There's a big problem with dreams in this world.

Moreover, how could a skill whose level is marked as red by the system have such a simple function?

Lu Qing asked Hao Meng some more questions about the skill. Since the skill had already been revealed, Hao Meng didn't intend to hide any secrets about it, so she told Lu Qing everything.

She wasn't entirely clear on the specific effects of the skill "Drawing the Soul of Darkness," but due to its influence, Hao Meng was unable to create her own card characters.

Hao Meng didn't know the specific reason, but the system of the dream game had given a hint, which meant that the card characters she created would be affected by the skill [Dark Soul Absorption], and no card skills could be effective on her, nor could she use the full fusion effect.

It is possible to create card characters, but they would be useless. Therefore, the system notified Hao Meng and advised her not to create card characters.

Besides the card characters, Hao Meng has also experienced many instances where her body acts on its own while she is asleep or unconscious, as if there is another personality inside her.

This happened to her when she was very young; her body would move on its own while she was asleep, tearing up pillows and sheets, and sometimes throwing and smashing things indiscriminately.

At first, Hao Meng's parents thought she was just throwing a tantrum. However, after several similar incidents, they realized something was wrong and took her to see a doctor. The examination revealed that she was sleepwalking...

Whether the medicine prescribed by the doctor was truly effective or not, when Hao Meng was eight or nine years old, her sleepwalking symptoms gradually improved. Her parents attributed it to the doctor, and even Hao Meng herself believed so. But in reality...

When she was still in high school, an accident occurred. Several blue-level Dream Summoners organized a kidnapping operation and kidnapped Hao Meng and her classmates while they were out playing together.

This group was courting death. Officials located their position in less than two hours. However, when the officials arrived, they found the kidnappers' location to be extremely quiet, making them wonder if they had come to the wrong place.

When they arrived at the room where the kidnappers were hiding, they discovered that all the kidnappers had their necks snapped by a strange force, while Hao Meng was fast asleep in a chair in the room filled with the dead kidnappers.

No one knows how these blue-level Dream Summoner kidnappers were killed by a high school girl who had never even entered the Dream Game. The final investigation concluded that it was a casual act by a high-level Dream Summoner who wished to remain anonymous.

Hao Meng was also confused about the deaths of the kidnappers. She was just very scared. The last thing she remembered was the kidnapper sliding a knife across her thigh before she lost consciousness. When she woke up, she found herself taken home by officials.

This has happened more than once, especially in the dream world. Whenever she encounters a great shock, or when she is about to collapse, once she loses consciousness, her body will be controlled by another consciousness from who-knows-where. When she wakes up, she finds that the difficulties she encountered have been resolved.

“You…” Lu Qing’s lips twitched slightly. Although she knew that she and Hao Meng were discussing a very serious topic, she couldn’t help but think of a sentence when she heard this.

Please, another me!

"Perhaps we've returned at the wrong time?" Knight Myron's voice came from the entrance of the cave. Lu Qing turned her head and saw Knight Myron staring at the two of them with a strange expression on his face.

"ah!"

Hao Meng suddenly realized what was happening and quickly stood up from Lu Qing's embrace. She was already shy enough when it was just the two of them, let alone now that Knight Myron and the Pope had returned to the cave.

Lu Qing didn't seem to care about this. After standing up, she asked, "Are you and Hao Meng going back first?"

“Hmm.” Knight Myron nodded and said, “The rest is up to the Pope and Her Highness the Princess.”

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it."

Looking at the corpse of the Void Worm lying paralyzed in the cave, the Pope spoke in a heavy but firm voice: "A vengeful spirit has appeared in the Fremures region. Whoever this vengeful spirit is, as the Pope, I have a duty to eliminate it."

"Hao Meng, you should go back with Knight Myron first. His Holiness the Pope and I will take care of the rest," Lu Qing said to Hao Meng.

"Mmm." Hao Meng nodded softly, the events that had just occurred had temporarily robbed her of the ability to think complexly.

"Aren't you curious why I let Hao Meng and Knight Myron leave first?" After Hao Meng and Knight Myron had left, the Pope asked Lu Qing.

“A little, but I know you’ll definitely say it,” Lu Qing shook her head and said.

"Hmm..." The Pope stroked his beard and then walked out of the cave. Lu Qing followed behind the Pope, and heard the Pope's voice coming from the front: "The psychics themselves have very low combat ability, so we need to rely on external forces to fight."

"Subduing vengeful spirits is the main way for psychics to improve their combat abilities in the early stages, but powerful vengeful spirits are not easy to find. Right now, you have the opportunity to skip the process of finding vengeful spirits."

"Do you want me to subdue... the vengeful spirits here?" Lu Qing paused halfway through her sentence, then asked in surprise, as if something was amiss.

------------

Chapter 502: Unusual Frequency Fluctuations

Regardless, Charles is the Pope's brother, and even if he has become a vengeful spirit, she shouldn't be the one to subdue him. Lu Qing looked at the Pope's expression but couldn't figure out what he was thinking.

“But if I want to subdue the vengeful spirit, I have to defeat it myself, which I don’t think I can do with my strength.” Lu Qing lowered her head and thought for a while before looking at the Pope and saying.

She wasn't entirely sure how strong the Soul of Hatred was, but in the lore, as a princess who had just come of age, even if she had received royal education before adulthood, she shouldn't have the ability to fight the Soul of Hatred.

“You don’t need to worry about that, I will help you,” the Pope said.

He walked in front of Lu Qing, his body radiating an indescribable aura: "I will suppress the power of the resentful soul in a special way, and I will do nothing else."

"Knight Myron and Hao Meng have already returned, which means that when facing the vengeful spirit, you can only trust yourself."

"This is a trial."

As the Pope spoke, he turned and glanced at Lu Qing, who was walking behind him. His gaze lingered for a moment in the shadows of the woods behind her before he pretended not to have seen anything and looked away.

As the princess's guardian knight, how could Myron possibly abandon her? Even the Pope of Honglisam, with only a one in ten thousand chance, would never leave Lu Qing's side, a fact the Pope was well aware of.

None of that mattered, as long as the princess didn't know. The Pope thought to himself, then heard Lu Qing's slightly puzzled voice: "Trial?"

“That’s right, this is a trial. You must rely on your own strength to defeat Charles, who has become a vengeful spirit.” The Pope’s words trailed off, a hint of doubt suddenly appearing on his usually composed face.

“Strange, why am I thinking this…” The Pope suddenly felt a little hesitant. He couldn’t understand why he had sent the princess to deal with the vengeful spirit, nor could he understand why he had Knight Myron hide in the back. What was the point of doing this?

The next moment, these thoughts vanished instantly, as if they had been smoothed over by some strange entity.

"This is a trial..." the Pope muttered unconsciously.

[Anomaly frequency fluctuation detected........]

The diary suddenly trembled. On the pages that Lu Qing couldn't see, a line of text had only appeared halfway when it disappeared from the pages as if someone had pressed the backspace key. Then, the diary trembled again, and a new line of text appeared where Lu Qing could see it.

[Lu Qing and the Pope walked one after the other on the snow-white ground. Lu Qing, walking behind, looked at the Pope's back and felt a slight sense of doubt. Just now, when the Pope turned around, she noticed that his gaze lingered on a certain spot behind her for a moment.]

[What was the Pope looking at just now? Lu Qing couldn't help but ponder. After a while, she realized that Knight Myron hadn't actually returned to the hunter's cabin with Hao Meng, but had secretly followed behind them. And the Pope, walking in front of her, obviously knew about this as well.]

"Hmm? So it's Knight Myron?" Lu Qing thought to herself in surprise as she looked at the words that suddenly appeared on the diary.

She did notice that the Pope's gaze lingered on something behind her for a moment, but she didn't know what the Pope was looking at. Lu Qing even used Wayne's vision to observe carefully, but found nothing. Unexpectedly, it was Knight Myron.

So, that's why knights are so good at stealth...

Because of the card of Ezio, the Eagle of Florence, Lu Qing is also very good at hiding, but she couldn't find where the Knight of Mellen was hiding. This is either because the Knight of Mellen's ability to hide is more advanced, or because of some special ability.

Lu Qing preferred the latter. With the support of the purple card skill, she was very confident in her stealth ability. Unless it was a special ability, it would be difficult to escape her notice.

Indeed, many people know that Knight Myron is the first knight of Vanhusdan, but few know that he was originally trained in the kingdom's Shadow Assassin organization. He was only transferred to the knight camp because he always practiced the principle that "killing everyone who has seen me is the most perfect stealth."

Who would have thought that Knight Myron, who possesses the blessing of the [Curved Light] Sacred Tree, is most skilled at assassinating with a greatsword using the Whirlwind Slash technique?

........

As they continued forward, Lu Qing and the Pope gradually approached the vengeful spirit that Charles had transformed into. In Lu Qing's vision, there were traces of blood red on the ground and in the air, which was the effect of her Nightmare skill [Spirit Vision].

If she used this skill at full power, she could still see the afterimage of the vengeful spirit when it moved, but she didn't do that.

After all, the resentful spirit that left its mark was not far away, so there was really no need to observe the other party based on the traces left after these movements.

Thinking this, Lu Qing turned her gaze to the distance, where she saw a dark red monster floating in the cold snow under the azure sky.

It has a structure similar to that of a human, but these structures are constantly changing, sometimes twisting and deforming, sometimes expanding like a thick fog, and sometimes Lu Qing can see a huge phantom of an earthworm floating behind it.

“…” She pursed her lips. Even from a distance, she could feel the oppressive aura emanating from the resentful spirit, as well as the lingering smell of blood in the air.

Beside the vengeful spirit, a massive bear carcass lay sprawled on the ground. The wounds on this bear carcass looked remarkably similar to those on Fang Qingrou's body, except that the wounds on this bear carcass were larger and bleeding more.

The killer that murdered the giant bear was floating above the corpse, its lips moving slightly as if it were saying something.

"This is a trial," the Pope said, gently patting a mask on his body. Then, a bloated, writhing, resentful soul emerged from the mask.

The vengeful spirit released an immense sense of oppression, immediately attracting the attention of the vengeful spirit on the bear corpse.

Before the other party could react, the fat, resentful soul's belly suddenly opened, and a long, blood-red tongue covered with bumps and thorns stretched out, dragging the other party into its belly.

With a swaying of fat and the sound of some creature chewing, the resentful spirit was spat out again, but the oppressive feeling on its body had disappeared by most of it. The resentful spirit summoned by the Pope, on the other hand, had a much stronger aura and returned to the Pope's mask with satisfaction.

------------

Chapter 503: Obsession

Lu Qing looked at the resentful soul that had been spat out, her expression somewhat subtle. To be honest, it was a little disgusting...

Although the goal of weakening their strength was achieved, it made the opponent even more terrifying in every sense.

"Roar!!"

The resentful spirit didn't care what Lu Qing thought. After being spat out, the weakness in his body made him subconsciously want to devour the creature in front of him, even though the person who had almost killed him was standing behind him.

After transforming into a vengeful spirit, human reason vanished from him. Even wild beasts know to act based on instinct and experience, but the vengeful spirit did not. He roared and charged at Lu Qing, his misty body writhing and transforming into the shape of an earthworm as he bit her.

The thick snow, along with the land below, was swallowed by the resentful spirit. Lu Qing brushed past the resentful spirit's black mist-like body and threw a series of flying knives at it.

However, the Soul of Hatred's body was like a mist, and the Ripper's Throwing Knife passed right through his body and flew into the air behind him.

Frowning, Lu Qing grabbed the silk thread in her hand and flicked it sharply, instantly cutting several small cuts on the body of the resentful soul. However, just like before, the wounds cut by the silk thread healed in the blink of an eye, and the resentful soul seemed to be completely unaffected.

No, there should be some impact. The Ripper's Throwing Knife can damage spirits, it's just a matter of degree.

Thinking this, Lu Qing quickly retreated while drawing the White Wolf from behind her and fired two shots at the Soul of Resentment.

She carefully observed the location where the bullet hit and found that it felt different from when the Ripper's throwing knife hit her. If the Ripper's throwing knife pierced through a black mist, then the bullet fired by the White Wolf felt like it hit nothingness.

In other words, the Ripper's Throwing Knife can cause damage, but this damage is completely insignificant to the Soul of Hatred.

“Prey…” A voice like two rusty pieces of iron rubbing against each other rang out from the mouth of the resentful soul. His misty body writhed and gradually transformed into the appearance that Lu Qing had seen when she first met him.

However, the transformation did not end there. A layer of hideous armor covered with sharp blades appeared on the body of the Soul of Hatred, and his two arms bent and deformed, turning into two weapons that resembled hunter's short knives.

"Is this influenced by what happened before he died?" Lu Qing wondered, looking at the scene before her.

Although the vengeful spirit is a monster devoid of reason, it is still a human who was transformed and will inevitably be influenced by its past life.

For example, the reason why this vengeful spirit in front of us can take the form of a Void Worm is probably because of Charles's obsession with that Void Worm, while the use of a weapon that looks like a hunter's dagger is due to Charles's personal habit.

Just as Lu Qing was thinking this, the resentful soul floating in mid-air accelerated and transformed into a black shadow, swooping down to pierce her chest.

The Soul of Resentment was very fast, and its attack carried considerable power. Lu Qing did not want to confront it head-on, so she sidestepped and dodged the attack.

"Shh!"

With a swift motion, Altaïr's sword was drawn, and Lu Qing executed a beautiful sword draw, passing right through the body of the Soul of Hatred. Just as she had predicted, a simple physical attack was insufficient to harm this Soul of Hatred.

"What happens after spiritual energy is injected?" Lu Qing wondered.

She didn't slack off while studying with the Pope. After transformation, the resentful spirit is affected by its own spiritual activity, thus transforming into different types. For example, the fat resentful spirit that the Pope summoned before was a type with low spiritual activity.

Such vengeful spirits have bodies that can be destroyed by physical attacks, and correspondingly, they have high resistance to spiritual power. Those with higher spiritual activity will become complete spirits, which cannot be destroyed by physical attacks, but have lower resistance to spiritual power.

In addition, there are some special types that are different from the two mentioned above. Lu Qing's previous probing attacks were also to test which kind of resentful soul Charles had transformed into.