Chapter 266: The Young Master is So Amazing

“It’s not that simple. Look at the number of Yin Souls below,” Zhao Long said, shaking his head. As the pilot of the Giant Whale Flying Boat, he understood the dangers of this place better than anyone.

They could get away with picking off a few stray Yin Soul Patrolmen, but alerting the larger entity lurking below would unleash a tidal wave of Yin Souls upon them. Staring at the dense swarm of ghostly figures before the waterfall, a chill ran down their spines.

Even if they were all at the Qi Refining realm, they couldn’t possibly withstand such numbers.

They absolutely couldn’t let that massive creature detect them.

“The Concealment Formation inscribed on the Giant Whale, when fueled by spirit essence, can breach this area in just two hours,” Zhao Long explained.

“Two hours? Can’t we speed it up?” someone asked.

They had barely entered before encountering trouble. With so much time remaining, the chances of unforeseen complications were too high.

“This is the fastest we can go. Ten Thousand Demon Mountain is vast, and this area is blocked by Demon Qi. Aside from a Transdomain Flying Boat, we’d have to fly ourselves.”

Fly themselves?

No one dared to attempt that.

“More Yin Souls are approaching—nine this time,” Mei Qin warned, her gaze sweeping the surroundings. Having ridden a Flying Boat before, she understood the dangers of this place better than the others.

“There’s more ahead.”

Following the direction of the Flying Boat, the group spotted a mass of gray mist beyond the nine Yin Souls. But there was no mist in the Bridge of Helplessness region—this was clearly the collective aura of a vast horde of wandering Yin Souls.

At least three hundred!

“Can we avoid them?” someone asked, their voice trembling.

“No, taking a detour would be even more dangerous,” Zhao Long replied, shaking his head.

As the nine Yin Souls approached, Chen Luo raised his hand again, dispatching them with the same method as before. This time, however, even he felt the pressure. These Yin Soul Patrolmen seemed connected by invisible threads. While individual encounters had been manageable, their sheer number had completely changed the sensation, as if confronting a single, unified consciousness.

These wandering Yin Souls weren’t solitary entities; they were more like strands of hair growing from some colossal, unseen being.

An Abnormal!

The sound of the wooden fish and bronze bell grew clearer, and several people winced in pain. But there was no time to focus on resisting the discomfort; they had to deal with the approaching horde first.

As the Flying Boat drew closer, all the Yin Souls detected them.

Their heads turned in unison.

Hundreds of eyes swiveled toward them as over three hundred Yin Souls surged forward like a tidal wave. Zhao Long and the others swiftly retrieved their talisman papers, ready to capture the spirits.

These Foundation Establishment cultivators were seasoned in combat. The Yin Souls varied greatly in strength, ranging from nearly mid-Foundation Establishment to weaker than the third layer of Qi Refining.

Chen Luo seized fifty Yin Souls at once, including four mid-Foundation Establishment entities, over twenty early Foundation Establishment spirits, and the rest at Qi Refining Perfection. The greater the number of souls he controlled, the clearer his perception became. With fifty souls in hand, Chen Luo felt as if a giant bell clapper had slammed into his skull. In a fleeting, dizzying vision, he glimpsed a colossal centipede clad in Daoist robes.

The centipede’s abdomen was covered in a dense cluster of at least a thousand eyes, one of which swiveled to lock onto him.

Thousand-Eyed Centipede, a Great Demon from the Upper Realm.

The thought arose in his vast, encyclopedic External Brain.

Boom!

A Yin Soul self-destructed, sending a circular shockwave crashing against the Giant Whale’s protective Restriction. The golden energy of the Restriction clashed with the Yin Soul’s destructive force, causing the Flying Boat to violently shake. The Giant Whale shuddered in mid-flight, as if struggling to maintain its high-speed glide.

“We can’t let the Flying Boat’s speed be disrupted!” Zhao Long roared.

If the Flying Boat were forced out of its high-speed state, they would be doomed. Once exposed, they wouldn’t escape the notice of the colossal creature below, and everyone would die.

But the Yin Souls cared nothing for their plight. After one self-detonated, the rest followed suit.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of rapid explosions reverberated through the air. The Restriction on the Giant Whale’s surface began to fade rapidly, turning Zhao Long’s face green with fury. He could clearly sense the Flying Boat’s spirit essence reserves dwindling at an alarming rate. At this pace, the Restriction would shatter soon, and the Flying Boat would be destroyed.

“This isn’t normal! These things are acting strangely.”

“Why are they so frenzied?!”

Zhao Long had traversed this route at least ten times, encountering danger on several occasions, but he had never witnessed anything like this before.

Chen Luo’s eyelids twitched violently. Instinctively, he glanced at his Pest Control Pouch.

Inside, the Life-Stealing Mite had somehow ‘stolen’ a gray ‘Qi Life’. This invisible life force was rapidly being converted into energy, surging into the mite’s body. Seizing the opportunity, the Soul-Parasitic Gu latched onto the mite, and the two Gu Insects began to feast voraciously on the stolen energy.

“Does anyone have spirit essence? Hurry up and hand it over! The Restriction has been breached, and we’re all going to die!”

Zhao Long flashed onto the back of the Giant Whale Flying Boat, retrieved five pieces of spirit essence from his Pouch of Holding, and tossed them into the vessel’s power source. Two more cultivators flew up, offering two additional pieces.

Seven pieces of spirit essence—this paltry amount of energy was but a drop in the bucket for the colossal Giant Whale.

Just then, another Yin Soul noticed the commotion. This one appeared exceptionally powerful, its spectral form almost solidifying into physical matter. The creature swooped down, its mouth stretching into an exaggerated arc, and unleashed a deafening roar at the Giant Whale Flying Boat.

The ear-shattering sound exploded outward, sending out a circular shockwave.

On the Flying Boat, all seven occupants except Chen Luo began bleeding from their ears, noses, mouths, and eyes. Their vision blurred, and their Divine Souls suffered severe trauma. Even Chen Luo felt the impact; this Yin Soul was at least at the Late Foundation Establishment stage, wielding the power of nearly seventy spiritual energy dragons. Combined with the multiplicative effects of the wooden fish and the bell’s chimes, the roar dealt several times the normal damage.

Having finished its roar, the Yin Soul floated to the perimeter of the wooden whale, pressing against the Restriction to peer inside. The circular Formation on the Flying Boat flattened its face into a large, round pancake, its eyes occupying half the whale’s body.

Boom!

Energy erupted, shattering the Restriction on the Giant Whale Flying Boat and blasting a thumb-sized hole through it. The outside air surged inward.

Chen Luo felt a buzzing in his head, followed by dizziness and disorientation—clear signs of damage to his Divine Soul. The other six fared worse. Two mid-Foundation Establishment cultivators lay collapsed on the floor, their eyes rolled back, their bodies tossed about by the swaying whale. It was unclear if they were still alive.

“I…!” Chen Luo spat out a mouthful of bloody foam, reaching into his Pouch of Holding for a small black stone—a Demonic Seed. This secret technique, used by the Demonseed Sect Leader as a life-saving measure, allowed him to transfer fatal injuries to the stone.

Crack! Crack! As the stone crumbled, Chen Luo’s physical wounds visibly healed, but his Divine Soul remained severely damaged.

“All of you, get in here!” Chen Luo unfurled his Soul Banner, directing it toward the fifty Yin Souls under his control. The banner instantly absorbed them, and he flicked out their Soul Tokens with a surge of magical energy.

Chen Luo’s actions quickly drew the attention of more Yin Souls.

Yin Souls spontaneously exploding was a common occurrence in this land, and wouldn’t normally alert the Thousand-Eyed Centipede. But the shattering of a Soul Token was an entirely different matter.

Two powerful Yin Souls streaked toward him. Unlike the Yin Soul Patrolmen, these entities flickered constantly as they moved, seeming to teleport through the shadows. They reached Chen Luo in an instant, their speed leaving him breathless.

“Slash!”

A cyan sword aura erupted from Chen Luo’s blade, cleaving both Yin Souls in half. Half of the spiritual energy he had painstakingly replenished using the Demonic Seed was once again consumed.

Oddly, the severed Yin Souls didn’t dissipate. Instead, they reassembled like bizarre building blocks, forming a two-headed, four-armed monstrosity.

“Yinmu Sword Formation!”

Chen Luo gripped his Magic Sword and flicked his sleeve.

Nine Magic Swords shot forth, the formation diagram twisting as a dense barrage of sword auras exploded outward. In an instant, the newly assembled Yin Soul was reduced to dust, the attack precisely avoiding the location of the Soul Token.

Ding!

A drop of black liquid drifted from the slain Yin Soul and landed in Chen Luo’s palm. The affected area rapidly blackened, resembling decaying flesh. A dark aura spread up his arm, attempting to corrupt his heart.

“Poison? A curse?”

Chen Luo swiftly activated the brains of the Demonseed Sect Leader and Wang Mingde. With their combined expertise, he quickly halted the progression of the injury.

They had barely weathered this wave of attacks.

Looking back, only three survivors remained: the female cultivator examining the corpses, Zhao Long, and Mei Qin. The female cultivator owed her survival to her own strength, while Zhao Long and Mei Qin had survived by drawing on their experience and deploying pre-prepared talismans.

The other three fallen cultivators lay motionless nearby, their eyes rolled back, blood streaming from every orifice.

“Burn spirit essence to accelerate. I’ll repair the Restriction.”

Chen Luo seized Zhao Long and channeled a surge of spiritual energy into him. Zhao Long staggered to his feet and flew without a word toward the Giant Whale’s power source. Chen Luo followed swiftly, reaching the blasted wreckage within moments.

Seven Stars Hand Formation—seal with the Pivot Star Hand.

The Formation is damaged. Fine Gold Stone required.

“The Supreme Yang Fire of Divine Fire Peak can refine materials and temporarily repair the breaches,” Chen Luo thought.

The relevant External Brains swiftly materialized around him as he stood before the shattered hull of the Whale Flying Boat. Brains related to Formations, Restrictions, and Artificing all surfaced, ready to assist.

Below, Chen Luo seamlessly alternated between Formation Master techniques, Restriction methods, and the fire control skills of an Artificer. His movements were fluid and practiced, a display of effortless proficiency that would have astonished any onlooker.

But Chen Luo had no time for such trivialities. He had just attempted to deploy the Silver Carapace Corpse King, but zombies, renowned for their physical might and virtually nonexistent Divine Souls, were powerless against these Yin Souls. Perhaps higher-tier zombies could manage, but the Silver Carapace Corpse King was not yet capable.

Buzz!

Finally, under Chen Luo’s meticulous repairs, the gaping hole in the Whale Flying Boat’s hull sealed shut. The vessel shuddered, its hull reverting to its semi-transparent state and averting complete disintegration.

Relieved, Chen Luo exhaled, only to see a ghastly pale face looming behind him.

An icy breath brushed his neck, and clammy strands of hair brushed against his ear.