Even Old Zhang, who was charging at the front, felt a bit of despair.
He was only in the Dengtang Realm; even an Entering the Room Realm expert wouldn't be able to handle this.
Waves of despair washed over his heart, but more than that, there was unwillingness!
To have survived the Spirit World only to die in the city—it was laughable!
Dan Liang, carrying a box, scanned his surroundings.
Since the Daolao Ghost was an 'ant,' then the aphid should also be nearby.
It was just as that White-Clothed Person had said: this place had been completely occupied by evil spirits, so it was no surprise to see them anywhere.
As he pondered, his gaze fell upon the circle of corpses, and the more he looked, the stranger it felt.
The shapes of these corpses were very familiar.
It looked like some kind of symbol.
Where had he seen it before?
Dan Liang stroked his chin, and then, upon seeing the most identifiable corpse among them, he suddenly remembered.
That's right!
He had once seen this symbol on a tombstone!
At that time, he had just entered the 'Initial Glimpse Realm' and nearly died during his first entry into the Spirit World.
Fortunately, he eventually discovered the rules of that Spirit World and managed to survive.
Indeed, it was a regulated Spirit World.
The most troublesome evil spirit there was a Guardian of the Tomb; though he was just a bag of bones, his movements were as heavy as a mountain!
Every step he took caused the ground to shake, like an earthquake!
And on the tombstone he guarded, there was such a symbol carved!
At the time, he had even specifically copied those symbols, thinking they might have some special meaning and be worth a lot of money!
Even if they weren't special symbols, they might be the writing of evil spirits, which would be very meaningful for research.
However, after he came out, he discovered that the notebook where he had recorded the symbols was empty, as if the act of recording them had just been a hallucination.
But Dan Liang remembered very clearly that he had indeed recorded them.
At that time, he was still studying at H City Martial Arts School.
After leaving the Spirit World, he specifically went to his teacher to report the matter, but his teacher didn't take it too seriously.
Because it wasn't uncommon for text to appear in the Spirit World; in fact, the Martial Arts School library even had a dedicated display shelf filled with various textual notes recorded by Pioneers in the Spirit World.
As his teacher put it, it had research value, but it wasn't worth money.
However, Dan Liang knew that the symbols he had recorded were not the same as those.
At the very least, the symbols on the display shelf wouldn't disappear.
Originally, Dan Liang had long since forgotten about this matter, but now, seeing these eerie 'corpse symbols,' he recalled it once again.
Interesting.
Truly interesting.
Dan Liang's lips curved into a smile; opportunity and risk were inherently intertwined.
Originally, he had only come for the Hungry Ghost Tai Sui, but now it seemed he might even have some unexpected gains.
...
Old Li struggled to maintain the Five Directions Revealing Truth, his face as pale as paper.
Old Zhang's situation was only slightly better; his once robust body was riddled with dense wounds.
Twisted human head phantoms were gnawing greedily within the wounds.
Whenever they made a swallowing motion, Old Zhang's wounds would dim slightly.
Within a few breaths, the wounds turned into patches of black, and the black patches continued to expand.
Old Zhang was helpless against these human head phantoms; he could deal with physical evil spirits however he liked, but for these intangible ones, he truly had no good solution.
Normally, such evil spirits would be left to Old Li, but given Old Li's current state, it would be difficult for him to even survive, let alone help him.
The people around them were not much better off; despair filled everyone's eyes.
The Daolao Ghosts, however, were not in a hurry to attack; instead, they stood quietly, watching them.
“Roar!”
“Gurgle!”
“Squeak!”
The evil spirits in front of them continued to roar, inching closer.
Hiss~!
A white mist rose from Old Zhang's body, and he rapidly shrank like a deflated doll.
His original body, over three meters tall, shrunk to 1.7 meters in a few breaths.
Pfft!
He couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood.
Divine Appearance was extremely taxing on physical strength.
It was already very difficult for him to fight his way through until now, not to mention the constant erosion from those human head phantoms.
Old Zhang wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, retreating as he spoke.
“These evil spirits seem to want to force us into the corpse circle!”
As he spoke, he looked back at the strange corpses arranged in a circle.
Old Li's breathing was heavy, like a broken bellows.
“What is that strange circle? Some kind of sacrificial ritual?”
Unfortunately, there was only the equally heavy sound of breathing around them; no one answered his question.
“Wuwuwu, I don’t want to die.”
“Stop crying, you wuss! Damn it, since we became Pioneers, we shouldn't be afraid of death!”
“Right! The day I became a Pioneer, I knew I would only die on the path of fighting evil spirits!”
“Damn it! Even if we die, we can’t let these evil spirits have an easy time of it!”
When fear reaches a certain threshold, it turns into anger!
These people were exactly like that now!
Although they were extremely weak, barely even able to maintain their Divine Appearance, they still looked as if they intended to take the evil spirits down with them.
And seeing that they were slow to move into the corpse circle, the evil spirits pressed forward again.
The crowd roared and charged!
They had now seen through the evil spirits' plan and naturally wouldn't let them succeed.
Buzz~
A dazzling red light ignited from within the crowd, and this sudden scene caused everyone's footsteps to slow down by two points.
Swish swish swish!
Clatter clatter!
Clatter clatter!
One by one, dark red chains suddenly shot out from the ground, stringing up the surrounding evil spirits like candied haws!
The impaled evil spirits struggled desperately, emitting piercing screams.
But in the end, it was all in vain; no matter how they struggled, they could not break free from the chains.
And as they struggled, streams of bright red mist overflowed from their bodies, rapidly absorbed by the chains.
The chains, having absorbed the blood mist, became even more active, like giant pythons, attacking the evil spirits indiscriminately.
Even more remarkably, after a high-frequency tremor, one chain turned into two!
The evil spirits that had pushed them to the brink of despair were now as fragile as toys.
This bizarre scene stunned everyone.
They turned their heads in confusion, looking towards the source of the red light.
They saw a tall young man gently waving his hands, his posture like that of a conductor leading an orchestra.
And as he waved his hands, more and more chains pierced through the ground, rushing towards the evil spirits with a whooshing sound.
When Old Li clearly saw the young man, his mouth dropped open.
“Isn’t that the kid who was grinning foolishly at me earlier?”
Old Zhang, meanwhile, stared intently at the chains, finding them increasingly familiar.
It wasn't until he saw several chains working together to dismember an evil spirit that he exclaimed, “Dianxing Chain, you are the Warden!!!”
Hearing this name, the people around him were bewildered.
“What?”
“The Warden?”