Giving the Immortal Herbs no time to react, the hundred ghosts went all out at once.
They were Ming Zhao's subordinates and used Soul Power supplied by him. Unable to sustain a high-intensity battle for long, they had no choice but to finish it quickly.
Had these been six normal Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, he would never have dared send the hundred ghosts in alone. That would have been serving them up on a platter, unless he was there himself and used his Martial Soul Fusion Skill.
But these ones were simply too disappointing.
In the Douluo II version, Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts had already been weakened to the point where they could only match ordinary Titled Douluo. These pampered pigs were even worse, rotten all the way through to the earth's core. Whether their hundred thousand years of cultivation could produce the fighting power of a high-level Soul Douluo was questionable.
Perhaps inherently aggressive Immortal Herbs like the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot could put up a decent fight.
But the Aromatic Silk Beauty and Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid, faced with a siege by two Soul Douluo ghosts and more than ten Soul Saint ghosts, were beaten into crying for their parents in less than three seconds. They screamed themselves hoarse for Octagonal and A Jiao to save them.
Octagonal and A Jiao had been able to trade a few blows with the ghosts, barely holding off their attackers. But when they heard that their teammates had been wiped out so quickly, they were furious, and openings appeared in their defenses.
And then...
The hundred ghosts showed them what power beyond their comprehension looked like.
Once subdued, the Immortal Herbs could only watch as the hundred ghosts injected Ghost Qi into their true bodies.
For yin-attribute Immortal Herbs like the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, the female ghosts in red under the Ghost Bride injected yang-attribute, fire-aspect Ghost Qi. For yang-attribute Immortal Herbs like the Infernal Delicate Apricot, the drowned ghosts under the Water Vengeful Spirit injected yin-attribute, water-aspect Ghost Qi.
Fire-aspect Ghost Qi that ice and water could not suppress, and water-aspect Ghost Qi that yang fire could not suppress, left the Immortal Herbs dumbfounded. They were so flustered that they did not even know how to resist.
More terrifying still, after the Ghost Qi entered their respective true bodies, it did not corrode their origins. Instead, it gathered at the major nodes throughout their root systems. If detonated, they would probably be reduced to seeds and have to grow all over again on the spot...
That made them even less inclined to act rashly.
Perhaps at first, they could have risked serious injury to detonate the Ghost Qi themselves and perish together with the hundred ghosts, jade and stone shattered alike.
But they did not dare. They could only let the Ghost Qi inside them accumulate until their lives were completely in the hundred ghosts' hands.
It took the full amount of Ghost Qi from sixty Soul Saint ghosts before the Ghost Qi inside the six Hundred-Thousand-Year Immortal Herbs was enough to snuff out their lives the instant it was detonated.
The Ghost Qi inside each of the six Hundred-Thousand-Year Immortal Herbs was controlled by one of six Soul Douluo ghosts. If the herbs tried anything, the Ghost Qi lodged inside them would detonate in succession.
The hundred ghosts could have joined forces to beat the six Hundred-Thousand-Year Immortal Herbs into oblivion, but that would have damaged the medicinal properties of their true bodies. It would have been a waste.
Controlling them with Ghost Qi was far more cost-effective than crippling or killing them outright.
Just like that, Ming Zhao easily seized control of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well from afar.
Even now, there was no sign of Tang San appearing. Ming Zhao was already fairly certain that Tang San truly had not left any divine sense here.
This was not only where the Water and Fire Dragon Kings had fallen, with their undying dragon souls hidden underground; diluted ice and fire divine power also permeated the air, steadily wearing away the power within divine sense.
This place was suitable neither for leaving divine sense nor for storing it.
Leaving no divine sense here and instead creating a Jade Phosphor Poison Formation outside to keep all living creatures out was probably a measure Tang San had been forced to take. Apart from that, Ming Zhao could think of no other way to keep the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well completely hidden.
There was just one final experiment Ming Zhao needed to conduct.
If Tang San's divine sense still did not appear after he did this, he could enter the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well himself.
Ming Zhao activated the King of Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul Skill and projected Ghost God Vision. His consciousness replaced that of a Soul Douluo ghost, descending into the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well from afar.
The ghost he used first was the drowned ghost formed from Dongyang City's lord, one of the six Soul Douluo paper figures carrying the Water Vengeful Spirit's coffin.
Controlling the city lord paper figure, Ming Zhao walked step by step up to the Aromatic Silk Beauty. Its stiff, bizarre paper face pointed straight at her flower bud. Without a word, it stared at her blankly, steadily piling on the pressure.
At first, the Aromatic Silk Beauty was only a little nervous. But the longer the ghost remained silent, staring at her without a word, the more panicked and frightened she became.
Even her flower bud shook like a sieve.
"Y-y-you... what are you going to do? I'm warning you, we have someone backing us! If you hurt us, that person won't let you off!" The Aromatic Silk Beauty's voice trembled, but some inexplicable confidence allowed her to force out the words.
But she found that the paper figure did not care in the slightest what she had just said. It continued staring at her with its blank, cold, rigid face.
At last, just as the Aromatic Silk Beauty thought her life was over, the paper figure spoke.
The sound sent chills down the spine and made the scalp tingle. It was like someone forcefully crumpling an A4 sheet of paper into a ball, or paper being torn over and over. It even resembled the rustling of pages as a book was turned.
Shrill, grating, jumbled, and without pattern.
Yet somehow, those sounds formed a sentence the Aromatic Silk Beauty could understand.
"The book. Hand it over, or you die."
Those nine simple words shook the Aromatic Silk Beauty to her core.
"The book? What book?!"
Ming Zhao had no interest in talking nonsense with her. Arguing with this bunch of clownish Immortal Herbs would only waste his time.
He only wanted to know whether his idea was right: could forcing the Aromatic Silk Beauty to hand over the Tang Sect Secret Arts draw out Tang San's divine sense?
So he controlled the paper figure and reached out to press a hand against the Aromatic Silk Beauty's flower bud. Then he manipulated the Ghost Qi inside her and immediately detonated one of the nodes in her root system.
Boom!
With a muffled bang, a small opening blasted through the earth. Gray-black Ghost Qi rose from the hole, while fine streams of green sap splattered through the air along with the flying soil.
"Ow!! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts... Don't hit me! I'll give it to you, all right?!" The Aromatic Silk Beauty immediately lost her nerve and admitted she was wrong without another word.
The other subdued Immortal Herbs were instantly stunned.
Of course they knew what the Aromatic Silk Beauty kept there. Over the past ten thousand years, unable to leave the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, they had been forced to find their own amusement, and the Aromatic Silk Beauty had often shown off the things Tang San had left with her.
"See? Tang San left things only for me, not for any of you. I'm the Immortal Herb he values most!"
And now she was actually going to hand that thing over?
"You're actually handing over something that person left behind just to save your life? Youyou, you have no backbone. I despise you!" the Infernal Delicate Apricot could not help remarking.
Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass: "+1."
Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum: "+1."
Cockscomb Phoenix Sunflower: "+1."
Aromatic Silk Beauty: "+1."
Hearing the other five Immortal Herbs' remarks and reproaches, the Aromatic Silk Beauty paused. The white jade book that had just flown out of her flower bud stopped in midair.
But because of that pause, Ming Zhao detonated another node in her root system, making her howl again. Then, as if throwing away a hot potato, she tossed the jade book straight into the paper figure's arms.
"Here, take it! This is what that person left behind. But I'm warning you, only Tang Sect disciples are allowed to read this book. If you read it without being a Tang Sect disciple, that person will definitely punish you most severely!" The Aromatic Silk Beauty delivered the toughest words in the most cowardly tone.
"A very scary punishment!"
Ming Zhao could not be bothered with her. He eagerly flipped through a few pages, pretending to read the jade book's contents while remaining on guard against his surroundings the entire time.
However...
Nothing happened.