Chapter 154: The Fourth Class of Ghosts

"Boom!!!"

The earth-shattering roar rumbled through the entire grand hall. Fortunately, the hall was solidly built and managed not to collapse.

"Damn it!!" The fatty cast a lingering, fearful glance at the spot where the mechanical snake had exploded. The ground was charred black, and the shattered components of the snake were scattered about, some still venting wisps of black smoke.

The moment the explosion suddenly rang out, Zhu Tianyi’s massive black greatsword cleanly lopped off the head of the mechanical tiger. Unlike the mechanical snake, whose entire power source was contained within its body, the tiger’s mechanics were centralized entirely in its head. Once decapitated, the tiger ground to a halt and went completely still. Yet, despite neutralizing both mechanical beasts, not a single person's expression relaxed.

At this moment, fine beads of sweat were already dotting Song Nianqiang’s forehead, but his eyes remained locked onto the ghostly figure before him without a single flicker of distraction. In truth, Song Nianqiang wished it were otherwise, but the pressure emanating from the phantom was simply too immense. Only now did he truly understand the saying: beyond the heavens, there are other heavens; above man, there are other men.

Silently and without a trace, Li Runze suddenly materialized behind the phantom, his fists encased in gauntlets crackling with blue lightning, and violently smashed them toward the entity. But a shocking scene unfolded before Li Runze’s eyes: the phantom abruptly whirled around, throwing out its right hand in a mirror motion, and unleashed a surge of blue electricity far more ferocious than the current on Li Runze’s gauntlets.

"Pfft~~~"

Without the slightest suspense, Li Runze was blasted away by the phantom's counterattack, landing miserably over ten meters away. He stared at the phantom with utter astonishment. Not just Li Runze, but everyone else found the sight completely incomprehensible.

"Let me!!" Zhu Tianyi shouted, bringing his massive black greatsword down in a fierce overhead chop toward the phantom. Yet the phantom seemed to have anticipated Zhu Tianyi's move in advance; the moment Zhu Tianyi sprang into the air, a duplicate black iron sword, identical to Zhu Tianyi’s, materialized in the phantom's grip.

"Clang~~~~"

The two black iron swords clashed. The phantom stood its ground without budging, but Zhu Tianyi took the brunt of a devastating impact. The black iron sword was knocked violently from his grip, and a streak of blood even welled up at the corner of his mouth. He dropped to one knee, panting heavily; it was clear that the exchange had inflicted quite a severe injury upon him.

Having sustained the injury, Zhu Tianyi calmed down and seemed to be deep in thought. While he was lost in contemplation, Old Niu, with his fiery temper, could no longer hold back. Clutching the broken half of an iron rod, he strode forward with heavy steps and roared, "I refuse to believe your strength surpasses mine!!"

Deep in thought, Zhu Tianyi’s eyes suddenly brightened as he recalled the parting words an elder from his hometown had told him before he set out. Yet, by the time he snapped his head up, it was already too late. Old Niu had already charged right up to the phantom, swinging the iron rod in his hand. "No, stop!!" In the nick of time, that was the only warning Zhu Tianyi managed to squeeze out.

The iron sword in the phantom's hand vanished, replaced by a half-section iron rod identical to Old Niu's. Wielding it, the phantom met Old Niu’s descending rod head-on. The moment they collided, the fingers on Old Niu’s grip burst apart, and his entire body was sent flying out of control. A single blow had batted Old Niu away—just how monstrous was this level of brute force?

"Bang!!" Old Niu crashed heavily into the ground over a dozen meters away, his life or death completely unknown. The force of that single blow was so terrifyingly immense that it sent a sudden chill creeping up everyone's spine. Staring at the motionless, unmoving body of Old Niu, they couldn't help but swallow hard.

"Nobody move! This thing has learned every single one of our techniques, and its mastery multiplies their power several times over!!" Zhu Tianyi finally found an opening to speak. Before coming here, the words spoken by the elder still lingered faintly in his memory. The core message had been to forbid them from attacking when they reached the final trial, though the elder hadn't specified the exact reason. Now, however, Zhu Tianyi understood completely.

Any technique used before reaching this final threshold would be mimicked and executed by this phantom, amplified far beyond their own capabilities. If everyone cycled through their ultimate moves, they would simply be awaiting their execution here in the final chamber. Fortunately, Song Nianqiang and the large fatty had yet to make a move.

Without wasting time, Zhu Tianyi quickly laid out the situation. Hearing this, the others furrowed their brows in deep consternation. It meant the rest of them were effectively out of commission. Song Nianqiang felt his heart skip a beat; it seemed that, in the end, he would have to rely entirely on himself.

"Fatty, let's go!!"

Their only remaining hope was that the phantom’s base strength wasn't overwhelmingly high, though judging by the aura it had just radiated, the probability of that was practically zero. Still, they had reached the point where they had to stake their lives on it. "You guys go get that item; leave this bastard to me and the fatty!!" Song Nianqiang sprang into action, though he hadn't forgotten the primary objective of their expedition, shouting back to the remaining three.

In truth, they didn't even need Song Nianqiang to spell it out; they were already keenly aware of the situation. Yet, the moment they approached the incense table, an energy barrier abruptly materialized, blocking their path forward. While Zhu Tianyi possessed the power to shatter the barrier, who could say whether the scroll behind it would instantly self-destruct upon its destruction? Hence, none of them dared to act recklessly.

As long as the other four—Li Runze and his companions—held back and refrained from attacking, the phantom wouldn't be able to deploy their ultimate techniques. Consequently, the fatty had already closed the distance to the phantom, opening his arms wide to envelop the entity. Because Song Nianqiang was charging in from behind, all they needed to do was pin the phantom down temporarily, and Song Nianqiang could deliver a devastating kick.

A smile crept onto the fatty's face, but in the very next instant, that smile vanished entirely. The fatty passed straight through the phantom's body as if it were air, nearly colliding head-on with Song Nianqiang instead.

"Fatty, what the hell is going on!?" Fortunately, Song Nianqiang managed to slam on the brakes just in time, or his foot would have already sent the fatty flying. "How would I know? The bastard's body is completely incorporeal!!" The moment the fatty blurted this out, the expressions on both his and Song Nianqiang’s faces morphed drastically.

"A Class Four Ghost Entity!!" The fatty's jaw dropped in sheer astonishment, but Song Nianqiang's next words made his throat hitch: "A mutated Class Four Ghost Entity!!"

Exchanging glances, they saw a flicker of apprehension in each other's eyes, but far outweighing the fear was an unmasked excitement and a surging, intense battle intent.

A Class Four Ghost Entity might not amount to much down in the depths of the netherworld, but among mortals, it already qualified as a formidable expert—though, of course, entirely incomparable to a freak like Lin Dapao. Since Song Nianqiang was an apprentice of Master Zun, he naturally possessed at least some foundational knowledge of ghost-slaying and ghost-capturing, though whether this called for eradication or containment remained to be seen.

"Fatty, if I buy you some time to draw a talisman, can you conjure a purple one?!" Against a Class Four Ghost Entity, standard blue talismans were practically useless, save for the forbidden talismans recorded in the *Compendium of Talismans*. But given the fatty's current proficiency, those were beyond his reach, leaving him to pin all his hopes on the higher-tier purple talismans.

"I'll do my best. Just hold him off!!" With that, the fatty scrambled backward, swiftly retrieving the necessary talisman-crafting paraphernalia from his pack. Zhu Tianyi had prepared these provisions specifically for him; given the gravity the state attached to this mission, the personal gear allocated was naturally exhaustive.

Song Nianqiang knew full well that he was no match for this Class Four Ghost Entity head-on. Yet every single minute he bought would translate into an extra minute for the fatty to complete his talisman. Naturally, unless the phantom made the first move, Song Nianqiang had no intention of striking prematurely.

Staring with wide, unblinking eyes at the fatty crouching on the ground to draw the talisman, the phantom then shifted its gaze to Song Nianqiang, seemingly weighing which of them to eliminate first. Ultimately, the entity decided to dispatch the human closest to it. The phantom drifted slowly into the air, and a dense, churning black mist swiftly enshrouded its entire form.

This was no time to hold back his cards. Song Nianqiang immediately unleashed his most formidable soul secret technique:

"Soul Division!"

A spectral figure, an exact duplicate of Song Nianqiang, abruptly peeled away from his physical body, a gleaming golden blade instantly materializing in the spirit's grip.

What Song Nianqiang did not realize was that the moment he deployed this technique, the expression of the ghost entity—completely veiled within the swirling black mist—suffered a microscopic ripple, betraying a flicker of something akin to dread, or perhaps something else entirely.