The wave of dead souls retreated and the pressure on the cultivators disappeared. Only then did the cultivators there release a lengthy sigh of relief.
“Now is not the time to relax! Hurry up and repair the arrays and broken parts of the wall!” Even as they said that, the Heavenly Immortals within the fortress took action.
Even though the dead souls had retreated, there was still a considerable number of dead souls outside the fortress. Leaving the fortress would be dangerous.
After the danger had pa.s.sed, a group of cultivators started repairing the fortress wall. Although all the buildings in the City of Dead Souls were capable of repairing itself, its rate of recovery was too slow. Too much time was needed and they did not know when the next wave of dead souls would come.
Out of the 30,000 plus cultivators there, 3,000 had been killed while another 10,000 were injured. Such a serious level of casualty caused the faces of every single cultivator there to turn grim. At this rate, how many of them would be left after just a few more waves?
“Our situation is actually not too bad. The other fortresses took even more damage. Two were, in fact, destroyed by the dead souls. Every living being inside were killed off.”
Chen Feng"s divine sense spread out to the other fortresses. Each of the fortresses had varying levels of strength. Some had more Heavenly Immortals, allowing them to kill off a high number of the dead souls, thereby helping to save the fortress. There were also those without Heavenly Immortals. In the end, the dead souls managed to break through those without Heavenly Immortals and kill off the tens of thousands of True Immortals inside.
Some formed teams to charge out from the fortress. A number of them chose to head deeper into the City of Dead Souls and some went looking for a way out. In Chen Feng"s opinion, however, the situation did not bode well for them.
Unexpectedly, the City of Dead Souls is even more dangerous than rumoured. And we"ve only just begun to enter it. I wonder, what will we encounter if we head deeper? Chen Feng wondered.
Chen Feng had already kept the Blood Mustering Bead, the two blood fiends inside it completely under control. That said, some time was needed to completely refine them. Naturally, the two blood fiends will be increasing the Blood Mustering Bead"s power somewhat.
Everyone there cast looks of awe at Chen Feng. In the earlier battle, Chen Feng had dealt with two formidable blood fiends in quick succession. Due to that, the Heavenly Immortals in the fortress thought of Chen Feng as a hidden expert and they too cast looks of respect – and a hint of fear – towards him. The Heavenly Immortals from the Six Daos Sword Faction, on the other hand, felt their hearts stirring. They had known that Chen Feng was strong, but they never thought that he would be this strong. Only, they had not handled their conversation with Chen Feng previously well enough. And yet, there was the possibility that Chen Feng"s help would be needed next. Thus, the Heavenly Immortals exchanged glances as they began to secretly discuss the issue.
Chen Feng had no intentions of leaving. Since he had come here for a mission, he would stay with the team. So long as it did not threaten his own interests, he would abide by the Six Daos Sword Faction"s arrangements.
After Chen Feng displayed his strength, no one dared disturb him. Several times, the Heavenly Immortals from the Six Daos Sword Faction had wanted to speak up only to hold back in the end.
The fortress was swiftly repaired. Thanks to the innate power of the City of Dead Souls, the restrictive arrays and magic arrays on the fortress recovered as well. As for Chen Feng, he quietly focused on his cultivation efforts, suppressing and refining the two blood fiends inside the Blood Mustering Bead. The nine blood wyrms inside the bead had already risen to the True Immortal stage. At that very moment, they were furiously devouring the power of blood stripped out from the blood fiends.
Suddenly, a chaotic uproar broke out. The sounds became increasingly loud and it eventually escalated into a fight. Only then did Chen Feng notice that the cultivators from the Six Daos Sword Faction had surrounded tens of cultivators. The surrounded cultivators fought back, but there were already a few people lying on the ground.
“Aren"t your Six Daos Sword Faction being too overboard here? The danger has yet to pa.s.s. We are all in the same boat now. Are you going to wantonly oppress other cultivators?”
“These fellows are traitors to our Six Daos Sword Faction. They are also the reason we are here this time. Those who are not part of this, do not interfere. Don"t blame us for going rough on you otherwise.”
“Humph! Your Six Daos Sword Faction may be famous, but we are not afraid of you. There are so many of us here. Are you fellows thinking of fighting against so many of us?” one of them deliberately said in order to draw the others over to their side.
Finally, Chen Feng noticed that three of the surrounded cultivators were their mission objectives. Only, they had some friends who fought alongside them against the Six Daos Sword Faction. The fight between the two sides led to losses on either side, but the Six Daos Sword Faction held the upper hand. It was just a matter of time before they killed off the other party. But now, it would appear that their actions had triggered feelings of outrage from the others. Should a chaos erupt, the Six Daos Sword Faction would end up suffering from a serious loss.
“Right now, what we need to do is work together to fight the enemy. Six Daos Sword Faction, don"t go too far.” Even the Heavenly Immortals there intervened.
“How troublesome! Just kill them!” Chen Feng said, waving his hand to send the Blood Mustering Bead out. With a booming sound, it pressed down to blow up tens of cultivators before devouring all the resulting clouds of blood.
The ones killed included the three traitors from the Six Daos Sword Faction and two Heavenly Immortals who chose to intervene.
Silence befell the entire fortress as all the cultivators there stared fearfully at Chen Feng. Even the cultivators from the Six Daos Sword Faction had a blank look on their faces. However, more of them revealed excitement and joy.
That said, there were still some who did not want to give up.
“Senior, aren"t you going too far by killing people wantonly?” One of the cultivators there, believing himself to be upright, chose to speak up. Chen Feng responded with a wave of his hand to send a beam of b.l.o.o.d.y light flas.h.i.+ng forward and a b.l.o.o.d.y hole appeared on the cultivator"s body. Next, the b.l.o.o.d.y hole melted – the cultivator along with it – into a pool of blood.
“I have no issues with killing off everyone in this fortress,” Chen Feng said in a casual manner, but his words sent a s.h.i.+ver down everyone"s spine. No one else dared to open their mouths. Instead, they lowered their heads. They did not even have the courage to look at him.
Next up, Chen Feng abruptly vaulted up into the sky before swiftly flying away from the fortress. After Chen Feng was gone, they all recollected themselves and began feeling worried. Without Chen Feng, would they be able to defend the fortress from the next wave of dead souls? They finally realized how important Chen Feng was. In order to defend this fortress, they needed a formidable expert.
Even the cultivators from the Six Daos Sword Faction were confused at Chen Feng"s sudden departure. The True Immortals turned to look at the six Heavenly Immortals whose faces glinted with displeasure. However, there was nothing they could do about it. If Chen Feng wanted to leave, no one could stop him.
Sou!
As they were all occupied with their own thoughts, a stream of light streaked over as Chen Feng returned. Landing inside the fortress, he waved his hand and two cultivators, tied up by ropes, fell to the ground.
“I found them in the other fortresses. Unexpectedly, this mission is so easy. We managed to get five easily,” Chen Feng said smilingly.
“Sword Premier Black Yao, Sword Immortal Waterflow. The two of them are half-step Heavenly Immortals, the experts amongst our objectives. To think that they would be so quickly captured!” The disciples of the Six Daos Sword Faction recognized the two captured cultivators and they cast a shocked look at Chen Feng.
Meanwhile, Chen Feng"s return caused many of the cultivators there to breathe a sigh of relief.
“I"ve decided, I"m leaving! Staying here is not the way to go,” someone suddenly said loudly. Following that, some other cultivators followed suit and it did not take long before around 1,000 cultivators came together, forming a team to leave the fortress. However, after leaving the fortress, the team came under attack from the dead souls. By the time they made their way out of sight, they had lost one third of their members.
“Although we are trapped inside this fortress, this can also be considered as a type of training. For cultivators like us, even staying here for over 10,000 years is nothing. The outbreak of dead souls will eventually come to an end, after all. Those fellows are just committing suicide by going out.”
“Yes. Cultivating here is a good thing. There is a fortress to act as a barrier and even experts overseeing everything. We should stay here and defend. Once the outbreak of dead souls is over, we can think of a way to leave.”
Most of the cultivators chose to stay. In the face of the outbreak of dead souls, finding a place of refuge was incredibly difficult.
“Some people are coming. They"re cultivators from the other fortresses! Looks like they want to join our fortress.”
“Not good, they"re surrounded! Hurry, go rescue them.”
It did not take long before several thousand cultivators fought their way into the fortress. The tens of fortresses here had varying levels of strength. After the previous battle, this group of cultivators no longer had the strength to defend their fortress. Thus, they had to go join a stronger fortress.
The addition of these several thousand cultivators helped replenish the number of defenders for the fortress, resulting an increase in strength. Due to that, both sides were happy with the result.
Next up, aside from cultivating, the cultivators there would also set up arrays there to reinforce the fortress. Chen Feng himself had taken action once to set up a set of defensive magic arrays at the Heavenly Immortal stage.
One month quickly went by. And while the number of dead souls outside was growing higher and higher, no wave of dead souls came.
Even so, not a single one of them let their guard down. Every day, cultivators would be arranged to patrol about.
On this particular day, no wave of dead souls came as well. However, a black wars.h.i.+p flew over, wantonly smas.h.i.+ng through the arrays on the fortress as it broke in.
“Such insolence! Who?”
The arrays had been set up through the painstaking efforts of all the cultivators there, meant to help defend against the wave of dead souls. Seeing the arrays broken all of a sudden, the cultivators immediately stirred and they prepared to attack.
But when cultivators in black suits of armour walked out from the wars.h.i.+p, all the cultivators there fell silent. There was a total of 12 cultivators who sported cold-looking eyes and suits of black armour that gleamed with light. Each of them held a battle lance while a sword hung down each of their waists. The auras they exuded were as thick as the mountain.
The most important issue here was the unique crest on them, signifying their ident.i.ties.
“They"re from the Ministry of Heavenly Tribulation! Every one of them is a Heavenly Immortal!”
“Lower your tone! The Ministry of Heavenly Tribulation is an important part of the Immortal Court. These fellows are not to be trifled with. It is said that their combat powers are incredibly strong. Individually, every one of them is second only to a War Immortal.”
“However, with their arrival, won"t our fortress become even safer?”
“Don"t be stupid! How do you know what they are here for? Besides, they are so strong, with such a high-grade wars.h.i.+p. They might not choose to stay.”
The cultivators there discussed in secrecy, none opening their mouths to speak. The Ministry of Heavenly Tribulation held too high of a position, a symbol of the Immortal Court itself. It was not something that these sects or forces could compare against. Even the cultivators from the Six Daos Sword Faction said nothing.
Ministry of Heavenly Tribulation! Chen Feng"s eyes lit up. In the past, whenever he had to face his tribulations, the Ministry of Heavenly Tribulation and Ministry of Heavenly Justice would intervene. When compared to the cultivators from the Immortal Plane, these immortal soldiers and immortal generals from the core parts of the Immortal Court possessed a more extraordinary combat power.
That said, these fellows were still nothing in Chen Feng"s eyes. Only, the wars.h.i.+p they brought with them was quite something. It was actually a pseudo-Divine artifact. It was capable of going anywhere in this City of Dead Souls.