by <unknown>
Some of them were belching intense black gas from their mouths, eyes, and ears after struggling in pain for a moment. Squeaky noises could be vaguely heard from the black gas, too. It was the seasoned ghosts that they had driven out from their brains. Having failed to possess the body, the seasoned ghosts were greatly weakened. The Cultivators did not even need to lay their weapons on them, and they would be ripped apart by the overwhelming killing intent on the battlefield by themselves.
But some of the low-level Cultivators, whose souls were relatively weak or were just wounded, ended up being grave puppets after trembling violently for a moment. Silently, they picked up their weapons and attacked their comrades!
Those people were either successfully possessed by the seasoned ghosts or beguiled into thinking that the comrades next to them were filthy zombies because the ghosts affected their aural, optical, and olfactory nerves.
The previously unstoppable Cultivators and army of the court were immediately thrown into chaos.
The elites of the army of ghouls, namely the copper zombies, silver zombies, and golden zombies created via special microorganisms, and the super skeleton soldiers made of the bones of rare animals with evil runes carved on them finally marched out!
The combat ability of the elites was equal to the high level of the Refinement Stage and even the Building Foundation Stage. Their movement was extremely agile and fast. There was not the slightest rigidness typical of regular zombies and skeletons at all. They rushed toward East Peace County in the blink of an eye!
The few high-level Cultivators in East Peace County all rushed out, too, and had a head-on clash with the army of ghouls. The battle between the living and the undead reached its climax.
"Now's the time!"
In the sky, noticing the loosening of the battle formation of the army of ghouls, a flying boat slowly withdrew from the battlefield, took a big detour on the right side of the battlefield, and dashed right toward the rear of the enemy's formation.
Before the enemy discovered what was going on, five streaks of brightness had already jumped out of the boat and darted toward the palace of corpses at the center of the army of ghouls like five shooting stars!
"Mother White Lotus must be right inside the palace. As long as the monster is killed, the riot of ghosts will be suppressed in no time!
"Be extra careful, fellow Cultivators, and do no waste any time on the ghosts nearby. If we are corrupted by the souls and our spiritual energy does not circulate well, it is possible that we will be trapped by the army. Even if we do manage to survive in the end, our Cultivation will certainly plummet!
"Mother White Lotus is unpredictable and does not have a fixed body, which adds to the difficulty of capturing and executing her. Please pay special attention, everyone!"
Naturally, the five streaks of brightness belonged to Li Yao, Yan Liren, Qi Zhongdao, Ba Xiaoyu, and Master Bitter Cicada, the five super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators.
Only the five of them had a chance of slaying Mother White Lotus, who was well protected by the thousands of ghosts.
However, Qi Zhongdao, who wanted Mother White Lotus dead more than anything else, did not know that Li Yao actually had other intentions. He was thinking of sparing Mother White Lotus and then following her to her nest.
The war between the living and the dead was a sheer tragedy. The living had every right to pursue survival, but was the vengeance of the dead not justified at all?
Even if Mother White Lotus was suppressed, as long as the world remained an impenetrable wine barrel, then before long, countless restless souls would pop up again, and a new 'Mother Red Lotus', 'Mother Black Lotus', or 'Mother Green Lotus' would appear among them!
Li Yao secretly made up his mind that he would break the wine barrel in his own way and end the unceasing tragedy!
Hardly had the five streaks of brightness rushed into the army of ghouls when they were enveloped by the ubiquitous white mist.
Li Yao clearly sensed the interference of the ghosts.
He felt that countless memory pieces were piercing through his brain, making him share countless episodes of broken lives in the moment.
In a trance, he seemed to be a disaster victim who was struggling in the middle of rushing torrents while watching his home to be swallowed by the flood.
The next second, he became a patient who was burnt by the febrile typhoon and left unattended on the road, slowly dying in excruciating pain as if thousands of ants were gnawing at his heart.
In the third second, he turned into a hungry disaster victim whose stomach was filled up by weeds and bark, shaking and falling on the ground while staring at the splendid gate of a Cultivation sect.
Flood, fire, the scorching sun, and ferocious monsters!
Countless gory pictures were gliding in front of his eyes one by one.
Moans, screams, begs, curses, and fights!
Countless sounds were piercing through his ears.
Pain, regret, hope, desperation, detestation!
All the negative emotions were crawling inside his brain like venomous spiders!
Chapter 1445: Appearance of White Lotus! |
They were the most unforgettable memories that the folks and Cultivators had before their death.
At that moment, they were turning Li Yao's brain upside down like sharp blades.
Even though there was an entity as weird as the mental devil inside Li Yao's brain, which could absorb tremendous negative emotions crazily, the negative emotions were still flooding in faster than they were processed!
After all, there were a million ghosts there. The hatred of a million people was definitely a world-blighting power!
When they were harassed by the unrested souls, the Cultivators' spiritual energy was jammed, and their telepathic thoughts were disrupted. Even if they were at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage, they were still greatly affected.
Li Yao had been used to the blow of negative emotions and was in better shape. The other few Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were equally solemn when they were faced with the vague black gas floating around them, which was trying to find a gap and wriggle into their bodies like thousands of almost transparent bugs!
Right then, a prolonged chant of Amitabha Buddha echoed in everyone's ears.
Master Bitter Cicada's pearls broke apart into eighteen shooting stars that revolved quickly around the five of them, unleashing golden brilliance, which formed a shield like an enormous bell and drove away all the evil auras nearby.
"There are too many ghosts here. Let's not dawdle and simply charge toward Mother White Lotus' palace!"
After a roar, Qi Zhongdao launched the Heaven Flipping Seal again. Countless skeletons and zombies below him were crushed into smithereens, but they mattered little to the ghosts.
Yan Liren did not say anything, but four sword auras spurted out abruptly and interweaved into an impenetrable ball of light around him. Whoever dared draw close, be they skeletons, zombies, or ghosts, would be cut into pieces the moment they touched the light ball!
Shua!
The ball of light rolled hundreds of meters forward. The fourth sword that Li Yao crafted for Yan Liren was finally launched. The aura of the sword rushed forward like a rainbow over the heads of thousands of skeletons and zombies landing on the palace of bones that looked like a blossoming lotus flower!
The ghostly auras circling the palace could not resist Yan Liren's sword auras at all and dispersed instantly. Even the palace itself was slashed in half after an explosion. It collapsed to the ground, ending up as a heap of broken white bones.
However, the palace was empty. There was not a single soul inside it!
"Hehe. Hehehehe!"
The gloomy, frightening, and high-pitched laughter of a woman echoed in midair. The broken bones on the ground were actually wriggling slowly and jumbling into a monolithic scorpion of bones. On the back of the scorpion, the face of a woman who was gritting her teeth hungrily was patched up by all the bizarre-s
haped broken bones.
Although the face was merely made of bones, the woman could almost be called pretty. However, her twisted countenance would make anyone's heart freeze after they saw her. There was no need to mention her hideous laughter, which was getting more and more miserable. It was even more wretched than the cries of the ghosts in the deepest level of hell!
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
Intense white smoke was spurting out of the gaps of bones of the enormous scorpion.
Once they made contact with the white smoke, the previous lackluster ghosts and remaining souls were enlivened. They began raging and roaring.
The skeletons and zombies that had been moving slowly were accelerated, too. They split into two groups. One group was blocking the five super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators from the other Cultivators, trying to stop them from meeting each other. The other group went to surround the five super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators!
'Mother White Lotus' Wan Mingzhu's Cultivation was so unbelievably high that she did not possess a regular zombie but the entire palace of bones.
All the bones were her embodiments, and she could change or combine them free at will!
"White Lotus!"
Activating the Heaven Flipping Seal, Qi Zhongdao pressed the scorpion so hard that the bones were all cracking. "You are insane enough to manipulate the thousands of ghost soldiers to attack a heavy town of the Cultivators! Whoever dares to challenge the entire world of Cultivators will be blown into smithereens and cursed forever!"
"Wan Mingzhu!" Ba Xiaoyu the Beggar held the black tobacco pipe in his hand. The orange glimmer inside the pipe was flickering, and smoke was flowing out now and then. His usual casualness replaced by solemnity as he said, "Only those guilty for a crime should be punished. The Bamboo Mountain Cult, which killed your entire family and even tried to turn you into Five Desperation White Bone Corpses, has already been slaughtered by you. You should've already sought your revenge however great it is. Why do you have to vent your hatred on other sects and innocent people?"
"Fellow Cultivator Wan." Master Bitter Cicada's voice that was mixed with bitterness emerged, too. "The sea of bitterness is boundless, and you can only find the shore if you turn back. Lay down your weapon and find your inner peace! You are instigating the unrested souls just for your personal grudge and turning them into an army of ghouls. How many massacres have you committed in the southeast? You have been out of mind for too long. It is time for your repentance!"
"Haha. Hahahaha!" The pale face on the back of the scorpion laughed crazily. "Qi Zhongdao, Ba Xiaoyu, Bitter Cicada, Yan Liren, and… Master Spiritual Vulture? The so-called five strongest Cultivators on the righteous side are all here today?"
"Qi Zhongdao!
"I've been fighting you Cultivators who seem to be gracious but are in fact corrupt to the bones for long enough. You have besieged me and tried to annihilate me with your great forces more than once. Has your wish ever been fulfilled? You don't need to play any word games. If you want to kill me, just come and try!"
"Ba Xiaoyu!
"Do not think that you are qualified to criticize me just because of the vanity you gained by helping the weak! You are just another snob fishing for compliments who only has the guts to investigate the Roaring Tiger Hall and deal with mediocre forces such as the Black Devil Cult! Let's forget the ugly businesses the Grand Mystery Sect, the Purple Pole Sword Sect, and other major sects of the past and just focus on the thirty-three sects inside East Peace County. Do you dare to look into their clandestine actions from when they were rising and make sure that all the criminals are punished accordingly?
"Bitter Cicada!
"Of all the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, you are the most hypocritical of all! You talk about laying down weapons and finding inner peace, but when the Cultivators were exploiting us, why didn't you tell them to put down their weapons? When the lords sh*tted on our necks doing whatever they wanted to us, why didn't you tell them to find their inner peace? Where were you when so many folks were killed because of the Cultivation sects? Where were you when they were forced to sell their children? Where were you when our families were refined into weapons by the Bamboo Mountain Cult?
"Now, we are dead, and we are capable of seeking the justice that we deserve, but you are jumping out to tell us to put down our weapons and look for inner peace?
"Haha. Hahahaha. You are either idiotic or pure evil. How can you find inner peace if you lay down your weapons? Let me tell you. If you lay down your weapons, you can only be butchered!"
Hardly had her voice died down when the tail of the scorpion flipped, and it attacked Master Bitter Cicada!
In the meantime, the bones on its body darted out four chains, blocking the other four Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators!
'Mother White Lotus' Wan Mingzhu was fighting against five heroes of the world, but she was fearless enough to attack first!
The pity and sorrow on Master Bitter Cicada's face was even more intense than before. Without saying anything, he bashed the tail of the scorpion with his staff.
After a crack, the tail exploded suddenly!
Li Yao and the other Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators also broke the four chains without any trouble!
Qi Zhongdao's Heaven Flipping Seal pressed the scorpion to the ground, making it unable to move anymore. The crazily waving limbs of the scorpion had almost been buried to the ground.
Yan Liren launched yet another unstoppable sword aura that split the scorpion in half from the head to the tail!
However, intense white mist spurted out from the shell of the scorpion.
Infinite negative emotions were mixed inside the mist, as if thousands of people were screaming, begging, crying, and roaring at the five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators at the same time!
"You want to kill me? It's not so easy!" Wan Mingzhu's miserable laughter was echoing inside the white mist. "You have five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators on your side, but I have thousands of restless souls on mine! Listen to the screams when they were tormented, and look at their despondent deaths! As long as injustice exists in the world, I will never be killed or broken. I lead them to purge the sky and the earth!
"Repentance? I don't need repentance, now or ever!"
The white mist slowly dispersed. The previous enormous scorpion, however, had turned into countless small scorpions the size of a fist, which were scuttering on the ground and running away in various directions at an amazingly high speed.
Nobody could tell which scorpion Wan Mingzhu's soul was hiding in!
It was indeed a weird technique. No wonder the White Lotus Cult had savaged the southeast for decades, and countless Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators had failed to annihilate her!
Qi Zhongdao was even more serious than before. The Heaven Flipping Seal was hovering above the battlefield, triggering powerful gravity and crushing the swarms of scorpions.
Yan Liren, on the other hand, froze in midair as if he were a statue. Even his eyeballs seemed to have stopped. Only the vague will of his sword was dashing quickly among the scorpions, searching for the real body of Mother White Lotus.
Ba Xiaoyu and Master Bitter Cicada, on the other hand, were dealing with the army of ghouls that were crowding close from various directions. Otherwise, everybody might have been drowned by the ghosts after one moment of carelessness.
Although the souls of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were extremely powerful, it was impossible for them to compete with the hatred, regret, and pain of a million people in a head-on clash!
Suddenly, Yan Liren's frozen eyeballs shivered rapidly, as if he had been caught in a weird dream.
The sword aura rushed out like a rainbow, aiming at not the crazily crawling scorpions on the ground but a seemingly vulnerable skeleton soldier that was staggering toward Master Bitter Cicada!
He was not using the duplicate of the fourth sword that Li Yao had forged for him but the real fourth sword!
Chapter 1446: Something's Wron
g! |
After the sword aura arrived, the skeleton was not cut in half. Instead, it exploded into pieces.
From the thousands of pieces of bone, an unpredictable stream of white smoke surged out and dashed to the rear of the battle formation of the army of ghouls!
Wan Mingzhu's real body turned out to be not hiding inside the small scorpions. Instead, escaping everyone's attention, she had hidden herself in such a regular skeleton, trying to ambush Master Bitter Cicada in the company of the many skeleton soldiers and zombies!
Yan Liren's countenance remained unchanged. He even put on a smile of interest as he snapped his fingers. His sword aura took an abrupt turn in midair and continued chasing after Wan Mingzhu's real body!
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
The bone pieces bombarded Yan Liren's sword aura like a storm, drawing devastating curves in the air, only to be shattered into powder by the sword aura!
The sword aura caught up to Wan Mingzhu as quick as lightning and slashed her brutally!
"Ahhh!"
The entire world was occupied by Wan Mingzhu's horrified scream. She split her own soul in half at the life-and-death moment before the sword aura arrived, allowing the sword aura to pass through the gap in the middle!
Even so, the sharpness at the edge of the sword aura still heavily wounded her soul. When the soul was combined again into the image of a middle-aged beautiful woman in a white robe who was full of hatred, she looked much dimmer than before. An obvious black line had appeared at the center of her body from head to toe, from which black smoke was still popping out nonstop!
Yan Liren's sword was truly the best in the world. Even the 'mother of all ghosts' had been injured after one attack!
Gritting her teeth, Wan Mingzhu could not have looked more hideous.
More and more ghosts and zombies had gathered around her, grimacing and waving their claws at the five super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators.
Right then, a thunderous explosion echoed in the horizon.