To my considerable surprise, when the specters lunged at me, they passed right through my body as if they were woven entirely of air, even as they seemingly embraced me.

Seeing this, a sudden joy flared in my heart, and I lunged headlong at the next ghoul rushing toward me. A gust of icy wind swept past, and I burst free from their encirclement. I gasped for breath, looking around to see countless more specters, dressed identically, emerging as if hatching from the air, surging toward me with menacing auras and palpable killing intent.

I bolted in blind terror. Though I knew the beings floating above the ground could not touch me, in my panic, I scurried toward the sparse areas between them. I could no longer discern the surrounding environment; my vision was filled only with the stark black-and-white forms of the specters.

Panting like a bellows, as I ran, I suddenly noticed that the lower level beneath the stilted building was piled high with specters, their arms stretched out, clawing desperately toward me as if intent on tearing me to shreds and swallowing me whole.

The stilted building remained utterly motionless, pinning the specters beneath it. They looked utterly tormented, yet helpless, unable to break free. The number of specters lunging at me in the air was in no way comparable to those crushed beneath the structure. A scattered few specters stood before the pinned figures, bending low with braced legs, linking hands as if trying to rescue their suffering companions.

The realization dawned on me with sudden clarity: no wonder the stilted building hung suspended—it was being held up by all those specters underneath!

Did this mean I had truly entered another world?

But why hadn't I seen these specters beneath the building a moment ago?

I soon found the answer—I had spotted my "ultimate weapon."

Around the "ultimate weapon," an invisible space had opened up. The specters kept their distance, shoving and pushing each other, their two dark, empty eyes fixed upon it, daring not to approach even slightly.

I shouted "Yes! Yes!" repeatedly, hot air blasting from my mouth, and I prepared to sprint toward that sanctuary. Unwittingly, my foot was grabbed, and I tumbled forward onto the ground. I looked down to see one specter prone on the floor, its mouth wide open, revealing a set of ghastly white teeth, desperately clutching my ankle with both hands. Then, my arms and head were seized by several others, dragging me down so I couldn't move. A dozen or so pale, slender hands reached for my throat, heart, and abdomen…

With my remaining reason, I considered: didn't these specters fail to grab me just moments ago? How could they seize me so easily now? My thoughts flashed: it must be that during my frantic flight and loud cries, my so-called "yang energy" leaked out significantly, causing my inherent "yin energy" to grow heavier, allowing the specters to finally succeed.

These specters must be the legendary "Half-Puppets."

Unfortunately, by the time I understood the situation and tried to cover my mouth and nose, it was too late. As my gasps grew heavier, I felt my body growing colder, and the grip of the hands clamping onto me tightened. Strangely, I felt no pain whatsoever. Despite this, I was now utterly like a lamb to the slaughter; though I struggled with all my might, I remained immobilized.

Just as several pale hands were about to close around my throat and plunge into my heart, a dazzling white light flashed through the air. A strange, large saber spun into the throng of specters, and a sheet of dazzling white light swept over everything. My body was showered with pale severed hands and heads entwined with black hair… The specters clinging to me scattered like a sudden gale, fluttering away from the area bathed in white light.

The peculiar saber seemed to have eyes, chasing down the specters that couldn't evade it, weaving left and right. Soon, the ground was littered with broken limbs and severed torsos. Curiously, wherever the blade passed, there was no trace of blood. Of course, even if there had been blood, in my eyes, it would have appeared black.

After slaughtering and dispersing the specters, the strange saber flew back and hovered directly above my eyes.

Damn it, wasn't this the same strange saber that cleaved Old Man Xiang’s head open?

To call it a saber wasn't entirely accurate; it was more like a broadsword. Its tip was distinctly semicircular, with edges on both the upper and lower sides. The hilt was very short, but the rear featured a large circle, strung with seven black, thin rings spaced at regular intervals.

This peculiar saber hovered above my eyes, radiating a stark white light, yet I felt a wave of intense, searing heat emanating from it!

Where the blade goes, the man follows. Could the deceased Old Man Xiang also be here?

My heart surged with surprise and joy, and I was about to cry out when the strange saber suddenly plunged straight down toward me. I screamed in terror and squeezed my eyes shut. I expected to be ripped open, but instead, the saber whipped past with a rush of searing air, and I was forcefully lifted off the ground. Touching myself, I realized the saber was underneath me, gently carrying me toward the stilted building suspended in the air…

Mid-air, I opened my eyes and looked down, horrified to see layers upon layers of specters crushed beneath the several masang trees, their dark eyes empty and lightless, reflecting their pale bodies as they seemed to struggle and cry out silently!

The strange saber gently set me down on the veranda of the stilted building, erupting in a burst of white light and a cloud of warm vapor that enveloped me completely. When I opened my eyes again, the saber had vanished. I felt completely comfortable, as if I had just taken a hot shower after being caught in the rain.

Standing high allows one to see farther. Although the world before my eyes was still stark black and white, I could finally see everything beneath my gaze with clarity. The canopies of those tall masang trees now appeared even larger, obscuring nearly half of the stilted building. The specters below the building and under the trees had vanished, leaving the area conspicuously empty and silent.

I wanted to check on Hua'er, but the canopy of the masang trees blocked my view. I could only see half of the stone memorial archway directly opposite, so I had no idea what state Hua'er was in, sleeping by the entrance of the archway.

Looking up, although the four steep slopes surrounding the stilted building were distant, I could see the snow-white slate streets with perfect clarity, standing out sharply against the pitch-black cluster of stilted buildings.

On the first stilted building I landed on, Tan Ping'er had mentioned that there were many streets along the four steep slopes, but due to the dim light and the obstruction of the buildings, it was impossible to tell how many there were. Now, looking down from this height, even though my vision was monochrome, I could finally count whether there were indeed forty-five other streets. However, as my gaze swept over them, I found the streets, wide or narrow, to be irregular. Counting them repeatedly only confused me.

But I had a vague feeling that those streets and the pitch-black stilted buildings seemed to form a certain shape, a shape that surfaced from the depths of my memory. After racking my brain to compare it to that shape, the memory buried deep within finally burst forth—wasn't this familiar figure the Tiger Totem of the Tujia people?

Unfortunately, because I stood in front of the stilted building, I couldn't see the steep slope behind it, so the shape appeared to me as only half a tiger. Those snow-white streets were of varying lengths, some even just small, regular clearings embedded in the black mass of stilted buildings, making the continuous block of structures look like a black-lacquered relief.

If that were the case, then this tiger shape surely couldn't contain forty-eight streets, because I had seen this shape before in the An Cave and online; the hollow center definitely couldn't accommodate that many—did this mean my original conjecture was wrong again? Besides the three streets within the ruins of the outer Tusi Imperial City, were the other forty-five streets pure fabrication? But what about the saying, "Forty-eight streets carrying the coffin simultaneously"—did Elder Chen remember incorrectly, or did it hide another meaning?

Only now did I realize that my thinking had been colored by preconceptions. When the contradiction between "Three streets, eighteen alleys, thirty-six courtyards" and "Forty-eight streets carrying the coffin simultaneously" first arose, I had simply assumed the other forty-five streets were hidden elsewhere. I had found this place, but it didn't contain the forty-five streets I had imagined.

Then, was the saying "Forty-eight streets carrying the coffin simultaneously" deliberately emphasizing the number "forty-eight"? Perhaps the core subject of this legend wasn't "streets" but "forty-eight." Comparing this to the other ubiquitous occurrences of the number "forty-eight," I guessed this possibility was extremely high, meaning my previous speculation had taken a long detour. Fortunately, whether by luck or by fate, finding Tan Cheng finally gave us a tangible goal, which was the true purpose of our coming to the Tusi Imperial City.

The main task now was to first find Tan Ping'er, and then search for the elusive Tan Cheng.