Honghuang: My understanding is beyond belief. I am the first immortal of Jiejiao.

It was as if a giant mute button had been pressed across the world.

The wind stopped, and in that instant, the howling of the wolf pack in the distance, the remaining shouts of battle within the city, and even the breathing and heartbeats of the routed soldiers all vanished! An indescribable, eerie silence, as if it were drawing away even the soul, enveloped the area within a hundred feet of the old Taoist priest!

The thousands of fleeing soldiers at the forefront, closest to the old Taoist priest, froze instantly, their grins, their murderous intent, and their sword-wielding movements all solidified! They were as if frozen in place, maintaining their charging posture.

But then, something even stranger happened.

The light in their eyes vanished as quickly as the tide, leaving them empty and scattered, as if their souls had been ripped away. Then, like puppets with their strings cut, they fell silently, one after another, to the ground!
"Thump... thump... thump..."

A series of dull thuds echoed as thousands of bodies crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

They had no wounds, no blood, and their expressions even retained some of the ferocity they displayed during their charge. But the breath of life was extinguished the moment they fell to the ground! They died silently and inexplicably!

"what--!!!"

The fleeing soldiers surging behind them were completely stunned by this bizarre and terrifying scene!

The charge came to an abrupt halt, as if they had crashed into an invisible wall of ghosts! Their eyes widened in horror as they stared at their fallen comrades ahead, then at the old Taoist priest who still wore a kind expression, as if he had merely dusted himself off. A chill ran from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads!

Finally, a general with broad knowledge or who had heard some ancient tales pointed at the old Taoist priest, his voice trembling like a leaf falling in the wind, and let out a scream as if he had seen a ghost.

"Dragon...Dragon Tiger Mountain! Southern...Immortal Nanli! He is that Immortal Nanli from Dragon Tiger Mountain! Legend has it that he has lived for nearly a thousand years! Whenever there is a great war between India and the Tang Dynasty, he will appear! His cultivation is unfathomable! A hundred years ago, three Arhats from our Buddhist Kingdom joined forces to surround him, but they were... were utterly annihilated by his single glare!!"

"Touch... touch and they die on the spot! It's an evil technique he created himself! It's said that he comprehended it while cultivating in the extremely cold and deadly land of Beiju Luzhou, and it's specifically designed to capture the souls of living beings invisibly! Even if hundreds of Golden Core cultivators joined forces, they probably couldn't get close to him!!"

The name "Immortal Nanli" exploded like a thunderclap among the routed soldiers, bringing even deeper despair! Shouldn't this old monster have already passed away?! How is he still alive?! And here he is?!

However, their fear had only just begun.

It seems to be to prove that there is more than one "old monster".

The gaunt old woman carrying a dim yellow-white paper lantern and sticking out her long tongue seemed to have been "awakened" by the commotion.

She withdrew her vacant gaze from the sky and looked at the remaining dark mass of terrified fleeing soldiers. Her cloudy eyes darted around, and suddenly she grinned, revealing an extremely strange expression that seemed to be both crying and laughing.

With her other free hand, she gently brushed the worn-out whisk that looked like it might fall apart at any moment.

A wisp of faint, almost invisible grayish-green smoke drifted from the tip of the whisk. At first, it was only as thick as a hair, but it grew longer in the wind and instantly transformed into a gloomy, desolate green mist, silently spreading towards the fleeing soldiers.

A defeated soldier accidentally inhaled a tiny wisp of green mist. Instantly, the terror on his face froze, his skin lost its luster and turned ashen at a visible speed, and then his muscles atrophied and collapsed, as if all his life force had been drained by something invisible. In just two or three breaths, he became a clean, pale skeleton without a trace of flesh or blood.

With a "crash," it scattered to the ground! Even his leather armor and clothes turned to ashes!
"Yin... Yin Soul Valley! The lineage of the Deadly Poison Master!!"

Some of the fleeing soldiers were so terrified that their voices trembled.

"Legend has it that they were a single lineage, using poison to subdue millions of vengeful ghosts, but they were wiped out a hundred years ago by a coalition of high-ranking monks from our Buddhist kingdom! How could there possibly be any successors?! This poison... it kills instantly upon contact, turning bones to dust and leaving no trace!!"

Wherever the green mist passed, it was like the scythe of death. Hundreds and thousands of fleeing soldiers turned into bones scattered on the ground amidst silent struggles and brief screams. The scene was more terrifying than any sword fight!
Before the routed soldiers could recover from the successive blows, the old woman who had been coughing and leaning on her cane earlier had quietly risen several feet into the air.

She looked down at the routed soldiers below, who were even more chaotic and trampling on each other due to the poisonous fog, her brows furrowed slightly, seemingly displeased, and she muttered to herself in an old but clear voice.

"Too noisy, too dirty, bloody, it's upsetting to look at."

With that, she gently raised her hand, and countless tiny, crystal-clear, snowflake-like specks of light scattered from her sleeve.

These specks of light drifted aimlessly, seemingly without any force, as they fell towards the densest area of ​​the fleeing soldiers.

A fleeing soldier got a speck of light on his arm, and he instinctively tried to swat it off, but his movement froze instantly.

Starting from his arm, a layer of crystal-clear ice rapidly spread, covering his entire body in the blink of an eye, freezing him and the terrified expression on his face into a lifelike ice sculpture! Then...

A series of "crack" sounds rang out. Thousands of defeated soldiers nearby, as long as they were touched by the light, were instantly transformed into ice sculptures of various shapes, reflecting a cold light under the sun, forming a chilling forest of ice sculptures!

"Han... the Ice Immortal Granny! Legend has it that she can't stand bloodshed, and every time she strikes, she freezes a thousand miles... Didn't she long ago retire to the far northern ice plains?!"

The cries of despair rose again from the routed soldiers.

"Haha, now that we have ice sculptures, how can we forget about sand sculptures?"

The old man, carrying a tattered gourd and with a face as cracked as parched land, laughed heartily. He took the gourd off his back, uncorked it, and gently poured it onto the ground.

No sand flowed out, but the ground within a radius of hundreds of feet around his feet softened and collapsed instantly, turning into a huge, bottomless sand pit with surging quicksand!

Dozens of defeated soldiers who were running and trying to bypass the ice sculpture area were caught off guard, lost their footing, and fell into the sand pit with screams. No matter how they struggled or how they tried to use their Buddhist power, their bodies were as if they were being pulled by an invisible hand and quickly swallowed up by the quicksand, disappearing without a trace!

“The Ganges Taoist?! Legend has it that he could create a world from a grain of sand and swallow mountains and rivers! Didn’t he pass away on the banks of the Ganges fifty years ago?!” The defeated soldiers who recognized the old man almost burst into tears.

Just then, a gentle breeze swept by, bringing with it a few delicate pink cherry blossom petals, which stood out strikingly beautifully against the bloody battlefield. The petals drifted down and landed on some fleeing soldiers.

The defeated soldiers initially felt nothing, and even thought the petals were a bit of a nuisance, so they casually swatted them away.

However, as they ran, they suddenly felt their bodies become light. Looking down, they were horrified to find that their upper bodies had somehow separated from their lower bodies, their internal organs spilling out onto the ground. They had even maintained their running momentum for a few more steps before collapsing to the ground! They felt no pain until death came!
The falling cherry blossoms, like the most elegant yet cruel funeral procession, silently shattered the fleeing soldiers into countless pieces wherever they passed, leaving behind a bizarre and bloody scene of limbs and entrails mixed with petals.

"Sakura... Sakura Blood Princess!! The female demon who single-handedly slaughtered 30,000 Buddhist soldiers in India five hundred years ago!! How... how is she still alive?! Wasn't she personally imprisoned into reincarnation by Buddha himself?!"

Their last psychological defenses were completely shattered by this familiar, nightmarish method of killing, and the surviving soldiers let out hysterical cries.

The army of 300,000 had been nearly half slaughtered by the Wolf King and his "neighbors," and then large numbers were casually wiped out by this group of seemingly harmless but actually terrifying and "unfit to exist" old monsters. At this moment, they had completely collapsed and were in utter disarray! They no longer cared about direction or formation, and only wanted to get as far away from these old monsters as possible! Some were even crying out.

"Let me go back! Let me face those hundreds of Golden Core experts! I don't want to face these old monsters! They're bullying me! They're unreasonable!!"

In their view, although the previous Golden Core "neighbors" were powerful, they were still within their comprehension. But these old guys were unpredictable and their names were more frightening than the last. They were monsters who should not exist in this world!

The remaining, roughly 60,000 to 70,000 defeated soldiers, like headless flies, were completely disorganized and scattered towards the various streets and ruins within the Snowstorm City that were not yet completely blocked.

If so many defeated soldiers were to rush into residential areas and markets, even if they had lost their will to fight, they would still cause enormous destruction and chaos.

Just as this chaos reached its peak.

The short, charred old man who had been squatting on the ground making gestures from the beginning but had never made a move finally stood up slowly.

He patted the dust off his hands and clothes, his movements slow and deliberate, as if he were truly just an old man with limited mobility. Then, he raised his charred, withered, and wrinkled face and looked at the tens of thousands of Indian remnants who were scattering like a flood throughout the city.

His gaze remained as murky as ever, even carrying a hint of bewilderment.

The next moment, he lifted his foot and took a step forward.

This step, seemingly ordinary, landed lightly on the ground.

However, the instant his feet touched the ground—

"Boom!"

A dull thud, not a loud noise, but one that seemed to strike the very souls of all the fleeing soldiers, rang out without warning!

The tens of thousands of fleeing soldiers who were scattering in all directions, no matter how fast they ran or which direction they were in, all felt a blur before their eyes at this moment, as if space had undergone a strange folding and displacement!
When they finally came to their senses, still reeling from the shock, they were horrified to find that they had all somehow returned to their starting point—the inside of the breach in the city wall! Moreover, they had been forcibly "squeezed" together by an incomprehensible and irresistible force, people packed tightly together, unable to move!
The short, charred old dwarf stood directly in front of them, less than ten feet away. He still looked withered and frail, as if a gust of wind could knock him over.

He slightly raised his head, and with his cloudy, seemingly unfocused eyes, he looked kindly and calmly at the tens of thousands of Indian soldiers he had "captured" with a single step, huddled together, their faces filled with extreme fear and bewilderment...

The tens of thousands of defeated Indian soldiers, who had been "detained" by the dwarf old man and huddled together inside the breach in the city wall, had reached the peak of their fear.

Ahead lay a dozen unfathomable and cunning old monsters, while behind them lurked a terrifying city overrun by wolves and besieged by neighbors. Like a pack of beasts trapped in a desperate situation, they were panicked and desperate, yet driven by instinct, they frantically searched for any possible way out.

Just then, their gazes involuntarily and unanimously focused on the short, charred, dwarf old man who had just "detained" them and was now standing alone about ten feet in front of them.

Compared to the other old monsters who had already made their moves, displayed terrifying methods, and were well-known, this dwarf old man in front of him looked even more inconspicuous, more withered and thin, with charred black skin as if it had been repeatedly burned, covered with crisscrossing patterns.

The horrible wounds seemed to never heal, with some areas even showing the skin and flesh rolled back, revealing the dark red flesh underneath that appeared to be still wriggling slightly. The person looked like a vengeful ghost that had crawled out of the deepest part of hell, a terrifying figure yet... seemingly more "real" than those unpredictable old monsters.
A crazy and absurd idea sprouted like weeds in the minds of most of the defeated soldiers—perhaps, this old man who looked the most miserable, the weakest, and who was all alone, was their only possible point of breakthrough? If they could get past him, they could rush back into the city's complex streets and alleys, and perhaps find another way out, or simply hide.
The desire to survive outweighed the fear of the unknown, especially after witnessing the bizarre methods of other elderly people that were completely incomprehensible and irresistible. This idea of ​​"bullying the weak and alone" became even more tempting.

"Charge! He's all alone!"

"Kill him! Charge into the city!"

"Don't be afraid! No matter how strong he is, he's only one person! There are so many of us, we can overwhelm him!"

The chaotic roars rang out again, and a twisted, almost manic glint of ferocity rekindled in the eyes of tens of thousands of fleeing soldiers.

They pushed and shoved each other, urging each other on, gathering their last bit of courage, like wild beasts cornered and ready to fight to the death, howling and waving their broken weapons, forming a chaotic but massive torrent that rushed madly toward the lone, dwarf old man!

They intend to use sheer numbers and the simplest, most brutal methods to completely overwhelm and crush this seemingly weakest "obstacle"!
Amidst this surging tide of charge, a ruthless and resolute glint flashed in the eyes of a high-ranking officer wearing general's armor, who seemed to still retain some rationality.

He knew all too well how terrifying these old monsters were; a normal charge would probably be useless.

He gritted his teeth and carefully took out a fist-sized, purplish-black sphere covered with fine lightning patterns from his bosom! As soon as the sphere appeared, the surrounding air crackled slightly, and a destructive and heart-palpitating energy fluctuation was faintly emitted.

"The 'Purple Heaven Demon-Slaying Thunderbolt' bestowed by the Arhat! It was originally intended to guard against any hidden Tribulation-Transcending stage old demons in the Tang Dynasty! Today, I'll use it on you, you old ghost! Die—!!" (End of Chapter)