The murmurings of these people naturally reached Yang Kai's ears, but rather than reassuring him, his expression only grew more solemn. He asked in a low voice, "Elder Ban, when the windstorm arrives, the ghosts definitely won't attack?"
Elder Ban replied in a grave tone, "Under normal circumstances, they won't. The gale-force winds are extraordinarily powerful—even the ghosts here can't withstand them. Venturing out recklessly would likely see them blown to ash. However…"
"However what?"
"However, nothing is absolute. The ghosts don't attack during the windstorm not because they can't, but because they don't want to. I actually encountered a situation like this once myself. But it's extremely rare, so you can rest eas—"
Elder Ban's eyes suddenly went wide, staring fixedly at the cave entrance with a look of absolute horror. From within that strange mist, over a dozen semi-transparent figures had just come charging out.
Those figures were vaguely humanoid in shape, their outlines blurred and difficult to make out clearly.
But every single one of them radiated an aura of savage, bone-chilling malevolence.
The moment those dozen-plus semi-transparent figures burst from the strange mist, each one opened its mouth and let out a piercing, ferocious shriek. Their already indistinct features twisted into something grotesque and terrifying in an instant, as though they were ready to devour anyone in their path.
"Damn it—those are yin spirits! They actually came through! Whose big mouth jinxed us?!"
"Everyone, stay sharp!"
At the cave entrance, several warriors erupted into alarmed shouts. No longer daring to remain seated cross-legged on the ground, they scrambled to their feet and readied their defenses.
They had been occupying the outermost edge of the cave, which meant these yin spirits came charging straight at them first. Caught between advance and retreat with nowhere to go, they had no choice but to fight back with everything they had.
In the blink of an eye, beams of light erupted from the hands of those warriors as one Artifact after another was unleashed, booming toward the yin spirits in a deafening barrage.
These men had each fought their way to a foothold inside the cave, so none of them were ordinary fighters. Yet their attacks barely had any effect on these ghosts—they only managed to slow the semi-transparent figures for the briefest of moments, and not a single one was destroyed.
"No good. These are all Ghost General-level!" someone cried out, face draining of color.
Ghost creatures had their own hierarchy, ranging from common yin spirits to Ghost Generals, Ghost Commanders, and even Ghost Kings. Each tier was far more powerful than the last.
Ordinary yin spirits weren't particularly formidable—even a warrior like Elder Ban could handle them with ease. But once Ghost Generals or Ghost Commanders appeared, they were not something Elder Ban could resist on his own. And the Ghost Kings were absolute overlords of the ancient passage, feared even by those in the Emperor Realm.
When the Ghost King had attacked earlier, neither Elder Ban nor Zhang Ruoxi had possessed any power to fight back. Had Yang Kai not been there to protect them, the two of them would have died without even understanding how.
So the moment it was announced that these were all Ghost General-level yin spirits, every warrior inside the cave felt their expression change, each consumed by a sense of imminent danger.
All of their attacks struck the Ghost Generals but failed to inflict any fatal damage. The creatures paused only for a moment before lunging forward with even greater ferocity.
However, the warriors at the cave entrance had clearly spent years living in the Ancient Lands and had ample experience dealing with these ghost creatures. Each of them had been charging up their spiritual energy in readiness, faces set with grim concentration. When the Ghost Generals closed to within a single zhang, they suddenly erupted with spiritual power, unleashing their soul attacks.
Waves of invisible force hammered into the Ghost Generals with savage intensity.
A series of piercing, agonized shrieks rang out as the Ghost Generals were obliterated in an instant, more than half of them annihilated in one go. The few that remained had dimmed significantly, clearly suffering grievous wounds. But these Ghost Generals possessed no intelligence—even heavily injured, they continued lunging forward with bared fangs and claws, their manner as vicious as ever.
Another volley of soul force erupted, and the remaining Ghost Generals followed their companions into oblivion.
The warriors at the cave entrance let out a collective breath of relief.
Though their cultivation levels meant they hadn't truly feared these Ghost General-level creatures, they were currently sheltering from the windstorm and had no desire for complications. Fortunately, there hadn't been all that many of them, and they had been dispatched easily enough.
"There's more!" Yang Kai's expression suddenly turned grave as he barked a low warning.
"What?" The warriors at the cave entrance all felt their faces change, and before they could even ask for clarification, they already understood what Yang Kai had meant.
From within the strange mist, another wave of Ghost Generals came charging out, their savage and brutal aura identical to the previous batch.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh…
More and more yin spirits materialized. The auras emanating from these spirits varied wildly—some were ordinary yin spirits, others were Ghost Generals, and among them were even a few Ghost Commanders.
In the blink of an eye, the area outside the entire cave entrance had been sealed shut by these yin spirits. The semi-transparent figures packed together in a dense, countless mass, creating the unsettling illusion that one had plummeted straight into the underworld itself.
*Gulp!*
The sound of swallowing echoed through the cave as every person stared toward the entrance with grim expressions, their hearts churning with unease.
"How… how can this be?!"
"There are this many ghost creatures attacking during the windstorm?!"
"What in the world is going on?!"
"Enough talk—if you don't want to die, start killing!"