"Zang Yue Monarch?" Gu Zhao asked.
"It’s me! It’s me!"
"Why are you with the King of Wutou?"
"He came to force me to help him deal with Daluo Palace!"
"Force you to help?"
"He wanted to deal with me first, then control me to fight you!"
"Oh?"
Gu Zhao waved his hand. The eight old Daoists presiding over the Array shifted their attacks, deliberately bypassing Zang Yue Monarch, who was huddled in the corner.
The Array was currently being operated by Jing Chun Taoist, Taoist Yan Qi, Taoist Gao Yue, Taoist Xu Xing, Taoist Xu Ning, Taoist Huai Yi, Taoist Tai Xian, and Taoist Xuan Yong. Among them, Jing Chun Taoist possessed the profoundest Dao Practice. With a mere wave of his hand, nine Divine Prisons manifested high in the air. Bolstered by Seventy-Two Ghost Generals, these Divine Prisons loomed like Fengdu Mountain, shrouding the void and shaking the heavens and the earth with their might.
Daluo Palace had long dominated Jiangzhou, establishing branch temples in Yongzhou, Yazhou, Shanzhou, and Yuezhou, boasting flourishing Incense. Following a breakthrough in his Dao Practice, Jing Chun Taoist effortlessly condensed the nine Divine Prisons using Incense. As for the Seventy-Two Ghost Generals, he had conveniently gathered them while Exorcising Demons and Evil Spirits over recent years. Although each possessed only three to four hundred years of Dao Practice, it was more than enough for them to reinforce the Divine Prisons and amplify the power of the Fengdu Technique.
With the other old Daoists assisting him, Jing Chun Taoist spearheaded the assault. The nine majestic Divine Prisons locked onto the King of Wutou like an unstoppable mountain.
It was then that Gu Zhao witnessed the King of Wutou’s Secret Technique and Divine Techniques.
The King of Wutou’s head turned black. However, Gu Zhao’s sharp eyes noticed that the head hadn’t actually changed color. Instead, dense black spots bulged across the skin of his entire head, covering it so seamlessly that it only appeared to have changed color. Upon closer inspection, these black spots were actually miniature faces.
There were white-haired elders, arrogant and domineering burly men, stunningly alluring women, and young children. They wore expressions of anger, despair, terror, or sorrow—the variations were endless. The owners of these faces were, in fact, the tens of thousands of vengeful spirits he had refined into his Divine Soul!
In the next moment, various expressions surfaced on those tens of thousands of faces as they simultaneously opened their mouths and unleashed a series of piercing shrieks. The shrill cries rent the air, carrying boundless emotions and resentment as they blasted in all directions. Shockwaves rippled continuously within the Eight Trigrams Array, causing the entire space to grow unstable.
Zang Yue Monarch was the first to be affected. Influenced by the overwhelming resentment, he couldn’t help but wail in agony. While resisting with all his might, he attempted to escape underground. Unfortunately, heaven and earth were sealed tightly by the Eight Trigrams Array, leaving him nowhere to run.
"Senior, save me!" Zang Yue Monarch flew toward Gu Zhao.
With a stir of Gu Zhao’s Divine Sense, a streak of Thunderbolt appeared in Zang Yue Monarch’s Sea of Consciousness. It radiated waves of purple-gold light, shielding his mental Sea of Consciousness.
"Thank you, Senior!" Zang Yue Monarch huddled in the corner of the Array, shivering violently.
On the other side, the Eight Gates of the Eight Trigrams Array shifted, the Five Elements circulated, and Yin Yang alternated. Using the might of the Array, they blocked the King of Wutou’s sonic assault. Paired with the old Daoists firmly guarding their Sea of Divine Soul Consciousness, the impact they suffered was directly weakened by eighty percent. As a result, Jing Chun Taoist only paused for a brief moment before the Nine Prisons Divine Mountain crashed down once more with the crushing weight of a falling mountain.
The King of Wutou let out a sharp howl, then drew a scroll from his sleeve. As the scroll unfurled in the wind, it revealed a ghastly and eerie Ten Thousand Ghosts Map. The shrill cries and wails of ghosts echoed from the painting before countless dark figures charged out of it. In the blink of an eye, a dense swarm of ghost shadows stood atop the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map. The map released endless black mist, enveloping the myriad ghosts like a black ocean as it surged upward to meet the crashing Nine Prisons Divine Mountain, its momentum arguably even more ferocious.
However, the King of Wutou’s expression looked grim, and Gu Zhao’s gaze remained unchanged.
Though the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map and the ocean of ghosts appeared majestic, their aura was not particularly strong. The original bodies of those myriad ghosts were merely ordinary humans. While numerous, they had not yet reached a qualitative transformation, making them inferior to Jing Chun Taoist’s Seventy-Two Ghost Generals. The myriad ghosts were Soul Bodies, and the black mist released by the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map was a mixture of Yin Qi and Incense, forming a pitch-black ocean. It was evident just how many commoners the King of Wutou had slaughtered and how much Incense he had absorbed in his own controlled kingdom.
"This villain deserves death!"
Jing Chun Taoist’s eyes widened in fury. Forming the Fengdu Seal with his hands, he chanted the Northern Emperor’s Black Book Great Transformation Divine Spell. After transforming into Fengdu, he then chanted the Black Law Forbidden Book Black Wind Covering Spell.
In the next moment, a gust of black wind enveloped the Fengdu Nine Prisons. The howling winds swept through, making the nine Divine Prisons look like the Netherworld God Mountain. Accompanied by the sinister winds of the Netherworld, they smashed viciously into the ocean of myriad ghosts.
BOOM!
With a deafening crash, the Divine Mountain slammed into the ocean, kicking up boundless waves. These waves were none other than the Soul Bodies of the myriad ghosts, which were instantly sent flying in all directions under the impact of the Nine Prisons, wailing miserably. At the same time, the Fengdu Nine Prisons continued their descent without pause, smashing directly onto the main body of the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map.
The King of Wutou furrowed his brows, manipulating the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map to retreat and dissipate the force. Jing Chun Taoist sneered, his Seal Technique morphing into the Locking Five Passes Talismanic Technique. Empowered by the Eight Trigrams Array, the strength Jing Chun Taoist displayed at this moment had surpassed that of the King of Wutou. The Fengdu Nine Prisons fluctuated between the tangible and the ethereal, overlapping with the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map.
The next moment, countless chains shot out from the Nine Prisons, locking viciously onto the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map. The Seventy-Two Ghost Generals shouted in unison, gathering black mist in their hands to reinforce the chains before pulling them backward. The aura of the Fengdu Nine Prisons skyrocketed as it greedily devoured the Yin Qi and Incense released by the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map. Conversely, the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map trembled violently and began to turn illusory.
The King of Wutou had paled in shock the moment the Fengdu Nine Prisons extended its chains, desperately wanting to withdraw the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map. Unfortunately, he had been too greedy, attempting to pull back as many of the scattered myriad ghosts as possible. Bound by the chains, let alone gathering the ghosts, he couldn’t even retrieve the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map itself.
"Come back to me!" The King of Wutou’s heart bled.
This Ten Thousand Ghosts Map was a Magical Treasure he had painstakingly refined. The myriad ghosts within it were all carefully selected, talented ordinary mortals whom he had subjected to all manner of torture and psychological breaking. After drawing out their corresponding extreme emotions, he had executed them and absorbed them into the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map. In his eyes, his Ten Thousand Ghosts Map was a top-tier Ghost God-type Magical Treasure, boasting both the Soul Bodies of myriad ghosts as well as Incense and Yin Qi.
Though he hadn’t fully completed refining it, it already possessed seventy percent of its total power. He had originally intended to rely on it to deal with that woman from the neighboring Divine Country—a woman who appeared pure and holy but would actually sleep with anyone.
But now, he suddenly discovered that a Mage from a local faction in the Central Plains was far superior to him in manipulating Yin Qi and Incense. The nine Divine Prisons this Daoist condensed possessed unparalleled might, vastly overshadowing his Ten Thousand Ghosts Map.
"It’s not going back," Jing Chun Taoist stated indifferently.
The Fengdu Nine Prisons had firmly locked onto the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map, consequently trapping the myriad ghosts within the painting as well. Stripped of all resistance, the shattered scattered ghosts were dragged along the chains and thrown one by one into the Nine Prisons. As the myriad ghosts were captured, the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map grew increasingly dim, its entirety turning ethereal as it melded into the Nine Prisons.
While Jing Chun Taoist controlled the Ten Thousand Ghosts Map, Taoist Gao Yue formed the Celestial Thunder Seal with his hands. A Purple Sky One Divine Thunder, flashing with pure purple radiance, instantly struck the crown of the King of Wutou’s head.
"Villain, take another strike of my thunder!"