Chapter 1444: Compassion!
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The thousands of skeleton soldiers were running faster and faster. Their bones were rubbing in weird shrieks that congregated into an ocean of creepy sounds.
The bone altars and ballistae that were more than ten meters tall were also slowly moving toward the city wall, surrounded by the skeleton soldiers.
The skeleton soldiers were followed by decaying, hideous zombies, which would make anyone who saw them have nightmares.
The copper, silver, and golden zombies that were specially refined were still protecting the palace at the center of the army of ghouls while observing the tiny changes in the battle coldly.
While the Ocean Suppressing Array was fully functioning, the entire East Peace City was slightly shivering.
The bluish electric arcs that were spurting out ripped more and more souls, skeletons, and zombies into shreds.
However, the perishing ghosts significantly affected the normal functioning of the Ocean Suppressing Array, too.
As more and more broken pieces floated in the air, the ripples on the array became more intense, and it was getting ever more lackluster.
Streams of remaining souls, skeletons, and zombies broke into the defense array.
In many places, the Ocean Suppressing Array was even entangled with the white mist that was released by the army of ghouls. They were attacking, swallowing, and melting each other, leaving holes that did not disperse after a long time.
The enormous ballistae in the army of ghouls were pushing forward to East Peace County exactly through the holes.
“Today is when we slay the devils!”
“All your family are inside the city. Do you want them to become the people below the city?”
“Go, go! Jade Emerald Tower, East River Union, Ocean Sand Sect, and nine other sects have issued a bounty together. Those who fight bravely will be admitted as external disciples! The old external disciples will be upgraded into inner disciples! The inner disciples will the awarded with Cultivation arts, magical equipment, and crystals according to their credit!”
None of the city defenders were supposed to take the blow passively on the towers. Under such a methodology, even the toughest city could not last three days.
The elite soldiers in the city had to be deployed to attack actively in order to demolish the important facilities on the enemy’s side and to strike the enemy’s morale!
Before the army of ghouls arrived, the main city gate of East Peace County was slowly opened. The elite cavalry of the court in the city rushed out like a black tornado, followed by the low-level disciples of the main sects.
As for the high-level Cultivators, they naturally turned into streaks of brightness and swooped upon the ghosts that were flying in the sky!
The elite soldiers of the court had a bloody air of killing around them after all the battles they went through. When their killing intent gathered and got enhanced by the Cultivators, it evolved into red mist that was almost real.
Wherever the mist went, the ghosts would squeak as if they had touched magma, with white smoke popping up. The more heavily wounded ones vanished into the air on the spot, and the lightly wounded ones were half burnt and reduced into twisting ripples.
There was no need to mention the Cultivators. The magical equipment that they launched emanated colorful brilliance, which darted toward the center of the army of ghouls like the sharpest arrow. Almost no ghost could survive one attack from them!
Huala! Huala! Huala!
The army marched forward unstoppably and soon destroyed the few altars and ballistae that had broken into the Ocean Suppressing Array.
After the altars collapsed, the white mist above the ghosts’ heads immediately disappeared. Without the protection of the white mist, many recently deceased ghosts were unable to maintain their form and dispersed on the spot. Even the seasoned ghosts were hesitating to move forward anymore, as if they had lost their armor.
At first glance, the army of ghouls crumbled in the first clash. They were absolutely no match for the Cultivators and the court’s army.
However, if one observed more carefully, one would discover that, as time went by, while more and more ghosts were killed by the Cultivators’ magical equipment, they had wasted a lot of magical equipment and made the weapons lose all their colors. The magical equipment was all entangled by the gray and black air currents that looked like snakes.
The Cultivators, who seemed to be on a killing spree, grew slower and slower. Their faces darkened, and their eyes lost their charm. Weird countenance was appearing on their faces without them knowing.
Although he was standing on the flying boat, Li Yao could feel that the battlefield below was a pot of simmering venom, from which lethal gas was bubbling up.
As long as the Cultivators were in the battlefield, no matter how high their Cultivation was, how determined they were, and how powerful their magical equipment was, it was inevitable that they would be affected, polluted, and corrupted by the remaining souls. Even if they did secure a victory in the end, they would suffer as many losses as their gains.
That was the dreadfulness of the army of ghouls. It was also why most of the Cultivators were unwilling to have a head-on clash with an army of ghosts unless they absolutely had to.
Suddenly, a Cultivator from a local sect in the southeast, after slashing more than ten skeleton soldiers with a dominatingly huge saber and blowing dozens of remaining souls into smithereens with a grenade, suddenly widened his eyes, and his face turned pale. Interconnected black stripes appeared on his face as if an enormous spider had crawled onto him. He tossed his saber aside and grabbed his own neck before rolling and screaming on the ground!
One or more seasoned ghosts must have crept into his brain when he was unprepared and launched a deadly soul attack on him!
The fall of the southeastern Cultivator seemed to be a signal. Harassed by more and more seasoned ghosts, other Cultivators were also waving, struggling, and losing consciousness uncannily!
Some of them were belching intense black gas from their mouths, eyes, and ears after struggling in pain for a moment. Squeaky noises could be vaguely heard from the black gas, too. It was the seasoned ghosts that they had driven out from their brains. Having failed to possess the body, the seasoned ghosts were greatly weakened. The Cultivators did not even need to lay their weapons on them, and they would be ripped apart by the overwhelming killing intent on the battlefield by themselves.
But some of the low-level Cultivators, whose souls were relatively weak or were just wounded, ended up being grave puppets after trembling violently for a moment. Silently, they picked up their weapons and attacked their comrades!
Those people were either successfully possessed by the seasoned ghosts or beguiled into thinking that the comrades next to them were filthy zombies because the ghosts affected their aural, optical, and olfactory nerves.
The previously unstoppable Cultivators and army of the court were immediately thrown into chaos.
The elites of the army of ghouls, namely the copper zombies, silver zombies, and golden zombies created via special microorganisms, and the super skeleton soldiers made of the bones of rare animals with evil runes carved on them finally marched out!
The combat ability of the elites was equal to the high level of the Refinement Stage and even the Building Foundation Stage. Their movement was extremely agile and fast. There was not the slightest rigidness typical of regular zombies and skeletons at all. They rushed toward East Peace County in the blink of an eye!
The few high-level Cultivators in East Peace County all rushed out, too, and had a head-on clash with the army of ghouls. The battle between the living and the undead reached its climax.
“Now’s the time!”
In the sky, noticing the loosening of the battle formation of the army of ghouls, a flying boat slowly withdrew from the battlefield, took a big detour on the right side of the battlefield, and dashed right toward the rear of the enemy’s formation.
Before the enemy discovered what was going on, five streaks of brightness had already jumped out of the boat and darted toward the palace of corpses at the center of the army of ghouls like five shooting stars!
“Mother White Lotus must be right inside the palace. As long as the monster is killed, the riot of ghosts will be suppressed in no time!
“Be extra careful, fellow Cultivators, and do no waste any time on the ghosts nearby. If we are corrupted by the souls and our spiritual energy does not circulate well, it is possible that we will be trapped by the army. Even if we do manage to survive in the end, our Cultivation will certainly plummet!
“Mother White Lotus is unpredictable and does not have a fixed body, which adds to the difficulty of capturing and executing her. Please pay special attention, everyone!”
Naturally, the five streaks of brightness belonged to Li Yao, Yan Liren, Qi Zhongdao, Ba Xiaoyu, and Master Bitter Cicada, the five super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators.
Only the five of them had a chance of slaying Mother White Lotus, who was well protected by the thousands of ghosts.
However, Qi Zhongdao, who wanted Mother White Lotus dead more than anything else, did not know that Li Yao actually had other intentions. He was thinking of sparing Mother White Lotus and then following her to her nest.
The war between the living and the dead was a sheer tragedy. The living had every right to pursue survival, but was the vengeance of the dead not justified at all?
Even if Mother White Lotus was suppressed, as long as the world remained an impenetrable wine barrel, then before long, countless restless souls would pop up again, and a new ‘Mother Red Lotus’, ‘Mother Black Lotus’, or ‘Mother Green Lotus’ would appear among them!
Li Yao secretly made up his mind that he would break the wine barrel in his own way and end the unceasing tragedy!
Hardly had the five streaks of brightness rushed into the army of ghouls when they were enveloped by the ubiquitous white mist.
Li Yao clearly sensed the interference of the ghosts.
He felt that countless memory pieces were piercing through his brain, making him share countless episodes of broken lives in the moment.
In a trance, he seemed to be a disaster victim who was struggling in the middle of rushing torrents while watching his home to be swallowed by the flood.
The next second, he became a patient who was burnt by the febrile typhoon and left unattended on the road, slowly dying in excruciating pain as if thousands of ants were gnawing at his heart.
In the third second, he turned into a hungry disaster victim whose stomach was filled up by weeds and bark, shaking and falling on the ground while staring at the splendid gate of a Cultivation sect.
Flood, fire, the scorching sun, and ferocious monsters!
Countless gory pictures were gliding in front of his eyes one by one.
Moans, screams, begs, curses, and fights!
Countless sounds were piercing through his ears.
Pain, regret, hope, desperation, detestation!
All the negative emotions were crawling inside his brain like venomous spiders!