Chapter 82: Breaking into the Illusory City Part 2

Old Tang’s face turned extremely ugly, exceedingly so! He knew from Wang Ya’s casual tone that he had caused a major disaster! He really wanted to slap himself.

Huang Qi’s beautiful eyes fixed on the black-mist-shrouded space ahead, her brows tightly furrowed, her hands clenched into fists unable to stop her body’s trembling. She urged Zhang Qingshui lowly, who was rapidly calculating the array’s paths, “Qing Jie, hurry!”

Zhang Qingshui kept pinching her fingers to calculate as she called out, “Little Qi, I’ll call the directions—you lead the way.”

As soon as Zhang Qingshui reported the directions, Huang Qi determined the path and said, “Go!” She stepped onto the square stone slabs beneath their feet and headed left along the city wall. With her Heart-Eye Vision, Huang Qi’s sight wasn’t hindered by the yin qi; she could clearly “see” everything within three hundred meters around them. Though she couldn’t take in the full layout of the Illusory City Labyrinth, she got a general sense from what she observed.

The layout here resembled an ancient city, or more like a gigantic mausoleum. Directly opposite the city gate was a wide main street, but it was densely packed with coffins placed tightly together, like a military formation. When Huang Qi first glimpsed the city, she even had a fleeting illusion of Qin Shi Huang’s Terracotta Army—except the soldiers were replaced by even more sinister coffins sealed with talisman patterns. Not just the main street facing the gate; many alleys were also filled with coffins, neatly arrayed like ranks of guards.

The structures lining the streets were presumably civilian homes or official residences—or “tombs within tombs.” Huang Qi clearly saw steles erected before each compound separated by half-person-high stone strips, inscribed with the residence’s name and epitaphs. For example, the stele at the “person” residence on the street corner read “Xu Residence,” followed by four epitaphs for four people. In the small courtyard behind the stele, four coffins were neatly arranged: three adult ones and one child-sized, matching the family of four on the epitaph perfectly.

Huang Qi had no time to read the epitaphs in detail. Cooperating with Zhang Qingshui’s calculated route, she dashed quickly into streets without coffins, sometimes even scaling walls.

Even with Conceal Qi Talismans on them and knowing the safe path, the journey remained incredibly perilous.

Ever since Old Tang and Zhang Qingshui had teamed up to destroy the dozen ghost soldiers at the gate, all the coffins began to stir. Some coffins had corpses painted with talisman patterns and dressed in burial clothes crawling out, while others directly released yin spirits and ghosts. Once out, they began searching for intruders’ traces; the slightest noise would draw hordes from all directions. If they encountered lone ones or a few, Old Tang, Wang Cheng’an, and Wang Ya teamed up to eliminate them swiftly. If there were a couple more, they fled rapidly. Any hesitation meant being swarmed. No one knew how many corpses and yin spirits the Illusory City Labyrinth harbored, and none dared get trapped in an encirclement.

As for the central main thoroughfare, they didn’t even dare approach it. According to the Nine Palaces Grid path calculated from the Array-Breaking Formula, the entire street was a “death grid.”

Just thinking of those densely packed coffins arrayed like a military formation made Huang Qi shiver all over. If that was a buried army that assembled and charged at them, they would be crushed!

Old Tang stuck closely to Huang Qi’s side, running with deep and shallow steps, his body tensed, ever vigilant against corpses or yin spirits that might burst out from anywhere. He lacked Heart-Eye Vision and hadn’t opened his Heavenly Eye; he couldn’t even see what lay behind the mist. He now understood why this place was called the Illusory City Labyrinth—the path was just like navigating a maze, and from the scenes he glimpsed along the way, he grasped what made it “illusory.” Right now, for instance, knife-sharp mountains protruded underfoot, yet he ran across them as if on flat ground, following Huang Qi safely. Meanwhile, the seemingly flat stone path beside them, Huang Qi wouldn’t even approach. Sometimes he saw ferocious ghosts lunging; he slashed, but hit nothing, as if cleaving air. Occasionally, he saw nothing, but Wang Ya and Wang Cheng’an beside him struck preemptively, and only then did he spot a yin spirit nearby slain by one of them.

Even with Conceal Qi Talismans, the noise of their running attracted hordes of yin spirits and corpses. More and more yin spirits and ghosts appeared around them, blocking the path ahead with masses of corpses and yin spirits—even the sky filled with swift, winged yin spirits.

If not for Zhang Qingshui’s Azure Dragon Vine activating defense in time, they would have suffered casualties from the aerial assaults of those fast, winged ghosts.

The moment those aerial ghost things appeared, Wang Ya tore off the Conceal Qi Talisman on her chest, and a powerful demonic aura erupted from her body, accompanied by spreading red light.

Under the red light’s illumination, they clearly saw the winged fierce ghosts, dense as rain and fast as cannonballs, plummeting down—only to veer at impossible angles, shooting skyward and vanishing overhead.

Zhang Qingshui shouted, “Abandon the flanks and rear—charge straight through!” She sacrificed her Azure Dragon Vine to shield the five of them firmly, then recalculated the Life Gate ahead.

Old Tang and Wang Cheng’an charged to the front of the group, their Tang Dao infused with Dao Talisman Paper blasting away the yin spirits and ghosts rushing from ahead. Though Wang Cheng’an had no bladed weapon, his punches packed immense power. With the ancient jade and the ancient bronze coin Wang Ya had given him for protection, his supremely yang and vigorous force wrecked any yin spirit or ghost he hit—either destroying or maiming them. Weaker yin spirits scattered with one punch, while even the iron-hard corpses that required Old Tang’s talisman-enhanced Tang Dao to fell had their heads caved in halfway by Wang Cheng’an’s fist, or their chests collapsed entirely if struck there. When swarmed by hordes, Wang Cheng’an grabbed a corpse and swept or smashed it at the others; the corpses in his grasp were burned by the Supreme Yang Astral Qi from the ancient bronze coin, emitting agonized howls like dying beasts. In just minutes, they became desiccated husks devoid of yin qi and life.

With the ancient bronze coin from Wang Ya, the brute-strength Wang Cheng’an became like a tiger with wings, slaying yin spirits and ghosts like a divine warrior general.

Old Tang was so shocked by Wang Cheng’an’s ferocious display that he cursed “Fuck” several times—he couldn’t help but envy it.

In contrast to Old Tang and Wang Cheng’an’s bold ferocity, Wang Ya at the rear seemed somewhat silent. Yet the Millennium Great Demon aura emanating from the silent Wang Ya gave the four ahead immense security and confidence. Even the yin spirits and ghosts that had been charging relentlessly now showed fear; none pursued from behind, instead flanking from the sides or blocking ahead against Old Tang, Zhang Qingshui, and Wang Cheng’an.