The chilling aura of the Dead Soul Lake was enough to freeze a Foundation Establishment cultivator in a single breath. However, for cultivators like them, who were in the mid to late stages of the Golden Core realm, it was merely an intense cold that caused little actual hindrance to the circulation of their vital energy.
“Ten thousand miles of Blood Mist Wasteland, home to countless Corrupted Beasts. A Mountain Range of Skeletons stretching for thousands of miles, strewn with skulls and zombies. The Ghost Mist Grand Array conceals numerous malevolent spirits and wicked specters. And this Dead Soul Lake gathers innumerable gloomy souls and yin spirits. It seems the Ghost Cultivators on this island intend to transform this colossal island, a sea of blood, into a Ghost Domain floating upon the ocean!”
Ye Qin recalled the various situations he had encountered since entering the great island, his expression clouding with worry. “I wonder what manner of Ghost Cultivator possesses such might!”
“Fellow Daoist Ye speaks truly. To possess the grand means to turn this ten-thousand-mile island into a Ghost Domain, it is certainly not something a Golden Core Ghost Cultivator can accomplish. It must be a Ghost Cultivator at least at the Nascent Soul stage, or higher!”
Cultivator Pang, carefully observing the lake surface and what lay beneath, listened to Ye Qin’s words, his face grim. “The few Ghost Cultivators we encountered before claimed to serve under a Ghost Lord. If everything arranged on this vast island—the Blood Mist Wasteland, the Skeleton Mountain Range, the Dead Soul Lake—was planned by this Ghost Lord, then this Lord must have spent several centuries, perhaps even longer, deploying everything, and using the Ghost Mist Grand Array to suppress the pervasive ghost energy. This scope and strength already exceed what we can imagine… Journeying to the Ghost City from here is fraught with peril! If not for the high probability that the Ancient Treasury lies within the Ghost City on this island, I would never set foot in this haunted land! We lost two companions last time; I do not know if we will all retreat safely this time.”
“Fraught with peril is not necessarily the case!”
Cultivator Zhu’s vacant eyes suddenly shifted, and he spoke.
“Oh? How so?” Cultivator Pang inquired, curious.
“If this island truly harbors a Ghost Lord—at least an ancestor-level Nascent Soul Ghost Cultivator—and if this Lord had erected monuments externally, claiming sovereignty over this island, I doubt anyone below the Golden Core stage would dare to enter, provoking such a formidable Ghost Cultivator. Entering a domain without the master’s consent would surely mean death!
But this Ghost Lord has not openly occupied the island; instead, it allows the ghost energy to leak out, drawing external attention.
It is estimated that over the past one or two months, the number of Golden Core cultivators who entered to explore, like us, is not small. The number who left alive is also considerable. Most of the cultivators who perished here met their end at the hands of the Corrupted Beasts, Skeletons, and Evil Spirits, rather than the Ghost Lord itself. Those who fell can only blame their own insufficient strength. This at least proves that this Ghost Lord does not intend to wipe out every Golden Core cultivator who enters the island. Otherwise, if the Ghost Lord wished to prevent any exploration, it merely needs to activate the island’s Soul-Confusing Ghost Mist Grand Array, and not a single one of us Golden Core cultivators would escape.”
“Then why does this Ghost Lord permit our cultivators to search for treasures here?” Cultivator Yang asked, intrigued.
“As for what this Ghost Lord truly intends, I cannot fathom. The ambition and schemes of this Ghost Lord are not for ordinary cultivators like us to guess!” Cultivator Zhu shook his head.
“Why worry about that? As long as this Ghost Lord doesn’t interfere with our treasure hunting, we hunt for our treasures. This Ghost Lord privately establishing a Ghost Domain has already violated the great taboos of the Eastern Sea Cultivation World. The higher echelons of the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Alliance cannot simply ignore this; they will intervene sooner or later. It’s not our concern!”
Cultivator Cui, unable to find a satisfactory answer, simply stopped pondering. The level of a Nascent Soul Ghost Cultivator was entirely beyond their reach to contact or contend with. That was a headache best left to the Sect Masters, titans, and Nascent Soul cultivators of the great Immortal Palaces belonging to the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Alliance.
Furthermore, a Nascent Soul Ghost Cultivator would scarcely notice a few mere Golden Core cultivators, making the possibility of them taking personal action extremely low. And even if a Golden Core Ghost Cultivator intervened, they might not necessarily defeat them. This trip seemed dangerous, but perhaps it wouldn't cost them their lives after all.
Ye Qin remained silent.
He gazed toward the expanse before the Dead Soul Lake. This lake was the inner tide of the great island, spanning a considerable area in a narrow arc, likely stretching nearly a thousand miles.
After an indeterminate time, the seven Golden Core cultivators on the bone raft finally sighted the opposite shore.
A colossal city, towering majestically, stood quietly on the deathly still inner island. The outline of the vast city was faintly discernible through the black ghost mist. Looking from afar, every massive cornerstone used to build it seemed to have been perfectly hewn from a small mountain. Even across such a distance, one could feel the imposing momentum of this city.
“Arid Spirit Ghost City!”
Cultivator Pang’s gaze was locked onto the distant city, his tone carrying an ineffable indignation. The last time they confronted this city, they met peril outside the ancient fortifications, losing two companions and being forced to retreat to their ancient ship outpost. After overcoming so many twists and turns to return here, his state of mind was naturally extremely complicated.
Ye Qin, of course, held no such sentiment.
Before he could dwell on it further, the bone ship sliced through the dense ghost mist and docked at the shore. Ye Qin and the other six disembarked and leaped onto the bank. To avoid detection, the bone ship was hidden in a remote location, to be used when they returned to leave the island.
On this island within the lake, there were no longer skeletal remains everywhere, only scattered, withered black darkwood and black spirit grasses. Anything that could grow here qualified as ghost wood or ghost grass. The shore where Cultivator Pang, Ye Qin, and the others landed was still a significant distance from the Arid Spirit Ghost City.
After a brief rest, the group set off toward the Arid Spirit Ghost City. Not long after walking, they saw sword lights and the brilliant glow of magical artifacts shooting into the sky ahead, extremely conspicuous within the dim ghost mist.
“Someone is fighting outside the city! Someone actually arrived at the Ghost City before us?! Could it be other treasure-hunting cultivators who ran into Ghost Cultivators here? Should we lend them a hand?” Cultivator Yang exclaimed in surprise.
“The Sea of Blood is home to many seasoned treasure hunters, even more formidable than us! Since we found this place, it’s no surprise they’d show up here too.” Cultivator Zhu, however, gave a muffled, cold laugh. “Both sides in that fight are using flying swords and similar artifacts! It’s likely not a fight against Ghost Cultivators, but a battle between treasure-hunting cultivators themselves. I wonder what they are fighting over to clash right at the gates of the Ghost City!”
“Internal conflict among treasure hunters? Then we should take a detour into the Ghost City to hunt, to avoid attracting more trouble!” Elder Wang clearly preferred to avoid complications and quickly said, “What do you think, Fellow Daoist Ye?”
Cultivator Pang ignored Elder Wang and glanced at Ye Qin instead. Whether to intervene in this dispute was irrelevant to him. However, since he intended to win over Ye Qin and secure the Nascent Soul Pill from the Ancient Treasury, he naturally needed to give more weight to Ye Qin’s opinion.
“Let’s go take a look! Perhaps there are some Daoist friends we know. I have two acquaintances, Fellow Daoist Jiang and Fellow Daoist Zheng. If they are the ones fighting, we must step in!” Ye Qin gazed toward the direction of the battle, his expression calm.
He inwardly added that if any Golden Core cultivators he was on bad terms with—like that group led by Great Cultivator Cao—were among the fighters, then he should intervene all the more, eliminating future trouble early.
“In that case, we advance and act according to the situation,” Cultivator Pang considered briefly before nodding. “This area is the heart of the Arid Spirit Ruins. Having several Daoist friends we are familiar with will give us greater confidence once we enter the Ghost City. After all, the Ancient Treasury holds countless treasures, but we need to be alive to claim them. If the fight has nothing to do with us, we still have time to evade it.”
“Agreed!”
The other cultivators had no objections; after all, this group of seven mid to late-stage Golden Core cultivators was quite powerful and capable of self-preservation.
The group immediately hastened toward the location of the fight. The dense, rich ghost mist severely obstructed divine sense; anything slightly further away became undetectable by spiritual perception.
As Cultivator Pang, Ye Qin, and the others approached the battlefield near the city, they were not afraid of being discovered by either fighting party. Once they stopped outside the area of exploration for both sides, they concealed themselves behind a pile of rubble to observe the fight.
Ye Qin was then able to clearly see the parapet of the colossal city. Two large characters seemed to have been written there forcefully and vigorously by an immense hand: (Arid Spirit).
What surprised Ye Qin, however, was that these two characters lacked the strangeness of the Death Domain or any sense of killing intent; instead, they appeared tranquil, detached, ethereal, and void. This created a stark contrast with the eerie and sinister nature of their surroundings. Only by achieving an extremely pristine state of mind could one possibly inscribe such calligraphy.
However, this thought flashed through Ye Qin’s mind and vanished; he had no time to examine the Arid Spirit Ghost City closely now. He turned his attention back to the battle raging outside the city.
“Barbarian Island Wu Cultivators!”
Ye Qin’s expression instantly changed upon seeing the two sides fighting. One faction on the battlefield was clearly a small squad of Barbarian Island Wu Cultivators. The other faction consisted of seven or eight treasure-hunting cultivators. Over ten Golden Core cultivators were locked in fierce combat. The squad of Barbarian Island Wu Cultivators only had five members, but they were all in the late Golden Core stage. Compared to the seven or eight treasure hunters whose strengths varied considerably, the Wu Cultivators clearly held the upper hand.
“Hmph, you fled from outside the island to here, ran this far, and now you stop running! Tell me, what is the purpose of your group of treasure hunters gathering on this island, and what treasures are you seeking!” The leader of this group of Barbarian Island Evil Cultivators, a lean man at the peak of the ninth level of the Golden Core realm, controlled a high-grade Primordial Spirit artifact, the ‘Blazing Flame Saber.’ Seeing his side completely suppress the treasure hunters, he sneered menacingly. “Spill it, and I might spare your lives!”
Although the seven or eight treasure hunters were being beaten back, they were not willing to show weakness or lose face. The leading Golden Core cultivator shouted fiercely, “It’s too early for you to kill us! What’s with the arrogance!”
“Boss! Why waste time talking to them? The Old Ancestor commanded that we leave no one alive—kill them all cleanly. Killing each one earns merit. We should finish them off first, then search other places on the island. Maybe we’ll get lucky and run into that Green-Robed cultivator the Old Ancestor wants dead! Killing the Green-Robed cultivator will earn us a huge bounty from the Old Ancestor, enough for us to spend for several years.”
A cultivator from the Barbarian Island Wu Cultivator side couldn't help but shout.
“Shut up! Killing these few Golden Core cultivators is merely redeeming past failures; how much merit can that really bring?! We tracked and searched all this way not just to kill a few cultivators. Besides, if we really do encounter that Green-Robed cultivator—a cultivator the Old Ancestor failed to kill twice—who knows who will end up dead!”