Just when the lure formation teetered on the brink of collapse, runes flickering and spectral chains unraveling under the Ghost King’s wild onslaught, and the next moment...
A low, dreadful vibration pulsed through the secret realm, shaking even the ragged mountains on the horizon. From above the basin, the swirling charcoal mist parted, revealing an enormous shadow descending as though space itself had bent to its will.
A figure emerged, shrouded in drifting abyssal mist so thick it felt almost solid.
Though not towering in size, his mere presence seemed to distort the cracked air around him. Ripples of abyssal force spread outward, bending and warping even the lightning that forked across the sky.
His features were hidden mainly beneath a mantle of living black mist, but glimpses revealed an inhumanly pale face, faintly marked with runic markings that seemed to flow like living ink.
Eyes as deep as the endless void, like the abyss, glinted with ancient intelligence and quiet cruelty.
Black devil horns swept back from his brow, gleaming with an oily sheen, and a dark diadem, shaped like a thorned crown, hovered just above them, never quite touching.
His cloak, woven of silk darker than midnight, seemed alive as it coiled behind him like the limbs of some abyssal beast, drifting against the air.
Even without raising a hand, his aura crushed the surrounding realm: the cracked stone of the basin groaned, the charcoal mist recoiled, and the spectral chains of the lure formation steadied, becoming almost crystalline in their renewed power.
The Evernight Devil King has finally acted and joined the scene!
At that moment, the Ghost King’s phantom flared, gray flames in its eye sockets shrinking to flickering pinpoints because he was very familiar with this prowess.
’This is bad... this is... an Ascension King?!’
Yet something about this King gave him the same alien, familiar yet unfathomable feeling.
A dreadful realization stabbed into the Ghost King’s soul, ’This guy’s spirit Qi is also like those crazy bastards...just what is this strange Qi?! Where did that little rat send me? They even have an Ascension King in their ranks!’
The Ghost King had lived for countless years, but never had he felt such a dreadful aura from an Ascension King; the oppressive feeling was icy and devouring. For the first time, the Ghost King’s phantom trembled with instinctive dread.
At this moment, the abyssal mist around the Evernight Devil King stirred as his thin lips curled into an eerie, almost amused smile, "I guess I can’t remain standing anymore. But since Moonless has given me a ghost cultivator...a rare prey. I must thank him later, and his little disciple..."
His devilish eyes flicked briefly to Ace, who felt his soul chill under that casual gaze, "...for delivering such fine material to my realm."
The Council members’ eyes were filled with reverence as, except for the Half-Abyssal Kings, it was the first time that they had seen the legendary existence of an Abyssal King, an entity standing at the pinnacle of the Abyss of Wandering Souls and one of the three Abyssal Kings of the Evernight Council!
On the other hand, the Half-Abyssal Kings felt ashamed since they couldn’t take care of the Ghost King, who was clearly not at his peak, and using some unknown formation as a medium to channel his powers.
Except for the Dread Duchess’, her eyes shone with worship and ecstasy because she knew she had made an enormous contribution to the council, and the Evernight Devil King seemed very pleased. She knew she was going to be rewarded lavishly by the Council and the Evernight Devil King.
Ace, on the other hand, tried his best to hide his presence as much as possible because he had a feeling that the Evernight Devil King might be even more powerful than the Wealth King, and then there was his strange remark about the Ghost King, which made Ace feel ill at ease. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs ⓝovelFire.net
Without ceremony, the Devil King raised one pale hand, and a vortex of abyssal spirit Qi spiraled into existence. From within, a battle furnace emerged.
The battle furnace was squat, seemingly made of pitch-black platinum, and covered in the grotesque forms of twisted, screaming souls. Its lid was shaped like a roaring devil’s maw, and runes of strange law crawled like worms across its surface. Within, pale, spectral flames flickered restlessly, fueled by countless bound souls.
The Devil King looked at the Ghost King and said, his voice low and cold, and it could only be heard by the Ghost King, "This is the Ghost Devourer Furnace. A treasure born from the Ghost Race. I had refined it and fed it with the souls of ghost cultivators I’ve hunted and crushed personally..."
His devilish eyes glinted with anticipation, and the Ghost Devourer Furnace trembled with excitement. "But no matter how many Ghost Race cultivators it devours, a Ghost King is on another level. It’s been ages since I’ve found a Ghost King for my furnace to devour.
"But you are also unique, as I can see that your soul has fused with an abyssal spirit formation’s treasure spirit. However, I don’t know how you did it, and why the Qi fluctuation is so different. Nonetheless, you are but a ghost of the past who refused to die and is clinging to life, so you shall become the catalyst to refine this furnace further.
"I no longer need you captured alive since doing with your ruin that formation anyway, so your current soul is far more valuable with that formation!"
The Ghost King was shocked, as he had no idea what the Evernight Devil King was going on about, refining Ghost Cultivators, because in the Ghost King’s mind, he was the only Ghost Cultivator to ever exist within the Mortal Ascension Heaven. With time, everyone had forgotten about the terror he brought in his heyday.
Yet, this entire situation has long surpassed the Ghost King’s understanding, and after hearing the Devil King’s contemptuous words, and then being treated as mere material by the other party, the Ghost King was infuriated.
After all, when he was at peak, even Ascension Kings didn’t dare to face him alone, yet this lone, unknown Ascension King dared to treat him like a material.
Furthermore, the Ghost King knew that escape was almost impossible with the lure formation intact and the arrival of an Ascension King.
At this moment, the exposed Heavenly Ghost Formation in the Ghost King’s phantom heart pulsed violently, mirroring his fury and hatred, "You, arrogant junior...you dare to..."
The Ghost King’s voice, usually as cold as death, now quivered with horror and wrath.
But the Devil King didn’t even flinch, "Struggle all you wish," He intoned softly.
"In the end, your soul is mine to claim." The Devil King’s voice, low and steady, seemed to echo directly within the Ghost King’s phantom.
At that moment, the twin gray flames in the hollow eyes of Ghost King’s phantom blazed furiously, twisting into jagged spirals of murderous intent.
The exposed Heavenly Ghost Formation, nestled within his phantom heart like a demonic core, flared with dreadful radiance, its living runes twisting and howling in silent rage.
"You think this King will fall so easily?!" An earsplitting shriek erupted, shaking the very air of the secret realm. Pale, cold ghostly spirit Qi surged outward like a tidal wave, colliding with the violet suction of the lure formation.
From the ruined tower’s shattered stones, spectral chains lashed out wildly, wielded by the Ghost King’s wrath. The lure formation shuddered under the relentless assault—cracks webbed across its ancient runes, violet flames guttered and spat sparks, and the spectral chains binding the tower strained and groaned.
At the heart of it, the Ghost King’s phantom, towering and crowned with ragged death mist, looked every bit like a dying monster fighting against inevitable oblivion.
Yet the Evernight Devil King stood unmoving, watching the Ghost King’s desperation with a strange, hungry calm.
At this moment, his pale hand lifted—space trembled, rippling like black water. A single abyssal rune, so deep and complex it seemed carved from void, bloomed on his palm, and he slapped that rune on the furnace!
The Ghost Devourer Furnace has been awakened under the Evernight Devil King’s will.
The Ghost Devourer Furnace rose into the air, runes crawling like hungry insects across its surface. From its gaping maw, tendrils of abyssal spirit Qi lashed out towards the Ghost King like living serpents.
The Ghost King instantly reacted and used the Heavenly Ghost Formation to resist the Ghost Devourer Furnace. But alas, just as the Evernight Devil King had stated, the Ghost King wasn’t what he used to be in the past, and against the full-fledged Abyssal King with another Abyssal Grade-9 Spirit Treasure, his struggle didn’t last for long.
The tendrils quickly break past the Heavenly Ghost Formation and coil around the Ghost King’s phantom like living chains. The lure formation also played a considerable part in weakening the resistance of the Ghost King, as it held firm by the Devil King. The basin rumbled, and violet flames surged skyward, fusing into the furnace’s spectral tendrils.
The Ghost King finally realized that today would be the day he was going to perish. Deep madness and hatred enveloped his mind as his voice filled with madness and despair thundered, "If this King must perish, then you shall all perish with me!"