Chapter 1885: Moonless Night and Strong Wind

Not long after, the young girl's body underwent a significant transformation as powerful martial arts energy continuously surged forth under her control.

Her previously blocked meridians were completely opened, and it was during this time that the young girl unknowingly broke through a cultivation bottleneck that had persisted for hundreds of years, entering the true Grand Completion realm.

It's important to know that throughout the entire Ancient Martial God Domain, once a human cultivator reaches the Grand Completion realm, it's equivalent to reaching a new starting point.

The transition from Grand Completion to Dao Integration is considered the greatest bottleneck for ordinary people. If one can overcome this bottleneck, almost all martial artists in the Grand Completion realm can eventually become legends recorded in the annals of martial arts. However, the path from the Grand Completion realm to challenging the supreme realm of Martial Gods is exceedingly long.

Looking at the hundreds of thousands of years of history in the Ancient Martial God Domain, while the number of martial artists who have entered the Grand Completion realm has reached hundreds of thousands, those who ultimately became Martial Gods number only a few thousand.

The purple-clad girl had always yearned to enter the Grand Completion realm. Now, by chance, she had gained this opportunity from Xu Yang, the very person who had abducted her. Instantly, the girl's original anger towards Xu Yang and his companions completely vanished.

"Hahaha, thank you," she said. "Originally, I truly hated you with a passion, but now I suddenly realize there's an indescribable charm about you."

"To be honest," she continued, "I no longer see you as my opponents. I even have the illusion that I'm one of your team."

Xu Yang snorted with a laugh. "You don't need to flatter me," he said. "In reality, this elemental pill wouldn't have been very useful to any of us. You just got a good deal, so don't think I have any other intentions towards you." The purple-clad girl puffed out her cheeks and rolled her eyes at Xu Yang.

Unbeknownst to her, within her sect, she was a pampered princess, adored by all, with countless young talents favoring her. However, upon joining Xu Yang's team, she realized that her supposed talent as a 'heaven's favorite' was nothing in their eyes.

This experience also made the formerly arrogant princess realize that she needed to put in much more effort to reach higher realms.

For this world never lacks geniuses. Only a handful truly make it to the end and become legends.

After conquering the individuals before them, Xu Yang immediately left the castle with his team, heading towards the Imperial Capital, their final battlefield. Sure enough, not long after they left the city-state, a new wave of enemies began to appear.

"Brother Xu Yang, did you hear anything unusual?"

Little Mushroom, who had been silent beside them, suddenly leaned into Xu Yang's ear and whispered this.

Xu Yang and the rest of the team instinctively stopped. The purple-clad girl was the only one oblivious, still strolling forward, but the others all wore wary expressions, carefully scrutinizing their surroundings.

At this moment, the plain was wide open, offering almost no cover. Contrasting with this vast plain, the endless darkness of the void above painted the sky, with only the full winter moon appearing exceptionally round and bright.

"This place, on a dark and windy night, is indeed most suitable for an ambush," Xu Yang mused. "Judging by its geographical location, if I were the impostor hiding in the palace, this spot would definitely be the best place for an ambush before we enter the capital."

Sure enough, not long after Xu Yang finished speaking, the purple-clad girl, who had previously shown no awareness of danger, suddenly stopped.

Her face was incredibly pale, showing signs of extreme fright. Then, disregarding everything, she quickly ran back towards Xu Yang and his group.

"What in the world is that ahead?" she exclaimed. "It's so eerie and terrifying!"

The girl, still panting heavily, returned to Xu Yang and his companions. Just as she turned around, Xu Yang clearly saw, at the edge of the darkness, one silver-robed soul after another.

Figures with skull-like heads slowly emerged. They floated with their feet off the ground, appearing like specters in the dark night, terrifyingly cold and lacking any materialized soul form.

Their appearance was almost identical to the souls of the disciples whose physical bodies Xu Yang had previously refined. However, under the illumination of the dark night, their soul outlines exuded an additional aura of eerie coldness and mystery.

As each silver-robed soul appeared, a silver tombstone quickly grew out of the ground beneath their bodies.

The inscriptions on these tombstones were actually the souls of powerful martial artists that these silver-robed disciples had once devoured.

Two deep green soul flames burned at the head of each soul, serving as the only striking feature of their skull-like heads. Additionally, powerful purple marks glowed on the central part of their soul bodies.

In the blink of an eye, souls of the same type appeared all around Xu Yang's team, on all sides, completely blocking all their escape routes.

Xu Yang scanned his surroundings, observing the five hundred souls gathered there, each having reached the level of a Ten Thousand Year Disciple Lecturer.

"Welcome to the graves I personally dug for you." Suddenly, an ancient and sinister face appeared in the center of the radiant full moon in the sky. This massive, circular facial outline belonged to the priest who had previously given orders to the false emperor in the palace.

The gigantic soul form of the priest appearing on the moon's disc at this moment was merely a phantom body it had projected, not its true soul. However, there was no doubt that all the surrounding souls were combat puppets personally summoned by the priest. Xu Yang observed the situation around him.

He merely sneered, his expression unchanged. In his eyes, no matter what form others took, they were all the same, because in terms of raw strength, no one was Xu Yang's match.

It was merely a question of how difficult the game had become. The Taoist, Little Mushroom, and the purple-clad girl beside him all showed grave expressions. Indeed, without Xu Yang's help, their combined strength would be far from enough to break through such a blockade.

Xu Yang laughed loudly, suddenly focusing his mental power on the moon disc above and directly addressing the skull-faced priest.

"If my judgment is correct," Xu Yang declared, "if I were to refine you into an elemental pill, it would contain the purest essence of death qi. And the true power of your main body is on par with the strongest Martial Gods within the Ancient Martial God Domain."

"This title of 'priest' is actually the highest rank among the puppet minions of your dark forces. All secrets related to the puppets of the dark forces should be found within your soul world."