Chapter 125 Gathering of Ghost Soldiers
The location of the mysterious magic array in the great battle between Lou Lan and the Ghost King has always been isolated by the Ghost Owl Domain, making it undetectable by divine sense. If any villagers accidentally wander into the outer perimeter, they will be immediately teleported away; this is a common phenomenon known as being trapped in a ghost wall.
However, the Ghost King broke the domain, and Lou Lan was seriously injured, so she was unable to maintain the domain, and the place was exposed.
Shinju led his army of ghost soldiers and entered without encountering any obstacles.
The next moment—
"...What is this?!" Everyone looked horrified.
What lay before them was a scene of mountains of corpses and seas of blood! Such a horrific sight would likely leave a deep and indelible mark of cruelty even in the blood-soaked world of cultivation.
Fortunately, it was pitch black all around, so dark that no one could see their own hand in front of their face, and no villagers noticed anything unusual. Only the ghost soldiers, with their normal night vision, were able to see the whole scene. The stench of blood that had made Shinju almost vomit still lingered, refusing to dissipate.
"How many people have died...?" Even the ghost soldiers, who were used to seeing life and death, were horrified.
Ghost soldiers attempted to piece together the corpses, but before they could even assemble a complete body, they collapsed. It was an impossible task; the destruction was too utter, leaving only fragments and ruins. Even if a headcount were managed to be determined, it would be meaningless, as most bodies were unrecognizable, making it impossible to match them with the victims of the lost souls.
More than any of these things, Shinjuku was concerned about the magic circle. If he could figure out its purpose…
Fortunately, there was someone who understood. The horse-faced demon rose into the air, surveyed the entire situation, and then landed a moment later, stating his judgment: "It is an eight-ring formation."
Upon hearing this, Ox-Head and Black-White Impermanence immediately turned their gazes to him and said in unison, "The art of resurrection!"
As the foremost of the ten forbidden arts, the art of resurrection is said to be able to restore a soulless corpse to its original soul and body. However, this is absolutely impossible, as a soul annihilated between heaven and earth can never be recalled. But precisely because it is considered a non-existent and impossible feat against the heavens, it is listed as the most terrifying forbidden art, without exception.
Lou Lan originally intended to use him as bait to lure the Poison King into becoming the source of evil energy for the magic array, sacrificing mountains of corpses and seas of blood to perform the resurrection technique?! Zhen Su's brows furrowed solemnly, his gaze passing over the magic array and reaching into the distance, where Lou Lan, whose whereabouts were unknown, appeared in his secondary purple mansion.
Whom does she want to resurrect?
The focus in Zhen Su's memory skipped over Lou Lan, the group of female cultivators whose identities were questionable, the old monster dressed in brocade but not treated as a human being, the cave woman, the gravedigger, and a group of villagers with indistinct faces... He couldn't find the most suspicious target, but with a backtracking, the focus returned to Lou Lan... the bundle he always held in his arms.
"..." Although there was a lack of evidence, Shinju's heart suddenly raced, and he had a feeling that he might have grasped the core clue!
Ultimately, only Shinju has seen Lou Lan so far, and few would believe his words as evidence. Just as Shinju was considering how to guide them to find Lou Lan, the elite Yin soldiers with bird-beaked heads suddenly began to perform a mysterious dance.
Shinjuku couldn't help but ask, "What are they doing...?"
Bai Wuchang glanced at Zhen Su's ears, which were twitching back and forth, and said, "Nuowu is performing a soul-tracing ritual."
"Tracing the Soul?" Zhen Su seemed to understand but not quite, and the reddish-brown ear hairs in the middle of his frost-colored face twitched in the direction of Bai Wuchang.
Bai Wuchang suppressed the urge to grab them, abruptly shifting his gaze and looking straight ahead, saying, "It's about communicating with spirits. Communicating with the spirits around their places of death to see if any know the inside story. Hui Wenting's people are the best at this." That's why they were included in both of these missions.
As Shinjuku watched, his large tail began to sway gently. The Nuo dance, which at first glance seemed mystical, actually captivated Shinjuku with its wondrous rhythmic beauty and ingenious techniques, a sight he rarely sought out for amusement.
The large tail gradually began to move more freely, curling and swaying, its movements becoming increasingly violent. Even the Black Impermanence, still lost in thought, noticed it and felt an itch in his palms. However, before he could reach out, he felt the sharp, piercing gaze of the White Impermanence on the other side, and ultimately did not make a move.
The Nuo dance has stopped.
A mirror-like stone wall rises from the ground, and the mirror-like surface gradually reveals a picture.
At the center of the scene is a row of densely packed cages, each containing a person. Judging from their clothing, they are all dressed in fine clothes. Even though they are confined to such cramped cages, their backs are not bent, but straight, with only their heads slightly lowered. Looking at their appearance, one can see that there are men, women, young and old, with very similar faces and a harmonious temperament, suggesting that they are from the same family, or at the very least, they share some kind of kinship.
The Black and White Impermanence had seen the faces of the 180 people who had lost their souls in Yilian Village, so they immediately recognized them as members of the landlord family among the missing villagers of Yilian Village.
Before long, several beautiful figures appeared in front of the cage. Zhen Su knew at a glance that they were female cultivators under Lou Lan's command.
What happened next was completely unexpected—with swift and decisive strokes, not a single female cultivator showed the slightest emotion or reluctance; they all executed the sixty or seventy people present without any hesitation.
But Shinjuku and the others knew that it probably wouldn't end like this, so they all unconsciously held their breath.
The scenes that followed were even more horrific.
Just like venting their anger, this group of well-dressed and respectable people, regardless of age or gender, were dragged out of the cage and pulled into the magic array. Various sharp weapons fell down, crushing skulls, spines, and even legs. In the end, no complete human body could be found on the magic array, not even half a body.
The agonizing screams were incessant. The back, forced to bend, was reduced to a bare spine lying on the ground; the owner of the body was long gone, his head and body nowhere to be found.
All the ghostly soldiers fell silent, their hearts feeling as if a thousand-pound weight was pressing down on them.
Shinjuku wanted to close his eyes, but he knew this was not the time to run away. Sweat beaded on his forehead, but Shinjuku kept his golden eyes wide open, trying to find a useful clue in the hellish drawing.
Until the female cultivators indifferently withdrew, everything seemed to be a foregone conclusion, after all, the ending had already been foreseen.
However, just as they thought the scene was about to end, several pieces of flesh on the ground suddenly sprouted fleshy hands and feet, and their joints opened up huge mouths full of shark teeth, which swiftly attacked the female cultivators.
The scene shifts, and Ox-Head and Horse-Face are the first to sense something is wrong. They immediately grit their teeth and utter a trembling voice: "They are man-eating demons!! They are not ordinary people at all!"
No wonder they were torn apart like this! Yet even so, the cannibals with their amazing regenerative abilities still had a chance to retaliate.
It was only then that Shinju belatedly realized he had connected them with those two hungry, ghost-like old monsters, and he was utterly astonished.
But the next moment, instead of the scene of the female cultivators being severely injured, the man-eating demon's gaping maw passed right through them.
"No physical form?!" Everyone could see that.
"It's a ghost," White Impermanence asserted.
“Ghosts…” Shinju murmured, “Could they be the souls of the Cave Maidens after their deaths?” Then who used insects to reshape their bodies and replace their missing true forms?
The Black and White Impermanence, standing on either side of Zhenxiu, clearly heard his words. They couldn't help but think of the insect puppet women in the cave, and their expressions became even more solemn.
What they saw next made their faces turn pale.
Later, Ghost Owl Lou Lan personally took action. A malevolent aura surged down from the sky like a tidal wave, smashing all the man-eating demons into pieces. They were then immobilized on the magic array by countless soul-fixing needles, utterly dead. The entire process took less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
The Soul-Hooking Division had initially assumed that the Ghost King was their most urgent and crucial enemy, thus underestimating the Ghost Owl. However, after this ordeal, who would dare to ignore the Ghost Owl's existence? Its actions were truly heinous, perhaps even more dangerous than the Ghost King.
At the same time, some things seemed to become clearer, but as more clues appeared, the whole case seemed to become even more perplexing than before.
"This is really troublesome," everyone sighed.
.
Severely injured, Lou Lan hid in an empty cave, barely managing to activate his Ghost Owl Domain. The surviving female cultivators rushed to his aid.
"Lord..." The wound was so deep that the bone was visible, and the female cultivators were on the verge of tears just looking at it.
"Leave the young master to us." A female cultivator reached out her hand to the bundle in Lou Lan's arms.
Unexpectedly, Lou Lan blocked her hand. Even though black blood was gushing from her armpits to her waist and hips and she couldn't stop it, she still didn't loosen her grip and held on tightly. Her eyes were fixed on the bundle in her arms. She said, "No need, don't touch him. Liu Kui, go and count how many animals are left inside."
“My lord, the young master cannot withstand so much overflowing evil energy. I will place him aside so you can see him at a glance,” Liu Kui insisted, his face showing disapproval.
Under Liu Kui's persistent pleading, the weakened Lou Lan struggled for a moment before finally letting go of her child for the first time. She cut off the flesh from her arm that was sewn to the bundle, but didn't utter a sound. She just stared intently as Liu Kui placed the bundle into a winnowing basket lined with soft cloth, not blinking an eye, afraid of making the slightest mistake.
After settling the young master in, Liu Kui turned to Lou Lan and gave him a sweet smile.
Lou Lan's expression softened, and she finally relaxed.
Taking advantage of her errand, Liu Kui turned back, her gaze falling on the bundle. A hint of guilt flickered in her eyes, but it vanished in an instant, replaced by a subtle excitement and elation. Then, a teleportation talisman peeked out from her sleeve.
.
As the sun rose, the stolen night finally ended, and Shinju followed the main force back to the Soul Reaper's Office.
He looked down at the Yin Soldier Talisman in his hand, and couldn't help but worry about the Poison King. He was suddenly summoned away, and he wondered if the Poison King would mistakenly think that he had left without saying goodbye and had run away again.
He still had a lot to say to the other person.
While Zhen Su was filled with worry and stayed at the Soul Reaper's Division to assist the Black and White Impermanence in writing documents, two unfamiliar faces arrived at the Earthly Fiends' compound. Mr. Bai specially went to the gate to greet them.
A man with a feather fan collar and crimson hair that floated upwards like flames or waves, exuding an air of arrogance, strode into the main hall first, his phoenix-patterned robe swaying like white waves. He was escorted up to the third floor by Xue Liqianmo, who performed a kowtow.
The one slightly behind was entirely black, his high collar billowing like mist, his trailing cloak seemingly both real and ethereal. His figure was shrouded in black, making it impossible to discern his exact form, but his height was extraordinary, his head almost reaching the lintel. His aura was terrifying, but most frightening were his pupil-less red eyes, so sinister that no one dared to look directly at them. However, he didn't even glance at the two courtesans who were deliberately exposing their thighs and buttocks and secretly observing him, and calmly ascended to the third floor.
-----------------------
Author's note: Qingbao's man is back again.
Because this chapter is a day late, I will update as usual tomorrow.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
