The Wu Shang Manor and the Immortal Alliance looked towards Shuofang City. Above the Black River, the large mass of condensed darkness grew thicker, as if an endless night was about to swallow Fengdu.
The "black blanket" that swept over them seemed alive, forcibly draining the spiritual power of many immortal alliance disciples, leaving them as dried husks.
"Ah—"
"Quick, save them!"
"What in the world is going on? Why has the ghostly energy of Fengdu City suddenly become so potent?"
"Something is wrong. Look at the sky; it's becoming more and more grim and terrifying, as if an extraordinary power is awakening. I have an ominous premonition," said an elder who was adept at sensing the threads of fate.
The Shuofang Ghost King was also puzzled. However, seeing a force that was coming to his aid, he quickly made a decision in his heart: if he could seize this surge of ghostly energy... opportunity knocks but once.
The Meigu Ghost King became excited. Since the city’s protective barrier was broken, his anxious heart had finally settled.
"You cultivators, today I will have you all die in Fengdu! Once Fengdu absorbs your spiritual power, it will completely become a ghost city."
"Could it be you? What have you done?"
The Immortal Alliance members mistakenly believed his wild pronouncements were because the rolling ghostly energy was his doing.
While they were bickering, the Shuofang Ghost King slowly retreated. Once he spotted his chance, he suddenly struck.
However, the target of his attack was not the Immortal Alliance, but the three ghost kings in front of him, whom he pulled into his range of power.
The three city ghost kings had never expected the Shuofang Ghost King to attack them at this moment. Although the four ghost kings had always been at odds, each harboring the desire to replace the others and dominate, at a time when Fengdu's survival was at stake, they were all focused on dealing with the Immortal Alliance and had no defenses prepared.
"What are you doing? Dammit, are you crazy? Stop it at once!"
The Shuofang Ghost King ignored their angry curses and directly used his "Blood Demon Art" to drain the three city ghost kings, turning them into mummified corpses bit by bit.
Their deaths were just like those of the Blood Slaves turned into petrified corpses.
The subordinates of the various ghost city ghost kings and the participating ghost cultivators were stunned into silence.
The Shuofang Ghost King, having gained the power of the other three ghost kings, was instantly greatly strengthened, even growing a pair of horns on his forehead.
A ghost king with horns was a ghost emperor. However, the energy within his body was unstable, and the surging power was impacting his physical form, causing him to cry out in pain.
The Immortal Alliance members, upon seeing the Shuofang Ghost King's insane act of slaughtering his own allies, were shocked and confused, but they were also pleased to witness their infighting.
However, fate is unpredictable. The Shuofang Ghost King's attack on the other three city ghost kings was in fact to absorb their power for his own use.
The Blood Demon Art is a cultivation technique that can absorb the energy of others to replenish oneself. After initially supplementing the body with essence and blood, it can absorb the spiritual energy of one's own kind in the middle stage, and even absorb all forms of power into the body in the later stage.
Now that the Shuofang Ghost King had advanced to become a ghost emperor, his strength was more than that of the four ghost kings combined. In terms of combat power alone, everyone present combined would not be his match.
"What kind of technique is this? So malicious and inhumane?" someone exclaimed in astonishment.
晏天骄 (Yan Tianjiao), 陆子吟 (Lu Ziyin), and 汝兰 (Ru Lan), who were engaged in the mid-level combat of the Immortal Alliance, although focused on fighting, occasionally diverted their attention to survey their surroundings, searching for the person they sensed would appear.
However, the person they were waiting for never arrived, and the situation grew increasingly intense, reaching a critical moment of life and death.
A thunderous voice echoed through the clouds, rolling past their eardrums like thunder.
"You will all become sacrifices for my rule of twenty-eight days."
The Shuofang Ghost King had overcome his initial period of discomfort, and his form had also undergone significant changes. He grew to a height unattainable by humans, his pitch-black pupils with no whites were indifferent, his lips were purple, his hair was ink-black, and black mist swirled around him, making him like an ancient giant, impossible to fully behold even by craning one's neck.
"The Shuofang Ghost King has indeed cultivated a demonic art. With his current combat power, although not at its peak, he is exceptionally difficult to deal with," a Celestial Venerable said with a grim expression.
The "Blood Demon Art" is a demonic cultivation technique. Not only is it insidious and malicious, but although it allows demon race practitioners to advance by leaps and bounds, it is only applicable to the demon race. If other races cultivate this technique, it will lead to endless troubles.
Clearly, the Shuofang Ghost King was unaware of this situation and was instead smug about possessing a realm that others could never reach.
However, with his exposure, the people of Compassion City, Rong City, and Flower City now knew who was responsible for the Blood Slave incident.
It turned out that the Shuofang Ghost King had started cultivating the "Blood Demon Art" so early. Although the later stages would cause greater side effects, that was a matter for later. Now that he had obtained the power of the other three ghost kings, it was incredibly difficult for those present to deal with him.
Only the people of Wu Shang Manor saw through the Shuofang Ghost King's cultivation of the "Blood Demon Art." Others did not understand the situation and only realized that the Shuofang Ghost King might be the originator of everything, and the mastermind behind the current great battle between ghost cultivators and true immortals.
"Judging by his appearance, he should not know that after absorbing the power of others through the Blood Demon Art, it needs to be slowly assimilated. Taking advantage of his current inability to control the power within him, we must strike him down first," Bei Tang Lin said solemnly.
"Good!"
The people of Wu Shang Manor replied in unison.
Blood Demon Art?! The elders and others were stunned upon hearing this.
They finally understood the strange situation surrounding the Shuofang Ghost King.
But in this current situation, understanding was of no use. Ultimately, man proposes, God disposes. They did not know that by breaking the protective barrier of Fengdu Ghost City, they had also broken the boundary between the human realm and the ghost realm.
The life-claiming ghostly energy was no longer pure ghostly energy; it carried vengeful spirits and malevolent souls. After being polluted, they lost their humanity and reason, leaving only the evil entities' greedy "appetite" for essence, blood, spirit, and flesh.
The soul bodies that emerged from the ghostly energy had no normal forms. They traversed around the "white curtain," effectively aiding Fengdu Ghost City.
The power of ghost cultivators originated from ghostly energy. The unending stream of ghostly energy provided from the Black River made them feel like fish in water.
"Something must have gone wrong in Fengdu. Ghostly energy is surging fiercely from the east. Find some people to quickly investigate the situation."
As long as ghostly energy existed, ghost cultivators would become difficult to deal with. Therefore, the Immortal Alliance planned to investigate and disrupt the source of the continuously strengthening ghostly energy.
This matter could not be entrusted to powerful individuals, as they needed to hold the line here. Nor could it be entrusted to those too weak, as they would be dealt with before they could even discover anything. After careful consideration, the elder had chosen suitable candidates.
They respectively sent messages to their juniors: Yan Tianjiao, Ru Lan, Lu Ziyin, and a few fellow disciples of the same generation, a total of six people, to secretly infiltrate Shuofang and ascertain what had happened.