Where did the Ghost King go after escaping the pursuit of the Divine Dragon Temple?
It had already stated very clearly that it went inside the enemy, which was the Divine Dragon Temple.
Moreover, it had asked Lan Ling to awaken it.
The reason for describing it as “it” was that Lan Ling did not even know whether the Ghost King was male or female, or perhaps he had no gender at all.
Furthermore, it had stated that it had not betrayed His Majesty the Demon Emperor, but was simply unwilling to accept defeat, and therefore wished to attempt a new approach.
According to their standard mission, after the World-Destroying Demon Emperor failed and died, the Hell Knights needed to reincarnate continually, enduring in this world under mortal identities, waiting for the day the Demon Emperor summoned them to become Hell Knights once more.
However, Number Four among the Hell Knights was unwilling to accept this, so it did not choose reincarnation, but instead broke away from the ranks of the Hell Knights to embark upon the path of world destruction alone.
Thus, it violated the covenant, walking the mortal realm alone in the form of a Hell Knight. Perhaps through many fortuitous encounters, or through countless cultivations and devouring, it ultimately became extraordinarily powerful.
Moreover, to conceal its identity from others, it forged a suit of armour, hiding its ghostly form inside it.
It truly was formidable, establishing the mighty Ghost King Empire entirely on its own, almost uniting one third of the Southern Wasteland.
Yet later, it abandoned its expansion, turning its attention towards the cosmos and the starry sky.
On the surface, it appeared to possess noble sentiments, beginning to study the universe.
However, that was not the case, it was merely seeking the ultimate power of the Divine Dragon Temple. After persistent, unyielding searching for one to two hundred years, it finally discovered the secret of the moon.
It not only found the secret upon the moon, but also the secret behind the destruction of the Misfortune Demon Capital.
It felt the sheer might of the Divine Dragon Temple’s ultimate power, realising that no matter how powerful its Ghost King Empire became, it held no significance. The ancient Misfortune Empire had been so powerful, yet it was still slain in an instant by the Divine Dragon Temple’s ultimate power using stellar energy.
Therefore, the Ghost King resolutely abandoned his previous plans, casting aside the Ghost King Empire entirely, and chose a new path.
After escaping the pursuit of the Divine Dragon Temple, it reincarnated, infiltrating the interior of the Divine Dragon Temple.
One had to admit, this Ghost King, who was also Hell Knight Number Four, was truly an unconstrained and imaginative individual, unconventional, exceedingly clever, and boundlessly loyal to the cause of the World-Destroying Demon Emperor.
Thus, it truly had not betrayed His Majesty the Demon Emperor, it was among the most loyal, just like the other Hell Knights.
Just as the Headless Knight had once said, he could never imagine Number Four betraying them under any circumstances, because the Hell Knights were an extension of His Majesty the Demon Emperor’s very life, making betrayal utterly impossible.
Now, the truth was finally revealed!
…
The bombardment of energy within Lan Ling’s body continued unabated.
His cultivation continued to rise.
The residual energy left behind by the Ghost King frantically reformed his mental domain, and from afar, reshaped every bone and meridian in Lan Ling’s physical body.
With every passing second, Lan Ling grew more powerful.
For any peak Demon Martial Grandmaster, breaking through to Demon Sect was exceptionally difficult, requiring at least several years.
Because this was an absolute qualitative leap, shifting from previous physical force attacks to energy output, requiring a comprehensive transformation and metamorphosis spanning from the heart, to the brain domain, to the meridians, to the bones, and even to the muscles.
This required an astronomical amount of energy, as well as an extraordinarily powerful innate talent from the martial artist.
Consequently, to a large extent, the energy required to break through to Demon Sect from a peak Demon Martial Grandmaster even exceeded the total sum of energy needed for all previous breakthroughs combined.
This was precisely why breaking through to Demon Sect was so arduous.
In many instances, one entirely needed to borrow the power of heaven and earth to complete such a transformation.
For this reason, Demon Sect stood as the hallmark of true powerhouses in this world.
Yet Lan Ling’s heaven-defying bloodline and Golden Demon Body were not like this, the bodily meridians and mental domain required for Demon Sect were child’s play to him.
Hence, he broke through to Demon Sect smoothly without any impediment.
Moreover, his cultivation continued to rise steadily.
A quarter of an hour, two quarters, three quarters…
One-star Demon Sect, two-star Demon Sect, three-star Demon Sect, four-star Demon Sect…
Suddenly, the explosion of energy ceased!
“My dear successor, next you have a choice,” the Ghost King’s voice then echoed in his ears.
This was merely a mental phantom left behind three thousand years ago.
Because the Ghost King had always believed that whoever entered the tomb of the Ghost King to obtain his armour and sword would surely be his successor, never imagining it would be his Master.
“What choice?” Lan Ling asked.
The Ghost King’s mental phantom said, “You can choose to continue breaking through, the remaining energy can still raise your cultivation by two levels. Alternatively, you can choose to use the remaining energy to cultivate a demonic technique.”
After breaking through to Demon Sect, the basic means of attack were sword beams, fist beams, sword qi, and the like.
However, there were also certain demonic techniques, mysterious and exceedingly powerful.
“What demonic techniques are there?” Lan Ling asked.
“There are three in total, Nether Sword, Death Coil, and Puppetry!” the Ghost King’s phantom said. “Nether Sword is a standard offensive demonic technique that releases hell-element dark energy within sword beams, multiplying attack power. Whoever is struck by the Nether Sword beam will have their life force devoured, their energy continually corroded, and their cultivation constantly weakened!”
“Death Coil can instantly corrode vast swathes of life, devouring their vitality and converting it into your own energy. For any martial artist, including us Hell Knights, the internal energy stored is limited, and one cannot fight endlessly. Death Coil allows our energy to flow unceasingly, highly suited for slaughtering enemies on a massive scale on the battlefield,” the Ghost King said. “It is an evil area-of-effect technique.”
The Ghost King spoke very calmly, but Lan Ling could instantly tell that this Death Coil technique was horrifyingly potent.
“Puppetry turns the dead on the battlefield into your undead army to fight for you. Naturally, the duration is very short, lasting only two quarters of an hour at most,” the Ghost King’s phantom said. “Because after a person dies, their soul drifts towards the underworld, and once their soul enters the underworld, the puppetry technique loses its effect.”
Damn, this set of techniques was even more heaven-defying!
With this puppetry technique, one would have an endless stream of soldiers on the battlefield.
It was entirely a game-breaking existence.
Lan Ling said, “Are these techniques your exclusive trademark, such that once used, they will reveal to the Divine Dragon Temple that the user is a descendant of the Ghost King?”
The Ghost King’s phantom laughed loudly and said, “Of course not, these are entirely new techniques I created before my reincarnation, merely a kind of hell-element demonic art. In the Southern Wasteland, and even within the Divine Dragon Temple, countless masters study hell-element demonic arts. I was already targeted by the ultimate power of the Divine Dragon Temple, how could I possibly pass down techniques branded with the Ghost King’s identity to you?”
Next, the Ghost King’s phantom said, “The remaining energy is just enough for you to learn one technique, choose one among the three.”
“Nether Sword!” Lan Ling said.
Although Death Coil and Puppetry were incredibly heaven-defying, almost game-breaking existences, they were area-of-effect techniques for battlefields, whereas what Lan Ling needed right now was single combat.
“Very well, I shall now transmit the Nether Sword technique to you,” the Ghost King’s phantom said. “Although this is the simplest among the three scrolls of demonic arts, it is still exceedingly complex, requiring countless energy transformations. Therefore, how long it takes to master and how much energy it consumes depends entirely upon your talent. My successor, I hope you have not come this far purely through luck.”
Next, the Ghost King’s mental phantom began transmitting the secret scriptures of the Nether Sword technique into Lan Ling’s brain domain.
While transmitting, it also needed to reshape Lan Ling’s brain domain and alter his entire skeletal and meridian system so that he could adapt to releasing the Nether Sword.
If a person’s mental talent was high enough, their mental strength powerful enough, and their brain domain capacity large enough, the speed of learning demonic techniques would naturally be far faster.
If a person possessed superior bloodline talent and physical physique that could accommodate many forms of energy, the cost of modification would naturally be low, and the energy required to reshape the meridians would be even less.
However, right as it began, the Ghost King’s mental phantom was completely stunned.
Heavens above!
What… what kind of mental talent was this? What kind of brain domain was this?
Initially, it had cautiously transmitted the energy data of the Nether Sword, not daring to send too much at once lest Lan Ling’s mental strength fall short and fail to comprehend it, or risk causing his brain domain to collapse.
Yet…
The energy data it transmitted was received entirely in an instant, comprehended in an instant, and engraved within Lan Ling’s brain domain in an instant.
A comprehension process originally expected to take a quarter of an hour was completed in a split second, taking less than a single second.
This… this was terrifying.
It was just like sending a massive file of a dozen gigabytes to a computer, having already vastly overestimated the other party’s hardware, assuming an i7 processor, 128 gigabytes of RAM, and a 100 megabit fibre connection, expecting transmission and installation to finish in about a quarter of an hour.
Never had it expected it to finish in merely one second.
Because the other party was… the world’s number one Tianhe-1 supercomputer cluster.
Thus, the Ghost King increased the transmission of energy data, yet it still entered Lan Ling’s brain domain instantaneously, received instantly, comprehended instantly, and engraved instantly.
The Ghost King continued to increase it, increase it, and increase it further…
Ultimately, a comprehension and modification process originally thought to require a month was completely finished in less than a quarter of an hour!
It had originally expected the remaining energy to be fully depleted, since reshaping the brain domain and bodily meridians required immense energy, yet who could have known that after mastering the Nether Sword, less than one tenth of the energy had been used.
The mental phantom left by the Ghost King trembled and said, “My successor, you… doing this makes me feel inferior! No… the only one who could possess such mental talent and bloodline talent is one person…”
Then, the mental phantom left by the Ghost King trembled violently, almost as if about to turn to ash.
After quite a long time, it finally spoke with a trembling voice, “You… you are His Majesty…”
Then, trembling, it fell to its knees, prostrating itself upon the ground.
“Hell Knight Number Four pays respects to His Majesty, oh no, Number Four’s puppet pays respects to His Majesty!” The Ghost King’s mental phantom lay prostrate on the ground without moving, saying, “Your Majesty, Number Four did not betray you, I merely attempted to walk an alternative path, only to end in failure.”
Lan Ling said, “I know, I do not blame you. What did you see upon the moon?”
The Ghost King’s mental phantom said, “Your Majesty, I am merely a mental puppet created by the Ghost King, so I truly do not know this secret.”
Lan Ling said, “He has already reincarnated, and he intends to infiltrate the interior of the Divine Dragon Temple, do you know who he is?”
The Ghost King’s mental phantom said, “My apologies, Your Majesty. I was created solely to instruct Number Four’s successor. I do not possess higher authority, and thus lack the relevant information.”
Lan Ling said, “I understand.”
The Ghost King’s mental phantom asked, “Shall I continue transmitting Death Coil and Puppetry to you?”
“Very well,” Lan Ling said.
Next, the Ghost King’s mental phantom remained kneeling on the ground, continuing to teach Death Coil and Puppetry, those two heaven-defying battlefield techniques.
Transmitting on one hand, while reshaping Lan Ling’s brain domain and bodily meridians on the other.
In merely a quarter of an hour, the comprehension of Death Coil concluded.
Then the instruction of Puppetry commenced.
Once again taking just a quarter of an hour, Puppetry was fully transmitted, fully comprehended, and the physical transformation was complete.
Originally, Lan Ling was only supposed to learn a single demonic technique, yet unexpectedly, he had mastered all three at once.
However, at this moment, Lan Ling’s soul was inside the Ghost King’s dimension while his physical body remained in the ruins of the Misfortune Demon Capital, making it impossible to unleash these three heaven-defying arts for now.
“Your Majesty, according to plan, the energy I left behind was meant for learning a single demonic technique, never did I imagine that after learning three techniques, more than half of it would still remain!” the Ghost King said. “Then with the remaining energy, I shall continue to break through your cultivation!”
“Good!” Lan Ling said.
Previously, the Ghost King’s method of elevating Lan Ling’s cultivation had been extremely violent, locking his soul within the armour and then detonating energy directly, forcefully driving his cultivation skywards.
Now, knowing that Lan Ling was not the Ghost King’s successor, but actually His Majesty the Demon Emperor.
Thus, the Ghost King’s mental phantom delicately channelled the remaining energy into Lan Ling’s soul, which then entered Lan Ling’s body.
After a full quarter of an hour…
All the energy was fully transmitted!
At this point, all the energy within the Ghost King Armour and Ghost King Sword was completely exhausted.
“My Sovereign, your cultivation has broken through to Five-Star Demon Sect!” the Ghost King’s mental phantom said. “My mission is complete, and I am about to fade away. To have served you is an infinite honour in my brief existence. I firmly believe our cause will succeed, we will utterly destroy the Divine Dragon Temple, we will bring ruin to the existing world, and you will surely rule supreme over all under heaven!”
Having said this, the Ghost King’s mental phantom gradually faded, soon to vanish from Lan Ling’s field of vision.
Lan Ling’s journey in the tomb of the Ghost King was about to conclude, and he was about to return to the real world.
Because the surrounding dimension of the Ghost King’s tomb was also gradually fading, gradually disappearing.
From this trip to the tomb of the Ghost King, Lan Ling’s gains were far greater than imagined, far, far greater.
Not only had he obtained the Ghost King’s remnant energy and broken through to Five-Star Demon Sect, but he had also learned three powerful demonic techniques.
Yet the greatest gain of all was learning that the Ghost King was actually his own Hell Knight Number Four, and that he had currently infiltrated the very interior of the Divine Dragon Temple.