The Zhaoye Ghost Decree spun in Chen Zhou’s palm.
Black light surged from the token, wrapping around his fingertips, climbing up his arm, and finally sinking into his forehead.
Within his sea of consciousness, a massive star chart slowly unfolded.
The chart was densely dotted with countless points of light, each representing a believer.
The light of General Believers was dim like fireflies, Shallow Believers shone a bit brighter, True Believers flickered like candlelight, and Devout Believers shone like stars.
Meanwhile, the lights of the Fanatic Believers and Saints were blindingly bright, hanging like suns at the very top of the star chart.
Chen Zhou’s consciousness hovered among those few suns before directly choosing Jian Huaishuang.
The Source of Divine Power burned within his body, transforming into a violent force that flooded into the Zhaoye Ghost Decree. The black light on the decree flared intensely before condensing into a thin line of light that connected to Jian Huaishuang.
Jian Huaishuang’s body shuddered. His paper clothes fluttered without any wind, and countless sheets of white paper erupted from him, filling the sky and dancing in the void.
【Zhaoye Ghost Decree successfully activated】
【You have borrowed the ability of the Saint, Paper General: Command Enslaved Ghosts】
【The ability has been temporarily elevated to the Divine Technique level】
【Duration: Four hours】
Command Enslaved Ghosts was originally one of the initial abilities he had obtained from the system.
However, Jian Huaishuang had taken this ability much further. He had perfectly fused his paper people and paper snow with himself, and combined with his unique General Star bonus, his precision and range of control far surpassed Chen Zhou’s.
And now, this experience, this comprehension, along with the ability itself, had been elevated to the Divine Technique level by the Zhaoye Ghost Decree, temporarily becoming a part of Chen Zhou.
Chen Zhou glanced at the remaining time on the Sunlight Array. There was less than half an hour left, which was more than enough.
Within a few breaths, the threads from the white stones were only three zhang away from him.
“Want to draw me into the game?”
The corners of Chen Zhou’s mouth curled up slightly. He raised his hand with a wave, activating the Sunlight Array.
“But I’m sorry, I don’t know how to play Go. I won’t be joining you.”
Golden light surged from his palm, spreading in all directions.
With him as the center, the wall of light expanded rapidly, enveloping an area of ten zhang in the blink of an eye and blocking out all the white stones.
Within the Sunlight Array, the sunlight was blinding, and the temperature rose sharply.
The suppressing force on the board was slightly dispersed by the sunlight.
His death qi resumed its flow, and his Ghost Domain could now be expanded. Chen Zhou took a deep breath, the death qi within his body surging wildly.
He squatted down and pressed both hands against the stone slabs of the board.
The Domain of Defiled Earth and the Divine Technique-level Command Enslaved Ghosts were activated simultaneously.
Grayish-white death qi surged from his palms, pouring into the stone slabs and seeping deep underground.
The stone slabs were quickly covered in defiled earth, which then began to crack.
Something was crawling out of the cracks.
First came a hand.
It was a grayish-white bone hand. Its five phalanges were slender and long, its nails sharp as knives, and black mist flowed through the joints of the bones.
The bone hand gripped the edge of the stone slab and pushed hard.
A skeleton crawled out from the crack.
It was completely grayish-white, its bones lustrous and smooth, like an artwork carved from jade.
Carrying a black coffin on his back, he first looked around blankly, then lowered his head to look at his hands.
The bone fingers curled, straightened, curled, and straightened again.
He seemed to be confirming whether this body was indeed his.
“What the hell?”
“How did I go from a piece of paper to a bunch of bones?”
He touched his face, feeling only bone. There was no flesh, no skin, just a bare, smooth bony surface.
“Is this a new skin?”
“Has this master of the Dao cultivated bones? Doesn’t that mean I’ll grow flesh soon and become just like I was when I was alive?”
Behind him, several more skeletons crawled out of the cracks.
One after another, they emerged in dense numbers, with over a hundred crawling out in the blink of an eye.
“Where’s the Boss? Where is the Boss? Did the Boss call us out to fight again?”
One skeleton looked left and right, spotted Jian Huaishuang, and immediately waved his bony arms in excitement.
“Boss! Boss! Are we fighting again? Who are we hitting this time?”
Jian Huaishuang looked at them expressionlessly, remaining silent.
Following his gaze, the skeletons turned their heads and saw Chen Zhou standing in the center of the defiled earth.
The chattering instantly ceased.
The entire board became as silent as a graveyard.
Then—
“What the hell?!”
One skeleton was so terrified that his entire frame fell apart. With a clatter, he collapsed onto the ground, only to frantically scramble to piece his bones back together before kneeling.
“Greetings, my Lord!”
The other skeletons also came to their senses and hurriedly knelt, cupping their bony fists with utmost respect.
“Greetings, my Lord!”
“May you enjoy eternal peace, my Lord!”
“My Lord, why did you come in person?”
Chen Zhou glanced at them but did not speak.
Kneeling on the ground, the skeletons dared not even breathe loudly, looking completely different from their previous careless demeanor.
After a few breaths, one of the bolder skeletons stealthily raised his head to steal a glance at Chen Zhou, then quickly lowered it again.
A few more breaths passed, and another skeleton whispered, “My Lord looks so handsome today...”
“Shut up!” Jiang Ziang, who was beside him, slapped the back of his skull. “How dare you be so disrespectful in front of my Lord!”
“Senior Brother... QAQ”
Chen Zhou finally spoke: “Rise.”
As if granted a grand amnesty, the skeletons stood up in unison, but they remained perfectly well-behaved and did not move around.
At that moment, one skeleton suddenly let out a soft exclamation, looking down at his bony hands and turning them over and over.
“What is it?” a skeleton beside him asked.
“I... I feel a bit different.” The skeleton clenched his fist, his joints cracking. “My strength... seems to have surged by a massive margin?”
“Huh?” the skeleton beside him scoffed. “Are you dreaming?”
“Really!” The skeleton grew excited and punched the ground.
Boom—!
The ground exploded, leaving a large crater as shattered stones flew and dust filled the air.
All the skeletons froze.
Then, the entire board erupted into a frenzy.
“Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! Mine too!”
“Mine increased too! Damn, I must be at least seventh-stage now?!”
“Is it possible we’re almost eighth-stage?”
“I feel like I could take on ten Great Elders!”
The skeletons danced with joy, touching each other’s bones and marveling in amazement.
Chen Zhou watched them make a fuss and did not stop them.
These skeletons were originally disciples of the Corpse Soul Sect. After dying in battle, they had been transformed into paper people by Jian Huaishuang using his Paper Snow Sword Domain.
Their paper bodies were fragile, and though they were immortal, their combat strength was limited.
But now, through the Divine Technique-level Command Enslaved Ghosts, the essence of these paper people was temporarily altered. Their paper bodies were reshaped by the defiled earth, turning into bone bodies with strength elevated by more than a single grade.
Naturally, their strength rose accordingly.
Though it was only temporary, as long as Chen Zhou’s Divine Technique-level ability remained active, they were an invincible army.
“Alright,” Chen Zhou spoke.
The skeletons instantly quieted down, looking at him in unison.
Chen Zhou pointed at the white stones on the board. “Help me destroy them.”
The skeletons followed his hand and only then noticed the densely packed white stones.
The white stones were looking at them as well.
Two hundred faceless heads, two hundred pairs of unseen eyes, stared fixedly at this group of suddenly appearing skeletons.
The air fell silent for a brief moment.
Then—
“Charge!!!”
The skeletons howled like unleashed wild dogs as they charged toward the white stones.
“Move aside, move aside, let me go first! I want to see how strong I am with this new skin!”
“Don’t push me, damn it!”
“Everyone clear out, I’m about to use my ultimate!”
The skeletons rushed out of the Sunlight Array in a swarm.
At the edge of the Sunlight Array, the golden wall of light flickered slightly. The moment the skeletons charged out, the suppressing force of the board immediately surged over them.
But how could the Divine Technique-level Command Enslaved Ghosts be so easily suppressed?
The black light on the skeletons flared intensely, shattering the suppression.
“Hahahahaha! That’s it?”
“This master of the Dao thought it was something impressive. That’s all you’ve got?”
“Come on, you pale-faced weaklings, are you scared now?”
Reaching the white stones, the skeletons wasted no words, swinging the black coffins on their backs and smashing them down.
The black coffins were incredibly heavy, carrying dense baleful yin energy. With each strike, the bodies of the white stones cracked open, sending white fragments flying everywhere.
However, several skeletons were caught by the white stones.
The white stones exploded their bodies, unleashing countless white threads that bound the skeletons, cutting into their bones as they tried to siphon the death qi from them.
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t get all handsy!”
The bound skeleton struggled twice, but failing to break free, he simply gave up and yelled to his martial brothers nearby, “Brothers, lend a hand!”
“Coming, coming!”
Several skeletons rushed over, swinging their black coffins to smash both the white stones and their fellow skeleton together.
The white stones shattered, and the skeleton was also smashed to pieces.
Bone fragments scattered all over the ground before slowly gathering back together to reform the skeleton.
The reformed skeleton rubbed his skull, looking dazed. “Can you guys be a bit gentler? That made my head hurt.”
“Stop whining, get up and keep fighting!”
“Oh.”
Laughing and joking, the skeletons did not look like they were fighting for their lives at all; it was more like they were playing an exciting game.
But the white stones were not so easily dealt with either.
More and more white stones exploded, unleashing a massive volume of white threads that intertwined to form a giant web, trapping dozens of skeletons inside.
As the web tightened, the skeletons’ bones creaked and groaned under the pressure.
“This thing actually has some tricks!”
“Don’t panic, open the coffins!”
The trapped skeletons simultaneously opened the black coffins on their backs.
The moment the coffin lids were thrown open, a dense column of baleful yin energy surged into the sky.
Fangs bared and faces green, malevolent ghosts crawled out from the coffins, their bodies radiating ghostly green light as they lunged at the white stones.
The threads of the white stones were torn apart by the malevolent ghosts, and their bodies were ripped to shreds, peeling away piece by piece.
Yet within the peeling fragments of the white stones, a mass of something was revealed.
Twisted and writhing, it looked like a compressed dream, or perhaps a clump of solidified fear.
The object let out a sound like a mix of crying and laughing, then abruptly exploded into countless tiny droplets of slime, splashing onto the malevolent ghosts.
The moment the slime touched the malevolent ghosts, it immediately began to corrode them.
The green light of the malevolent ghosts rapidly dimmed as their bodies began to turn white, dyed pale inch by inch, from claws to arms, and from arms to trunks.
“Senior Brother, help! My ghost is turning white!”
A skeleton shrieked. His natal malevolent ghost was being corroded, and he felt his own consciousness being polluted by something.
But as soon as his cry left his mouth, a nearby martial brother had already swung his black coffin, smashing it heavily against the infected malevolent ghost.
Bang—!
The malevolent ghost was smashed to pieces, disintegrating into countless tiny fragments that drifted in the air.
“What did you do that for?!” the skeleton cried out in panic.
“Wake up!” the skeleton who swung the coffin snapped. “Look at yourself!”
The skeleton looked down and saw that his slightly yellowed bones were also turning white. Starting from his feet, the paleness was creeping upward inch by inch.
“Holy crap!”
Shuddering, he hurriedly mobilized the death qi in his body, resisting with all his might.
But the white corrosion was too fast, reaching his waist in the blink of an eye.
Gritting his teeth, the skeleton grabbed his own thigh bone and yanked hard.
Crack—!
The thigh bone snapped, and he threw the white portion away.
Death qi surged from the break, reforming into a brand-new thigh bone.
“Phew... Thank goodness, I almost bit the dust there.”
Several other infected skeletons nearby followed his example, ripping off their whitened parts and reforming them.
But some skeletons were too late.
The paleness spread to their skulls, turning their entire skeletal frames white. The green light in their eyes extinguished, replaced by a hollow, empty white.
It turned around and lunged at its nearby martial brothers.
“Senior Brother!”
One skeleton yelled, but the infected skeleton no longer recognized him, its bony claws swiping at his face.
The skeleton hesitated for a fraction of a second before being shoved aside by a nearby senior sister.
The senior sister who pushed him remained expressionless as she swung her black coffin, smashing it onto the infected skeleton.
Bang—!
The white bones shattered, sending white fragments flying everywhere.
“Senior Brother... Sob, rest in peace. I will handle the remaining enemies for you, aha!”
One skeleton stared blankly at the powder, feigning a sob before howling with excitement once more, continuing his charge into the vast sea of white stones on the board.
The situation on the battlefield grew increasingly chaotic.
The white stones exploded one after another, slime gushing out from within and contaminating skeleton after skeleton.
Yet the skeletons fought back relentlessly, tearing off their own contaminated parts, smashing their fully corrupted martial brothers, and then reforming to continue the fight.
They feared neither pain nor death, and even if they died, they could revive.
This was their greatest advantage.
Standing within the Sunlight Array, Chen Zhou watched the battle, his brow furrowing slightly.
The slime within the white stones was far too infectious.
What exactly was that stuff?
He released his perception, attempting to probe the nature of the slime.
The moment his perception made contact, a surge of intense emotions rushed into him.
Fear, despair, resentment, rage...
All kinds of negative emotions were intertwined, tangled like a messy ball of hemp.
Chen Zhou’s expression darkened.
He had seen this kind of twisted, mad thing before.
The souls in the realm interlayer were exactly like this.
Those souls, trapped in the darkness for countless years, had been slowly ground down day after day, year after year, until nothing remained but the instinct of resentment.
And when connected, the positions of those souls formed the outline of a certain array.
The hidden Myriad Ghost Array connected to the ley lines of Qingzhou, as well as the unknown true bodies of the constellations like Mao Ri Ji.
Now, this Go game had appeared as well.
How similar the rules of this board were to that array.
Both trapped something, slowly absorbed its power, and converted it into something else.
Connecting all these clues together, a hypothesis formed in Chen Zhou’s mind.
Qingzhou might have been a massive trap from the very beginning.
Perhaps the original intent was not to target him; he had simply happened to barge in at this specific juncture.
At the very juncture when, as Xuan Cai had said, Qingzhou was soon to become a place of strife.
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