Chapter 913

Southern Ghost Country, the Greater and Lesser Yin Mountains.

These are two east-west parallel mountain ranges, stretching west to east for trillions of li, with roughly a million li between them, like two towering walls that enclose a long strip of plain.

The Yin Wind Wilderness is the name of that plain between the Greater and Lesser Yin Mountains.

Here, countless ghost dens are spread, hiding countless ghosts and monsters, the number of which is endless.

Moreover, an ancient ghost who fell long ago, regarded as the founding ancestor of the Ghost Country, used great supernatural powers to shift countless underground veins of extreme yin qi from below, linking them to the Yin Wind Wilderness.

Here, by day it is overcast with black clouds and no sunlight; the ground's yin qi is thick like tidewater, surging wildly in all directions with the raging wind. Moreover, the vicious restrictions set up by generations of Ghost Sovereigns mean that, in past years, simply throwing a dry skeleton into the Yin Wind Wilderness for a few years would spawn an extremely powerful great ghost.

This can be called the foundation of the Ghost Country, the lair of the Ghost Sovereigns.

Including Wu Tie's subordinate Sharira Ghost Sovereign, the Yellow Springs Three Sovereigns, and the five great Ghost Sovereigns who have just defected, their lairs are all in the Yin Wind Wilderness.

At this moment, countless ghosts gather in the Yin Wind Wilderness.

The Nine Great Ghost Sovereigns raised the Soul-summoning Banner; the vast Ghost Country, hearing the call, saw countless ghosts stir and flock to the Yin Wind Wilderness.

Wu Tie, the Yin-Yang Daoist, the Canghai Daoist, and the Five Elements Daoist stood side by side in midair; whether true bodies or avatars, they simultaneously displayed the Buddhist Salvation Zen Light, like four small suns illuminating most of the Yin Wind Wilderness.

The countless summoned ghosts, upon touching the golden light, let out a long wail neither sorrowful nor joy; the yin and evil qi accumulated over countless years within them was cleansed spotless, their bodies gradually turned translucent, emitting a faint white light, and after bowing reverently to Wu Tie and his three companions, they vanished into reincarnation.

Thus, this continued for half a month.

The Ghost Sovereigns' raised Soul-summoning Banner has another marvelous use: any ghost that senses its power, no matter how weak, will see its flying speed increase dramatically.

Ghost beings naturally fly without trace; evasion speed is their forte.

After receiving the blessing of the Soul-summoning Banner, the flying speed of these spirits became even swifter; in just half a month, nearly seventy percent of the spirits in the Ghost Nation had already been guided to reincarnation by Wu Tie.

Behind Wu Tie's true form, a circle condensed into substantive merit-golden light, suffused with golden light and purple aura, its diameter spanning tens of thousands of zhang and its thickness hundreds of zhang, resembling a heavy golden disc hanging behind Wu Tie's head, appearing extraordinarily astonishing.

Having guided so many spirits, the merit power Wu Tie obtained was excessively vast; within this circle of merit-golden light, some strange changes seemed to be brewing.

Wu Tie simply had no leisure to attend to these changes.

In the vast Ghost Nation, only a few scattered spirits abroad had not yet had time to come receive guidance; with the cooperation of several ghost sovereigns, this matter was largely to be completed.

Leaving the Five Elements Daoist to continue guarding the Ghost Nation, employing Buddhist methods to guide the remaining spirits, and also leaving the five great ghost sovereigns who had just defected to assist, Wu Tie brought the Canghai Daoist, Yin-Yang Daoist, Scarlet Lotus Demon Sovereign, Sharira Ghost Sovereign, the Three Sovereigns of Huangquan, the Six Desires Demon Sovereign, and others, racing northward at utmost speed.

After the Black Flower Reincarnation Buddha and the Great Bronze Monster Mirror were slain, the northern region enjoyed a period of calm.

But as Wu Tie drew the Yin-Yang Daoist and the others away to the Ghost Nation, the northern Monster Realm began to stir again. While Wu Tie was guiding those spirits in the Yin Wind Wasteland, the north kept sending urgent military reports.

The northern frontier of the Sui Dynasty, with its dry climate, scorching summers and freezing winters, had land somewhat poorer than other parts of the Sui realm; yet owing to the Sui continent's natural advantages, its land was still more than ten times better than that of the Three Kingdoms continent.

However, the land of the northern frontier began to desertify inexplicably overnight.

Vast rivers and streams vanished into thin air; great mountains and peaks turned into dunes; forests and grasslands were swallowed by sand; the soil that could once be squeezed for oil became extremely impoverished in just a few days, and then quickly turned into the neighboring.

Accompanying the desertification, many plants characteristic of desert regions, such as giant cactus-like pillars, sprang up in profusion.

These giant cactus-like pillars, over a hundred zhang tall, were entirely pale blood-red, and on their sturdy bodies faintly appeared the patterns of human facial features.

At night, these giant cactus-like pillars emit a faint weeping sound; the voice is mournful and plaintive, making listeners feel a chill.

The desert advanced southward from the north; when Wu Tie prepared to rush back north from the southern Ghost Nation, three military cities had already been unable to withstand the desert's encroachment, all soldiers and civilians having withdrawn, and every structure within those cities, as well as all fields, fisheries, pastures, forests and the like outside them, were completely swallowed by the sky-filling yellow sand.

The Wu clan elders stationed in the north, together with Li Xuan'gui and Yuan Qilin, two masters versed in feng shui and dragon veins, attempted to survey this desert and those bizarre giant cactus-like pillars.

The result was that the desert became restless, nearly burying the Wu clan elders alive.

Li Xuan'gui and Yuan Qilin were the weakest in strength and not skilled in frontal combat; they barely managed to escape from that desert.

Although the Wu clan elders such as Wu Yu came to their rescue, Li Xuan'gui and Yuan Qilin were still riddled with the long spikes spewed by the giant cactus-like pillars, like a sieve, and moreover poisoned by the strange toxin on those spikes; despite timely treatment, they still lie in bed unconscious.

Therefore, upon receiving the news, Wu Tie immediately led a large force in an urgent return to the north.

He didn't even have time to go to Sui Du to check on Feng Zhen's situation, nor to punish the wanton army under the Nine Kings that was causing chaos; he hurried straight to the northern region's largest military city, Dingbei City.

To the north of Dingbei City there were still dozens of small military cities serving as outposts.

The abruptly appearing desert had not yet engulfed those small outposts, which lay tens of thousands of li away from Dingbei City.

However, a scorching, anxious wind blew from the north, haze covering sky and earth; in every direction lay a misty, yellowish expanse, with fine dust continually falling from the air and evenly coating everything.

Within Dingbei City, buildings, flora, carriages and horses, together with pedestrians on the roads, were all covered with a layer of yellow dust, grimy and miserable.

What is even more astonishing is that such giant cactus-like pillars have occasionally appeared within Dingbei City.

In just a few days, several dozen places have seen giant cactus-like pillars emerge.

Within Dingbei City, the soldiers have so far suffered no casualties, but over a hundred civilians have already been killed or injured by the long spikes spewed from the giant cactus-like pillars.

Xiahou Ba, one of the Sui Dynasty's chief overseers of the north, stood beside Wu Tie and solemnly recounted to him everything that had happened these days.