High Martial World: I Gain Passive Skills Daily-Chapter 174 - 119: Water Ghosts (Double-Length)

Ruins of the Liang Imperial City.

It’s been nearly a month since the destruction of the Imperial City. The massive inferno triggered by the clandestine Mountain-Breaking Thunder has long been extinguished, leaving behind mere remnants of ruins, with the city almost completely flattened.

From afar, it was nothing more than a scorched wasteland.

At this moment, the entire Imperial City was shrouded by a grand array.

Countless mysterious and profound runes vaguely appeared all around, with dozens of the Mystic God Daoist Sect’s core disciples clad in dark Daoist robes, positioned according to the eight trigrams at the four corners of the city. Eyes closed and mind focused, they maintained the array’s operation with hand signs.

In the very center of the ruins, the foundation below had cracked open entirely.

Within that gigantic fissure, in the abyssal darkness below, lay the faintly discernible eyes of a colossal demon fiend.

These eyes spanned almost the entire city, exuding an incredibly terrifying presence. Just a glance could make one’s legs weak and cloud their mind.

Yet these eyes now belonged only to an empty shell.

An empty shell that had been sealed underground for countless ages, long forgotten.

However, even as an empty shell, any disturbance might lead to catastrophic destruction, which is why the Mystic God Daoist Sect held it in such regard.

It’s hard to imagine the level of power this great demon had in its prime... Could it have once stirred the heavens and earth?

Hovering mid-air above the grand array was a Daoist nun.

This Daoist nun appeared to be around thirty, with raven hair and snow-white skin, her mature and mesmerizing face strikingly beautiful. Her jade-like skin shimmered, and a sword hung at her waist. In her hand, she held a duster, her long garment fluttering gracefully in the wind, the light fabric outlining the soft curves beneath her robe.

She looked like a Peach Blossom Fox Immortal, her downcast eyes exuding a gentle charm, yet her gaze was as cold as starry night, filled with authority.

She was none other than one of the two sacred lords of the Mystic God Daoist Sect, the Earth Spirit Daoist Monarch—Qingpingzi, Lv Zhexiong.

Also the master of Shen Xingzhu.

After Shen Xingzhu discovered the sealed great demon beneath the Imperial City, realizing it was beyond her capability, she immediately contacted her master.

Upon hearing the news, Lv Zhexiong rushed over, setting up the grand array with her disciples to reconstruct the defense array of the Liang Kingdom, re-sealing the empty shell.

She also instructed Shen Xingzhu to keep track of those who fled the city on that day to determine who the demon’s true body was.

Lv Zhexiong, high in the air, glanced down and suddenly felt a faint fluctuation from the massive entity below.

The hollow shell seemed to burst with life at that moment.

Like a tide, the blue hue in the eye rippled outward from the center, then converged inward.

Within the grand array inside the city, the once silent air currents began to surge, towering winds swirling amidst the ruins, as if... breathing.

"The demon fiend revives..."

Lv Zhexiong’s eyes sharpened, she flung the duster in her hand, and shouted sharply:

"Open the array!"

The disciples immediately responded, "Yes!"

With their hands forming new spell signs, the runes on the array which had faintly glimmered, now burst into golden brilliance. The ground beneath, too, began to spread with numerous runes, resembling chains that sealed the abyssal darkness below.

The golden gleam from the rune chains briefly illuminated the dark abyss.

It revealed that the abyss was anything but empty, filled with countless amorphous and soft limbs...

These limbs were bizarre, their color similar to flesh, and their texture like that of a human body, yet they lacked any human form. Instead, they looked like pieces of flesh-colored clay kneaded together, showing vague "silhouettes" on the edges.

Some resembled a face, others like hands and feet, or entire torsos.

These parts continuously morphed, as if... ready to birth humans from within those limbs.

At this moment, these limbs, pricked by the golden light, emitted overlapping terrifying screams.

As if numerous voices were crying for help.

But in reality, nothing lay below except those twisting, eerie limbs.

The disciples of the Mystic God Daoist Sect, from setting up the array to now opening it, always followed Lv Zhexiong’s instructions and kept their eyes closed.

Yet now, that terrifying sound struck deep into their hearts, eliciting their fears.

Many disciples, sweating on their foreheads and trembling bodies, couldn’t resist stepping back.

Lv Zhexiong squinted, her expression serious: "Focus! Break delusion!"

Her voice was icy stern, instantly waking the disciples engulfed in illusion, making them sweat all over as they snapped back to focus, continuing to channel Spiritual Qi into the array to sustain its function.

But soon, the array, seeming swayed by the heavy and massive breathing, faltered.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!..."

In that moment, the runic chains appeared to be cut by an invisible force, splitting in two, unwillingly dissipating into the violently quaking earth.

The ground of the Imperial City fractured, as the entity below was about to break free.

Some disciples gritted their teeth, nearly grinding them to a cracking sound, their eyelids twitching, struggling to keep their eyes shut.

Lv Zhexiong glanced at those who were at their limits, shook her head, and flicked the duster again.