"Little girl, light the sky lantern quickly. These ghosts can’t wait any longer," a kindly old man nearby advised.
There were quite a few human cultivators around the pool, including some from the Shaping God Realm, but the number of evil ghouls in Ten Thousand Ghost Ridge was too great. Just the ghouls from the Origin Sea Realm numbered in the hundreds, and those from the Shaping God Realm numbered thirty or forty.
This was a formidable power that the human cultivators present could not hope to match.
"Little girl, quickly push that Mysterious Pill Realm cultivator beside you into the pool," another person urged desperately.
Luo Li bit her lip, her expression complex, looking at her Ancestor without uttering a word.
"You don’t need to feel guilty."
Ye Yun smiled gently, patted Luo Li’s shoulder, and then leaped into the black pool.
He waded hundreds of li into the pool, stopping at its center.
The black water exuded a strange power, as if countless insects were trying to burrow into his body.
Ye Yun did not react. Instead, he retracted his True God’s Super Divine Dragon Breath.
I fear that any leak of this Super Divine Dragon Breath would lead to total destruction here.
The power of the black water could not penetrate his body, nor even his clothes.
The evil ghouls above the black pool swooped down, cackling as they raised their hands, shooting beams of black light that rained down on Ye Yun.
Ye Yun closed his eyes, his face calm, showing no expression.
In the eyes of the onlookers, the black light vanished as it struck him, appearing to have taken effect.
The next moment, a red candle appeared above Ye Yun’s head and was lit, becoming a sky lantern.
"Ancestor, he should be alright," Luo Li, at the edge of the pool, nervously watched this scene unfold, her heart in her throat.
She kept reassuring herself.
But seeing her Ancestor, though bearing a lit sky lantern, maintain his usual calm expression, she felt slightly relieved.
Everything before her eyes was an illusion conjured by Ye Yun.
A strange energy began to emanate from the sky lantern-like candle above Ye Yun’s head. It floated down, sank into the pool, and drifted towards a mysterious location.
「Several thousand meters underground.」
In a jet-black ancient coffin, a colossal ghoul was sleeping.
The wisp of energy from Ye Yun floated over and was swiftly absorbed by it.
Then it opened its eyes.
It was a pair of blood-red eyes, glinting with a baleful light.
"The heavens are truly aiding me! This time, I will definitely be able to heal the wounds of my soul!"
The evil ghoul, which proclaimed itself king, bared its white fangs in a savage grin.
It was the sole Ghost King of Ten Thousand Ghost Ridge.
It was once a powerful being of the Divine Bridge Realm, but due to an injury to its soul, its cultivation level had fallen to the Half-Step Divine Bridge Realm.
For thousands of years, it hid deep beneath Ten Thousand Ghost Ridge, constantly trying to heal its wounds.
The wounds on its soul were inflicted by an enemy.
Ordinary spirit pills and wondrous medicines were completely ineffective.
So, it hid in this remote corner of the Ancient Moon Dynasty to recuperate and evade its enemy’s pursuit.
While deep underground, the Ghost King accidentally discovered a black coffin.
The coffin held the secrets to a strange sky lantern lighting ritual, which had a miraculous effect on the recovery of its soul. Although the process was slow, it saw a glimmer of hope.
Thus, it gathered some of its ghostly descendants, teaching them powerful ghostly Divine Skills and transforming Ten Thousand Ghost Ridge into a forbidden ground.
These ghostly descendants helped it find humans from the Human Race to be burned as sky lanterns.
After all, with an enemy still out there, even in the remote Ancient Moon Dynasty, the Ghost King dared not act too conspicuously.
So, it coerced humans into offering themselves as willing sacrifices, using this as a way to barter for peace in the lands of the Ancient Moon Dynasty.
This was the origin of Ten Thousand Ghost Ridge and the reason for lighting the sky lanterns.
Over thousands of years, countless sky lanterns had been lit. Its soul was slowly recovering and was now just a small step away from complete restoration.
Based on its progress, it would require the lighting of three more sky lanterns.
Unexpectedly, however, among the humans used for this sky lantern ritual, one possessed a special spiritual energy that greatly hastened its recovery.
The Ghost King couldn’t help but silently rejoice.
Once my soul is restored this time, I’ll be able to return to the Half-Step Divine Bridge Realm! With another ten or twenty years of recuperation, I can probably attempt to break through to the Divine Bridge Realm again!
The mere thought of returning to its former Divine Bridge Realm thrilled the Ghost King.
It stared with its blood-red eyes, fixated on the black coffin lid, continuously absorbing the sky lantern energy from the Ghost Water Pool to mend the wounds in its soul.
"Such incredible speed!"
Feeling its soul healing at an accelerated pace, the Ghost King was ecstatic.
The wisp of energy emanating from the Ghost Water Pool grew stronger and stronger, causing its soul to recover even faster.
This filled it with delightful surprise.
Normally, lighting a sky lantern took forty-nine days. More than ten days had already passed, leaving less than thirty.
But at this rate, it probably won’t even take a few more days!
Ye Yun, standing in the Ghost Water Pool, gazed distantly at the Ghost King and sneered inwardly.
This Ghost King thinks it’s struck gold, little knowing I’ve orchestrated everything.
Ye Yun was in no rush.
He continued refining the Ancestral Dragon Blood within his body.
His cultivation base was also continuously progressing.
Ye Yun’s cultivation base swiftly broke through to the True God Realm Third Level.
Ye Yun’s cultivation base broke through to the True God Realm Fourth Level!
Feeling the still surging power of the Ancestral Dragon Essence Blood within his body, Ye Yun smiled faintly.
As expected, this Ancestral Dragon Essence Blood will allow me to break through to the True God Realm Tenth Layer. Unfortunately, I’ve already spent enough time in this place. That Ghost King has almost completely recovered and is about to emerge.
Ye Yun used his Divine Sense to glance at Luo Li by the pool’s edge. He noticed her standing there nervously, her small hands clenched into fists.
Her body was somewhat rigid.
"Don’t worry, Luo Li, I’m alright," Ye Yun sent out a Divine Thought.
Luo Li quickly nodded, the heavy weight in her heart finally lifting.
Then, she glanced at her Junior Brother, Jun Moxiao, and noticed his complexion worsening, as if he couldn’t hold on much longer.
She started to worry again.
Her Master had accepted three disciples.
Luo Li was the second.
She also had a Senior Sister named Su Wanyi, who was as beautiful as a celestial fairy.
However, her Senior Sister had gone missing.
Her fate—whether she was alive or dead—was unknown, and Luo Li had no idea of her whereabouts.
But one thing is certain, Senior Sister should not have fallen into the hands of our enemies.
"Little girl, which Sect do you belong to?"
Perhaps out of sheer boredom from the long wait, a white-haired old man at the Shaping God Realm struck up a conversation with Luo Li.