Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Tang Jie charged out with a bellow, a look of grief and resolve on his face, which filled the other ghosts with regret. This was a very smart young Yaksha, and while he had made a few mistakes, he really had done his best.

Only Flying Swallow was suspicious when she saw Tang Jie rushing at her.

Ghosts might not have had very sharp minds, but she was no fool and had realized how strange all this was. While it might have been a coincidence at first, the deaths of ghost after ghost made Flying Swallow gradually realize that something was wrong. But when Tang Jie charged at her, she momentarily froze, questioning all of her previous judgments. Despite her confusion, she moved quickly, instinctively thrusting a palm toward Tang Jie.

And given how vigilant she was against Tang Jie, this was no light blow.

Palm and fist clashed again.

Bang!

Tang Jie was once more sent flying, his organs shattered. The first time, his organs had merely broken into chunks, but now, they had been pulverized into sand, and blood gushed out of his body without end.

Even so, Tang Jie howled from the floor, "Fight! She doesn't have much strength left! Leave two ghosts to guard the exit, while the rest of you attack…"

His voice dwindled away.

Flying Swallow paled.

Tang Jie's misguided commands had let her kill many ghosts, but Tang Jie had suddenly "seen the error of his ways" and issued correct orders.

The ghosts came together and attacked Flying Swallow.

Still, after that last round, nearly half of the seventy Ghost Kings had died, though thirty-some Ghost Kings were enough to exert an immense pressure on Flying Swallow.

She clenched her teeth and roared, "This empress will take you all down with me!"

She pulled a hairpin out from her hair.

She threw out the hairpin, and it exploded with beams of light.

These savage beams of light pierced through barriers and armor, filling the ghosts with holes, even the ethereal ones, and filling the hall with screams.

But these ghosts weren't so fragile, and while enduring this assault, they unleashed a storm of spell arts at Flying Swallow.

Flying Swallow's barrier, though formidable, wasn't strong enough to hold out against several dozen spell arts. If she weren't able to thoughtcast, creating a new barrier the moment the old one was destroyed, she would have been engulfed by this wave.

This didn't mean that she was able to make it out unscathed. Whenever she was a little too slow in thoughtcasting, several spell arts would make it through and strike her. While these weren't fatal wounds, they would become a problem if they were allowed to accumulate, particularly as these were ghosts, whose spell arts had the power to corrode and decay. Even someone at Violet Palace would find it hard to deal with all these various corrosive powers eating away at them.

It was only because she was a Ghost Dao cultivator and more familiar with this sort of corrosion that she could last this long.

But under salvo after salvo, the wounds accrued.

Flying Swallow knew that her survival was at stake, so she suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood toward the golden hairpin. The hairpin instantly grew brighter, its power soaring. Some of the Ghost Kings were slain on the spot, while many more collapsed with heavy wounds and were slain by Flying Swallow's claws.

As the battle dragged on, she began to run out of power. Just after she crushed another Ghost King in her clawed hand, she suddenly froze for a moment, during which a ghost struck her in the chest.

The Heartless Ghost King cried out in excitement, "She's about to run out of spiritual power! Hurry and kill her!"

The ghosts were invigorated.

The Heartless Ghost King thrust a claw at Flying Swallow. Normally, Flying Swallow would have dodged or else used a barrier to take the blow while clawing back at the Heartless Ghost King, forcing him to dodge.

But Flying Swallow couldn't do that now, as she didn't have the power to do it.

Unable to dodge, she hardened her heart and struck back.

One was a Ghost King who was an expert at scooping out hearts while the other was a greatly weakened Deification expert. This was their first head-on confrontation, and it resulted in a massive shockwave that had them both swaying.

This clash had been a tie.

But the Heartless Ghost King was delighted. "She's really at her limit!"

As he was about to attack, he felt a pain at his heart.

He looked down and saw that Flying Swallow's other hand had stabbed into his chest.

He was called Heartless for a reason, and this claw plunged into his chest shouldn't have killed him. But a moment later, he felt a power bursting out from his chest, obliterating all life force it encountered.

He stared at Flying Swallow in shock, and Flying Swallow coldly stared back. With this last exchange, he turned to dust.

Plush!

Flying Swallow dropped her head and threw up blood.

This wasn't the first time she had thrown up blood, but it held particular significance this time, as it meant that she was truly out of energy. So long as conditions permitted, she would never show this kind of weakness.

The death of the Heartless Ghost King failed to strike fear into the other ghosts, only stirring them up. Spell arts filled the air, while a fork flew out from the rear, aimed straight at her neck.

"DIE!" Marasheng howled.

These served as his last words.

That charging fork was held fast between two fingers, and Flying Swallow gave him an icy glare. Frost quickly traveled along the fork and reached Marasheng, who was soon turned into a block of ice.

Flying Swallow thrust a palm at Marasheng.

Shards of ice rained down!

But Flying Swallow also shuddered, staggering forward.

A bone-white claw stabbed into her waist, and Flying Swallow immediately threw a punch that obliterated that Ghost King's head. Two Nether Attendants appeared on her left and right, and Flying Swallow immediately struck out, killing both with a single blow. But a Severing Hook managed to brush against her body, and while it failed to reap her soul, it left her mind wracked with pain.

Two more Ghost Kings charged in, firing off piercing bolts of energy at Flying Swallow. She didn't bother putting up a barrier, letting them pierce through as she swiped her claws at them. To save on power, she did not dare to use Divine Connections, relying on more brutish methods. Alas, the Ghost Kings both retreated rather than trying to fight. She managed to kill one, but the other escaped.

And she was only getting weaker and weaker.

More Ghost Kings rushed in, the series of attacks making her stumble once more. Gritting her teeth, she slapped her chest and threw up another mouthful of blood, a dark energy congealing out of it and shooting in all directions. She was even willing to use her essence blood to kill all the ghosts.

Essence blood was the condensation of a cultivator's power, each drop brimming with their cultivation. Once consumed, it was extremely difficult to recover, and consuming too much could cause a fall in cultivation level.

But Flying Swallow no longer cared. This was the essence blood of a Deification cultivator, and it vaporized several Ghost Kings on the spot. Most of the Ghost Kings barely managed to defend themselves, but they ended up heavily injured.

"Die, all of you!" Flying Swallow shrieked as she conjured up a gale.

But these Ghost Kings were all formidable existences, each with their own tricks. As Flying Swallow made a last-ditch effort to kill them all, the Ghost Kings began to howl. One of them conjured up a black fog that clashed with the essence blood, but in the end, the black fog was ground down to nothing, the Ghost King silently disappearing with it. The essence blood was subsequently weakened, and another Ghost King came forward, burning up their own body to neutralize the essence blood. Through the sacrifices of one Ghost King after another, the power of Flying Swallow's essence blood was worn away.

"BASTARDS!!!" She went crazy, activating all of her essence blood. She could no longer think about her future. Winning this battle and surviving was the only thing that mattered.

The Ghost Kings also threw everything they had into the battle, one Ghost King after another sacrificing themselves in one way or another to fight back. Each dead Ghost King came at a bitter, unbearable price for Flying Swallow.

But she persisted.

One Ghost King after another was felled.

Flying Swallow had cut down thirty-some Ghost Kings to only three, and together with the two guarding the exit, there were five in total. These were actually two different Ghost Kings from the initial two, as those had sacrificed themselves to stop a desperate attempt she had made to escape.

Flying Swallow had finally run out of power. There were only five left, but she could fight no longer.

She collapsed in despair, her body bathed in blood. "I really didn't think I would die to a bunch of ghosts. It really is true that the expert swimmer often dies by drowning. Only a little more, and I could have won!"

"'A little more' might have been too optimistic," a voice casually remarked.