Nie Tian saw in front of him a five-kilometer-wide area covered in demon Qi so dense that it seemed like an enormous, blackish-purple vortex, enveloping the entire Ghost Sect.
Upon closer examination, the vortex looked very much like the vortexes in Nie Tian’s spiritual sea.
The only difference was that it was filled with raging demon Qi, the power source for outsider demons.
The vortex of demon Qi slowly rotated as hundreds of figures of outsiders flashed about within it.
There were about a dozen bright, purple clusters with the vortex, which shone so brightly that even the dense demon Qi couldn’t conceal them.
Nie Tian looked with rapt attention, and found that each of them had a well-dressed high-tier outsider in the center.
Each of those high-tier outsiders seemed to be no weaker than Worldly realm human Qi warriors. They all rippled with vigorous energy fluctuations which seemed to be powering the vortex of demon Qi, enabling it to gnaw away the Ghost sect’s Wail of Myriad Ghosts grand formation.
For every bit the demon Qi vortex rotated, it pulled more demon Qi in the vicinity toward it.
However, Nie Tian couldn’t see what was going on within the Ghost Sect, and neither could he sense anything with his psychic awareness from a position so far away.
“Stop!”
Looking at the raging demon Qi from afar, Li Jing stopped her blood-colored lotus.
Immediately afterwards, Nie Tian conveyed the same notion to the Bone Blood Demon. In the next moment, the Bone Blood Demon also came to a stop, and floated in midair with everyone on its shoulders.
Just as Nie Tian looked over at Li Jing with a confused face, wondering what her plan was, he sensed a wave of powerful energy fluctuations rush out of Li Jing’s spiritual sea towards the demon Qi-covered area like an immense wave of a blood ocean.
He instantly understood that Li Jing was using her own methods to gather information on the situation at the area where the main force of the outsider army was gathered.
At the same time…
Nie Tian saw that in the center of the demon Qi vortex was a magnificent city, which seemed ancient and built by countless huge, green rocks.
The city was approximately the same size as Northland City, but there were sinister ghosts engraved on every gate to the city.
Numerous green veins and patterns could be seen on the walls of the city, within which vicious ghosts were twisting and struggling.
The way it looked felt as if the ancient city had been wreathed by countless ferocious ghosts.
The entire city was enveloped by a semi-sphere of misty green light, within which numerous ghosts were whizzing about, shrieking so loudly that the sound could pierce any intruders’ eardrums.
At the center of the green stone city was an enormous bottomless pit, and bone-piercing coldness constantly flowed out of it.
Upon closer examination, it was actually countless ghosts that had been flying out of the abyss. Like an endless swarm of locusts, they rapidly disappeared into the green walls of the ancient stone city.
It seemed that the ghosts were fueling the Wail of Myriad Ghosts spell formation with an endless stream of mysterious power from the netherworld.
A handful of powerful experts from the Ghost Sect were sitting by the edge of the huge pit, eyes closed, faces ghastly.
They were constantly changing their hand seals while a banner fluttered against the wind beside them. It seemed that they were the ones who were summoning the endless stream of ghosts from the depths of the earth with the banner’s help.
However, it was obvious that they were rapidly consuming their own strength as they performed the ritual.
There were a few others standing behind them. Whenever one of the spell-casters could no longer go on, another expert from the Ghost Sect would step in and take his place.
Those who were replaced would silently step away from the spell formation and use all kinds of medicinal pills to recover their strength, so as to step in whenever someone else was drained of power.
Off to the side, a skinny old man from the Ghost Sect was talking to Chang Sen from the Hell Sect.
The elder that resembled a bag of bones was none other than the sectmaster of the Ghost Sect, Ghost Eye.
The name of Ghost Eye was so widespread that no one even remembered his real name. He had adopted this name since he had joined the Ghost Sect, and had never changed it, not even after he had been made sectmaster.
His eyes were emerald and profound, as if there were two oceans hiding behind his pupils, within which tens of thousands of ghosts were trapped and wailing.
Any human Qi warrior whose cultivation base was lower than his would immediately experience a disturbance in their minds as long as they dared to peer into his eyes.
If he wanted to, he could even effortlessly rip the souls out of the minds of those who had inferior cultivation bases.
Obviously, Chang Sen wouldn’t need to worry about that, since he was the most powerful Qi warrior in the Realm of Flame Heaven.
“Ghost Eye, how long do you think the spell formation will hold?” Chang Sen asked with a frown.
“Two days.” As soon as Ghost Eye spoke, strong energy fluctuations spread out along with his voice, seemingly capable of changing the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth and turning the area around him into the gruesome netherworld. “As you can see, those elders won’t be able to hold on for much longer. If the Wail of Myriad Ghosts formation is breached, they won’t have much energy left in them. If it comes to that, we’ll need to count on your people to fight the outsiders.”
Chang Sen nodded and said, “I see. The reason I chose the Ghost Sect to be the place to fight the most decisive battle against the outsiders was that you could summon ghosts from the netherworld to power the Wail of Myriad Ghosts formation. But unfortunately, powerful experts need to expend a significant amount of energy to perform the summoning ritual. If our Demon Trapping Purgatory formation could still work, I would be able to use it to draw power from the trapped outsider demons, and use that power to activate an impenetrable defensive system.”
“What do you think of the odds that we prevail?” Ghost Eye asked, eyes glittering with profound light.
Chang Sen pondered in silence for a while before saying, “Thirty percent chance, at the most.”
Upon hearing Chang Sen’s answer, Ghost Eye also fell into silence. After a long while, he said, “Do you know what the situation is at the other sects?”
“Probably worse than us.” With a grim expression on his face, Chang Sen said, “The Grayvale Sect has already fallen. Li Jing might be able to hold on for a bit longer, but it’s only a matter of time before the Blood Sect falls. The Mystic Mist Sect can be ignored. We can’t possibly count on them to change the situation. We can only hope that Wu Ji will beat their opponents in the Cloudsoaring Sect.”
With these words, Chang Sen shook his head and sighed, “But Eccentric Wu’s lifespan is running out. If he goes all-out to fend off the outsiders, even if he succeeds, he won’t be able to persist for long. This was also why I didn’t have the heart to make a move on him when you and Li Jing went to the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range.”
“My choice accidentally gave the Realm of Flame Heaven a slightly better chance of surviving. Otherwise, the tie might have already been broken.”
Ghost Eye let out a cold harrumph. “If we can somehow live through this calamity, I’ll definitely take revenge against the other realms, especially that person from the Realm of Earth Sieve!”
Chang Sen shook his head and said, “It’s hard to say if we will be able pull through.”
“What!” Ghost Eye’s expression suddenly flickered. A strange expression appeared on his ghastly face as he called out, “Li Jing is here!”
Chang Sen was also astonished. “Can it be that she has already finished off all the outsiders at her sect?”
Chang Sen had always known that Ghost Eye had been close to Li Jing. The two of them usually got together to discuss cultivation methods. They even had a unique way to communicate with each other which even he couldn’t fathom.
Ghost Eye narrowed his eyes, and countless ghosts began to flash across in his pupils, as if every one of them carried symbols that only he knew how to interpret.
“Yes, she did,” Ghost Eye said in high spirits. “And she’s not alone. That Bone Giant also came with her!”
“What?” Shock could be heard from Chang Sen’s voice. “Did she manage to turn that eighth level Bone Giant into a Blood Demon? With the Bone Blood Demon and Li Jing here to help us, our odds will improve by at least twenty percent. Then we won’t have to stay behind the grand formation and defend. We may consider meeting them in battle!”
“Exactly! It’s time to stretch my legs!” A horrifying smile appeared on Ghost Eye’s face.