Wuchang Ghost Sect—Hah, How Truly Annoying!

Although Zhongli Yue had left, the formation at Taoyuan Mountain remained. Yue Yao could not open Taoyuan Mountain's formation, but she could rely on it to establish a camp. That way, she did not need to worry about enemies attacking from the direction of Taoyuan Mountain and only had to guard against the other directions.

Yue Yao had brought three hundred Demonic Beasts here, including two hundred members of the Spirit Deer Clan. The remaining one hundred Demonic Beasts came from various Demon Races in the Spirit Source Land.

However, over the past month, Yue Yao had gathered more than a thousand Demonic Beasts and Foundation Establishment Cultivators, as well as over ten thousand Strange Beasts.

After learning that Yue Yao was here, many Demonic Beasts and cultivators took the initiative to come and pledge allegiance. One reason was that Yue Yao had once been one of the Eight Elders of the Wanhua Demon Court and was a top-tier Demon King. The other was that Yue Yao had a good reputation. Unlike the other Demon Kings, she was not brutal and had committed no particularly evil deeds.

Thus, many members of the Demon Race and Human Race Cultivators chose to trust her and were willing to follow her in resisting the Yin Soldier Army of the Wuchang Ghost Sect.

Of course, the defeated stragglers she had gathered were nothing more than a rabble. Their actual Combat Power still had to be tested.

But no matter what, Yue Yao had pulled together a force of her own.

The Yin Soldier troops accompanying Xing Nan had not yet reached Yue Yao's station when they encountered patrolling members of the Demon Race.

The two sides erupted into battle the moment they met. At first, the Yin Soldier troops held the upper hand, but soon support from the Demonic Beasts surged in from all directions.

This Yin Soldier troop was not particularly strong to begin with, and it was quickly annihilated by more than a hundred Demonic Beasts.

Xing Nan saw everything clearly from within the Great Void, but he did not make a move. They were only a few dozen Yin Soldiers, not worth him personally taking action over. Besides, his purpose in coming here was not this group of Demonic Beasts, but the Demon King or Golden Core cultivator behind them.

"Demonic Beasts? It seems there should be a Demon King here. I just wonder which Demon King it is. To think they would have the courage to oppose my Wuchang Ghost Sect!"

Xing Nan looked at the scene among the mountains and forests, deep in thought.

There were many Demon Kings in the Wanhua Mountain Range. There had once been thirty or forty Demon Kings known publicly, and there were probably quite a few more hidden in the shadows.

The publicly known Demon Kings had basically all been dealt with by them. Some had been Encircled and Annihilated, while others had been driven out of the Wanhua Mountain Range. However, the remaining Demon Kings were even harder to deal with.

After thinking it over, Xing Nan decided to investigate the identity of this elusive Demon King first.

But before he could act, he suddenly sensed something strange.

His heart jolted, and he abruptly spread out his Spiritual Sense.

"Were you looking for me?" Yue Yao had already arrived in front of him. Wisps of white Qi Mechanism enveloped her body, making her appear incomparably pure.

"Who are you?" Xing Nan was greatly startled.

Yue Yao dispersed her Qi Mechanism and revealed her true form, exposing her delicate, pretty face and those pure eyes.

"You don't recognize me?"

Xing Nan looked at her, cold sweat pouring down his forehead. How could he not recognize Yue Yao?

One of the Eight Elders of the Wanhua Demon Court, Yue Yao might not count as a top-tier expert in the entire Myriad Flower Domain, but in the Wanhua Mountain Range, she was absolutely one of the foremost figures.

Among the Three Venerables and Eight Elders, setting aside the Three Venerables, Yue Yao might look harmless to humans and animals, but among the Eight Elders, she ranked in the top three.

The Wuchang Ghost Sect had fought the Wanhua Demon Court for so long that they had naturally long since grasped the exact circumstances of the court's upper echelon.

"How are you here?" Xing Nan asked with some difficulty.

Within the smoke-shrouded Great Void, specks of starlight had appeared at some unknown point. At the same time, a full moon silently emerged, its cold moonlight spilling down and illuminating the surrounding Great Void, making it seem tranquil and beautiful.

But Xing Nan knew that this tranquility concealed an endless killing intent. The moment he dared make any unusual move, he might fall here at any time.

The Great Void was like ink splashed across the sky. The sharply defined jade plate was like cold silver tempered in frost, spreading a hazy radiance that stained the smoke-shrouded Great Void a faint silver-gray, as though even the depths of the Great Void had been dusted with an extremely thin layer of silver mist.

The instant Xing Nan finished speaking, a concentrated ray of moonlight appeared in the tranquil night sky and wound toward him like a rope.

With no time for further words, Xing Nan immediately retreated, simultaneously pulling out a large black banner.

The banner waved, Yin winds howled, and countless Ghostly Shadows surged out.

"Since you recognize me, why do you still dare resist?" Yue Yao's cold voice rang out in Xing Nan's heart like a demonic incantation.

In the next instant, he felt shackles clasp around him, and his body fell into rigidity.

His Natal Spiritual Artifact was also restrained by the cold moonlight as if it were an ordinary object.

Yue Yao raised her hand and beckoned. The silver moon overhead descended into her grasp.

That was not the moon, but her Spirit Artifact, the Moon Soul Jade Plate.

As a Demon King, she should not have been skilled at using Spirit Artifacts and Magic Treasures, but the Moon Soul Jade Plate was the Spirit Deer Clan's clan-protecting artifact. Yue Yao wielded it without the slightest hindrance.

"Ah, I don't want to Be Enemies with anyone, but you people have forced me to live without peace!"

"Wuchang Ghost Sect—hah, truly annoying!"

Clear radiance streamed out like a streak of silver light. In an instant, Xing Nan's body was cleaved in two.

Xing Nan's eyes were filled with terror. He still wanted to say a few words, but his soul seemed to have frozen halfway, making it completely impossible to transmit his voice through Spiritual Sense.

Thus, he could only watch helplessly as his Dao body shattered, his Magic Power dissipated, his Qi Mechanism vanished, and he set foot upon the road to death.

Yue Yao drifted lightly to his side, collected his Natal Spiritual Artifact, placed his corpse into a Storage Bag, then took out a gray bead and stored his soul inside it as well.

Everything seemed so effortless and casual, yet everything also seemed so elegant.

It was as if she was not killing someone, but burning incense and praying.

The Great Void remained shrouded in smoke. The silver moon from moments before seemed never to have appeared. Only wisps of aura had not yet dissipated, proving that someone had fought here just now.

Xing Nan's fall had an enormous impact on the situation in the Central Region of the Wanhua Mountain Range.

That was because Xing Nan was the Wuchang Ghost Sect's only Golden Core cultivator stationed in the Central Region.

His fall meant that, for a short time, no one in the Central Region could restrain Yue Yao and Xuan Zhen's actions.

Thus, the two of them threw off all restraint and went on a rampage.

Xuan Zhen no longer acted together with Chang Ming and the other two. Instead, he had them act independently, greatly increasing the speed at which they cleared out Yin Soldier Blood Puppets.

Unlike the Yin Soldier Army's clearing of Demonic Beasts, dealing with the Yin Soldier Blood Puppets scattered throughout the mountains and forests was much easier.

That was because the Demonic Beasts would hide in the mountains and forests, while the Yin Soldier Blood Puppets moved about openly in all directions.

Those completely unhidden Yin Soldiers were like bonfires in the night. Xuan Zhen and the others could easily locate them.

If the Yin Soldiers were numerous, Chang Ming and the other two would call their master over for support. If there were only dozens or a hundred of them, Chang Ming and the others could handle them themselves.

And so, they hunted through the mountains like hunters, continuously killing squads of Yin Soldier Blood Puppets.

Meanwhile, Yue Yao constantly gathered Demonic Beasts and cultivators beneath Taoyuan Mountain. For a time, both of them worked with feverish intensity.

The Wuchang Ghost Sect reacted slowly—or rather, it could not be said that their reaction was slow. Their reaction simply could not have been any faster.

The Wuchang Ghost Sect's people were scattered throughout the Wanhua Mountain Range, and sending messages was not easy.

If Xing Nan were still alive, he could quickly send a message to the Soul Refining Hall. But Xing Nan was dead, and only some Foundation Establishment disciples remained here. Sending word to those above was much more troublesome for them.

The transmission range of a Communication Talisman was too short, while ordinary Foundation Establishment disciples did not possess any special means of communication. Thus, they could only fly back to the Wuchang Ghost Sect's station in the Northern Region of the Wanhua Mountain Range to report.

Making the round trip was impossible without at least half a month. By the time the Wuchang Ghost Sect had investigated the situation, a month had already passed.

By then, Xuan Zhen and Yue Yao had already led their people away from the Wanhua Mountain Range.

Yang Zhengshan had said that when the enemy advanced, they should retreat.

Xing Nan's fall would certainly bring retaliation from the Wuchang Ghost Sect. To avoid being intercepted by them, Xuan Zhen and Yue Yao withdrew after acting wildly in the Wanhua Mountain Range for half a month. Yue Yao abandoned the station she had just established and brought tens of thousands of Demonic Beasts, Strange Beasts, and cultivators to the Wilderness of Ten Thousand Waters.

However, they did not enter the Wilderness of Ten Thousand Waters. Instead, they headed south along its edge, entering the Hengshan Mountain Range. After traveling for several more days, they returned to Chunyang Valley.

Although Yang Zhengshan had established a Forward Outpost Base in the Wanhua Mountain Range, he had not abandoned Chunyang Valley. Chunyang Valley was the station maintaining trade with the Hengshan Sect and Wanbao Immortal City, so he naturally would not give it up.

Their withdrawal to Chunyang Valley did not mean their mission was over. It was merely a strategic relocation.

Yue Yao arranged those Demonic Beasts and cultivators in the Spirit Source Land. After Xuan Zhen confirmed that no one had followed them, the two of them once again took people and left the Spirit Source Land.

However, this time they did not leave from Chunyang Valley, but through the Cave Heaven Portal at the Forward Outpost Base.

Previously, their area of activity had been the southeastern part of the Central Region of the Wanhua Mountain Range. This time, they changed it to the southwestern part of the Central Region of the Wanhua Mountain Range.

Why did they have to operate in the Central Region of the Wanhua Mountain Range?

The reason was simple. The Wuchang Ghost Sect had only just occupied the Central Region of the Wanhua Mountain Range and had yet to establish a stable foothold. It was also the time when their forces were most scattered.

If it were the Northern Region of the Wanhua Mountain Range, it had already become a land permeated by Yin Energy. Apart from Yin Soldier Blood Puppets, it was almost impossible to find any other living beings, and there were no disciples of the Wuchang Ghost Sect guarding it.

Xuan Zhen and Yue Yao did not merely want to eliminate Yin Soldier Blood Puppets. They also needed to gather the remaining Demonic Beasts and cultivators, as well as obtain Yin Soul Generals from the disciples of the Wuchang Ghost Sect.

Simply put, in the Central Region of the Wanhua Mountain Range, they could obtain many gains. In the Northern Region of the Wanhua Mountain Range, they could only eliminate Yin Soldiers and Blood Puppets, gaining almost nothing.

Just as Xuan Zhen and Yue Yao were waging guerrilla warfare in the mountains, the Yin Soldier Army sent south by the Wuchang Ghost Sect was also approaching the Forward Outpost Base in the southern part of the Wanhua Mountain Range, where the Spirit Source Land was located.

Yang Zhengshan personally took charge at the Forward Outpost Base, while Lin Xiqiu personally kept watch over the Yin Soldier Army sent south by the Wuchang Ghost Sect.

"Venerable, the Yin Soldier Army is currently eight hundred li from the Forward Outpost Base. At their current speed, they should need only ten days to reach it!" Lin Xiqiu reported.

"How many troops do they have?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

Lin Xiqiu deliberated for a moment before saying, "The first wave should have around two hundred thousand."

The Yin Soldier Army heading south was not gathered together. Instead, it was divided from east to west into more than ten armies, each ranging from one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand soldiers, for a total of roughly two million troops.

The Wuchang Ghost Sect's purpose in sweeping across the Wanhua Mountain Range was not to slaughter all the Demonic Beasts. Their main goal was to drive those Demonic Beasts out of the Wanhua Mountain Range, then construct Giant Bone Pillars throughout the range to alter its spiritual energy environment.

The first wave of the Yin Soldier Army facing the Forward Outpost Base was this army directly approaching them. Once they eliminated this force of around two hundred thousand Yin Soldiers, the several nearby Yin Soldier armies would gather one after another.

Thus, the first wave of the Yin Soldier Army was actually the easiest to deal with. The battles afterward would be the most difficult.

As the battle continued, the surrounding Yin Soldier armies would continuously converge on the Forward Outpost Base. The Wuchang Ghost Sect might even transfer forces from the Central or Northern Region of the Wanhua Mountain Range to Encircle and Annihilate them.

This was also the main reason those Demon Race tribes could not resist the Yin Soldier Army. There were simply too many Yin Soldier Blood Puppets.

Based on past experience, the ratio of Yin Soldiers to Blood Puppets in the Yin Soldier Army was roughly one to twenty. In other words, among an army of two hundred thousand Yin Soldiers, there would be approximately ten thousand Yin Soldiers, equivalent to ten thousand Foundation Establishment Cultivators. The other one hundred ninety thousand would be Blood Puppets, equivalent to Golden Body Realm Martial Artists and cultivators in the late Qi Refining stage.

In terms of numbers, the Spirit Source Land was far inferior to the Wuchang Ghost Sect. But if they were only defending, the Spirit Source Land was not without the strength to fight.

The Forward Outpost Base was not large. Including the mountain peaks on both sides, it occupied an area of only a little more than ten li in diameter.

This limited the scale of the battlefield. No matter how many Yin Soldier Blood Puppets the Wuchang Ghost Sect possessed, it was impossible to send them all into battle. At most, they could use an army of more than a hundred thousand to attack. Any more than that would leave them unable to deploy their forces.

The greatest problem in this war was not blocking the Yin Soldier Army's attack, but continuing to block it without interruption. The battle might last for several months, or even more than a year.

To hold out for so long, the Protection Formation was of paramount importance.

Thinking of the formation, Yang Zhengshan summoned Ma Qiuyan and Ning Yun and asked, "How is the formation arrangement coming along?"

Ma Qiuyan and Ning Yun exchanged a glance before saying, "The formation core and nodes have all been arranged. It can already operate now. Next, we only need to connect it to the Earth Vein and Spirit Vein!"

"How long will it take to connect it to the Earth Vein and Spirit Vein?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

Large formations generally had to be connected to Earth Veins and Spirit Veins because operating a large formation consumed an enormous amount of spiritual energy. If it were supported solely by Spirit Stones, the amount consumed would be astronomical.

Of course, Earth Veins and Spirit Veins also had limits to what they could bear. However, most of the time, a formation did not collapse because its consumption had reached the limit of what the Earth Veins and Spirit Veins could withstand. Rather, the formation's defensive endurance reached its limit and it was Broke Through by a powerful attack.

The formation Ma Qiuyan and Ning Yun had arranged for the Forward Outpost Base was the Yellow Earth Thick Spirit Array. It was a third-tier formation, and specifically a defensive third-tier formation. It possessed no offensive power at all. Its only advantage was its astonishing defensive strength.

However, its drawback was that it had relatively high requirements for Earth Veins and Spirit Veins. The Forward Outpost Base's Spirit Vein was only second-tier supreme-grade, but its Earth Vein was extremely dense. The Earth Veins in the Wanhua Mountain Range were all exceptionally thick and heavy, which made up for the Spirit Vein's insufficient grade.