by Shian Jeen
The three of them flew in one direction, heading deeper into the Ghost King Palace.
As they got closer to the center of the Ghost King Palace, ghost and devil auras became heavier that at a certain point, these auras morphed into different strange shaped fogs, enveloping the sky above the Ghost King Palace. From afar, it looked no different from a ghost mountain or a devil mountain.
One day later, the three of them arrived at the entrance leading down to the underground palace.
The underground entrance exceeded a dozen zhang in height and in width, leading into a nothing but endless darkness. Huwang Xiao was a hundred meters from the entrance, yet it was close enough for him to feel the terror of ghost and devil auras blowing out from the underground palace, to the extent that it made Huwang Xiao uneasy.
He frowned, this was the first time feeling such strong unease ever since he arrived in this world.
“Brother Huwang, shall we go in now?” Sun Haoran spoke.
Huwang Xiao nodded, since he was already here, then he should relax and go with the flow. He was even more unwilling to give up at this point. With the Godly Mt. Xumi in his possession, nothing could go terribly wrong.
The three of them flew through the entrance, and in the blink of an eye, their silhouettes were swallowed by the darkness of the underground palace, obscured by the billowing ghost and devil auras.
“Brother Huwang, this underground palace’s structure is extremely complex, filled with traps and bans, not to mention countless ghosts and devils. Everyone should be extra careful and cautious moving forward.” Peng Feng reminded.
Huwang Xiao nodded.
However, just as Peng Feng said so, the space around them rippled with echoes of unworldly things.
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The sudden shrill howls coming from all four directions startled Huwang Xiao, and without any indication, the scenery in front of him changed. The original corridor disappeared, whereas Peng Feng and Sun Haoran’s figures were nowhere to be seen.
“What is this? What is happening?!” Huwang Xiao opened the Eye of Hell on his forehead, scanning the area. Ghost aura rolled endlessly from the void, evil spirits hissed and bared their fangs at the fresh prey.
Huwang Xiao shot out an Earthen Buddha Palm without hesitation. Myriad Buddha statues emerged from the ground, aureate Buddha luminescence brightened the world. Where the holy light shone, the ghost aura evaporated and the evil spirits were purified. The environment felt lighter and fresher in an instant.
However, Huwang Xiao had just cleared a small section when the ghost aura and evil spirits emerged once again from nearby, as if they were endless and couldn't be exterminated.
‘This is? An array formation trap!’
Watching new evil spirits being generated almost at the same time he vanquished them, Huwang Xiao understood that they had stepped into some kind of array formation. A powerful ghost array formation at that.
Now, the most crucial task was to locate the eye of the array formation! Huwang Xiao quickly figured out a solution to the current situation. His silhouette flickered around in the array, killing the ever-increasing number of evil spirits while observing his surroundings, trying to locate the origin of the dense ghost aura and evil spirits.
‘There!’ A short while later, Huwang Xiao’s eyes lit up as he stared at a spot on the left side. He leaped forward, heading straight to that point.
The Earthen Buddha Palm was the archnemesis of these ghosts, evils spirits and devils, therefore, along the way, Huwang Xiao used solely the same attack to disperse all obstructions. Despite that, the closer he got to the center, the thicker the ghost aura became, gathering stronger and more powerful evil spirits, so many of them that there was hardly any place to move forward. Even with the Earthen Buddha Palm, Huwang Xiao’s speed gradually slowed down. Helplessly, Huwang Xiao ran his battle qi at full force, releasing the Buddhism energy within his body. Resplendent Buddha luminescence pierced through the darkness, lighting up a large area. The evil spirits within the immediate proximity of Huwang Xiao evaporated into nothingness.
Huwang Xiao picked up speed again, heading towards the array formation’s eye. Twenty minutes later, he reached a spacious hall.
In the center of the spacious hall, a meter high flag was stuck to the floor. The flag's surface was inscribed with hieroglyphs of evil spirits, whereas on the thin black flagstaff, strange talisman symbols were engraved. These talisman symbols bore similarities to ancient writings, yet at the same time, they were not.
Ghostly aura spewed out endlessly from the flag's surface, the evil spirits hovering in the surroundings were palpable, akin to endless rumbling clouds of wolves. If it wasn’t for Huwang Xiao’s Eye of Hell, it would have been impossible for him to locate the flag amidst the darkness and the overwhelming number of evil spirits.
Doubtlessly, this flag was the key to the large ghost array formation, the array formation’s eye. But when Huwang Xiao stepped up, wanting to pull the flag off the ground, a black light flickered in the spacious hall. A towering ghost figure landed right between Huwang Xiao and the flag, blocking his path.
This giant ghost was at least four meters tall, glittering black snake-like scales covered its body like an armor. One of its hands was holding a three-pronged spear decorated with skull knobs on each prong. The three-pronged spear seemed to be dripping with blood.
When the giant ghost appeared, it directly attacked Huwang Xiao at amazing speed. It was much faster compared to Zhao Chen. Huwang Xiao was startled, the Eminent Holiness Halberd materialized, clashing with the opponent’s three-pronged blood spear.
Clang! A sharp sound of metal clashing rang out.
A numb feeling traveled up Huwang Xiao’s arm, his feet staggered from the impact and retreated a few steps back, but the giant ghost remained immovable, like a sturdy mountain.
“Such force!” This giant ghost had most likely already shed its ghost form, advancing into the Saint realm.
When human warriors cultivated, breaking through to Saint realm, they would shed their mortal physique and the same principle applied for ghost cultivators. Breaking through the Saint realm meant shedding off their ghost form, shaping a real body of flesh and blood. From every aspect: power, defense, and vitality, this newly shaped body would be far stronger than average human warriors, in short, it was bordering immortality. Even a Saint realm expert would turn around and run when going against a ghost that had advanced into the Saint realm.
Huwang Xiao wasted no time in summoning the Eminent Holiness Halberd and both black and blue dragon martial spirits, instantly soul transforming. Inside this ghost array formation, he need not worry about exposing his true strength, hence, Huwang Xiao went all out, no longer concealing his real strength.
Black and blue dragon scales layered over Huwang Xiao’s body. In the time taken for Huwang Xiao to soul transform, the giant ghost’s three-pronged blood spear launched another attack.
Flaming battle lust shone in Huwang Xiao’s eyes as he watched the three-pronged blood spear piercing toward him. Swinging the halberd out, noises of metal clashing rang out.
When Huwang Xiao was battling Zhao Chen in the City of Myriad Gods, he was still a mid-Xiantian Tenth Order, moreover, they were fighting in public and he was concerned about having all his trump cards exposed, so Huwang Xiao resorted to guerilla warfareㅡhit and run.
But the situation now was different, he had broken through to peak late-Xiantian Tenth Order, this Saint realm ghost was the best opponent he could ask for to test out his real strength.
Clang~! Another loud clash hummed in the spacious hall, the surrounding ghost aura rippled violently. The strong impact forced the giant ghost to stagger back more than a dozen meters, whereas Huwang Xiao remained still this round, his feet firmly planted on the same ground.
In the earlier exchange, without soul transforming with the twin dragon martial spirits and activating the Asura Physique, Huwang Xiao fell slightly underwind strength-wise against t
he giant ghost. After the soul transformation, however, Huwang Xiao’s battle prowess did not merely increase by level.
If someone were here to witness Huwang Xiao actually forcing back a ghost that had broken into the Saint realm, they probably wouldn’t know what to think.
After repelling the giant ghost, Huwang Xiao leaped up, the Eminent Holiness Halberd in his hand swinging out. Countless halberd shadows shot out like falling meteors in the night sky.
“Halberd Galaxy!”
It was too late to dodge, all the halberd attacks struck the giant ghost’s body. Under extreme pain, it let out a hoarse cry, it's body slammed into one of the pillars at the far end of the hall, shaking the entire structure.
Landing a crucial strike on the giant ghost, Huwang Xiao wasn’t feeling thrilled at all, a ghost that had successfully entered the Saint realm would hardly be defeated that easily.
Sure enough, barely a breath’s time later, the giant ghost swung his legs and flipped its body back up to a stand, roaring angrily. Its eyes turned crimson red, seemingly resonating with the three-pronged blood spear in its hand, glowing a bright eerie red. It once again rushed to attack Huwang Xiao.
Huwang Xiao was shocked seeing that his full force Halberd Galaxy attack merely left light injuries on its body. Wasn't a Saint realm ghost’s defense a little too scary, to be able to reach this level?
Fortunately, a Saint realm ghost, unlike a human Saint realm warrior, couldn't form a Saint realm space in their Qi Sea, otherwise, it would be strenuous for Huwang Xiao to deal with this giant ghost.
Seeing the giant ghost’s attack inching closer, Huwang Xiao thrust the halberd in his hands, and with a twist of the long handle, an energy vortex spiraled out in midair.
“Tossing Heaven, Flipping Earth!”
Entangled by the energy vortex, the giant ghost stumbled and Huwang Xiao seized the opportunity. The Eminent Holiness Halberd snaked through the vortex center straight into the giant ghost’s chest.
A distressed howl came from the giant ghost, its body was thrown out of the entanglement of the energy vortex. Black blood flowed from its chest, dripping onto the hall’s floor, and muffled sounds came from where the blood dropped, emitting green fumes.
However, after being stabbed by Huwang Xiao’s halberd, that giant ghost once again flipped up, launching another attack at him.
Huwang Xiao frowned. This couldn’t go on endlessly, he had to find this giant ghost’s soul to be able to resolve it once and for all.
The physical body of a ghost that broke through the Saint realm was basically immortal, only by destroying the soul within would it really die.
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Ghost creatures’ souls were no different than a human’s, it was the fundamental block of their existence.
But to find the location the soul inside its body was easier said than done, for the place where a ghost hid its soul was different. Some concealed their souls in the head, some hid their souls deep in the heart, some around the thigh, some even in the armpit.
Huwang Xiao swung the Eminent Holiness Halberd time and again as he tried to think of a method to locate the giant ghost’s soul.
Eye of Hell! Suddenly the thought struck Huwang Xiao’s mind like lightning.
That’s right, the normal method hardly had any possibility of success in finding the soul's location, but maybe the Eye of Hell could! Immediately, Huwang Xiao opened the Eye of Hell on his forehead and a red glow enveloped the giant ghost’s body.
What delighted Huwang Xiao was that the Eye of Hell indeed worked. Under the red glow, he could see past the layer of snake scales armor to its core.
Right behind its ear!
With the Eye of Hell’s assistance, he clearly saw its soul, that was hidden behind the left ear, it was the size of an eyeball, flickering in a shiny black light.
This was the ghost creature’s soul!
Huwang Xiao leaped into the air, the long halberd cleaving down on the giant ghost’s left ear. The giant ghost hastily shifted the three-pronged blood spear to defend, but Huwang Xiao executed the Space Concealment ability, vanishing from view as he hid inside the space pocket. Moving swiftly behind it, he stabbed the Eminent Holiness Halberd forward.
Zi!
The halberd accurately pierced its soul hidden behind the left ear, the woeful scream it issued sounded like cold iron thrown into boiling water. The three-pronged spear stabbed frenetically towards Huwang Xiao at its back.
Huwang Xiao jumped back rapidly.
“HuㅡHuman, I will kill you!!!” The giant ghost spat the words in human language. Howling in rage, its momentum rose to another level, ghost aura surged around it, condensing into ghostly creatures that wound around the giant ghost.
Ghost cultivators were able to speak the human language after advancing into the Saint realm. Despite that, what shocked Huwang Xiao was that this giant ghost wasn’t dead even though the Eminent Holiness Halberd pierced right through its soul!
Huwang Xiao watched as the numerous ghostly creatures made out of ghost aura shaped into an enormous jaw, looming over him. A potent suction force wrapped around Huwang Xiao, causing him to lose his footing, nearly flying into the giant mouth without resistance.
Huwang Xiao quickly executed Space Concealment to escape being swallowed whole, reappearing above the giant ghost’s head. Bursting with sacred golden light, his palm slammed down on top of the giant ghost’s head with an Earthen Buddha Palm.
A thunderous boom shook the air.
The Earthen Buddha Palm struck accurately at the top of the giant ghost’s head. The ghost wailed miserably, the ghost aura surrounding its body rippled, thinning out.
Although the Earthen Buddha Palm did not land on the giant ghost’s soul, it contained abundant Buddhism energy, the bane of all negative Yin creatures. The Buddhism energy force traveled down from the head, affecting its ghost soul.
Landing a successful attack, Huwang Xiao twirled to the side. While the giant ghost was wailing in pain, Huwang Xiao struck another palm at the crown of its head, once again impacting its ghost soul.
The giant ghost was thrown forward and crashed into a stone pillar in the spacious hall. The large jaw shaped from thick ghost aura shattered and dissipated. Black blood spewed uncontrollably from the giant ghost’s mouth.
It didn’t take long for the giant ghost to get back up. It stared fixedly at Huwang Xiao, its scarlet rage-filled eyes finally dimmed slightly, mixed with slight apprehension, its giant silhouette flickered rapidly to the side, wanting to flee. Catching its intent, Huwang Xiao pursued, executing Phantom Shadow, blocking right in front of the giant ghost. The Blades of Asura appeared in his hands, glinting with a cold sharp light.
“Tempest of Hell!”
Howling twisters that sounded as if they came from depths of hell encircled the giant ghost immediately. Countless wind blades cut across the giant ghost’s flesh, fire sparks shone as noises of hard metal objects clashing rang out and drops of black blood splattered everywhere. The giant ghost’s body was marred by numerous cuts from the wind blades, the layer of protective snake scales was cracked in many places, with black blood seeping to the surface from underneath.
The Tempest of Hell dissipated, revealing the giant ghost’s badly mutilated body. During the Tempest of Hell’s attack, sharp wind blades struck its ghost soul as well, multiples times. Its weakened injured body fell back to the hall center.
“Don’t, don’t kill me, I’m, I’m willing to become your ghost slave!” The giant ghost wobbled unsteadily as it struggled to a stand, despair, and horror evident in its eyes, displaying its submissive intent to Huwang Xiao.
Huwang Xiao was shocked that the giant ghost was still alive at this point, considering the numbers of all-out attacks he made. Truly, a ghost creature that had broken through the Saint realm was truly terrifying, to think that it was still alive after everything it experienced.
“Become my ghost slave?” Huwang Xiao looked at the giant ghost before him, te
mpted, wondering if his Ancient Puppetry Art and Soul Mandate could be used to rein in a Saint realm ghost creature.
His spiritual force enhanced greatly when he broke through to peak late-Xiantian Tenth Order, he knew there won’t be any problem to brand soul marks into a half-Saint expert, but Huwang Xiao wasn’t so confident that it would work against a Saint realm.
As if it saw through Huwang Xiao’s concerns, the giant ghost spoke, “I have a Blood Pact method that would allow you to take me in as your ghost servant.”
“Blood Pact?” Huwang Xiao looked at the giant ghost, waiting for it to explain further.
“That’s right.” The giant ghost creature nodded and then took out a piece of human skin diagram. “This Blood Pact Mandate is something I found in Lord Ghost King’s cultivation cave. After practicing this mandate, not only can one refine ghostly creatures’ souls to enhance one’s cultivation, it also allows the person to receive ghost creatures as slaves.”
Blood Pact Mandate!
Left behind by the Ghost King?!
Refine ghost creatures’ souls to enhance one’s own strength! Huwang Xiao was astonished. A suction force came from his left hand and the piece of human skin diagram flew to his palm. Holding it, Huwang Xiao studied it carefully.
Of course Huwang Xiao wouldn’t take the words of this giant ghost for granted, therefore he had to ensure that this Blood Pact Mandate was foolproof safe before deciding whether to practice it.
Finally, after going through the human skin thrice, Huwang Xiao determined that what the giant ghost said was not false. Indeed, after practicing this Blood Pact Mandate, he could refine ghost creatures to enhance his own strength. Moreover, he could control and have ghost creatures submit to him.
However, there was one detrimental factor in cultivating this mandate skill, if his soul wasn’t strong enough, he would easily suffer a backlash from the evil spirits and turn into a part-human part-ghost existence as a result.