Chapter 159: Under the Blazing Sun, the Ghost King Reappears

Within the inner city, the blazing sun hung high overhead.

While everyone remained oblivious, living their normal lives.

Three gloomy, terrifying, and powerful auras spread out for no reason.

At the same time, vast and mighty fluctuations of spiritual energy erupted abruptly.

Pitch-black pillars of light shot straight into the sky.

Each one was over ten zhang wide.

Around the light pillars, countless ghosts flew out, emitting hisses of joy at seeing the light of day once more.

The sound of ghosts weeping and souls wailing instantly became the only melody in this city.

Even the wails of countless cultivators at the moment of death were suppressed.

No!

There was still an angry shout that tore through gold and jade, suddenly exploding.

"Scoundrels!"

A powerful fluctuation of magic power from a Core Formation cultivator surged out from Mount Luofeng with a boom.

In the outer city area, Luo Chen pulled Zhou Yuanli and the other man, retreating frantically.

Hearing that "scoundrel" shout, his body stiffened, and he instinctively turned his head to look.

On Mount Luofeng, a golden sword light sought to soar out.

However, just as the sword light erupted, a giant palm slammed down violently.

Bang!

The golden sword light was slapped back into Mount Luofeng.

Hindered by this, the three pitch-black light pillars expanded again, and huge fissures split open in the earth.

"What kind of petty thieves dare to release the Ghost King in private!"

An angry voice, accompanied by another golden sword Qi that was brilliant to the extreme, rose up once more.

The giant magic palm attacked again, but this time, it only blocked for an instant before being torn apart.

The golden sword Qi turned into a rainbow light, circling Mount Luofeng like a giant dragon.

Suddenly, Pang Renxiong, who had leaped out, had golden light flickering in his eyes; he did not look at where the three light pillars were, but instead cast his gaze toward the western district of the inner city of Dahe Market.

"You rats hiding your heads and showing your tails, get out here!"

He pointed his fingers like a sword, and the golden sword dragon above his head instantly emitted a deafening sword hum.

It whistled away!

This was his full-strength strike; as long as it was unleashed, he had a great chance of taking the enemy's life.

Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit; with the Ghost King present, he could not afford to hold anything back.

However!

A sword light no less inferior to his own erupted from within his body.

From the inside out, it slashed off one-third of the tail of that golden sword dragon.

The remaining giant sword dragon, although still slashing in the original direction, had its power greatly diminished.

In the northern district of the inner city, a pitch-black palm raised up, forcefully meeting the giant sword dragon.

Boom!

A violent explosion sounded.

Surging air waves spread continuously with the western district as the center, almost turning most of the inner city into ruins.

A figure shrouded in a gray robe slowly rose from the ruins.

He looked at Pang Renxiong and nodded slightly.

"Fellow Daoist Pang, greetings."

Facing his greeting, Pang Renxiong ignored him completely.

Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, and he lowered his head with a gloomy expression; a sword pellet that was no longer dim was trembling frantically, wanting to break free.

But under his powerful magic power blockade, it was trapped firmly in his palm.

Just now, it was this sword pellet, which he had accidentally recovered yesterday, that had erupted with a sword Qi so bizarrely that it destroyed thirty percent of his peak strike's power.

So much so that he could not complete his task and kill the great enemy.

His palm gripped the sword pellet fiercely.

Pang Renxiong raised his head, staring fixedly at the other party.

"You tampered with the sword pellet of that demonic cultivator!"

"As expected of a Yuding sword cultivator!" The gray-robed cultivator praised, then laughed, "Pity, you discovered it too late."

It was indeed too late!

Since the peak strike did not take effect immediately, the other party would certainly not give him another chance to calmly execute that move again.

Pang Renxiong felt a trace of regret.

After obtaining this sword pellet yesterday, he had been saddened by the fall of his fellow sect member and had not checked it carefully.

In reality, most people would not overly inspect a sword pellet that had lost its master.

When the sword is there, the person is there; when the sword dies, the person dies.

That black-robed demonic cultivator was already dead; who would have thought that someone could still drive the leftover sword pellet?

Thinking of how he had once been proud of his secret move in the Demon-Locking Tower, killing a great enemy of the same rank.

He had not expected that just one day later, it would be his turn to be successfully ambushed by the enemy's secret move.

The anger in Pang Renxiong's heart had reached its peak.

Yet he still suppressed that anger and said bitterly,

"I said yesterday that the demonic cultivator's use of the sword pellet was all show and no substance. At the time, I thought he hadn't mastered the method, but I never expected that the true owner of this sword pellet was you!"

The gray-robed cultivator nodded, "It was indeed me who deliberately sent it to Lu Jiushi through the black market. He was merely a loose Core Formation cultivator who hadn't joined the Lianyun Alliance for long and didn't even have a natal magic treasure; a sword pellet of magic treasure grade was naturally treasured by him."

"In other words, the person who killed Fei Bowen was also you?"

Facing Pang Renxiong's getting to the bottom of it, the gray-robed cultivator said helplessly, "At a time like this, you still care about these things; don't you think it's already too late?"

"Late?"

"No, it's not too late!"

"You don't think you're a match for this old man, do you?"

Facing the powerful pressure Pang Renxiong erupted with.

The gray-robed cultivator smiled lightly, his body drifting backward.

"No!"

"Your opponent is not me, yo!"

Hearing this, Pang Renxiong's expression changed drastically, and his peerless spiritual sense swept in all directions.

In the inner city of Dahe Market, from the east, south, and north, three cold and gloomy auras had already locked onto him firmly.

Three black figures, each several dozen zhang tall, crawled out from the fissures in the earth silently, stood straight, and bathed in the warmth of the blazing sun.

"You deserve to die!"

"You truly deserve to die!"

"To actually treat the lives of tens of thousands of loose cultivators in Dahe Market like ants, privately releasing the three great Ghost Kings suppressed for hundreds of years."

Pang Renxiong said these words through gritted teeth.

Beside him, black threads were crisscrossing, wanting to bind him.

Wisps of sword Qi flew out from within his body, shredding those black threads.

These black threads were not simple.

They were the natal ghost Qi of the three Ghost Kings; even after being suppressed by the Dahe Market's array and worn down for hundreds of years, they still retained some.

Not only that, they even had a faint connection with this region.

At this moment, it appeared as if the three Ghost Kings were trapping Pang Renxiong with their natal ghost Qi, but in reality, it was this Dahe Market that was trapping the other party.

Watching this scene, the gray-robed cultivator who kept flying backward just smiled lightly, saying nothing.

"You have violated the Yuding regulations and will be hunted by the Yuding Sword Sect for the rest of your life; where can you escape to!"

Seeing that the person still did not answer.

Pang Renxiong reached out and summoned the natal sword pellet hidden in the void into his hand, turning it into a solidified giant golden sword.

"You don't think that three Ghost Kings who have been suppressed for hundreds of years and are about to be worn away can kill me!"

As he spoke, the three Ghost Kings moved!

Each took a step, running toward Mount Luofeng with a rumbling sound.

Wherever they passed, ghost Qi swirled, and all living things along the way were wiped out as soon as they were rolled up by the ghost Qi.

Large swaths of cultivator souls replenished them, making their originally void bodies gradually solidify.

Six pairs of ghost eyes glowed with green light, resembling lanterns.

At this moment, Dahe Market had already fallen into a human ghost realm.

"Luo Tianhong, Deacon Miao Wen!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

Two figures flew out from the Sword Pavilion.

"Activate the third-tier array!"

"Yes!" "Yes!"

Without the slightest hesitation, the two Foundation Establishment cultivators unleashed large swaths of spiritual power, injecting it into the main pavilion of the Sword Pavilion beneath their feet.

A vast curtain of light appeared instantly from south to north.

Firmly defending the entire inner city of Dahe Market.

Seeing this scene, the gray-robed cultivator finally stopped his backward movement.

He raised his head, looking at the curtain of light covering his head.

"A third-tier array, a good method indeed."

"Pity, there is only one large first-tier spiritual vein; it cannot bear the burden!"

The way of arrays contains the ultimate truths of the Great Dao.

It is not just a few array flags and an array disk.

Especially a third-tier array; the various restrictions involved numbered in the tens of thousands.

Relying solely on array tools, it is impossible to unleash its power; one must borrow a spiritual vein of the corresponding rank to deploy it calmly.

However, Dahe Market only had one large first-tier spiritual vein, which did not match a third-tier array.

Almost the moment the array appeared, a rumbling sound came from Mount Luofeng.

Countless streams of spiritual energy light were drawn by the array like a dragon drinking water.

Large swaths of mountain rocks rolled down from the mountain.

That Dao-Discussion Platform, which had only been built not long ago, collapsed with a boom amidst violent trembling!

Never to regain its past glory.

Facing this scene, the Yuding sword cultivator did not seem surprised.

The two Foundation Establishment cultivators responsible for controlling the array—Luo Tianhong—sneered.

"Short-sighted, how would you know the mysteries of our Yuding array. Retract!"

"Retract!"

Deacon Miao Wen's voice also came from the side.

The next moment, the curtain of light covering Dahe Market retracted continuously at an unimaginable speed, finally wrapping Mount Luofeng tightly.

At this time, its power finally reached its peak.

At the same time, Pang Renxiong had already engaged in battle with the three Ghost Kings.

The majestic sword light crisscrossed in the boundless ghost Qi, showing not the slightest sign of decline.

Seeing this, the gray-robed cultivator was unhurried, sitting cross-legged in the void.

His eyes closed, seemingly indifferent to the outside world.

But only Pang Renxiong, who was also Core Formation, knew that the other party's spiritual sense was trembling violently.

"What kind of method is this, why can you control three Ghost King-level existences?"

"Not talking?"

"You don't think that just by relying on these three Ghost Kings, you can grind me to death!"

"Come, let me see how many more methods you have!"

"President, what exactly happened to Dahe Market?"

Zhou Yuanli, who was always extremely calm, now had a look of horror, no longer possessing that composure where he wouldn't change his expression even if Mount Tai collapsed before him.

Beside him, Liu Qiang was trembling continuously.

Luo Chen swallowed his saliva, his expression fearful.

From those three black figures standing tall between heaven and earth, he sensed a trace of a familiar aura.

He blurted out,

"Ghost King!"

"Those are the three Ghost Kings suppressed by Dahe Market for hundreds of years!"

Suddenly, he remembered where that familiar feeling came from.

If nothing went wrong, the Ghost King in the north was the one beneath the inverted room where he lived year-round.

On the first day he moved into the Sihe Academy, Gu Caiyi had mentioned this existence.

The reason why the rent in that area north of the city was relatively cheap.

Was also because this Ghost King was suppressed there, leading to a gloomy atmosphere, unsuitable for many cultivators to practice.

"Who exactly is this gray-robed cultivator, to be so insane as to release such terrifying things."

Ghost Kings were not common things.

Among ghosts, the realms are divided into Ghost Soldier, Ghost General, Ghost King, and Ghost Emperor.

A very clear and easy-to-understand standard of division.

Among them, the Ghost King corresponds to the human Core Formation and the demon Beast King.

In other words, Pang Renxiong was currently in a fierce battle with three existences of the same rank.

"No, there are more than three; that gray-robed cultivator must also be a Core Formation existence."

"Pang Renxiong is fighting one against four!"

"Can he win?"

Luo Chen dared not think further.

If the other party lost, the fate Dahe Market would face was unimaginable.

No, perhaps the tip of the iceberg had already been revealed.

Luo Chen's eyes shifted with difficulty from the center of the great battle and landed on the devastated, ghost-ridden Great River Market.

He didn't know how many inner city cultivators had died within it.

Hearing that it was a Ghost King existence, Zhou Yuanli and Liu Qiang, even though they had been mentally prepared, now had snow-white expressions.

Things that were previously legendary had now truly arrived before them.

They were merely mere Qi Refining cultivators, and a huge sense of powerlessness welled up in their hearts.

Seeing the two of them dazed, Luo Chen cursed silently.

In this battle, they absolutely must not get involved.

"This place cannot be stayed in for long, return to Xieyue Valley quickly!"

Xieyue Valley was several hundred miles away from the inner city of Dahe Market and would not be affected by the Core Formation battle for the time being.

Moreover, they had operated there for a period of time and set up a Five Elements Array.

Only by returning there and defending the position could they be a little safer.

Most importantly, they needed to tell the members of the Luo Tian Society what had happened in the inner city.

The three of them did not hesitate, erupting with extreme speed, crossing the outer city area all the way.

While flying, Luo Chen's thoughts turned continuously, ending only in a bitter smile that was complex to the extreme.

They had already made preparations to leave Dahe Market; how could such a change occur when things came to a head?

Sure enough, plans never keep up with changes!

He wondered what expressions the friends who had just said goodbye to him would have when they saw him return.

Suddenly, Luo Chen's figure paused slightly.

His gaze fell to the ground.

"President, what's wrong?"

Zhou Yuanli and Liu Qiang stopped hurriedly.

Following his line of sight, they also looked at the ground.

Ten cultivators shrouded in black robes, instead of retreating, advanced, moving rapidly toward the inner city of Dahe Market against the many fleeing escape lights.

And it wasn't just this one place.

In other areas, there were similar teams.

Seeming to notice the gaze, the leader of one team raised his head, meeting Luo Chen's gaze.

"It's him!"

Looking at that familiar golden dragon mask, Luo Chen was horrified.

Forcing himself to shift his gaze away, he cupped his hands in greeting to that cultivator.

Then, he flew away with his two subordinates without hesitation.

On the ground!

"My lord, what's wrong?"

Tian Xingzi withdrew his gaze and smiled slightly.

"Nothing, just saw an interesting little guy."

"Don't delay the big event, hurry to support Elder Linghu. If we're late, there won't be any credit for us."

Tian Xingzi!

Master of the Zhenlong Black Market in Dahe Market, a Foundation Establishment cultivator!

That golden dragon mask was the most prominent sign.

"Advancing instead of retreating, that means support."

"But they are cultivators from the Zhenlong Black Market and have nothing to do with the Yuding Sword Sect."

"In other words, they are supporting that suddenly appearing gray-robed Core Formation cultivator!"

Luo Chen felt as if there was an invisible net that had been woven for a very, very long time, and only today was it pulled tight by someone.

He had almost been caught in it.

However, the Zhenlong Black Market was actually also a mastermind.

This was a possibility he had completely not guessed.

Luo Chen recalled some things the black market cultivator had mentioned casually when he gave him the embroidered ball.

Relying on that embroidered ball magic tool, one could know the time the black market opened each month.

Even if one went to other markets, it still had an effect.

At that time, he was thinking that behind the Zhenlong Black Market, there must be a power organization not inferior to the Lianyun Alliance.

But now it seemed, he had thought too simply.

A power that dared to release a suppressed Ghost King and besiege a Yuding Core Formation cultivator was definitely not something the Lianyun Alliance could compare to.

And judging from the other party's organizational strength and powerful execution.

It was definitely not a level that an ordinary loose cultivator organization could reach.

"I'm afraid that behind the Zhenlong Black Market and the gray-robed Core Formation cultivator, there is a great sect that dares to challenge the Yuding Sword Sect!"

"Which one would it be?"

Luo Chen flew while racking his brains to think.

The Yuding Sword Sect was a superior sect that possessed a Nascent Soul True Person!

In this small territory of the Yuding Domain, there did not exist any superior sect that dared to challenge them.

The more famous Mount Ailao, Luoyun Sect, Ice Fortress, and Hundred Flowers Palace were also just Core Formation great sects.

They might haggle over every ounce for some benefits with the Yuding Sword Sect.

But involving the private initiation of war, that was definitely something they dared not do.

Don't you see that after a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator of Mount Ailao died, the sect's Supreme Elder went to the Yuding Sword Sect in person to demand an explanation?

The focus was on the two words "in person."

Looking aggressive, in reality, wasn't it just pretending to be "aggrieved"?

A sect's Supreme Elder going to someone else's house to complain, putting himself in danger, was in itself an act of showing weakness.

"So, is it an extraterritorial power?"

Just as Luo Chen was thinking, a group of people flew toward them.

From afar, someone shouted at them.

Seeing the people coming, Luo Chen also breathed a sigh of relief.

It was a group of cultivators from the Luo Tian Society, led by his good brother Wang Yuan.

"Return to Xieyue Valley first!"

"Talk as we go."

When they arrived at Xieyue Valley, Luo Chen had already explained the shocking changes inside Dahe Market clearly.

Everyone was extremely shocked!

A mere Dahe Market, what virtue and ability did it have to attract so many Core Formation cultivators to visit?

And after the shock, there was panic.

Because there were many cultivators living in the inner city, not to mention some leftover family property, just the relatives still left in the inner city made them worry endlessly.

Like Yuan Xiaoyue, tears streaming down her face, she once wanted to return to the inner city.

Just because her grandfather was still in the inner city.

Feng Xia held her tightly, urging her not to be impulsive.

But even Feng Xia had an irrepressible worry hanging from the corner of her eyes.

Her best friend Bai Meiling was still in the inner city!

There were not a few people with the same attitude as the two of them.

There was even Qu Lingjun wailing loudly, wanting to go back to save her parents.

Thanks to Luo Chen's high regard for Qu Hancheng, he had raised his salary several times.

With a full purse, he naturally wanted to change the living environment for his family, especially to give Qu Lingjun a place filled with spiritual energy to live.

So their family had also moved into the inner city a month ago.

But now, except for one old and one young, the few mortals in the family were all still in the inner city.

Luo Chen was also very helpless about the heavy and sad atmosphere in the Luo Tian Society.

After comforting them several times to no avail, he walked out of the Haoyue Hall accompanied by Wang Yuan.

"As you said, that Elder Pang Renxiong of the Yuding Sword Sect is being besieged by four people of the same rank; I'm afraid the situation is grim."

"Hmm."

"Then can you still go to the Yuding Sword Sect?"

Luo Chen scratched his head, revealing a naive look rarely seen in normal times.

Sure enough, he knew that returning after leaving would lead to this awkward encounter.

It turned out that the many expressions from last night and this morning were all for nothing!

"Although it's very inappropriate, I want to say, Brother Wang, can you return that bottle of Spirit Elixir I gave you?"

(End of chapter)

. ===== CHAPTER 160 =====