The Master of Beasts-Chapter 695 - 204:

"Without any Golden Immortals, to destroy the Great Array would at least require countless lives piled upon it, and necessitate extremely formidable Heavenly Immortal cultivators to act as the vanguard to shatter the array. Otherwise, the more deaths there are, the stronger the array's power becomes!"

"When that time comes, the ghost skulls that appear won't be just one!"

...

"Oh my, they've increased!"

Under Kai Ming's suggestion, Bai Wei and Bai Ze led a large group of cultivators to fend off the ghost skulls' attack.

The black smoke emitted by the ghost skulls was practically unstoppable, even immortal power could only lightly hold it off for a short while, and once an Immortal Artifact was exposed to the smoke excessively, it immediately got contaminated by grievance energy and rendered useless.

In less than a quarter of an hour, dozens of cultivators had died, these were Star Moon City's elite cultivators, each highly skilled in fighting techniques, and dying just like that was truly heart-wrenching.

"Prajnaparamita, may Buddha have mercy upon us!"

A golden big handprint descended upon the nearest dried corpse altar with immense power.

The Infinite Buddha Light continually dissolving those dried corpses, the true spirits of cultivators trapped inside the bodies dissipated one by one, smiled towards Kai Ming with hands together before vanishing into nothingness.

"I wonder what reincarnation is like?"

After uttering a sigh of wonder, Kai Ming abruptly discovered the immortal power was diminishing too rapidly, in merely the span of ten breaths, nearly eighty percent of his pure Buddhist Sect immortal power was depleted, and the altar had only purified less than a tenth of the area.

At this moment, Bai Wei's voice reached them, and Kai Ming yelled, "Quick, retreat, something's amiss!"

Avoiding the direction shrouded by ghost skulls from afar, Kai Ming's face was somewhat grave as he spoke, "This seems like the legendary Nine Ghosts Heaven Complaint Formation!"

"What?" Bai Wei dug at his ear, somewhat doubting if he heard incorrectly.

This kind of infamous formation, how could it appear here? Moreover, could cultivators actually manage to set up such a Great Array? That's bizarre!

"Could it be a mistake?" Yu Bai also had heard of the notorious name of this array.

"No way, look at the ground!" Kai Ming pointed with a single hand.

Because they were too occupied, the bodies of the dead cultivators hadn't been taken out.

Now those corpses began to slowly shrivel, as if some invisible entity was sucking the moisture out of them!

These dried corpses floated up slowly under the control of the black smoke, embedding into the previously dissolved altar.

Though the number of corpses dissolved previously exceeded a hundred, just a dozen bodies completely repaired it, even expanding its size, resulting in the emergence of a second tiny ghost skull.

"What's going on? Why..." Yu Bai was somewhat in disbelief.

Such a situation implies that previous sacrifices were not in vain, instead, they even enhanced the Great Array's power!

"This is an ominous formation, such a Great Array should never exist in the world. The situation here needs to be reported to the City Lord, as with our current capabilities, I'm afraid it can't be resolved!" Kai Ming sighed. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

If he could call upon those fellow monks from Wufa Temple, it might be solvable, after all, Buddha Light naturally suppresses these Underworld things, Wufa Temple, no matter how far they stray, remains a part of the Buddhist Sect.

"There's no choice." Bai Ze said somewhat helplessly.

Appearing for the first time, but not achieving any results, now needing to seek help from the master, it truly felt a bit embarrassing!

As the message transformed into a stream of light flying towards Star Moon City, the cultivators present weren't in high spirits.

The Mountain and Sea Strange Beasts, with more irritable tempers, had begun to roar continuously or pound the ground, venting their dissatisfaction and frustration.

........

Chen Jiuge, just confirmed Zone Twelve's genuine surrender, hadn't had a chance to rest when Mo Yu's communication reached him.

"Nine Ghosts Heaven Complaint Formation appeared in Zone Fourteenth?"

Chen Jiuge was somewhat stunned; could a mere Great Array actually stop the Mountain and Sea Strange Beasts he dispatched?

Currently, not even a trace of Golden Immortal-level power could emerge in the Golden Desert. Before, it could hold on for dear life and skirt around the edges; now, not to mention skirting, if anything exceeds the Heavenly Immortal aura, Heavenly Thunder simply descends.

With a hint of puzzlement, Chen Jiuge had the Shadow Demon carry him through the shadows.

Being somewhat shamefully held in a princess carry by the Shadow Demon, he slowly sank into the shadow.

The shadow actually is another world, and its vastness could possibly be greater than the True Realm by far, but the Shadow World only exists relying on reality, and there are very few creatures within.

Traveling through the Shadow World with only monochrome colors, Chen Jiuge felt a peculiar oppressive sensation, an unpleasant feeling as if disaster was impending.

"Quack"

A water-ink colored frog jumped out from the black grass nearby, croaking an extremely hoarse sound, causing Chen Jiuge to uncontrollably shiver.

"What kind of spiritual beast is this?"

Though curious, Chen Jiuge didn't let the Shadow Demon stop, as the Shadow World was too unfamiliar to him, even the Shadow Demon, living in the Shadow World, wasn't very knowledgeable.

Except for external summons from Chen Jiuge, the Shadow Demons practically only operated in their own gathering places, never exploring outward.

An hour later, Chen Jiuge finally arrived outside No. 14 Exploration City.

Jumping out of the Shadow Demon's embrace, ignoring the strange gazes of the others, Chen Jiuge looked up towards the thick black smoke above the city with a slight frown, "Master Kai Ming, what's the current situation?"

Kai Ming, feeling somewhat ashamed, held his hands together, saying, "Sorry, City Lord, the grievance energy here is too immense. Coupled with the consolidation of the Nine Ghosts Heaven Complaint Formation, this humble monk is unable to resolve it."

"Can't do it? But Master is from the Buddhist Sect!" Chen Jiuge expressed surprise, for it was universally acknowledged that the Buddhist Sect counters evil, or else why would they start retreating from the world after the Underworld hid away?

"Ashamed!" After apologizing once more, Kai Ming fell silent.

Departing from canonical teachings already sounded unpleasant; Wufa Temple's standing in the Buddhist Sect was actually quite awkward, if not for its own strength being sufficient, it might long have been expelled from the Buddhist Order.

"Enough, I'll go have a look myself!"

Finding no answers, Chen Jiuge planned to assess the situation personally.

"City Lord, I will accompany you. That thing is somewhat frightening." Bai Wei stepped forward voluntarily.

"Fine, Bai Ze, you should also come along!"

"Alright!"

One person and two beasts, entering the city once again.

The core of the Great Array lay in the central area of the city, the ghost skulls' activities were actually limited, covering only the innermost region, whereas the outer city wasn't much affected at all—notwithstanding Kai Ming's precaution, hence stationing everyone outside.

After walking for a while, Chen Jiuge saw from afar the almost impenetrable black smoke layer.

"Is this it?"

Immortal power enveloping his hand, extending it gently to touch.

The black smoke reacted violently with the green immortal power, emitting a sound akin to erosion.

"Ssssss"

When the wisp of black smoke completely dissipated, Chen Jiuge was astonished to realize that eliminating the smoke with immortal power required an astounding one to one hundred ratio!

One unit of black smoke required a hundred units of immortal power to extinguish, this was due to Chen Jiuge's relatively high cultivation. Had his cultivation been lower, with less pure immortal power, it would require even more!

"The intensity of this grievance energy is somewhat terrifying!"

Grievance energy was familiar to Chen Jiuge, each cultivator would be acquainted with it, but such intensity of grievance energy was beyond Chen Jiuge's imagination.

"Let me think."

Based on Bai Wei's previous description en route, the ghost skull within the smoke-covered region could manipulate the smoke, and its body was highly robust, coupled with the surrounding environment, it was extremely unfriendly to cultivators.

The altars at the core of the Great Array were also incredibly difficult to eliminate, and even the cultivators who perished while removing the altars provided a grievance energy potentially more than what they eliminated.

After pondering for a while, Chen Jiuge's mind finally recalled a type of spiritual beast.

Mind linked to Chaos, conveying his thoughts.

Now that the Chaos World had grown much larger, his cultivation was too low, relying solely on his Divine Soul to locate it would take considerable time, possibly ending in vain.

Displeased with the task, Chaos flicked its whip irritably, grumbling, "Actually, it was fine not being trusted before, being locked in the little black room everyday was nice too!"

Riding atop an odd-looking creature, Chaos pointed in one direction, rapidly moving.

As the Artifact Spirit of the Chaos Pearl, understanding the entire Chaos World was essential, locating a spiritual beast was simple!

"It's you!"