Necropolis Immortal

Up in the sky, the Earthmartial and Dawn Kings took in the situation with unease. They could clearly see the cracks in the Demonward Formation; once it broke, uncontained tides of ghosts would immediately pour into the city and ravage it.

If Cloudexit fell, that would create a gaping hole in the border, allowing ghosts to penetrate straight into the heart of Cloudruin Region.

As strong as the Purpleclad, Crimsonclad, and Azureclad Dukes were, Cloudexit City was too big and the ghosts too many. They couldn’t stand guard over everything—the most they could do was ensure the integrity of certain passages into the depths of the region. No one had thought that the ghosts would break the city’s formation!

“Bastards!!” Purpleclad clenched his teeth. The eighteen kings still refused to make their move even after his rant!

It was too late now. The ten ghost kings suddenly exploded into a flurry of action and completely preoccupied the kings’ attention. Their ghostly energy also detonated in concentrated blasts against the golden light of the Demonward Formation.

Despair shrouded everyone’s hearts. If the formation broke, the cultivators would lose all defensive maneuvers and be swallowed by the hordes.

“Forget the passages, go back to the city! We need to hold Cloudexit at all costs!” Azureclad shrieked. “Qing Ting, you stay here and guard this one!”

Whoosh!

He streaked back to the city in a tail of light.

Bam!

Dominating force reached out of the void in the form of a bony claw half a kilometer long. It punched Azureclad away from the city.

“Kyakyakya—” A dry cackling that pierced the ears traveled throughout the city’s outskirts. “Azureclad Duke, didn’t you want to kill a ghost king? This seat has arrived!”

Green ghostfire danced in the air while a stark white skeleton walked out of the flames. A twelfth ghost king!

So there was another ghost king hidden in the battlefield! Since it’d resided in the void all this time, it’d heard everything that Azureclad said earlier.

“Good!” the duke snarled. “Since you dare come out, then this duke dares execute you!”

His hair exploded out of its bun and faint azure sword light enveloped his body. Brandishing his sword with fury, Azureclad stabbed at the ghost king.

At the same time, Purpleclad and Crimsonclad also suffered attacks from other ghost kings!

The three were on par with Bloodclad, but the latter had won only through tactics of mutual destruction. If Lu Yun hadn’t saved him at the last possible second, Bloodclad would’ve died to the ghost king. Now that the tides of battle swung in the ghosts’ favor, the three didn’t dare fight at full strength.

This was also because the three new ghost kings didn’t overly pressure them. If the three dukes threw caution to the wind, they could still gravely injure or even kill the kings.

With obstruction from the ghost kings, the three dukes could no longer rush to Cloudexit’s aid. The city’s formation continued to crack and crumble away; many ghosts passed through the light to enter the city proper.

“I’ll go!” Yet to fully recover, Bloodclad stood up within the sword formation and flourished his bloody curved blade. He was about to charge to Cloudexit City, but Lu Yun stood in his way.

“Don’t go, you’ll die.”

Bloodclad considered Lu Yun with a frosty, wordless look.

“There’s another ghost king keeping an eye on you from the void. You won’t make it to the city,” Lu Yun explained with a frown. “Safeguarding this passage is more important than anything!”

Bloodclad heaved a hefty sigh and enveloped himself with sword light, rushing in the direction of Azureclad.

The latter had joined hands with Qing Ting and almost overpowered their respective ghost king. He roared with anger when he saw his peer arrive, “Keep out of it, Bloodclad! It’s mine!!”

“You idiot, this is war! We bear the lives of hundreds of millions on our backs!” Already irritated by his exchange with Lu Yun, Bloodclad’s annoyance soared to new heights when he saw how blind Azureclad was to the bigger picture.

“We need to kill this ghost king and help Crimsonclad and Purpleclad with theirs. Then the five of us can work together to kill the ten filth above us!” Bloodclad hectored.

The wavering Demonward Formation could still hold for a while longer. If they managed to kill the ten ghost kings in the sky, the first ghostly offensive would be completely defused. An army without its kings was nothing to be concerned about; the eighteen kings on Cloudexit’s side would be able to exterminate them with a flip of their hands.

“…fine!” Azureclad set his jaw. If he, Qing Ting, and Bloodclad coordinated their moves, they could absolutely kill a first step ghost king.

“Help me!” the ghost king suddenly shrieked.

“Are there more around??” Azureclad’s eyes shot wide open when he heard the plea for help. “Attack with full force and kill this ghost king before its brethren comes—”

“Kyakyakya, this king will not save that kind of trash. Instead… break!!”

Rumble!

An earth shattering explosion blasted outside the city, shaking Cloudexit and the Demonward Formation. Ugly fissures snaked through the latter, decimating it into motes of golden light.

The Demonward Formation was broken! The ghost king hidden in the void was a second step king, thus it’d easily destroyed the teetering formation.

“What?!”

“We’re doomed…” Collective shudders traveled through the cultivators in the city. All hope was lost, a state reflected in the ashen faces of the eighteen kings and four dukes in the air.

With the obliteration of the Demonward Formation, the golden light protecting six hundred million kilometers of territory also dissipated. The final line of defense was gone and Cloudexit City lay exposed in front of endless hordes of ghosts.

Annihilation was at hand.

“Kyakyakya—“ the second step king cackled gleefully. “Little ones, destroy this city and turn all of its residents into one of us!”

Apart from the ghosts that the Moon King had brought, the bulk of the armies attacking Cloudruin Region were transformed from former denizens of Starspace Region.

“Scree scree scree!!”

“Gyakgyakgyak!!”

Utter pandemonium broke out as tides of ghosts poured into the city to begin their massacre.

Hummm.

A curtain of lilac light rippled through the void, eradicating all enemies that rushed into the city. It blossomed from the city center and traveled outside, vaporizing any ghost it passed through without even leaving dust behind.

“What is that?!” screeched the second step ghost king. It slapped the lilac curtain of light.

Sizzle.

Black smoke drifted upward as the curtain negated the power of a second step king. Though it was broken in return, a second curtain of light swiftly appeared and expanded through the land.

“Retreat, retreat!” The second curtain of light contained a strength that made the ghosts quail. While the second step king could withstand it, none of the other ghosts here could.

“Retreat? Where to?” a clear voice rang out from Cloudexit City. “I am the Skyfall King of the Immortal City in Multitude Region, here with the Immortal King’s decree to quell the ghostly unrest in Cloudexit City. Die, vermin!”

He flung out a glyph that affixed itself to the ghost king’s head, reducing it to ash before it even had time to cry out.

etvolare's Thoughts

Bring in the calvary!!