Chapter 522: Mercy, Provocation and Reliance, Who is Crazy?

Although Xia Hong had been in the Frozen Abyss for over fifteen years and had encountered quite a few different kinds of ghosts and monsters, counting them carefully, besides God Ghosts, he had seen all four kinds: Craftsman, Nightmare, Fierce, and Demon.

But his overall understanding of ghosts and monsters was still limited.

Where did these creatures come from, why did they become stronger by killing people, what was their ultimate purpose, etc...

First, it could be determined that ghosts and monsters could detach from humans and move freely as independent individuals; there were many examples to prove this.

But at the same time, they could also parasitize within the human body in a living form. The early He Yuanhun and Mirror Immortal were like this, but such fusion had extremely high risks and could be backlashed by the ghost or monster at any time.

A safer approach was to first kill the ghost or monster, then obtain the items left behind by the ghost or monster, or what could be called the ghost or monster's true body. After fusing with it, one could obtain its means and abilities.

Xia Hong had not seen ghosts or monsters begging for mercy; for example, that White Dew Ghost in the Yanglu Realm after he annexed Longyou back then.

At that time, he did not let that Bai Lu Gui go because Xia Hong only had the Frigid-Resistance cultivation realm and a strength of a mere few dozen bristles; he lacked the confidence, and even more so the backbone, to control a monster by his side that could casually utter an inscrutable and formidable title like the Demon Lord of Qishan.

But it was different now.

"Spare me, spare me, I know how to go to the Netherworld..."

From the time the Xia army attacked the city until now, it had only been a little over an hour, so it was still daytime.

The cold air of the daytime couldn't invade the area of the Lord's Great Hall at all, only because this place had completely turned into a sea of fire. The sky full of cyan smoke was burned black by the great fire of the Yang Void Tripod, and the flames were like maggots attached to the bones, entwining the body of the six-armed cyan-faced evil ghost, seeping from its skin into the flesh and blood, then into the bone marrow. Just looking at it was enough to make people feel pain.

"Ah, spare me, my lord, spare me..."

The six-armed cyan-faced evil ghost wailed and begged for mercy in the sea of fire, knelt directly toward Xia Hong, and even learned from humans to kowtow on the ground.

Xia Hong's gaze hesitated for a long time, finally inhaling slightly, gently waving the Long Que Dao in his hand, and shrinking the burning range of the Yang Void Tripod.

Sizzle...

Accompanied by the decrease in the Yang Void Tripod's power, the firelight stagnated violently. The sea of fire that originally spread for several li began to shrink rapidly. In less than ten breaths, it completely shrank to around the body of the six-armed cyan-faced evil ghost.

As the sea of fire shrank, the monstrous black smoke that originally filled the surroundings also began to gradually disappear. Dozens of breaths later, the black smoke was replaced by the cold air surging in from all directions, and the form of the six-armed cyan-faced evil ghost was completely revealed.

"Lord..."

As soon as the black smoke disappeared, Xia Chuan and the other eleven Manifesting Yang experts from the front rows of the three Xia army directions immediately got up and flew toward this side.

Without the Manifesting Yang experts to command, plus the movement at the Lord's Great Hall, the Beishuo garrison had long lost the will to resist. The three routes of the Xia army had all broken into the city and were spreading out, constantly clearing out the enemy troops still trying to resist stubbornly in the city.

"Is this the ghost object in Yang Zun's body?"

Xia Chuan and the eleven looked at the six-armed cyan-faced evil ghost kneeling on the ground, their pupils filled with shock. Although this evil ghost was in a sorry state at the moment, with no good flesh on its body from being burned, the strong aura emanating from its body still made them feel terrified.

Such a powerful ghost or monster had been beaten by Xia Hong until it knelt and begged for mercy.

"To what extent has eldest brother's strength reached?"

"Is the lord still at the Manifesting Yang level of cultivation?"

Xia Hong naturally didn't know the thoughts in Xia Chuan and the others' hearts. He just stared down at the six-armed cyan-faced evil ghost on the ground and said in a deep voice: "Come out of Yang Zun's body, don't play any tricks!"

"The little one knows, the little one will come out now..."

The cyan-faced evil ghost saw that the flames on its body were still there, knowing that its little life was still held by Xia Hong, so it naturally didn't dare to play any tricks. Its body shook violently, and then it began to shrink and become smaller rapidly.

In less than three or four breaths, it turned into the size of a normal person, and that evil ghost face also recovered into Yang Zun's appearance.

Chhh...

The Lord's Great Hall had long since turned into ruins. As soon as Yang Zun's body recovered, all the cyan light on his body surface immediately concentrated on his forehead. After a while, the cyan light flew out of his body and flew directly toward Xia Hong.

It was a pity that halfway through the flight, a sudden change occurred!

A strong red light suddenly galloped from the north, hitting the cyan light squarely, with astonishing speed.

When the strong light appeared, Xia Hong looked up violently, but he didn't make any movements, just watching the strong light approach quietly, and from beginning to end, he didn't make any movements.

"Lord Xia, this six-armed evil ghost does not belong to you..."

After intercepting the cyan light, the person didn't stop, but flew down rapidly to the ruins of the great hall. After picking up the unconscious Yang Zun with one hand, he hadn't stopped his body yet when he made a sound that Xia Hong was very familiar with.

After the red light dissipated, a middle-aged man with a tall figure, no beard, a black long sword at his waist, and wearing a white brocade suit appeared.

"Yan Ling County Governor, Chu Tian..."

Seeing the person coming, Xia Chuan immediately leaned behind Xia Hong to prompt him, but before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Xia Hong with a wave of his hand. Thinking that Xia Hong had just returned from the Mo Ao River and hadn't revealed his true face until now, he vaguely guessed something and immediately closed his mouth.

"Xuankong, Renjie, Qingshan, where are those people of my Chen Cang?"

Although Chu Tianxu had just arrived, just by roughly scanning the situation in Beishuocheng at the moment, he could guess seven or eight out of ten. He didn't care why Beishuocheng had fallen, but first asked in a deep voice about the whereabouts of Chu Xuankong and the others.

It was a pity that the Manifesting Yang experts who came south to Chen Cang this time were all gone. Yang Jian and Yang Fa were dead, and Yang Zun, who only had a breath left, naturally couldn't give him an answer. As for the others in the city, they were not qualified to participate in the conversation at this moment.

Chu Tianxu quickly reacted and cast his gaze toward Xia Hong.

"There..."

Xia Hong didn't speak, just smiled and raised his knife, pointing at several positions in the ruins below, signaling Chu Tianxu to look for himself.

Chu Tianxu understood, lowered his head to look at the positions Xia Hong signaled, and after seeing clearly that it was the corpses of Chu Xuankong and the others, his expression instantly stiffened.

Immediately after, he looked up violently and stared at Xia Hong. An extremely terrifying aura slowly rose from his body. That white brocade suit moved without wind, and a monstrous anger had already risen on his face.

"This mask can really completely isolate the perception of Body-Tribulation level experts..."

Xia Hong completely ignored Chu Tianxu's anger at this moment, just praised the human-skin mask he had spent three million taels of silver to buy in the Yang market.

That's right, from appearing in Bai Mu City last night, to killing Yang Zun just now, and then to Chu Tianxu appearing at this moment, he had never revealed his true face.

Although Xia Hong had publicly revealed his true face at the Battle of Hong Sect four years ago, after such a long time, there were not many people in the Southern Foothills who truly remembered his appearance.

Although Great Xia had derived the profession of painter, the time was still very short, and his portrait couldn't be widely circulated in other places, so it should be able to deceive Chen Cang for a period of time.

As for why he wanted to hide his true face, it was naturally because Xia Hong had been active in the two fiefdoms of Cai Qiu and Chen Cang for the past three years. Once someone learned his true face, the identity of the Great Qin Crown Prince Hong Yu couldn't be hidden.

Exposing the fake identity didn't count for much to Xia Hong, but the key was that it would affect the four siblings of Su Xing'er, and if someone were smarter, they might even link it to the spies of Jiang Xinfan and Ji Hong, which would be more than the loss.