The sudden shrill howls coming from all four directions startled Huang Xiaolong, and without any indication, the scenery in front of him changed. The original corridor disappeared, whereas Peng Feng and Sun Haoran's figures were nowhere to be seen.
"What is this? What is happening?!" Huang Xiaolong opened the Eye of Hell on his forehead, scanning the area. Ghost aura rolled endlessly from the void, evil spirits hissed and bared their fangs at the fresh prey.
Huang Xiaolong shot out an Earthen Buddha Palm without hesitation. Myriad Buddha statues emerged from the ground, aureate Buddha luminescence brightened the world. Where the holy light shone, the ghost aura evaporated and the evil spirits were purified. The environment felt lighter and fresher in an instant.
However, Huang Xiaolong had just cleared a small section when the ghost aura and evil spirits emerged once again from nearby, as if they were endless and couldn't be exterminated.
'This is? An array formation trap!'
Watching new evil spirits being generated almost at the same time he vanquished them, Huang Xiaolong understood that they had stepped into some kind of array formation. A powerful ghost array formation at that.
Now, the most crucial task was to locate the eye of the array formation! Huang Xiaolong quickly figured out a solution to the current situation. His silhouette flickered around in the array, killing the ever-increasing number of evil spirits while observing his surroundings, trying to locate the origin of the dense ghost aura and evil spirits.
'There!' A short while later, Huang Xiaolong's eyes lit up as he stared at a spot on the left side. He leaped forward, heading straight to that point.
The Earthen Buddha Palm was the archnemesis of these ghosts, evils spirits and devils, therefore, along the way, Huang Xiaolong used solely the same attack to disperse all obstructions. Despite that, the closer he got to the center, the thicker the ghost aura became, gathering stronger and more powerful evil spirits, so many of them that there was hardly any place to move forward. Even with the Earthen Buddha Palm, Huang Xiaolong's speed gradually slowed down. Helplessly, Huang Xiaolong ran his battle qi at full force, releasing the Buddhism energy within his body. Resplendent Buddha luminescence pierced through the darkness, lighting up a large area. The evil spirits within the immediate proximity of Huang Xiaolong evaporated into nothingness.
Huang Xiaolong picked up speed again, heading towards the array formation's eye. Twenty minutes later, he reached a spacious hall.
In the center of the spacious hall, a meter high flag was stuck to the floor. The flag's surface was inscribed with hieroglyphs of evil spirits, whereas on the thin black flagstaff, strange talisman symbols were engraved. These talisman symbols bore similarities to ancient writings, yet at the same time, they were not.
Ghostly aura spewed out endlessly from the flag's surface, the evil spirits hovering in the surroundings were palpable, akin to endless rumbling clouds of wolves. If it wasn't for Huang Xiaolong's Eye of Hell, it would have been impossible for him to locate the flag amidst the darkness and the overwhelming number of evil spirits.
Doubtlessly, this flag was the key to the large ghost array formation, the array formation's eye. But when Huang Xiaolong stepped up, wanting to pull the flag off the ground, a black light flickered in the spacious hall. A towering ghost figure landed right between Huang Xiaolong and the flag, blocking his path.
This giant ghost was at least four meters tall, glittering black snake-like scales covered its body like an armor. One of its hands was holding a three-pronged spear decorated with skull knobs on each prong. The three-pronged spear seemed to be dripping with blood.
When the giant ghost appeared, it directly attacked Huang Xiaolong at amazing speed. It was much faster compared to Zhao Chen. Huang Xiaolong was startled, the Eminent Holiness Halberd materialized, clashing with the opponent's three-pronged blood spear.
Clang! A sharp sound of metal clashing rang out.
A numb feeling traveled up Huang Xiaolong's arm, his feet staggered from the impact and retreated a few steps back, but the giant ghost remained immovable, like a sturdy mountain.
"Such force!" This giant ghost had most likely already shed its ghost form, advancing into the Saint realm.
When human warriors cultivated, breaking through to Saint realm, they would shed their mortal physique and the same principle applied for ghost cultivators. Breaking through the Saint realm meant shedding off their ghost form, shaping a real body of flesh and blood. From every aspect: power, defense, and vitality, this newly shaped body would be far stronger than average human warriors, in short, it was bordering immortality. Even a Saint realm expert would turn around and run when going against a ghost that had advanced into the Saint realm.
Huang Xiaolong wasted no time in summoning the Eminent Holiness Halberd and both black and blue dragon martial spirits, instantly soul transforming. Inside this ghost array formation, he need not worry about exposing his true strength, hence, Huang Xiaolong went all out, no longer concealing his real strength.
Black and blue dragon scales layered over Huang Xiaolong's body. In the time taken for Huang Xiaolong to soul transform, the giant ghost's three-pronged blood spear launched another attack.
Flaming battle lust shone in Huang Xiaolong's eyes as he watched the three-pronged blood spear piercing toward him. Swinging the halberd out, noises of metal clashing rang out.
When Huang Xiaolong was battling Zhao Chen in the City of Myriad Gods, he was still a mid-Xiantian Tenth Order, moreover, they were fighting in public and he was concerned about having all his trump cards exposed, so Huang Xiaolong resorted to guerilla warfareㅡhit and run.
But the situation now was different, he had broken through to peak late-Xiantian Tenth Order, this Saint realm ghost was the best opponent he could ask for to test out his real strength.
Clang~! Another loud clash hummed in the spacious hall, the surrounding ghost aura rippled violently. The strong impact forced the giant ghost to stagger back more than a dozen meters, whereas Huang Xiaolong remained still this round, his feet firmly planted on the same ground.
In the earlier exchange, without soul transforming with the twin dragon martial spirits and activating the Asura Physique, Huang Xiaolong fell slightly underwind strength-wise against the giant ghost. After the soul transformation, however, Huang Xiaolong's battle prowess did not merely increase by level.
If someone were here to witness Huang Xiaolong actually forcing back a ghost that had broken into the Saint realm, they probably wouldn't know what to think.
After repelling the giant ghost, Huang Xiaolong leaped up, the Eminent Holiness Halberd in his hand swinging out. Countless halberd shadows shot out like falling meteors in the night sky.
"Halberd Galaxy!"
It was too late to dodge, all the halberd attacks struck the giant ghost's body. Under extreme pain, it let out a hoarse cry, it's body slammed into one of the pillars at the far end of the hall, shaking the entire structure.
Landing a crucial strike on the giant ghost, Huang Xiaolong wasn't feeling thrilled at all, a ghost that had successfully entered the Saint realm would hardly be defeated that easily.
Sure enough, barely a breath's time later, the giant ghost swung his legs and flipped its body back up to a stand, roaring angrily. Its eyes turned crimson red, seemingly resonating with the three-pronged blood spear in its hand, glowing a bright eerie red. It once again rushed to attack Huang Xiaolong.
Huang Xiaolong was shocked seeing that his full force Halberd Galaxy attack merely left light injuries on its body. Wasn't a Saint realm ghost's defense a little too scary, to be able to reach this level?
Fortunately, a Saint realm ghost, unlike a human Saint realm warrior, couldn't form a Saint realm space in their Qi Sea, otherwise, it would be strenuous for Huang Xiaolong to deal with this giant ghost.
Seeing the giant ghost's attack inching closer, Huang Xiaolong thrust the halberd in his hands, and with a twist of the long handle, an energy vortex spiraled out in midair.
"Tossing Heaven, Flipping Earth!"
Entangled by the energy vortex, the giant ghost stumbled and Huang Xiaolong seized the opportunity. The Eminent Holiness Halberd snaked through the vortex center straight into the giant ghost's chest.
A distressed howl came from the giant ghost, its body was thrown out of the entanglement of the energy vortex. Black blood flowed from its chest, dripping onto the hall's floor, and muffled sounds came from where the blood dropped, emitting green fumes.
However, after being stabbed by Huang Xiaolong's halberd, that giant ghost once again flipped up, launching another attack at him.
Huang Xiaolong frowned. This couldn't go on endlessly, he had to find this giant ghost's soul to be able to resolve it once and for all.
The physical body of a ghost that broke through the Saint realm was basically immortal, only by destroying the soul within would it really die.