Having the voice come out of nowhere and suddenly whisper into his ear raised all the hairs on the back of Lu Yunâs neck. Itâd overheard his transmission to Qing Han!
Qing Hanâs worried gaze stayed on Lu Yun; he hadnât heard anything from his friend.
Iâm already here.
Itâd always been here.
A quick scan of the surroundings revealed only an endless supply of zombies and immortal ghosts. There was no sign of the Water Ghost Grasp; even the Spectral Eye couldnât detect it.
Has its power exceeded that of the Tome of Life and Death?
Lu Yun lowered his head with a dark expression. His consciousness spread like mercury out from his Purple Manor, amplified to tremendous heights by the power of hellfire.
âAh⊠you arenât really here.â He tilted his head up and looked back at the ghost tree.
Its blazing eyes remained fixed to the snoring dragonling on Lu Yunâs shoulder. Patently, the ghost tree cared very much about this dragon. In fact, itâd tacitly allowed the immortal ghosts of other dragonlings to consume the souls of immortals as nutrition for this baby dragon.
âYouâre in a different space,â Lu Yun said in a voice only he could hear. âThis dragon nest is a location in which the layout of water and fire meet, a grand influence of the world where the two elements synergize and strengthen each other.â
âOh?â the voice said.
âThe layout of fire comes from the ancestral fire of the dragons. As for the layout of water, it must come from a water treasure that can create its own world, which is where your true body is!â
That was how the Water Ghost Grasp killed its victimsâby dragging them into the treasure to drown them.
Only silence answered him. Then, a white figure slowly padded out from thin air.
âJin Heyi?!â Lu Yun froze when he saw the newcomerâs face. It was Jin Heyi, who had been killed by Water Ghost Grasp earlier.
â...no, youâre not him. Youâre Ao Lin, the crown prince of the North Sea dragons from ten thousand years ago.â Lu Yunâs eyes flashed black as he called upon his death art.
Ao Lin had died and become an immortal ghost. Thus, Lu Yun could easily see his identity with the Spectral Eye. He was the first prince of the dragon clan, Aoxueâs elder brother.
Ghost Dragonâs eyes turned black as they settled in blank shock on Lu Yun. After a beat, he responded quietly, âAo Lin is no more. I am Ghost Dragon.â He turned to the ghost tree with a mutter. âI finally meet the one who destroyed the North Sea dragons.â
Public knowledge put the blackwater snakes as the ones whoâd destroyed the North Sea dragons, but in truth, the blackwater snakes by themselves were no match for the dragons. The true culprit was this ghost tree, which had been in this tomb for an unknown period of time.
Ghost Dragon had merged with the water treasure and become the layout of water in the dragon nest. Although the water and fire layouts strengthened each other, they could never meet.
He was finally able to see the tree in person because Lu Yun had suppressed the layout of fire with his luopan and diminished the conflicting power of the two layouts.
At last, the two great horrors met.
The ghost tree didnât spare a glance for Ghost Dragon; its gaze remained fixed on the dragonling on Lu Yunâs shoulder.
âNo, we canât have any more death here, or itâll become stronger!â Lu Yun exclaimed when he noticed that the number of immortal ghosts and corpses in the area had grown much higher, and the treeâs presence had solidified even more as well.
âDeath fuels me too.â Ghost Dragon quirked his lips in a malicious smile. âWhoever covets the territory of the dragons must die.â
The flesh and souls of immortals whoâd died in the tomb would not only come here and become immortal ghosts, but a portion would also enter Ghost Dragonâs treasure and turn into water ghosts.
He, too, was drawing upon the strength of the dead immortals.
That was why the ghost tree had projected the image of the Fire Parasol Tree; it wanted to lure in more immortals. Only those who died in the point of fire would be fully absorbed by the tree.
âYouâre not like the tree,â Lu Yun snorted. âYouâll only become marginally stronger after consuming the energy of death, but that energy will allow the tree to escape the layout in the dragon nest. Then it could kill a hundred fools like you with a single leaf!
âIf you want to keep killing,â his voice grew frosty, âthen Iâll take matters into my own hands.â
âYou?â Ghost Dragon sneered, but continued approaching the ghost tree instead of turning back to Lu Yun. Meanwhile, water ghosts elsewhere in the tomb continued to grasp and kill immortals who had entered.
âI can sense Ao Xueâs presence on you, so I wonât kill you. Hold the formations of water and fire in place. Iâll deal with the tree.â Waves of great power rose from Ghost Dragonâs body and swept toward the ghost tree.
Rumble.
The power of water and fire vied for dominance in the air and disintegrated countless immortal ghosts and zombies.
A goodwill fruit hanging from the Sal Tree of Life and Death spontaneously combusted in Lu Yunâs dantian to unleash a tremendous supply of inner energy, which rushed into the luopan. Blinding light burst forth from the compass like a miniature sun.
âŠâŠ
âDammit!â Alarmed, the Witherdew celestial emperor pushed the Blithe Entrapment Formation to its limit to seal off the clearing.
âGive me a hand, Donglin E!â Tuoba Jie growled. âIf the scroll breaks, weâll all die!!â
Realizing how dire the situation was, Donglin E tapped into his arcane dao cultivation and injected the formation with his wealth of energy.
âCome on!!â Other immortals whoâd hung around until now followed suit as well.
All thirty-six hundred and fifty formations shifted, turning the Blithe Entrapment Formation from a formation to trap and kill into a pure trapping formation, keeping everything within the area of effect from getting out.
âŠâŠ
One after another, dragon corpses came to life and protected the ghost tree with a strange power. Among the five elements, water countered fire, which meant Ghost Dragon was the treeâs natural bane.
âZombie dragons?â Ghost Dragon flickered in and out of existence, treading between the realms of reality and illusion. A faint smile tugged at his lips. âPerfect, I happened to acquire a treasure not too long ago.â
Whoosh!
A greyish-yellow bag flew out of his hand and opened up. Every single one of the zombie dragons was involuntarily pulled from the tree and sucked into the bag.
The Bag of Corpse Refinement.
Swoosh!
As soon as the dragon corpses disappeared, the fire enveloping the ghost tree surged dramatically and deepened from a bright yellow to a dusky red as the image of a nine-headed phoenix rushed out of the flames.
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