When the battle was over, Tang Jie had added three more black grains to his Sea of Cognition.
Other than the new one, Maraji had also had two existing Nether Attendants, and Tang Jie had naturally taken them, resulting in his most profitable battle yet.
This was primarily because of the uniqueness of Nightdark City.
According to the rules of the Nether Domain, soldiers were those at the Spirit Platform Realm, generals were at the Mortal Shedding Realm, Kings were at Celestial Heart, Emperors were at Violet Palace, and those at Immortal Platform were Nether Gods.
Godhood was the apex of the soul.
The creatures of the Nether Domain were various kinds of ghosts and souls, with the minority having physical bodies. Thus, they were Gods when reaching Immortal Platform, for they were purely soul cultivators. But in the past, Tang Jie hadn’t known of this, and it was only when his original body had fallen into the Nether Domain and his avatar had gained the World Descender Mantra that he gradually understood this third path of cultivation.
On this point, he could conclude that the Titan who had created the World Descender Mantra had probably traveled through the Nether Domain.
But that was beside the point. According to the rules, Kings could establish cities, Emperors founded capitals, and Gods resided in their divine palaces.
By these rules, Nightdark was a city, not a capital, and City Lord Marahai was a King, not an Emperor. But this did not mean that one could underestimate his strength. The Skyborne Yakshas were known for growing stronger as they aged. They had innately strong bodies and were also proficient in spell arts, which made them rather similar to Tang Jie in his merged form, but without his Dao Arts, of course.
This was why Nightdark was considered a major city, and Marahai was ranked highly among his peers. It was only because he was this strong that he could provide two Nether Attendants for each of his seven sons. In comparison, Whiteface had only recently established his small city, and he didn’t even have his own ghost emissary, which was why he had personally attended the feast this time.
Thus, there were few like the seven Mara sons who could bring along ghost emissaries, mostly consisting of those who were strong themselves or else had strong backing.
As Tang Jie himself hadn’t broken into Celestial Heart, he didn’t dare to find opponents who were too strong, so when he spotted ghost ships with ghost emissaries, he kept his distance. But he knew the strength of the seven Mara sons, so Tang Jie availed himself of the opportunity to attack and easily get three Severing Hooks.
And before killing Maraji, Tang Jie had already used the mystical powers of the black grain to find two. Thus, he had added five black grains to his Sea of Cognition, which was enough to make a small ball when all of them were put together.
As the number of black grains increased, Tang Jie gained a clearer impression of the black grain.
Just like how the golden grains of the Weapon Mantra formed the Sovereign Blade, the black grains could also form a soul version of the Sovereign Blade, which would have incredible effects on the soul.
But black grains were harder to find than golden grains, and they were consumed when used, so one could say that black grains were even more valuable.
After collecting three Severing Hooks, Tang Jie felt refreshed and full of energy. This was the largest single harvest he had had in this campaign.
As a tiny bit of black grain evaporated into nothingness, Tang Jie locked onto the location of the nearest Severing Hook.
He pointed and said, “Over there.”
The Ghost March Ship, which had already finished looting, set off again in the direction Tang Jie had indicated.
The duty of the subject was to march where the king commanded.
The distance this time was somewhat greater, and it would take time for the ship to arrive, so Tang Jie sat back down and quietly waited.
As the ship was going along, there was suddenly a sloshing sound.
In the distance, the waters had become turbulent, bubbling like boiling water.
Tang Jie was startled at first, and then paled. “There’s something under the water. Be careful!”
With a great splash, a giant wave surged up, rising higher and higher into a mountain. The river waters began to rise, but the Ghost March Ship was no ordinary ship, so no matter how high the river rose, the Ghost March Ship was able to steadily rise with it. But the rate the river rose simply couldn’t keep up with the “water mountain”. The water mountain rose higher and higher until its summit could no longer be seen, only a “water mountain range”. Even the ghosts were stunned by what they were seeing.
The water mountain began to descend as a yellow waterfall, the crashing wave requiring the ship to use all its power to maintain its stability.
As the entirety of that water mountain range crashed down, a creature of unimaginable size appeared before them.
Its long body reached upward like a pillar of the heavens, and it was so huge that it was impossible to truly fathom its size by standing in front of it. Only by looking down from the heavens could one see that this was a massive bone dragon one hundred thousand feet long, rotted flesh still hanging from its bones, two green lights burning in its eye sockets like stars as it stared at them.
“This is…” the ghost eagle cried in alarm.
Tang Jie’s eyes narrowed. “A Nether fiend… The bone dragon!”
The Nether Domain also had fiends, the bones of exotic beasts!
The Nether Domain was where deceased humans went, and also deceased fiends.
The spirits of the dead fiends arrived in the Nether Domain and regained their fiend forms, becoming various kinds of Nether beasts. Some of them preyed on each other, growing more and more powerful.
This massive creature was a very special kind of Nether beast called the bone dragon, formed from the lingering spirit of a dead dragon that constantly fed on other Nether beasts. As it was a dragon in life, as it grew, it developed in the direction of a dragon. But it knew only to devour, with no restraint, so its body grew longer and longer without end. However, its real strength was inferior to that of true dragons.
In their essence, bone dragons were dragon souls unwilling to die, so they gathered up trash in an attempt to resurrect.
Resurrection was impossible, and its glorious past would forever be out of reach. It would forever wallow in the darkness.
Still, this didn’t change the fact that it was a terrifying Nether fiend that Tang Jie and company had no chance of opposing. Its massive body alone was enough to crush them.
The ghost eagle hadn’t expected this kind of existence to emerge from the river, and instinctively looked to Tang Jie in the hopes that he had any ideas.
“Run!” Tang Jie roared the best answer!
The Ghost March Ship turned around and charged off in the opposite direction.
“Raaaa!!!” The bone dragon let out a furious roar and smashed itself at the Ghost March Ship.
Yes, it threw its giant body at the ship.
There was no need for spell arts, as its terrifying body was already its strongest weapon. One strike would make all things shatter.
“Send all your power into the ship!” Tang Jie shouted.
But no matter how fast the Ghost March Ship was, it couldn’t be faster than the descent speed of the bone dragon. While it would be an exaggeration to say that it could cover five thousand kilometers in a second, it wasn’t at all absurd to say that it was able to cover one hundred thousand feet in a second.
This was a dragon trying to crush an ant, and there was no point in comparing them. Even escaping was a luxury.
Seeing this, Tang Jie slapped the ship, activating the ghost ship’s absorption system. As he poured in his energy, he adjusted the course of the ship to instead move laterally.
This was the only way to escape. The width of the bone dragon’s body was around three thousand feet, and while this wasn’t a particularly short width, at least it wasn’t as unreachable.
At the same time, all the ghosts took up their posts and began to pour power into the ghost ship.
The Ghost March Ship instantly accelerated to maximum speed while the bone dragon’s massive body toppled toward them, its mountainous figure casting a black shadow over the yellow waters.
This shadow was a zone of death that hung over Tang Jie’s head.
He stared forward, letting nothing distract him as he poured power into the ship.
The black shadow drew closer and closer, as if the sky was falling right onto the ship.
“It’s too late!” the ghost eagle wailed in despair.
“Focus!” Tang Jie shouted.
The Ghost March Ship shot through the death zone, groaning as it strained against its limits.
They could see the yellow waters!
They were about to escape the death zone!
But the bone dragon’s body was about to smash into them.
Right before the moment of impact, Tang Jie thrust out a palm, and a golden light erupted from the Ghost March Ship.
The bone dragon collided with the Ghost March Ship, but it slammed into the golden light instead, failing to pulverize the ship.
But the berserk power sent powerful shockwaves through the Ghost March Ship. However, instead of capsizing the ship, the shockwaves sent it flying into the air. Right above the ship was the bone dragon, so the ghost ship scraped along its skeleton as it flew forward, the golden light leaving behind a resplendent scar as it scraped decayed flesh from the bone in its path. However, for the bone dragon, this decayed flesh was a layer of old skin, and losing it had no effect.
Meanwhile, the golden light had reached its limit and was beginning to rupture.
Then the bone dragon’s descent continued, all that had happened having been only an unremarkable pause.
“Faster!” Tang Jie shouted.
As he shouted, the Ghost March Ship bizarrely accelerated, and like a bolt of lightning, it charged out of that zone, out from the shadow of death!
As it charged out, the bone dragon’s massive body grazed it, and just this graze was like a punch from a God, instantly obliterating half of the ship while sending the rest of it spinning outward.
Many ghost soldiers were caught off guard and fell from the ship. Before they had time to float up, a wave crashed into them, robbing them of any opportunity to ever float again.
At the same time, the Ghost March Ship was carried by its inertia into the sky.
It flew for quite a distance before finally landing back on the water.
At that time, only a third of the ghosts were left.
It was an unprecedented defeat, even the Ghost March Ship lying in ruins.
But at this moment, Tang Jie threw his head back and laughed.
The ghost eagle and the others gave him strange looks, fighting the urge to ask, “Master, why are you laughing?”
A white fog rose from Tang Jie, covering the ghosts.
Sensing the power within, the ghost eagle said in shocked realization, “Master has advanced!”