The Azureclad Duke was right. Less than an hour after the ghost spy was unmasked, the ghosts launched their first offensive on Cloudexit City.

  The formation that enveloped the city with more than six hundred million kilometers of safety couldn’t withstand the enemy. A variety of vicious ghosts, vengeful ghosts, ghostly spirits, zombies, and other ghostly entities poured in from all directions. Wreathed in dense ghostly air, they sizzled and crackled when they crashed into the pure golden formation.

  Many were burned to a crisp, but the charge continued relentlessly. The black smoke they left behind upon death condensed in the air and sheltered the ghosts behind them.

  The first to rush the formation was just cannon fodder, the true experts came after!

  Armed with overwhelming numbers, the weakest among the ghosts was in the common realm. Though superior realm cultivators could kill thousands of commons with the flip of a hand, the ghosts were so plentiful that their numbers couldn’t be imagined.

  They covered the land in a moving mass of black, blotting out any color beneath them.

  “We can’t let these ghosts set foot into Cloudexit City, charge!” the Earthmartial and Dawn Kings roared in challenge. They knew what the ghosts were planning and that there must be a turncoat among them.

  However, all that went out the window at this juncture. If the ghosts breached the gates, then the city was as good as lost.

  Naturally, the ghosts wouldn’t permit the eighteen kings to freely move around either. More than ten ghost kings emerged from their army and pounced on the eighteen kings.

  ……


  Everything proceeded in orderly fashion within Cloudexit City. Though the enemy was on the march, they’d drilled for this eventuality countless times. As long as the formation around the city remained whole, Cloudexit stood a strong chance of withstanding the ghostly hordes.

  Troops of black armored soldiers trotted out from the streets and assembled on the city walls. Long range weapons whirred to action and rained down devastation on the approaching enemy.

  Cloudexit City hovered the air as an enormous golden orb and threw out searing aureate splendor in every direction. More than just the city itself, Cloudexit needed to safeguard the six hundred million kilometers of territory around it. The enemy could not be permitted to enter the heartland of Cloudruin Region.

  The closer one drew to the city, the heavier the defensive light became. Any ghost that could make it to this point was a heavyweight of its race and the equivalent of a superior realm cultivator.

  “Form up and head outside!” An extremely strong soldier suddenly leapt into the air, brandishing his black sword at a location outside Cloudexit City. A powerful half step king, he roared, “There are ghosts trying to break the formation five hundred million kilometers to the southwest! Noble ladies and gentlemen, follow me to eliminate that filth!”


  “Yes, sir!”


  “Chaaaaarge!”


  A battalion of more than a hundred thousand black armored soldiers shot in the sky and barrelled toward the danger zone. They were all superior realm cultivators and would be a dominating force in any part of the Hongmeng, but everyone knew that none of them would return alive!

  A battalion of a hundred thousand superior realm cultivators would be overrun by the ghostly army trying to circle around Cloudexit City. They had no hope for survival, but they answered duty’s call without a look back!

  Lu Yun trembled imperceptibly to see the soldiers depart. How they resembled the immortals who walked through the World Gates to defy the yin spirit tide in the world of immortals!

  “What a pity that I can’t save you guys,” he sighed. He wouldn’t be able to do so even if he revealed his identity and used all of his supplemental arts. They were voluntarily going on the offensive, not passively defending themselves.

  “Folks, we have come to Cloudexit City not to watch a show. It is time to slaughter this ghostly scum and validate our dao with bloodshed!” Astounding bloody light erupted from the genteel Bloodclad Duke, and a knife resembling a bloody crescent moon appeared in his hands. Outlined in crimson splendor from his knife, he shot out of the city to follow in the battalion’s wake!

  “No shit, the Demonward Formation was created for the ghosts. All land within six hundred million kilometers is our battlefield. To war, to war!!” Li Zhen also charged out with a flash of sword light, but he didn’t trail the Bloodclad Duke or battalion. He headed in another direction as there was a contingent of ghosts trying to drill through the golden light there.

  Geniuses in Cloudexit City roared with laughter and flung themselves at the enemy. Being carefully nurtured elites from various sects, factions, and clans, they were no ordinary cultivators. Each of them was the equivalent of the Cloudexit battalion, and their efforts on the battlefield brought the ghostly army to an immediate standstill.

  “Champion Duke!” Li Zhen suddenly shouted. “I admit that you have a sharp sword! Do you dare come out of the city to prove your strength?”


  Using a sharp sword to break an opponent’s weapon wasn’t a show of strength, and a sharp sword alone wasn’t enough to reign invincible among unending hordes of enemies in war. Only absolute power would prove sufficient!

  “And why not?!” Laughing heartily, Lu Yun darted out of the city. The Purpleclad, Azureclad, and Crimsonclad Dukes also flew out in three different directions.

  Cultivators of the Hongmeng didn’t have to defeat their peers in order to prove their might, they could also slay the invaders of the Hongmeng—the ghosts.

  Dusksnow Morningstar was renowned throughout the realm because he’d once fought the venerated enforcer to a standstill with three moves, but he was still generally regarded below the enforcer and dukes. Though he’d killed his fair share of ghosts, his feats weren’t as impressive as the other five.

  Currently, the Bloodclad, Purpleclad, Azureclad, and Crimsonclad Dukes each held one direction, blockading the roads that ran from Cloudexit City to the rest of Cloudruin Region. They were as immovable as kings.

  “ROAR!!” exploded from the ghostly army as a new ghost king suddenly appeared and charged the Bloodclad Duke.

  “No!” Earthmartial and the others hadn’t expected that there’d be more kings in the ghostly army! Though this one was only a first step king, it was an indomitable nightmare to cultivators beneath titled kinghood.

  “A ghost king? Bring it!” yelled Bloodclad. “Stories say that Hua Fengwen killed a king in peak condition before he ascended to kinghood! Today, I imitate his accomplishment and slay a king to make my name!”


  Boom!

  He released his aura entirely and raised waves of bloody light that annihilated any ghost they touched. His curved blade turned into a bloody moon that spewed forth lethal force at the suddenly appearing ghost king.

  In a void intersected with black and golden light, all was suddenly dyed a pure crimson.