"Soul state? What is that?" Ye Feng frowned, not quite understanding what Liu Lao Shai meant.
"It's that translucent monster just now! I wanted to say it, but it blasted me far away with the ice storm it created!"
"As soon as I got back, I saw you dismember that translucent monster..."
Towards the end, Liu Lao Shai's old face flushed. After all, he had just returned, not only not helping Ye Feng in the battle, but instead freezing in astonishment... By the time he regained his senses, that translucent monster had already been cut into pieces by Ye Feng and dissipated!
"Do you know what that snow ghost was? It seemed to call itself a spiritual body or something~" Ye Feng asked Liu Lao Shai while bandaging his wounds with a little help.
"Mm!" Liu Lao Shai nodded, "What that thing was just now was indeed called a spiritual body..."
...
On the other side,
Deep within the frozen snowfield,
In a reinforced concrete building,
"Puff!"
A person, who had been sitting cross-legged on the ground with their eyes closed, had grotesque features, and whose gender was indistinguishable from their appearance, suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blood.
"Hey, Snow Ghost, what's wrong?" A man, exceptionally tall, with a bare upper body, muscles all over, and skin covered in various surgical scars, stepped forward and asked.
"Pfft!~" The person called Snow Ghost did not answer. After spitting out another mouthful of blood, they directly fainted.
"Dr. C, Snow Ghost he..." The scarred muscular man looked towards a middle-aged man in the distance wearing large black-rimmed glasses and fiddling with a bottle of potion.
"No need to make such a fuss, he won't die!"
"That idiot Snow Ghost, I've told him long ago that condensing his spiritual power outward in that way... although it can penetrate various objects and be freely controlled to materialize, allowing him to do whatever he pleases, and the power of the arcane energy he wields will also be greatly strengthened~"
"But the risks also become very great. His arcane energy affinity is ice attribute, and the spiritual body carries ice attribute arcane energy as well."
"If he encounters an ice-attributed arcane energy cultivator, or weapons made with ice-attributed arcane energy... it's no wonder the spiritual body got injured..."
"That pervert probably ran into a tough opponent..." The middle-aged man called Dr. C spoke in a very calm tone, without even glancing at the blood-spitting, unconscious Snow Ghost.
...
Meanwhile,
Ye Feng and his group continued to walk in an area filled with white mist, where they could only vaguely discern the direction.
"Old Liu, according to what you said, that spiritual body just now was created by someone, and the actual person is still alive?" After hearing Liu Lao Shai's explanation about the semi-transparent monster called Snow Ghost, Ye Feng's expression was grim. Because this meant that Little Bud and he had a huge hidden danger!
"Mm!" Liu Lao Shai nodded, "I had only heard before that some people's spiritual power could be so strong that it could be externalized and condensed into a physical form. I never expected to encounter it today!"
"But speaking of which, Ye Feng, how did you kill the Snow Ghost just now?"
"Logically, this kind of spiritual body can only be harmed by arcane energy of the opposite attribute, such as fire attribute arcane energy. If the opponent insisted on escaping, killing them would be almost impossible, but you just now..." Saying this, Liu Lao Shai looked at Ye Feng with extremely surprised and admiring eyes.
"Uh... I'm not too sure either. I just kept hacking at that guy with my saber as if it were a solid object, and then it just... happened like that..." As he said the last part, Ye Feng changed the subject, "Old Liu, do you think the person who condensed the Snow Ghost, he/she, might be nearby?"
"This... it shouldn't be too far. Otherwise, it would be difficult to control the spiritual body, and it might even dissipate directly!"
"Moreover, to completely destroy a spiritual body of that size, almost equal to a person's height, would cause immense damage to the本体's spirit. The spirit could directly collapse, leading to a vegetative state, or even immediate death!" Liu Lao Shai added more, seeing that Ye Feng cared quite a bit about the person who condensed the Snow Ghost.
"Is that so~" After hearing Liu Lao Shai's explanation, Ye Feng's mood became much more relaxed.
"To be able to freely decide whether to materialize or not, what a terrifying ability,"
"It seems the horrific rumors I heard on the way here were mostly done by that Snow Ghost!" At this moment, Lei Jian's voice sounded.
"Rumors?" Ye Feng looked at Lei Jian with some doubt.
"It's like this, on the way to the Frozen Snowfield, we heard many people say that around here, many young girls were brutally ravaged and then killed. Their deaths were similar to that middle-aged man just now, frozen solid..."
"The only difference is that those girls' bodies were covered in various cuts from sharp blades, and their frozen expressions were filled with extreme terror... Some were no longer recognizable..."
"And no trace of anyone else entering the scene could be found. At the crime scenes, people often claimed to have seen ghosts or something similar!"
"This kind of bizarre death has been happening for quite some time... Now that I think about it, it must have been that guy called Snow Ghost!" Lei Jian explained slowly.
"Is that so~" Ye Feng recalled that indeed, some explorers had mentioned fragmented pieces of information on the way.
"Right,"
"Nü, Ye Feng, from now on, we need to be even more careful! There might be Four-Eyed Ice Foxes around here!" At this moment, Liu Lao Shai spoke.
"Four-Eyed Ice Fox? That dead middle-aged man just now?" Ye Feng pondered for a moment, then seemed to understand.
"Yes!"
"The middle-aged man who was frozen into an ice stick by the Snow Ghost just now, his footsteps were very mechanical before, and he didn't react to our calls. He was very likely falling under the illusion of a Four-Eyed Ice Fox."
"This is also why, after being shot, he stumbled and ran, and his speed was considerable, completely different from before!" Liu Lao Shai nodded slightly and replied.
"He did mention the Four-Eyed Ice Fox after being shot!" Nü chimed in, "And at that time, the person's mental state was clearly very agitated."
"The place we are in now is filled with drifting white mist, limiting our vision. We have to concentrate our attention on observing, making it easy to fall for the Four-Eyed Ice Fox's tricks."
"Once you make eye contact with its four eyes, it's very easy to fall into an illusion..."
"Of course, some people with strong spiritual power are an exception!"
"After all, the Four-Eyed Ice Fox causing people to fall into illusions is essentially a mental attack!" Liu Lao Shai added after a pause.
"Careful!" Suddenly, Nü shouted alertly, because two figures suddenly leaped out from the white mist. Then 8 pairs of green eyes appeared abruptly in everyone's vision!
Instantly, Ye Feng felt a wave of dizziness in his mind, feeling somewhat drowsy. He shook his head and regained clarity.
"Ah!~" At this moment, a muffled groan of suppressed pain sounded. It was Liu Lao Shai who had thrust a metal spike into his left thigh. The next second, he swung his right hand, and a large number of metal spikes flew towards the 8 pairs of green eyes!
"Roar~ Roar~" Two sharp screams followed immediately, and the eight pairs of green eyes instantly dimmed.
"Nü, Lei Jian, are you alright?" Liu Lao Shai quickly rushed to the side of the two people whose eyes were dazed, their bodies swaying unsteadily, and were about to fall.
Nü and Lei Jian rubbed their eyes, and after a while, they gradually came to their senses.
"Uncle Liu, were those Four-Eyed Ice Foxes just now?" Nü and Lei Jian both sensed something, and their expressions changed.
...