Chương 173: The shattered seal

"We have no way to confirm whether you are right!" Yan jian sighed.

"That's why we need to return immediately. We must head back to the city. If the battle has really began, then we can find a chance to pass through. If not, then…" Long Feng said.

"What do we do about this then?" Hua Liuli pointed at the area around Li Yue'er where streams of ghost energy had gathered around her and were visibly gushing into her body. If it was so obvious here within the thick ghost energy around, then wouldn't it cause a commotion when they entered the city which was devoid of the ghost energy and the demon entity continued to absorb the energy through the barrier around the city?

The demon entity had already proven that even the barrier left behind by the powerful masters of the four regions are unable to prevent it from absorbing the ghost energy.

"Although the origin spirit palace is unable to stop the demon entity from absorbing the ghost energy out here, it did manage to drastically slow down the rate of absorbtion. If Li Yue'er enters the origin spirit palace and with the energy barrier around the city, we should have some time. But it will be better if the battle doesn't occur in that city of the barrier is destroyed." Long Feng replied.

If the barrier was destroyed by the yin ghosts, then the origin spirit palace would be able to reduce the absorbtion of the ghost energy and there by conceal the commotion it would cause.

"We are so seeking death" Yan jian sighed. Long Feng laughed.

"It's not the first time. Let's make sure it's not the last too""Alright. We shouldn't waste more time, let's go" Long Feng brought out the damaged origin spirit palace and the palace enlarged while the doors opened. He had collected it back from old Gu after he woke up back then.

"You don't have to do this, risking your lives. It's not worth it" Li Yue'er tried to persuade them one last time. Long Feng smiled.

"It's definitely worth it. And even if it fails, we won't regret" Yan jian and Hua Liuli nodded behind him. Li Yue'er shook her head and didn't resist as she was pulled into the palace.

"You should all enter and help her to suppress the demon entity with inner energy. I don't have enough to spare" Long Feng glanced at Yan jian and Hua Liuli.

"Alright. Be careful. And don't you dare to seal up the palace if you run into any trouble again" Yan jian patted his shoulder and jumped into the palace. Hua Liuli smiled at him and also jumped in.

"Hu!" Long Feng slowly breathed out some air as the palace shrank in size and flew into his sleeve and levered himself onto a tree as he jumped from tree to tree and vanished. It took him three hours to return to the city. As he stood outside the energy barrier, he hoped that this risky plan would succeed.

Sadly, according to his thoughts, if he had a less than ten percent chance when trying to rescue Yan jian and Li Yue'er from a peak low grade Yin soldier, then he currently had less than one percent chance of success. And if they ended up in the hands of the Yin ghosts, then they wouldn't even have any chance of survival. He slowly stepped through the barrier and waited to see whether the ghost energy would react.

The dual suppression of both the origin spirit palace and the energy barrier should be enough to prevent the demon entity from absorbing the ghost energy right? Just as he was about to move, a faint suction force emerged from the origin spirit palace and passed through the barrier. The ghost energy outside immediately stirred up, but the suction energy had been severely weakened by the energy barrier and was unable to absorb the ghost energy. Success! Long Feng sighed softly as he saw that this worked.

He really wouldn't have known what to do if the demon entity was still able to absorb the ghost energy even in this situation. It was at this moment that he was finally able to organize his thoughts and look around this city. He sensed a tense atmosphere in the air and the bustling scene he saw earlier was nowhere to be seen. There was not a soul in sight. He proceeded cautiously as he walked past shop stalls and buildings, even hotels. It looked like these humans were really making themselves comfortable.

He walked for half an incense stick worth of time as he exclaimed at how large this city was. Finally, he spotted some figures in the distance. Instead of some figures though, it was more apt to say a dense group of people gathered together. From this distance, Long Feng guessed that there were no less than three thousand people there, but only when he came closer did he realized that he underestimated the number. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road.

Please report it. The ones he had seen we're just those who were standing high in mid air, so he was able to see them from afar. When he arrived closer, he sucked in a breath of cold air. There were at least almost ten thousand people here! Of course, they were mainly composed of the humans who were forced here by the ghost energy storm, but even then, this was a huge number of humans gathered together.

The pressure emitted by the group was so vast and powerful that Long Feng was already breathing heavily from this distance. Moreover, he noticed that out of the ten thousand people gathered, at least seven thousand of them were floating in mid air! This was unbelievable, as it signified over seven thousand masters at the imperial realm and above! Could any force withstand this power? Maybe those second class forces and the four dynasties would be able to.

What was important was that all the humans were facing one direction, like they were facing off against something. Long Feng could already guess what. As soon as he joined the group and squeezed his way to the front, his pupils shrank. Right ahead just past the energy barrier around this city, a massive number of yin ghosts face off against the humans. The numbers were large, almost thrice that of the humans, although half of them were the weaker yin ghosts who ranged from the Yin realm to the spirit realm.

Their overall strength should only be equal to the humans. Of course, this was just his assumption. Leading the Yin ghosts were thousands of figures floating in mid air. Long Feng could tell the aura of a low grade Yin soldier, but as for those stronger than that, their auras were all converged and he couldn't sense anything from them. Of course, whenever he looked at those particularly strong ones, he felt a deep sense of danger. At the forefront of the yin ghosts were eight majestic figures.

Each of them had converged their aura and not a single energy fluctuation could be sensed from them, but a formless pressure was emitted from them unintentionally. Just this formless pressure made it seem like they were the gods of this land, having absolute control over all existences!

"Are they the yin monarchs? How are they so powerful? I probably can't even stand before them!" Although they couldn't hold a candle when he compared them to his heartless master Wu Kong, they were still far above him. His gaze left them and went behind them where dozens of figures stood. Their auras were weaker than the monarchs, but we're still very powerful, not something Long Feng could withstand. These were undoubtedly the yin generals who were only below the monarchs in strength.

Behind the yin generals were the hundreds of high, mid and low grade soldiers forming a formidable force. In the human's side, at the forefront were eight figures too. Five men and three women. They all and imposing auras in no way inferior to the Yin monarchs as they fearlessly faced the eight yin monarchs of the yin ghosts forest. These were undoubtedly the top masters from the four dynasties who were on par with the Yin monarchs.

Behind them were humans with auras no weaker than the yin generals, after which came the Dao realm masters, the Deity realm masters and the imperial realm masters who were equal to the yin soldiers. After which came those at the spirit realm and below on the floor. This was truly a gathering of masters! Long Feng felt that this face off only just began and he wasn't late or early. He was just in time.

At this moment, up in the sky, one of the eight human senior, an old man with white hair and wrinkled skin slowly smiled.

"Monarchs, it is truly our honor to have you lead the entire yin ghosts in the forest just to welcome us! On behalf of the humans of the four regions, I apologise for keeping you waiting""Old man, you are too polite. It is us who have been negligent in our duties. We should have come to welcome you earlier. I hope you don't mind" the burly yin monarch who seemed to be the strongest of the Monarchs replied with a faint smile.

"Hypocrites!" Within the origin spirit palace, Hua Liuli snorted. They could see what was happening through an energy screen from the palace and in her opinion, as powerful masters, these two should be a little more straight forward and speak their minds instead of pasting fake smiles on their faces and speaking like old friends of yesterday. Long Feng laughed dryly and couldn't refute her. Even he could clearly see that they were both being insincere as they were clearly circulating their energies as they spoke…

"Alright, enough with the talks. What brings the ancestors of the four dynasties over to our humble forest?" The burly Yin monarch asked, maintaining his smile.

"Nothing much. We just learned that the energy storm which was due in seven years occurred two months ago, so we rushed over to inquire about what happened." The white haired old man replied.

"Oh? We we're already prepared to contact you all and explain the situation. A problem occurred with the energy gathering formation which caused the energy storm, but we've fixed the problem already." The Yin monarch replied with a straight face.

"Impressive! This majestic and powerful yin monarch is actually able to say such nonsense without blushing! I'm impressed!" Hua Liuli sneered from within the origin spirit palace. Long Feng nodded. No one here believed a word this monarch was saying.

"So that's how it is? Then we must apologize for intruding on your land. We will be taking the humans in this forest back. I hope you don't mind?" The white haired old man asked.

"Of course we don't mind. You can leave" the yin monarch replied. The old man nodded. He signaled to the other seven beside him and they all made a feint as though they would turn and leave. Immediately, a dangerous aura spread as a vast energy erupted from the burly yin monarch. The energy barrier around the city directly shattered as the ghost energy which was held back immediately surged back. Even the air around him was compressed into a vacuum.

Dark green ghost energy gathered around him as countless faces appeared and roared on the green energy and formed a dense cloud as he slammed his palm forward. A huge palm manifested and whizzed forward unimpeded. This attack was actually not aimed at the eight human elders but at the weaker humans below. If this attack landed, then a large number of the humans will either die or be badly injured. The Yin monarch obviously knew that they couldn't defeat the eight human masters and so he targeted the weaker humans.

If he could kill off and injure some of them, it will give the yin ghosts the upper hand in the later battle.

"Humph!" The white haired old man Immediately vanished from where he stood and appeared right before the huge palm and slapped the air before him. A boundless energy erupted from his body, shredding the air around him and turned into a wave which directly washed the palm away. This exchange happened in just three breaths of time, and Long Feng wasn't even able to see what happened clearly. At the end, the difference between them was too large.

"What is the meaning of this" the white haired old man asked coldly as he glared at the yin monarchs.

"Enough games old man. Let's stop acting like fools. This is our territory and you can't tell us what to do. You either pack up and leave these humans behind or we fight to the death!" The burly Yin monarch shouted coldly. The white haired old man laughed.

"You've finally decided to drop the act right? You've already killed many of the humans and now you still shamelessly say this? You think we are afraid of you?" The two groups stood facing each other as they glared. The auras of the two groups collided and ripped the air apart. The atmosphere was heated and a single spark would signal the beginning of the battle… At this moment, within the origin spirit palace, Li Yue'er suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood as her eyes opened.

Yan jian and Hua Liuli we're also jolted as they looked startled. Dread began to build up in their eyes.

"The seal… has shattered!" Li Yue'er spoke faintly. One could clearly feel the speed at which her life source was vanishing suddenly double. A strong suction energy surged out of the palace. Moreover, the energy barrier holding back the ghost energy in this city was shattered, so the ghost energy had returned. Long Feng was startled as he felt this surge of suction energy.

Before he could return to his senses, the ghost energy around him suddenly stirred as they gushed into the origin spirit palace like a surging river! A vortex of ghost energy was directly formed above him due to this. At this moment when the atmosphere was tense, this disturbance was very obvious to both friends and foe. All eyes turned to him in the next instant and even the monarchs and the eight human masters turned to look down at him.

Long Feng felt a pressure which he had never felt before as he was practically drenched in sweat in an instant. His body felt completely weak and he almost fell to his knees. And this was just a glance. There was only one thought in his head at this moment.

"Crap! I'm screwed!"