Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

Master Kou stood amidst the horde of demonic beasts, his body shrouded in ghostly mist, wielding a giant axe, and bearing the marks of heavenly lightning.

Unexpectedly, even cultivators killed by heavenly lightning could be resurrected by the ghostly mist.

Lin Zhao knew very well that these resurrected cultivators were essentially just remnants of the past, not true resurrections.

But seeing the people he had fought alongside not long ago standing in the ghostly mist still made him feel a little uneasy.

Moreover, Master Kou is no ordinary Core Formation cultivator.

If he still possessed the strength he had before his death, and with the added blessing of the ghost mist, his combat power would probably be comparable to that of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Fortunately, Master Kou's aura is still powerful, but it is not yet at the level where he fought against the heavenly lightning.

Countless monsters began their siege.

Millions of cultivators fought back with all their might, their magical energy exploding on the city walls, forming layer upon layer of spiritual light barriers.

However, the immortal city's formation was already crumbling, and the runes on the light screen were breaking off faster and faster, with the repair speed unable to keep up with the destruction speed.

Dongyang Zhenjun activated all the array permissions, allowing everyone to inject their magic power into the array and use its power to fight back.

The combined magical power of a million cultivators caused the city's protective array to suddenly light up, and the light barrier became several times thicker, finally managing to barely withstand the attack.

The Core Formation cultivators at the Black Sea camp also pretended to inject their magic power, appearing no different from other cultivators, but in reality, not a single bit of magic power entered the formation.

Dongyang Zhenjun no longer has time to deal with these people.

He was standing in the center of the formation, fully activating the Dongyang Cauldron to resist the black canopy of the Night Demon Lord.

Just then, a huge silhouette appeared in the gray fog outside.

It was a ghost ship, thousands of feet long, its hull formed from condensed gray mist, and countless distorted human figures could be vaguely seen inside.

The bow of the ship features a huge skull relief, with eerie green light shining from the skull's eye sockets.

The ghost ship emerged from the depths of the gray fog at an extremely high speed, heading straight for the walls of the immortal city.

With a single charge, it instantly traversed hundreds of miles and crashed head-on into the city's protective formation.

A huge dent appeared on the light screen, and the dent spread rapidly, causing the golden runes to shatter over a large area.

The formation was forcibly torn apart by the ghost ship, and the city wall behind it also collapsed in the impact.

The ghost ship's hull also completely dissipated in this final collision, turning into countless gray specks of light.

The immortal city was breached, and countless demonic beasts poured into the city through this gap in the path.

The first to rush in were a group of ghost mist cultivators, followed closely by demonic beasts. The roars of the demonic beasts and the screams of the cultivators mingled together, and the interior of the immortal city instantly turned into a hellish place.

Standing atop the Ancient Serpent of the Sea Devouring, the Demon Lord of the Night revealed a strange smile, glanced at the back of the Immortal City, and then rode the serpent into the Eastern Sun Immortal City.

The cultivators of the immortal city desperately poured spiritual energy into the formation, hoping that the protective formation could repair the breach and drive out the demonic beasts.

The great formation was indeed repaired—but not in the way they had hoped.

Dongyang Zhenjun activated the final restriction of the formation.

A golden light, even more dazzling than before, surged from the core of the array, like countless golden chains, connecting the entire immortal city and all the cultivators within it.

The formation's power surged, and the breach was instantly repaired.

But it wasn't just the monsters that were locked in the city; countless cultivators were also forcibly locked inside.

The spiritual power of a million cultivators was forcibly drawn away by the formation to become fuel for maintaining its operation.

It is true that cultivators and immortal cities live and die together—but this does not include True Lord Dongyang.

However, Dongyang Zhenjun himself is no longer within the formation.

His presence appeared behind the immortal city, then faded into the distance.

He locked everyone in the city and then escaped.

Countless cultivators discovered that their spiritual energy was being forcibly extracted by the formation, and no matter what they did, they could not cut off the suction force.

Some people were shouting, some were cursing, and some were trying to fly away, but all directions out of the city were blocked by the formation.

"Dongyang—"

"That old scoundrel from Dongyang!"

Curses echoed throughout the immortal city.

-----

The people at the Black Sea camp did not join in the cursing; they had already anticipated this possibility.

The simultaneous illumination of several array nodes indicates that someone is actively attacking key nodes within the array.

Several sharp attacks landed simultaneously, shattering several energy nodes.

The array barrier behind the immortal city suddenly dimmed, revealing a gap several tens of feet wide.

The gap isn't large, but it's enough.

The Core Formation cultivators at the Black Sea camp began an orderly retreat.

However, the local cultivators of the Immortal City were not so lucky. The spiritual power of a million cultivators was forcibly locked by the formation, and they could not break free for a while.

Only a small number of monks who had made prior preparations were able to evacuate with the people from the Black Sea camp.

Lin Zhao was preparing to fly towards the gap when he paused for a moment as his gaze swept over the battlefield below.

Master Kou stood on a pile of broken city wall fragments, looking up at the array light screen in the sky.

He was silent for a few moments—then raised his giant axe.

A beam of axe light, condensed to its fullest extent, shot into the sky.

The axe light struck the array's light barrier, causing it to tremble violently, and a large area of ​​the nearby restrictive patterns shattered in response.

The cultivators bound in that area felt a sudden lightness in their bodies as the force that had been forcibly drawing spiritual energy from them vanished.

Countless cultivators looked at the figure standing in the ruins.

It was a Ghost Mist cultivator who helped them.

The people at the Black Sea camp were at a loss for words.

Those who were supposed to protect them betrayed them, while those who were supposed to kill them saved them instead.

The cultivators and Core Formation cultivators from the surrounding area began to evacuate through this newly torn gap.

Master Kou did not stop them; he simply stood there with his giant axe, watching the crowd surge out of the city, his face expressionless.

Lin Zhao turned back for one last look.

Master Kou clearly still retains his mind and strength from when he was alive; he is not a complete puppet.

In the end, most of the cultivators from Dongyang Immortal City successfully escaped and dispersed into the sea area shrouded in ghostly mist.

Deep within the ruins of the immortal city, countless rubble and broken walls were gathered together by an invisible force, piling up to form a throne a hundred feet high.

The throne was constructed from shattered city walls, spiritual materials, broken magical artifacts, and the remains of demonic beasts, with dark red blood seeping from its cracks.

The Demon Lord of the Night sat on his throne.

The ancient python shrank its size and coiled itself around his wrist, its head resting on the back of his hand. Its dark golden vertical pupils stared intently at the person in front of it, as if it wanted to devour him.

Master Kou stood below the throne, the scorch marks from the heavenly lightning on his body clearly visible in the dim red light.

"You let some people go."

The Demon Lord of the Silent Night's voice was calm, not like an interrogation, but more like confirming a trivial matter.

Why?

Master Kou did not evade his question.

"It's like saying goodbye to my past self."

"past."

The Demon Lord of the Night repeated the word, his voice carrying a hint of ambiguity.

He too was resurrected by the Ghost Mist.

Although it retained its full strength, and even devoured several powerful beings in the early stages of the Ghost Mist,

His cultivation had surpassed his previous level, reaching the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, but he knew very well that he was just an afterimage.