Black rocks jutted from the wasteland as chilling winds howled.
Chen Changqing halted his sword light and hovered in midair.
Strange ripples spread through the space around him.
The next moment, black-robed figures stepped out of the void, sealing off every escape route for dozens of miles around.
Twenty-three figures in all.
These cultivators wore pitch-black cloaks covered in white-bone runes. Their faces were withered, and dense netherworld death energy coiled around them.
Every one of them was in the Tribulation Crossing Realm.
Several elders leading them had even reached the late True Monarch stage.
A scar-faced elder at their head stepped forward, gripping a heavy white-bone banner entwined with vengeful souls.
"Boy, you have some skill. You actually detected us in advance."
The scar-faced elder's voice was hoarse, grating painfully against the eardrums.
Chen Changqing regarded him calmly.
"You started following me the moment the auction ended. You certainly move fast."
The scar-faced elder burst into laughter, and the twenty-odd ghost cultivators around him joined in with piercing, eerie cackles.
"In all my years on this little patch of turf in Xuanming City, I've seen precious few fat sheep willing to fork over a hundred and twenty million top-grade spirit stones for tokens in one go."
"If you dare flaunt your wealth, you should understand that an innocent man becomes guilty simply by possessing a jade treasure."
"I am the seventh brother of Xuanming City's Thirty-Six Ghost Fiends. Today, I'll grant you a quick death."
"Hand over your storage ring and those two Nine Nether Tokens, untouched, and I'll leave you a wisp of soul to reincarnate."
The Thirty-Six Ghost Fiends.
They were a band of ruthless brigands active in the wastelands outside Xuanming City.
Thirty-six powerful, vicious ghost cultivators had sworn brotherhood to form the group. Their Great