Over the span of a few years, both Ye Xixi and the Full Moon of Nanshan received legacies from Wu Yu's Imparting ability inside the Floating Dreams Pagoda.
After receiving these legacies, both of them possessed immortal lord levels of experiences and dao. They were now as powerful as immortal lords and were practically like the immortal lords reborn. Naturally, they had improved exceptionally swiftly and were much stronger now.
Ye Xixi and the Full Moon of Nanshan had finally entered the Nine Xuan Dao Realm after so many years of training.
When Wu Yu had just become a Xuan immortal, his strength grew rapidly. Now that Ye Xixi and the Full Moon of Nanshan had both received the legacies from Wu Yu, their strength had also grown exponentially. While they had improved at a slower rate than Wu Yu, they had reached the Nine Xuan Dao Realm faster than Wu Yu had expected himself to reach the Immortal Lord Realm.
After all, when reaching the Immortal Lord Realm, one would have to form his own autonomous realm and world nucleus in one's immortal spirit. This was a more difficult feat to accomplish than forming immortal dao marks.
With Wu Yu's help, Ye Xixi and the Full Moon of Nanshan continued to improve rapidly in their training.
"When I marry Luo Pin, I will try my best to bring her out here. She can easily grow stronger at a much faster rate outside of the Immortal Dragon Imperial Realm. Otherwise, with such a speed of growth, it will only rouse the suspicions of others in the Immortal Dragon Imperial Realm."
Wu Yu also knew that his current strength was unfathomable. Hence, it would be best if he kept a low profile.
In his heart, other than the pleasant surprise of his Imparting ability, there was another person that continued to occupy a large portion of his attention, and that was Nangong Wei. He had not forgotten about her even for a second. Each time he shut his eyes to train, her image would surface in his head.
"Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord."
Perhaps at the moment, Wu Yu could not do anything about the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord. However, he still had a chance to do something in future. There were still over 90 years left in this journey down the Endless River of Stars; this was just the beginning of a long journey.
The Ancient Emperor had already died.
Hence, if Wu Yu had any grudges and hatred left unresolved in the sky palaces, it was with the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord. She might feel as though she had not done any wrong, but a grudge was a grudge. Wu Yu still hated her.
Even though Wu Yu and Nangong Wei had split up and were now like strangers, Wu Yu was still unwilling for her to simply disappear from this world in this manner.
Most of the time, Wu Yu was training feverishly. The immortal spirit world nuclei from two 7-realm immortal lords were like great power-boosting tonics for him.
The power and dao that the nuclei bore boosted his power, allowing him to reach the peak of the Nine Xuan Dao Realm. Wu Yu also imparted a portion of the immortal spirit and immortal energy that he had absorbed to the Full Moon of Nanshan and Ye Xixi, helping them improve greatly in their training as well.
If Wu Yu wanted to grow any stronger, he would probably need to create his own autonomous realm. He would also require the Ruyi Jingu Bang to give him the ninth tier of the Invincible Vajra Body.
The entire Invincible Vajra Body consisted of 10,000 words. Wu Yu only had 2,000 words left. At the moment, he only had a vague idea of what these 2,000 words meant. He was still communicating and thinking hard to understand these last words.
At the same time, the Ancient Ink Camp brought Wu Yu along as they tirelessly searched the Endless River of Stars for a Mark of an Immortal King.
Based on their strength, it would be a tall order for them to find a Mark of an Immortal King.
However, one day, just as Wu Yu was studying the Immortal Lord Realm, he suddenly heard Xu Zidong whisper to him, "Wu Yu, we seem to have found another place with a Mark of an Immortal King."
Wu Yu stopped training and quickly emerged from the Floating Dreams Pagoda. Wu Yu was now one of the stronger members of the Ancient Ink Camp. While he was still weaker than Xu Zidong, he was on par with Qin Chuan. If a Mark of an Immortal King appeared, Wu Yu would be a valuable asset in the battle to get it.
After coming out, Wu Yu realized that he was standing on a dim and dark gray star. This star was in a barren area and was tiny. It was a star that largely went unnoticed.
However, all eight members of the Ancient Ink Camp were unbelievably excited. This was because they were standing before a mountain wall, and a deep cave had appeared on this wall. This cave was like an endless hole. They could not see how deep this cave was.
Xu Zidong told Wu Yu, "This cave was not here at the start. It only appeared after we arrived and destroyed a few rocks."
If the cave had existed from the beginning, then it might not hide a Mark of an Immortal King. However, the cave had only appeared after their arrival. Hence, there was a great possibility that a Mark of an Immortal King was here. After all, all the stars in the Endless River of Stars were inert. Changes often occurred due to an appearance of a Mark of an Immortal King.
Wu Yu was surprised and asked, "This place is totally different from the immortal city where we found the first Mark of an Immortal King. There was a great deal of noise at that time, but this time, the change was relatively quiet?"
Qin Chuan answered, "That's right. Of course, we might have guessed wrongly. If there is no loud noise from the change, then there will be less competition and hence there may not be a Mark of an Immortal King here."
Qing Yuli quipped, "That may not be the case - perhaps the competition is already inside."
Wu Yu said, "No matter what, we have to enter the cave. We cannot miss any chance of getting a Mark of an Immortal King."
"Right, we are all here and shall go down the cave together." Xu Zidong gestured to the entire group. Everyone nodded in agreement. Then, with Xu Zidong as the leader, they entered and started their descent deep into the cave whilst keeping a lookout for each other.
"Everyone, please be careful. There are no signs of movement yet. If there really is a Mark of an Immortal King in here, it can only mean that danger awaits us ahead."
The deeper they ventured into the cave, the darker it became. It was just like the moment the black sun rose in the Great Ancient Ink Realm when all light was absorbed. This caused them to sink into extreme darkness.
"We should be near the core of this star!" They had travelled downwards for a long time but still had not reached the end of the cave.
"Since this is such a special place, this just means that there is a high possibility of the Mark of an Immortal King being here," Xu Zidong said.
If the Mark of an Immortal King was well-hidden and did not attract any competitors, then they stood a higher chance of getting this Mark of an Immortal King.
"Until now, we have searched through only 1,000 stars. If we find a Mark of an Immortal King twice, then we are really lucky," Yang Wenlan said.
Hence, they valued this opportunity even more. Actually, they were very close to getting the Mark of an Immortal King during their first encounter with one.
"Something's changing!"
At this moment, they finally spotted the end of the cave. When they landed, a horizontal tunnel appeared on the cave wall. In the instant that the group landed, the earth above their heads suddenly moved as though they were alive. In that instant, the entire tunnel was shut and sealed. They had no way of escaping.
When the endless, tunnel-like cave above them was sealed, instead of being worried, the group seemed excited. These strange changes were almost guaranteeing the presence of a Mark of an Immortal King.
Of course, this might also be a trap set up via some immortal design by powerful immortal lords. However, immortal lords were usually unwilling to waste their time in such endeavours.
"Let's move forward."
While the tunnel above them had closed up, a new tunnel had appeared in front of them. They peered into the tunnel and could vaguely see the end. There seemed to be a hall at the end.
Whoosh!
They quietly moved towards the hall.
After reaching it, they saw that it was indeed a relatively large hall. It was obviously a battle venue too!
There was a huge signboard hanging at the highest part of the palace hall in front of them. On the signboard, there were three big words “Green Ghost Hall!”
"Into formation."
The eight of them immediately formed a battle formation. It looked like a circle, with defences at all directions: the front, back, left, right, up, and down. Basically, the defences were formed by eight autonomous realms layered together, which increased the strength of their defence, allowing them to withstand attacks from all directions.
On the other hand, Wu Yu was a free man. He was not worried about being left out of the defensive formation. He had the Eyes of Fire and Gold, so he could see more clearly than the others.
This Green Ghost Hall was extremely eerie. This meant that the hall could not possibly be some immortal lord's prank. There was a 90% chance that there was a Mark of an Immortal King in here.
While this would be dangerous, everyone from the Ancient Ink Camp was very excited. They had spent many years searching just to wait for this day.
This was a better opportunity than their previous chance because when they were at the immortal city, the Mark of an Immortal King had appeared with too much fanfare and had attracted too much competition.
Crack!
Just as they arrived, something changed immediately. There were about 10 green, human-sized stones surrounding the hall, and they suddenly started glittering like jewels. Their green sparkle and shine made the place seem even creepier. Soon, these jewel-like stones melted as though they were liquid, and from within the melted stones, things emerged. These new entities were well-built and covered in green scales. Their faces were fierce-looking, with protruding fangs. They were evil ghosts covered with pricks. Actually, they looked like ghostly immortals!
These new entities looked too chilling. Hence, even Yang Wenlan screamed in shock at the sight of them. They had stayed in the sky palaces for a long time and naturally rarely had the opportunity to see such hellish beings.
"These are Zombie Ghostly Immortals. These are made from the fresh corpses of ghostly immortals. When their ghostly spirits have yet to dissipate, the maker uses an evil method, supplemented by precious quintessences and materials, to carve complicated ghostly immortal designs onto the bodies and then turn them into zombies. Their battle power can reach up to 70% of the strength they had when they were alive! There are a lot of them here. Everyone, please be careful!"
Obviously, even these Zombie Ghostly Immortals made him afraid.
"Roger that!"
They were prepared to battle and had taken out their destinable immortal treasures!
They were strong in coordinated battles. While Wu Yu could not join them for the time being, he could ease the burden on them and distract some of the Zombie Ghostly Immortals.
These Zombie Ghostly Immortals walked out from the green, jewel-like stones like an endless river gushing out. They emerged one after another, and after coming out, they attacked Wu Yu's group upon sight!
Even though these Zombie Ghostly Immortals did not have their destinable immortal treasures with them, they still possessed their Immortal Lord Realm techniques and mystiques. They all attacked, and within a short period of time, there were 100 of them. They formed a pretty formidable force.
A Mark of an Immortal King was no easy trophy to earn. The test that they were facing now was indeed much scarier than the Endless Immortal Army. The Zombie Ghostly Immortals' looks were already terrifying enough.
Bang, bang!
A fierce battle exploded in the Green Ghost Hall!
Wu Yu first turned small using his Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth. Then he pondered about the source of these endless Zombie Ghostly Immortals. There was no way to kill all of them. The battle had started and did not seem to be ending any time soon. If this continued, the entire Green Ghost Hall would be filled to the brim with these Zombie Ghostly Immortals!
"There must be some way to stop them from coming out."
Very quickly, he spotted the green jewel-like stones where the Zombie Ghostly Immortals were emerging from.
Thinking about that, he immediately rushed to one of the green stones and took out his Floating Dreams Sword. He used all his strength and blasted the green stone.
Ting!
The green stone was not destroyed even after his all-out hit!
Ting, ting, ting!
Bearing the risk of being attacked by nearby Zombie Ghostly Immortals, he continued his attacks, and finally, the green stone cracked and crumbled under the power of the Floating Dreams Sword. Indeed, after the green stone shattered, it no longer produced Zombie Ghostly Immortals.
However, there were still plenty of Zombie Ghostly Immortals, and there were around 10 more of these green stones!
"I shall try to destroy these!"
After Wu Yu relayed his discovery to the group, he immediately continued his mission to destroy the other green stones. As these Zombie Ghostly Immortals were slower than Wu Yu, with the protection of the Sky Cloud Realm, Wu Yu could move around them freely.
However, Xu Zidong and his group were under much greater pressure as almost all the Zombie Ghostly Immortals were targeting and attacking them!