174: Chapter 173: Soul Ghost Storm 7 [Extra for 2500 Votes] 174: Chapter 173: Soul Ghost Storm 7 [Extra for 2500 Votes] Over Yinling, a boat-shaped magic artifact was racing at full force.
Daoist Yu stood upright, eyes fixed forward, his mana operating at full speed, almost surpassing his limits.
This Zheng Shixie, arrogant and self-important, misled himself and others, turning a normal exchange event into a tragedy that might even endanger ordinary mortals.
He disapproved of providing such a training environment, believing that conflicts should be resolved personally rather than using someone else’s Soul Ghosts as targets, which showed cowardice and guilt; not just the Soul Ghosts, but also the demons of Yinling, should not be treated as tools.
It’s not that he sympathized with these foreign races, but such behavior would only destabilize the situation in Yinling and could not lead to any other results; by contrast, he quite agreed with the previous disposal method of the giant rats by the Yinling patrol in which one should exterminate completely or not at all.
To kill partially and leave some resentful was foolish, wasn’t it?
He thought this way because, as the guardian of Miao Gao Town, his other duty was to smooth out potential dangers in Yinling; peaceful coexistence allowed everyone, including himself, to relax; creating trouble , once Zheng Shixie finished his duty, wouldn’t he still have to clean up the mess?
Therefore, he deeply detested the conflicts between the two sects.
Now that something had happened, he had to rush over immediately, hoping to clean up the mess while it was still manageable?
There were also seven disciples on the magic artifact, all serving in Miao Gao Town.
Given the urgency, they couldn’t afford to delay by gathering more people, so the rest had to make their own way; this also served as a training for them.
The cultivation environment in Miao Gao Town was far too comfortable, gradually stripping these fellows of their essence as sword cultivators.
Within the Quanzhen Sect, he was considered an oddity amongst the non-aligned, a group that was not lacking in number within the sect.
They did not form cliques, relying solely on their own abilities, which was why he, despite his fairly limited connections, was still appointed as the guardian of Miao Gao Town.
His formidable strength could maintain control, something that Zheng Shixie and his ilk couldn’t compare to.
Upon receiving the distress signal, he had set off immediately, randomly taking along a few disciples nearby, but after the initial signal, no further news had come out, which made him somewhat uneasy.
If things were going smoothly, there shouldn’t have been a dead silence .
A disciple worriedly asked, “Uncle-master, are we going directly into West Mang Mountain?”
Yu Zhengxing glanced at him sideways, “Still thinking about that young barbarian girl?
I’ve already told you to give up on that, otherwise, sooner or later that woman will be the death of you!
This woman is not one to dwell on love alone, her aspirations are far greater, at least much greater than yours.”
Turning to survey the others, “I will not go to West Mang Mountain unless I can be sure that the Soul Ghosts’ infestation has been completely controlled, that it is Xiang Zhiwen begging for the villagers of Yinling and not Zheng Shixie asking on behalf of those cultivators.
You all must understand this clearly.”
The disciple looked somewhat helpless, but this was Yu Zhengxing’s character, “Uncle-master, but you know that the Anhe Daoist Sect and those fellows from the Huncheng Sect are in greater danger; they are in perilous situations and will face the attacks of the most powerful Soul Ghosts, while those human fortresses will only suffer harassment from the lowest level common shadow ghosts, which are not interested in ordinary mortals’ souls.
Even if we don’t intervene, the casualties wouldn’t be significant, while Uncle Zheng and his group could really be annihilated.”
Yu Zhengxing gave a cold smile, “But ordinary citizens are innocent, whereas Zheng Shixie and his group brought this upon themselves!
No one asked them to come here; since they did, they should be prepared to face the consequences.
What, when having fun, anything goes, but when danger arises, others should come to their rescue?”
“I’m not their father, I won’t indulge such bad habits!”
The team leader Daoist had made up his mind, and the disciples could only comply.
Speaking of danger, it was undoubtedly riskier to enter the West Mang Mountains.
From the flying artifact below, one could already see the flickering firelights; upon closer observation, it was clear that these were the results of dozens of fortresses to the south of West Mang Mountain lighting fires, which were exceptionally large, indicating that the mortals were well-prepared.
Daoist Yu hummed, “This Xiang Zhiwen is indeed somewhat capable and meticulous, knowing what’s important and what’s not.
“You should learn from him.
Even though we are from the Demon Sect, our desire to protect the people is no less than those so-called righteous sects.
This is what true demons are, not evil demons.”
As they skimmed through the air, in the dozen fortresses quite distant from West Mang Mountain, there were few Soul Ghost attacks.
Those that occurred involved only a few or a dozen confused ones, posing no threat as they couldn’t even cross the Fire Wall;
Delving deeper, they started to see scores or even hundreds of Soul Ghosts launching assaults on human fortresses.
However, isolated by the Fire Wall, only occasionally did some Soul Ghosts breach it, and the mortals, equipped with torches and weapons, managed to contain them without significant issues.
The most dangerous were the dozen fortresses closest to West Mang Mountain, each besieged by hundreds or even thousands of Soul Ghosts wailing and moaning.
But on these fortresses’ walls, cultivators from both Yinling Patrol and Town Government Sects began to appear, tasked with eliminating the stragglers that made it through.
The battles in these fortresses were already fierce, but as long as the Fire Wall held, most Soul Ghosts could only watch helplessly from the outside; these fortresses could be helped or not, but Yu Zhengxing chose not to intervene, focusing his limited strength on the critical points to ensure that no fortress was utterly overrun.
The focal point was Yinyue Castle, the human fortress closest to West Mang Mountain, surrounded by tens of thousands of Soul Ghosts entrenched all around; because they couldn’t fly, they piled up into a wall of ghosts, surging wave after wave inward.
Some were sucked into the fires, burning up their divine souls in fear; others desperately fled in all directions; yet some, fortunate enough to breach the Fire Wall, then faced the strikes of humans.
This was the normal mode of operation in a Soul Ghost battle, revealing their bravery and frenzy only in numbers; those attacking other human fortresses were more likely strays during the march, but this location was their true target.
Atop the wall, four Quanzhen Sword Cultivators led the robust men in a desperate resistance, but their efforts were becoming feeble, as with just individual strength, it was impossible to deal with such a numerically superior enemy.
Three layers of fire circles, many areas already breached by Soul Ghosts, the most dangerous spots maintaining only a single layer still ablaze.
The moment it extinguished, the Soul Ghosts would flood in, and under the onslaught of tens of thousands, no human here would survive.
Such an attack couldn’t possibly be spontaneously organized by ordinary Soul Ghosts.
They were typically driven by instinct and would give up after several attempts if not persistent unless driven by fear.
And instilling that fear were many wandering malicious spirits, running around screaming, inciting the assault.
Daoist Yu pressed down on his magic artifact, “Right here!”
Eight people descended from the sky, landing atop the wall.