C726 When Enemies Meet They must Find Trouble!
Yu Yuan soothed Yuan Lianyao, urging her to remain beneath Dark Mountain and not to venture out recklessly.
He then re-entered the Evil Cauldron and, shrouded in its sinister glow, flew beyond the mountain's perimeter.
Shortly thereafter, he emerged from Dark Mountain.
The White Bone Nether Ghost sat forlornly at the base of the mountain, stones scattered before its ivory-like feet.
This diminutive ghost, childlike in stature, clutched a stone, its emerald eyes sparkling with unabashed glee.
Unbeknownst to him, danger was already at hand.
A flamboyant red sedan, borne by four distinct and formidable Heavenly Ghosts, hovered in the void.
The curtains of the sedan parted to reveal an old lady in gray, seated within.
With a gentle smile, she watched the White Bone Nether Ghost, displaying no urgency to speak.
Hundreds of souls and specters of Earth Ghosts and ghostly rank swarmed from every direction, encircling the modest Dark Mountain.
The old lady in gray remained calm and collected, as if biding her time for something yet to come.
Meanwhile, the White Bone Nether Ghost continued to squat on the ground, idly playing with the stones.
As the Evil Cauldron took flight, the old lady's gaze shifted to it. Her lack of surprise suggested she had anticipated Yu Yuan's presence inside.
Inside the cauldron, Yu Yuan's brow furrowed slightly.
He suspected that the old lady in gray had arrived with a plan.
Despite being of the same ghostly echelon, the aggressors, with their numerous followers, had already gained the upper hand.
This region was the White Bone Nether Ghost's domain, yet none of its minions were to be seen.
Even though this wasn't the mountain where the White Bone Nether Ghost practiced its cultivation, the fact that an adversarial ghost could besiege it with a host of followers within its own territory, without any of its own forces coming to its aid, defied all reason.
In time, nearly a thousand ghostly spirits had completely surrounded Dark Mountain and the White Bone Nether Ghost.
Then, a gaunt Heavenly Ghost, with the air of a well-read scholar, approached with a reserved air from a distance.
"White Bone Lord," he greeted, bowing timidly from behind the sedan.
"White Bone, your loyal lieutenant here has made it remarkably easy to find you," the old lady in gray said with a warm smile, gesturing the scholarly ghost to step forward. "Those human cultivators are quite crafty, using Yin Gods to pursue the path of ghost spirits, always calculating their next move."
"Yes, it was he who informed me of your training mishap and injury," she said.
"White Bone, had I not known about your injury, and without his inside support, I wouldn't have dared to intrude upon your domain to seek trouble," she admitted.
"Among all the ghosts in Horror Land, White Bone, you stand third, while I, Granny Gray, don't even make the top ten—I'm merely thirteenth," lamented the Gray Mother Ghost.
At that moment, the White Bone Ghost, who had been playing with pebbles in silent anticipation for quite some time, finally rose from its crouched position.
It turned its gaze to the scholarly figure—a human practitioner who had transformed into a Yin God and had been faithfully serving as a Heavenly Ghost for over a decade—and asked, "Why?"
"I, too, wish to become a ghost," the scholar replied.
"Do you find cultivating in my territory too slow? Do you think that with my death, you could ascend to ghosthood more swiftly?" White Bone inquired.
The scholar gave a slight nod. "I could have waited, but not anymore. Horror Land is entering its golden age, and I want to advance quickly."
"Oh," White Bone responded coolly, then added, "Well, then, hurry up and die."
The scholar inched backward.
The pebbles in the White Bone Ghost's crystalline hand were suddenly flung.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The air was filled with a piercing screech as the pebbles hurtled through it, leaving trails of ghostly white lightning.
"White Bone! That's quite the slight, isn't it?"
Granny Gray huffed and darted out of her vibrant red sedan chair, feigning an attempt to intercept the pebbles.
Yet, as she emerged, the pebbles, charged with spectral electricity, vanished into nothingness.
Granny Gray's gaze snapped to the scholar.
The gaunt scholar, a Heavenly Ghost, was riddled with the ghostly white lightning. His ethereal form failed to reconstitute and began to fade away.
His face blurred, yet it was etched with fear and rage. "Granny Gray!"
He wasn't foolish; he saw right through her. Granny Gray hadn't truly exerted herself—her exit from the palanquin was merely for show.
Gray Mama failed to intercept the White Bone Nether Ghost's vicious onslaught!
"As a human who transformed into a Heavenly Ghost, you're an outsider in Horror Land," Gray Mama said, her expression icy and merciless. "Haven't you heard that I, Gray Mama, ascended from an Earth Demon? My disdain for humans is undying; even in ghost form, my contempt remains."
"None of my followers are human cultivators who've become ghost spirits. That was true in the past and will remain so in the future."
She observed the gaunt scholar as he faded away, leaving not a single trace behind.
The four Heavenly Ghosts bearing the palanquin, along with the nearly thousand ghost spirits congregating around Dark Mountain, watched the scholar's demise with sneers.
It was as if they had always known the scholar stood no chance of earning Gray Mama's trust.
"White Bone, the man's name is Yu Yuan, correct?" Gray Mama's tone shifted abruptly. "I've heard of him. He forsook the Boundless Land, just as your follower betrayed you. Such a man doesn't deserve to exist in this world. White Bone, I shall soon savor his three souls and relish the taste of his spirit."
Yu Yuan burst into laughter.
"Laugh while you can," Gray Mama's sinister gaze lingered on Yu Yuan, her tongue flicking in anticipation. "I hope you can still laugh as heartily when I consume your soul."
"Yu Yuan, you've been betrayed," the White Bone Nether Ghost informed him.
"By whom?" Yu Yuan was taken aback.
"Gray Mama, who revealed to you his name was Yu Yuan? And it seems he's also a target of yours, aside from me, isn't he?" the White Bone Nether Ghost inquired coolly.
"You're quite informed," Gray Mama didn't deny it. "Someone covets his Evil Cauldron. I plan to trade it for precious treasures to aid in my bid for the Ghost King's throne."
"Is it Mo Yan from the Devil Palace?" Yu Yuan probed.
Gray Mama's eyes flickered, neither confirming nor denying. "I'll be dispatching you both shortly. And the girl hiding in Dark Mountain, she won't survive either."
The deceased scholar, a confidant of the White Bone Nether Ghost, had also informed Gray Mama of Yuan Lianyao's arrival and the protection she was under.
Upon hearing her speak of Yuan Lianyao, Yu Yuan felt a slight shift in his spirit, sensing that something was amiss.
"Yu Yuan, you are a traitor to the Boundless Land. Yuan Lianyao's association with you makes her death no great loss," Mo Yan's voice emerged from the vibrant red palanquin. "Even if the Red Devil Sect gets wind of this, I can justify my actions. I doubt Faang Yao would have much to say on the matter."
"Mo Yan!" Yu Yuan's face hardened, "I should have known it was you!"
"To think you'd dare to venture into Horror Land, truly oblivious to the dangers of death," Mo Yan boasted from within the sedan, "Just wait until I slice through the Evil Cauldron's Dark Veil with the Kyara Demon Blade. Then you'll experience the true horror of having your flesh exposed in this forsaken place."
"Give it a try," Yu Yuan challenged, his voice a low rumble.
"There's no need to hurry," Mo Yan replied with a light chuckle, his tone unruffled. "Sister Qin, there's no point in hiding. I have everything under control. Come forth."
Yu Yuan's gaze sharpened.
A thousand meters away, behind the silhouette of another Dark Mountain, a Yin God materialized.
It was the woman from the Filthy Spirit Sect, Lin Yue, who had arrived with Faang Yingzi aboard the Roam Ship.
She must have been the one to inform Mo Yan of Yu Yuan's presence in Horror Land, alongside the White Bone Ghost. This revelation enabled Mo Yan to swiftly convince the Gray Granny Ghost, leading to the current confrontation.
