Chapter 528 - 525 Netherworld Shows Power, Soul Devouring Faces Danger
Seeing so many Ghost Items around, Qin Feng also felt some trepidation in his heart, and it seemed that Spiritual Beasts with Power Attributes so starkly opposed to the Death Qi, such as the Soul Devouring Vine Demon and the White Dragon, were indeed unsuitable to appear in the Undead Realm.
He didn’t want to fight with these Ghost Items; besides having no benefits, a slight misstep could easily result in the loss of a few Spiritual Beasts.
After all, there were far too many Undead converging from all around. Among them, there were dozens capable of contending with the Purple Mansion, and even two or three from a higher Realm, which made Qin Feng reluctant to linger in battle.
Moreover, he was certain that if he continued to stay here and allow his Spiritual Beasts to fight with these Undead, it would definitely attract even more vicious Undead Beings.
Although it was said that around the territories of Demigod Realm Undead powerhouses, there wouldn’t be other Undead of the same Realm, there were still some from the Purple Mansion and Dharma Image Realm. Together with those wandering Undead, it was truly uncertain how many Ghost Items there could be within thousands of miles.
With the sensitivity of the Undead for the breath of life and the Light Attributes of the White Dragon, Ghost Items of the Purple Mansion and higher Realms could sense the aura that was out of place in the Undead Realm from hundreds to thousands of miles away. If too many powerful Ghost Items were drawn, even Qin Feng would not be a match; he didn’t want to waste his life-saving Jade Talisman on these Ghost Items that might not even be stronger than him.
However, just as Qin Feng was calling his Spiritual Beasts to fly into the sky to escape, even beginning to collect them one by one into the Demon Refining Pot, an eerie Ghost suddenly rushed out from the mist.
Her aura was formidable, far beyond that of ordinary Ghost Generals, and her Soul Body was faintly visible, easily able to become invisible within the ubiquitous fog of the Undead Realm. Added to the sheer number of Ghost Items around and Qin Feng’s hurried lack of discernment, he hadn’t noticed that such a powerful Ghost Item was hidden in the mist.
After this powerful Ghost appeared, she plunged directly onto the Soul Devouring Vine Demon. Her originally ethereal hair suddenly swelled and deeply penetrated the body of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon, ignoring its resistance and frantically drawing the life force from within it.
At the same time, the White Dragon also let out a fierce howl, twisted its slender neck, and spat out a blazing Holy Flame towards its rear.
It turned out that a powerful Undead Monster had descended from the sky and landed on its back.
Whether it was the Ghost that attacked the Soul Devouring Vine Demon or the Monster Soul Body that landed on the White Dragon’s back, both were far stronger than the usual Purple Mansion Ghost Generals, hence neither the Soul Devouring Vine Demon nor the White Dragon managed to shake off their assailants immediately.
Other Undead, seeing powerful beings leading the attack, could no longer suppress their bloodlust, swarming forth; even Qin Feng himself became a target of many Undead attacks.
In particular, several Undead with overpowering auras, each one a very powerful Ghost General, were known to be extremely difficult to deal with.
Seeing this situation, Qin Feng couldn’t help but feel helpless and decided to release his other Spiritual Beasts first, preparing to withstand this onslaught and then think about rescuing the Soul Devouring Vine Demon and White Dragon before leaving.
Fortunately, he had just subdued the Hellhound, so now he also had Fierce Beasts in his command comparable to those of the Dharma Image Realm, not fearing those two formidable Undead Beings.
“Wuu wuu…”
As soon as the Hellhound emerged, it didn’t even glance at the surrounding scene, treating the myriad ghosts as nothing, merely circling Qin Feng, its new master. If it weren’t for its large size, it would have quite the look of a loyal dog.
Originally, it was not of this kind of temperament. When it was first subdued by the Demigod Realm Undead, it had never been so close to that Undead being.
The reason for its current behavior was firstly because the ease with which the Karma Fire Red Lotus refined that Undead had brought great psychological pressure to the Hellhound. Additionally, a Spiritual Beast subdued by the Demon Refining Pot had no room for resistance; both its Physical Body and Soul had been branded by the Demon Refining Pot, and from now on, it could only serve Qin Feng, which was why it immediately appeared with such a bootlicking demeanor.
If it weren’t for the small size of its new master, the Hellhound would have liked to stick out its tongue and lick the master as a sign of affection.
Unfortunately, its dog head was too large, and its mouth could easily swallow Qin Feng whole. Even its barbed tongue was larger than Qin Feng’s body, so it reluctantly abandoned this fond idea.
Qin Feng patted the Hellhound on its dog head and then pointed toward the Undead that had stopped in their tracks and dared not continue their charge because of the sudden appearance of the Hellhound.
The Hellhound immediately understood and, upon surveying the scene, became furiously angry.
Having just acknowledged a new master, these damned Undead dared to cause trouble, especially since they had interrupted its gesture of goodwill toward its master. This was truly unforgivable.
However, this also provided the Hellhound with an opportunity to show off in front of its master.
Its dog eyes quickly scanned the entire area, swiftly passing over the other Spiritual Beasts, and upon confirming that none were as strong as itself, it felt even more resolved. It thought the arrival of the Undead was well-timed—it was the perfect chance to cement its position as the strongest fighter under its master’s command and to enhance its image in its master’s eyes.
Thus, the Hellhound’s originally low and pleasing whine suddenly changed as it let out a roar to the sky, and with a lunge forward, it pounced on the Undead that had been preparing to encircle Qin Feng. With a single gulp, it swallowed the soul of one of the Undead.
Its actions were unceasing; with one stomp of its powerful claws, it caused two of the Undead to emit dark energy as their vital force was greatly injured.
That wasn’t all. Flames as red as magma burst forth from the Hellhound’s body. Any Undead touched by these flames let out a pitiful scream, scrambling away in all directions, avoiding the area where the Hellhound was.
As a Life creature, the Hellhound could wander in the Netherworld and feed on the Undead; its strength certainly wasn’t weak.
Moreover, the abilities of its kind greatly restrained Ghost Items and Undead. Whether it’s skeletons, zombies, or soul bodies, beings of the same level were generally no match and often ended up merely as food in their mouths once targeted.
If it hadn’t been for a Demigod Realm Undead that had previously subdued the Hellhound when it was still weak, it would never have become a pet for that Undead.
Seeing the Hellhound so fierce, tearing through the Undead like a tiger among sheep, Qin Feng was thrilled. He silently thought he had picked up a huge bargain and became even more determined to raise the Hellhound to become the main Spiritual Beast of the sixth layer of space.
The reason Biluo sought to journey through the Void and conquer the Ten Thousand Worlds was mainly to restore the glory that existed before the Ancient Great Tribulation and become an even more splendid world, gathering strength for revenge.
Whether it was during the wars in the Ten Thousand Worlds or when it was time to seek vengeance upon the enemies of the Ancient Great Tribulation era, confrontation with the Undead Spirit World was inevitable. Whether encountering the Netherworld of this Star Domain or the Netherworld from the era of the Great Tribulation that had invaded Biluo, both were worlds dominated by Undead Ghosts. Without some means to counter the Undead, it would be disadvantageous to face those eerie beings.
Therefore, Qin Feng wanted to plan ahead and cultivate the Hellhound so that when facing the other Undead worlds in the future, he would not be caught without ways to counteract the Undead.
Besides the Undead of the Netherworld, he also had to be wary of the various Ghost Cities, particularly cultivators from Ghost Dragon City seeking trouble with him.
Although Luo Xiao was already dead, and the Ten Directions Ghost City would not likely cause an uproar over one Luo Xiao, Qin Feng would inevitably expose his Yin Yang Ghost Eye and other methods sooner or later. These were obtained after his Lifebound Spiritual Beast merged with the Ghost Dragon Bloodline. He did not believe that the Ghost Dragon Ancestor would be so generous as to let him freely obtain its unique Divine Skills and bloodline inheritance!
Concerned about being targeted by cultivators from Ghost Dragon City one day, he also had to make early preparations for defense.
As Qin Feng pondered these issues, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine as he was attacked by the souls of several monsters that had descended from the sky.
Although the Hellhound was ferocious and capable of facing multiple undead at once, it was now entangled by two powerful undead monsters that had appeared out of nowhere, along with a group of Ghost Generals. It was too preoccupied to pay attention to anything else. Even if it noticed that Qin Feng was under attack by some undead, it couldn’t extricate itself to help.
However, Qin Feng didn’t need its assistance. These few Ghost General-level undead beings might have the advantage of fighting in their home territory of the Netherworld, but in the end, they were still undead, which inherently limited their strength significantly, making them much weaker than living beings of the same level.
Qin Feng, possessing combat strength far exceeding that of his peers, even if these few Ghost Generals could contend with the Purple Mansion, they could not be his opponents—especially since he still had a trump card up his sleeve.
His only concern was that the number of undead within a thousand miles seemed to be gathering more and more. Although the aura emitted by the Soul Devouring Vine Demon and White Dragon could only attract nearby undead within a thousand miles, if the number of low-level undead grew too large, Qin Feng would indeed feel the pressure.
In fact, his concerns soon became reality. After he merged with the Ruyi Golden Snake and the nine Dragon Heads on his back each spat out Netherworld Fire, using the unique divine skills of the Ghost Dragon clan to slay those few undead, he found that more and more undead were indeed converging on his location.
This left Qin Feng with no choice as he faced such a situation. The longer the battle dragged on, the more undead would come.
Not wishing to delay any longer, especially since the Soul Devouring Vine Demon had started calling for help, he saw that it was no match for the powerful ghost. The Vine Demon was in a sorry state, being beaten by the ghost and also being gnawed on by many undead clinging to its vines and eating away at them.
The undead were, of course, not vegetarians; they were absorbing the life force from the Soul Devouring Vine Demon.
Even though the life force would quickly become polluted by the death qi once inside the undead bodies, it would purify their internal death qi, increasing their chances to advance to higher realms.
In the Cultivation World, the life force within the Soul Devouring Vine Demon was like a rare natural treasure that could enhance the root bone quality of these undead.
So, the undead gathered around the Soul Devouring Vine Demon were especially numerous.
Next was the White Dragon, which, due to its unique Light Attribute, naturally clashed with the undead, thus also being surrounded by a large group of them.
The Hellhound, due to its strength, had attracted a lot of undead that targeted it.
Qin Feng was surrounded by his Spiritual Beasts in the middle, with the least amount of undead close to him; after all, to launch an attack on him, they had to get past the other Spiritual Beasts.
Seeing that the Soul Devouring Vine Demon couldn’t withstand the incessant attacks from so many undead, Qin Feng no longer held back. He waved his sleeve, releasing the Netherworld Water from the Netherworld Treasure Pearl.
This was currently his strongest method against the undead.
Although the Hellhound possessed a great deal of potential for growth, for the moment, Netherworld Water was still more specific towards entities like Ghost Items. Unless they had become a Death God or a Ghost Immortal, any undead being could only avoid the Netherworld Water, unable to touch it at all.
The sound of rushing water filled the air as the Netherworld Water first circled around him thrice, sweeping up all the undead from every direction—up, down, left, and right. There wasn’t a single undead creature that could escape after being engulfed by the Netherworld Water.
“Whoooo…”
The group of undead could not help but make various strange noises, each turning their gaze toward the Netherworld Water in terror.
As undead, they instinctively felt fear in the presence of the Netherworld Water.
The eyes of the undead are completely different from those of the living. What they saw as the Netherworld was far more terrifying than the hell of legends.
In hell, they could still cultivate, and once their strength became great enough, they might not be without hope of transcending it.
But if they fell into the Netherworld Water, they would need to prepare for never being reborn again.
The Netherworld Water could suppress all souls and undead, and it was more domineering than the Demon Refining Pot, not only preventing the soul from escaping but also merging all the undead with the water to bolster the might of the Netherworld.
The sound of flowing water continued to rise; what was clearly a not-so-large spring flowed with the majesty of a great river, charging straight through thousands of undead, carving a path. All Ghost Items either steered clear of it or were swept away by the Netherworld Water.
Qin Feng paid no attention to the other Spiritual Beasts and took the lead in controlling the Netherworld Water to charge towards the Soul Devouring Vine Demon.
Although not much time had passed, the number of undead that had gathered around the Soul Devouring Vine Demon was so great that they almost formed a sphere.
Because there were so many undead, the Soul Devouring Vine Demon couldn’t even manage to swing its vines. If not for its vigorous life force and its mastery of the Life Principle, it might have long been drained of its vitality by the numerous undead and died an unnatural death!
BOOM…
When the Netherworld Water surged in front of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon, many of the undead, stricken by fear, scattered like birds and beasts. However, several greedy undead remained attached to the body of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon, continuing to suck its vitality; as a result, they were swept away in large numbers by the Netherworld Water that Qin Feng controlled.
Only then did the form of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon become visible again, but its pitiable state made Qin Feng worried.
Not only had many of its vines been gnawed off by the undead, but the few remaining were withered and yellow. Even its previously plump and rounded roots had shriveled up. The plant seemed to be on its last breath, as if its life would not last much longer. Even with its mastery of the Life Principle, it didn’t have the strength to help itself recover a shred of Primordial Qi.
What’s more important, a greedy Ghost that had not retreated was still clinging inside the body of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon, determined not to give up until it had sucked the plant dry.
Qin Feng’s heart hardened, and he directly controlled the Netherworld Water to flow along the vines and roots of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon, avoiding the absorption of its soul. However, the highly corrosive Netherworld Water inflicted additional damage on the Vine Demon, leaving it gasping for breath and on the verge of death.
Fortunately, the greedy Ghost was fully engulfed by the Netherworld Water, and eliminating that creature at least saved the life of the Soul Devouring Vine Demon so that it wouldn’t be completely devoid of all vitality.
Yet, watching its current state, Qin Feng’s brow deeply furrowed. What could he do to fully restore it?