It was unclear what kind of bizarre constitution that black fluffball possessed, but after being used like an Angry Bird to smash dozens of skeletons, its fur was only slightly dirty. It rolled aside with extreme elasticity, and strangely, the skeletons didn’t attack it.
“Hah!”
The black fluffball stabilized itself and snarled, its fur standing on end.
It immediately jumped onto the shoulder of a nearby skeleton chasing the trio, then leaped nimbly across more than twenty skeleton heads to close the distance with Zongzheng Huangyue.
In the next second, it lunged through the air, landing directly on Zongzheng Huangyue’s head. It extended sharp claws, aiming straight for her neck in a lethal strike.
“Hah!” Die!
Zongzheng Huangyue’s gaze sharpened. She immediately pushed off the ground, performing a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree flip. She threw a punch at the black fluffball while violently jerking her head to the left.
To avoid her attack, the fluffball retracted its claws and hopped off her head, hovering in the air for a brief moment.
That was the opening she needed.
“Bam!”
Landing firmly on her feet, Zongzheng Huangyue executed a spinning roundhouse kick, slamming her foot into its fluffy body and sending it hurtling back toward the swarm of skeletons once more.
“Roar!”
“Boom—”
This strike managed to take out nearly twenty skeletons.
Wen Li took a moment to look back, her eyes widening. “Eh!”
She hadn’t even officially taken the disciple yet, and already Old Four and Old Five were at each other’s throats.
“Hah!!!”
The black fluffball was now thoroughly enraged. The snowy white fur around its eyes was messy and stained with dust as it raced alongside the skeletons, charging toward Zongzheng Huangyue like a madman.
A blood feud had been well and truly established between the two.
“Fuhget about it, fuhget about it. It’s not easy for anyone. Stop fighting, don’t fight!”
Wen Li was just about to try mediating in a weird accent when Wangquan Sheng, who was running in the lead, suddenly skidded to a halt.
“We’re here.”
Wen Li immediately turned her head in the direction he was looking, and her pupils contracted sharply.
“Holy crap, it’s the Ghost Gate.”
They had rounded a massive mountain to find a gargantuan city gate towering before them. Atop it were countless cultivators frozen in the horrific state of their deaths—some had their heads lopped off by swords, some were sliced in half by magical artifacts, and others were being devoured by swarms of parasitic insects.
The causes of death varied, but the faces of the cultivators were all filled with expressions of despair and terror, and they were all staring toward the same place: behind the city gate.
It was clear that these cultivators had been trying to storm the gate before being stopped by something incredibly powerful.
Wangquan Sheng glanced back at the skeletons, which were now only twenty meters away, then looked at Wen Li.
“Quickly! We need to push the gate open together. Spiritual energy doesn't work here, so we have to rely on brute force.”
Wen Li and Zongzheng Huangyue said nothing, immediately stepping forward to join him at the base of the gate, which was so tall its top was nearly out of sight.
The moment the three of them touched the gate, a surge of eerie black energy erupted. Wangquan Sheng called out, “Don’t resist! It’s only judging whether we are cultivators who were slain here.”
Wen Li narrowed her eyes. Seeing that he truly wasn't using any spiritual energy, she pushed forward with all her might.
The black fluffball didn't attack Zongzheng Huangyue this time; instead, it hopped directly onto Wangquan Sheng’s shoulder.
The three of them put their weight into it, their arms trembling with effort, but the gate didn't budge. Wen Li found herself missing her third disciple, the fair-skinned athlete; this was exactly the kind of situation where his strength was needed. She had given him away to someone else far too early.
“Roar!”
The skeletons swarming behind them reached out, screaming in an eager frenzy. They were only five meters away.
Four meters.
Three meters.
One meter.
Half a meter! Just as the white bones were about to touch Wen Li’s shoulder, the city gate suddenly shuddered and began to slowly creak open.
“Boom!”
The three of them instantly vanished from their spot as the gate opened just a crack, letting out a faint beam of green light.
As if they had seen something terrifying, the skeletons shrieked. “Roar!” They tried to stop immediately, but the momentum from the skeletons at the back caused them to crash into each other, forcing the frontmost ones directly into the threshold of the gate.
“Flash!”
“Boom—”
Those skeletons were instantly incinerated by the green light emitting from the gateway, turning into powder in an instant. They drifted into the air and fell to the ground, becoming nothing more than dust in that world.
...
Inside the palace behind the tomb’s city gate.
There was a pond filled with gravestones standing in a chaotic mess. Some were tilted and collapsing, others were covered in moss and weeds, their inscriptions illegible. Most of the gravestones were two-thirds submerged in the pond's glowing green water.
Lotus flowers actually grew in this tomb’s pond, and most striking of all was a brilliantly red Equinox Flower, its slender petals blooming in an elegant, garlic-like cluster, radiating an eerie red glow.
At this moment, a layer of grayish-white mist drifted between the gravestones. Clumps of ghostly green fire flickered within the mist, dimming and brightening like countless peering eyes. They flew toward the team led by the seven members of the royal family who had already entered, darting about like playful children.
“Ah! Master, save me! Save me!”
“Ah! I didn’t do it! I wasn’t the one who killed you! Please let me go! I didn’t mean to steal your spot as an inner disciple! Please, I’ll kowtow to you!”
Dozens of Foundation Establishment disciples were brandishing their weapons in panic, trying to ward off the ghost fires. Little did they know that the moment their magical artifacts touched the ghost fire, the items would ignite. They could only watch as the fires lunged at them, their entire bodies instantly covered in eerie green flames. However, it wasn't their flesh that was burning.
Instead, the deepest terrors and horrors within their souls were being stirred, as an invisible fire began to scorch their divine senses.
They looked as though they were seeing the demons within their own hearts, pleading for mercy in terror.
“Form up! Maintain the formation! Don’t let those ghost fires touch you! Hold your breath, focus your minds, and guard your Dao Hearts! Don’t give them any openings! Luo Yuntian, Helian Zhou, cover me! I’m going to destroy that Equinox Flower in the pond!”
Ouyang Ao, the Third Elder of Danfeng Valley, gave Luo Yuntian a sharp look and herded Gong Xu and eight other disciples into a protective barrier.
“Wangquan Gusui, didn't you say these ghost fires no longer have any resentment to sustain them?”
A woman wearing a veil looked coldly at the man beside her, who was dressed in a dark purple brocade robe. She was Bai Jinshui, the Young Villa Mistress of Huayan Villa.
The man in the purple robe was a descendant of Wangquan Wuho’s lineage and the eldest son of the current Imperial Prince, Wangquan Qihuan. His name was Wangquan Gusui.
He held his sword, watching the disciples of other sects being chased by ghost fires with a cold gaze. “Humph. Who knew that some of your disciples would have such weak wills? They must have done something wicked and have ghosts in their hearts; that’s why the ghost fires can scent their aura and won’t let them go.”
There had been forty-two people when they first entered. After the skeleton chase outside the Ghost Gate, only thirty-eight remained, and now four more had been lost.
Fortunately, he had these disciples from peripheral sects to act as cannon fodder, ensuring that no one in his own team was injured.
Rate on N.U.
