With the appearance of the five Resentful Spirits at the peak of the King Realm, the situation Li Mu was facing became rather dire.

He tried to rush through the gaps between those Resentful Spirits at the peak of the King Realm by using the power of the white-bone right arm to drive the Samsara Knife to the extreme. However, each time, when he was about to escape from the encirclement, he was whipped and knocked back, falling into the encirclement again.

Gradually, waves of exhaustion stoled over Li Mu.

In ordinary battles, he would not have such fatigue even if the fight lasted 10 days and 10 nights. But at this time, his opponents were at the peak of the King Realm. Every time he thumped, defended, and charged, he did it with all his might.

“These King Realm Resentful Spirits seem to be toying with me like cats playing with a mouse before they eat it, aren’t they?”

Li Mu felt that things did not look good.

The four Resentful Spirits at the peak of the King Realm that just appeared and the octopus-like monster had body-blocked the four directions around Li Mu and the air above his head. Like five playful cats, they had besieged Li Mu, tantalizing him with the hope of escaping.

Seeing this, the ordinary and low-level ghosts, who were packed like waves, stopped attacking. Although they still looked at Li Mu with the maddening hunger for food, due to their awe for the five Peak-stage King Realm Resentful Spirit, they did not dare to act rashly in case they spoiled their fun.

Therefore, Li Mu’s life was on the line for the time being.

Yet, once any of the five Peak-stage King Realm Resentful Spirits set its killing intent freely, Li Mu figured that he would die in an instant. There was no doubt about that.

However, this also helped Li Mu calm down.

“What’s going on?

“Resentful Spirits all feed on flesh and blood. Every time they encounter a living being with flesh and blood, they will pounce on it and devour it without hesitation.

“But the five Resentful Spirits at the peak of the King Realm are actually in the mood to play, even though they can devour me in the blink of an eye. Does this mean… these five Resentful Spirits at the peak of the King Realm actually have consciousness and intelligence?”

As far as Li Mu knew, ordinary Resentful Spirits did not have consciousness or intelligence. All they got was the desire for flesh and blood.

They were like the zombies in the doomsday movie, Resident Evil, on Earth. All they knew was to eat people and engage in vandalism.

“But the Peak-stage King Realm Resentful Spirit seems to have risen above the desire for flesh and blood, haven’t they?”

These thoughts flashed across Li Mu’s mind in an instant.

But these thoughts seemed of no help in providing him with a getaway.

Because there would be a time when the cat got tired of playing with the mouse.

Once the cat got bored, it would pounce on the mouse and kill it.

Li Mu did not want to become the mouse that was toyed with and got killed in the end.

Like a rubber ball, he kept bouncing back and forth among the five Resentful Spirits at the peak of the King Realm, hitting them hard. With his white-bone right arm and the flame of the Samsara Knife, as well as his strong body, he could ensure that he would not be injured. Nevertheless, it was utterly impossible for him to escape.

“If this goes on, I’m gonna die.”

Li Mu’s mind was racing for a solution.

“Is there any way to restrain the power of these Resentful Spirits?

“These Resentful Spirits are all inanimate existences.

“Or rather, half-dead existences?

“Their corporeal bodies have already decayed into a pile of white bones. Their Source Energy has also dissipated. Only a whiff of their obsession has remained. Thus, they’ve attached themselves to the bones. Come to think of it, they are very similar to the souls on the Ghost Rally Star… Wait, the Ghost Rally Star?”

It suddenly occurred to Li Mu that the Samsara Knife came from the Ghost Rally Star. Its power could restrain ordinary Resentful Spirits. It even cut off the tentacles of the octopus-like Resentful Spirit at the peak of the King Realm with one strike.

“This indicates…”

Li Mu suddenly recalled that he had cultivated the Ghost Qi when he was on the Ghost Rally Star.

He cultivated the Ghost Qi with both the Netherworld and Azure Heavens Two Forms Scripture of the Bone Sacred Mountain and the Xiantian Skill. Later, he succeeded in incorporating it into his body.

“What if I withdraw the primitive natural qi now and turn it into the Ghost Qi?”

Thinking of that, Li Mu felt it necessary to take a risk.

As Li Mu was being bombarded by various attacks, with a stir of his mind, the primitive qi in his body quietly retreated to the depths of his elixir field, as though it had disappeared. The power of the Ghost Qi from the Ghost Rally Star, which he had not cultivated or activated for a long time, instantly filled his body.

Then, Li Mu’s aura abruptly changed.

The five Resentful Spirits at the peak of the King Realm, who were happily “playing” with Li Mu, all screamed out of the blue. As if having encountered something extremely terrible, they backed away in a panic.

“Eh?”

An exclamation sounded in the void.

That voice was not aggressive or anything. But somehow, Li Mu felt as if his heart had been severely whacked by it.

Subconsciously, he turned his head and looked in the direction of the blood-colored sea of clouds at the top of the mountain of bones in the distance.

Intuition told Li Mu that this voice came from there.

“Retreat.”

That voice sounded again.

Before Li Mu could figure out what was going on, the five Peak-stage King Realm Resentful Spirits instantly became phantoms and faded on the spot. They turned into beams of light and flew toward the mountain of bones.

The sea of Resentful Spirits surrounding Li Mu also vanished in an instant. It was as if they had never been there.

The five Peak-stage King Realm Resentful Spirits might have appeared to enhance their restrain on their desire for flesh and blood. Still, they coveted Li Mu. However, the simple “retreat” uttered by that voice just now made the thousands of Resentful Spirits that blotted the sun and the sky vanish instantly despite their strong desire for flesh and blood.

A gust of wind blew.

Looking at the empty hillside around him, Li Mu was seized by consternation.

A second ago, he was facing a life-and-death crisis.

But now, all the ghostly phantoms disappeared. It was all quiet and serene, like a beach right before the tsunami befell.

“What the heck is this?”

Li Mu was puzzled.

Just now, he wanted to try to activate the Ghost Qi and pretend to be one of the Resentful Spirits. But to his shock, it caused such a big fuss. “What just happened?

“Did I scare away the enemy?

“Or… hmm, did something else happen?

“Could that strange voice be the ‘dead god’ that the Gold and Silver King mentioned?”

Li Mu was stunned for a short while. Then, he immediately turned around and ran to the outside.

Regardless, now was not the time to get to the bottom of things. He had to escape to a safe place first.

At this time, there were more and more rumbling sounds in the sky.

Streaks of blood-colored lightning flashed wildly, which densely appeared in the sky above the mountain of bones and struck the blood-colored sea of clouds.

The blood-colored clouds were rolling madly like boiling oil, as though some terrible monster or fiend was trying to break free from it.

As Li Mu dashed out, he noticed something absurd.

In the area shrouded by the deadly Yin Qi, green trees and flowers sprang up at a speed visible to the naked eye. The area piled with dead leaves that he had passed before was now covered with lush plants. What was more, the plants didn’t look like newly sprouted ones. Instead, it seemed that they had been there for decades or even hundreds of years.

The once bleak land had become fertile and full of vitality.

Those trees and weeds were still growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

“Something big is about to happen.”

Li Mu sped up and madly darted toward the outside.

About half an hour later.

Li Mu had finally escaped from the mountain of bones and reached a safe area.

He stopped in his tracks and looked back. All of a sudden, he froze on the spot.

“What has happened?”

The horrible, gloomy mountain of bones was nowhere to be seen.

In its place now lay a wonderland-like mountain. It was covered with towering ancient trees and green grass. Waterfalls poured down like silver dragons. The clouds drifted around the mountain like silver ribbons. It was extremely otherworldly and beautiful.

The blood-colored sea of clouds had vanished.

So did the streaks of blood-colored lightning that filled the sky.

From a distance, one could vaguely see a figure of a hundred meters high sitting cross-legged on the mountaintop that now looked like a sky-high green pillar.

At first, Li Mu thought that his eyes had deceived him, or it was a stone or a tree that looked like the figure of a man from a distance. He believed it was some sort of illusion.

But when he ran his Cultivation Method and observed with his Third Eye, he found that it was indeed a real “person”.

Judging by the proportion of his figure, the “person” should be about 100 meters high. He could be regarded as a giant. He was clad in a scarlet battle robe. A spear was inserted in the ground nearby. He was sitting cross-legged on the top of the mountain as if sitting in a sea of clouds. His eyes seemed to be closed as if he was waiting for something.

After taking a glance at that figure, Li Mu’s heartbeat inexplicably accelerated.

His heart thumped heavily as if it were a war drum performing a battle song.

He quickly ran the Xiantian Skill to calm his suddenly restless heart.

“That figure is the one who uttered the word ‘retreat’ just now, which caused the five Resentful Spirits at the peak of the King Realm to back off, as well as hundreds of millions of ordinary Resentful Spirits to disappear in a flash. Is he the ‘dead’ god the Gold and Silver King referred to?

“But why… did I find him familiar as if I’ve met him before?”

“Hey, Big Brother, you’re still alive? You managed to get out of there in one piece?”

A familiar voice rang out.

The wimpy Gold and Silver King sneakily flew over with a flock of his junior blood bats.

Seeing Li Mu, the Gold and Silver King looked overwhelmed by joy and gratefulness. It swooped down and wrapped its fleshless wings around Li Mu’s thigh, saying, “How wonderful! Big brother, you are really a blessed man. I was about to summon my subordinates to save you. Even if I had to die, I would have no regrets as long as I died with you. But you actually made it out yourself. Gee, thank God.”

As it spoke, it even managed to shed a few tears.

Without saying a word, Li Mu grabbed the Gold and Silver King and gave it a good beating. “Bang, bang, bang!” He didn’t stop until the rims of its eyes turned black.

“Big Brother, you misunderstood me. I did not abandon you for fear of death. I only ran out to summon the army,” the Gold and Silver King grovelingly explained to Li Mu in a sweet female voice.

“Getting beaten up is no big deal. As long as Li Mu is willing to help me in the future to remove the obstacles in the evolvement and advance to the Beast King Realm, I would not mind it even if I had to eat shit, let alone being bashed.”

Li Mu said, “What misunderstanding? I know you left just to look for your juniors to save me… Hey, you can’t have thought that I hit you because I thought you dumped me and fled on your own, have you?”

The Gold and Silver King was confused. “Then why did you beat me, Big Brother?”

Li Mu stretched and said, “No reason. I just can’t help but want to hit you when I see that you are over the moon.”

The Gold and Silver King was bereft of speech.

“You sinister and shameless human being!

“I don’t know what to say to you.”…