"The Evil Cult Statue senses a threat?"
The tall, cloaked figure said with a frown.
They only had the bird’s-eye view from the Blood Moon and couldn’t see the battlefield in detail. Therefore, they were unaware that Zhao Xuanqi and his team of four others had already secretly broken away from the main group and infiltrated the area around the Huang Mansion.
"I see now. Hahahaha, interesting. How very interesting."
Suddenly, the cloaked figure with the child’s voice let out a youthful laugh, tinged with mockery.
He had already figured out what was happening.
"Those little brats must have split off into a small team and infiltrated the area near the Huang Mansion. They’re probably planning to attack the source of the Evil Cultivation when the final Night Parade of Hundred Demons begins. They want to force it to open the Ghost Gate, lightening the pressure on everyone else and giving them a chance to survive."
"I must admit, it’s an interesting plan, but far too naive. I was worried they might just get lucky and escape the fourth Night Parade of Hundred Demons. I never thought they’d walk right into a trap!"
"As if the source of the Evil Cultivation would be that easy to handle. This time, they’re just asking to die!"
The cloaked figure with the child’s voice sneered.
「Within the Ghost City.」
The crowd was silent, unaware of the strange developments within the Huang Mansion.
Although only half an hour had passed, it felt agonizingly long.
Every second of the wait was torture.
Slowly, the Blood Moon climbed toward its zenith.
"It’s time."
Just then, Zhuang Li’s deep voice rang out.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Instantly, everyone sprang into action. They forced blood from their fingertips and quickly drew Technique patterns onto their bodies.
BOOM!!
Bursts of multicolored Primordial Qi erupted from them.
The jade light of the Rebirth Palace, the red glow of the Red General, the cyan radiance of Miaoyin Hall, and the spectral glimmer of the Five Elements Gang’s Escape Technique.
And...
...the Golden Fire light of the Red Heart Sect!
CRACK! CRACKLE!
Zhao Xuanqi’s body began to rapidly transform. He held nothing back, stacking the Dragon Gate Secret Technique with the Profound Water Yin Sha. This Double Secret Technique pushed his Physical Ability to its absolute peak.
"Move out!"
With a low cry from Zhao Xuanqi, the team instantly blurred into motion, leaping over the Huang Mansion’s courtyard wall and passing through the barrier of red light.
But the scene that met their eyes made their hearts sink.
The grounds of the Huang Mansion were covered in strange, blood-red vines. But that wasn’t the main problem. Not far ahead of them stood five Evil Spirits in a fan formation.
The first was tall and covered in coarse red hair, with a green face and sharp fangs. It wore black armor and brandished a large black saber.
The second was a highly decomposed corpse shrouded in a bizarre black mist that gave off an unbearably foul stench.
The third was a grotesque beast, resembling a Tomb Guardian Beast from an ancient crypt. It was enormous, its gaping maw like a bottomless abyss.
The fourth had all manner of rusted weapons plunged deep into its back. In its hand, it clutched a rust-eaten broken blade caked with dried, black blood.
The last one wore shattered armor and wielded two massive warhammers. Beneath its helm, two eyes glowed with a crimson light, radiating a fierce killing intent.
Behind these five unique Evil Spirits, nearly twenty Sword Soldier Ghosts stood in a fan-like formation, completely surrounding them.
And atop a pavilion deep within the Huang Mansion, a simple, ancient statue resembling a Daoist Mother looked down upon them. The bizarrely benevolent smile on its lips seemed to hold a trace of mockery.
The moment the team vaulted into the Huang Mansion, the Evil Spirits—who seemed to have been lying in wait—erupted into action before they could even land, launching a coordinated attack.
The Red-haired Yaksha slashed, unleashing a black blade of light. The rotting ghoul thrust its arms forward, and the black mist condensed into a pillar that shot toward the team. The Tomb Guardian Beast opened its cavernous maw, compressing a terrifying amount of Yin Qi before firing it out in a beam. On the Demon Ghost impaled with blades, every weapon began to vibrate. Shadows seemed to streak from them, converging on the broken blade in its hand. It slashed out, the Yin Qi manifesting as countless phantom weapons that locked down a huge area. The towering general’s corpse took a single step forward, its twin hammers wreathed in Yin Qi that roiled the very air around them.
’An ambush?!’
’The Evil Spirits in the Huang Mansion had already detected our approach and prepared for us?!’
The team was reeling. The terrifying killing intent and oppressive Yin Qi grated on their nerves. They had never imagined they would be met with such a siege the moment they entered the Huang Mansion.
The abilities of the Ghost City’s source were completely beyond their expectations.
However, despite the surprise, they reacted instantly.
Their Qi and Blood surged and their Techniques activated. But just as they prepared to counterattack, something else went wrong.
Unseen, the shadows they cast on the ground were being ensnared by other shadows shaped like tree branches. This entanglement somehow fed back to their physical bodies, causing their Qi and Blood to stagnate and their muscles to seize up, as if they had been bound by invisible chains.
The source of these branching shadows was an inconspicuous old tree at the edge of the mansion’s grounds.
The tree itself was withered and twisted, looking as if it had been dead for a long time. Yet, the shadow it cast on the ground was enormous and lush with leaves and branches—an utterly bizarre sight.
At the same time, the team members felt their bodies lurch. Still in mid-air, they found it impossible to maintain their balance. The flat ground below seemed to ripple, transforming into a choppy sea where it would be impossible to find a foothold.
In another unremarkable corner of the courtyard stood a deathly pale stone tablet. It was carved with images of various Fierce Ghosts, which now manifested as spectral figures that plunged into the ground, seemingly causing the earth itself to heave.