Xuanxia

Chapter 1100 Ghost Formation
Xishuo Province, Anqiu City.

Outside the city, there are howling ghosts and yin energy!
It is already early morning, but there is no sunlight in the city. Looking up, there are only thick clouds and a cold wind blowing all over the city.

The Northern Frontier Army flag on the top of the city wall fluttered in the cold wind, but the corners of the flag were covered with a layer of blue-gray frost. The soldiers held swords and guns, occasionally looking at each other, and they could see deep fatigue and pain in each other's eyes.

Three days had passed. Ever since the night they defeated the Xishuo Army, the entire city had felt like it was trapped in a smelly bronze cauldron.

The war horses in the stable were the first to go mad.

These beasts, accustomed to drinking the blood of the battlefield, were now kicking the water trough with their hooves, making a clanging sound - the water that the cook had drawn from the well yesterday morning was emitting green phosphorescent light in the earthenware jar.

There was a young soldier who didn't believe it, so he tilted his head back and drank half a bucket of liquid. At this moment, he was curled up against the wall, twitching and making a strange gurgling sound in his throat.

"Master Ling Jiao said that this is the evil spirit that has infected the earth veins."

In the clinic, the old soldier who was taking care of the young soldier sighed, "The Xishuo Army's ghost cultivators are using the entire city as the center of their formation, draining our energy away..."

"Why didn't I see that they dared to use the entire city as a trap?"

Three days ago, they repelled the Xishuo Army and entered Anqiu City. However, before they even sat down, evil spirits began to appear all around them!

Needless to say, this was naturally the design of the Xishuo Army - behind those evil winds and ghostly fires, there must be tens of thousands of ghost cultivators.

It was fine during the day, but the city was more like a ghost cave after dark. The cold wind swirled across the tiles, making a shrill sound similar to a baby crying at night.

The soldiers who could still keep up their spirits during the day were now huddled in the corner and shivering - since the second night of the siege, whenever they closed their eyes for more than half an incense stick, countless pale hands would emerge from the bed!
Some people saw their comrades being pulled into the earth wall by a dozen ghost hands, but at dawn, the wall was clearly intact and the people did not disappear, but the "witnesses" spoke in a solemn manner... basically half crazy.

The most terrible thing was the corpses. The brothers who died in the battle three days ago were lying on the top of the city wall, but there was not even a trace of rotten smell. The soldiers on duty last night swore and swore that the fingers of the corpses were moving in the moonlight, as if they were drawing some strange spell.

When something like this happened, Hong Ruohai, as the commander-in-chief, naturally had to investigate.

Not only did he have to investigate, he also had to bring a group of people including Zhao Hao to investigate together... The ghost formation outside was so powerful, there must be some formations and arrangements in Anqiu City. However, after three days of investigation, there was still no particularly big gain.

In fact, having no gains is also a kind of gain... Even Hong Ruohai can't find any problems, which can only mean one thing, that is, there is no problem in the city.

"If we want to solve the problem, we have to break through the ghost formation."

On the city wall tower, Hong Ruohai said in a deep voice.

Those tormenting ghost hands and nightmares naturally cannot torture the strong ones in the Xuanxing realm.

For him, everything he experienced in the past three days was just watching the ghost formation pouring strong death energy into the city, but he was powerless to do anything.

"No, if this continues, I can't bear it anymore."

Behind him, Zhao Hao held onto the wall of the tower, rubbing his brow in pain. “You don’t know, I had a dream within a dream this morning, at least seven or eight levels of dreams, in which I was chased by ghosts… Alas, I still have some doubts, wondering if I haven’t woken up yet.”

"They are draining the blood and energy of our soldiers."

Hong Ruohai ignored Zhao Hao and said in a deep voice: "They want to use this method to crack the art of war."

"Have you ever thought about just rushing out?" Zhao Hao asked, raising his head tiredly.

Hong Ruohai shook his head.

A hint of doubt flashed across Zhao Hao's face.

Hong Ruohai then turned around, looked at him, and said calmly: "If it was just an ordinary siege, I would lead my troops to charge out personally; but the ghost cultivators have already formed a formation, and it is a formation that attacks the heart and soul. If we rush in rashly, I am afraid we will be ambushed instead."

Zhao Hao sighed helplessly.

He knew that what Hong Ruohai said was right. This ghost formation did not have a strong sense of killing, but was full of illusions and fright. These ghost cultivators polluted the earth veins, making food and drink here a problem, and tortured the spirits of the soldiers in the city all day long, just to make the Northern Frontier Army lose their fighting spirit.

In this situation, if one easily rushes into the ghost fog and dark wind, everyone will be entangled in hallucinations, and it will be difficult for their military skills and blood to be connected. Instead, they will be divided and attacked and strangled one by one.

"Then we have to think of a way, right?"

Zhao Hao held his forehead and said, "We can't keep going like this, can we?"

"Don't worry." Hong Ruohai whispered, "We have dealt with ghost cultivators a lot these days, and I am not completely without progress... Duan, Liu, and Feng from the camp have gone to deal with this matter."

Hearing this, the gloom in Zhao Hao’s eyes faded a little.

He knew that the three people Hong Ruohai mentioned were the most senior and powerful magicians in the Northern Frontier Army. The most powerful one among them, Military Advisor Duan, had even reached the Cave Heaven Realm. They had been studying ghost magic these days, and now that they had begun to "deal with this matter", they must have come up with a solution.

But Hong Ruohai's next sentence made Zhao Hao stumble.

"But they are not sure. If they can't handle it within one day, they will have to trouble you to find a way to escape and ask Fu Qingzhou for help."

Zhao Hao: “…”

No, brother, why didn’t you say so earlier!
If you had told me earlier, I wouldn't have to suffer here for three days!

But in fact, he also knew that it was precisely because of these three days of experience and exploration that if he really wanted to slip out of this ghost formation, the magicians in the Northern Frontier Army would eventually be able to provide some help.

"Okay, then you'd better hurry up." Zhao Hao sighed, "If this continues, I can hold on, but I'm afraid the soldiers can't stand it."

"Um……"

Hong Ruohai nodded heavily, his expression quite gloomy.

After decades of fighting on the battlefield, he never thought that he would encounter such a thing as a ghost cultivator... This thing was not even considered mainstream or of low quality in the past, and only those trash from the Demon Cult in the early years were willing to mess with it. Who would have thought that it could be trained into an army now?
There is a blind spot in knowledge...

……

"Hey, isn't this the Jiuyuan Eclipse Cage?"

The smoker stood on the top of the mountain, gazing at the eerie ghostly air and gloomy wind in the distance, and said as if nothing had happened.

Fu Qingzhou raised his eyebrows.

It took them two days to get here from southern Xinjiang... It wasn't that he flew slowly, but that the old smoker's arms and legs couldn't stand the strain, and he had to eat and sleep, so he was much slower.

"That must be the work of the Xishuo Army..."

He looked into the distance and murmured, "I can't tell what's inside."

"The Nine Abyss Eclipse Cage has only one function."

The Smoker said lazily, "Torture people until they go crazy and turn them into ghosts with heavy resentment and evil spirits, so that ghost cultivators can extract their souls and refine them into ghost puppets."

"But..." He said with a sigh, "This is the first time I've seen such a big commotion. How could this Xishuo Army produce so many ghost cultivators? Back then, my Styx Valley didn't have this ability, but they can!"

Fu Qingzhou understood.

No matter what, these Xishuo troops are not doing good things.

He turned his head, pressed the smoker's shoulder, and grinned: "Old man, do you know how to break the formation?"

(End of this chapter)