As one headed deeper into the Inkcloud Abyss, the dark fog grew thicker and thicker.
Eventually, the dark fog became so thick that it turned into a viscous ink that cast all into darkness.
According to Shentu Yuan and the others, the dark fog actually came from the waters of the Blackwater River. It would linger throughout the centuries, and whenever the passage to the Nether River opened, the Blackwater River would surge out once more, making the fog grow even thicker.
This dark fog had powerful corrosive properties, and those lacking resistance could easily be eaten away until nothing but bones were left. Thus, at a certain point, whether human or fiend, one would have to eventually put up barriers to resist the dark fog.
Tang Jie was the only person who was unmoved by this level of corrosion, descending as if there was nothing wrong and drawing the admiration of Ice Phoenix and the others.
The fog grew thicker as they descended, starting to act like water, and everyone started to slow down. The darkness around was deathly silent, devoid of any sound or sight, giving them chills.
Ice Phoenix asked Shentu Yuan, "Why is this place so creepy?"
Shentu Yuan shrugged. "How would I know? This is my first time here. But it would be far stranger if something that came out of the Nether Domain wasn't creepy."
Ximen Changfeng commented, "This place really makes one uncomfortable."
"I feel the same," Shentu Yuan and Ice Phoenix agreed.
Only Ye Xiao chuckled, seemingly unaffected. As a cultivator of the Ghost Dao, he took to places thick with Yin energy and ghosts like a fish to water.
As they were descending, Shentu Yuan suddenly heard a soft laugh from nearby.
He yelped in alarm, "Who's there?"
Ice Phoenix immediately turned around, hand atop her zither, and Ximen Changfeng pulled out his sword.
But nothing emerged from the black fog, leaving everyone confused.
Ice Phoenix asked, "What happened?"
Shentu Yuan replied, "I'm not sure either. I heard a laugh just now."
"What sort of laughter?" Tang Jie asked.
"It sounded like a woman's laugh."
Tang Jie flew in the direction Shentu Yuan indicated and looked around. Shaking his head, he said, "I don't see any woman."
"Maybe I was just hearing things," Shentu Yuan awkwardly replied.
"Perhaps it's because Brother Shentu is too lonely," Ye Xiao chortled.
Everyone laughed.
At this moment, Ximen Changfeng suddenly pointed at Tang Jie, a look of shock on his face. "Big Brother Tang, watch—"
Before he could finish, a pale face suddenly appeared behind Tang Jie.
It was the face of a female ghost, possessing a long red tongue. The moment it appeared, it took a bite at Tang Jie's shoulder.
The teeth of the ghost penetrated straight through Tang Jie's steely skin, biting into his flesh. An icy sensation immediately traveled through his body, as if he had been dropped into an ice house. The chill even froze his soul.
But a moment later, Tang Jie roared, and the flame of Life erupted within him, driving away the chill. The female ghost shrieked in panic and instantly dissolved into black smoke.
Everyone rushed over and shouted at him, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Tang Jie turned his head to glance at his shoulder, which was completely unharmed.
This eerie sight made everyone shiver. Ye Xiao flew over and said, "Be careful. This is a fog ghost, a Nether ghost that manifests in the black fog. Its attacks can pierce through the real and attack the illusory, making it extremely hard to defend against. Tang Jie, how do you feel?"
"I'm good," Tang Jie said, moving his arm around to confirm that it was fine. "This ghost should be afraid of Yang energy. While its ability to attack the illusory makes it difficult to defend against, its actual strength isn't that great. Just a burst of my Yang energy was enough to obliterate it."
Everyone sighed in relief. Ye Xiao said, "That truly is the case. In the end, fog ghosts are just congregations of Yin energy, so they can be easily killed. But everyone must be careful. Fog ghosts aren't very intelligent and act entirely on instinct. They like to consume the blood and flesh of vigorous people, and when they run into a target, they'll converge like moths to the flame."
These words made everyone shiver.
Although they had known that the Inkcloud Abyss was a dangerous place, encountering such a dangerous ghost right after entering made them really understand what "dangerous" meant.
Sure enough, more and more fog ghosts began to appear, fearlessly attacking Tang Jie's group. The greatest number of them attacked Tang Jie, for his blood energy was the richest, being a body cultivator. Fortunately, everyone was ready this time. As these fog ghosts feared Yang energy, they simply used Yang-type spell arts, so the experience was more harrowing than actually dangerous. In the end, they just needed to kill several hundred fog ghosts.
After they descended some more, the fog grew even thicker, and they could hear the sound of running water from below.
Everyone knew that they had arrived at the Blackwater River.
Once the passage to the Nether River opened, the Blackwater River would flow out. By going against its current, one could arrive at the location of the Umbra Cactus. As for the exact location, perhaps the only one who knew was Sun Shuming.
The riverside was much clearer than the surrounding area, the rays of light shining off the waters serving as the only source of light in this darkness.
Everyone was curious and went over to find out exactly what this light was.
And then they saw that rotted faces were floating on the surface, the lights the blue Nether Flames burning in their eyes.
"Watch out!" Ice Phoenix shrieked as the rotting corpses emerged from the river. Flames twinkling in their eyes, they looked over at the group and began to come ashore. Women were innately afraid of corpses and ghosts, and even someone like Ice Phoenix, who was already at the middle phase of Heart Demon, still felt disgusted and afraid.
"These are the Nether River Corpses!" Ye Xiao screamed. "Don't let them catch you! They'll drag you to the river bottom and then straight to the Yellow Springs, never to live again! Let's get out of here! Head upstream!"
The group retreated and began to make their way upstream.
At this moment, screeches came from all around them, and large numbers of fog ghosts appeared, rushing at them.
An attack from both sides!
"Push through!" Tang Jie bellowed, leading the way.
Spell arts exploded among the fog ghosts, turning them back into smoke, but once these fog ghosts died, even more rushed heedlessly in like moths to the flames. There was simply no end to them, so they could only force their way through. Meanwhile, hands reached out from the river, countless creepy faces floating on the water.
Tang Jie was somewhat regretting that he hadn't let out the avatar. The Infinity Sphere Art and Pale Cloud Flame possessed by the avatar completely countered the fog ghosts. In comparison, while the original body was rich in Yang energy, this was far inferior to what the avatar was capable of. Just when he was thinking about whether or not he should let out the avatar, Ice Phoenix came forward and strummed her zither. As the zither sounded, a silver wave rippled out, freezing all the fog ghosts it touched.
As the fog ghosts had ethereal bodies, most of the spells from the group of five were ineffective, and so they lacked any ways of dealing mass damage, until Ice Phoenix revealed this hidden move of hers.
Shentu Yuan was delighted. "Good job! But why didn't you use it earlier?"
Ice Phoenix panted for breath, her face turning pale as she shot back, "Cut the nonsense. If I could use it so easily, I wouldn't have waited until now. Let's hurry up and go already!"
Finally, they broke out of the encirclement of fog ghosts and had time to stop and catch their breaths.
"Finally out." Shentu Yuan looked back and saw that the fog ghosts weren't chasing them anymore. He sighed in relief and then started to laugh.
Everyone also sighed. The Inkcloud Abyss was already this dangerous, so what was the rest of this adventure going to be like?
Even so, they had to keep going. This was just how the path of cultivation was, necessitating a bold and fierce advance. As for adapting to this sort of danger, it wasn't really anything at all to them. After all, Tang Jie hadn't even used the ghost guard puppet yet.
After advancing a little more, Ximen Changfeng suddenly pointed ahead. "Look!"
He pointed with his sword, and a light appeared on its tip, revealing a fresh fiend corpse on the ground nearby, clearly belonging to a fiend general.
Everyone was surprised by the sight, and they realized that the area ahead would be dangerous and they needed to watch their step. Tang Jie led the way while Yiyi was protected in the center.
They didn't get far before Tang Jie abruptly stopped.
Shentu Yuan asked, "Big Brother Tang, did you notice something?"
Tang Jie slowly said, "I feel like something is watching me."
Everyone shivered at the words.
They instinctively tensed up.
Suddenly, a shadow shot out of the darkness.
Shentu Yuan yelped and fired off a dark bolt of energy, and then Ximen Changfeng unleashed his sword energy, Ye Xiao thrust out a finger infused with Yin energy, and Yiyi cast out her vines.
The shadow died a terrible death without even being able to make a sound.
A ghostly flame appeared on the tip of Ye Xiao's finger, and in its light, everyone saw that they had just killed a large rat.
Tang Jie casually said, "Clearly, it was no threat."
Everyone chuckled.
Ice Phoenix mocked, "Mistaking a bow reflected in a cup for a snake."
Like Tang Jie, she also had not attacked.
Shentu Yuan gave Ice Phoenix a thumbs-up. "In terms of focus, we're truly inferior to my lady."
Ice Phoenix chuckled and was about to say more, but then she paled and shouted, "Dodge!"
There was a sudden gust of wind.
A dark wave of energy swept toward the back of Shentu Yuan's head!
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