The living belonged to the mortal plane, and the dead belonged to the Nether Domain. This was the unchangeable law of the Great Chiliocosm.
There was the occasional exception, like ghosts unwilling to leave and continuing to haunt the mortal plane after death, but they usually didn’t last long before the Nether Domain claimed them. A scant few were able to remain in the mortal plane, and most of them were linked to human cultivators. Human cultivators used their secret arts to gather ghosts around them and resist the summons of the Nether Domain, and these were practitioners of the Ghost Dao.
But the mausoleum on this island clearly didn’t belong to this category.
The owner of the mausoleum was a human emperor who had died thirty-two hundred years ago. He had had a legendary and glorious life, and he had been buried here after his death.
But no human had ever known that this emperor’s soul had not gone to the Nether Domain.
Of course, just because humans didn’t know didn’t mean that the Nether Domain didn’t know.
The Nether Domain received souls and had its own rules governing the process. Upon death, the soul would leave the body and become a ghost, upon which the ghost emissaries, such as the Impermanences, would sense it and bring the ghost to the Nether Domain. If there was a large number of deaths, a Ghost King or Nether Emperor might personally oversee the process.
When this emperor was on the throne, he had been a peak Celestial Heart cultivator, so the Nether Domain was able to clearly sense his passing away and the birth of his ghost.
Strangely, no matter what they did, they couldn’t bring the ghost back.
The mystery of this ghost being stuck in the mortal plane had remained unanswered for thousands of years.
Of course, ghosts lacked the curiosity of humans and didn’t care too much about a single cold case of a missing ghost.
But this Nether Domain invasion had changed everything.
By pure accident, a Ghost King had discovered this mausoleum and sensed a powerful energy within. And to its shock, according to its ghost emissary, the owner of this mausoleum was that emperor whose ghost had not entered the Nether Domain.
That Ghost King entered the mausoleum.
For ghosts, entering a tomb was like going home, and there should have been no danger to speak of.
But it didn’t return.
As its ghost ship fell apart and its ghosts scattered, the news gradually spread. Finally, some Ghost Kings realized that there was something strange about this place and came to see what was going on, but none of them returned.
Rather than scaring the ghosts, this only stirred them up, and even stronger ghosts came.
A dangerous place was bound to hold treasure.
This was understood by both human cultivators and ghosts.
Moreover, based on the history of this area, it was clearly a treasure linked to the Nether Domain.
The ghosts that heard the news naturally gathered around.
In the same way that human cultivators would seek out treasure, the ghosts had organized their own treasure-hunting expedition.
The ghosts were gathering their strength, and once they thought that they were strong enough, they would make an attempt at the mausoleum.
After being told all this, Tang Jie understood why Marasheng had lured him here. It was so that he could unite the power of the Mara house to get more treasure on this expedition.
As expected, Marasheng said, “So? How about it? Are you willing to join us?”
Tang Jie chuckled. “Since I’m here, I’m not going to just leave.”
Marasheng clapped his hands and laughed. “I knew you wouldn’t refuse.”
He led Tang Jie to the rest of the group.
They waited for almost an entire day, during which thirty-some more ghost ships arrived, the size of the fleet nearing sixty.
Tang Jie couldn’t help but start plotting. If he could use the dangers in the mausoleum to handle all these ghosts, he would be giving the humans a huge helping hand.
He made up his mind to ruin this ghost expedition.
Once enough ghost ships had gathered, a Ghost King lost his patience and called to go in.
This was the largest exploration team Tang Jie had seen. There were sixty-some ghost ship masters, along with all their generals. When it came to King-level ghosts, there were one hundred and fifty, and more than a thousand generals. Such a majestic force would make even a Nether Emperor think twice.
This was why the ghosts were so bold and anxious to enter the mausoleum.
The leading Ghost Kings also felt like the time was ripe, and they began to head onto the island.
Dozens of ghost ships laden with ghosts charged forward, but Tang Jie hadn’t brought his Ghost March Ship, so he decided to be a passenger on Marasheng’s. Marasheng didn’t mind, as this made it easier for him to control Maraju.
After traveling for a distance, they saw a giant mausoleum looming on the horizon.
In front of the mausoleum was a massive plaza paved with smooth lavender stones that still had a glossy finish as if they were new. A pavilion had been built every one thousand feet to serve as a resting stop.
Despite having been built thousands of years ago, it was completely undamaged. The power of a formation could be felt in the air, which fended off the weathering of time and pests.
The ghost ships all stopped right at the plaza, some power preventing them from advancing.
The Ghost Kings disembarked, one of them lightly tapping at the air above the paving stones. Where its finger rapped, a ripple spread through the air.
“A barrier, but not a strong one. It’s to prevent animals, dust, and wind from getting in,” a Ghost King said as they grabbed at the air, tearing away a membranous barrier.
The corner of Tang Jie’s mouth twitched in contempt.
While these ghosts were powerful and smart, in the end, they were creatures of the Nether Domain, and some things from the mortal plane were too complicated for them. For example, extremely powerful traps or formations that used vast quantities of resources were rare in the Nether Domain. Thus, they had no idea that they were dealing with a huge formation, with this barrier being the trigger for it.
Any existence that tore the barrier and entered the plaza would receive the attack of the formation.
Of course, Tang Jie naturally wouldn’t warn them. He was happy to see these ghosts suffer.
Still, the ghosts weren’t fools, and one Ghost King suggested, “Space is restricted here, and the ships can’t go in, so let’s have the peons all get off and walk in.”
The ghost soldiers were being called upon to serve as cannon fodder.
The ghost soldiers disembarked from the ship, got into formation, and tore through the membrane to march onto the plaza.
The orderly army marched onto the lavender stones with a thunderous rumble. But beneath the paving stones, rivers of light flowed, occasionally flashing.
The ghosts were unaware, but Tang Jie was using them to analyze what kind of formation he was dealing with.
Meanwhile, the ghost army had marched halfway across the plaza without a problem. The Ghost Kings sighed in relief and decided to follow.
Marasheng saw several of his more infamous seniors go in, and was about to follow when he saw Tang Jie remaining motionless. “Old Third, are you not going in?”
“In dangerous places like this, being too hasty isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
Marasheng froze, and then he drew back his foot and smiled. “Third Brother is right. There’s no harm in me waiting as well.”
The youngest, Marafeng, impatiently said, “Cowards, you won’t accomplish anything like this.”
He stepped onto the paving stones.
Tang Jie didn’t try to persuade him otherwise, to which Marasheng raised an eyebrow but ultimately said nothing. Marasha also coldly chuckled and stood with them, and the three watched as Marafeng waltzed into the formation.
Encountering no danger, the army advanced some more, the vanguard already close to the entrance. Just when Marafeng was about to celebrate, he heard a clacking sound.
The ghosts all froze, and then the ground began to shudder as if something was about to emerge from the earth.
A sharp Ghost King paled and shouted, “Not good! Retreat!”
As he began to move, the lavender stones began to slide away, creating large holes in the plaza which several unlucky ghost soldiers dropped right into. Only those ghosts that were generals and above or else had ethereal bodies were able to keep floating in the air. The regular ghost soldiers had to be lucky enough to be standing on the stones that didn’t move.
A moment later, flames began to erupt from the holes.
This was the Flame Yang Domain, and the mastery of flames had reached an extremely high level here.
While this wasn’t any kind of sacred flame, its power was extraordinary, and the ghosts instantly began to screech in pain.
In a flash, a cloud of flame had burned numerous ghost soldiers to death. As for those ghost soldiers that had fallen in, they had died instantly.
As the ghost soldiers were burned to ashes, the fires burned even more strongly and swept toward the ghost generals and Ghost Kings.
“Charge forward!” The Ghost Kings were a sharp lot, and after being charred by the flames once, they knew that they weren’t something that could be faced directly, but instead of retreating, they chose to charge toward the mausoleum entrance.
The rest came to their senses and rushed toward the mausoleum, Marafeng bringing his ghost generals and joining them.
The tongues of flame coiled around the ghosts like serpents, and the ghosts employed various methods to fend them off. These were King-level ghosts, so while the flames were strong, they weren’t strong enough to instantly kill the ghosts. Thus, the ghosts truly did manage to push through the flames and reach the mausoleum entrance. The Ghost Kings all survived, as did most of the ghost generals. Only some special ghosts who lacked fire resistance or else were too slow were eaten up by the flame serpents, though the total number wasn’t large and had little effect on the overall force. The loss of the ghost soldiers, on the other hand, was a great pity.
Almost all of the ghost soldiers that had entered the plaza had been killed.
Once the ghosts entered the mausoleum, the paving stones slid back into place, and everything was returned to its original state.