Chapter 459: Ghost Infant River

Hua Changxi hovered above the fissure, crimson flames curling and snapping around her, illuminating the broken but still imposing Vermillion Bird Formation on the rocky floor of the well.

Yet, the moment her gaze swept over the edge of the formation, her expression changed dramatically.

At the outer perimeter of the formation, hundreds of figures sat in a dense ring.

They sat cross-legged like mountains, and hanging from their waists were Vermillion Bird Tokens that Hua Changxi recognized at a glance.

Unfortunately, the Vermillion Bird totems on the tokens had long since lost their luster.

These people were the long-missing Vermillion Bird Army!

No!

There were too few!

According to the Vermillion Bird Army Roster, nearly a thousand soldiers had their names darkened, but here there were fewer than five hundred—meaning several hundred Vermillion Bird soldiers were still unaccounted for.

As the master of Lingguang Hall and the leader of the Vermillion Bird Army, Hua Changxi could hardly bear to look at the hundreds of soldiers before her.

Eroded by ghostly qi and scorched by ghost fire, their flesh had long withered; their skin clung tight to their bones, taking on a greenish-gray, stone-like texture. Only in their dantians remained a faint red flame, stubbornly flickering like a candle in the wind.

What was even more chilling was that every soldier had a crack split open in their forehead.

From those cracks, streams of pure soul force and vital blood flowed out like thin currents, merging into the patterns of the formation beneath their feet.

The entire Vermillion Bird Formation had not yet completely collapsed precisely because these hundreds of soldiers used their souls as fuel and their flesh as kindling, maintaining the formation's operation day and night!

Hua Changxi's wings trembled slightly, and a lump formed in her throat.

These Vermillion Bird soldiers were slowing the formation's total collapse through self-sacrifice.

Even with just a single fissure in the formation, the ghostly qi and ghost fire inside the prison tower were already so dense; once the formation ceased entirely, one could imagine that ghostly qi and ghost fire would sweep across the entire Nanxiang County.

"Hoo~"

Lotus flames bloomed beneath each Vermillion Bird soldier, while dozens of Fire God Stones were arranged around them.

With the formation breached, Hua Changxi could not rescue these soldiers at this moment; she could only hope that the lotus flames and Fire God Stones would buy them a little more time.

The next moment, Hua Changxi flew into the formation and stared at the fissure at its center.

Then she took a deep breath. Southern Bright Lihuo blazed into a red-gold barrier along the edges of her wings, and with a single flap, she plunged without hesitation into the fissure.

In an instant, heaven and earth spun, time and space tore apart.

Her body was drawn into a twisted void passage. Around her, there were not only ghostly qi and ghost fire but also countless broken lights and shadows, wails—the lingering echoes of torn souls and stubborn obsessions.

Amid the chaotic turbulence, only the nine blood-colored chains served as guiding threads, piercing through the illusion and pointing straight to the other shore.

After an unknown amount of time, Hua Changxi saw a dazzling green crack and abruptly dove toward it.

The moment she flew out of the crack, her body rapidly shrunk into a firebird the size of a thumb, and the scene before her suddenly transformed.

She hovered above a vast, boundless river of dark green.

The river water was not ordinary water, but condensed from endless resentment, death qi, and yin-sha qi, shining with a phosphorescent green glow as it flowed slowly.

Silent and soundless, yet it shattered one's mind.

Hua Changxi had no time to study the river; her attention was drawn to a scene near the center of the river.

Nine bloodline chains crisscrossed to weave a blood cage. Within the cage floated a black token the size of a palm, radiating a faint green light.

At the same time, a ghostly hand formed of ghostly qi and covered with green ghost fire clutched the blood cage tightly.

The ghost hand extended from the dark green river and was connected to it; whenever the ghostly qi on the hand thinned or the ghost fire weakened, the river would release ghostly qi and ghost fire to replenish it.

Although Hua Changxi had concealed her aura to the utmost, her appearance still caused the green river to tremble.

Sensing something approaching the riverbank, Hua Changxi's expression shifted. With a "whoosh," she flew above the blood cage.

The thumb-sized firebird quickly submerged into the red light on the chains.

"Why did the Ghost Infant River suddenly start shaking?"

Several ghost tribesmen clad in black robes appeared on the riverbank directly facing the blood cage.

"Could it be that the humans on the other side of the Ghost Fire Well are trying to take back the Ghost Fire Token?"

"Probably. Should we notify the Ghost Marshal and have him come take a look?"

"Forget it. The Ghost Marshal just went over to the altar—most likely to refine the Vermilion Bird bone that the humans offered. We'd better not disturb him, or if he gets angry, we'll all be torn apart."

"True. That Vermilion Bird bone is the formation core sealing the Ghostfire Well. Once he refines it, he can freely open the Well's restrictions, and then our ghost clan can freely enter and leave the human world."

"If the Ghost Marshal also seizes the Ghostfire Token, that nine-story prison tower built over the Ghostfire Well will become ours. It's said that tower is a Dao weapon containing the sound of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth—if you comprehend it, you might even become a Dao Lord."

"No wonder the Ghost Marshal takes the anomaly at the Ghost Infant River so seriously and personally came to guard it."

The several ghosts chatted and laughed as they left.

As soon as they were gone, Hua Changxi flew out and stared in the direction they had gone, her gaze sharp.

"Vermilion Bird bone... formation core..."

So the reason the formation was broken was because the formation core had been taken!

Then the rift she had crossed through earlier must be where the formation core had been placed.

She definitely needed to retrieve the Ghostfire Token, and at the same time, take back the Vermilion Bird bone that served as the formation core.

Hua Changxi withdrew her gaze and looked at the Ghostfire Token in the blood cage.

On one side of the Ghostfire Token was a relief of a closed-eyed Vermilion Bird standing atop a black well, with the posture of "using the might of the divine bird to suppress the chaos of the underworld." On the other side were engraved the words "Ghostfire."

Having once occupied six blessed cave heavens, Hua Changxi looked at the Ghostfire Token and immediately thought of a way to refine it—by making the Vermilion Bird on the Token open its eyes.

She had already cultivated a Vermilion Bird spiritual body, and her blood naturally carried the will of the Vermilion Bird. Shouldn't that be able to make the bird on the Token open its eyes?

Hua Changxi decided to try it, but before that, she still had to deal with the ghost hands gripping the blood cage.

"Hoo~"

A fire lotus the size of a thumb drifted down and landed on the ghost hands that were stubbornly clutching the blood cage.

As the fire lotus sank in, the ghost hands instantly faded a bit.

Immediately afterward, ghostly qi from the Ghost Infant River dispersed and filled in the parts of the ghost hands that had been melted away by the fire lotus.

After repeating this several times and seeing no other reaction from the ghost hands, Hua Changxi realized that the ghost hands had no "consciousness" and required manual control.

Seeing that no ghost came to investigate during this time, Hua Changxi relaxed slightly. Without further hesitation, the next moment, a drop of essence blood flew out and sank into the Ghostfire Token.

As the essence blood entered, the Ghostfire Token immediately began to vibrate. Then a crimson light flared, directly suppressing the green light on the Token.

The blood chains, sensing the anomaly of the Ghostfire Token, instinctively tightened.

At the moment the blood chains tightened, the ghost hands also instinctively began to pull.

The tug-of-war started again.

Hua Changxi grew anxious, worried that Jingsheng couldn't withstand such violent pulling. Fortunately, at that moment, the Vermilion Bird relief on the Ghostfire Token opened its eyes.

In an instant, Hua Changxi sensed a connection with the Ghostfire Token and immediately commanded it to stop vibrating.

"Why is the Ghost Infant River shaking again?"

The same group of ghosts reappeared, looking at the surging Ghost Infant River and the tightening ghost hands, cursing under their breath.

"The Ghost Infant River keeps shaking—we have to tell the Ghost Marshal. If something goes wrong, we can't take the blame."