Upon hearing this, the Black Mountain Demon shuddered, filled with fear and anger. His voice was somewhat hoarse as he said, "Chen Qingzhi, we came here not to start a war with you, but to discuss a solution together."
“We don’t know what you’ve done, but now the entire Ghost Path has been rejected by the Heavenly Will. Even if we unify the Ghost Path in the future, we will never be able to break through to the Ghost Emperor realm. You have completely severed our path!”
The Ghost Emperor realm in the world of Liaozhai is equivalent to the Celestial Realm in the main world. Breaking through to this realm is extremely difficult; even in the main world, a world teeming with gods and demons, there are fewer than a hundred experts at the Celestial Realm.
The world of Liaozhai is merely a mid-level martial arts world, two major grades lower than the main world, where even a master at the Celestial Realm might only appear once every thousand years.
Even if Wang Xuan wanted to invade the world of Liaozhai, he only did so after his Xuan Yin incarnation broke through to the early stage of the Celestial Realm.
Xuan Yin's incarnation was originally a zombie, which could be considered a ghost path. He devoured the essence and blood of countless demons and monsters and ruled over most of the Netherworld. Only with the help of the ghost path's fortune did he break through to the early stage of the Celestial Realm.
If he had acted prematurely, he would have crippled the Ghost Path, and the Ghost Path would have had to wait for another opportunity to break through to the early stage of the Celestial Realm.
Now that Wang Xuan's Xuan Yin Incarnation has broken through, he naturally doesn't care how the ghost path in the Liaozhai world is declining, but the Black Mountain Demon and the others do care.
Xuan Yin's incarnation looked at the anxious and desperate expressions of the Black Mountain Demon and the others, and couldn't help but chuckle to himself. All of this was naturally within his calculations.
"Now the Ghost Path is in decline, while the Human Path is flourishing. If you want to revive the Ghost Path and continue the path, the only way is to use the fortune of the Human Path to make up for the deficiencies of the Ghost Path!" The Xuan Yin incarnation kindly offered advice to the Black Mountain Demon King.
"Should we directly wage war against humanity?" The Black Mountain Demon and other ghost kings immediately retorted, "Although the human world has reached the point of dynastic change and the population has been reduced by half, the Kunlun and Shu Mountain sects are becoming more and more prosperous, and many powerful figures are living in seclusion."
"Even before the Ghost Path was cleansed by Heaven's Will, we still dared not go too far. Now, to confront the Human Path head-on is to send us to our deaths!"
Several powerful figures in the Ghost Path glared angrily at the Xuan Yin incarnation. If they hadn't known they were no match for him, they probably would have torn him to pieces long ago.
Xuan Yin avatar sneered, releasing his aura without reservation, directly pressing down on the Black Mountain Demon and other ghosts.
"boom!"
This is the aura of a master of the Celestial Realm, capable of connecting with heaven and earth. He forcibly borrowed the power of heaven and earth within a radius of dozens of miles to suppress the Black Mountain Demon and other ghosts.
"This is...you've actually broken through to the Ghost Emperor realm!" The Black Mountain Demon seemed to be stuck in a quagmire, struggling to move, able to unleash only six or seven tenths of his power. He stared at the Xuan Yin incarnation with shock and fervor. This was the first Ghost Emperor born in the Netherworld since the great upheaval in the world of Liaozhai!
Xuan Yin's avatar stood proudly and nodded, saying, "That's right, I have broken through to the Ghost Emperor realm, and can be called invincible in the world."
"With me, the Ghost Emperor, leading you to conquer the human realm, do you still think we're sending you to your deaths?"
After witnessing the power of the Xuan Yin Incarnation, those powerful figures in the Ghost Path all wisely expressed their submission, except for the Black Mountain Demon, who still hesitated.
"You've actually broken through to the Ghost Emperor realm. Conquering the mortal world will naturally be a piece of cake, and even unifying the Yin and Yang realms and establishing a Heavenly Court isn't impossible." The Black Mountain Demon instinctively sensed something was amiss, but couldn't quite put his finger on it: "But..."
"Just what?" Xuan Yin's avatar sneered, "Black Mountain Demon, do you still remember your fiancée, Nie Xiaoqian?"
"Xiaoqian!" Upon hearing this name, the Black Mountain Demon instantly felt a surge of rage, almost burning away his reason.
Even though he, the Black Mountain Demon, was a top-tier powerhouse in both the Yin and Yang realms, how could he forget the fact that his beloved wife eloped with a young man from the mortal world on their wedding night?
The Xuan Yin avatar continued to deliver the final blow: "Let me tell you the truth, your fiancée Nie Xiaoqian possesses the destiny of a phoenix, she is a born ghost queen! If you had married her, you would have already received the great fortune of the ghost path, and you would probably have already broken through to the Ghost Emperor realm by now!"
"What?! Xiaoqian actually possesses the destiny of a phoenix?!" The Black Mountain Demon was utterly enraged: "Ning Caichen, Yan Chixia, I, the Black Mountain Demon, will never let you live!"
With the Black Mountain Demon's power, he would have naturally found out the identities of Ning Caichen and Yan Chixia long ago. On the other hand, Wang Xuan's true form spends most of his time in the Xuan Tian World, and his origins are mysterious and unpredictable, so the Black Mountain Demon has not yet discovered his identity.
Originally, it was just a grudge over the theft of his wife. Although the Black Mountain Demon hated Ning Caichen and his group to death, Ning Caichen and his group were not pushovers. The Black Mountain Demon had no reason to go to the human world and fight them for the sake of a female ghost.
But now I realize that it was not only the hatred of having my wife stolen, but also the hatred of having my path blocked!
As the saying goes, "Obstructing someone's path is like killing their parents," and the hatred involved is immense.
A smile appeared on Xuan Yin's stiff face as he chuckled and said, "Ning Caichen has now occupied the fertile lands of Jiangnan in the mortal realm. His momentum is strong, and he is about to launch a northern expedition to conquer the Central Plains and unify the mortal world! If you do not take revenge now, you will never have another chance."
The Black Mountain Demon's eyes were bloodshot, his reason long since consumed by rage. He immediately bowed down to the Xuan Yin incarnation: "I, the Black Mountain Demon, am willing to serve you as my master. I only ask that you help me take my revenge!"
The fortune of the Xuan Yin incarnation had already fallen from purple to yellow under the Heavenly Mandate. However, with the Black Mountain Demon bowing, his fortune rapidly increased and quickly returned to his original deep blue color, just a step away from his original purple color!
"Dark blue gas? Barely enough." The Xuan Yin Avatar is just an avatar; without the Eternal Tower of Heaven and Earth, if the difference in fortune between him and Ning Caichen is too great, there is still a possibility that he could be misled by fortune.
Now that we have enough fortune, it's time to conquer the human world and take action against Ning Caichen.
"Black Mountain Demon, Boundless Ghost King, Evil Eye Ghost King, Red Tiger Ghost King, you must immediately gather your subordinates and come here to regroup!"
At the command of the Xuan Yin incarnation, the entire Netherworld was mobilized, and countless surviving ghosts were summoned together.
Not long after, the four great masters of the Ghost Path returned, each with tens of thousands of ghost soldiers behind them.
Although most of the ghosts subdued by Xuan Yin in recent years were destroyed by the tribulation lightning, a small number still survived. After some reorganization, they managed to gather just enough ghost soldiers to number 60,000.
On the very day that Ning Caichen swore an oath to launch a northern expedition against the Central Plains, the Netherworld also had 100,000 banners and swords pointing towards the human world!
Chapter 139 Conquering the Human World
"boom!"
A deafening roar echoed throughout the human realm. The gates of hell opened, and 100,000 Yin soldiers from the underworld stormed into the human realm, causing the heavens and earth to change color!
At that moment, Yan Chixia suddenly raised his head, gazing into the distance in utter shock. His eyes seemed to pierce through time and space, directly seeing the direction of the Ghost Gate!
"Master Yan, what exactly happened?" Ning Caichen, wearing the Blood Dragon Armor, asked with some confusion.
Now he is favored by the human world. If Wang Xuan hadn't interfered, he would have been able to unify the human world sooner or later. He could even have swept away the Netherworld with the help of Nie Xiaoqian, the destined Ghost Queen, and gathered the power of Yin and Yang to rebuild the Heavenly Court and help the world of Liaozhai to be upgraded to a high-level martial arts world again!
In the world of Liaozhai, fate has spared no effort in its treatment of Ning Caichen. At this time, the world order has undergone a major change. Xuan Yin has unified the Netherworld and Ghost Realm, using the River of Ghostly Fortune to challenge the will of Heaven. Afterwards, he even brazenly invades the mortal realm, creating a great upheaval unprecedented in a thousand years!
As the chosen one of the world, Ning Caichen naturally sensed something. He felt as if a knife had been plunged into his heart, and he felt an indescribable pain.
Yan Chixia withdrew his gaze, his face so dark it seemed as if ink could drip from it. He said to Ning Caichen in a somewhat hoarse voice, "Ahead, ghostly energy is soaring into the sky, and the gates of hell are wide open. I'm afraid some great upheaval has occurred in the Netherworld."
"A large army of ghosts has descended upon the human world!"
"Outrageous! The human world belongs to our human race. How dare these mere ghosts, who are not content to stay in the underworld, come and wreak havoc on the human world? Once I have unified the world, I will surely storm the underworld to avenge this day!" Ning Caichen was furious. His inner energy surged involuntarily, and the powerful aura he released made the surrounding soldiers unable to hold on. Instantly, more than a dozen people fell to the ground.
Five years of cultivation, coupled with the full support of the Heavenly Will of Liaozhai, have allowed Ning Caichen to cultivate at an almost superhuman pace, reaching the Daoist True Person realm. If this were in the main world, this would be considered the perfected Daoist realm!
After five years of cultivation, he reached the perfect state of enlightenment. Even in the main world, he could be compared to figures like Lü Bu, Guan Yu, and Zhao Yun.
Even though Wang Xuan possessed the Eternal Tower of Heaven and Earth and controlled the will of Xuan Tian, it still took him five or six years to cultivate in the Water Margin and Sui-Tang worlds before he could raise his cultivation to the Perfect Realm of Entering the Dao by sacrificing the spiritual treasures of the cave heaven to the Xuan Tian world.
Of course, Wang Xuan's foundation is far more solid than Ning Caichen's, and he can easily defeat Ning Caichen within the same realm. Moreover, as Ning Caichen's cultivation level increases, the boost that the Heavenly Will of Liaozhai provides to his cultivation speed will become smaller and smaller, until Ning Caichen breaks through to the Celestial Realm, at which point this boost will completely disappear.
"Where is the leaf that knows autumn?" Ning Caichen shouted, his voice carrying far and wide.
Soon the ground trembled slightly, and a Taoist priest emerged from underground, appearing in front of Ning Caichen.
This person was none other than Zhi Qiu Yi Ye. Five years had passed, and his cultivation had broken through from being comparable to the late stage of the Dao to the perfect stage of the Dao. His earth escape technique had become even more refined.
"Zhiqiu Yiye, I order you to go ahead and investigate immediately, to see what changes have occurred!" Ning Caichen issued the order directly, his aura making people unable to help but submit.
As the saying goes, "environment shapes temperament, and upbringing shapes physique." Ning Caichen has been in a high position for many years and is no longer the down-and-out scholar he once was. He is now the King of Wu, who controls the fertile lands of the southeast, and the most promising potential dragon to unify the world!
Even when facing his former friends, Ning Caichen showed no courtesy whatsoever; his former friends had become his ruler and his subject.
Zhi Qiu Yi Ye was already used to this change, and he knew his place. He wouldn't become sworn brothers with Ning Cai Chen just because of their past friendship.
Dragons are inherently suspicious and most wary of others encroaching on their power. If Zhi Qiu Yi Ye cannot recognize his own role, it's fine now that Ning Caichen needs him, but once the world is unified, that will be a path to death!
"I will obey Your Majesty's command!" Zhi Qiu Yi Ye bowed respectfully, immediately made a hand seal, and his body merged back into the ground, using the Earth Escape Technique to quickly rush forward.
While the Earth Escape Technique doesn't cover a thousand miles in an instant, its speed is still extremely fast. Zhi Qiu Yi Ye arrived two hundred miles away in just half a quarter of an hour.
The place was eerily quiet, its dark clouds obscuring the sun.
Beneath the dark clouds, a dense mass of elite Yin soldiers, numbering at least 100,000, were rushing towards Ning Caichen's location.
Before Zhi Qiu could even take a closer look at the leaf, a furious roar rang in his ears: "Who dares to spy on this place? Show yourself to me!"
Zhi Qiu Yi Ye let out a muffled groan. He saw a ghost king whose body was covered with eyes. To him, the filthy ghost energy directly polluted his divine sense and attacked his soul along with his divine sense!
"Oh no! This is a ghostly giant from the Netherworld, probably comparable to those peerless immortals who have survived seven or eight tribulations!" Zhi Qiu Yi Ye was scared half to death. He dared not continue to spy and immediately turned around and fled, instantly running hundreds of meters away using the Earth Escape Technique.
That ghost king covered in eyes was the multi-eyed ghost king of the Netherworld, whose cultivation was comparable to the late stage of the Transcendent Realm. According to the world of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, that was enough to contend with a Loose Immortal who had survived eight Loose Immortal Tribulations!
How could such an unparalleled ghost king tolerate a weakling like Zhi Qiu Yi Ye escaping unscathed in front of him? He was about to give chase when he was stopped by someone else.
"Let him escape. We'll be facing him soon anyway, and such a commotion won't escape their notice." The only thing capable of stopping the Multi-Eyed Ghost King and preventing him from getting angry is naturally Wang Xuan's Xuan Yin incarnation.
"Pass on my order: the army shall advance at full speed! Today, we shall first annihilate Ning Caichen, this hidden dragon of humanity!"
At the command of the Xuan Yin incarnation, the speed of the 100,000 Yin soldiers increased even further.
Wherever the army passed, the living all retreated. Wang Xuan wanted to deal with Ning Caichen and his group, but he did not intend to exterminate these ordinary people. After all, he still planned to refine the entire Liaozhai world, and these people would become the foundation of the Xuantian world in the future.
Unless someone is reckless and insists on blocking the advance of the ghost soldiers, his 100,000 ghost soldiers will not pursue them.
After traveling for about an hour, countless soldiers were lined up on the plain ahead, waiting for them.
These were all Ning Caichen's men, who had followed him through countless battles. They were veterans of many battles, each one full of vigor and fearless of ordinary ghosts.
"I never expected that ghostly soldiers would invade our territory and conquer the human world. Even if I win this battle, I don't know how many of my 300,000 battle-hardened veterans will survive." In the midst of the army, Ning Caichen looked at the densely packed ghostly soldiers in front of him, his face frighteningly dark.
"My lord, do not worry. I have already sent messages by flying sword to inform the two great Daoist sects of Kunlun and Shushan, as well as the Buddhist Jinguang Temple. Before long, experts from the mortal realm will gather here. Even if there are 100,000 Yin soldiers on the other side, they can be easily wiped out!" Although Yan Chixia himself was not calm, he still tried his best to comfort him.
Although Ning Caichen's cultivation level is far inferior to his, he is the backbone of the army, and only he can make the masters of the major sects in the human world put aside their prejudices and unite to fight the enemy.
Therefore, no matter what, Yan Chixia had to make Ning Caichen determined to resist and not back down.
Chapter 140 The Foundation of Humanity
In fact, Yan Chixia's worries were completely unnecessary. Even if Ning Caichen wanted to back down, there would be people who wouldn't let him go.
As soon as the two armies drew near, a furious roar came from among the ghostly soldiers: "Ning Caichen, Yan Chixia, you stole my wife and cut off my path back then. Today, I, Black Mountain, will fight you to the death!"
"This is the Black Mountain Demon! When I fought him a few years ago, he was at most equivalent to a fourth-level Loose Immortal. Now he has become so powerful that he has probably reached the level of a ninth-level Loose Immortal!" Yan Chixia sensed the rolling demonic clouds approaching from afar and couldn't help but turn pale with horror.
What he didn't know was that what he encountered back then was merely an incarnation of the Black Mountain Demon. Now, fate has changed, and not only is Ning Caichen, this hidden dragon of humanity, constantly encountering opportunities, but even the Black Mountain Demon has other chances.
In just a few years, the Black Mountain Demon's cultivation level advanced further, reaching the perfect Transcendent Realm of the main world, which, according to the Liaozhai world, is equivalent to a Nine Tribulations Loose Immortal.
Only with the cultivation of a Nine Tribulations Loose Immortal was the Black Mountain Demon's true form able to manifest and escape from the Xuan Yin Avatar. Otherwise, the Black Mountain Demon would have been destroyed by the Xuan Yin Avatar two or three years ago.
Seeing the Black Mountain Demon transform into a cloud of demonic energy and sweep towards them, Yan Chixia had no choice but to bite the bullet and meet it head-on.
"Heaven and earth are boundless, borrow the power of heaven and earth!" Yan Chixia shouted, unleashing the full power of the Xuanyuan Sword in his hand, colliding head-on with the Black Mountain Demon.
Under the swirling demonic cloud formed by the Black Mountain Demon, the light of the Xuanyuan Sword dimmed instantly. Then, Yan Chixia, sword and all, fell from the sky, sustaining more than a dozen wounds on his body.
He ultimately only survived two tribulations of the Loose Immortal Realm, roughly equivalent to the early stage of the Transcendent Realm in the main world. Even with the Xuanyuan Sword in hand, he could at most rival a fifth-tribulation Loose Immortal, still far inferior to the Black Mountain Demon.
"Oh no! Quickly, go and rescue Master Yan!" Ning Caichen shouted as he saw the situation was dire.
Almost the instant Ning Caichen finished speaking, two sword lights flew out from the army and rushed directly towards the Black Mountain Demon.