Desolate Devouring Art-Chapter 1081 - Yin-Faced Ghosts, Ghostfiend Serpents

The true terror of Ghosthead Mountain lay not in the cultivators but in the ghost clan.

After sprinting for several kilometers, Liu Wuxie abruptly slowed his pace.

"If it hadn't been for the Yin-Faced Ghosts, we wouldn't have shaken them off," Tian Wucang remarked, panting as he caught his breath. Though he had mostly recovered from his wounds, he remained weak.

Just moments ago, waves of enemies surrounded them, but the sudden emergence of the Yin-Faced Ghosts had forced those cultivators to retreat, giving the two of them precious time to escape.

"Hehehe..." A shrill, eerie laughter echoed around them, bouncing unpredictably from all directions.

"Who's there?" Liu Wuxie growled, gripping the Heretic Blade tightly. His gaze turned razor-sharp as he activated Ghost Eye.

Before long, he detected waves of dense ghost fog slowly creeping toward them.

"What a rich vital essence." A voice that was neither male nor female echoed. It drifted and vanished from one direction to another.

"They're Yin-Faced Ghosts!" Tian Wucang's expression darkened as he drew his spear and took up a defensive stance.

This was Liu Wuxie's first encounter with the ghost clan, which meant that he had no experience in dealing with them.

"Light!" Liu Wuxie hadn't mastered the Light Dao Art, but his desolate inner world held enough light-elemental power for him to draw upon.

The Light Dao Art was the natural bane of all ghosts. Just as the Curse Dao Art countered faith energy, and the Life Dao Art opposed the Death Dao Art, every Dao had its natural counterpart.

Ghost fog churned and shifted around them, twisting into distorted human faces.

They vaguely resembled humans, but their features were blurred, and their limbs were missing. They floated like severed heads suspended in the air before Liu Wuxie.

"Brother Liu, be careful. Yin-Faced Ghosts are notoriously troublesome. Our martial techniques barely affect them," Tian Wucang warned grimly. Compared to Liu Wuxie, he had far more experience surviving the horrors of the Eastern Domain.

"Don't they have physical bodies? Where are they hiding?" Liu Wuxie activated Ghost Eye again, but even its enhanced vision couldn't locate a tangible form. That unsettled him even more.

"They buried their real bodies underground," Tian Wucang explained. "These things are just fog projections. Look carefully at the ground."

Liu Wuxie glanced downward and saw them.

Strange, shifting shadows danced across the forest floor beneath them. The Yin-Faced Ghosts could freely roam the subterranean world, allowing them to suddenly latch onto a cultivator's legs and drag them down without warning.

"I'm going to devour you both!" One of the ghostly voices let out a shriek.

The Yin-Faced Ghosts could no longer restrain themselves. They lunged at Liu Wuxie and Tian Wucang with a frenzy only found in ghosts desperate for flesh.

Few dared to enter Ghosthead Mountain, and those who did rarely returned. Now that humans had stepped into their domain, the Yin-Faced Ghosts would never let them go. To the ghost clan, human vital essence was a rare and delicious nourishment.

"Attack!" Liu Wuxie shouted, bringing the Heretic Blade crashing down toward three of the ghosts.

His blade aura surged, laced with murderous intent. While it wasn't his most potent attack, it was strong enough to kill someone at the pinnacle of the Spirit Profound Realm, or even an early-stage Earth Profound cultivator.

The razor-sharp blade aura cut through the air, slicing directly into the distorted ghostly faces.

Strangely enough, the Yin-Faced Ghosts turned into mist again, their forms vanishing as if they were untouched. None of them suffered any harm.

Suddenly, Liu Wuxie felt something clamp his ankles. A chill spread from his legs, and paralysis gripped him before he could move.

A Yin-Faced Ghost had silently slipped up from beneath and grabbed his feet.

"Die!" Liu Wuxie roared, slashing downward with the Heretic Blade.

This time, however, he infused it with light-elemental energy drawn from his desolate world.

In an instant, a radiant brilliance burst outward, engulfing a dozen meters around him. The Heretic Blade, now shining with light-elemental force, blazed like a miniature sun, illuminating the darkness.

"ARGHHHH!" A piercing scream erupted from down below.

Liu Wuxie didn't even need to use much true essence, as just the light element alone was enough to incinerate the hiding Yin-Faced Ghost.

This was precisely why Liu Wuxie had dared to enter Ghosthead Mountain in the first place. No wonder he had confidently told Tian Wucang back at the inn that he could survive in this cursed place.

A charred corpse fell at Liu Wuxie's feet. It stood barely over a meter tall, and its body was hunched as well as grotesquely twisted. Long, thin limbs jutted out from its frame, and its neck was nearly invisible beneath an oversized head.

Its face resembled a human's, just barely. Dark energy from the ghost twisted its features beyond recognition. The nose and mouth had fused into one grotesque cavity, and most disturbingly, it had a third eye in the center of its forehead.

"This is a Yin-Faced Ghost?" Liu Wuxie murmured, gazing at the creature he had slain so effortlessly. It was the first ghost he had ever truly seen.

"Brother Liu, behind you!" Tian Wucang shouted in alarm.

Three Yin-Faced Ghosts materialized behind Liu Wuxie, spreading their arms wide as they lunged toward him.

Ghost fog burrowed into him, instantly making him feel dizzy. It eroded his primordial spirit with terrifying ease. But before it could do any damage, the Heavenly Dao Book within him released a golden brilliance, instantly purging the invading fog and absorbing it. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The ghosts clung to him with their frigid bodies, devoid of any warmth.

Had it been any other cultivator, they would have died the moment the Yin-Faced Ghosts latched on to them. The ghosts would have drained their vital essence dry in an instant.

However, Liu Wuxie possessed both the True Dragon Physique and the Divine Thunder Physique.

Summoning thunder energy, he released arcs of lightning that coursed through the ghostly forms. Thunder, containing pure yang energy, wasn't as effective as the light element, but it still worked against ghosts.

The three Yin-Faced Ghosts shrieked and instantly recoiled, vanishing beneath the ground in fear.

Tian Wucang stood frozen, his jaw hanging open.

Even high-level Earth Profound Realm cultivators struggled to resist Yin-Faced Ghosts. Most relied on brute force, powerful soul energy, or sheer luck to survive such encounters.

However, Liu Wuxie had fended them off with ease.

"Brother Liu... you're incredible," Tian Wucang muttered, blinking in disbelief before giving him a shaky thumbs-up.

Now that they had access to the light element, they definitely stood a chance against these abominations. However, Liu Wuxie didn't share the optimism as he did.

"Don't celebrate yet. Yin-Faced Ghosts are vengeful by nature. Now that I've killed one of them, they'll be back. They won't let us leave Ghosthead Mountain alive," he said grimly.

Tian Wucang nodded in agreement.

The two continued cautiously, moving deeper into the ghost-infested terrain.

The Yin-Faced Ghosts had already intercepted most of the pursuing cultivators behind them, buying Liu Wuxie and Tian Wucang some breathing room.

Even those at the high levels of the Earth Profound Realm were finding themselves at a loss against these spirits. Most could only try to delay their fate and search for a narrow chance to escape.

The ground beneath Liu Wuxie's feet turned soft, leaves crackling underfoot with every step.

Suddenly, a green arrow whistled through the air, streaking toward Liu Wuxie with terrifying speed.

Before he could react, the arrow was already close.

"Ghostfiend Serpents!" Liu Wuxie muttered.

Only regions inhabited by the ghost clan birthed these rare serpents. Just like the Yin-Faced Ghosts, they fed on ghost fog to grow stronger.

Ghostfiend Serpents were swift and venomous, nearly impossible to detect until the moment they attacked.

Fortunately, Liu Wuxie had been using Ghost Eye continuously, keeping his divine sense sharp and alert. In a flash, he tracked the serpent's movement and struck with the Heretic Blade in one lightning-fast motion.

The slash came at an impossible angle, its trajectory untraceable.

With a loud crack, the serpent was cleaved cleanly in two.

Despite being split into two, the Ghostfiend Serpent was still alive. Its two halves continued wriggling across the ground.

The serpent was barely the length of a chopstick and was thinner than a pinky. It had a triangular head and a single bulging eye. Its grotesque appearance lived up to its sinister name.

"Kakaka..." Another wave of eerie laughter echoed from all around as dozens of Yin-Faced Ghosts emerged, closing in from every direction.

Liu Wuxie and Tian Wucang stood back to back, sharpening their senses, unmoving. Dried leaves scattered across the ground stirred and floated upward as if countless invisible hands were reaching out from down below.

"They've surrounded us," Liu Wuxie muttered, gripping the Heretic Blade in his right hand and a spiritual talisman in his left.

It was a Light Talisman, one Liu Wuxie had personally inscribed with light laws. Once activated, it would unleash blinding brilliance across a ten-thousand-meter radius.

He had prepared many such spiritual talismans in advance. Each one contained the essence of a different law—the Five Elemental Talisman, Divine Thunder Talisman, Frost Talisman, Light Talisman, and Poison Talisman, among others.

The only one he hadn't crafted was a Death Talisman. He had prepared each talisman for a critical moment like this.

Tian Wucang licked his dry lips, eyes flickering with madness. He had spent his life mocked, hunted, and forced to run. Yet for the first time, he wasn't alone. He had a companion by his side—someone willing to fight with him.

"Prepare for battle!" Liu Wuxie shouted, slamming the Heretic Blade downward.

He impaled a Yin-Faced Ghost lurking beneath him, and ink-green blood sprayed in a flash of steel. Though invisible to most, Liu Wuxie could see its approach.

Suddenly, a flurry of whooshes cut through the air as ghostly heads shot toward Tian Wucang. Formed from concentrated ghost fog, they weren't physical; they were illusions conjured by the Yin-Faced Ghosts. Of course, their actual bodies remained hidden.

Yin-Faced Ghosts would launch deadly ambushes by manipulating ghost fog from afar. In truth, their real bodies were extremely fragile. Destroying their physical bodies was the only way to eliminate the threat.

Tian Wucang struck with his spear again and again, attempting to locate and destroy their actual bodies. He knew only that would truly stop them.

However, ghost fog was elusive and intangible. Even when his spear landed true, the ghostly faces would simply dissolve and attack once more.

This couldn't go on. Soon, the Yin-Faced Ghosts would certainly discover their weaknesses.

Liu Wuxie didn't move to strike. Instead, he scanned the surroundings with narrowed eyes. He knew these ghosts were only the weaker ones. Somewhere nearby, a Ghost King was hiding in the shadows.

Unless they found and killed that Ghost King, the Yin-Faced Ghosts would never retreat.

Liu Wuxie's Light Talisman pulsed in his hand, reacting to the thickening ghost fog as if yearning to ignite the sky in radiant brilliance.

The Heretic Blade's aura flared with light, pulsing with unseen danger, as if it had locked onto a hidden target.

Without warning, the Heretic Blade flew from Liu Wuxie's hand and shot toward a strange-looking tree in the distance.

The blade pierced the tree trunk with a resounding thud, and ink-green blood seeped out of it.

It turned out that Several Yin-Faced Ghosts were concealed within the tree, using ghost fog to launch attacks from afar, and no one saw through it, except for Liu Wuxie.