Hua Linjie, the City Lord of Flower City, had returned to Flower City with a group of immortal cultivation disciples more than half an hour ago, and Cheng Hong was among them.
Yet, he had not returned, nor had any news arrived.
It was now confirmed that the immortal artifact of Flower City had been tampered with. The ghost qi from Fengdu was rapidly spreading to a hundred-mile radius, the marshes rumbled, and the sky was overcast, chilling the bone.
Instantly, a somber and dispirited mood descended upon the immortal cultivation disciples.
Yan Tianjiao was a leader among this main force tasked with eliminating the ghost cultivators. His black robes were a deep crimson, his eyes burned with icy ferocity. With a grim expression, he stood amidst a sea of corpses and blood, his fair, phoenix-like face tinged with the color of plum blossoms.
"With mere vermin like you, do you truly believe you can escape Fengdu? Dream on!"
His crimson robes billowed suddenly, the hem fluttering in layers, accentuating his firm, slender waist. He clasped his hands together before his chest, forming a seal. Instantly, a dao array, several feet in length, shimmered with blue and white light.
It illuminated a portion of the area, suppressing the flow of the surrounding ghost qi.
The wind around Yan Tianjiao grew increasingly fierce, the biting cold bringing with it vast swathes of snow. The gale shook everything in its path, howling furiously and blowing like a madman, the swirling snow gradually blurring the vision.
The ghost cultivators were greatly alarmed, hesitant to approach for a time.
But who knew that the blizzard would grow so rapidly? They retreated repeatedly, but it was like a vast white maw being woven and pulled, swallowing them into the air in one go.
They were dragged upwards, and suddenly, uncontrollable shouts of alarm and screams mingled together.
As the howling wind swept through, the ghost cultivators within the blizzard, each grotesquely shaped and with expressions of terror, were frozen into lumps of ice sculptures.
Beside him, Ru Lan clapped her hands with delight, exclaiming, "Excellent! Well done, Yan Tianjiao! Look at these ice sculptures… tsk, tsk, tsk, truly beautiful."
Lu Ziyin sprang from the high city walls, standing tall. His ginger-yellow attire was dashing, his long robes and coronet exuding an air of nobility.
He narrowed his gentle, refined eyes, transforming his sword into a pipa and bringing it to his lips. He played a tune called "Sha Po Lang."
The spiritual energy generated by the melody transformed into countless blades, ruthlessly cleaving through the ice sculptures on the frozen ground. Amidst the cold, white snow and mist intertwined, creating vast stretches of whiteness, and the ground was covered in shards of ice crackling into dust.
"Ah~"
"Well done! Uncle Yan, Uncle Lu—"
Which of the younger disciples didn't recognize the influence of these two rising stars? Every year, each sect and school established role models for their juniors. Yan Tianjiao and his cohort, ranked on the newcomer list, were basically the future goals for them to strive towards in the next fifty years.
Who didn't have idols when they were young?
The power of idols was also intangible, positive, and filled with encouragement and support.
They knew the situation was not optimistic, but this display greatly bolstered the morale of the dispirited immortal cultivation disciples. Smiles of satisfaction appeared on their faces, and for a moment, they forgot their current predicament.
Master Yu Cheng looked at these new generation disciples, his heart heavy, yet his eyes still showed a look of relieved admiration.
"Stop wantonly expending your spiritual energy!"
Master Yu Cheng warned them.
Using such large-scale spells truly consumed spiritual energy, and it was less efficient than fighting with magical artifacts.
The spread and expansion of Fengdu's ghost qi not only signaled a significant increase in Fengdu's strength but also indicated that it was devouring the surrounding spiritual energy to fuel its own growth. When the ghost qi swelled to a certain point, it meant they would be infiltrated by the ghost qi, and their spiritual energy would be unable to flow smoothly.
However, Yan Tianjiao's display of power did not trouble the Yu Yi Ghost King. On the contrary, he cheerfully rallied and grinned sinisterly, "Kill! Kill with all your might! I want to see if you can kill them all!"
The Yu Yi Ghost King raised his arm, his wide sleeves catching the wind. The sky-piercing ghost qi directly connected to the black clouds above. The "black clouds" appeared to be like viscous black swamp matter, constantly dripping down.
Vast amounts of black, fragmented objects rained down from the sky. Upon closer inspection, they were revealed to be twisted and mingled vengeful spirits.
Very few of them retained human form. Most were tormented by resentment and pain, eventually devouring their own kind, leaving behind severed limbs, or having multiple heads and limbs, or even intermingled forms of oxen-ghosts and snakes.
Due to their sheer numbers, they converged to form a dense miasma of ghost qi, emanating a chilling aura with phantoms like towering figures.
Once the ghost qi exceeded a certain limit, it would automatically form a domain.
A Ghost Domain.
Abbess Hui Ming stumbled back a step, her expression of shock and paleness seeming to recount something incredible.
"How is this possible? What is going on?! They can summon so many ghosts even outside?"
Outside, of course, referred to outside the Ghost City of Fengdu. Previously, due to the barrier, ghost cultivators in the outer regions of Fengdu Ghost City were fundamentally unable to summon a large number of ghosts through their own power.
But if they could achieve this, it undoubtedly meant that Fengdu Ghost City's strength was vastly different from what it once was.
"How can so many souls be summoned to appear?!" Fu Wanyan also frowned deeply.
She was not on the front lines of the battle because her cultivation was not high.
However, her strength was not negligible. She possessed an Earth-tier spiritual artifact – the Xiu Yue Ring.
The "Xiu Yue Ring" resembled blood in shape, its surface shimmering with a silver-blue hue, and intricate patterns were carved at the pointed ends. It could change size and split into multiple forms, one becoming ten, or a hundred, with extraordinary power.
But with Fu Wanyan's current cultivation, she could at most create ten or a dozen "Xiu Yue Ring" clones.
She hailed from a hidden family and naturally knew many secrets that others could not uncover.
For instance, she knew that since the Underworld had disappeared from the Six Realms, all the souls in the world had nowhere to go.
They either eventually vanished from the world, becoming spiritual energy to replenish the life force of all things, or they turned into malevolent spirits, endangering the common people, and were then eliminated by Dao cultivators or Buddhist cultivators.
But even without the Underworld, souls could not exist everywhere. They had to adhere to the laws of heaven and earth. To summon such a large number of souls, besides requiring a large-scale sacrifice of living beings, a medium artifact with heavy yin energy, there also needed to be a large-scale teleportation array.
Could it be, those blood slaves…
As for the dark, shadowy "black cloud," it was likely the large-scale teleportation array serving as a transfer point.
"We must break this array!" Fu Wanyan shouted loudly towards the front.
Although she also understood that this was not an easy task… in fact, it could be said to be an extremely difficult undertaking.
But if the other party succeeded, it would be equivalent to a disaster of extinction for Rong City and them, the immortal cultivation disciples.
This would be followed by an endless stream of ghosts pouring out, creating a situation akin to a death trap.
Ru Lan heard Fu Wanyan's voice and turned her head, glancing at Fu Wanyan standing before the city gate.
Her expression beneath her veil was indiscernible, but only her eyes were filled with seriousness and tension.
Ru Lan knew that this woman named Fu Wanyan had some capabilities.