Boom!
As a charging chariot broke into pieces, calm finally returned to the hall.
The puppets had been eliminated, but the ghosts had also suffered significant losses. Most of the puppets had been at the Mortal Shedding level, on par with ghost generals, and because the nature of the puppets naturally countered ghosts, many ghost generals had been slain. Fortunately, the Ghost Kings had been there to wipe out their foes with their formidable cultivation, or else the ghosts would have paid an even higher price.
The destruction of the puppets caused the sealing stone blocking the way out to lose its light.
A Ghost King immediately lashed out, shattering the stone and revealing the dark passage behind it.
After two incidents, the ghosts didn’t dare to underestimate this mausoleum. Who could say what else was waiting for them?
Thus, a Ghost King howled and forced some ghost soldiers to take the lead—thanks to Tang Jie, quite a few ghost soldiers had managed to make it inside.
Tang Jie was the last to enter the passage. Before entering, he looked back, but there was nothing to see except stone debris.
Yet he mysteriously smiled before leaving.
To everyone’s surprise, they encountered no obstacles in the passage.
When they saw a giant stone door at the end of the passage, they sighed in relief.
One Ghost King said, “It seems like there are no traps and the path ahead should be safe.”
“It could be the exact opposite,” Tang Jie commented.
“What did you say?” The Ghost King angrily glared at him.
Unafraid, Tang Jie explained, “Formations and traps are all about psychological attacks. The first two rounds make you extremely cautious, so it’s not strange to set up a safe path to drop your guard, after which they follow up with a ruthless strike.”
These words were pure nonsense—traps and formations had never been about psychological attacks. It had to be understood that formations dealt with groups, not individuals. Different people had different personalities, and it was difficult to find a psychological attack that worked on everybody. Moreover, formations were means to kill and to keep an enemy out, so there was no need to show weakness. The first two rounds of this mausoleum’s traps had already killed countless ghosts, and there was nothing psychological about them.
The real reason there were no traps here was that this passage was one of the formation’s circuits, linking the Eight Gates and conveying spiritual energy through the formation. Its importance made it inconvenient to deploy any traps here, as battles could easily ruin it. Thus, in formations, the more unimportant and unremarkable a place seemed, the more likely it was to be a key part of the formation. Of course, it was common to mix real with fake in order to deal with formation experts. The Dao of Formations was all about deception, its complexity on par with cultivation.
Tang Jie couldn’t be bothered to explain all this to these ghosts. Dealing with amateurs required using the logic of amateurs, and it was far more effective.
Sure enough, all the ghosts felt like Tang Jie’s argument was very reasonable.
As they went through the stone door, they found themselves in a cavernous space.
This underground area was shockingly vast.
They were in one corner of this space, feeling like little flies.
In the center was a giant bottomless void that seemed to lead all the way to the underworld. Although these ghosts had actually come from the underworld, this abyss made them shiver. They could clearly sense that if they fell into this abyss, there would be no saving themselves.
Above the abyss were giant floating platforms. All the way near the top of this chamber, a stone door had been set in the wall, directly across from the door the ghosts had come out of.
“It seems that we need to use these stone platforms to reach the door,” a Ghost King said.
“No need for that. We can just fly over,” another Ghost King impatiently said.
It leapt up, flying toward the door.
But it didn’t get far before it suddenly started to flail in the air. “NOOO!!!”
It plunged like a stone, stripped of the ability to fly. It fell farther and farther into the abyss, its screams gradually dwindling to nothing.
The other ghosts silently looked at each other.
After a long while, a ghost said, “There’s probably a space sealing formation that forbids flying.”
“In other words, we can only use the platforms.”
The owner of this mausoleum had arranged all this, so it was only natural that he had considered all possibilities and wouldn’t allow for such shortcuts. In all likelihood, the moment they entered the mausoleum, they could only follow the track the mausoleum owner had provided.
Once they realized that they had to traverse the platforms, the Ghost Kings were no longer as reckless. One of them grabbed a ghost soldier and threw it onto the nearest platform.
The ghost soldier flew like a ragdoll through the air and landed on the platform without incident. It took a few steps on the platform, and after confirming that it was safe, it jumped onto the next stone platform. It walked a few more steps and then seemed to spot something. It picked up what turned out to be a golden band, which it wore on its head. The golden band let out a blinding light, and the soldier’s aura began to rapidly rise.
“Treasure!” the ghosts called out.
The Nether Domain had always been sparse in resources, so ghosts craved treasure even more than humans. This invasion was for human flesh and blood, but it was also for human treasure. When they saw that there was treasure on the platforms and that the ghost soldier was fine, they began to jump onto the platforms.
Tang Jie raised an eyebrow and said, “Be careful! It could be a trap!”
But nobody was willing to listen to him.
The fastest of the Ghost Kings instantly jumped across ten-some platforms and then picked up a large cauldron from the floor. This cauldron had a golden dragon coiled around it, and after the Ghost King grabbed it, it let out a roar and flew into the air, much to the Ghost King’s delight.
But this treasure clearly wasn’t that easy to control. The golden dragon on the cauldron didn’t have the power of a real dragon, but it was still a mighty being unwilling to be controlled, so it turned around and lunged at the Ghost King.
The Ghost King grunted, “Quite the temper!”
It threw out a blast of wind and began to battle with the cauldron.
It wasn’t alone in this experience. The other Ghost Kings found treasure on other floating platforms, most of them ownerless and fierce, requiring a battle to be tamed.
In a flash, the space was filled with spell arts as the ghosts battled for the treasures.
Only Tang Jie remained calm. As he scanned the platforms, a question occurred to him. “Why are there only 107 platforms?”
The Dao of Formations considered the number 9 to be auspicious.
108 was twelve 9s, and 12 was the number of Earthly Branches, so twelve 9s was considered the limit and an extremely auspicious sign. In the Dao of Formations, this manifested as the number 108.
(TN: The 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches were generally used in ancient China as a dating system, with a period being named after one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch.)
There were 107 platforms, so one was missing, which felt like a very inauspicious oddity to Tang Jie.
But the ghosts didn’t care what he thought, chasing after the treasures over the stone platforms. As the fight intensified, they became less restrained in their attacks, not caring who got caught up in them.
Tang Jie naturally hoped for all these ghosts to die, but he also wanted to use these ghosts to reach the very end. If they all died here, he would have to do the rest on his own, which probably wouldn’t turn out well.
Thus, as he watched the ghosts fight, he calculated what could happen next.
He examined every inch of this space, taking in every change and considering everything that had happened. Various possibilities came to mind, and while he still couldn’t confirm the formation he was dealing with, he was starting to get a good idea.
By this time, the treasures had mostly been subdued. As the ghosts celebrated, Tang Jie sensed something and shouted, “Everyone, watch out!”
The ghosts didn’t know what he was shouting about, but a moment later, the floating platforms began to move.
They spun in the air, moved up and down, crossed paths, and alarmed the ghosts.
“What’s happening?” a Ghost King shouted.
A gust of wind suddenly swept up a ghost, sending it flailing into the abyss.
The ghosts reeled in shock, and then they realized that even more gusts of wind were forming.
The ghosts were so scared that they began to scream.
But not even the sharpest scream could stop the howling winds, and with each passing gust, another ghost was swept away.
“Run!” a Ghost King shouted.
The ghosts began to make their way upward.
To their dismay, they realized that the haphazard movement of the platforms meant that there was no longer an easy path up to that door.
The ghosts despaired as the gusts began to converge.
At this moment, someone shouted, “Put down the treasures and you’ll live!”
It was Tang Jie.
