Chapter Ninety-One: The Banner of Ten Thousand Demons and Ghosts

Chapter Ninety-One: The Ten-Thousand-Demon Ghost Banner

Aside from the ceaseless pounding of Wu Hong’s true energy against the water, the lake was utterly silent. The assassins lurking beneath the surface had suddenly fallen mute.

Yet the lake itself remained far from calm. From Wu Hong’s back, two great golden wings of true energy took form and unfurled. With each violent beat, fierce winds raged across the water. Wu Hong seized the two women with hands made of true energy, and with those wings bearing him aloft, he flew above the lake to survey the scene.

It was nothing short of astonishing. No one had ever heard of true energy being able to shape such hands, much less form great wings that could carry a person through the air.

Even Wu Songran was flushed with excitement, though she gave no thought to her own safety. In Wu Hong’s presence, she never worried about danger.

Li Ruolan watched in a daze as well. She had once believed that martial cultivation could never compare with poison in terms of sheer immediacy and satisfaction. To kill someone, one did not necessarily need supreme martial power; poison could make a master too.

But seeing Wu Hong now, suspended in the air, she felt a stirring of yearning.

Suddenly Wu Hong’s heart tightened. A sharp sense of danger shot through him, raising gooseflesh along his skin.

A streak of crimson blade energy slashed straight toward the two enormous hands of true energy that held Wu Hong, carrying with it boundless killing intent.

“Hmph—mere firefly glow?” Wu Hong abruptly channeled his true energy, and the arms of true energy thickened by two full circles.

With a clang, blood-red true energy collided with golden true energy and produced the sound of metal striking metal. Such was the solidity of both energies.

Wu Hong’s expression turned cold. “Who is it? Show yourself, you rat!”

He thrust out a giant golden hand of true energy and plunged it straight into the lake. The blood-red strike had come from below the water.

Before his hand even reached the surface, the lake began to churn violently, its waves surging with terrifying force.

Before the hand could descend into the water, a figure burst from the depths and landed upon a floating plank.

“Master, it’s the King of Hells Ma! He walks the path of slaughter, and his cultivation is extremely formidable!” Li Ruolan recognized the newcomer and cried out in alarm.

“Gah-gah—little girl, your memory is good? You still remember me? Heh, I was careless last time and fell victim to the old man of ten thousand poisons. This time, all of you will die here.”

“Heh, such big talk,” Wu Hong said with a smile.

“Hmph, brat, I’ll admit it: alone, I truly have no way to deal with you. Ah, the waves of the Yangtze push the waves before them; you are indeed a genius in cultivation. What a pity!”

Wu Hong said nothing, his face growing grave. He kept feeling that this King of Hells Ma must be relying on something. Otherwise, however arrogant he might be, he should at least have heard of Wu Hong’s feat of contending alone against ten thousand experts.

As they spoke, several more corpses floated up from the lake depths, clearly the result of Wu Hong’s earlier strike.

In truth, King of Hells Ma was already shaken to the core. When he had been poisoned by the old man of ten thousand poisons, his mind had been thrown into chaos, and he had no idea what had happened. Later, he heard that Wu Hong had actually fought alone against dozens of late-stage peak experts and even held the upper hand. Even more absurdly, that Wu Hong had faced ten thousand marrow-tempering experts by himself. He could scarcely believe it.

But now, seeing the wings of true energy behind Wu Hong, beating as he stood suspended in midair, he believed the rumors at last.

Just now, King of Hells Ma had swallowed a pill that increased true energy. Yet even with his full-strength strike, he had been unable to sever the arms of true energy formed by Wu Hong. One could imagine just how dense and refined Wu Hong’s true energy was.

King of Hells Ma casually drew out a long banner. It was snow-white all over, yet in broad daylight it exuded a ghastly, ghostly chill.

Wu Hong’s interest was piqued. He truly did not believe there was anyone in the Great Qian Dynasty capable of threatening him with a single weapon.

“Wandering souls adrift between heaven and earth, heed my command. Attack the one before you, and you shall gain release.”

King of Hells Ma circulated true energy and waved the long banner while chanting under his breath. The moment his words fell, the center of the lake was wracked by fierce, frigid winds, and faint cries and howls of ghosts and wolves rose, horrifying beyond measure.

Countless black, visible streams of light madly converged on the banner, setting off whirlwinds in every direction.

The lake water was swept hundreds of yards into the air, exposing the bottom of the lake. Such power was no less than the might of heaven and earth itself.

Wu Hong’s expression darkened. He knew he had been too arrogant. That banner was certainly no ordinary object; it might even be a treasure from a minor world of the heavens.

It could gather resentment so intense it could kill on sight.

The corpses of the experts that had been floating on the lake were, in the blink of an eye, reduced to dried husks, then crushed into powder and drawn madly toward the banner.

Wu Hong sensed a growing threat and thrust out his hand, pressing down toward King of Hells Ma on the lake.

At once, King of Hells Ma felt immense pressure bearing down on him. With a sudden spurt, he coughed blood onto the banner. The originally white banner instantly turned a bizarre blood-red, radiating waves of crimson light.

With a thunderous boom, Wu Hong’s hand of true energy was shattered.

Wu Hong’s expression changed.

“Hahaha! Wu Hong, you will pay with your life for your arrogance! Hahaha—” Blood dripped from the corner of King of Hells Ma’s mouth as he laughed wildly, like a demon reincarnated.

“Hmph—evil demonic heresy!” Wu Hong, though unwilling to admit it, had indeed shown signs of underestimating his foe.

He thrust out his hand again. The palm of true energy expanded ten thousandfold with the wind, and violent gales rose around them, mixed with rain drawn up from the lake.

A pair of golden hands, each hundreds of meters wide, pressed straight down.

King of Hells Ma could not withstand the pressure and dropped to both knees on the floating plank. A sharp crack rang out, and King of Hells Ma’s heart lurched before settling again.

As their true energies violently collided, the lake water beneath his feet vanished completely, forming a brief vacuum.

“Go!” King of Hells Ma roared and hurled the banner at Wu Hong.

In that instant, Wu Hong felt a surge of yin energy pierce his body, and the cries of countless dying souls flashed through his mind.

For a moment, it seemed as though he had seen a blood-colored hell, terrifying beyond words. Yet within Wu Hong’s mind guarded the scripture of the Great Sun Tathagata True Meaning, and mere illusion could not harm him in the slightest.

The Great Sun Tathagata True Meaning flickered once, and the myriad illusions vanished without a trace. Wu Hong’s mind cleared instantly.

Then Wu Hong felt a shock. The two women held in the true-energy arms on his back seemed to be in some distress.

Indeed, both women’s faces had turned ugly to behold, cold sweat streaming down them. This was only the aftershock of that aura.

Wu Hong poured true energy wildly into the arms behind him, and strands of golden power rippled through both women’s bodies before they finally felt a little better.

King of Hells Ma beneath Wu Hong was already gone without a trace, leaving only that eerie demonic banner still endlessly gathering resentment from between heaven and earth.

It grew larger and larger, its momentum rising in leaps and bounds.

By now, the black banner had turned a dark, pitch-black shade, wrapped in layers of black mist. Around it hung a dense and dreadful aura of ghosts. Resentment, killing intent, and every sort of negative human emotion gathered without end, condensing into a mighty force that shot straight into the sky.

Wu Hong’s expression changed completely. Such power was not far from the Innate realm.

Wu Hong had personally witnessed the old man of ten thousand poisons when he broke through to the Innate realm. That was an entirely different, higher level of existence. Though it seemed only one great realm above the late-stage peak, in truth the difference was as vast as heaven and earth.

Wu Hong truly suspected that if this banner continued absorbing ghostly energy, it might eventually reach the Innate realm upon completion.

If that happened, it would be disastrous.

But things rarely went as one wished. Though the banner was immensely powerful, no one was controlling it, and it possessed no intelligence at all.

Gathering the resentment of heaven and earth in such endless fashion—how could something like that possibly not go wrong?

Wu Hong had the distinct feeling that the banner had locked onto him, as though it had a mind of its own. In truth, it was the final incantation King of Hells Ma had spoken that was taking effect.

With a thunderous boom, a dull peal of thunder rolled across the sky. It shook the soul. It was far more muffled than ordinary thunder in the rain, sounding not in the heavens, but directly in the human heart.

Wu Hong spat out a mouthful of blood. His expression changed dramatically as he looked up.

A moment ago the sky had still been bright and clear; in the next, it was filled with rolling black clouds.

“Damn it! Even a banner can advance to the Innate realm? There’s no justice in this world!” Wu Hong could not help cursing aloud.

Far away, King of Hells Ma, who had been watching the battle from a distance, also stood there with his mouth agape, utterly dumbstruck.

Wu Hong spread his true-energy wings and flew toward a mountain. Yet the demonic banner hanging in midair followed him like a shadow.

Suddenly, Wu Hong sensed a wave of true energy not weak at all, and he thrust out a giant hand of true energy to slap it away.

King of Hells Ma, still stunned, saw Wu Hong flying in his direction. Just as Wu Hong drew near, he suddenly struck out at him. Frightened nearly out of his wits, King of Hells Ma knew the force of that palm could not be resisted.

In a flash, he produced a blood talisman, bit open his fingertip, and rapidly drew a symbol upon it. After a burst of bloody light and the sound of rocks splitting apart—

“Pfft—Wu Hong! Savor your death feast slowly, hahaha—”

Using a secret art, Blood Escape, King of Hells Ma forcibly drew near the Innate realm and fled. But he could not avoid being swept by Wu Hong’s final blow, and he spat out a great mouthful of blood.