The golden figure atop the clouds circled several times.
The Sunlight Array descended, and the death qi within Chen Zhou's body felt as if it were being suppressed by something. Its circulation speed plummeted, and even the power of his Hatred Fire weakened by a few degrees.
"My Lord, this bird-man is strange!"
The Plague Rat dodged an attack from several black birds emerging from the shadows and shouted toward Chen Zhou.
"Lord Rat's Great Plague Heaven can't spread! It dissipates as soon as the sunlight hits it!"
Chen Zhou did not answer.
He looked up at the sky. The Sunlight Array covered a radius of about ten miles, completely isolating this area.
Outside, the sky was a hazy gray, but inside, it was as bright as high noon.
The Sunlight Array was still shrinking. The walls of light at its edges were growing thicker, resembling a golden wall that trapped them within.
The Wing-Fire Snake was still locked in combat with the wolf-like man.
The wolf-man's speed was staggering. Every pounce left a trail of afterimages, and when his sharp claws sliced through the air, tiny flickers of starlight could be seen glinting on the tips.
The black bird-man's form flickered in and out of the shadows. Every time he appeared, he would split into several clones, which then continued to multiply. Within a few breaths, they covered the sky.
Each of those clones possessed considerable offensive power. Even when incinerated by Hatred Fire, the black mist would merge back into the shadows, and new ones would soon emerge.
In the distance, atop the mountain peak, the woman in the fledgling plumage crown drew her bow and fired in one fluid motion. Every arrow carried an earthy yellow light. Once the arrows left the string, they would dive into the ground and resurface from another direction, making them nearly impossible to defend against.
The arrows seemed to be imbued with the power of the ley lines—heavy, solid, and possessing extreme penetration.
With those providing close-quarters suppression, long-range support, and general chaos, plus one to seal the battlefield, they were incredibly difficult to deal with.
Especially the Sunlight Array; its suppression effect was too strong. Death qi, divinity, and Ghost Domains were all being slowly weakened by it.
Looking at the four figures, Chen Zhou took a deep breath as a thought flashed through his mind.
The Twenty-Eight Mansions, refined by the false gods.
Based on their physical characteristics, Chen Zhou judged that they were likely the four mansions: Kui Mu Lang, Bi Yue Wu, Wei Tu Zhi, and Mao Ri Ji.
In the underground city of Tianchi Province, there had been the Wing-Fire Snake and Jiao Mu Jiao acting as jailers to guard the sealed entities.
Was it the same for the constellations in Qingzhou? What were they guarding?
The Celestial Maiden Spring?
Or something else?
At this moment, the Wing-Fire Snake and Jiao Mu Jiao had teamed up and were barely managing to pin down Kui Mu Lang, but they were clearly at a disadvantage.
The wolf-man's speed was absurdly high. The bone snake's attacks couldn't hit him at all, and every pounce left deep claw marks on its skeleton.
Jiao Mu Jiao had been pinned to the ground by an earth arrow and had only just managed to pull itself free, but its wounds were healing slowly, and its combat effectiveness was greatly reduced.
Jian Huaishuang was entangled by Bi Yue Wu's clones. His Paper Snow Sword Domain was expanded, reflecting some of the attacks, but the clones were too numerous to kill off.
The Plague Rat's Great Plague Heaven was suppressed by the sunlight and could not expand. It could only maintain a small area around itself, barely managing to protect itself while eliminating Bi Yue Wu's clones in a limited range.
Lian's black-spot wall was growing thinner. The sunlight had a strong corrosive effect on the black spots, and she wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer.
Kui Mu Lang's body dragged an afterimage across the ground, moving so fast that even Chen Zhou's dynamic vision could barely track him.
He covered thirty feet in the blink of an eye. Five pitch-black, sharp nails tore through the air, lunging for Chen Zhou's face.
Where the nails passed, five black cracks were left behind, as if space itself had been torn open.
Chen Zhou stepped aside to dodge, but Kui Mu Lang's follow-up was faster than he anticipated. The claw forcibly changed direction in mid-air, shifting from a grab to a sweep that slashed toward Chen Zhou's throat.
A bone spike extended from the void.
Clang—!
The sound of clashing metal echoed as sparks flew.
Kui Mu Lang's nails collided with the bone spike. He was forced back three steps, but before his feet even touched the ground, he charged back in.
This time, his target was Jian Huaishuang. Both claws struck out, each carrying ghostly blue starlight, leaving behind a web of intersecting claw marks in the air.
Jian Huaishuang expanded his Paper Snow Sword Domain and held his giant sword before him. The power of deception within the domain covered his entire body, reflecting a portion of Kui Mu Lang's attacks back at him.
But Kui Mu Lang didn't care at all.
A gash was torn into his shoulder by his own claw's power, spraying black blood, but he didn't even flinch as he continued his frenzied assault.
Claws, elbows, knees, head—his entire body was a weapon.
His fighting style was as fierce as a true wild beast.
Chen Zhou noticed that with every attack, ghostly blue points of light would glow on his nails, looking like stars condensing at his fingertips.
When those points of light exploded, they formed tiny spatial rifts. Jian Huaishuang's paper armor would be sliced open if even grazed by them.
"What the hell kind of monster is this?"
The Plague Rat cursed and was about to go help when the sky above him suddenly darkened.
The black-feathered bird-man, Bi Yue Wu, emerged from the shadow behind him without any warning, as if the shadow itself had come to life.
Two pitch-black claws lunged directly for the back of the Plague Rat's neck.
As if he had eyes in the back of his head, the Plague Rat lunged forward and rolled on the ground, narrowly avoiding the strike.
However, Bi Yue Wu was not slow either. With a flap of his wings, he turned into a cloud of black mist and merged back into the shadows on the ground.
A second later, a hand reached out from the Plague Rat's own shadow and grabbed his ankle.
"Dammit!"
The Plague Rat stomped down, releasing a burst of death qi. A crater exploded in the ground, and the shadow was shaken apart.
But Bi Yue Wu had already popped out from his shadow and appeared behind him, his claws lunging once more.
This time, the Plague Rat couldn't completely dodge. Three gashes were torn into his back, and blood splattered across the ground.
"Bastard, what kind of skill is ambushing people?!"
The Plague Rat roared as he turned to counterattack, but Bi Yue Wu vanished again, like a drop of ink dissolving into water—silent, invisible, and untraceable.
He then emerged from the shadows in another direction, a piece of the Plague Rat's flesh still hanging from his claws.
Elsewhere, an earthy yellow arrow whistled through the air from dozens of miles away.
Its speed was terrifying. Along its flight path, the air was torn apart, producing a sharp, piercing howl.
Psh—!
The arrow pierced through Chen Zhou's Ghost Domain, broke through the protection of the death qi and Lian's black-spot wall, and continued toward Lian without losing momentum.
Lian dodged to the side, and the arrow grazed her cheek before pinning itself into the ground behind her.
Boom—!
The ground exploded into a large crater, sending debris flying and dust billowing into the air.
Wei Tu Zhi stood atop the mountain peak, holding her longbow, with another arrow condensed from sand in her mouth.
An earthy yellow halo lit up around her. As the halo expanded, the ground began to vibrate, and surges of ley line power erupted from below, converging into the arrow in her hand.
The next arrow would only be more powerful.
Chen Zhou took a deep breath to calm himself.
He carefully observed the state of the four figures and suddenly noticed something unusual.
Kui Mu Lang's healing speed, Bi Yue Wu's recovery ability, Wei Tu Zhi's unending ley line power, and Mao Ri Ji's continuous output of the Sunlight Array.
These things didn't seem to be their own power, but rather something borrowed from elsewhere.
The Twenty-Eight Mansions refined by false gods were, in essence, a form of puppetry.
Chen Zhou had studied the 《True Explanation of Puppetry》 and the 《Soul Puppet Art》 at the Xuandu Ghost Emperor Mansion.
To drive a puppet to display such combat power and continuously repair its own damage, one either needed the master to be nearby providing energy or needed to be connected to an array to draw power from it.
Chen Zhou recalled the Wing-Fire Snake and Jiao Mu Jiao from the underground city in Tianchi Province.
The true bodies of those two were sealed within the array's gate, connected to the underground array and powered by a giant five-colored stone, granting them near-infinite recovery capabilities.
And the purpose of the array was to siphon energy from the Tianchi Ley Line.
As long as the array wasn't broken and the energy didn't run out, they couldn't be killed.
In the end, he had to use a psychological approach to get the Wing-Fire Snake and Jiao Mu Jiao to end their own lives, thereby destroying their true bodies within the array.
What about these four?
These four in front of him were likely the same kind of existence.
"Huaishuang.", Chen Zhou spoke. "Attack Kui Mu Lang with everything you've got. Don't hold back."
Jian Huaishuang nodded slightly, and his offensive suddenly became much sharper.
His giant sword carried the power of the Paper Snow Sword Domain. Every strike was imbued with the power of deception, damage reflection, and death qi erosion, cutting deep into the enemy's flesh.
Kui Mu Lang was hacked until he was covered in wounds, with blood splattering everywhere.
His left arm was severed, his right leg was torn, and a large hole was opened in his chest, revealing his writhing internal organs.
Yet he didn't even let out a cry.
Ghostly blue light lit up at the edges of his wounds. New flesh began to grow from the severed arm—bone, tendons, and skin reconstructed layer by layer.
In less than ten breaths, his left arm had grown back.
The Plague Rat watched from the side, dumbfounded. "What the hell! How are we supposed to fight this?"
Chen Zhou didn't answer.
While he had Jian Huaishuang continue attacking Kui Mu Lang, he released his perception, following the ghostly light on Kui Mu Lang's body in an attempt to find the array connected to it.
His death qi was suppressed by the sunlight, and his perception range was compressed to the limit, but he could still faintly sense that the ghostly light was surging up from underground.
Tracing those lights downward, his perception touched deep into the earth, where something was operating.
It was massive, heavy, and its energy fluctuations were extremely intense.
It felt like some kind of giant array, or perhaps a living thing that was slowly breathing.
Just as Chen Zhou wanted to deepen his perception, Mao Ri Ji suddenly let out another cry.
The Sunlight Array flared up, its golden radiance so piercing that it was impossible to keep one's eyes open.
Chen Zhou's perception was forcibly cut off. He frowned and tried another direction.
But no matter which angle he probed from, the Sunlight Array would precisely cut off his perception, preventing him from touching the things underground.
Chen Zhou withdrew his perception.
He couldn't see through it.
He could only faintly sense that the true bodies of the four constellations seemed to be hidden underground, and then his perception was completely isolated.
What was underground?
Qingzhou's ley line.
The direction they had just come from.
Qingzhou's realm barrier.
And the Myriad Ghost Array within the realm interlayer.
Chen Zhou connected these things in his mind, and an unpleasant suspicion suddenly formed.
The true bodies of these four were likely embedded within some kind of giant array, just like the Wing-Fire Snake and Jiao Mu Jiao.
And that array was connected to Qingzhou's ley line, the realm barrier, and even the Myriad Ghost Array in the interlayer.
In other words, these four people were themselves part of the array.
Their energy came from the underground array; as long as the array was not broken, the constellations would not die.
To break out, he first had to deal with Mao Ri Ji, who was sealing the battlefield.
But Mao Ri Ji's true body was connected to the Myriad Ghost Array in the realm. He would have to first destroy the Myriad Ghost Array and cut off the enemy's supplies before he would have a chance to deal with Mao Ri Ji.
But to destroy the Myriad Ghost Array, he would first have to break through Mao Ri Ji's sunlight seal to have a chance at finding the array eye and foundation anchors of the Myriad Ghost Array.
Therefore, to deal with Mao Ri Ji, he needed to break the array first; but to break the array, he needed to deal with Mao Ri Ji first.
It was a closed loop. Chen Zhou felt a headache coming on.
This setup was also practically perfect.
Kui Mu Lang handled close-quarters combat with high speed, high attack power, and strong recovery. He was like a perpetual motion machine that could fight forever.
Bi Yue Wu created interference, launching surprise attacks from the shadows and focusing on the back and blind spots. Although the individual damage wasn't high, he was impossible to guard against and had massive numbers, making him extremely annoying.
Wei Tu Zhi provided long-range support. Her ley line arrows had strong penetration, and every arrow carried a petrification effect, leaving a wound that was difficult to heal.
Mao Ri Ji sealed the battlefield. His Sunlight Array suppressed death qi, weakened divinity, and isolated them from outside contact, trapping them in this cage where no one would hear their cries for help.
On their side, their death qi was suppressed, their divinity was weakened, the battlefield was sealed, and support from the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm was cut off.
Although they were all evil spirits and wouldn't be truly injured as long as they had death qi—and could slowly recover even if it was exhausted—their recovery speed was far inferior to the opponent's.
As one side weakened and the other remained strong, the longer the battle dragged on, the more unfavorable the situation became.
Just as Chen Zhou was thinking of a way to break the deadlock, a sharp whistling sound reached his ears.
Wei Tu Zhi had fired another arrow.
The Plague Rat was currently overwhelmed by Bi Yue Wu and didn't notice the arrow that had dived into the ground.
Jiao Mu Jiao tried to block it, but its body was already riddled with holes, and its movements were sluggish, causing it to be half a beat too slow.
Lian's expression changed as she desperately tried to command Jiao Mu Jiao, but it was too late.
Psh—!
The ley line arrow pierced through the Plague Rat's left shoulder, exploding into a bloody hole.
The Plague Rat's body swayed. He looked down at the hole in his shoulder, his eyes filled with ferocity.
He grabbed the arrow still stuck in his shoulder and crushed it with force. The arrow turned into sand and fell from his claws.
At the edge of the wound, dark green death qi surged out, beginning to repair the damaged flesh.
However, the repair speed was very slow. The sunlight suppressed the activity of the death qi, and the wound was healing bit by bit, but nowhere near its usual speed.
The Plague Rat gritted his teeth against the pain and cursed. "Motherfucker, that was a damn good shot."
In the distance, after her successful strike, Wei Tu Zhi let out a long cry.
The sound was sharp and ear-piercing, as if she were boasting or perhaps summoning something.
Chen Zhou's heart suddenly sank.
He looked toward the distance behind Wei Tu Zhi.
There, a red and a blue pillar of light shot into the sky, their brilliance so dazzling that they almost rivaled Mao Ri Ji's Sunlight Array.
Within the pillars of light were two figures rushing toward them at incredible speed.
The figures looked somewhat like monkeys but were not quite monkeys, nor were they quite human. They were covered in thick fur—one red and one blue. One clutched flames in its hand, while the other was surrounded by swirling water.
Their speed was extreme, even faster than Kui Mu Lang. They pulled two long afterimages within the pillars of light, crossing the mountain peak where Wei Tu Zhi stood in the blink of an eye as they continued charging toward the center of the battlefield.
Chen Zhou's eyelid twitched.
"There's more?"
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