Chapter 87: 87 Chapter Ghost Immortal
Catastrophe?!
Zhou Heng was astonished upon hearing the words and subconsciously looked towards the south, only to see the purplish-black glow there growing denser and clearer.
It was as if the very void were being eroded.
Merely looking at it filled him with an unparalleled palpitation, as well as inexplicable panic.
It seemed as though beneath that purplish-black glow, a monster of extreme horror was lurking.
Zhou Heng had a premonition that should the “monster” inside break out, it would undoubtedly bring total destruction to everything as it was now.
Was it Xuan Yang?
Had the seal that bound him truly run into trouble?
Was it due to the abnormalities that occurred during Chao Xian’s struggle to revive just before?
Zhou Heng frowned as he looked at the sky, then glanced around, only to find that Yuyang County City had already descended into chaos at this time.
Many people were fleeing in all directions.
Whether it was martial artists with martial arts skills or ordinary people without such skills, everyone was now swarming towards the direction of the city’s east and west, where the gates lay.
Those gates led to other places.
Yuyang County City was now far too dangerous, which was clear to anyone who was not blind.
Even without Cheng Jianjian and her companions warning people by shouting from the air, it would have been the same.
The phenomenon that obscured heaven and earth, along with the gloomy and sinister atmosphere and the purplish-black light that fell to the ground and rose again, all evoked an unparalleled sense of fear.
“Young Master Zhou, what’s happening?” Shen Jingjing had barely regained her spirit and instinctively asked.
However, after seeing the people around her fleeing in all directions and combining that with the celestial phenomenon, she understood the current situation.
“Let’s flee as well, Young Master Zhou,” Shen Jingjing’s expression became urgent, and she said, “Yuyang County has become too dangerous now. No treasure is important anymore. Let’s leave quickly.”
“I’m afraid it’s too late to leave,” Zhou Heng shook his head, his gaze fixed on the distant sky where the purplish-black glow was incredibly dense, as if it had been permanently seared into the void.
Within that area of purplish-black glow, streaks of light were outlining the contours of a longsword, and soon four longswords, each several miles in length, congealed into existence.
They descended straight from the sky!
Boom!
Boom! Boom!!
The four purplish-black longswords fell from the sky, each striking the city of Yuyang at the eastern, western, southern, and northern directions respectively.
Their luminescence connected with each other, instantly forming a barrier that sealed off the entire city.
Many of the people desperate to escape the city failed to notice this barrier forming, or had no concept of such mysterious methods, and thought to directly break through it.
All of them were pulverized by the barrier in an instant, leaving no remains, both body and soul obliterated, ceasing to exist on the spot.
This caused many onlookers to tremble in fear, not daring to touch the barrier in the slightest.
But without making contact with the barrier, without breaching it, it was naturally impossible to leave Yuyang County City.
What to do now?!
Many people’s faces showed colors of despair, filled with immense regret and frustration.
Had they known it would come to this, they never would have come here. Now they had not only failed to find the treasure, but they might also lose their lives.
“We truly can’t get out,” Shen Jingjing, looking at the barrier that shrouded the entire city, couldn’t help but feel a bit dazed and muttered with a bitter smile, “It seems we’re really going to die here. It’s just a pity that I haven’t found the people from the Three Poison Sect and wasn’t able to kill them.”
Having endured several mental shocks before and now facing this situation, her spirit was overwhelmed, and suddenly everything went black before her eyes. She could no longer hold on and fainted to the ground.
Zhou Heng, however, had no energy to assist Shen Jingjing at this moment, as he was concentrating on finding a place to attack.
Even with the Peak Card that could be used to unleash the peak-state Five Thunder Righteous Method, a target still needed to be identified.
Casting spells blindly without a target was likely to result in failure, losing all hope.
In Zhou Heng’s view, the attack that could be enacted with that Peak Card might be the only hope.
It was crucial to wait for the right moment to use it again.
“Young Master Zhou, why have you returned here?” Cheng Jianjian’s voice came from the sky, and soon after, she descended slowly from the air and landed in front of Zhou Heng.
With her, another associate alighted.
This was a tall woman dressed in a light cyan gown, with fair hands and slender fingers, her skin exquisitely delicate.
Though her face was covered with a mask, which concealed her features, several subtle nuances in her behaviour suggested that she was an elegant and mature woman with a non-trivial status in the secular world.
Of course, that was her identity in front of ordinary people.
At this very moment, the masked woman was a Zhou Tian Boundary Officer, a Star Envoy charged with the duty to track down and exterminate ghostly beings —a Sixth Rank martial artist of the Martial Path.
“I have some matters to attend to,” Zhou Heng replied succinctly, pointing at the dark purple glow in the sky and inquiring of Cheng Jianjian, “Star Envoy, what’s happening here, has the seal been broken?”
The Star Envoys of the Zhou Tian Boundary Officers all wore masks, evidently wishing to conceal their secular identities, which is why Zhou Heng did not call Cheng Jianjian by name, and simply referred to her as Star Envoy.
“It’s not completely broken yet, but it has been breached a great deal,” Cheng Jianjian sighed lightly and said, “It’s beyond our calculations, truly beyond our calculations.
“After receiving your report, we started to investigate the records of the seals and prohibitions in Yuyang County, only finding that Ghost Immortal branded as He Yang of Fifth Rank.
“We originally thought that even if this ghostly being was still alive, after a few hundred years of being sealed without absorbing Yang Energy, it might have fallen to Sixth Rank.
“Hence, we believed that whether it was reinforcing the seal or exterminating it, the difficulty should not be significant. With that in mind, we arrived at Yuyang County.”
At this point, she gave a wry smile and said, “But once we ascertained the true situation, we found that there was not just a single ghostly being of less than Fifth Rank under the southern part of the city in the barren area. Rather, it’s frightening to think that probably thousands of ghostly beings have been sealed away!
“And the seal had already been eroded in several places. If we didn’t repair and reinforce it, it could collapse at any moment, so we’ve been strengthening the prohibitions in an underground cavern there these past few days, but ultimately…”
“Wait, how many ghostly beings did you just say, a thousand?!” Zhou Heng’s eyes widened in shock as he listened to Cheng Jianjian, feeling his scalp go numb and a chill run down his spine.
A thousand ghostly beings!
This was too terrifying!
Such a horrendous number, even if they were merely Ninth Grade ghosts, if they all escaped, it would plunge an entire province into unprecedented panic. “What’s the situation now?” Zhou Heng gestured towards the sky.
“At least three hundred have escaped, mostly at the Seventh and Eighth Rank levels, which is extremely dangerous,” Cheng Jianjian also looked towards the sky, her gaze fixated on that dense dark purple light as she said solemnly:
“However, we have temporarily sealed them using a secret treasure to prevent their escape, but this is not a solution that can last. We must find a way to eliminate them quickly.”
“What should we do now?” Zhou Heng frowned and pondered, considering whether it was the moment to use the Peak Card.
If he used the Peak Card to release the peak-state Five Thunder Righteous Method, it would certainly obliterate that horde of ghostly beings, but he couldn’t help worrying about Xuan Yang, who seemed to be an ancient ghost that had lived for thousands of years.
Could it be that Xuan Yang was just one of the sealed ghostly beings, with nothing particularly special about him?
“We have already sent out a message. The nearest Star Envoy is en route, a peerless expert who has reached Fourth Rank,” Cheng Jianjian’s voice was grave: “And what we can do now is simply wait.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have the luxury to wait,” the woman who had been standing silently at Cheng Jianjian’s side suddenly spoke. She pointed to the sky, her voice trembling slightly, unable to hide the fear in her heart.
“Our earlier assessment was wrong. It’s not about a thousand ghostly beings being sealed there at all. The disruption of the seal, the scattering of our reinforced prohibitions, it’s not caused by a mere three hundred ghostly beings!
“All of it is an illusion, a deliberately crafted illusion, even our records regarding this place have been fooled by this illusion, I’m afraid from the beginning to the end, there has only been one being sealed here…
“No, not a ghostly being.
“It’s a Ghost Immortal!”