Elder Wang, having examined the map drawn by Cultivator Pang, knew the direction and path taken by Pang and his companions, making their search far from random; there was a high probability of finding them along this route.
Ye Qin, Huangfu Bing'er, and the four cultivators of the Wang family—the uncle and nephew—raced through the ghastly mist of the Skeleton Mountain Range for nearly an hour and a half, carefully skirting the roaming skeletons and cautiously traversing several ridges of bones.
Suddenly, Elder Wang heard fierce magical combat, explosions, and flashes of various mana lights erupting from the thick mist in the distance. He could even discern, through the gloom, the dense shadows of countless skeletons in the distance, seemingly besieging someone.
“Not good, it’s a massive horde of ghoul-skeletal abominations!”
The lead Elder Wang, seeing the large cluster of skeletal shadows ahead, abruptly halted, daring not to approach.
He had personal experience and knew the terror of a skeleton swarm.
Each individual skeleton was not inherently powerful and could be easily shattered. However, a ghost cultivator, with a mere gesture, could cast a spell, causing legions of desiccated bones to rise from the earth as animated skeletons.
Under the control of a ghost cultivator, these skeletons moved in coordinated swarms, seemingly inexhaustible, far more relentless than even a horde of demonic beasts.
Elder Wang hastily looked back towards Ye Qin and urged, “Brother Daoist Ye, the situation ahead most likely involves Daoist Pang and his two companions being ambushed. They are the only ones who would take this path! Judging by the scene, they are trapped here, completely surrounded by the skeleton swarm and unable to break free. It must be those two mid-stage Golden Core ghost cultivators who initiated the attack. What shall we do now?”
Ye Qin’s gaze was calm as he surveyed the distant battleground, pausing for a brief moment of contemplation.
“Let’s go take a look! If we can save them, we will. In this ancient ruin, having three more late-stage Golden Core allies increases our ability to protect ourselves. If those ghost cultivators prove too powerful and we truly cannot rescue them, then we will reassess our options.”
Knowing the battle ahead was fierce, he didn't hesitate. He reinforced his protective shield with mana, guided his flying sword, and transformed into a streak of azure light, speeding toward the source of the combat sounds.
Huangfu Bing’er followed immediately. The Wang uncle and nephew exchanged a glance, then reluctantly followed. In mere moments, Ye Qin, Huangfu Bing’er, and the Wang family cultivators—all Golden Core experts—arrived at the scene. The state of the battlefield caused even a cultivator like Ye Qin, seasoned in complex magical combat, to draw a sharp breath in shock.
Ahead, within a lower-lying bone hill, lay an immense, black mass covering the entire slope: humanoid skeletons, humanoid zombies, and skeletal beasts. Their numbers easily exceeded one thousand two hundred.
The vast majority of these spectral entities were peak sixth-tier puppets, equivalent in strength to a ninth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator, making them stronger than the skeletons that had previously besieged the Wang uncle and nephew.
Their bones and corpses appeared visibly darker and harder, and each one radiated a faint, dark miasma.
Among them were more than a dozen seventh-tier Skeleton Captains, possessing the strength of early-stage Golden Core cultivators. They were visibly twice the size of the other skeletons, wielding massive bone shields and enormous bone swords. Their strength was prodigious; every swing unleashed a terrifying black glare saturated with corpse energy, striking at the three besieged Golden Core cultivators.
In addition to the sheer number of skeletons, there was a considerable presence of zombies.
These zombies were mostly humanoid cultivators as well, with withered, black flesh clinging to their bones, tangled masses of green hair sprouting from their forms, long, crooked claws, turbid, blood-red pupils, and bared, stark-white fangs that were utterly horrifying.
Most of these green-haired zombies were also peak sixth-tier, but they were nimbler, swifter, and tougher than the majority of the skeletons. They clutched short bone blades or bone forks, and some even used their bare hands, transforming them into razor-sharp spectral claws, slashing towards the three Golden Core cultivators trapped inside the encirclement.
Furthermore, there were several hundred monstrous skeleton variants: skeletal demonic wolves, skeletal rampaging bears, spider zombies, skeletal demonic snakes, and more. Most were sixth-tier, with only a small fraction reaching seventh-tier.
This vast assembly of over a thousand skeletons and zombies had locked the three Golden Core cultivators down completely.
Ye Qin instantly recognized the three besieged cultivators as Pang and his companions. Despite the motley appearance of these puppets—a chaotic assortment of types—their coordinated attacks were chillingly precise. Every single one held its position, launching wave after wave of relentless assault against Pang’s trio.
A Golden Core-level spider zombie suddenly spat out a large mass of black silk, which rapidly formed into a gigantic web, unfurling to envelop the three cultivators.
After spitting the web, it quickly retreated backward.
Immediately, a sixth-tier skeletal demonic wolf leaped forward, filling the gap left by the retreating spider zombie.
The skeletal wolf was instantly shattered by a passing cultivator’s flying sword.
In the next instant, a seventh-tier skeletal demonic bear roared and lunged forward, covered in thick layers of heavy, yellow-black earth armor that offered astonishing defense.
By the time the earth-armored skeletal bear was shattered by flying swords, the demonic spider had already brewed its next payload of black silk. It swiftly charged forward again, spewing the substance to tightly entangle Pang’s trio, restricting their movement severely.
All around them, over a thousand skeletal archers and spear-throwers rained down a storm of bone arrows and spears, relentlessly suppressing the three cultivators, forcing them into a desperate struggle to manage the onslaught.
Pang, Zhu, and Yang—all powerful late-stage Golden Core cultivators equipped with Nascent Soul magic treasures—found themselves unable to break out under the combined, powerful suppression of dozens of seventh-tier and over a thousand sixth-tier puppets.
Witnessing this, Ye Qin’s expression remained serene, yet his heart was astonished.
Such a massive, coordinated engagement involving swarms of spectral beings was impossible without the precise control of ghost cultivators. To manipulate over a thousand skeletons and zombies with such accuracy, controlling the movement of every single one, required an immensely powerful divine sense.
An ordinary cultivator managing to control a dozen flying swords simultaneously was already considered proficient. A cultivator like Bing’er, who controlled thirty-two swords, was extremely rare. If one could control a hundred swords, their divine sense would be astonishing. If one could attack with over a thousand flying swords at once, that cultivator would be world-shaking, cause a sensation in the Eastern Sea Cultivation World, and be deemed absolutely peerless.
Ye Qin swept his gaze across the battlefield and immediately spotted them.
Two figures in black skeletal armor, alongside one in a black, robed zombie form, were clearly the ghost cultivators. They stood within the sprawling sea of skeletal puppets, coldly commanding the assembled horde of skeletons and zombies to besiege Pang’s trio.
These three ghost cultivators were commanding several hundred skeletal and zombie puppets in total. Divided evenly, each was responsible for controlling at least five to six hundred entities. Achieving this level of control was enough to shock Ye Qin.
“The divine sense of the ghost cultivator we encountered earlier was exceptional, perhaps an anomaly. But these three ghost cultivators we face now also possess such formidable divine sense. It seems the divine sense of ghost cultivators is universally and surprisingly powerful! Could it be that after a cultivator perishes and becomes a ghost, the divine sense inherited from their Golden Core Nascent Soul actually continues to strengthen?”
A thought flashed through Ye Qin’s mind.
Of course, this strange notion was fleeting. His attention was quickly drawn back to the fierce battle raging on the field.
“Brother Pang, hurry and find a way to break free! My internal mana reserves are dwindling; I can’t hold on much longer! If only we hadn’t abandoned the Wang siblings so early; they could have at least shared some of this pressure.”
Cultivator Yang struggled to maintain her defense, her delicate face bloodless, etched with terror.
Her Crimson Spider Magic Sword possessed immense power, manifesting as a rapid crimson beam, furiously attacking the approaching skeletons and shattering them one after another. In the span of a few breaths, the sword destroyed dozens of skeletons.
However, these destroyed skeletons were a mere drop in the ocean compared to the immense swarm of over a thousand.
Worse still, the shattered remains were almost instantly re-animated by streams of black energy mana shot from the distant ghost cultivators, transforming back into new skeletons to resume their assault on the three of them.
The thought of breaking through the layers of skeletal encirclement to attack those distant ghost cultivators was utterly futile.
A profound sense of powerlessness welled up in Cultivator Yang; it felt as if the battle would never end, no matter how much she fought. Even with her ample supply of spirit wine and spirit stones, she could not sustain the rapid depletion of her mana.
The realization that she might soon perish at the hands of this skeleton horde, destined to become one of the mountain's own skeletons, brought her to the brink of despair.
“Hah!”
Cultivator Pang’s face flushed crimson. With a forceful roar, he spat a breath of essence onto his Nascent Soul magic treasure. The Seven Treasure Canopy Umbrella, whose light had been steadily fading, flared brilliantly once more, shimmering with radiant light, completely enveloping the three of them and blocking the deluge of bone arrows and spears incoming from all directions.
The Seven Treasure Canopy Umbrella unleashed bursts of blinding light, forcing the closing skeleton horde back several dozen yards. For the short term, these skeletons could not breach his umbrella.
“I have tried charging out to kill those ghost cultivators. But every attempt is in vain. No matter how far we charge, those ghost cultivators retreat equally far, and this massive swarm of skeletons follows. We can’t even get near them!”
Pang’s pressure eased slightly as he took a breath, his heart filled with resentment as he cursed, “These scum only dare play tricks like this here. If this island didn't have the anti-flight formation, I would fly over and annihilate them all in one go, no matter how many skeletons there were! They wouldn’t dare act so wildly here!”
“Those few ghost cultivators are too cunning. Several hours ago, they tried to attack us, but we easily repelled them. I thought they had abandoned the pursuit. I never expected them to lay an ambush here and summon such a massive number of skeletons to besiege us.”
Cultivator Zhu, manipulating the Black Fiend Magic Staff, which transformed into a black giant python, furiously tore at a Golden Core-level skeleton puppet captain.
His usually impassive face was contorted with anger. Given his intellect, falling for such a simple ambush was an utter disgrace.
“However, their desire to kill us is a fantasy! We will hold our ground defensively and wear those ghost cultivators down. They are, at best, mid-stage Golden Core; their mana reserves are weak and certainly cannot surpass the reserves of us late-stage Golden Core cultivators! Besides, we have spirit wine to replenish our mana—they do not!”
Despite his bold words, Cultivator Zhu held reservations. The last time they explored this area and crossed the Skeleton Mountain Range, they had only encountered scattered, lone skeletons, not such a powerful contingent of Golden Core ghost cultivators. Who knew if more ghost cultivators lay in wait?