The Ghost King’s unexpected tumble from the sky terrified Yin Luan and the other two.
Ignoring the water monsters on the river surface and the Innate Expert, they rushed onto the deck at once. There, they saw the Ghost King clutching her chest with one hand, as if she had suffered a grievous wound. Her face was deathly pale.
“This……” “Should we make a run for it?” “It’s so huge—one hand can’t even wrap around it!”
Three people, three different reactions.
“You three,” the Yin-Yang Woman said, glancing at them before looking out at the situation beyond the ship. She furrowed her brow. “Where did you come from? I knew something was off—why hadn’t they seized the Control Core yet? So it was you meddling!”
She had stalled for long enough. By now, it was well past midnight, and the eastern horizon was faintly glowing with the first light of dawn. Yet her subordinates hadn’t even managed to board the ship.
Something was seriously wrong.
The Ghost King Ship was vital to the next phase of their plan, which was why they had thrown so many resources into capturing it.
No matter what happened, they had to secure the Control Core tonight!
“Yin-Yang Cage!”
With a fierce shout, she flung countless black-and-white chains from her sleeves. They surged toward the Ghost King, binding her tight as a drum, wrapping her up like a sticky rice dumpling.
Seeing this, Yin Luan charged forward, aiming a punch to disrupt the spell.
“Hmph.”
The Yin-Yang Woman snorted coldly. A complete Innate Qi Shield erupted around her, blasting the attacker back. Little Snake tumbled across the deck, rolling until she slammed into the railing before finally coming to a stop.
Ren Tan and Xiao Luo hurried over to help her up. They splashed several basins of cold water on her face, barely managing to bring Little Snake back to her senses as stars danced before her eyes.
This woman’s shield was far stronger than those of the foes below. It could even double the incoming force and hurl it right back.
“Not shaken to death?” the Yin-Yang Woman mocked. “Looks like you’ve got some real skill after all.”
Boom!
In that brief moment of delay, the Ghost King burst free from the chains. With a casual palm strike from afar, she sent her enemy staggering back several zhang.
She moved to stand beside Yin Luan and the others, frowning as she asked, “How did you get the Ghost King Ship to unleash its full power?”
The three fell silent.
The Ghost King’s expression stiffened, and the pain in her chest seemed to intensify by a third.
“Who’s controlling the Control Core?”
The three hung their heads, unwilling to answer.
“Mei’er……”
The Ghost King’s voice carried a faint tremor.
“……What happened to her?”
“Hey, hey, hey!” The Yin-Yang Woman, having recovered from her stunned state, shouted loudly. “Am I invisible here? I’m not going to wait for you to finish your little chat before I strike. If you don’t turn around right now, I’ll—”
“Shut your trap!”
Without even looking back, the Ghost King bellowed. A mass of black mist hurtled forth, condensing into a massive hand that clamped down on the Yin-Yang Woman.
“Dual-Lock Shield!”
Faced with this dire threat, the Yin-Yang Woman whipped her chains in both hands, desperately fending off the terrifying power of the black mist palm.
With that taken care of, the Ghost King fixed her gaze on the three women and asked again, “What happened to her?”
“You should know……”
Ren Tan murmured softly.
As the master of the Ghost King Ship, the Ghost King surely understood exactly how to activate the Control Core’s power.
She had simply refused to face the truth……
“No, that doesn’t make sense,” the Ghost King muttered to herself. “People have a survival instinct—they subconsciously fear death. If she could live, why would she…… No, that’s not right……”
The beautiful Ghost King kept murmuring to herself, her eyes flickering with shifting emotions. Her aura waxed and waned unstably.
“Because,” Yin Luan said, meeting her gaze with utmost seriousness, enunciating each word, “in her eyes, your life mattered more than hers.”
The Little Snake Demon’s words seemed to carry some inexplicable power, quelling the turmoil in the Ghost King’s heart.
She stood there in a daze. That domineering aura of one who looked down on the world gradually faded away, as if the supreme expert was regressing into an ordinary woman……
“I have this weird feeling,” Xiao Luo muttered, “like the Ghost King’s combat strength is plummeting in a straight line……”
Still entangled with the black mist, the Yin-Yang Woman stole a glance at the now-quiet Ghost King.
For some reason, a profound sense of crisis welled up in her heart.
“Ha, hahaha……”
Suddenly, the Ghost King began to laugh. The sound started soft but grew louder, the tone shifting from feeble to booming. Her laughter rang with wild abandon, yet it carried a thread of sorrow and desolation.
Her demeanor flipped in an instant. An aura of chaos, destruction, and terror radiated from her, climbing higher and higher until it enveloped everyone on the Ghost King Ship, pressing down so heavily that no one could breathe.
“Cultivation, cultivation,” she threw her head back to gaze at the sky. “Seeking the Dao, pursuing immortality—I have stepped onto this path. Finally, I have stepped onto it.”
With a wave of her hand, the Ghost King unleashed an invisible shockwave that swept across the deck of the Ghost King Ship. Wherever it passed, masts snapped and buildings collapsed, as if intent on flattening everything in its path.
“But why did I set foot on this path in the first place?”
Clusters of black mist erupted from the Ghost King’s body, clinging to her form, writhing and twisting—even her face was not spared.
She floated into the air, her body engulfed by the black mist and transforming into a towering giant made entirely of the stuff: horned and terrifying in appearance.
“Just what did I embark on the path of cultivation for?!”
The Yin-Yang Woman wrenched herself free from the Ghost King’s technique. When she saw the scene unfolding on the deck, terror flashed in her eyes.
“Devil possession! Damn it, she’s been possessed!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, she blew a sharp whistle to summon the Giant Eagle.
Chirp!
Responding to its master’s call, the Giant Eagle—which had been circling above the Ghost King Ship—beat its wings and dove down at tremendous speed.
Bang!
But before it could reach her, the monster the Ghost King had become lashed out with a punch, shattering the Giant Eagle to pieces in midair.
Its speed and power were several times greater than the Ghost King’s normal state moments before.
The Yin-Yang Woman took one look and immediately turned tail, fleeing toward the ship’s railing.
“Hmph!”
The black monster grunted in a muffled tone, and a layer of black mist instantly enveloped the entire Ghost King Ship.
This black mist barrier was utterly bizarre: any attack that struck it was devoured completely, leaving not a trace.
The Ghost King Ship had become an inescapable prison!
“……”
The Yin-Yang Woman felt like unleashing a torrent of curses.
What kind of garbage Voidtreading Expert was this, actually surrendering her reason to a Heart Devil and becoming a mere puppet of raw power!
With a Dao Heart this frail, how had she even reached the Void Treading Realm? Was there no justice left in the world? No law at all?
Those outside remained oblivious to the upheaval aboard the Ghost King Ship. The Innate Experts, having finally subdued the Water Monsters, launched a full assault on the vessel together.
Then.
A pitch-black pillar of energy lanced down from above the Ghost King Ship, sweeping across the river’s surface.
Gurgle, gurgle.
The water began to boil.
“Ah!!!”
The Water Monsters shrieked in agony, leaping from the river one after another, in clusters, only to be caught by the beam and reduced to black powder that rained back into the water.
“Battle Formation First Style—defend!”
The Innate Experts hurriedly formed their array, erecting a protective barrier.
Yet in the face of that energy pillar, their defenses were as flimsy as rice paper. They didn’t even have time to cry out before they too crumbled to powder alongside the Water Monsters.
One strike, and the enemy forces collapsed.
“Though I have no idea what’s happening,” the Little Snake Demon swallowed nervously, “I guess things are even worse than before, huh?”
The black mist giant—fully thirty feet tall—shifted its gaze from beyond the ship, lowering its head to peer down at the handful of captives trapped aboard.
Yin Luan and the others felt their scalps crawl.
For in that giant’s eyes, they saw no trace of reason—only a chaotic impulse to destroy everything in sight!
The Ghost King no longer distinguished between friend and foe!
