【Festering Calamity】
【Your Ghost Domain can be released away from your body. You can designate an area (up to a hundred miles in radius) to trigger the Festering Calamity.】
【Within the range of the calamity, all living beings not belonging to the Evil God faction will be marked with the Festering Brand, which cannot be dispelled or purified. The brand will continuously devour the target's vitality, spiritual power, and fortune, converting them into the Evil God's death qi and the vitality/death qi of the Evil God faction's subordinates.】
Chen Zhou retracted his Ghost Domain, and the gray-white mist vanished from the passage. Without the obstruction, the ghost hands surged forward in a frenzy.
Sensing the abnormality outside, the Plague Rat, who was just crawling out of Diting's mouth, happened to witness this scene and cried out in terror.
"My Lord, what are you doing?! They're about to grab us!"
Diting curled into a ball, opening its mouth filled with sharp teeth to bite off the hands rushing at the front.
But more surged forward.
Chen Zhou closed his eyes and stripped the Ghost Domain from his body.
It was a strange sensation, as if he were peeling off his own skin and throwing it away.
The moment the Ghost Domain left his body, Chen Zhou felt a weight lift. The gray-white mist condensed above his head, gathering thicker and denser until it resembled a dark cloud.
Then, it suddenly exploded. It spread in all directions with incredible speed, covering the entire passage in the blink of an eye and continuing to expand outward.
Wherever the mist passed, the ghost hands began to tremble violently.
The gray-white mist seeped into their bodies, planting Festering Brands within them.
The vengeful spirits let out piercing screams as their bodies began to disintegrate, turning bit by bit into ash that drifted through the passage.
As they collapsed, a surge of pure death qi erupted from their bodies, flowing through the connection of the Ghost Domain and feeding back into Chen Zhou's body.
The conversion efficiency of the death qi was high. These souls had been trapped in the realm for an unknown number of years; now, they were collapsing in massive swaths, leaving ash floating everywhere.
But soon, they gathered again, forming a new, unending wave of ghosts.
Chen Zhou eliminated the souls wave after wave. Taking advantage of the brief moments while they regrouped, Diting accelerated and sprinted through the passage.
Watching the disintegrating souls, Lian suddenly whispered, "They are crying."
The sound of weeping within the realm passage grew increasingly dense.
Chen Zhou also noticed that the positions where these souls appeared did not seem random.
On their way here, the first part of the passage had been almost unobstructed. Sparse souls only began to appear in the middle section, and the closer they got to Qingzhou, the higher the density became.
It was as if someone had deliberately arranged them here.
Chen Zhou recalled the contents of the 《Universal Array Explanation》. Although he had only studied it for the time it takes three incense sticks to burn at the Xuandu Ghost Emperor Mansion and was far from an expert, he could still recognize the basic flow of array patterns and the distribution of nodes.
Looking at the positions of these souls as a whole, they faintly formed the outline of some kind of array.
It looked like both a killing array and a trapping array, with additional functions for imprisonment and weakening.
To know the specific function, he would need to find the array patterns and study them in detail.
To break the array, he would either have to find the array eye and destroy it by force or eliminate all these souls.
But clearly, they didn't have the time for that right now.
Killing as they ran, Diting sprinted for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn before finally bursting out of the passage.
The view suddenly opened up.
A hazy gray sky, a deathly pale sun, and cracked earth stretched as far as the eye could see.
In the distance, the faint outlines of ruins could be seen, stretching for a hundred miles—broken walls, collapsed palaces, decaying city walls, and streets buried by wind and sand.
The air was permeated with a decaying divine power. It was faint but stubborn, as if it had seeped into the very blood of this land and could never be washed away.
Chen Zhou jumped down from Diting's back and stepped onto the ground.
The ground was very hard, like stone, but looking closely, he could see dark red substances within the fine cracks—like dried blood, or perhaps something else.
Diting slumped over in exhaustion, opening its mouth to spit out everyone else from its stomach.
Chen Zhou picked up the Longevity Deer, whose four legs were still trembling, and set it on the ground.
"Lead the way."
The Longevity Deer looked around, its nose twitching a few times, and then it started walking in a certain direction.
After a few steps, it stopped and looked back at Chen Zhou, its eyes filled with terror.
Chen Zhou frowned. "What's wrong?"
The Longevity Deer used its hoof to draw a circle on the ground and then tapped three times inside the circle.
Chen Zhou didn't understand.
The Golden Dragon translated within him: "My Lord, it says Dou Mu Xie is slumbering within the Celestial Maiden Spring, but there is danger around the spring, and it does not dare to approach."
"What kind of danger?"
The Longevity Deer drew on the ground again. This time, it drew a crescent moon, and beneath the moon, it drew a person lying in water.
The Golden Dragon said, "It says that when it and the old locust left, Dou Mu Xie had sealed the Celestial Maiden Spring with moonlight. Anyone who approaches will lose their way and never come out."
Chen Zhou thought for a moment and said directly, "It's fine. Just lead the way."
Since Xuan Cai had invited him so warmly, he certainly wouldn't shut him out. Even if there was a seal, there would be a way to break it, just like the nameless Myriad Ghost Array in the realm.
Thinking of the Myriad Ghost Array, Chen Zhou asked again, "How did you and the Qianqiu Locust cross the realm?"
The Longevity Deer froze, tilting its head at him with a blank expression before nudging its head forward.
The Golden Dragon translated: "It says... they just walked across."
"Just walked?" Chen Zhou pressed. "You didn't encounter any vengeful spirits? No arrays?"
The Longevity Deer shook its head, indicating it had encountered nothing. Once they left Qingzhou, they had arrived in Gloomlight Province; the journey had been quiet and peaceful, without a single ghost in sight.
Chen Zhou's brow furrowed deeply.
Why had nothing happened when the Longevity Deer and the Qianqiu Locust crossed the realm?
Was it their innate ability as Auspicious Ones to avoid misfortune that allowed them to miss the souls, or were those souls acting under orders to intercept those crossing the realm—specifically to wait for him?
If it was the latter, then the opponent knew his itinerary perfectly.
Chen Zhou thought of his appointment with Xuan Cai.
Someone didn't want him to see Xuan Cai, so they had set up an array in the realm to intercept him, delay him, or simply trap him to death.
But the opponent had clearly underestimated his abilities.
As Chen Zhou was thinking, he suddenly heard a low growl.
He looked up to see a dark figure on all fours flying toward them from not far away.
It was incredibly fast, like a bolt of black lightning.
Chen Zhou focused his gaze and finally saw what the thing looked like.
It was a man, but he no longer looked quite human.
His skin was greenish and covered in hair, his limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, and his fingers were like claws with sharp, black nails that glinted with a metallic sheen.
His eyes were amber with vertical pupils, very similar to the Jiao Mu Jiao he had seen in the underground palace, but more frenzied and violent. There was no trace of reason, only pure slaughter intent.
His mouth was split to his ears, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth with bits of shredded meat stuck between them—it was impossible to tell if it was from a human or a beast.
He was still growling: "Kill—! Kill—! Kill—!"
A single word, shouted repeatedly in a raspy voice.
Chen Zhou's gaze sharpened. This thing was clearly not benevolent; its aura was very strong, faintly at the level of a half-step eighth-stage.
"Get back," Chen Zhou said before summoning the Wing-Fire Snake.
The bone snake appeared out of thin air, its body snow-white and its bones lustrous. Transparent flames burned within the gaps of its skeleton. The moment it appeared, it lunged at the dark figure.
The dark figure was extremely fast. The Wing-Fire Snake spat out transparent flames, but the figure flickered and dodged before lunging from the side, its claws raking across the Wing-Fire Snake's frame.
An ear-piercing grinding sound echoed as five deep white gashes were carved into the Wing-Fire Snake's bones.
Enraged, the Wing-Fire Snake whipped its tail around, slamming it hard against the dark figure.
Boom—!
The dark figure was sent flying, crashing into the ground and creating a large crater.
But in the next second, he bounced out of the crater as if nothing had happened and continued his assault.
Jian Huaishuang drew his sword, and the Paper Snow Sword Domain expanded, blocking the dark figure's path.
The dark figure clawed at Jian Huaishuang's chest. Jian Huaishuang dodged to the side and swung his giant sword, cutting into the figure's arm.
Psh—!
The arm was severed, and black blood sprayed out.
Yet the dark figure didn't even let out a cry, using his other hand to continue clawing at Jian Huaishuang's throat.
The Plague Rat rushed in from the side, its fiendish qi exploding as the Great Plague Heaven enveloped the figure. The dark figure's body began to fester, with patches of skin falling off to reveal the muscle and bone beneath.
But he didn't care at all, continuing his attack regardless.
Lian summoned Jiao Mu Jiao. The black Jiao surged out of her body, biting the dark figure's leg and dragging him to the ground.
The Wing-Fire Snake took the opportunity to breathe fire onto the figure.
The dark figure finally let out a scream, struggling furiously to get up. The flames and festering on his body vanished in an instant as he recovered completely, lunging forward once more with ferocity.
The Wing-Fire Snake and Jiao Mu Jiao were two against one, holding a slight advantage, but they couldn't take him down immediately.
Just as Chen Zhou was about to help the Wing-Fire Snake, he suddenly felt something strange behind him.
He spun around.
Something was writhing in the shadows where the firelight couldn't reach.
Then, a black man crawled out of the shadows.
The man resembled a large bird, entirely pitch-black with feathers like ink. His eyes were silver-white without pupils, looking like two spheres of cold moonlight.
His form was blurry, as if seen through a layer of mist, making it difficult to see him clearly.
But as soon as he appeared, the surrounding shadows became active, coming to life as they writhed, crawled, and then split apart on the ground.
One became two, two became four, then four became eight...
In the blink of an eye, dozens of identical black birds crawled out of the shadows, swarming toward Chen Zhou.
Sensing the danger, the Wing-Fire Snake turned and spat fire.
The flames incinerated several black birds, but more crawled out of the shadows in an unending stream.
Moreover, when those black birds were burned away, they turned into black mist and merged back into the shadows before crawling out again; they were impossible to kill off.
Chen Zhou's gaze turned cold as Hatred Fire surged out.
The Hatred Fire, which now possessed a complete divinity of hatred, had grown significantly stronger. Black flames burned in his palm. Chen Zhou flung his hand toward the sky, and the Hatred Fire exploded into a rain of fire that fell upon the black birds.
The Hatred Fire ignored defenses. Any black bird it touched dissipated, and once they vanished, they did not reform.
But there were too many black birds, and the range of the fire rain was limited. Some always managed to slip through.
Several black birds rushed in front of Chen Zhou, their claws reaching for his face.
Chen Zhou let out a cold snort, and a burst of death qi erupted, shaking the black birds off.
But more were surging forward.
Jian Huaishuang wanted to return to help, but the wolf-like man kept him pinned down, refusing to let him leave.
The Plague Rat was also busy dealing with numerous black birds, unable to pull away.
Lian grew anxious. She summoned several black-spot monsters, which surged out of her body and melted into a viscous, pitch-like liquid before condensing in front of Chen Zhou to form a black barrier.
The black birds slammed into the barrier, making sizzling sounds as they were corroded by the black spots on its surface.
But the barrier was also gradually thinning.
Lian bit her lip, desperately trying to maintain it.
Chen Zhou glanced at her but said nothing, turning his gaze toward the source of the black birds.
Deep in the shadows, the blurry man stood there, his silver-white eyes fixed on him.
Chen Zhou raised his hand, condensing Hatred Fire in his palm before blasting it forward.
The black flames formed a pillar of fire that shot directly at the man.
The shadow figure flickered and vanished.
In the next second, he appeared in another direction, still staring at Chen Zhou.
Chen Zhou frowned.
This thing was very troublesome.
Just as he was thinking of how to break the stalemate, he suddenly felt the ground beneath him vibrate.
The earth split open.
A streak of earthy yellow light shot from the distance. It was incredibly fast, piercing through Lian's black-spot wall and directly impaling Jiao Mu Jiao's body.
Jiao Mu Jiao let out a hiss as its body was pinned to the ground, unable to move.
Lian's face turned pale. She quickly summoned more black-spot monsters, which melted into the pitch-like liquid and flowed into Jiao Mu Jiao's wound, desperately trying to repair it.
But the earth arrow was imbued with a special power, making the wound heal very slowly.
Chen Zhou looked up.
On a mountain peak dozens of miles away stood a woman wearing a fledgling plumage crown.
She was entirely earthy yellow, her plumage like rock, and her eyes were gray and expressionless, containing only hollow slaughter intent.
She held a longbow as tall as a person and had a feather arrow condensed from sand in her mouth, aiming it this way, ready to fire at any moment.
There was actually a long-range sniper as well. Chen Zhou waved his hand, ordering the Wing-Fire Snake to charge at the woman.
It slithered across the ground at an incredible speed, covering over a dozen miles in the blink of an eye.
The woman turned and fired several earth arrows at the Wing-Fire Snake.
The bone snake dodged them nimbly, but just as it was about to continue its charge, a loud bird cry echoed from the sky.
Chen Zhou looked up.
A golden figure stood atop the clouds, shimmering in golden light. Its feathers were as dazzling as the sun, and its long hair spread out like blood. Its eyes were golden, with pupils slit into a line.
The figure let out a cry.
The sound was piercing, making his eardrums ache.
Then, the sky suddenly went dark.
As if dark clouds were obscuring the sun, all the sunlight was condensed by that golden figure and concentrated onto the area where Chen Zhou and the others were.
The sunlight became intensely hot, feeling like fire against their skin.
The death qi within Chen Zhou began to stir, suppressed by the sunlight and unable to flow smoothly.
Even his divinity was being weakened; the power of his Hatred Fire diminished greatly, and it even began to extinguish on its own.
The death qi still being converted within the realm was instantly cut off.
Su Xue sensed the abnormality from within the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm and tried desperately to convert more death qi, but the sunlight blocked all connection, and the death qi couldn't be sent through.
Chen Zhou's expression darkened.
To think they would arrange such a grand welcome for him the moment he arrived in Qingzhou.
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