Chapter 105 The Ninth Prince Ventures Alone into the Burial Mound

West of the city, a mass grave.

This is a forbidden area in the capital that no one wants to set foot in, where countless unclaimed corpses are buried.

The pale moonlight shone on the jagged rocks and solitary graves, casting menacing shadows.

A cold wind blew by, stirring up the ashes of the paper money, making a mournful sound, as if countless wronged souls were whispering.

Dressed in black, Chu Chongjin blended into the night, walking through this desolate place as if on flat ground.

His deep eyes were colder than the night.

The upgraded Eye of Fortune allowed him to clearly see that every inch of this land was shrouded in a dense gray death aura and black resentment.

Deep within this gray-black aura, an even purer and more malevolent inky aura is continuously surging from the ground, forming a massive vortex.

At the center of the vortex was the very point of the formation that Yan Ziche and his team had deduced—a mortuary that had been abandoned for many years.

Chu Chongjin approached silently.

The mortuary was dilapidated, its doors and windows long since rotted away, leaving only a dark, gaping entrance, like a gaping maw ready to devour its prey.

Instead of entering through the main gate, he swayed and floated onto the roof like a falling leaf, lifted a tile, and looked inside.

Inside the mortuary, the scene was far more terrifying than outside.

In the center of the hall, instead of the altar one might expect, there was a huge pool of blood.

Fresh blood churned and bubbled in the pool, emitting a nauseatingly sweet and foul odor.

Countless mutilated skeletons floated in the pool of blood.

Even more chilling was that, standing in the pool of blood were “soldiers” dressed in tattered armor.

They are not living people, but puppets pieced together from corpses and resentment, with ghostly blue flames burning in their eye sockets.

These "ghost soldiers" are mechanically throwing fresh corpses dug from the ground into the blood pool.

Once the corpse enters the blood pool, it quickly melts and becomes part of the blood pool. The immense resentment contained in the blood pool is continuously drawn out and transported to the depths of the earth veins through a huge array on the ground.

Beside the pool of blood stood a person wearing a black cloak and holding a white bone banner.

The man seemed to sense something, and suddenly looked up, his gaze from beneath his cloak shooting towards the roof like two sharp swords.

"Who dares to covet my Netherworld Ghost Army!"

The voice was hoarse and shrill; it was none other than the long-lost Imperial Advisor, Linglan!

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly swung the white bone banner in his hand.

"Splash—"

In the pool of blood, dozens of ghost army puppets turned their heads at the same time, their empty eye sockets locking onto the location where Chu Chongjin was hiding.

"kill!"

Linglan gave the order.

Dozens of ghost soldiers instantly rioted. They trudged through the blood and charged towards the roof without fear of death. Some even climbed directly onto the walls, using both hands and feet to climb up at an astonishing speed.

"boom!"

The roof beneath Chu Chongjin's feet was smashed to pieces by the immense force of a ghost soldier.

He flashed and landed gracefully through the hole, standing steadily on the other side of the hall.

"Linglan, you really are here." Chu Chongjin's voice was as cold as ice.

"The Ninth Prince, Chu Chongjin?"

When Linglan saw his face, she was stunned for a moment, and then burst into a sharp, maniacal laugh.

"Hahaha! It's like finding a needle in a haystack, only to have it come to me effortlessly!"

"I thought it would be a brute like Mu Fang who would come, but I never expected that it would be you, a true dragon, who would personally deliver yourself to my door!"

His eyes gleamed with greed and fanaticism.

"As long as I refine you into my main soul, my Nine Nether Ghost Army Formation will be completed ahead of schedule! At that time, not only will the mere Great Chu be mine, but the entire world will be mine!"

Chu Chongjin's face remained completely expressionless.

"A fool's dream."

He slowly raised his hand, and in his palm, a wisp of dazzling golden dragon energy began to swirl and condense.

As soon as that pure and majestic dragon aura appeared, the surrounding yin energy retreated as if it had encountered its nemesis.

Even the fearless ghost army instinctively stopped in their tracks, the ghostly fire in their eyes flickering violently, revealing their terror.

Ling Lan's laughter stopped abruptly, and her face turned extremely ugly.

He stared intently at the dragon aura in Chu Chongjin's palm, his jealousy driving him almost mad.

"The aura of a true dragon... Why! Why are you born with it, while I have cultivated for a hundred years and can only find another way!"

"Just because you are a prince and I am a spirit? How unfair is the way of Heaven!"

He roared like a madman, slamming the white bone banner in his hand into the ground.

"So what if it's unfair! Today, I will defy fate and make everything you have mine!"

"Nine Netherworlds, heed my command! Devour the dragon!"

At his command, countless blood-red runes suddenly lit up the ground of the entire mortuary.

The enormous pool of blood began to boil violently, with streams of pure resentment being pushed to their limits by the formation.

The ghost soldiers who were originally hesitant turned their ghostly flames from dark blue to blood red in an instant. They let out a silent roar, their bodies radiating an even more ferocious aura, and charged towards Chu Chongjin once again!

This time, they are no longer afraid of the dragon's aura!

Chu Chongjin's eyes narrowed.

He knew that Ling Lan had forcibly erased the instincts of these ghost soldiers using an array, turning them into pure killing machines.

Even he felt the pressure when surrounded by dozens of ghost soldiers whose strength was comparable to that of a first-class martial artist.

Instead of fighting head-on, he moved with lightning speed, constantly weaving and dodging within the encirclement of the ghost army.

Each time he dodged, he perfectly avoided fatal attacks. At the same time, the dragon energy in his palm transformed into golden blades of energy, precisely slashing at the joints or heads of the ghost soldiers.

"Crack!"

The head of a ghost soldier was sliced ​​off by a golden blade of energy, but its body continued to frantically swing the bone knife in its hand.

It's no use!

These things have no vital points at all!

They won't stop attacking unless they're completely blasted to pieces.

"Hahahaha!" Ling Lan laughed even more triumphantly upon seeing this. "It's useless, Chu Chongjin! My ghost army is immortal! Unless you can destroy this blood pool, but this blood pool is connected to the earth veins of the entire mass grave. How can you destroy it by yourself?"

"You will stay here, slowly having your dragon energy depleted, and then become my most perfect masterpiece!"

While dodging, Chu Chongjin calmly analyzed the situation.

Ling Lan is right. These ghost soldiers are inexhaustible, but his dragon energy is limited.

A direct confrontation is the worst possible strategy.

The key to breaking the deadlock still lies in the formation itself.

His gaze fell on the white bone banner stuck in the ground.

That is the core that controls the entire formation!

To catch the thief, first catch the king!

Having made up his mind, Chu Chongjin decided to stop getting entangled with the Ghost Army.

He suddenly stepped back to create distance, and then stomped his feet heavily on the ground!

"Dragons fight in the wild!"

The immense dragon energy no longer transformed into energy blades, but instead erupted from him, forming a golden shockwave!

"boom--!"

The dozen or so ghost soldiers at the forefront were hit head-on by the shockwave and instantly shattered into pieces, turning into a pile of broken bones.

Taking advantage of this opening, Chu Chongjin's figure had already transformed into a golden streak of light, heading straight for Linglan!

Ling Lan's expression changed drastically. He hadn't expected Chu Chongjin to be so decisive, willing to expend a large amount of dragon energy to create an opportunity to attack him.

He hurriedly tried to pull out the White Bone Banner, but it was too late.

Chu Chongjin's fist, imbued with golden dragon energy, was already right in front of them!

However, just as Chu Chongjin's fist was about to strike Linglan.

A pitch-black shadow, as deep as an abyss, appeared out of nowhere from behind Ling Lan and blocked his way.

The shadow stretched out a withered hand and casually grasped Chu Chongjin's fist.

"Bang!"

The golden dragon energy collided with the extreme black energy, producing a muffled, loud bang.

Chu Chongjin felt an extremely cold and chilling power, as if it could freeze his soul, coming from the other person's palm and instantly invading his meridians.

His face turned pale, he groaned, and retreated rapidly.

The dark figure swayed and took a half step back.

Chu Chongjin steadied himself, looked up, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

The dark figure was not a physical object, but a... mummified corpse floating in mid-air!

The mummified corpse was dressed in the robes of a former dynasty's kings and nobles. Its face was withered and its eyes were closed, but the evil aura emanating from it was a hundred times more terrifying than Ling Lan and all the ghost soldiers combined!

"Mysterious Yin Corpse Refining!" Chu Chongjin uttered the four words slowly and deliberately.

This is an even more vicious evil technique than the Nine Netherworld Ghost Army!

“Hehehe…” Ling Lan recovered from her shock and looked at Chu Chongjin, letting out a smug laugh. “Ninth Prince, you have quite the insight.”

"I forgot to tell you, beneath this mass grave, besides countless skeletons, lies a prince from a previous dynasty."

"I went to great lengths to refine him into my 'King General.' How does it taste? This is a great gift I prepared for you!"

Chu Chongjin's heart sank.

He knew that tonight, he was in big trouble.

The strength of this Xuan Yin Refined Corpse has far exceeded his expectations.

To break the formation, we must first get past this obstacle.

But this thing is impervious to swords and spears, and immune to water and fire, unless...

He glanced at the chest of the corpse being refined, where a faint yet pure dragon aura was emanating.

That's... the residual dragon energy of a prince from the previous dynasty!

Dragon energy corrupted by evil magic!

Unless, with even more powerful true dragon energy, it is forcibly purified!

But such consumption would be enormous!

A resolute glint flashed in Chu Chongjin's eyes.

Today, no matter what, we must destroy this place!

He took a deep breath, no longer holding back, and all the true dragon energy in his body began to converge wildly towards his right hand.