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Chapter 224 Crystallized Well Walls Repel All Filth, Demon Nest Devours Yin, Revealing Its Ferocious Appearance [Two-in-One]

There is a pair of black and white swords, "Suying" and "Xuanshu", forming a "twin lotus of yin and yang".

The entrance from the ancient well to the underground space is so narrow that it is virtually impregnable.

Those filthy monsters are mostly Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment cultivators; as soon as they enter, they are annihilated without leaving a trace.

Even those at the Core Formation stage could only endure for a short while before being reduced to ashes by the relentless attacks of the Nine Luminaries.

Hufeng City is considered a large city in the Northern Region, but how many Core Formation cultivators can there be? In just a short while, more than double digits have already perished in this small dry well.

Tang Hao felt a pang of sympathy: 'Fortunately, I released a wave of Nightmare Butterflies to parasitize them. Since these people are destined to die, I might as well use them for my own purposes. Hmm... I just wonder if any of the resurrected ones are monsters?'

The creatures parasitized by the Nightmare Butterfly will be taken to the Nightmare Realm after death. Unless specifically manipulated, the location where these ghosts enter is quite random.

At this moment, a battle was raging, and his soul needed to guard the passage, so he naturally had no time to pay attention to the ghosts entering the kingdom. In any case, they were all normal ghosts on the surface.

'That's right. According to Feng Mingyang's previous reminder, these monsters have symbiotic consciousness, and it's hard to say whether they have independent souls.' He pondered to himself.

Then, Tang Hao remembered something that had always puzzled him: 'Why aren't those Nascent Soul level monsters making a move?'

After his location was exposed, he remained vigilant against the captain of the "Holy Spring Guard".

As a result, at first I hoped they wouldn't appear, then I wondered why they didn't appear, and now I regret that they didn't show up.

After fighting here for so long, we haven't seen a single Nascent Soul monster.

'If a Nascent Soul stage monster dares to crawl into the well, Yao Guang and I can focus our fire and take it down.'

Tang Hao admitted that he might have gotten a little cocky, mainly because [Judgment] was too powerful in actual combat.

As he was pondering this, he was awakened by a chorus of exclamations of "Holy crap!"

Looking in the direction of the sound, they found that it was the demonic cultivators who had participated in the battle, or rather, they should be called "Nightmare Attendants".

The Nightmare Servants were looking up in horror.

A thought flashed through Tang Hao's mind, and he guessed what was going on. He looked up and, sure enough, it was true.

The crystal walls at the top of the underground space are now crawling with all sorts of filthy monsters.

"Densely packed, what the hell is that?"

Apart from Shi Buyu, all the Nightmare Attendants arrived late.

We've basically never had the chance to see the monster's true form.

Upon first sight, it's easy to be surprised and a noisy discussion ensued.

"This is our lord's opponent this time? Ugh... How disgusting!"

"I'm not seeing things, am I? That monster is gnawing on its own arm..."

"They are truly bizarre and varied!"

"Seriously, these monsters are pretty clever. When one path is blocked, they know to make their own way."

Those monsters are symbiotic beings, so they are certainly not stupid creatures.

Seeing that they couldn't break through the wellhead, they turned to digging at the surrounding ground, trying to excavate themselves and the others—something Tang Hao had anticipated.

Otherwise, why summon the Nightmare Legion?
Does anyone really think he came here to lead his troops to fight the monsters head-on?
What a joke! The reason they've been able to hold out until now, and even gain a slight advantage, is precisely because of their advantageous terrain. Of course, they're going to maximize their advantage!
Fortunately, everything was on his rhythm.

Cities in the world of cultivation, especially immortal cities like Hufeng City.

The ground was reinforced with magic, so even though the area had been abandoned for a long time, the ground remained solid.

Even though the monsters were stronger and started digging earlier, they were still a step behind the Nightmare Legion in completing their work.

Amidst the discussions of the Nightmare Servants.

The monsters realized they couldn't get through the barrier, and then they saw so many fresh skins beneath it.

It suddenly became enraged and began to attack the crystallization barrier frantically.

In an instant, mouthparts, tentacles, poisonous mist, filthy blood, spells, treasures—all sorts of attacks came crashing down.

Amidst the horrified cries of the cultivators, the elite Nightmare Spirit soldiers who had been waiting in formation raised their spears in unison.

Strands of black-gold energy overflowed from the spear tip, meandering and connecting to the array patterns in the crystal wall, seemingly forming an energy pathway.

No sooner had they finished doing this than the filthy monster's attack struck the crystal wall, accompanied by a variety of booming sounds, explosions, and flashes of light.

Just as everyone was worried about whether the seemingly not-so-thick crystal wall could withstand this barrage of attacks.

The scene that appeared the next moment left all the human cultivators present speechless.

Yes, all of them, including Tang Hao.

The filthy monster's attack landed outside the crystal wall.

Apart from those who manipulate physical forms, cast spells, and possess magical artifacts, which remain unaffected,

Other attacks, some made a sound, some were dodged, but they had virtually no power.

Even without careful observation, it is quite obvious that a layer of black energy has seeped into the crystal wall.

Then, following the crystal wall array patterns, black gold energy, and armor gold patterns, it finally surged into the fissure channel and disappeared.

"what happened?"

"What is that black energy? Could it be pollution?"

"No way, please don't think so!"

"If not, then the monster's attack is all bark and no bite, just a show!"

While everyone was confused about the situation, Tang Hao's divine soul within the Nightmare Kingdom directly took action, calling upon the kingdom's power to try and control the black energy.

Then, the screen above my view was flooded with notifications saying "There are ads to watch".

They only stopped when they had filled up all the ad slots for the day.

Tang Hao stared blankly for a moment at the entrance to the rift passage, which he had guarded so closely but was now completely empty, before his eyes widened in surprise.

"Holy crap! That black energy is... Yin energy!"

Having confirmed this, he left only one message and selected "Watch later" for the rest.

"Perhaps we can learn some information about the monster from it." Tang Hao's eyes were filled with anticipation. "Even if we don't, it would be good to get some clues about the source of the Yin energy."

After he finished processing the other prompts, the one he had deliberately left unread had already finished reading.

The next moment, a scroll unfolded before Tang Hao.

At the same time, inside the crystal wall at the bottom of the well, Tang Hao's projected avatar turned his sword finger slightly.

The lotus flowers formed by [Suying] and [Xuanshu] lingered and flickered, revealing the scene at the well opening that they had sealed off.

Those filthy monsters, oh, perhaps they could be called "skin thieves," a name he gave them based on their habits.

The Skin Thief seemed to have discovered that the wellhead was a key area that Tang Hao and his team were focusing on guarding, and they directly abandoned their offensive there.

All troops were deployed to the surrounding areas to dig the ground.

'Now that they've realized the crystal wall is even harder to breach, will they turn their attention back to attacking this area?' That's quite possible, Tang Hao chuckled. If that's the case…

With a flick of his sleeve, [Suying] and [Xuanshu] returned to his side with a "whoosh," replaced by a dense cloud of black-gold energy.

The energy cloud rapidly transformed into crystals, and in the blink of an eye, it became a new crystal wall, even thicker than the others.

"Done!" Tang Hao nodded in satisfaction, and seeing that the [Skin Thieves] were still attacking the crystal wall, his smile deepened.

Feng Mingyang leaned against Ji Liang, watching all of this unfold.

He saw the golden patterns forming a spiritual energy circuit within the crystallized rock wall. The moment the filthy monster's attack hit the barrier, it was actually extracted and its pure yin energy flowed into the fissure passage.

He couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Using war to sustain the realm... what a domineering method!"

With the situation temporarily stabilized, Tang Hao heard Feng Mingyang muttering to himself and couldn't help but turn his head to look at him.

To their astonishment, they discovered that the black substance in the gruesome wounds on the other person's chest and left shoulder had completely lost its activity at some point.

He sensed something and his expression turned slightly strange, because it seemed that the cause of this situation was the Nightmare Kingdom.

The space at the bottom of the well was shrouded in crystal walls, especially after he sealed the wellhead, completely isolating the area.

In a sense, this space has become Tang Hao's territory, completely infiltrated by the power of the Nightmare Kingdom.

It can be simply understood as: the crystal wall space at the bottom of the well is an enclave of the Nightmare Kingdom.

It is precisely because of this situation that anything not under his command is suppressed and excluded, while his Nightmare Legion receives a powerful boost in strength.

In Feng Mingyang's case, the other party was indeed not Tang Hao's subordinate.

However, to add an extra layer of protection, when Tang Hao first appeared, he parasitized him with the Nightmare Butterfly, making Feng Mingyang a pre-selected peripheral member of the Nightmare Kingdom.

His power was nourished by the nation, while the black matter was suppressed and rejected. With this increase and decrease, the opponent's recovery speed increased significantly.

At least, Tang Hao could tell that his sentence was punctuated correctly, rather than being due to weakness and lack of breath.

Tang Hao immediately descended towards Feng Mingyang, while simultaneously beckoning towards the rift passage.

A pill bottle flew over with a "whoosh" and landed steadily in his hand.

Tang Hao carefully fed the pills from the bottle to the patient.

Feng Mingyang did not refuse and obediently swallowed the pill.

Although he didn't know exactly what kind of pill it was, he could tell from its fragrance and the sensation after taking it that it was another holy medicine for healing.

For a moment, he felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude towards Tang Hao.

He suddenly remembered that he hadn't had a chance to tell the other party about the situation of these monsters.

"I will forever remember Fellow Daoist Tang's kindness." He gave a simple thank you, and although his breath was still a little weak, his speech was no longer broken.

Feng Mingyang shifted the topic to the monsters, "You should have seen those Wind Howlers outside earlier. It's not some kind of disease or mutation, but rather they've been parasitized by some kind of evil creature!"

“We can call it the ‘Skin Thief’,” Tang Hao said at the opportune moment.

"【The Skin Thief】? Very fitting!"

Feng Mingyang nodded in agreement: "This evil thing seems to come from the Netherworld."

No, it must have come from a narrow crevice between the Yin and Yang realms, Tang Hao thought to himself.

The video footage from earlier involuntarily flashed through his mind.

The first thing you see is a vast expanse of desolation, death, and decay.

In the distance, there is an unstable spatial rift that slowly heals and frequently cracks, which does not appear to be a stable passage.

Upon closer inspection, one can vaguely see scenes of the human world behind the crack, which at times transform into the underworld.

The inside of the slit was also a chaotic mess.

You can see the ruins and wreckage of the main world battlefield: weathered human bones, rusted weapons, broken chariots, and so on.

It also vaguely reflects the desolate Gobi Desert, the howling wind, and the distorted shadows, creating a gloomy and barren landscape on the other side.

Tang Hao woke up to Feng Mingyang's light cough. He did not correct the other's words, after all, he knew it was not good to explain his origins, and it would not have much impact on the battle with the [Skin Thief].

"During the day, they are like the deepest parasites, lurking in the depths of the host's consciousness. They not only absorb the host's magical power and essence to nourish themselves, but also subtly control the host's behavior, imitating it perfectly."

Feng Mingyang describes the habits of the "skin thieves," things that Tang Hao was unaware of.

In the video footage, he only saw the process of the monster's birth.

"Once night falls, they tear open the parasite's skin and move about in their disgusting flesh. They need to devour fresh flesh to sustain the skin they've stolen, lest it rot quickly!"

Upon hearing this, Tang Hao couldn't help but look up at the human skins hanging on the bodies of the Skin Thieves behind the crystal wall, some tattered and some nearly intact. His eyelids twitched uncontrollably.

"What's even more terrifying is that if the host being parasitized is a Nascent Soul cultivator, these monsters can temporarily extract and utilize the host's vast cultivation power, unleashing even greater strength! But the price is that the host's 'good physical body' will be rapidly corrupted and consumed!"

Seeing Tang Hao's horrified expression, Feng Mingyang continued to elaborate on the bizarre characteristics of the [Skin Thief].

"The parasitized person is fully conscious! Like having a lucid nightmare, they feel their body being controlled, feel the nausea from gluttony, feel the pain of tearing apart living things every time, but they can't resist, can't make a sound, and can only watch helplessly."

"The pure yang energy of the sacred spring is their greatest nemesis, like a red-hot iron that can burn their bodies! That's why they want to pollute the spring!"

"They share a single consciousness, like a massive, spreading plague! This is why, after Feng Bohan and Ji Liang were exposed near the Holy Spring, the entire city's [Skin Thieves] came to besiege them."

Finally, Feng Mingyang, panting, gritted his teeth and revealed the reason for his serious injuries.

"After I sent Mingyue to the Holy Spring, I stayed in Hufeng City to wait for the effects. That night, I accidentally stumbled upon the truth that the clan leader was tearing off human skin and eating the guards, which led to my death!"

"Five Nascent Soul elders who were parasitized surrounded and attacked me. My innate divine power was corrupted and rendered ineffective by that filthy blood. If I hadn't relied on my life-saving secret technique to hold on, I probably wouldn't have been able to escape here at all..."

Just as Feng Mingyang was recounting what had happened,

Tang Hao's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and a sense of unease rose within him.

But when he looked around, he didn't find anything unusual.

The "skin thieves" overhead are still frantically doing useless work.

Suddenly, Tang Hao's gaze sharpened.

No! Compared to the previous densely packed, monster-on-monster formation...

At this moment, the density of monsters on the crystal wall has clearly decreased.

As he pondered this...

"Ah!" came a scream.

Tang Hao looked in the direction of the sound and saw Yao Guang pointing around in horror.

They're all monsters!

The next moment, countless skin thieves swarmed in.

The outer layer of the crystal wall on all sides was surrounded by monsters.

(End of this chapter)