Chapter 912

Demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters — Wu Tie likes ghosts the most.

Indeed, compared to the unfathomable strangeness of monsters, the physically strong demons, the vicious and cruel devils, ghosts — a kind of aberrant being born after living beings die, infected by the yin and evil qi between heaven and earth — are the most fragile.

They fear light, fear thunder, dread fire; whether Daoist, Buddhist, or the righteous vigor of scholars, all can effectively inflict great harm upon them.

Just as Wu Tie was doing at this moment, he pressed his palm against that giant mulberry, wave after wave of thick and pure supreme yang qi continuously poured into the giant mulberry; instantly this giant mulberry standing nearly a thousand li tall ignited like a torch.

The three-legged golden crow perched atop the giant mulberry let out an even more joyous, earth‑shaking cry.

The heavenly true sun fire swept down; within a range of millions of li, countless evil spirits turned into wisps of green smoke and vanished.

The mournful, wailing cries of the Skin‑Ghost Lord still echoed in the void, while the six Ghost Lords submerged in the lava had been scorched by the true sun fire until their bodies were rotted through, each letting out unbearable screams of pain.

"Skin Beauty!" bellowed a cow‑headed, human‑bodied Ghost Lord whose entire frame was nothing but slick green bone, with not a scrap of flesh: "You killed Skin Beauty… she was the ghost‑woman we cherished!"

Wu Tie raised his right hand; the innate yin and yang qi surged, merging with the thunder Dao seal, transforming into a black‑and‑white bolt of Exterminate‑Devil Divine Thunder as thick as a thumb that slammed down from the heavens, heavily striking the cow‑headed Ghost Lord's head and cleaving a water‑tank‑sized hole in his bovine skull several zhang wide.

The Skin‑Ghost Lord was disintegrating, wailing, while thread after thread of extremely yin and evil sticky ghost qi kept oozing from her shattered body.

Wu Tie's thought stirred slightly.

The Five Elements Daoist, the Vast Sea Daoist, and the Yin‑Yang Daoist — Wu Tie's three corpses avatars — shot straight from the north, using the strange bond with Wu Tie's true self, tearing through space to appear beside him.

The Six Desires Devil Lord, the Crimson Lotus Devil Lord, the Sarira Bone Lord, the Yellow Springs Three Lords, together with the three corpses avatars and Wu Tie's true self — fifteen venerable beings — launched an all‑out assault on the six Ghost Lords.

Moreover, the giant mulberry released blinding golden light, the three‑legged golden crow cried out loudly, the overwhelming true sun fire greatly weakened the Ghost Lords' strength, and the spark fire from the Heavenly Dao furnace surged forth, forming a sea of flames that blanketed the void for hundreds of thousands of li around.

The six great Ghost Lords were besieged; they screamed and shrieked as they struggled out of the huge lava pit, fleeing in disarray under the scorching true sun fire.

The black sword darted through the void, the surrounding space folding frenziedly — a step that seemed short spanned millions of li of overlapped void, rendering the Ghost Lords unable to move an inch.

The black sword sang with a joyous tone as it repeatedly pierced the bodies of the six Ghost Lords, steadily weakening them.

The Primordial Crown operated at full power as Wu Tie activated the time Dao seal; he extended a great hand, flowing back along the river of ages to past eras. His internal mana burned rapidly, and at the instant his power was nearly exhausted, Wu Tie seized the temporal imprint left by the cow‑headed Ghost Lord ten million years ago.

A faint Buddhist Zen light emanated from Wu Tie's palm, then he lightly brushed it.

Three Dao seals rose from within the cow‑headed Ghost Lord's body; he shrieked and screamed, continually urging the power of the Heavenly Dao to shield himself.

Yet his form gradually faded; Wu Tie erased his existence upon the river of time, and he struggled desperately, striving to maintain a trace of his presence in the present world.

But the erasing force was too strong; the cow‑headed Ghost Lord had already been wounded by Wu Tie's thunderbolt, he struggled for a long time, and finally his ghostly body shattered completely.

"No! Old Ox Ghost!" the remaining five great Ghost Lords cried out in unison.

"Pursue the fleeing enemy with remaining courage; do not seek fame by imitating a hegemon… Brothers, kill!" the Vast Sea Daoist exclaimed enthusiastically, throwing his head back in a long whistle as 108 Vast Sea Divine Pearls shot forth like flying bolts, continually shuttling through the void and smashing with tremendous force.

Each Vast Sea Divine Pearl contained the power of a world; the Vast Sea Daoist perfectly replicated Wu Tie's ten Dao seals, and among the three corpses avatars his cultivation was the strongest. Under his full activation, each heavy strike of a Vast Sea Divine Pearl pounded the five Ghost Lords' bodies, causing them to continually crumble.

The Sarira Bone Lord and the Yellow Springs Three Lords had already defected to Wu Tie; perhaps with a sense of desperate abandon, these four Ghost Lords attacked their former comrades without mercy, unleashing various vicious means that left the five Ghost Lords quite embarrassed.

Moreover, several Devil Lords joined the battle; Wu Tie's true self possessed overwhelming battle power, and the secret treasure in his hand was immensely powerful.

The five Ghost Lords even brought out their hidden ghost treasures, but Wu Tie erased the divine‑soul imprints within them with his Myriad Transformations Catastrophe Hand, and then the surging Great Dao furnace swallowed them whole.

Driven to the extreme, the five Ghost Lords howled and cursed; under their urging, within the Southern Ghost Kingdom boundless yin wind rose slowly, and countless low‑rank ghosts chirping 'squeak‑squeak' turned into an endless tide of ghostly monsters that surged toward the Sui Dynasty's territory.

Among the four realms of demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters, the Northern Monster Kingdom has the fewest inhabitants, the Eastern Devil Kingdom's population is the most stable, the Western Demon Kingdom's numbers fluctuate wildly, while only the Southern Ghost Kingdom's populace steadily and continuously grows.

Indeed, the citizens of the Ghost Kingdom have no need for living conditions or logistical rations; the Sui Dynasty wages war year after year against the four neighboring enemies, with untold numbers of soldiers dying in battle, plus the Sui Dynasty's natural deaths of people and livestock, and untold numbers of souls are drawn by the Ghost Lords' soul‑banners and forcibly converted into ghost bodies.

Thus the total population of the Ghost Kingdom may equal that of the Sui Dynasty plus the combined totals of the other Devil, Monster, and Demon Kingdoms.

At this moment the five Great Ghost Lords simultaneously activated, and the boundless ghosts covering mountains and fields stirred up a towering yin wind and evil qi, marching to invade the Sui Dynasty.

Wu Tie only saw a black cloud rising from the distant horizon, then dark qi filling the void; at a glance he could not discern how many ghosts were rolling toward him. Even with his current strength, he could not see the edge of this ghostly tide at a single glance.

Wu Tie came to understand: these Ghost Lords of the Ghost Kingdom are weaker than the Profound Bone Devil Lords, yet the Ghost Kingdom can stand equal to the other three realms and become one of the Sui Dynasty's four great calamities — this immeasurable multitude of ghosts is the Ghost Kingdom's greatest foundation.

Drawing a deep breath, Wu Tie said in a low voice: "Today, no matter how many evil spirits there are, they cannot save your lives."

Wu Tie had the Vast Sea Daoist and the others continue besieging the five Great Ghost Lords, while he himself shot upward and manifested the Pangu True Form.

After condensing the Dao seals, Wu Tie's manifested Pangu True Form stood three thousand li tall, majestic and vast, like a mountain range floating in the void.

"You ought not linger in the human realm; go where you belong."

Heavenly and earthly primordial energy surged from all directions; the mana just exhausted by activating the Primordial Crown was rapidly replenished, then burned again at high speed.

Behind Wu Tie appeared a round of radiant golden Buddha light.

Using the secret transmission of the Pangu True Form from the Azure Lotus Observatory, Wu Tie unleashed the salvation Zen light passed down in secret by the Crimson Lotus Temple.

The golden Buddha light illuminated heaven and earth; countless lowest‑rank ghosts, upon being touched by the light, had their ghostly qi swept away instantly, turning into rows of translucent auspicious silhouettes that bowed three times to Wu Tie before naturally fading away.

Although the Heavenly Dao of Mu Dalu has been mingled with various and sundry rules from the gods, the basic law governing the operation of heaven and earth remains.

These souls were all salvaged into the six paths of reincarnation, returning to the life courses they ought to have.

As these ghosts were continually salvaged, in the void one could see with the naked eye faint strands of extremely fine xuanhuang qi descending; salvaging ghosts brings merit, and Wu Tie, releasing Buddhist salvation Zen light from his three‑thousand‑li‑high Pangu True Form, had saved how many ghosts — certainly more than ten billion?

Specks of golden light fell upon Wu Tie, merging into his body; gradually, behind his head a round of light formed from condensed purple‑qi and gold appeared.

"No!" echoed from mid‑air, where a Ghost Lord besieged by a crowd of Ghost Lords, Devil Lords, and Wu Tie's avatars let out a mournful wail.

These low‑rank ghosts are the foundation of their Ghost Kingdom.

The Ghost Kingdom relies on this vast number of ghosts to secure a place among the four realms of demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters.

In the Ghost Kingdom, ghosts spread everywhere are not only the servants of these Ghost Lords, but also the basis for forming great arrays, the sustenance for enhancing their power, and the medicinal pills for restoring their strength.

They are the very foundation of the Ghost Kingdom.

A single salvation Zen light from Wu Tie instantly purified and salvaged countless low‑rank ghosts beyond number, granting Wu Tie immense heavenly merit while dealing a grave blow to the Ghost Kingdom's vital energy.

"Come!" cried a Ghost Lord with a human head and serpent body, whose back bore twelve pairs of arms, as he threw back his head in a long howl.

He opened his mouth and drew a deep breath; instantly the yin‑qi ghost clouds from all over the sky came howling, forcefully withstanding Wu Tie's salvation Zen light and the heavenly true sun fire, turning into a stream of black qi that he continually swallowed into his belly.

Even though Wu Tie's salvation was swift and the true sun fire's power boundless, when the endless low‑rank ghosts blanketing heaven and earth piled together and fearlessly charged forward, Wu Tie could not keep up with the salvations, nor could the true sun fire exterminate them all.

The aura of the human‑headed serpent‑bodied Ghost Lord shot straight upward, his strength growing ever stronger and his eyes ever brighter.

Suddenly, the twelve pairs of arms on the Ghost Lord's back exploded, transforming from arms into twelve pairs of enormous black‑gray wings. The vast wings resembled those of a great peng, hanging down heavily; where the wing tips touched the ground, huge expanses of death‑filled desert sprang up instantly.

Having devoured untold hundreds of millions of low‑rank ghosts, this Ghost Lord underwent a mutation.

With the twelve pairs of wings spread wide, this Ghost Lord refused to linger in battle; he gave his wings a fierce sweep, a wicked wind flashed past, and in an instant he shot out millions of li, directly escaping the range of Wu Tie's salvation Zen light and the true sun fire.

Wu Tie gave a strange laugh, he waved his hand forward, and the space around the human-headed serpent-bodied ghost venerable, with length, width, and height each about a hundred li, suddenly split open.

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It was as if a magical sword had directly cleaved a cube with each side a hundred li in the void, and the fleeing ghost venerable happened to be inside that cube.

The next moment, the void beside Wu Tie likewise split open, forming a cube of the same size.

Then the two cubes swapped places; the ghost venerable who had already fled millions of li instantly returned to Wu Tie's side, facing him directly at a distance of about one chi.

"Ghost!" Even though this ghost venerable was one of the top experts of the Southern Ghost State, he was still frightened into a shrill scream by this strange occurrence.

"Ghost... hahaha!" Wu Tie roared with laughter at the ghost venerable, then he smashed the ghost venerable's mouthful of big teeth with a punch, thrust his fist into the opponent's mouth, spread his fingers, and unleashed a barrage of Five Elements Divine Thunder, Yin-Yang Divine Thunder, Chaos Divine Thunder, Slay-Evil Divine Thunder, Demon-Destroying Divine Thunder and more—the formidable thunder arts known between heaven and earth boomed forth.

The Thunder Dao Seal hovered above Wu Tie's head, flashing violently; the Thunder Great Dao empowered him, and with a flick of his finger thousands of thunder techniques blasted out continuously.

The body of this ghost venerable, several dozen li long, was held rigid as a straight iron rod, suspended in midair.

From the side, the Yin-Yang Daoist tilted his head back and let out a long whistle, waving both hands; the yin and yang qi transformed into a black and a white light sword, which with a hiss sliced down, cutting the tall, slender ghost venerable into three sections.

The ill-fated ghost venerable roared, and four ghost seals within him rose into the air, emitting eerie gray, white, green, and blue ghost light that illuminated the void.

But before he could activate the ghost Dao seal he had condensed to attack Wu Tie, the three-legged golden crow perched on the Fusang tree let out a long cry, coughing up several droplets of golden, shiny, viscous, high-temperature blood plasma like molten magma from its throat, which it spat from afar onto the four ghost seals.

The human-headed, serpent-bodied ghost venerable suddenly stiffened all over, and the scales on its body simultaneously spewed out pungent, high-temperature smoke.

As ghosts, their nature is mostly yin-cold and evil, and this ghost venerable is no exception.

Originally as cold as an ice cave, this ghost venerable could now spew out high-temperature smoke like molten magma, showing how great the injury it had suffered.

"I surrender, I surrender… please don't let me die… I… I can't die!" The ghost venerable, a barefaced fellow, curled up in midair and wailed at Wu Tie: "I'm already a ghost; if I die again, I won't even be a ghost… please let me live, please let me live— as long as I can live, I'll be your slave or servant, do as you wish!"

Wu Tie burst out laughing, immediately gripping his black sword and striking the opponent's head hard with the hilt: "Release your innate spiritual light, let this king empower the seal… hahaha!"

Soon after, the human-headed, serpent-bodied ghost venerable also joined the siege against the remaining four great ghost venerables.

Thus, after a quarter of an hour, the four great ghost venerables, while cursing the Heavenly Mother, knelt and begged for mercy, offering their allegiance to Wu Tie.

Wu Tie acted according to the law, bringing all five great ghost venerables under his control, then he pointed fiercely at the pitch-black, yin-qi-filled Southern Ghost State and said: "Gentlemen, follow me to level the Ghost State and restore this ghostly realm to a bright heaven and earth!"

Including the Sharira Bone Venerable, the Three Yellow Springs Venerables, and the Five Great Ghost Venerables, the ghost venerables who had surrendered to Wu Tie each wore a look of regret as they gazed at the territory of the Southern Ghost State.

After a long while, the Sharira Bone Supreme finally sighed: "Your Majesty, we naturally follow Your Majesty."

Wu Tie smiled and nodded, taking command of the gathered ghost venerables and demon venerables, conscripting a large force of the Sui Chao's southern border garrison on the spot, and mightily marched into the territory of the Ghost State.

Along the way, countless ghost caverns were leveled, countless deep valleys filled in…

To level the courts and sweep the lairs—nothing surpasses this.