6kv Chapter 42: Absorbing Remnant Souls, Enhancing Yin Yuan Daoist Cultivation
Chapter 42: Absorbing Remnant Souls, Enhancing Yin Yuan Daoist Cultivation
At that moment, countless piercing sounds of air being torn apart rang out continuously, like a prelude to annihilation.
Those countless soul-capturing whispers, like living spears of judgment, fell from the sky, instantly piercing through the void, transforming into an invisible storm of blades that poured down upon the boundless sea of bones below.
"Bang bang bang—bang bang bang—bang bang bang—"
In an instant, a deafening explosion occurred, gray mist dispersed, and bone fragments flew everywhere.
Every whispered soul-capturing word, under Nie Xiaoqian's extremely precise control of her soul power, accurately struck the soul fire flickering in the eye sockets of the undead skeletons below.
Under the terrifying power accumulated from her over three thousand years of cultivation, these hideous skeletal souls were instantly blasted to pieces, turning into a shower of bone dust. The soul fire in their eye sockets was extinguished completely in an instant, not even a wisp of their remnant soul could escape.
[Ding! Your contracted Yin artifact has successfully killed the Soul Skeleton... Your Yin Yuan cultivation has increased by thirteen days... Your Yin Yuan cultivation has increased by thirteen days...]
[Ding! Your contracted Yin artifact has successfully killed the Soul Skeleton... Your Yin Yuan cultivation has increased by eleven days... Your Yin Yuan cultivation has increased by eleven days...]
[Ding! Your contracted Yin artifact has successfully killed the Soul Skeleton... Your Yin Yuan cultivation has increased by fourteen days... Your Yin Yuan cultivation has increased by fourteen days...]
With just a tentative move, the "experience" prompt in Fang Han's mind, which he had blocked for a long time, started flashing wildly like a screen, instantly filling the entire log.
To Fang Han's surprise, the cultivation points he gained from killing these undead skeletons weren't that many, especially considering he had accumulated an eleven-fold bonus from the Netherworld's Blessing. Without this terrifying eleven-fold bonus, he probably wouldn't even get two days' worth of cultivation points from killing a single undead skeleton.
"The experience gained from killing monsters is a bit low. Could it be because there are just too many skeletons? But according to the conservation of mass, that shouldn't be the case."
These undead skeletons are individually no weaker than fourth or fifth-tier wraiths. Although they're considered cannon fodder, killing wraiths of this level previously yielded at least twenty or thirty days' worth of experience. Could it be that the will of the Netherworld deliberately nerfed them?
A question flashed through Fang Han's mind.
However, he soon became too lazy to dwell on such trivial details.
After all, he doesn't rely on killing monsters to increase his meager cultivation level.
With his current foundation of ten thousand years of cultivation, a single infusion of power would increase his cultivation by at least ten thousand years. How many of these cannon fodder skeletons would he have to kill to see any real increase?
Xiaoqian made her move, sweeping away a group of undead skeletons like mowing grass.
At this moment, the contract envoys below, who had been fighting for a long time and were beginning to give out, finally came back to their senses from their shock.
"Look at the sky!" someone in the crowd shouted, their voice filled with ecstasy and disbelief.
Almost everyone stopped what they were doing, abruptly raised their heads, and looked up at the sky that was completely shrouded in gray fog.
They saw a female ghost, dressed in white with purple markings and possessing a slender figure, hovering in mid-air with a mournful expression. She was manipulating the chilling, soul-snatching whispers that filled the sky like the whip of death, and was frantically reaping the densely packed undead skeletons below.
Above the female ghost's vengeful spirit, a tall, slender figure hung there quietly like a god, silently watching the fierce battle below.
His abundant Yin energy was gushing out from every pore of his body to counteract the gravity of this underworld.
In this way, he was enveloped in a cold yet sacred aura, looking like a god of the underworld descending to earth, so sacred that no one dared to offend him.
"Holy crap, is that Fang Shen?" someone exclaimed.
"It must be him! I remember now, a big shot once said that Fang Shen's contracted spirit is an incredibly powerful female ghost!"
"Wait a minute, didn't someone say before that Fang Shen flew with wings? How come he doesn't even need wings anymore and is just standing there in mid-air?"
"Are you fucking stupid? That's Fang Shen, the walking cheat code for our Soul-Suppressing Village! Don't use your pathetic knowledge to wildly speculate about Fang Shen's abilities!"
"I was wrong, I was stupid, I shouldn't have had any doubts about God."
The moment Fang Han's iconic figure appeared in the sky, the contract envoys below, whose morale had been almost at rock bottom, suddenly became excited, as if they had found their backbone and received a shot of adrenaline. They shouted Fang Han's name.
However, perhaps it was Xiaoqian's ruthless slaughter that completely enraged the core of this wave of the Undead Calamity Legion.
Just as everyone's attention was drawn to Fang Han and Xiao Qian in the sky, a series of heavy hoofbeats, like muffled thunder, that shook the earth, suddenly rumbled from the rear of the Legion of the Undead Calamity.
Immediately afterwards, a terrifying figure dozens of times larger than an ordinary skeleton suddenly broke through the thick gray death aura and appeared in everyone's sight.
The figure's true form was also a skeleton burning with eerie soul fire, but its jagged frame was covered with a tattered suit of armor riddled with sword and knife wounds, and it held a giant, pitch-black scythe wrapped with the wails of countless vengeful spirits.
Even more terrifying, it was riding a warhorse with eyes burning with blood-red soul fire and hooves treading on pale green ghost fire.
It exuded a suffocating, pure aura of death.
The moment the enormous figure appeared, its eyes, blazing with crimson soul fire, locked onto the slender figure in the sky who was slaughtering its subordinates—Nie Xiaoqian.
Immediately afterwards, a deafening roar, as if shattering the void, exploded out. The magnificent warhorse of the dead reared up abruptly, its four hooves off the ground, treading on the ghastly green ghost fire. As if completely disregarding the rules of this underworld, it soared into the sky and charged directly at Xiaoqian in the heavens.
[Skeleton Knight - Rare and Ferocious] Tier 12, Chaotic Evil Faction.
This thing is the supreme commander of this Legion of Undead Calamities in this realm of wandering souls.
It holds in its hand the key to open the gate to the "Dark Cavern," the second realm of vengeful spirits in the underworld.
When the Netherworld's will was transforming Earth and the rules were at their most chaotic, it led its legion of undead calamities to forcibly open the gate to the Dark Cavern and descended from the higher level of the Netherworld to this place. Later, it was suppressed by the rules of this realm and fell into slumber.
Now that the five town leaders have been slaughtered, the suppressive power of the rules has weakened, and that's why it has awakened.
Danger rating: 12.
Fang Han's mind naturally conjured up all the detailed information about the skeleton knight.
However, a mere twelve-star danger rating is practically negligible to him now; he's no different from an ant.
"All People Control Ghosts: Initiating Ghosts, Regaining Cultivation Power a Hundredfold" - Stunning writing style and a thrilling plot!
Even Xiaoqian, one of his subordinates, could be easily abused to the point of being unable to take care of herself.
After all, Xiaoqian has been infused with over three thousand years of pure Yin energy by him, and coupled with her being a rare dark species born as a second-realm vengeful spirit, her true combat power has long exceeded the limit that the first-realm underworld can accommodate, making her terrifying.
She had no problem dealing with this skeleton knight whose power was mostly suppressed by the rules.
Of course, what Fang Han really cared about at this moment was not how strong the skeleton knight was, nor whether he won or lost this invasion of the undead calamity.
What he cared more about was the information hidden behind the skeleton knight.
According to the previous introduction, this guy came here from the second realm of the Netherworld, the realm of vengeful spirits, through that so-called "Dark Cavern," and he even has the key to the gate of the Dark Cavern in his hand.
This is similar to the key bosses in games that drive the plot forward.
Fang Han had a vague feeling that killing this guy and surviving this calamity of the dead might bring unexpected gains that would be even greater than the fourth batch of trials themselves.
His strong premonition was actually related to his stumbling journey so far.
This world where everyone summons spirits is like a series of interconnected quests.
Each time you unlock a new round and defeat the leader of that round's town, you'll receive generous rewards and unlock new story content.
Moreover, after a stronger leader is spawned and defeated, the rewards and information received will be richer and more in-depth.
In general, apart from the fact that you personally descend to this underworld and your soul is scattered and cannot be resurrected once you die, many of the other rules of this underworld are very similar to those of highly free virtual reality games.
This even led Fang Han to suspect that his consciousness had been transferred into a game called "Netherworld Path" that far surpassed the technological level of Earth.
Of course, he wasn't the only one who felt this way.
Fighting evil spirits, exploding Yin Yuan Dao Xing, exploding Soul Shrines, exploding Ghost Techniques—these elements of fighting monsters, leveling up, opening chests, and strengthening equipment all seem to make you feel like you're experiencing a game set in the underworld.
Many contract makers with flexible minds have similar guesses.
Now that the Calamity of the Dead has begun, it's even more like the "Soul Siege" storyline that every starting village in a game inevitably encounters after it has developed to a certain level.
Once you successfully weather the storm, the benefits are inevitable, and you might even experience a transformative upgrade.
That's why, after seeing the detailed information about the Skeleton Knight, Fang Han had a vague feeling that there was definitely more to the story.
The whole process is like a main quest with each link connected to the next, gradually leading him to come into contact with and glimpse the higher level of the second realm of vengeful spirits in the underworld.
In the short moment that Fang Han was concentrating on these things, Xiao Qian had already clashed head-on with the enormous skeleton knight in the sky.
The skeleton knight, riding a strange, undead warhorse, leaped high into the air and seemed to gain a brief ability to walk on air. He could control his body at will in the void without falling down, showing remarkable agility.
The jet-black scythe in its hand, emanating a heavy aura of death, unleashed dozens of massive black blades of light, capable of tearing souls apart, in an instant like a storm. These blades coalesced into an impenetrable net, sealing off all possible hiding spaces around Xiaoqian in the blink of an eye.
The terrifying, oppressive force containing the laws of death exploded out, forcing Xiaoqian's slender figure to constantly perform various extreme dodges, moving at high speed through the gaps in the black blade light, looking somewhat passive.
Fortunately, thanks to Fang Han's more than three thousand years of cultivation, her speed was already as fast as a ghost, so she was not injured by the opponent's net of blades.
Even so, the frustration of being relentlessly suppressed from the start made her already fierce and tyrannical nature even angrier, her soul filled with intense killing intent.
Just as Xiaoqian narrowly dodged a series of fatal attacks with her extremely nimble movements, she finally seized the moment when her opponent's moves were running out of steam and launched a fierce counterattack.
Countless soul-capturing whispers, shimmering with an eerie glow, rapidly gathered and wove around her, instantly coalescing into a long, soul-capturing whip radiating an ominous aura and shimmering with ghostly light.
A terrifying roar, as if it had shattered the void itself, resounded. With Xiaoqian's unreserved blessing of over three thousand years of cultivation, the Soul-Seizing Whip lashed the void like the Judgment Whip of the Underworld King, transforming into a ghostly white bolt of destructive lightning that bypassed the scythe's defense and slammed into the skeleton knight's chest, which was covered in tattered armor.
That terrifying power, enough to shake mountains, surged through the skeleton knight's entire body like a tidal wave.
Before it could even make any defensive or force-dissipating movements, it was struck by this indescribably heavy blow, like swatting a fly, and was slammed hard onto the ground.
Moreover, because the force of that descent was so terrifying, the land below, which had long been soaked in resentment and bone dust, was smashed into a terrifying meteorite crater the size of a large playground.
Spiderweb-like cracks spread wildly in all directions, and an enormous shockwave, formed from pure physical attack power, swept outwards in a ring, instantly affecting the surging tide of undead skeletons nearby.
In an instant, countless soul flames were extinguished like candles blown by a fierce wind, and countless withered bones were shattered into countless bone fragments.
With this one strike, Xiaoqian not only knocked the arrogant skeleton knight to the ground and slammed him into the earth, but also wiped out thousands of undead skeletons around her.
When the dust and bone fragments finally settled, the contract envoys who had been staring at the battlefield in the sky gasped in shock and stood frozen in place after seeing the scene, which resembled a doomsday judgment.
"My Lord of the Underworld, is this... is this the Yin artifact contracted by the God of War? It's fucking ferocious! One strike, just one strike!"
"Yes, yes, that's the attack method! We saw an even bigger impact crater in the territory of the Wasteland Colossus, it was definitely Fang Shen's doing!"
"My god, which realm of the underworld did Fang Shen's female ghost come from? How can she be so powerful? This is completely beyond the comprehension of an ant like me. Could she be one of those legendary fifth-realm ghost generals?"
"That can't be right, can it? When our village first started, didn't the announcement from the Netherworld's Will say that our village's strongest contracted Yin creatures were only at the third level of fierce ghosts, and there were only two of them?"
"Tch, do you believe that cold, hard announcement, or this scene that's making your soul tremble? Although I admit that Chu Linghan and Leng Qingyue's third-realm Yin creatures are indeed very strong and are the signature of our village, compared to Fang Shen, this female ghost who looks like a Hades, they're really trash."