Chapter 49: Welcoming

Chapter 49: The Arrival

A Ghost King is a consumable bargaining chip; when it should be discarded, it must be discarded.

In business, you don't worry about losses, because life is priceless.

The Demon Clan Elder's tail was so stiff it nearly shot straight up into the sky—this time, it was pure shock.

After Chu Jingxi dangled a tempting piece of bait, he didn't press the advantage; instead, he changed the subject.

"Now the hardest part is whether these conditions alone are enough to perform the summoning. Also, one Ghost King has already been burned by a summoning before. With a new summoning on the table, will any Ghost King even respond?"

Those present instinctively mulled it over, and it didn't take long to conclude that success was highly likely.

Sacrifices typically come in two types: blood sacrifices and soul sacrifices. Among them, blood sacrifices are most suitable for cross-plane summoning. The burning flesh and blood would carve open a passage, and if the Ghost King did not manifest, the passage would remain open for a while.

Because the anchor point on the other end is the Ghost King himself, if cultivators got their hands on it, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Yan Zizhan, already resigned to death, watched that figure who refused to give up until the bitter end.

Besides the blood he couldn't control, something else stirred inside him—something that the assimilation hadn't rejected.

Scorching hot, relentless, it kept him going.

Everyone present knew that Chu Jingxi's question was the real bait.

Hearing a question makes you think of an answer—it's basic instinct. That whole process plants a subconscious urge to act.

Xuan Lu, lurking in the shadows, hadn't even seriously weighed whether to do it before he was already sizing up the odds.

"That scheming brat!"

Even so, his bloodline technique slowed, almost imperceptibly.

Since forging the Ghost Body, even the soul can't betray the Ghost Clan.

But Chu Jingxi's proposal wasn't exactly treason. For one thing, he hadn't switched sides. Gold Immortal Xuanlu even felt, for a moment, that only he could lead the Ghost Clan back to greatness.

"Everyone, swear to stick to the same story—just say Yan Zizhan forced the summoning," Chu Jingxi had even covered his escape routes—more than one, in fact: "You could also say we already dug up Earth Immortal Yanhan from Ten Thousand Demon City, providing the locations of Ghost Cultivators who hadn't evacuated. We forced the Ghost Cultivators to do the summoning."

But by then, the Ghost Clan would be down to a single Ghost King. For the clan's overall strength, the last Ghost King would have to accept it and wouldn't dig any deeper.

As Chu Jingxi spoke, he kept an eye on Yan Zizhan's condition. When he saw one of Yan Zizhan's eyes nearly turn crimson, his nails nearly bit into his palm.

He held his breath, his face betraying nothing.

Traitors all share one trait: selfishness. In this psychological battle, the advantage was his.

Just as Chu Jingxi was struggling to keep his cool, that sinister voice finally crept in like a shadow.

"What if you're planning to wipe us all out in one sweep?"

Chu Jingxi answered without hesitation: "One Ghost King, and this many Savage Corpses—anyone who tries something funny dies."

He wasn't bluffing. With things this tangled, whether Xuan Lu betrayed them or they betrayed him, it'd be a losing move all around.

The Demon Clan Elder also spoke up at this time: "Xuan Lu, if we keep dragging this out, Ghost Emperor Wuliang's essence blood will be burned through, and there will be nothing left to discuss."

She sneered: "If you refuse, I'll knock Chu Jingxi out and drag him off. Worst case, Yan Zizhan blows himself up."

Chu Jingxi, who might get clobbered at any second: "?"

A few moments later, Gold Immortal Xuanlu still hadn't responded.

Every second was pure agony for Chu Jingxi, until the black sun over the Blood River flickered out, and the thick, oppressive ghostly aura thinned.

His shoulders eased a fraction—it worked!

Xuan Lu surfaced from a farther stretch of the river, the essence blood in his grasp.

Since he'd agreed to cooperate, he had to make sure everything was airtight: "Beneath me is the Ghost Realm Blood Sea, the ancestral sea of the Ghost Clan. Legend has it the early Ghost Clan was born from this Blood Sea. With Ghost Emperor Wuliang's essence blood, summoning through this sea is actually viable."

Chu Jingxi's guard went up: "The Ghost Clan left a gaping hole like this right in the middle of the Primordial Continent?"

Gold Immortal Xuanlu's face twitched—who in their right mind would think to use this for a summoning?

Besides, the Blood Sea alone wasn't enough—it didn't have enough life force. The real key was Ghost Emperor Wuliang's essence blood, which could power bloodline secret arts.

"You'd better not pull anything, or when the Ghost King breaks apart, I'll self-destruct too—we all die together."

"Naturally."

Standing on opposite sides of the river, everyone swore their oaths.

Gold Immortal Xuanlu then turned to Yan Zizhan: "You should've awakened part of the Ghost Clan's inherited memories by now. Summon with me."

Without Ghost Emperor Wuliang's essence blood to suppress them, the Savage Corpses began to stir again. The Savage race had been immensely strong in life—a single palm strike could carve a pit a hundred zhang deep into the ground.

There was no time to hesitate.

Yan Zizhan fought back the nausea from those memories, rifled through the fragments, and the instant he silently recited the incantation, the thick air around them froze solid.

That single drop of Ghost Emperor Wuliang's essence blood became a temporary core, and the Blood Sea below poured into it endlessly.

Yan Zizhan, already at his limit, deliberately herded the Savage Corpses into the sacrifice circle. Many of the Blood Sea-soaked Savage Corpses had tainted blood churning violently inside them. As the sacrifice intensified, holes exploded across their bodies.

A blood sacrifice required a set amount of flesh and blood.

Yan Zizhan and Xuan Lu both skipped the part of the incantation that said "with my flesh and blood." Even so, they weren't much better off.

Every summoning has a price. Xuan Lu's half antler fell clean off, and Yan Zizhan's muscles looked like a shattered vase glued back together—ready to fall apart at any second.

The blood mist thickened. Chu Jingxi could only watch helplessly as Yan Zizhan took the brunt of it. He forced himself to stay still, focusing entirely on the spatial fluctuations to pinpoint where the Ghost King would land.

The Demon Clan Elder didn't dare let her guard down either—she'd be the one to strike when the time came.

Deep beneath the Hopeless Wasteland, a Golden Immortal could only unleash so much power, while the Ghost Clan just needed ghostly aura to cultivate. Once the Ghost King got his bearings, he'd steamroll them all in raw power.

Ghost Emperor Wuliang's essence blood began to dissolve.

The absorbed blood flowed along the void's patterns, automatically linking and taking shape. As the crushing pressure filled the cramped space, Chu Jingxi fought the urge to step back and locked his eyes on one spot: "There!"

The King dropped in from another plane, and Chu Jingxi and the Demon Clan Elder charged!

The Demon Clan Elder hadn't expected him to be so bold. Truth was, Chu Jingxi had no choice—he had to bait the Ghost King into attacking him so his skill would trigger.

Gold Immortal Xuanlu had used Cang Ghost Clan blood to forge his Ghost Body, so he could only summon the Cang Ghost Clan's King.

The instant Ghost King Cang appeared, he felt the killing intent closing in and casually swiped a hand, forming a fog blade that stank of rot.

“Ryh’sh, VorAkk’……”

This time Chu Jingxi got it in a flash—he was a Ghost King.

“Passive skill triggered”

Hit by an overwhelming sense of dominance, Ghost King Cang was nearly frozen in place instantly.

That ever-changing ghost mask held countless shifting, illusory features, like billions of eyes locking onto the source of the summoning.

Xuan Lu!

Ghost King Cang’s face grew even more ferocious within the shadows.

A trace of Ghost Emperor Wuliang’s aura lingered in the air, along with the surging sea of blood. Ghost King Cang suddenly understood what was happening.

Gold Immortal Xuanlu, feeling the weight of that gaze, did not let his guard down: “Now!”

Getting a large number of Ghost Cultivators to betray and set up an ambush all at once was simply impossible. So Ghost King Cang wouldn’t have suspected a deliberate assassination beforehand—but with Yin Ghost King as a precedent, no Ghost King would answer a summoning completely unguarded anymore!

Without Xuanlu’s warning, Demon Clan Elder had already made her move. In midair, a massive multi-tailed fox blurred into a phantom, its body poised over a thousand-zhang vortex of demonic power. A claw capable of tearing space itself swept toward Ghost King Cang.

The claw didn’t land fully—half its power was blocked.

The Ghost Travel Chart.

A top-tier defensive Magic Artifact unique to the entire ghost realm, it was only brought out during wartime—yet Ghost King Cang had it on him this trip.

Demon Clan Elder’s expression shifted. She had burned through nearly half her demonic power. Chu Jingxi’s cultivation was insufficient. Xuanlu was waiting to build strength to devour the Ghost King and wouldn’t act. And Yan Zizhan’s condition was equally poor.

She wasn’t confident the next strike could seriously wound the Ghost King.

As Demon Clan Elder launched her second attack, Ghost King Cang didn’t even frown—mainly because he couldn’t. The only part of his face that moved was his mouth.

“Z’zz……”

Accompanying his self-introduction, the second strike only managed to pierce through the defense. Demon Clan Elder had no time to build up power and was forced to strike again.

Ghost King Cang’s face kept twisting and changing.

According to intelligence, Yin Ghost King had recovered his mobility within just a few breaths when he fell—why was it taking so long here?

On the other side, Chu Jingxi estimated there was at most a breath and a half left. He reluctantly began considering his innate boost, but just as he was about to commit, the Realm Spirit Origin surged up first, preparing to take flight and self-destruct again.

It barely flew for a second before being smacked back down with a splat—something else shot out from the shadows.

What was that?!

A yellowish-brown, eyeball-like object streaked toward Ghost King Cang like the wind.

Such a familiar aura! Chu Jingxi raised his eyes, but it was moving too fast for him to even utter a word.

It was one of the Rustless Copper Bell’s bells! When had this little thing started following them?

Ever since the alchemy factory secretly developed the function to dismantle bells, the Rustless Copper Bell refused to stay a silent workhorse. It had hidden a single bell inside Lingzhu’s wine pouch—when Chu Jingxi was pulled down by the severed hand earlier, it came along too.

With everything that followed, no one had noticed it.

When Ghost Emperor Wuliang’s essence blood appeared, the Rustless Copper Bell had already been bracing for the final act. Yan Zizhan had died, Chu Jingxi had turned dark—but then the Ghost King descended, and seeing Chu Jingxi in danger of death as well, it acted without hesitation.

Without sparing anyone a glance, the single bell rang once and plunged straight into Ghost King Cang’s mouth.

Bang!

An explosion.

The process was terrifyingly clean!

His mouth was blown apart, flesh infused with terrifying energy splattering everywhere—yet Ghost King Cang still opened his mouth, speaking through the gore. A truly grotesque sight.

Demon Clan Elder saw her chance. Seizing the opening, her seemingly soft white tail fur stood erect like steel spikes, sweeping fiercely toward Ghost King Cang’s mouth.

A slap to the face!

Injury on top of injury—Ghost King Cang’s seemingly indestructible skull finally rocked for a moment, taking severe damage.

Chu Jingxi’s heart clenched. He had no time to figure out when the Rustless Copper Bell had detached one of its bells, and rasped, “Retreat!”

The Ghost King wasn’t dead, only gravely wounded—they still couldn’t match him now.

The rest would have to be left to Xuanlu.

In the blood river, Gold Immortal Xuanlu had been waiting for this moment. He had agreed to Chu Jingxi’s plan knowing that with Ghost King Cang on guard, a clean kill was impossible.

So the two sides could only cooperate—the chance for trickery was too slim.

In the final moment before their hasty escape, Demon Clan Elder’s tail coiled once more, forcibly tearing off half the Ghost King’s arm—maintaining her good habit of ensuring Xuanlu had less to devour.

Gold Immortal Xuanlu shot her a hateful glare. The next instant, his Dharma Body expanded infinitely, lunging at Ghost King Cang like a jackal to entangle him.

Ghost King Cang had by then regained his mobility. The arm torn off by Demon Clan Elder quickly re-formed from blood mist, and he even burned his origin power to condense the blood sea into multiple arms, reaching out in all directions like ape limbs.

With her last reserves, Demon Clan Elder hauled Chu Jingxi and Yan Zizhan onto her back and flew to the cave entrance.

The summoning’s aftereffects were severe—Yan Zizhan was nearly comatose. Through the blood sea’s reflection, Demon Clan Elder clearly saw one of those arms closing in on them at terrifying speed. Just as it was about to touch, Chu Jingxi repelled it with his remaining Array Talismans.

Behind them, the blood ape arm reluctantly withdrew, focusing fully on dealing with Gold Immortal Xuanlu.

The blood soul spirits he had devoured in the past had nearly merged into part of Ghost King Cang, manifesting as special weapons protruding from his body. Like vengeful spirits seeking retribution, they tore at Xuanlu with intent to rip him apart.

“Traitor to the clan—death is too good for you.” The ghost race’s native tongue was naturally soft, like hissing serpents, boring into the ears.

Xuanlu remained unmoved. Ghost King Cang couldn’t speak for the whole clan: “You were the one who acted unjustly first.”

They had openly and covertly forced him to wade through the blood sea, soaking for long periods in the high-energy blood pool, worsening his injuries.

“As long as I devour you, I’ll return to my peak.”

Two immensely powerful forces clashed in a frenzy of biting and tearing. Demon Clan Elder, flying toward the cave mouth, finally let out a long sigh of relief. Faint spiritual fluctuations came from behind—Chu Jingxi was simultaneously casting Healing Arts.

Even as they neared safety, Demon Clan Elder felt a sense of unreality.

In such a short time, Chu Jingxi had actually talked Xuanlu into the trap, pitting the ghost race’s two greatest powers against each other. Whoever survived, the benefit went to the Primordial Continent.

If Ghost King Cang survived, he’d be crippled at worst; if Xuanlu succeeded… Demon Clan Elder’s nerves had just begun to tense when she suddenly realized something.

Fully digesting a Ghost King’s power would take a long time, and even after digestion, the problem wouldn’t simply vanish.

Xuanlu possessed Golden Immortal strength—formidable in his own right. The various factions had written him off only because, after the war at the realm barrier, footage from Recording Stones that painted him as a fool had been widely circulated, cementing the public belief that Xuanlu had developed a Heart Demon.

Now that she thought about it...

"That's not right."

The source of Xuan Lu's Heart Demon was Chu Jingxi, not Ghost King Cang!

So why on earth did everyone suddenly turn their sights on Ghost King Cang? As if killing him would make everything disappear.

Even she herself had thought Ghost King Cang was the core of the problem.

Where exactly did things start going wrong?

While the Demon Clan Elder was still doubting her own judgment, less than a hundred zhang from the cave entrance, Chu Jingxi suddenly spoke up: "Hold on, don't go up yet."

They had reported their location earlier. With so many teams on the Boundless Wasteland, plus the cultivators stationed outside the wasteland, surely someone among them could read the tribulation's location signal.

Yet so much time had passed and not a single team had appeared, suggesting something might have gone wrong beyond their control.

Chu Jingxi looked at the Realm Spirit that could weaken its presence infinitely: "Go up and check if something's wrong with Lingzhu."

His calm throughout was nothing short of astonishing.

The Demon Clan Elder was just about spent, unable to maintain her true form. She curled her tail and shrank down to rabbit size. Chu Jingxi ended up with a fox under one arm, a person slung over his shoulder, and Ghost King Cang's half-severed arm in his other hand.

After a while, a single strand of hair drifted down, giving two gentle tugs to signal the coast was clear.

Clearly, while they'd been waiting, things had been happening outside.

At the cave entrance.

At least a hundred teams had gathered within a thousand-li radius. The white sand was stained with blood, and crowds of cultivators were popping pills to catch their breath.

The barbarian race had hated spiritual energy while alive. Half an hour after the spiritual tide ebbed, the world returned to normal. For ten thousand li around, the contaminated mutant corpses on the surface suddenly started moving.

The cultivators who'd tracked the signal had run straight into them and just wrapped up a bloody fight.

Among these teams, Chu Suye and her crew were there too. She looked at Lingzhu: "You said your master and Chu Jingxi both went down there?"

Before the last word even left her mouth, a gaunt figure shot out from below.

The cultivators at the cave mouth froze mid-reach for their weapons, then relaxed once they recognized who it was.

Chu Jingxi, with shoulders built for hauling and hands made for lifting, set his companions down one by one, then casually tossed Ghost King Cang's severed arm aside.

That impossibly fresh arm of Ghost King Cang gave off a terrifying aura, and Chu Jingxi himself looked scarier than any ghost.

The teams across the wasteland all swallowed hard at the sight.

Chu Jingxi staggered, looking about to keel over, and it was the Chu family members who caught him, quick-eyed and fast-handed. Meanwhile, Lingzhu came running over, and Chu Jingxi shot it a look, telling it to shove two blood-clotting pills into Yan Zizhan's mouth.

The Chu family members had known Chu Jingxi was coming and originally planned to team up with him. But learning he still had a few days before arrival, they had set off ahead: "This is..."

What happened?

By their math, he shouldn't have been in the wasteland more than a few days. Catching a glimpse of the blood-soaked, shrunken nine-tailed fox out of the corner of their eye, they sucked in a sharp breath.

Few among the fox clan could truly grow nine tails. Could this be the Demon Clan Elder? A Golden Immortal!

"How did she end up beaten like this?"

Author's note:

Mini theater:

By statistics, every time this young genius travels, his teammates' survival rate is nearly 100%.

Later generations' verdict: Extremely envious.

The Rustless Copper Bell can be split into separate bells (Chapter 44). Misfortune is where fortune depends—no need to worry about it~