Feicui Long and Irina are getting closer and closer to the hill where they will place the seventh formation, but it keeps getting darker. At some point, Irina, who feels a bit uneasy because those claws remind her of something, says: "Young master, I think we should rest already, it's too risky to go on just like this."
Feicui Long shakes his head and says: "I know what you're worried about, but it's actually riskier to rest here. The enemy is determined to attack us today, and they will do it whether we rest or not. It's true that we have the formation and it can even handle peak ascendant realms, but the formation itself has a limit because of the materials. If that limit is exceeded, it will collapse, and if it does in the middle of the night while we're asleep or in the middle of nowhere..."
Feicui Long doesn't need to say what would happen to them because Irina falls silent, understanding it's too risky. The place where the seventh formation must go is a very secure hill, surrounded by small rocky ravines that are hard to access, which at least they can defend until reinforcements arrive.
Still, her instinct as a mercenary and if her memories don't fail her, something tells her that not everything will go as well as it should... no, she can't think like that. She must prepare to fight. A battle is not only fought with weapons but with the mind. If your mental state collapses before it begins, then it's already a lost battle...
When they finally reach the hill's ascent, they can see it. It is exactly like the map Feicui Long made thanks to Kagetsume carrying the watch golems. A single entrance from the front completely surrounded by steep rocky ravines, it is perfect for a long defense, and in fact, that is precisely why it has ancient ruins of what was once a tower.
They both start climbing it, but just as Feicui Long's instinct had told him, a threatening sensation alerts Feicui Long, who immediately launches a counterattack behind him, drawing his halberd and injecting it with his emerald energy that lights up the dark night, and pushes Irina behind him further up the hill.
For the first time, Feicui Long can see what it is that stalks him in the shadows. It is a grotesque being, horrible to look at, a being that is just the image of what it used to be, with skin of a dark purplish color, smooth in some parts, while in others it is wrinkled and lacerated. On its head, it has what looks like sparse gray hair. It is hunched with a noticeable hump, with horrible jet-black claws about 30 cm long.
The worst perhaps is that disgusting face, with a lipless mouth, a jaw with clear wounds exposing rotting flesh and 7 cm long fangs. It has no nose and its ears have wounds. Its eyes... are literally darkness, a well of shadows... this is a ghoul, but not just any ghoul... it's a shadow ghoul!
But Feicui Long notices something strange. This one has both hands. It's impossible... reacting almost as if he already regains the ability to see all possible futures, and spinning his halberd covered in his energy while moving it side to side himself, he blocks two more attacks from both sides, revealing two more ghouls, one missing an arm.
Feicui Long then understands what's happening and quickly uses the spell light flare, temporarily lighting up the area. He finally sees 10 shadow ghouls, all with different sizes and shapes, obviously all from different mortal races, which gives them those differences. But this makes him frown a bit, not just because of their number, but because they are all at the peak of grade 3 in the mystic realm, almost at the limit of what he can currently fight. And on top of that, he now has to protect Irina...
But the creatures, having been discovered, start a full-on attack without giving him time to think. One of them lunges from one side, but Feicui Long repels it. Then another from the opposite side, and Feicui Long hits it with the back and counterweight of his halberd. Then three attack at the same time, and Feicui Long spins his halberd at high speed above his head, barely blocking the attack.
Then the last one, covered in dark energy, launches an attack, almost hitting Feicui Long in the side. Feicui Long then frowns much more... because although Feicui Long doesn't have the amount of dragon blood at the moment to activate the full power of his title, his title allows him to leap 5 grades. At minimum, he could face a grade 4 mystic realm beginner stage. If you add to that his dual cultivation and his halberd, he should be able to face one or two of these individuals fairly easily...
But that is not what's happening. With each blow he blocks, he feels that they are much stronger than they seem. In fact, now that he thinks about it, their appearances are slightly different not only in size and shape, but their skin and some parts of their bodies... they are variants, every single one of them is a variant!
These obviously aren't natural undead produced by nature. If they were, it's impossible that every single one would be a variant. These were created and made into variants by something else... thinking about that makes him frown even more and causes a slight headache.
Feicui Long then goes directly on the offensive, saying: "Emerald slash!" With his halberd he makes a sweep, while with his other hand he throws a set of 10 daggers, 5 to the left and 5 to the right.
The daggers force the shadow ghouls to separate, while his slash partially hits four of the ghouls, sending them backward, while the daggers are easily dodged by the other ghouls but in return he gains space.
The ghouls who have just dodged quickly launch a coordinated attack, one strikes from the left, another from the right, and another from the front, injecting their claws with secondary elemental shadow energy, while the other three perform a similar attack but from a different angle.
Feicui Long prepares to try to block, then Irina, despite knowing that her attacks as a peak elemental realm cannot harm a creature at the peak of grade 3 of the mystic realm, but at least with elemental energy she could hinder and even temporarily incapacitate a few ghouls, takes four arrows and injects them with her secondary elemental energy of ice, firing them one by one in succession.
The effect is almost immediate. Two ghouls dodge the arrows, while two ignore them, but as soon as the arrows hit, they freeze part of the area, destabilizing them and causing them to fall from the air. Now only two remain, who are about to slash Feicui Long, but he just smiles and stretches out his hands forward.
Then the 10 daggers previously thrown, which are floating behind the ghouls, launch at full speed thanks to his telekinesis, knocking one to the ground and leaving several holes, while the other, although left lying on the ground, produces a sound like metal against metal, showing that this one is a defensive variant.
Then something surprising happens. The first four ghouls return and during the dagger attack had gotten very close, but instead of launching an attack they pick up their comrades and quickly retreat a certain distance, allowing their companions to stand up.
Irina, seeing this, shouts: "They are not just variants, they are the civilized type!"
Feicui Long nods. This makes things even more dangerous. Now they are not just fighting variants capable of going toe to toe with him, but also beings with intelligence equivalent to that of an average adult human.
Feicui Long then sighs and stops holding back. He quickly brings out Kagetsume, Surinbit, and the white variant of the black steel arrow-scale lizard, which he named Pearl, who is already an adult like the first lizards of her species he bought, and whom he has bonded to his troops. His hope is to get another of the same variant so each section has three or five to support the normal versions, which have more corrosive and poisonous venom.
But Feicui Long is not the only one who already realizes the full power of the enemy. The shadow ghouls stop trying to hold back and reveal their true variants, one shines with a blood-red glow, another pure darkness, another with a metallic shine, another purple, among others.
The first to move is the one with the blood-red glow, covered in that energy at great speed, launching his attack. Feicui Long can barely follow his movements with his current strength and quickly, planting his foot on the ground, shouts: "Stone wall!"
This does not stop the ghoul's ability, but it does slow him down. Then Feicui Long, with his halberd full of energy, immediately propels himself forward and says: "Emerald impact!"
But then the metallic-glow ghoul steps in, taking Feicui Long's blow directly. That ghoul, along with the one being protected, ends up being sent flying.
Feicui Long notices the attack from the one glowing purple, but it's too late to fully dodge it. That claw manages to rip his shirt and leave some scratches. Annoyed, he then responds by kneeing the ghoul in the chest and uses emerald shock.
The other ghouls try to help their comrade, but Kagetsume uses black steel feather rain, together with Pearl who uses black steel arrow burst. Pearl's arrows, although weaker than the normal version, are several times worse for these ghouls as they are infused with elemental light energy.
Surinbit, annoyed, launches several elemental attacks, managing to clear the area around Feicui Long except for one spot. It is there where one of the ghouls emerges from the shadows and launches a surprise attack, managing to leave a rather deep and bloody cut on Feicui Long.
Feicui Long says angrily: "Damn it, I didn't know there was one that could use shadow swimming. Pearl, light up the whole area. Surinbit, handle this one please!"
Pearl lights up her scales, illuminating everything with great intensity, eliminating the possibility of using the shadows. Surinbit quickly adapts to the light element and begins to form small points of luminous energy to attack the invading ghoul.
The red ghoul imbues his claws with his blood-red energy and slashes the air, launching a series of claws from a distance. Then a ghoul with cyan lines moves at the highest speed of all.
Feicui Long takes his halberd and places it on one arm, injecting it with his emerald energy. He slashes to that side saying: "Emerald slash!" when on the other side the glowing ghoul approaches. Feicui Long draws the long sword Johan gave him and makes a slash at the hand of the metallic-colored ghoul that was targeting Irina.
The ghoul, expecting the sword to be repelled, is stunned to see how the sword cuts like butter, slicing off his arm and on top of that the telekinetic daggers hit him in the chest, forcing him to retreat.
Surinbit for her part uses a great light attack, sending flying the now inert corpse of the shadow ghoul that possessed shadow swimming, who is now full of small holes and a large one in the chest.
The ghouls see this and, enraged, become more frantic. It is then that the largest ghoul of all, who measures three meters, with his powerful claws starts to strike Feicui Long. Feicui Long goes completely on the defensive in the face of the physical power of this beast, which rivals and even slightly surpasses his own.
Surinbit changes her typical rainbow color to a bright white one and starts using a series of light attacks, light bullets, light spears, light rays, as well as spells like light projectile.
…
For his part, Kagetsume, who manages to isolate two of the shadow ghouls purely of the darkness element, activates his obsidian heart of deep darkness and says in a low voice: "Some insects dare challenge this goddess, let me show these little vermin the difference between shadows and true darkness."
In that place the shadows remain completely still without either of the two ghouls noticing, and they try to attack Kagetsume with everything they have, who has the same cultivation as them, but none of their attacks manage to hit. What's more, when they realize that their energy barely leaves their bodies and disperses being absorbed by something else, it's already too late because at a distance between the two of them, a piercing obsidian rain at full power hits them, killing them on the spot.
…
On the main battlefield, Feicui Long manages to temporarily remove that minor giant turned ghoul from the battlefield, but in return receives two more hits from that damn purple shadow ghoul.
It is then, while he is blocking another attack, that Feicui Long sees him again and, annoyed, drives his halberd into the chest of the ghoul in front of him, pinning him to the ground, only to then take the damn purple ghoul by the head with his own hands and smash him into the ground.
The ghoul writhes and screams ARHADKA! AJREK! AJEHAE! saying meaningless words, while Feicui Long angrily says: "Fucking undead trash, who do you think you are to hurt this sovereign!"
Then, filling his hand with energy, he begins to crush the skull slowly while crunching sounds are heard CrackCraackCraaaack, and he does not stop until the ghoul's body stops moving completely.
He then stands up and takes his halberd and says: "Emerald tide"
The ghoul pinned to the halberd is soon filled with emerald energy and explodes into pieces. Finally, the number of ghouls has dropped from 10 to 5, who retreat a short distance, but far from calming him down, it makes him realize that what he feared has finally arrived...
In the distance, some two or three hundred small blue and yellow lights illuminate the night and watch from a far...