Chapter 870: Quasi-Emperor Ghost Statue
The slaughter formation of Emperor Wu Shi blasted down a corner of the Southern Heavenly Gate, instantly stunning everyone present. What kind of place was this? Truly bizarre and terrifying.
Dust flew as the massive architectural fragment on the ground had stood for who knows how many ages, preserved by immortal dao patterns. The three characters on the plaque reading "Southern Heavenly Gate" left everyone petrified.
"Where have we fought our way into? The Feather Transformation Immortal Valley—can we truly ascend to immortality? Have we entered the Heavenly Realm?"
"Are we causing havoc in the Heavenly Palace?"
They stood back-to-back, nervously watching their surroundings. The area was still filled with bloody winds and rain, ghosts running rampant, with white bone fragments and fresh blood constantly raining down—a shocking sight.
Above them loomed a dark, oppressive heavenly palace, while below, a hundred ghosts marched at night. Fierce battles raged here, and countless demonic shadows descended from the broken corner of the heavenly gate.
"Who cares what it is! Kill them all! Even if this is the ancient Heavenly Court, they've all turned into corpse ghosts now, not the supreme beings of the past. We'll slaughter every last one!" the monkey shouted.
At this moment, they opened their heavenly eyes and saw the surrounding scene clearly. The charging demonic shadows all wore armor, like heavenly soldiers and generals, extremely intimidating. Every body was covered in corpse fur—none of them were living beings!
"Unbelievable! These people have power at the Immortal Three Severing Dao level. This defies all logic! There can't be this many kings—it must be an illusion!" Pang Bo shouted.
Ghosts wailed and demons howled as black winds howled. Everything here felt unreal, too bizarre. Searching the entire world, who could command so many ghosts and gods? All of them possessed king-level strength.
The more they thought about it, the more unnerved they became. Perhaps only true heavenly soldiers and generals could have such power, retaining part of their combat strength after death. Otherwise, there was no explanation.
"Could we really have dug up the ancient Heavenly Court? Are these the dead from ages past?" Even Black Emperor felt a chill.
"The clan elders said the ancient Heavenly Court doesn't exist in this world. If anything, only the Southern Heavenly Gate fell into the Divine Ruins," Ji Ziyue spoke up, purple clouds swirling around her as she held the demon saint egg, crystal clear and translucent.
"Right, we need to stay calm. Something must be wrong with what we're seeing. Source Heaven Eye, break illusions!" Ye Fan shouted.
However, beams of light shot several miles from his eyes, yet what he saw remained unchanged. The majestic heavenly palace still hung in the sky, and the falling corpse ghosts continued their slaughter—everything seemed real.
"Damn it! Who cares what it is! Even if it's the real ancient Heavenly Court, even if these are reborn heavenly soldiers and generals, so what?" Black Emperor threw caution to the wind, going berserk. "Emperor Wu Shi suppressed the nine heavens and ten lands, slaying gods and immortals. His slaughter formation can sweep the Heavenly Court!"
Ye Fan carved a set of Source Heaven patterns, placed a pile of divine source stones within, and set the jade tablet in the center, providing it with even greater divine power.
"Boom!"
At that moment, the jade tablet radiated boundless light. Tens of thousands of order divine chains shot into the sky, interweaving into a terrifying divine formation that crushed everything. Numerous heavenly soldiers and generals turned into blood and bone.
Then, the Wu Shi slaughter formation drained all the essence, unleashing a world-destroying strike. With a thunderous boom, it swept through the heavenly palace in the sky, reducing it to dust.
Everything vanished. The bloody rain stopped falling, the yin winds ceased. The ground was covered in bloodstains and rubble—a scene of utter ruin.
They remained silent for a long time, as if in a dream. All the terrifying scenes had disappeared. The ancient Heavenly Court had been shattered by them, leaving only a broken corner of the Southern Heavenly Gate as ruins.
"Rustle"
Ye Fan walked forward, sweeping away all the rubble with his sleeve. A collapsed thatched hut was revealed. After clearing it, a white skeleton appeared—slender and pure white, dead for about a year or two.
"This..."
His heart sank, followed by a wave of melancholy. Had that clever woman died? Ye Fan felt a tightness in his chest. Memories of the past surfaced in his mind, though in the end, he had walked the path with Li Xiaoman...
"Another old friend has left this world," Pang Bo sighed deeply.
"No, this woman isn't old. She shouldn't be an old friend of yours—at most sixteen or seventeen," Black Emperor said, judging by his experienced eye.
Ye Fan crouched down to examine her closely. "She's a young girl, not Lin Jia."
"If it's not Lin Jia, then who? Could she have set a trap to kill us old friends?" Pang Bo muttered.
"Without an ancient great emperor's slaughter formation, anyone who entered here would have died. It was clearly meant to ensure none of us left alive," Ye Fan sighed.
After the area was cleared, auspicious clouds soon rose, and auspicious energy filled the air, turning it back into a divine land—an eerie transformation.
They had already traveled a considerable distance. The big black dog drooped its head, muttering, "No, everything just now was fake. The real Southern Heavenly Gate is in the Divine Ruins. Little Nannan and I went there once and saw it from afar. That was the real one, with an immortal heavenly might surging."
Then it suddenly stood on its hind legs, shuddering violently. "Could it be that kind of thing!"
Everyone was startled, stopping in their tracks and turning to look at it. What had this dead dog discovered?
"There's no need to say it—it definitely wasn't the ancient Heavenly Court. We already said it doesn't exist in this world," Ji Ziyue said, her intelligent eyes darting around as she muttered softly, warily guarding the demon saint egg from the big black dog.
"This emperor has figured out what that thing is! We might be able to get a heaven-defying treasure!" The big black dog was nearly insane, its red tongue hanging out as it laughed uproariously.
"What treasure?" Pang Bo asked.
"A treasure refined by a Quasi-Emperor!" The big black dog's words made everyone gasp.
"Swoosh"
It turned into a black streak, rushing back, afraid someone would snatch the treasure. It quickly arrived at the ruined site, first offering the jade tablet for defense, then extending its big claws to dig, flipping over the hut's foundation.
"Boom"
A terrifying baleful energy shot into the sky, making everyone break out in goosebumps. Their pores opened wide, their bodies ice-cold. Beneath the foundation appeared a black stone statue.
It resembled a fierce ghost, extremely hideous, pitch black like ink, filled with an ominous aura. If not for the Wu Shi slaughter formation suppressing it, it seemed capable of extinguishing all life—no living being could approach.
"What kind of ghost is this?" Li Tian asked, and the others were equally puzzled.
"What a pity! This thing is nearly useless. I said it—how could ordinary people make it work? It's about to be destroyed." The big black dog was heartbroken, beating its chest and stamping its feet.
The black ghost stone statue was covered in cracks, as if it would shatter at the slightest touch. It clearly wouldn't last much longer. The big black dog carefully carved various dao patterns to seal it, then stored it in its treasure vault.
"What exactly is this thing?"
"This is a humanoid battle formation!" the big black dog explained.
To be precise, it was a type of formation with immense power. All its secrets were carved within a single stone statue. Once activated, its killing intent would cover heaven and earth. It could drive corpses, turning them into ultimate weapons, capable of killing sect masters, great accomplished kings, and even saints—seizing the wonders of heaven and earth with tremendous power.
"It can even kill saints?" Everyone was shocked.
"Of course. This is a humanoid formation refined by a Quasi-Emperor with a lifetime of effort. Legend has it that during an era without an emperor, a sacred spirit emerged, wreaking havoc across the world, only to be trapped and killed by such a formation," Black Emperor said.
"No way? Just one stone statue could kill a world-dominating sacred spirit?" None of them believed it.
"Of course, there's more than one statue. There should be a sequence, and not all are as damaged as this one," the big black dog said.
This was a fierce ghost stone statue. A complete set should include ghost statues, human statues, immortal statues, and so on—nine in total. Each one was an unparalleled, powerful formation.
After the ghost statue was unearthed, the Feather Transformation Immortal Valley became completely peaceful. All killing intent vanished, and all dangers were resolved.
Pang Bo suddenly slapped his head, extremely annoyed. "I missed a great opportunity! I might have seen a human statue."
"What?" The big black dog immediately perked up, asking where he had seen it.
"Outside the Ancient Forbidden Land, in that immortal palace. I didn't pay attention at the time. I only saw it was covered in cracks, similar to this ghost statue, about to be destroyed. I didn't bother with it."
The big black dog bared its teeth, wanting to bite him a few times. "That was a heaven-sent fortune! If you'd looked closely, there would have been instructions on how to activate it. You... you're driving me crazy!"
"So, this ghost statue might have also come from that immortal palace?" Ye Fan pondered.
Soon, they arrived at the bamboo grove. Every jade bamboo was pure white, crystal clear, and sparkling, with milky white essence swirling around, steaming and rising.
Ye Fan strode to the stone platform, picked up the phone, carefully used divine power to generate a faint electric current, then turned it on. Pleasant music played.
At that moment, Ye Fan and Pang Bo felt as if they were in another life. They were both dazed. It had been so long—some memories were unlocked. Their current life was completely different from the past.
"Little Leaf, are you alright?" Ji Ziyue asked worriedly, gently shaking his arm.
"I'm fine." Ye Fan snapped back to reality, smiled at her, then explained what it was in detail.
Ye Fan found some photos. Several were of him—he had almost forgotten when they were taken. There were also many of Lin Jia herself, smiling brightly and warmly.
"This is..." Suddenly, Ye Fan's eyes froze, his expression congealed. Pang Bo beside him gasped. The others gathered around.
The picture was very dim, showing many people with terrified, helpless expressions. Many were extremely frightened, crowded together, nearly despairing.
"Lin Jia took this with her phone inside the bronze coffin," Ye Fan said solemnly.
They could recognize those as old friends, their faces filled with despair and fear. It was a scene from inside the Nine Dragons Coffin.
"Terrifying! There was a fierce ghost among us back then, and we had no idea!" Pang Bo felt cold all over, even a chill rising in his heart.
In the photo, there was also a dark shadow not far from them, extremely hideous, terrifying beyond measure. It stood in the darkness, completely out of place, with only a pair of eyes emitting ghostly light—very frightening.
Ye Fan also felt a chill run down his spine. He felt goosebumps all over, a cold aura rising. In that pitch-black coffin back then, there had been another person—a black fierce ghost—and no one had noticed!
"Lin Jia actually captured this photo. She probably didn't want to frighten everyone, so she kept it to herself."
The more Ye Fan and Pang Bo thought about it, the more terrifying it became. That dark bronze coffin had contained such an existence, traveling with them, sending chills down their spines.
When they recounted the events of the past, even Li Tian, Li Heishui, and the others felt a shiver. Traveling with an unknown fierce ghost, right beside them without knowing it, only learning the truth now—it was truly heart-stopping.
Then, Ye Fan played a recording. A terrifying voice came through, as if from the depths of hell: "I have returned..."
Ye Fan and Pang Bo shuddered violently, holding their breath as they listened intently.