I severed the neck of the Black Nether Ghost King with a single sword strike.
His body reverted to its original form: a straw figure.
With a "boom," a green flame erupted.
And consumed the straw body…
I thought that would be enough to kill the Black Nether Ghost King.
But we had still underestimated him.
Or rather, underestimated the sinister arts wielded by the secret organization, the Longevity Society.
Despite its head being severed, the Black Nether Ghost King's body had turned to straw.
As the green flame engulfed the straw form, a shadow of black mist shot out from its straw head.
The shadow flickered and appeared in mid-air.
Seeing this, my Uncle-Master swung his broadsword.
The black mist split in two.
But then, it rejoined.
Then, from the rejoined black mist shadow, came the voice of the Black Nether Ghost King:
“Do not think you can kill me by destroying my straw body.
Let me tell you, this King is immortal.
Now, you shall wait here to die!”
With that, the black mist instantly dispersed.
We watched the scattered black mist, still trying to understand what was happening.
Our prison cell began to exhibit strange phenomena.
A "buzzing" vibration filled the air.
Then, we saw many objects around us emitting black energy.
The speed of corrosion and decomposition was accelerating.
In an instant, all the spirits in the prison cell became restless.
“Master-Uncle, what’s happening?” Old Mo asked.
Xia Qiu Xi and I also sensed that something was amiss.
The Black Nether Ghost King must have done something.
My Uncle-Master scanned the surroundings, then said:
“That thing is surely going to destroy this place, trapping us here to die.
Run, get out of here quickly.”
My Uncle-Master spoke, then directed us to flee.
I wholeheartedly agreed.
Otherwise, why would the surrounding objects suddenly begin to decompose faster?
Without any hesitation, we turned and ran.
My Uncle-Master also called out to the spirits:
“Follow this Daoist, follow us outside.”
The spirits nodded, saying "mm-hmm."
They drifted over with mournful cries.
Then, we rushed out of the prison gate, intending to leave this place.
However, as soon as we burst out of the prison.
We saw that the area outside the prison, which had been empty moments before, was now teeming with dense clusters of ghosts.
These ghosts, upon seeing us appear.
Let out "awoo" roars and lunged at us.
“Damn it!”
I muttered inwardly.
It seemed the Black Nether Ghost King had been plotting against us all along.
Secretly planning.
And using some of his abilities to command these ghosts.
Luring us here without us sensing any danger.
Then, from the shadows, summoning these ghosts to surround us.
He himself had taken the opportunity to escape.
And now intended to use these ghosts to trap us once more.
I had to admit, the Black Nether Ghost King was truly cunning.
But now was not the time to ponder such things.
We had to fight our way out of this ghost palace first.
Once this place completely decomposed and turned into nothingness.
We would be forever trapped here.
Or, we would decompose along with this place, vanishing into nothingness.
“Kill!”
I shouted, charging forward again with my injured body.
Xia Qiu Xi, Mo Ting, and Uncle-Master Tang also joined the fray.
The living spirits behind us were no match for these ghosts.
Seeing so many of them, they appeared frightened and dared not rush forward.
They could only follow us as we led the way.
I struck out with a few sword blows, killing several of them first.
Old Mo’s dual axes also swung wildly.
Xia Qiu Xi took out her Soul Suppressing Bell.
She began to ring it with a “ding-ding-ding” sound.
The sound waves reverberated.
Not only did the ghosts in front cover their ears and howl in pain,
But a large number of the living spirits behind also cried out.
At this moment, we couldn’t afford to worry about the living spirits; our priority was to carve a path forward.
With the assistance of the Soul Suppressing Bell.
And with Uncle-Master clearing the path.
Along with Xia Qiu Xi, Old Mo, and my help, we were making relatively smooth progress.
As for the living spirits, there were over four to five hundred of them.
We couldn’t possibly attend to every single one.
We could only tell them to try and keep up.
Although many ghosts blocked our path, we quickly fought our way to the main hall of the ghost palace.
Looking up, we saw that the ceiling of the palace had already decomposed more than halfway.
Revealing the dark, black sky.
The roofs and surrounding buildings were visibly decomposing at an astonishing rate, disappearing into black smoke.
And within the hall, over a hundred ghosts still blocked our way.
“These mere pawns dare to block this Daoist’s path? Fight our way out!”
Uncle-Master declared imposingly.
Wielding his broadsword, he swept a path clear.
We followed closely behind him, with a large group of living spirits trailing us.
Several of these living spirits were grabbed by ghosts, pinned to the ground, and gnawed upon.
In this situation, we couldn’t save them.
With the surroundings constantly decomposing, we had to leave before the decomposition was complete.
Because none of us knew what predicament we would face.
Once this place had entirely decomposed.
In a flash, we broke out of the ghost palace.
Looking around.
Outside the ghost palace, there were also many ghosts.
They were making eerie "woo-woo-woo" sounds, and some were fleeing in different directions.
But besides that, many areas had decomposed into black voids emitting black mist.
Those ghosts that carelessly approached would fall in.
These black voids were like pools of black water.
The ghosts that fell in made no splash and simply vanished.
We didn’t know where they went.
Nor did we care to know.
Looking at the constantly decomposing floor tiles and the dense black holes of various sizes.
All of us felt our hearts in turmoil.
But we also knew that we had to leave this place before the surrounding buildings completely decomposed.
More importantly, we must not fall into those black holes emitting black mist…