Chapter 1685: All Means Exhausted

Upon witnessing this scene, Wang Qingling and the others simultaneously showed expressions of delight.

At that moment, the blood rain transformed into a pale silver spirit cicada. Its entire body was silver, with a pair of delicate, pale golden wings and silver eyes.

As soon as the silver spirit cicada appeared, cracks resembling dried mud began to form on its body, and it disintegrated completely.

Hundreds of feet away, a silver light illuminated the void, revealing Reverend Heavenly Thunder. His face was pale, and his eyes were filled with terror.

The Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell!

This is a secret technique similar to the 'Calamity Transformation'. Not just anyone can cultivate it; it first requires a lightning-attributed spirit cicada. A cultivator must regularly nurture it with their essence blood. Once the spirit cicada advances to the fourth tier, it is refined into a substitute spirit insect using a secret method, allowing the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell' technique to be performed at a critical moment!

Reverend Heavenly Thunder had spent a fortune to acquire a Golden-Winged Thunder Cicada from the Zhao family of Thousand Spirits Mountain, taking over four hundred years to cultivate it to the fourth tier. Without it, he would have surely perished.

He had never imagined that the Wang family, besides the Green Lotus Sword Master and Fairy Hundred Spirits, possessed another formidable ghost cultivator who wielded a complete set of spirit treasures.

While surprised, he also felt a pang of anger, believing Situ Mei hadn't truthfully disclosed the Wang family's true strength. However, he was mistaken about Situ Mei; Ye Haitang was a hidden power within the Wang family, and even among their own members, few were aware of her existence, as she rarely engaged in combat publicly.

When True Man Yellow Dragon attacked Green Lotus Island, Ye Haitang had intervened to repel the powerful enemy. At that time, she wasn't particularly remarkable and lacked any great divine abilities.

Things were different now. Ye Haitang not only possessed a mid-Nascent Soul cultivation base but also a set of spirit treasures. Her spirit treasures had been elevated by absorbing a vast number of ghosts, including no less than eighteen Nascent Soul-stage ghosts.

Wang Qingling's Three Spirits Demon Expulsion Talisman had sealed three fourth-tier demonic beast souls. This type of artifact, crafted from ghosts or demonic beast spirits, can continuously enhance its power. However, if too many ghosts or spirits are killed or injured, the artifact's grade will decline—a common characteristic of such magical treasures.

A glint of coldness flashed in Reverend Heavenly Thunder's eyes as countless silver electric arcs surged around his body. He was about to unleash other techniques.

A thunderous beast roar echoed, causing Reverend Heavenly Thunder to frown. He possessed a special fifth-tier talisman that allowed him to ignore the Spirit Suppressing Roar, but other Nascent Soul cultivators lacked such immunity. This was precisely why he had been susceptible to the ambush.

Had the Sea-Suppressing Ape not unleashed its great divine ability, the Spirit Suppressing Roar, causing other Nascent Soul cultivators to temporarily lose their magical power, Fairy Purple Moon would never have been able to wound Reverend Heavenly Thunder.

Wang Qingjun waved the crimson banner in his hand, causing points of fiery light to emerge in the void. These converged into a gigantic, house-sized fireball, which, like a miniature volcano, hurtled towards Reverend Heavenly Thunder, radiating astonishing heat waves.

Fairy Purple Moon and the others swarmed forward, unleashing a barrage of spells upon Reverend Heavenly Thunder.

Zhao Hengbin and his companions naturally wouldn't stand idly by. Just as they prepared to intervene, an enraged roar resounded—the Spirit Suppressing Roar once more.

Zhao Hengbin and the others immediately felt their bodies grow weak, unable to muster any magical power. Simultaneously, a barrage of white ice cones and silver lightning bolts rained down from the sky, striking them.

Shen Haoran and his three companions looked pale. Their bodies were enveloped in a faint green glow, and their auras were synchronized. They carried a fourth-tier secret talisman that could merely weaken the Spirit Suppressing Roar's power, unlike Reverend Heavenly Thunder, who could completely ignore it.

The Ice Wind Dragon's tail suddenly swept out, precisely striking a Nascent Soul cultivator's protective spiritual light. The cultivator was instantly sent flying backward, spitting a large mouthful of blood, his face turning ashen.

Boom!

Dozens of watermelon-sized silver thunderballs rained down, crashing onto his body.

Dazzling silver lightning flared, engulfing his figure, and a pained shriek pierced the air.

The Ice Wind Dragon circled high above, then plunged into the silver lightning. A man's piercing shriek echoed, and a headless corpse plummeted, splashing into the sea below.

A flash of spiritual light, and a miniature Nascent Soul shot out from the corpse. No sooner had it exited the body than a vast, white chilling mist descended from above, striking the miniature Nascent Soul and instantly freezing it solid.

Several watermelon-sized silver thunderballs then struck, precisely hitting the frozen miniature Nascent Soul.

With a thunderous roar, the ice shattered into fragments, and the Nascent Soul vanished. The Ice Wind Dragon and Thunder Phoenix, working in concert, had eliminated a Nascent Soul cultivator who had temporarily lost his magical power.

Over a hundred thousand ghosts encircled Reverend Heavenly Thunder. Ten thousand ghosts cried out in unison, the sky and earth changed hue, and gusts of chilling wind swept through the area.

Amidst a chorus of shrill wails, over a hundred thousand ghosts surged forward from all directions.

Reverend Heavenly Thunder opened his mouth, and a silver light shot forth: a silver orb the size of a longan pit. Its surface was enveloped by countless silver electric arcs, emanating a terrifying energy fluctuation.

The Ten Thousand Thunder Bead. He had spent a century on the outer perimeter of the Ten Thousand Thunder Sea, accumulating various forms of lightning energy specifically to counter ghosts.

"Grow!"

Reverend Heavenly Thunder bellowed, performing a hand seal.

The Ten Thousand Thunder Bead immediately erupted with dazzling silver light, followed by an earth-shattering peal of thunder. Tens of thousands of lightning bolts shot forth, striking in all directions.

Lower-tier ghosts, upon contact with the lightning, instantly vanished in puffs of green smoke. Core Formation stage ghosts, when struck by the lightning, shrieked in agony.

Rumble!

A colossal peal of thunder reverberated from high above as a thundercloud several li across appeared in the sky, crackling with lightning and booming with thunder.

Amidst the mighty thunder, over a thousand thick lightning bolts shot out from the thundercloud, striking the over hundred thousand ghosts below.

Immediately, various screams erupted, and vast amounts of green smoke billowed as ghosts were incinerated into ash. Even Nascent Soul-stage ghosts dared not directly withstand the power of the lightning.

While Nascent Soul-stage ghosts weren't so easily destroyed, the lower-tier ones suffered greatly; over ten thousand were annihilated in less than three breaths.

Reverend Heavenly Thunder brandished the silver banner in his hand, sending forth thick silver lightning bolts that struck the ghosts.

Screams continued ceaselessly as lower-tier ghosts turned to ash, and even Core Formation stage ghosts could not escape unscathed.

Ye Haitang's delicate eyebrows furrowed. The Heavenly Ghost Banner had been elevated to a spirit treasure by absorbing a vast number of ghosts. If too many of them were killed or injured, the Heavenly Ghost Banner would revert to an ordinary magic artifact.

With a flick of her hand, she performed a spell, and the eighteen Heavenly Ghost Banners each erupted with blinding black light, swirling erratically around Reverend Heavenly Thunder.

As the Heavenly Ghost Banners spun, vast quantities of black Yin energy surged forth, shrouding the surrounding area.

Reverend Heavenly Thunder felt his surroundings abruptly dim, and he suddenly found himself in a hazy, gray space.

The wails of ghosts and howls of wolves echoed ceaselessly, seeming close but actually originating from a great distance.

Reverend Heavenly Thunder furrowed his brow, a flicker of reluctance in his eyes. He then retrieved a pale golden talisman. Its surface depicted five golden darts arranged in a circle, emanating an intimidating spiritual aura.

It was a fifth-tier talisman, the Golden Dart Spirit Extermination Talisman, capable of releasing five golden darts to harm enemies and inflicting widespread damage.

This talisman had originally been saved to eliminate Wang Qingshan. However, being trapped by a set of ghostly spirit treasures, and other methods of breaking the formation being too uncertain, he decided it was best to simply use this fifth-tier talisman.

He had initially intended to save this fifth-tier talisman for a life-or-death situation, but to his surprise, he now had to deploy it to defeat his foes.

He tossed the talisman forward, performing a hand seal. The talisman then erupted with blinding golden light, as five piercing golden rays shot forth, streaking in all directions.

The five golden rays vanished into the pitch-black void. Suddenly, a blinding white light flared, and the entire gray space instantly shattered.

Reverend Heavenly Thunder successfully broke free. The five golden darts then shot towards Wang Qingling, Ye Haitang, Fairy Purple Moon, Wang Qingjun, and the Sea-Suppressing Ape, respectively.