged. This smaller shadow raced in front of the three big ones and quickly shortened the distance between them and the person running away in the front.
The frantic expression on the person conveyed their urgency, the sweat and the blood that spilt from their gaping wound all left a trail of a path to follow.
Elder Z huffed and manically looked behind him. The sight of Lia catching up to him was terrifying. He had at least 10 minutes of an advantage but due to his excessive blood loss and the wound that barely healed, he couldn't go far.
The outline of the palace was close but it felt like oceans to cross, nails on feet to walk.
Lia saw his staggering form and pulled out the knife to aim at him. She made the fatal mistake of taking her time when dealing with him and now she regretted it. This time, she wouldn't let him go.
The knife flew at an incredible speed and the hissing sound that accompanied it grazed Elder Z's ear. The sharp cut was nothing compared to the wound in his stomach but the terrible realisation she was close made it more painful.
Was it luck or a last desperate effort Elder Z managed to shift his position a bit and fortunately the knife just swiped past his ear and landed somewhere unknown in the dark of the capital.
Lia had to quickly catch up to Elder Z, after being pulled into an illusion she didn't have time to take anything else than the knife as her weapon. She was empty-handed but the reassurance that Elder Z was in her grasp made her feel better.
The speed of her undead wasn't slow but Lia was faster, she retained all of her physical ability and even enhanced it during her time in the abyss, religiously training yet for some reason she couldn't draw out all of her strength like she did in the past and traverse via the roofs.
She didn't know why but the uneasy feeling in her mind told her the possibility of her damaged soul was the cause of it. The fact that she had to actively rip her soul in shreds and the pieces didn't reattach themselves to the soul again, was a huge concern. Sooner or later, if she kept this going, her body would collapse and she would completely disappear.
She only tore off small soul pieces and gave it to her corpses, however the bigger the soul piece the more power and strength the corpse had. The soul's owner's own abilities and powers determined how good and useful a corpse could be.
If Lia could use her life force instead of her soul and relentlessly pour it into her corpses, how strong would they actually be?
She knew she was about to hit a dead end with this power that could awaken corpses. It was a double-edged sword, both beneficial and incredibly harming.
Being dead didn't affect her corpses, their combat ability was still pretty good and only when they walked normally did they stagger a bit and looked unnatural. As long as her soul was inside of them, their decay would be slowed down severely.
However, because her corpses weren't faster than her, she couldn't use them to chase after Elder Z.
Elder Z desperately struggled to get away from Lia, but the next minute she was already in front of him and he had to retreat.
Yet all that awaited behind him were the corpses of his sons.
Lia didn't like to use her bare hands to kill, at least a weapon would be sufficient but she wasted the only she had with her and so she had to wait for her corpses to catch up.
Elder Z's face was very ugly but when he turned to Lia there was no sign of fear of dying. Instead he actually briefly smiled and with all his efforts took out a small piece of horizontal paper that emitted a green faint light.
Lia instinctively grabbed after it but Elder Z already ripped it to pieces and coughed, "This... have fun with it."
The Z family's residence had its own land and on this land, no other immortal apart from the Z family and their servants and attendants lived. The residence wasn't far from the palace, so there was a special path connecting the mansion and the palace.
And in this area of land where no one else was but Elder Z and Lia with her corpses, the streets were dark and quiet, only from the centre of the capital were faint music and noises heard, but now that Elder Z ripped the ominous paper, the wind growled and brought forth a sight that made Lia turn her lips down displeased.
The moment the shreds of paper floated to the ground, the green light faded into the air and its power called all the nearby vengeful ghosts that loomed inside the Z residence.
"You actually dare to keep those ghosts!" Lia was shocked when she realised that the vengeful ghosts all came from the centre of the Z family's land.
"You can never not be prepared," Elder Z was feeling good and crawled away as the ghosts surrounded Lia and the corpses.
Lia instantly commanded the corpses to protect her and kill the ghosts. She reached into her clothes but realised she didn't have the talisman with her. She cursed, she wasn't prepared at all nor did she assume such a situation would arise.
Elder Z slowly made his way out but Lia stepped on his legs and wanted to pull him back when a bloody ghost reached for. The ghost was quickly torn apart by Third but the time was enough for Elder Z to vanish out of Lia's sight.
She cursed and called more corpses to her location. It wasn't far from the mansion so the corpses shouldn't have a problem getting here in minutes. The problem, however, was that no matter how Lia looked around, the desolated streets held no sign of Elder Z.
"Second carry me!"
Second ran to Lia and held her in his one arm while the other tore the ghosts away as they searched for Elder Z following the blood trail.
The white marbled ground was a stark contrast to the deep red blood even in this dark night, yet the blood trail stopped in front of a dead-end.
Lia jumped down from Second and touched the surrounding stony walls. If the trail stopped here, it must mean that there was another path Elder Z took.
"Really?" Lia snorted in disdain, "a secret path? Where does that lead? To the palace? Are you guys that cosy with each other?"
Second was still slashing through the ghosts as Lia's hand went through the wall and triggered a path to open up in front of her.
It was narrower and could barely fit Second through. The dead-end actually wasn't a dead end but led to a path that was surrounded by stony walls and only went forward. Once they were inside, the path closed behind them and it was completely dark.
Lia couldn't see nor hear anything. There was no blood and no signs that Elder Z went through here. However, it seemed like Elder Z's condition was better than anticipated because he used the tiny frame of a few seconds to escape this quickly.
Ripping his abdomen open wasn't enough to kill him, that meant that Min had something to do with his enhanced healing abilities as well as the paper that could attract vengeful ghosts. The more Lia figured out about Min's actions, the less she was clear about his intentions.
Just what was it that he wanted to do as the Ghost King? All these things, all these abilities none of it was known to the public. And the vision Fourth spoke of. The vision that would change both worlds, what was it?
Lia had no time to think about it anymore as the path ended and in front of her a bright light appeared. Once Lia crawled out she instantly covered herself with a cloak. She came across a busy main street where lanterns hung on the stalls and buildings, yet the people all looked horrified and frozen.
There was blood on the ground and it seemed like Elder Z has passed through here. The people who have witnessed his state whispered to each other and were shocked as they had no clue what was going on.
Lia ordered Second to immediately go back the path and go to his brothers. The public, under no circumstances, should see him.
She made her way across the street and all eyes were on her. The hood on her cloak prevented others to see her face and she sighed in relief as they slowly went back to what they were doing but the atmosphere was already ruined.
Lia quickly rushed through the streets and turned left as she was only a few streets away from the palace.
Then as she passed another corner she saw Elder Z pitifully limping through the streets with his head fixated on the palace. No passerby wanted to get close and they all watched as he shouted to call the guards and inform the Ghost King. His words fell on deaf ears.
Everyone was afraid to get involved.
Lia hid behind a corner and inauspiciously followed Elder Z until they turned into a dark area where no one was present.
She waited a few seconds as Elder Z unknowingly continued to move to the palace that was only a short distance away now.
As he almost reached the end of the area, Lia jumped forward but then felt an arm sling around her waist and pull her back. A hand covered her mouth and she was rendered moveless.
She had to watch Elder Z disappear past the gates of the palace and struggled to free herself but the hold around her only tightened.
Lia froze. Who was this strong? Who was this person?
Did she calculate something wrong again? She couldn't move, she couldn't turn, she couldn't speak.