The sky was choked with surging, inky ghost-clouds, within which lurked countless malevolent spirits and vengeful shades.

With a cold sneer and a wave of his hand, the Ghost King had already unleashed the massive Ghost Fog Maze Array at nearly full power.

This desolate, spirit-littered island, piled high with ancient corpses whose residual energy was thick enough to choke the air, was a haven for ghost cultivators. The Ghost Lord had leveraged this corpse energy to raise mountain ranges of bone, generating torrents of ghastly mist, which in turn attracted hordes of ferocious spirits and wandering souls.

It had taken him centuries of painstaking effort to build this domain to its current magnitude.

“This Lord has already died once; do you think I fear a desperate, pitched battle?! Outside the confines of this Desolate Spirit Island, I would never seek trouble with you. But here, I have cultivated for hundreds of years, setting up the Soul-Confusing Ghost Fog Great Array. Its power is sufficient to challenge a Nascent Soul Ascendant Tribulation. Once fully activated, tens of thousands of fierce spirits and vengeful shades will surge forth, devouring souls and swallowing bodies while the ghost fog permeates your flesh. Even you Immortal Elders may struggle to withstand it. Even if you survive, not a single one of your Golden Core disciples will leave this place alive!”

The Ghost Lord let out a chilling, sinister laugh. “This Lord is willing to sacrifice his own Nascent Soul cultivation—draining my strength—just to keep half of your Immortal Elders here! Sect Master Li, do not presume that because you command the Heavenly Dao Alliance, I cannot stop you! Seeing your lifespan dwindling, you may be ready to risk your life, but I am entirely confident I can claim the lives of those two Elders accompanying you and all your Golden Core disciples. Can you truly guarantee their safety?!”

“Indeed, there is an ancient treasury within Desolate Spirit City. This treasury is of no use to this Lord; lending it to you would be fine under normal circumstances. However, you have violated my ghost domain, an insult too great to bear! If you wish to seize the treasury right before my eyes, then you must prove you possess the strength to do so!”

The Ghost Lord’s voice was grim. As he spoke, his withered, skeletal hand pointed at Sect Master Li, unleashing a terrifying wave of soul-piercing ghost energy that swept across the land.

At these words, every Ghost Elder and Golden Core Ghost Cultivator within Desolate Spirit City braced themselves. The fierce ghosts and lingering shadows within the dense fog shrieked in unison, and a sharp, chilling wind erupted, turning the area into a realm of the undead.

Though the Immortal Elders outnumbered the ghost cultivators, far exceeding them in sheer numbers, their expressions as they looked toward the Ghost Lord in the sky grew exceedingly solemn. Many of the weaker Golden Core cultivators turned pale, struggling even to remain standing amidst the howling, sharp gusts of the netherwind.

Sect Master Li, hearing the Ghost Lord’s open threat, felt the pleasant composure drain from his face, turning ashen. He lowered his hands behind his back and fell silent.

The Ghost Lord is surprisingly stubborn! Given the vast disparity in power between the two sides, he shows no sign of retreat; instead, he seems mad enough to clash head-on with the cultivators from the East Sea and the Blood Sea.

Ghost cultivators face immense hardship in their practice, often enduring countless tribulations just to match the power of human cultivators. But once they achieve success, a Ghost Cultivator of the same rank can possess several times the combat power of their human counterpart. The fighting strength of a late-stage Nascent Soul Ghost Lord is terrifying.

This Desolate Spirit Ghost Lord’s cultivation has rarely reached the peak of the ninth layer of Nascent Soul. His strength is comparable to the Sect Masters and Titans of the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Alliance. The Ghost Lord’s defiance is not just a bluff. If he forces the issue, few here can resist him.

Sect Master Li rapidly reviewed his countermeasures in his mind.

My White Floating Thunder Technique, while supremely effective at restraining ghost cultivators, faces a grave disadvantage here; this is the Ghost Lord’s lair, giving him a massive positional advantage. Dealing with the Ghost Lord directly will be extremely difficult. Once the Thousand-Mile Ghost Fog Soul Devouring Great Array is unleashed at full power, the cultivators gathered here face catastrophic casualties.

I need to find a way to force the Ghost Lord to back down proactively.

My primary objective in coming to the Blood Sea this time was for the White Floating Palace to gain some advantage, not to bring too many Heavenly Dao Alliance Nascent Soul cultivators. If not for that, my sect wouldn't have to endure this humiliation.

The most troublesome aspect is that many Immortal Elders from the Blood Sea also demand a share of this ancient treasury. If I refuse, they threaten to aid the Ghost Lord! Damn it!

Sect Master Li felt a pang of bitter sorrow in his current predicament.

Although the White Floating Immortal Palace still held immense prestige among the East Sea Archipelagos, it was now in a state of rapid decline as his lifespan dwindled, worsening with every passing day.

The current Northern Sect Master was no longer the boundless, glorious patriarch whose single command brought legions of cultivators following him. He still held the nominal title of Heavenly Dao Alliance Sect Master, overseeing a vast territory and immense power. However, the mere decades of life he had left would pass in the blink of an eye. Once he perished, all the power of the White Floating Palace would vanish like smoke.

The true strength of an Immortal Palace lay in its direct lineage disciples. Outer-clan cultivators would flock to and cling to a Palace when it was strong, but once the direct line weakened, the foundation of the Palace would shake, and the disintegration of its authority would become inevitable.

If the White Floating Palace had a steady stream of promising cultivators, things might be different.

But alas, the White Floating Palace had no successors. In the past thousand years, they had failed to produce a single outstanding Immortal Elder; only two mediocre ones had emerged, and that was only through pouring vast amounts of spiritual elixirs into numerous direct disciples, allowing these two to barely force their way into the Immortal Elder realm. The many direct disciples were all stuck at the Golden Core stage. Even Li Weifeng, a direct Golden Core disciple once favored for his potential, had died during a reckless expedition.

Those outer-clan Immortal Elders who had once pledged allegiance to the White Floating Immortal Palace had long since sought greener pastures, either openly or secretly, joining other promising Immortal Palaces in the North—such as the Violet Five Immortal Palace, the Upper Field Immortal Palace, the Ten Thousand Luo Immortal Palace, or the Wu Nu’er Immortal Palace. These Northern Immortal Palaces of the Heavenly Dao Alliance had cultivated a batch of exceptionally gifted Nascent Soul cultivators over the last millennium, greatly increasing their strength.

Sect Master Li could not force them to stay. He chose to turn a blind eye, allowing these outer-clan Immortal Elders to depart, even gifting them supplies as they left.

If the direct lineage of the White Floating Palace weakened, he could not trust the outer-clan Immortal Elders remaining within the Palace. Should they seize control of the White Floating Palace after his seated meditation—that was a consequence he absolutely could not endure.

Sect Master Li’s current plan was to do everything possible to nurture the direct Li lineage of the White Floating Palace.

Before his demise, he intended to use Nascent Soul Pills to forcefully elevate promising direct Golden Core cultivators to the Immortal Elder stage. Even if they were only a few Immortal Elders of mediocre cultivation aptitude, they could at least barely preserve the status of the White Floating Palace, preventing it from being utterly disgraced after his death.

He no longer hoped for the position of Northern Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Alliance. Merely ensuring the White Floating Palace could survive would make his efforts worthwhile.

However, Nascent Soul Pills were priceless; they never appeared on the open market.

Across the entire East Sea Archipelagos, only two powerful immortal cultivation factions could procure Nascent Soul Pills: the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Alliance.

This was because all the Divine Alchemists of the East Sea were controlled by these two great alliances, exclusively refining Nascent Soul Pills for them. All such pills fell into the hands of the two great alliances, who then distributed them as rewards to the various Immortal Palaces.

Any other Divine Alchemists had either submitted to the two alliances, been killed, or vanished entirely—there were no exceptions.

Furthermore, the names and identities of the Divine Alchemists were a profound mystery; only the five Sect Masters of the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the five Titans of the Heavenly Demon Alliance knew their true identities. This monopoly on Nascent Soul Pills was a small reason why the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Alliance had maintained and expanded their vast influence for hundreds of thousands of years.

As the Northern Sect Master, Sect Master Li certainly received a considerable supply of Nascent Soul Pills.

But the direct Golden Core disciples of the White Floating Palace were simply too inept. Most of the Nascent Soul Pills were wasted, with only a handful successfully breaking through.

Upon learning of the appearance of the ancient treasury on this island, Sect Master Li, as the Northern Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Alliance, immediately deduced that the treasury contained ancient, leftover Nascent Soul Pills. He hastily gathered the White Floating Palace’s only two direct Immortal Elders and rushed here, solely to acquire as many Nascent Soul Pills as possible, hoping to cultivate one or two more Immortal Elders for his Palace.

Otherwise, given his status as the Northern Sect Master of the Heavenly Dao Alliance, there would be no need for such a small retinue to travel here personally.

Sect Master Li was currently anxious.

Besides the terrifying Ghost Fog Great Array, the Ghost Lord also possessed an astonishing ‘Nether Fire’ capable of instantly killing early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators. He had heard reports of this from several Blood Sea Immortal Elders, which naturally instilled deep caution.

If the Ghost Lord went mad and activated the Ghost Fog Great Array, regardless of the cost in his own power, he might not even secure the Nascent Soul Pills before losing both of the White Floating Palace’s Immortal Elders—a complete failure that would cost him dearly.

Even if he managed to expel the Ghost Lord, the White Floating Palace itself would face the danger of annihilation.

This was a risk he could not afford to take.

The Ghost Lord’s insistence on a fight played precisely upon his greatest vulnerability.

Even Sect Master Yu remained silent after the Ghost Lord's declaration.

Since all the Immortal Elders were watching, making a rash move was impossible, and the situation ground to a stalemate.

Their group of fifty or sixty Immortal Elders could certainly launch a strong offensive, slaughter the island’s ghost cultivators, expel the Ghost Lord, and seize the island.

However, in the Ghost Lord’s frenzied state, the inevitable massive casualties would not be trivial. Even if some Nascent Soul cultivators cared little for the lives of their disciples, who could guarantee their own absolute safety? Such mutually destructive actions were only undertaken by utterly desperate outlaws. These cultivators still had long paths of immortality ahead; they would not risk their lives for nothing.

“Sect Master Yu, in this Emperor’s view, the contents of the ancient treasury were discovered through the joint efforts of cultivators seeking treasure, and should therefore be divided directly among those present, without needing to be returned to the treasuries of the Heavenly Dao Alliance or the Heavenly Demon Alliance. Ghost Lord, take a step back, lead your subordinates away from Desolate Spirit City, and surrender the ancient treasury! Afterwards, this island shall remain yours.”

A deep, steady, middle-aged male voice suddenly rang out from aboard the treasure ship. This voice directly dispersed the oppressive weight of the ghost clouds overhead, causing a slight stinging sensation in the ears of several cultivators.

This voice was utterly arrogant.

It was neither a request nor a compromise, but rather a direct command aimed at both the Heavenly Dao Alliance’s Sect Master Li and the Desolate Spirit Ghost Lord. The tone was so natural, as if things were simply meant to proceed this way.

All the Immortal Elders, the Nascent Soul Ghost Cultivators, and the Golden Core disciples present were stunned, turning their gazes toward the treasure ship.

This enormous treasure ship, hundreds of feet long, was shrouded in a faint golden light that shielded it from all scrutiny and spiritual probes. At first, the cultivators paid it little mind, assuming it was merely the conveyance of some influential Nascent Soul cultivator or the personal carriage of an Immortal Palace Master unwilling to be scrutinized.

But now it was clear: this was an entirely different matter.

The newcomer held even Sect Master Li and the Desolate Spirit Ghost Lord in utter disregard.