"That is..."
"The soul-binding chains given by the ghost messengers."
Ruan Bei looked at the Yinming Ghost King, whose expression had cracked after being suddenly bound, and couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth.
Of course, he hadn't forgotten about the chain. When the ghost messenger gave him the chain, he said that no ghost could escape it.
Key point: ghosts.
The Underworld Ghost King is indeed a ghost, but he previously had a human body inside Lu Sibai's body, so whether that chain is still effective is another matter.
Furthermore, no matter how powerful a magical artifact is, it depends on the user. It's not like giving a novice a magical artifact will make them a god.
Of course, Ruan Bei was no pushover, but he couldn't hold off the Yinming Ghost King.
If he were alone, he would most likely throw out the Soul-Binding Chains and then be dragged away by the Underworld Ghost King.
But now things are different. He tossed the other end of the chain to his senior brother, saying, "If the King of the Underworld has the guts, then drag his senior brother away."
There was no way to drag it away. Xuan Ningcheng was stunned for a moment after receiving the Soul-Binding Chain, and then without saying a word, he wrapped one end of the chain around his wrist and tied it tightly.
That wasn't all; he also told the person next to him, "Hold on tight to me."
The King of the Underworld: "..."
You humans are truly despicable!
I'll fight you to the death!
The Soul-Binding Chains are truly a product of the Underworld; they're experts at dealing with ghosts. Once the King of the Underworld was bound, not only could he not escape, but his limbs were also somewhat restricted.
This constraint doesn't mean he can't stretch his arms out—the Ghost King's body is composed of Yin energy, which is even more effective than bone-shrinking techniques—but rather that it makes it a little difficult for his ghostly body to grow larger at will.
It's not that it can't be changed at all, it's just that it went from being able to make things as big or small as you wanted to be incredibly smooth to being extremely choppy.
So when the King of the Underworld realized he couldn't escape, he tried to grow into a larger ghost form to fight again, but he found that he was stuck and couldn't move. He was so angry that his nostrils were filled with yin energy, and he wished he could kill Ruan Bei with his eyes.
Xuan Ningcheng didn't care whether he was in good condition or not. He took advantage of his illness to kill him. He tied the Soul-Binding Chain to his wrist, so the Ghost King couldn't escape and could only stay here to be beaten.
It can't be said that he was attacked unilaterally. The Ghost King's combat power was there, and the Soul-Binding Chains only prevented him from escaping.
His current situation is similar to that of Ruan Bei and Qin Gu not long ago. Defeat is only a matter of time. However, Ruan Bei and Qin Gu had reinforcements. He secretly came to possess their bodies without telling any of his ghost generals.
According to his original plan, he didn't even need to show his face. He just needed to wait for Zou Na to sacrifice Lu Sibai, who had undergone eye transplant, to him. Who knew that she was so useless and caused so many problems, which led him to end up in such a predicament.
Overwhelmed with grief, the King of the Underworld felt like one of those tragic figures from ancient texts, dying before achieving his goal and dying unjustly.
"You despicable humans, if you have the guts, fight me one-on-one! Whoever defeats me will be captured!"
"Hurry up and attack! Don't hesitate or hold back!" Xuan Ningcheng urged expressionlessly.
"Don't listen to his nonsense. Back when he led his ghost generals and big ghosts to cause trouble and bully us because we were outnumbered, he didn't try to reason with us at all," the person protecting Ruan Bei told him.
In the early years, they were short-handed, but the Ghost King had an overwhelming number of ghosts under his command. Every time they fought, it was as if they were overwhelmed by ghosts.
The King of the Underworld: "...This is outrageous!"
"You're not even human." Ruan Bei muttered under his breath. He hated this Yinming Ghost King to death. He was causing trouble behind the scenes and even tried to kill Kunkun just now. If he hadn't been injured and exhausted, he would have rushed up and fought him with his senior brother.
The battle that followed was intense, but there's not much to say about it. The Yinming Ghost King couldn't escape; once it floated up, it was like a kite, being led by Xuan Ningcheng.
The people Xuan Ningcheng brought were all quite powerful in combat, and the array masters also cooperated actively, with various auxiliary arrays appearing one after another. The group coordinated their attacks like fighting a boss, and the ghost body of the Yinming Ghost King was beaten smaller and smaller, and its figure became thinner and thinner.
He tried several times to unleash his full power and fight back desperately, but those soul-binding chains were too difficult to break.
But he was indeed resilient. Xuan Ningcheng later divided the team into two squads, taking turns fighting while the other squad rested, clearly intending to wear down the Yinming Ghost King.
After Ruan Bei and Qin Gu's spiritual energy recovered somewhat, they hid behind the crowd and threw lightning spells at him to vent their anger.
They fought until the second batch of men they had called arrived. By then, the Yinming Ghost King's ghostly form was only five or six meters long, and its shape was no longer as solid as a real person's as before. Instead, it appeared somewhat transparent.
By the end, no one else could see him anymore; just like sensing other ghosts, they could only sense a cluster of yin energy.
However, he is bound by a soul-binding chain, so whether you can see him clearly or not will not affect your output. Just aim for the end of the chain.
Only Ruan Bei remained focused on him. He needed to see the Yinming Ghost King destroyed with his own eyes before he could feel at ease. How many evil deeds had that ghost done while hiding behind the scenes?
As he watched, he grew smaller and smaller, more and more transparent. Ruan Bei knew that this was because he had consumed too much Yin energy and could not recover, and his ghost body had been damaged.
Just as the Yinming Ghost King was about to be completely reduced to ashes, Ruan Bei suddenly realized something was wrong. At this critical moment, the Yinming Ghost King was actually releasing Yin energy tentacles to poke around everywhere, and even floating over to things it couldn't reach.
His expression hardened, and he shouted, "Senior brother, he's breaking the formation!"
Before he started to escape, he released his yin energy tentacles and moved around in this way.
"Break the formation?" Xuan Ningcheng was taken aback. He couldn't run away, so what was the use of breaking the formation?
"Oh no, there's another formation inside this one!" a formation master exclaimed.
"What formation?" Xuan Ningcheng asked.
"I don't know." The array master looked annoyed. They had been fighting the Ghost King since they came in, so who had the mind to check the array?
"Hahahaha, let's die together!" The Yinming Ghost King's actions were exposed, but he didn't care at all. His figure had become so transparent that Ruan Bei could hardly see it.
"Leave him here to ask..."
Before Xuan Ningcheng could finish speaking, the two spells he hadn't had time to stop struck the Yinming Ghost King. One spell directly shattered his soul, causing him to vanish completely, while the other spell missed its mark.
Thus, the Ghost King fell.
The Taoist priest who accidentally killed him didn't have time to be happy. He awkwardly withdrew his hand and looked at Xuan Ningcheng. Xuan Ningcheng shook his head to show that he was alright. Just as he was about to say a few words to comfort everyone, the ground suddenly shook violently.
Ruan Bei quickly grabbed Qin Gu's hand, and Qin Gu did the same, pulling him back as well. Most of the others were also supporting each other.
Xuan Ningcheng asked the formation master, "What's going on?"
The array masters were sweating profusely with anxiety; they could barely stand, let alone check the array.
A Taoist priest grabbed Zou Na, pressed her down, and asked, "Tell me, what happened!"
She, Luo Zikun, and Lu Sibai were, of course, already under control.
Lu Sibai is still alive. During the previous check-up, he was still breathing and had a heartbeat, but he hadn't woken up. His wounds were simply bandaged. He wasn't dead, but his condition was bad.
Zou Na kept her head down and didn't speak. Ever since Xuan Ningcheng and the others came in and she learned that the plan had failed, she had this expression, as if she didn't care about anything.
The ground shook violently, and the earth cracked open. One unlucky man suddenly found a crack under his feet and almost fell in. Luckily, someone nearby grabbed him and pulled him to the edge of the crack. The others then pulled them up together.
Xuan Ningcheng asked anxiously, "Uncle-Master, what exactly is going on? You don't want us all to die together, do you?!"
Luo Zikun said with a pale face, "I don't know, I really don't know. Zou Na told me about this formation. I only broke through the first few layers. I know there is a trapping formation inside. I really don't know what's going on."
Their original plan was to trap Qin Gu in the next layer of the formation. With him in their hands, Xuanqing Temple, the Special Affairs Bureau, and the Qin family would all be hesitant to act rashly for the time being.
"you……"
"Ah—" The earth split open from the middle, the opening was so big that even if they helped each other, it was no use, and they all fell in together.
The remaining people began to scatter and flee, but it was no use. The cracks multiplied, and they couldn't escape at all. In the end, they all fell through.
The tremors continued for a while, then gradually subsided. After a while, the cracks began to heal and eventually returned to their original state, but all the people on them were gone.
Underground, Ruan Bei rolled around in the mud, spat out a clump of mud, and kept spitting out "Pui pui pui" in disgust.
He was halfway through spitting when he realized something was wrong and hurriedly sat up: "Sleepyhead?"
“This…” A muffled groan came from beneath him. Ruan Bei quickly pulled him down, shoveling mud with his hands, and finally dug Qin Gu out of the mud pit.
"Are you alright?" Ruan Bei asked worriedly.
"It's alright." Qin Gu rubbed his chest. Apart from the injuries he sustained during the battle with the Yinming Ghost King, he was not injured in any other way after the fall.
"Where is this? Where is everyone else?" Ruan Bei muttered, not expecting Qin Gu to answer him. After all, he was the one who dug Qin Gu out. He then proceeded to look around on his own.
They were now in a dark place, without light, but not so dark that they couldn't see anything.
This might seem contradictory, but if I had to describe it, it would be something like a cloudy evening.
They were beneath something resembling silt, and he wasn't sure how deep it was, but he felt it was quite deep; they hadn't reached the bottom yet.
Strangely, they stood there without sinking; they remained standing with their waists and hips in the mud and their upper bodies exposed.
"Something's strange," Qin Gu said after looking around.
"What do you mean?" Ruan Bei felt like she saw a figure, and asked as she pulled Qin Gu along with difficulty, trying to find a way out.
“Look at us, we just rolled around in the mud, and we're not even covered in mud.”
Ruan Bei stopped and looked down. Sure enough, he wasn't exactly clean. He had been beaten by the Yinming Ghost King and rolled around on the ground, covered in dust. But none of this seemingly wet mud had gotten on him.
"Xiao Bei? Kun Kun?"
"Senior Brother, it's us!" Ruan Bei waved happily in that direction. Although the mud didn't stick to his clothes or body, it was still quite difficult to walk in it.
They trekked across with great difficulty and met up with their senior brother, who was followed by many people. Fortunately, no one has been found to have died in the fall.
Some of those who were previously injured were being helped up by their uninjured companions.
"Senior brother, do you know where this is?" Ruan Bei asked.
Xuan Ningcheng shook his head: "We don't know either. Don't be afraid. Let's find someone first, and check the situation as we go."
With everyone together and Kunkun by her side, Ruan Bei was no longer afraid. She excitedly whispered to Xuan Ningcheng, "I have lots of food in my spatial ring."
He's preparing for a long-term war.
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