Elder Guiche chanted incantations, reciting obscure spells. The black-green bamboo scroll he had been holding in his right hand slowly opened.
The bamboo slip had a total of twelve pieces, with many cracks on the edges, looking extremely dilapidated.
However, as the magic was activated and spiritual power struck it, many blood-red characters the size of tadpoles appeared on the bamboo slip, as well as dark black mysterious spiritual patterns.
Those small blood-red characters transformed into spiritual light, floating in mid-air and constantly changing. Neither Hundred Souls True Man nor the two early-stage Nascent Soul elders recognized these characters.
They looked like some kind of inscription. As the red characters appeared, the three felt as if something was staring at them.
The gray-robed elder shuddered and muttered, "This is that half-scroll, the Nine Nether Dark Bamboo Ghost Control Manual."
Elder Guiche was casting a spell and did not answer. Hundred Souls True Man said with a flickering gaze, "That's right, this half-scroll of the Dark Bamboo Scripture is the treasure that my sect's ninth Grand Elder, Old Ancestor Ghost Realm, desperately transmitted back using secret techniques ten thousand years ago. The Ten Directions Ghost Seal in the young master's hands was also transmitted back at the same time.
This item is inherently a spiritual treasure, and not an ordinary spiritual treasure. If we couldn't recognize the ghost script on it and didn't understand the method of driving it, my Ghost King Sect could dominate the Northern Plains cultivation world just by relying on this treasure alone."
"However, after continuous research by my sect's predecessors, we have also researched some methods of driving it. Although it can't exert its full power, in Senior Brother's hands, it is definitely no weaker than my sect's Ghost King Banner."
"Hehe, Senior Brother knows so much. Is it true what the Sect Leader said before, that there is a corpse of the Underworld King here?" The gray-robed elder's eyes flickered a few times, as if he had thought of something, and he also asked.
"Since the Sect Leader said so, it is certain. Our biggest goal is that corpse of the Underworld King. Legend has it that the Underworld King was a great demon ghost of the Netherworld. A little of his ghost blood can be easily refined into a Heavenly Ghost Body, and even transform into a true demon ghost, greatly increasing our strength." Hundred Souls True Man licked his lips, looking somewhat excited.
The wailing laughter of ghosts entered their ears.
The ten pillars behind them, carved with evil ghosts, suddenly trembled.
Elder Guiche's image also became somewhat strange at this time, floating in mid-air, his white hair dancing wildly, and many blood-red inscriptions appeared on his face. His originally golden eyes also turned gray-white without pupils.
He was still chanting some incomprehensible spells.
After a long while, Elder Guiche suddenly spat out a ball of essence blood, which turned into a blood-colored ghost head and merged into the black-green bamboo slip.
The entire bamboo slip floated in the air, and the blood-red inscriptions on it intertwined and transformed into a series of blood-colored spiritual patterns, dancing around like a butterfly.
After a while, the blood-colored spiritual patterns merged into the ten evil ghost pillars.
Two of the pillars reacted even more strongly. Two of the pillars seemed to melt, turning into two balls of black wind, circling around Elder Guiche twice.
They split left and right, pouncing on the corpses of the thirty Golden Core cultivators who had been killed on the ground. In the blink of an eye, they devoured the corpses completely. Even the remnants of souls floating out of the corpses were not spared.
Those remnants of souls were the souls of these people. Hundred Souls True Man and the other two elders had deliberately left their souls behind when they attacked.
The wailing wind sounded around them, and two balls of ink-black Yin wind quickly rolled in the air, like two cyclones.
As the cackling of ghosts sounded from inside, the two balls of Yin wind gathered into two evil ghosts.
One evil ghost had a scarlet bull's head, holding a white bone fork in his hand. It looked like a bull demon, but it had three emerald green ghost eyes. Especially the ghost eye in the center of its forehead occupied half of its ghost face, emitting a strange light.
The other evil ghost was even more bizarre, ten zhang tall, wearing bone armor, with thick hands and feet like a giant, but with a square head, a strangely long neck, and a black horse face, holding a bronze bell in one hand and a red giant snake coiled around the other arm.
The bull-headed ghost and the horse-faced ghost seemed to be dissatisfied, and their gazes fell on Hundred Souls True Man and the other two elders. The bull-headed ghost shook the bone fork in his hand and directly forked it towards Hundred Souls True Man.
The speed was extremely fast. Hundred Souls True Man's face changed, and he quickly sacrificed a white bone shield, and his figure retreated sharply, dodging this attack.
The white bone fork slammed into the ground with a clang, and the ground shook violently. It could be seen that the power of this attack was extraordinary.
"Humph."
Elder Guiche snorted coldly, and the black-green bamboo slip rustled and rotated, shooting out two rays of blood, which merged into the heads of the two evil ghosts.
The two evil ghosts seemed to have suffered a heavy blow, screaming miserably. Only then did they become honest.
"Go."
Elder Guiche pointed at the round platform in front, and the two evil ghosts transformed back into two balls of Yin wind, floating on the round platform.
"Junior Brother Hundred Souls, it's time to take out the evil cloud refined from a million living souls." Elder Guiche's gaze swept towards Hundred Souls True Man, and he said expressionlessly.
His voice was different from before, becoming somewhat eerie and ethereal.
Hundred Souls True Man had just recovered from the attack, his face was somewhat unsightly, but he did not dare to neglect and nodded, and took out the blood-red large jar that he had taken out before.
He slapped it with his palm, and the large jar fell to the ground. A stream of Yin wind rushed out from inside, mixed with many figures that were either crying or laughing, or brandishing their claws and teeth, or disheveled.
A terrifying ghost laughter enveloped the entire space.
The evil cloud was not an ordinary material. It was an evil object that could only be refined by collecting the souls of at least a million living beings.
If this group of evil clouds were placed outside, it would immediately attract thunder tribulation.
Countless ghost shadows filled the surroundings, all of them terrifying fierce souls and violent spirits. Hundred Souls True Man and the gray-robed elder also retreated to the corner early.
Even a Nascent Soul cultivator trapped in it would be devoured by ten thousand ghosts.
Only Elder Guiche, expressionless, cast the spell again. The black-green bamboo scroll flashed with emerald green spiritual light, absorbing countless ghost shadows.
Then, the bamboo slip turned pitch black.
The inscriptions displayed on it also all turned into another kind of crooked inscription.
Under Elder Guiche's control, these black inscriptions transformed into dense runes, drifting to the round platform in front. The entire round platform was dyed ink black. This scene lasted for an unknown amount of time.
Until a certain moment, the black round platform seemed to disappear, turning into a huge black hole, from which more Yin wind blew out.
A rustling sound of chains came from it, and the bull-headed ghost and the horse-faced ghost dragged a huge dark red bone out of it.
Chains were wrapped around the bone. Upon closer inspection, this bone seemed to be a human foot bone. It was very huge and dark red in color.
The two evil ghosts dragged it out with great effort, revealing the leg bones behind the foot bones, as well as some pieces of cloth, iron armor and other clothing.
After a while, a shriveled giant corpse was dragged out.
Hundred Souls True Man and the other two elders looked at the corpse. Although their eyes revealed a look of greed, their faces were somewhat pale at this moment.
Because they could sense an astonishing aura coming from this corpse, making it difficult to approach.
Elder Guiche's face also became solemn.
...
Zhang Ling and others did not know that someone had already gone up to the top of the mountain and was acting secretly.
They had already reached a height of 40,000 zhang at this moment. They had not encountered any danger along the way.
However, the higher they went, the surrounding black ghost mist weakened a lot.
It was not accurate to say that it weakened, it was more like it had settled on the ground, only floating three or four chi above the ground.
At the same time, the feeling of coldness became more intense.
The Golden Core disciples of the Ghost King Sect all had pale faces, and they all sacrificed defensive measures to resist the invasion of Yin Qi.
Zhang Ling and other Nascent Soul cultivators were also affected to some extent, and more or less showed spiritual power shields.
"Everyone, there is a patch of Ghost Crying Vines ahead, we must rush through quickly." At this time, Sect Leader Yan, who was leading the way, said without turning his head.
The others flashed a black light in their hands and sacrificed the Ghost King Banner. A blue-faced, fanged evil ghost emerged from the banner surface, opened its mouth and spewed out a large cloud of blue Yin wind, wrapping the Golden Core disciples. It turned into a cloud of Yin wind and quickly flew forward.
There was no intention of waiting for everyone.
Old Demon Hundred Flowers frowned and increased her speed by three points, following closely behind. Elder Qin, Zhang Ling and others closely followed behind.
"Do these people from the Ghost King Sect want to get rid of us?"
Some old monsters cursed a few words of wild abuse with dissatisfaction.
"Follow up."
In the rear, High Priest Luo Ming's escape speed also suddenly increased a lot with an expressionless face. The alien demons such as Dongfang Ya and the ugly youth also accelerated their escape speed.
After flying for several miles.
Zhang Ling's divine sense suddenly sensed that many strange blue giant cocoons had appeared on the mountain rocks and land ahead. There were many of them, not only on the ground, but also on the nearby cliffs.
The small giant cocoons were all about ten zhang in size, and some of the large ones even exceeded ten zhang. Large and small green cocoons were scattered in front of them like green giant eggs.
As soon as the Ghost King Sect cultivators flew over the green giant cocoons, they immediately heard the sound of popping continuously. The green giant cocoons unfolded like flower buds, and faint blue-green flames flickered inside, which were actually groups of ghost fire.
Although it looked like only low-level white bone Yin fire, the Yin fire swayed and shot out countless long strips. Those were thick gray-black vines.
Many vines hit the Yin wind of the Ghost King Sect, only making a series of popping sounds, and could not cause any damage.
Instead, countless gray-white bone claws condensed in the Yin wind, tearing the vines apart.
The Nascent Soul elders of the Ghost King Sect used their methods to quickly absorb the Yin fire in the giant cocoons.
For ghost cultivators, although the rank of these Yin fires is low, collecting hundreds of thousands of Yin fires can also create considerable magical powers.
Somewhat strangely, after the vines shot out by the green giant cocoons were cut off, the giant cocoons also made infant-like cries, and instantly shrank back into the soil and stones.
This kind of ghost vine seemed to have consciousness. Many people's eyes showed surprised expressions.
Zhang Ling saw at this moment that the ghost-faced youth who had fought with him also propped up a red umbrella. A scarlet little boy appeared, smiling and giggling, and swallowed several groups of Yin fire into his belly.
In the blink of an eye, dozens of groups of Yin fire were swallowed. The green giant cocoon could not shrink back to the ground in time, and the Yin fire inside was swallowed.
After the Yin fire was swallowed, the green giant cocoon seemed to be incinerated, turning into black ashes on the ground. It truly died.
The sound of whistling through the air sounded, and three thick gray vines wrapped around him.
Zhang Ling waved his hand without even looking, and a sword light instantly cut the three vines into pieces.
At the same time, a black small banner appeared in his hand. The Yin Soul Banner shook gently, and a black wind floated out, rolled down, and sucked the three groups of Yin fire into it.
From his senses, these Ghost Crying Vines also had some power, not weaker than the second or third-order demon vines. They seemed to be gregarious. Each attack was no weaker than an attack from a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
The other old monsters also took action one after another, beheading these Ghost Crying Vines that blocked their way.
If a Golden Core cultivator broke into this place, it would be difficult to escape. However, they were a group of Nascent Soul cultivators, and they broke through it barbarously.
The crowd did not stop, and after traveling for about twenty or thirty miles in this way, the number of Ghost Crying Vines decreased a lot.
However, the green cocoons that could be seen became larger and larger, and the attack power of the vines shot out increased several times.
However, for everyone, it only caused a little trouble at most. It was impossible to stop this group of people.
After traveling for more than ten miles, these green giant cocoons were basically invisible.
Everyone thought that they had walked out of this area, but after passing through a broken cliff area, a huge mountain crack appeared in front of them, hundreds of zhang wide at a glance, forming a large rift valley, with a cloud of red mist floating inside.
"There seem to be a few big guys below, hehe..." The leading Ghost King Sect cultivator stopped, and Sect Leader Yan's laughter came from the Yin wind.
This Sect Leader Yan revealed his figure and turned into a green light and rushed into the canyon.
The Ghost Mother, the ghost-faced youth, and other Nascent Soul cultivators of the Ghost King Sect followed down unceremoniously.
"Could there be some treasure below? We can't let these people get there first. I'll go down and take a look too."
Elder Tian's eyes flickered, and he also turned into a light and rushed down. Not only Elder Tian, but also seven or eight cultivators rushed into the red mist faster.
"Junior Brother, let's go down and take a look too, but be careful in everything." Not far away, Old Ancestor Tianfeng turned his head and smiled at Zhang Ling. He followed behind the Fire Spirit Old Man and rushed down.
Zhang Ling also fell behind. Xuan Turtle naturally followed beside him.
Just now at the foot of the mountain, he also introduced Xuan Turtle's identity to Senior Brother Tianfeng. Naturally, he said that he was a demon clan friend he had met occasionally.
His senior brother was a little surprised by this, but he didn't ask much. Instead, he exchanged a lot of cultivation experience with Xuan Turtle.
On their side, nearly twenty Nascent Soul old monsters gathered. Zhang Ling basically knew them all.
Most of these people belonged to the original forces near Yixia City. Before in Baichuan City, he had followed his senior brother and these people to hold several pre-war meetings.
There were also Elder Tian, Old Man Huo, and the members of this nine-man team.
Of course, there were also some old monsters who did not gather.
The old man Yin Guang who was proficient in formations, Wei Daoyou who had good hidden methods, and the old Taoist Ziyun, Elder Sima who originally belonged to Yixia City.
None of these people were able to make it.
