“Six-Wheel Ghost Fiend Formation!” the leader shouted.

All the nearby night ghosts began to howl wildly.

In an instant, the entire area became deafening. Countless streams of black energy surged into the formation, sending sand and stone flying in every direction.

As black mist coiled and churned, the entire formation began to operate.

“It’s a soul-based formation. Be careful,” Xie Changliu warned.

Strange noises came from all around, whispers, screams, and murmurs invading Xu Zimo and Xie Changliu’s ears from every direction.

The ghosts surrounding the formation waved their weapons and shrieked, their cries amplified a thousandfold by the formation itself.

The overwhelming baleful energy crashed toward Xu Zimo and his companion.

“Kill!” Xie Changliu roared, unleashing his sword intent once again.

Sword light collided with countless ghostly heads formed from condensed evil energy.

Xu Zimo looked up at the formation and let out a cold snort.

His right hand formed the Aryan-Swastika God-Seal, drawing in an immense tide of spirit energy like a whale gulping water.

The giant swastika seal, thousands of meters wide, detonated at the edge of the formation.

In the next instant, Xu Zimo summoned the Heaven-Derivation Astrolabe.

Although half the formation was destroyed by the explosion, the intricate sigils immediately shimmered and reformed the formation in the blink of an eye.

To break a formation, one must locate its core, the formation’s eye. That was the key.

During that brief instant, the Astrolabe caught the fluctuation and released a dazzling burst of starlight.

“Found it,” Xu Zimo said in a low voice.

He gathered a surge of blade intent in his right hand, lightning essence coiling around it.

Even without a weapon, his mastery of the Blade Dao was enough to manifest one.

A long blade of storm and thunder split the void and struck directly at the formation’s eye, exploding on impact.

The entire formation erupted in a thunderous blast. The night ghosts around its perimeter were torn apart by the aftermath.

Only the leader, realizing the danger, leapt off the edge of the Blue-Parasol Ancient-Abyss and disappeared into the depths below.

“Help me…”

That faint, desperate voice echoed once again from the bottomless dark.

“After him,” Xu Zimo commanded sharply.

The two plunged downward, wind and black mist whipping past them.

After about ten minutes of pursuit, Xu Zimo spotted a valley below.

Unlike the elevated platforms before, this valley sank deep into the abyss.

It wasn’t large, but all kinds of spirit herbs grew there.

When they looked up, the entrance to the Blue-Parasol Ancient-Abyss was already shrouded in darkness.

It felt as though something unseen was watching them from above, something far more dangerous than before.

“Let’s check the valley first. See if the Nine-Nether God-Grass is here,” Xu Zimo said.

Right now, he couldn’t worry about anything else. The spirit herb came first.

Landing in the valley, they immediately saw many corpses scattered across the ground, likely those who had ventured here for herbs in the past.

“Dim Spirit Flower… Black Serpent Fruit… Ice Lotus…” Xie Changliu’s gaze swept over one herb after another until it stopped on a small, black plant atop the valley.

It was only palm-sized, with nine leaves, each wreathed in dense, ghostly energy.

The surrounding herbs all seemed to bow toward it in submission.

“Found it,” Xie Changliu said, a gleam of joy in his eyes.

“Be careful, it has a will of its own. Don’t let it escape.”

Xu Zimo nodded. A spirit herb of this level had its own consciousness. Catching it would not be easy.

They hid along the valley’s edge and slowly approached the Nine-Nether God-Grass.

When they were close enough, the two split apart, one to the left, one to the right, encircling the herb.

Their sword and blade intents intertwined, forming a prison of energy that descended from above.

Sensing danger, the Nine-Nether God-Grass tried to flee into the void, but the sharpness of their combined intent sealed off all escape routes.

Realizing it could not run, the herb turned desperate.

Its nine leaves trembled violently, and the entire valley began to shift.

A flood of ghostly energy surged outward, and the corpses strewn across the valley suddenly stood upright, rotting, blood-mouthed, lunging at the two like ravenous undead.

“You hold them off, I’ll take the herb,” Xu Zimo ordered.

Xie Changliu swung his sword, unleashing a sea of sword energy that turned the surroundings into a blazing inferno of destruction.

Meanwhile, Xu Zimo leapt into the air, gathering spirit energy into a massive palm that covered half the sky.

But the Nine-Nether God-Grass wasn’t ordinary, it shone with dark light and tore through the seal of that great hand.

All vegetation feared fire.

Xu Zimo let out a cold grunt. Flames erupted from his body, setting the entire valley ablaze.

“Stay!” he roared, stepping through the air with thunder and fire swirling around him as he reached for the herb.

The Nine-Nether God-Grass had nowhere left to run. Xu Zimo’s hand closed around it.

“Save me! Please, save me!”

The desperate cry came again, this time clearer than ever, echoing right beneath the valley floor.

Xu Zimo’s eyes narrowed. He flicked his finger, and the ground exploded.

A hidden chamber was revealed beneath the valley.

Inside, a blood-soaked figure was chained to the wall, its entire body mangled and bleeding.

“Help me! I’m the Chancellor of Celestial Sage Academy!” the figure shouted, his voice trembling with excitement at the sight of them.

“The Chancellor of Celestial Sage Academy?” Xu Zimo frowned.

Wasn’t the old man they’d met with Lu Changyou earlier the Chancellor?

But this prisoner was drenched in blood, his face unrecognizable.

“Who are you, really?” Xu Zimo demanded.

“Hurry! Contact the Ghost God Collegium! The Evil Spirit Ghost God escaped long ago!” the bloody man cried in panic.

“You’re the Chancellor?” Xie Changliu asked, cutting down the last of the undead before stepping closer to the chamber.

“Then do you recognize me?”

“You are…?” the bloodied figure squinted at him, thinking for a moment before his eyes lit up.

“You’re Changliu, Xie Changliu, aren’t you?”

“It’s really you, Chancellor,” Xie Changliu said, his expression changing. Sword intent flared around him as he slashed at the iron cage.

A metallic clang echoed as his sword strike bounced harmlessly off the iron bars.

“I’ll do it,” Xu Zimo said.

Gripping the bars with both hands, he unleashed the combined might of his Heaven-Shattering Force and Heaven-Earth Dharma-Codex.

Power burst from within him, and with a thunderous crack, the iron bars were torn apart.

“If you’re truly the Chancellor,” Xu Zimo said as they stepped inside, “then who was that old man we met earlier at the academy?”

“He’s the one who impersonated me, the Evil Spirit Ghost God itself,” the bloodied figure replied.

His body was bound by chains, his meridians completely destroyed.

He was nothing more than a cripple now.