Chapter 62: The Power of the Yin Ghost Formation Revealed!
“What the hell is this thing?!”
As soon as Liu Er finished speaking, his body was struck by a tremendous force and was sent flying through the air.
Liu Da quickly summoned a shield to protect himself.
With the blessing of a water-blue spell, he barely managed to withstand the impact from the Stone Armored Crab.
He finally saw the situation clearly.
“Damn it, why is this thing here?!”
Liu Da roared angrily, keeping the shield steady while retreating step by step.
“Er? Er?!”
After retreating for a good distance without seeing any sign of his brother, Liu Da began to panic.
“Brother, I’m here! I’m here!”
Liu Er’s voice responded, but no figure could be seen.
Liu Da summoned a Water Piercing Dagger to float around him, and also stuck a Night Vision Talisman on himself. However, the surroundings remained pitch black, and he couldn’t see a thing.
“Something’s wrong… Liu Changsheng?!”
“Liu Changsheng, where the hell are you?!”
Realizing something was off, Liu Da shouted loudly.
Ji Yuan remained silent, merely controlling the Yin Ghost Formation, making the Stone Armored Crab crash into Liu Er.
A muffled groan followed.
Liu Er managed to block the crab’s pincers with his shield, but facing a near late-stage first-rank demonic beast, he could barely hold on.
With a thought, Ji Yuan released the two fifth-layer Qi Refining Yin Ghosts from the Yin Ghost Banner.
In the black mist, the two ghost heads moved like fish in water, pouncing toward Liu Er the moment they appeared.
However, their target was not Liu Er himself, but the shield in his hands.
Just like when they had gnawed on Ji Yuan’s White Water Flying Sword, the two ghosts pounced, assisted by the Stone Armored Crab in the struggle.
With almost no resistance, they snatched the mid-grade magical shield from Liu Er’s hands.
Panic surged in Liu Er’s heart, but he was a hardened fighter forged through life-and-death battles.
He stamped his foot, formed hand seals, and stirred the lake water in front of him into a whirlpool, pulling the Stone Armored Crab’s body toward it.
Just when he thought he had a chance to escape, he backed away—only to crash straight into the cave wall.
The recoil from the giant rock made him grunt in pain, and a sweet taste rose in his throat.
No, I clearly saw that the exit was behind me… As confusion filled his mind, he suddenly felt water rushing into his nasal cavity.
‘My Water Repelling Talisman, where’s my Water Repelling Talisman?!’
Liu Er hastily pulled out a Water Repelling Talisman from his storage pouch, but before he could stick it on, he noticed a flash of red light in the darkness.
It looked like a flowing illusion.
Panicking, he pulled out a high-grade Defensive Talisman, but before he could activate it, the red light had already burrowed into the space between his eyebrows.
At the same time, a surge of lake water flooded his lungs.
At the brink of death, it seemed that he had finally understood something.
He tried to shout out “Liu Changsheng,” but as soon as he opened his mouth, water rushed in.
He could only let out a muffled grunt.
And then, all was silent.
The Stone Armored Crab charged toward him, its massive pincers snapping down with a crack, slicing him cleanly in half at the waist.
It all happened in an instant.
Liu Er’s clash with the Stone Armored Crab, combined with Ji Yuan’s ambush, took no more than a single breath’s time.
Meanwhile, Liu Da, who was still stumbling blindly in the passage, completely unaware that he had already fallen into the formation, finally understood when he heard Liu Er’s final muffled groan.
He once again summoned his shield, stood still, and called out in confusion:
“Er?”
No response came.
He fell silent.
“Liu Changsheng, it’s you, isn’t it?”
At this point, if he still didn’t realize that someone was manipulating things from the shadows, he might as well be dead.
What baffled him, however, was how Liu Changsheng, who was only at the sixth layer of Qi Refining, could manage to maneuver between a Stone Armored Crab and the two of them without exposing himself.
Liu Changsheng gave no answer.
The only response was the Stone Armored Crab approaching with Liu Er’s upper body in its grip.
Seeing his brother’s corpse, Liu Da, who had remained relatively calm, lost all reason.
He immediately pulled out a high-grade Offensive Talisman from his storage pouch and crushed it.
In an instant, a lightning long sword formed from purple lightning appeared before him.
With a furious roar, he shouted, “Go!”
As the Purple Lightning Sword sliced through the water, it also tore through Ji Yuan’s Yin Ghost Formation.
Lightning techniques were naturally imbued with yang energy.
Although a single high-grade talisman couldn’t completely destroy the Yin Ghost Formation, it could break it open slightly.
Unfortunately, this death trap was already dimly lit.
Even if the formation was partially broken, Liu Da was unaware.
As the Purple Lightning Sword flew forward, the Stone Armored Crab sensed the danger.
It raised its pincers, still holding Liu Er’s corpse.
“Ssshhh—”
The sword pierced through Liu Er’s chest, severing one of the crab’s pincers.
When it reached the crab’s body, the creature flipped over, using its tough carapace to block the strike.
Yet even so, the carapace was slashed open by the lightning sword.
“Roar—”
The Stone Armored Crab howled in pain, lunging forward.
The two were already in close quarters, and Liu Da, blinded by rage, had no time to dodge.
He could only use his shield to block the crab’s snapping jaws and its massive pincers.
In the midst of the struggle, he even managed to cast a spell from his mouth, striking the relatively softer underside of the Stone Armored Crab.
The crab roared in pain again.
Just as Liu Da thought he had created an opening to escape, his strike seemed to provoke the crab’s ferocity even more.
The crab raised its pincers and smashed down violently.
“Boom—”
With just one strike, Liu Da, pinned against the rocky ground, spat out blood.
“Leave…”
In his daze, Liu Da seemed to hear a soft voice whispering in his ear. He tried to respond, but then felt water flooding into his nose.
A red glow and a streak of white light followed.
That was… a magical weapon!
“Liu Changsheng, you—”
Liu Da shouted, but the moment the words left his mouth, they were his last.
“……”
Watching the Stone Armored Crab begin to feast on Liu Da’s corpse, Ji Yuan, hiding in the dark, finally let out a sigh of relief.
‘Didn’t expect the corrosion of the talismans by the Yin Ghost Formation to be so slow. Corroding Liu Er’s Water Repelling Talisman was a bit quicker, but Liu Da’s was much slower. He must’ve replaced his Water Repelling Talisman when he entered the death trap… Damn it, what a bastard.’
Thoughts raced through Ji Yuan’s mind as he stared at the severely wounded Stone Armored Crab… It was time for him to act.
He summoned the White Water Flying Sword again, pointing his finger forward.
The flying sword shot out, piercing through the wound on the crab’s back in an instant.
The Stone Armored Crab, happily feasting on flesh, was caught off guard by the attack. Its body trembled in pain, and it instinctively arched its back, shaking its armored body so violently that the entire mine trembled along with it.
Seizing the moment, Ji Yuan threw the Deadly Needle once more.
The red glow sliced through the water, piercing through the crab’s underbelly seam.
Despite the double assault, the Stone Armored Crab didn’t die immediately. Instead, it thrashed around wildly in the death trap, as if trying to shake off the two magical weapons.
But the more it struggled, the harder Ji Yuan pressed on.
If he didn’t finish it off now, there would be no more chances!
The two sides locked in this deadly struggle for over ten breaths before the Stone Armored Crab finally quieted down, completely still.
Ji Yuan breathed a sigh of relief but remained cautious.
Only after he used his flying sword to sever the crab’s remaining pincers and all eight legs did he finally step forward to collect its corpse.
A nearly late-stage first-rank corpse was a treasure.
It could fetch a lot of spirit stones!
However, the corpse was too large, forcing Ji Yuan to use the old Ghost Island Master’s storage pouch, splitting it into two parts to store it completely.
Then he gathered Liu Da and Liu Er’s storage pouches.
Just as he was about to dismiss the formation and call Qiu Qianhai back in to continue mining—
The ground… moved!
The entire death trap began to shake violently.
This was… a Earth Dragon Turning Over!