"Lord Du."
Controlling his facial muscles, Li Ban respectfully jumped down from the carriage. He flashed to a stop two meters in front of Du An and cupped his hands in a bow.
Even though Du An used to be his superior, he was now a Cloud Hidden Priest, a rank higher than Li Ban.
On the surface, there were no longer any grudges between them.
Du An raised a hand. "There's no need to call me Lord Du anymore. You're a priest now too. We're comrades."
Li Ban didn't drop his manners. He remained just as respectful as he was toward Priest Zhu Yao.
Du An looked at Li Ban. Overnight, the man had gone from a lowly prison guard—a raw soul who had lost his original world—to a Spirit Awakening Priest, yet his aura had hardly changed at all.
Perhaps this kind of temperament was exactly what Priest Jun favored?
Du An didn't bring up their past. In his eyes, becoming a priest meant cutting ties with the world of ordinary mortals.
"Corpse Worms?" Li Ban immediately recalled those bizarre people who had crawled out of the dirt.
Come to think of it, those mounds of earth really had looked like graves.
"We did run into some strange people. They had six green eyes and split jaws."
Du An nodded. "That's them. However, Corpse Worms only parasitize the brains of corpses. Since you're completely unharmed, you must have figured out their weakness."
Li Ban nodded.
Usually, the weakness of bizarre monsters that puppeteered human bodies was the brain.
Du An continued, "Corpse Worms like to attack living creatures. They prefer to strike from the soil or water sources. I've already searched the nearby water sources and found nothing. When they aren't attacking, they're extremely good at hiding."
His gaze landed on Shi Ming behind Li Ban, and he suddenly noticed the man's expression looked a bit off.
"Did you... discover something?"
Shi Ming rushed up to Du An. "Lord Du, do you know who I am?"
Back then, Du An was the one who had handed Shi Ming over to Li Ban for escort.
Shi Ming had thought Du An would know a bit more about him.
Yet Du An simply shook his head. "Priest Zhu Yao should know who you are. She didn't tell me, though."
Shi Ming lowered his head in disappointment. "Priest Zhu Yao doesn't even look me in the eye."
After entering the Imperial Palace, Shi Ming and Deng Jun had stayed in the side hall until Li Ban took them away, and then until Priest Zhu Yao brought them back. It felt as though those white-robed priests had never once looked at him properly.
It was as if he were just a chair or a weed. Even Cat Girl received far more attention than he did.
Shi Ming sounded dejected. "Then do you know why they made me come to the Unreturning Place?"
Du An paused, fighting the urge to sneer.
"It's no use asking me."
Wasn't he himself currently trapped in the Unreturning Place?
Shi Ming muttered, "They didn't send me here to exterminate Corpse Worms, did they?"
Li Ban recalled how the Corpse Worms had completely ignored Shi Ming earlier. For a moment, it actually made a lot of sense.
"We've only encountered the Corpse Worms once so far. We can't be sure if it's because of you yet."
Du An's interest was piqued. "The Corpse Worms won't attack you?"
"Yeah, there were six of those Corpse Worm freaks. They attacked Brother Li, Old Deng, and Big Ma and Little Ma, but they completely ignored me. It was like I didn't exist."
"Could it have something to do with your Undying Halo?"
Because Shi Ming was so weak, any attack would be a guaranteed kill. Did that mean the Corpse Worms—acting much like axes and sharp arrows—simply wouldn't attack him at all?
Du An instantly understood the "Undying Halo" Li Ban described and nodded. "It's possible. Since you have this trait... maybe we can cooperate."
Du An outlined his plan to deal with the Corpse Worms.
Li Ban hesitated. "But I still need to deliver Shi Ming to the Myriad Ancient Pagoda in the Unreturning Place."
"A couple of days won't make a difference."
Li Ban looked at Shi Ming.
This plan required Shi Ming to personally brave the danger.
If it were the past, Li Ban would have just sent Shi Ming in, relying on his Undying Halo.
But now, since there was a risk involved, he preferred to hear Shi Ming's thoughts on the matter.
In any case, it wasn't as if they absolutely had to get involved.
Du An could see that Li Ban and Shi Ming seemed to have become friends during their journey. Li Ban was actually starting to worry about the safety of someone who couldn't die.
But he didn't try to persuade them using Shi Ming's immortality as an excuse. Instead, he took a different angle.
"Li Ban, Shi Ming, you're both heading to the Unreturning Place. In the Unreturning Place, priests don't lack gold or silver. However, many of the things priests need must be exchanged for merit."
"I accepted a mission to track down the Corpse Worms that escaped the Unreturning Place. If you can help me, you'll earn a share of the merit when you arrive."
"Merit?" Li Ban looked thoughtful.
Truthfully, he really didn't lack merit right now.
Although he didn't know how merit was calculated at the Myriad Ancient Pagoda in the Unreturning Place, he had served as bait back at the Imperial City and provided premium elements. He had surely accumulated a massive sum of it.
While Priest Zhu Yao and the others hadn't said it explicitly, they had all hinted that Priest Qian Que would take special care of him once he reached the Myriad Ancient Pagoda.
Still, merit functioned as currency among priests, so the more he had, the better.
Thinking this, Li Ban still didn't speak up to persuade Shi Ming.
"Sure!" Shi Ming, however, agreed without a second thought.
Li Ban didn't try to stop him.
It was entirely unknown what Shi Ming would face upon entering the Unreturning Place. Earning a share of the merit would do him more good than harm.
Now that Li Ban was certain Du An hadn't recognized him, he felt far more relaxed around the man.
After a brief discussion, they had Deng Jun temporarily change their route and head toward a nearby stream.
Du An hadn't found any Corpse Worms here, but he had discovered traces of their presence.
Corpse Worms liked to build their nests in damp soil.
When they encountered live prey, they would figure out a way to eat its brain, and then control the corpse to return to the nest.
But Corpse Worms were pack creatures. They couldn't survive on their own and had to rely on a Broodmother.
The reason they returned to the nest was to feed the Broodmother.
The feeding process involved the Corpse Worms gorging themselves on the brains of other creatures, and then offering their plump bodies for the Broodmother to devour.
As the Broodmother chewed on the plump Corpse Worms, her reproductive pores would begin spawning larval Corpse Worms.
Their numbers were kept balanced—ensuring enough Corpse Worms to hunt outside while sustaining the Broodmother's growth.
Therefore, when Du An said Corpse Worms had escaped the Unreturning Place, he didn't mean ordinary Corpse Worms, but a Broodmother capable of independent reproduction.
After all, even if ordinary Corpse Worms accidentally slipped past the blockade, they still needed to return to feed their Broodmother.
As long as they found the Broodmother, they could completely eradicate the escaped Corpse Worms.
Individual Corpse Worms couldn't survive for more than a few days on their own anyway.
The hunting plan was simple: once Du An and Li Ban found Corpse Worms hunting in the wild, they would intentionally let one go. Shi Ming would then follow it and attempt to locate the Broodmother.
When encountering an enemy, a Corpse Worm wouldn't willingly return to the Broodmother's side.
Hence, when Du An heard that the Corpse Worms wouldn't attack Shi Ming, he wanted to test a theory. If the Corpse Worms didn't see Shi Ming as an enemy, would they return to their Broodmother right in front of him?
After placing Shi Ming in an area where Corpse Worms were suspected to roam, Du An and Li Ban split up to search for the hunting insects.
Li Ban quickly stumbled upon two Corpse Worms hiding inside a pair of jackals.
He swiftly killed one, then severed the head of the other jackal and carried it by hand.
Even as Li Ban carried it by the ears, the jackal head—which had also developed green eyes and a split jaw—was restless. It constantly tried to tear at Li Ban's hand or pierce his skin with the thin tube inside its mouth.
Annoyed, Li Ban cast a small Protection Spell around the jackal head. Supporting the spherical shield, he flashed all the way back to the stream where Shi Ming was waiting.
By the time Li Ban arrived, he realized Du An had already returned at some point.
Like Li Ban, he held a severed head trapped within a Protection Spell in his hand.
However, the head in his hand belonged to a human.
"You're fast." Du An nodded.
Normally, one Corpse Worm would have been enough. But since they had both brought one back, they might as well release both.
They placed the jackal and human heads on the ground. Now that both Corpse Worms had lost their ability to hunt and had already consumed brains, they were expected to return to the Broodmother.
After dropping the heads and dispelling their Protection Spells, it was time for them to back away and let Shi Ming follow alone.
Just as Li Ban was preparing to flash into the distance, he heard Du An call out, "Li Ban, come to me."
He turned and saw that Du An had already flown into the air, stepping on a floating cloud.
Li Ban pursed his lips, but still flashed to Du An's side, stepping onto the cloud and ascending into the sky with him.
From this distance, it was naturally impossible to track palm-sized Corpse Worms, but they could still clearly see Shi Ming's location.
Standing beside Du An, Li Ban felt a little nervous, worried that the other man might suddenly launch a sneak attack.
But Du An simply stared at Shi Ming on the ground the entire time, seemingly afraid of losing track of him.
After a moment, Shi Ming finally began to move.
Du An's cloud slowly drifted along in pursuit.
"Are you nervous?" Du An, who had kept his head lowered, suddenly asked.
Li Ban froze, then tried to speak as frankly as possible: "Yes, a little nervous."
He smiled somewhat sheepishly. "In my heart, you are both Lord Du and the General."
"We've used each other in the past, so it's normal for you to be wary of me. However, you are a priest now. For a priest, cultivating the mind is just as important as cultivating power. If you can't overcome your mental hurdles, you'll never part the clouds to see the stars."
"For now, stick with me. The more Broodmothers we find, the more merit we'll accumulate."
Li Ban took a deep breath. "Understood. I will work hard to overcome it."
As they spoke, they noticed Shi Ming had stopped.
But after leaving the stream, Shi Ming hadn't gone to another waterway. Instead, he had found a group of travelers resting by the side of the road.
Du An raised an eyebrow. Though he found it strange, he still brought Li Ban down to the ground.
"Brother, please halt. That area is where the female family members are resting."
Just as the two landed, they saw Shi Ming being stopped by someone.
Female family members?