"ATTENTION!!" Zeng Yu and Zeng Wu's simultaneous shouts echoed in the valley.
The Spirit Realm experts quickly ran to their spots and unleashed their absolute full powers.
A total of 22 mind palaces appeared above the defensive formation, pouring down copious amounts of Qi and energies. Each Palace was different.
Some didn't even look like actual palaces and were a myriad of different places like the small houses, courtyards, gardens, etc.
A mind palace could be any place that held some meaning to the cultivator, so they were of course different for every person.
"Remember to block and counterattack! Normal attacks don't work against them as they will just pass through, but they can still hurt you!" Jin Wang reminded everyone.
Hyson's group of more than 22 people that had come in through the rift was now left with just 8, and all of them were injured and scared.
Ma Qigong fired off a flurry of dagger attacks that went through dozens of Wraiths and impacted against the ground, leaving deep pits in their wake.
Wraiths were a special kind of undead. They were made from the twisted wants and desires of people just before their deaths. They were the unfulfilled wishes that people clung to till the end of their lives and were morphed into a kind of appalling spiritual undead.
They fed off of the energy and souls of living creatures.
Normal attacks went through them without doing anything so the only chance to do any damage to them was by either using pure spiritual, lightning or fire infused attacks, or block their attacks and then counter.
Because they would only physically manifest in this world and were able to take any damage when THEY were the ones attacking.
But the problem was that unless a person had some kind of defensive artifacts that blocked spiritual energy, then even if they blocked the physical wraith attacks, some Yin Qi would still enter their body and run amock.
Only Spirit Realm Experts could use their mind palaces to block the Yin Qi and keep it from entering their bodies.
Shi Long's six palaces were pouring down a blue Qi like a waterfall, completely covering him from head to toe.
Out of the four Spirit realm experts there, he was the only one to have any spiritual Qi.
Spiritual Qi was rather uncommon and wasn't favored by most people. It was extremely difficult to cultivate and took a very long time as well.
But the advantage of it was that it made the person's soul extremely powerful and allowed them to use many abilities and techniques that would not be a good choice under normal circumstances. And of course, all his attacks would work against all spiritual beings as well.
"OVER HERE!" Zeng Wu shouted from the right side. A massive 6-meter tall wraith that had arms three times the size of its body was attacking him head-on.
Shi Long turned around and raised his left hand over his shoulder. The Qi pouring from the mind palaces condensed into a white spear in his hand that lit up everything around it for dozens of meters.
Every single wraith that was near him had smoke coming off of its body and started wailing while jumping back.
"Now!" he yelled and chucked the spear with everything he had towards the giant wraith.
A feeling of impending doom washed over the wraith as it raised both its hands in front of its body to use as a shield.
The spear struck, embedding itself firmly into the wraith, making it let out a piercing scream. Arcs of white light quickly spread out from the spear, covering the wraith's body and bringing it out into the physical world.
Zeng Wu took the opportunity and jumped up into the air with his sword. He fired several horizontal slashes that actually connected with the wraith's body, sending it crashing back several meters. But Zeng Wu didn't stop there.
He continued his barrage of attacks until the wraiths legs gave way and it fell down to its knees. Zeng Wu pushed against the ground and shot forward like a bullet with his sword extended sideways, cutting off the wraiths head in one fell sweep before returning to the defensive formation.
***
Just like that, everyone worked together and fought until it was time for for the Rift to open. About seven people lost their lives during this time when they let down their guards and were dragged out of the formation by some of the more sneakier wraiths.
The fight was hard, but they were hanging on.
The space rippled and a small vibrating mass of light appeared in the exact middle of the 30-meter wide formation.
"Quick, activate the stabilizer!" Yin Da ordered as soon as the space around the rift stopped shaking.
*Whooooosh*
As if in response to the rift's appearance, the fog in the valley started swirling and moved towards the gate. In less than 30 seconds the valley was completely devoid of fog, with all it having been devoured by the gate.
A low humming noise came from the gate and ripple after ripple started appearing on its surface.
Jin Wang stopped what he was doing and looked at the gate nervously.
Every single hair on his body stood straight up.
"Something's coming…" he murmured.
A sharp black limb with what looked like a pincer came crashing out. Just the front part of it was more than 200-meters long, so one could only imagine how big the entire limb and then the creature it belonged to would be.
The gate's surface stretched out like a bubble, trying to hold the limb back and pushing it back in.
Angered by the resistance offered from the gate, the limb went back and this time came out with even more force.
The bubble-like force field on the gate was the natural resistance that the world they were on had towards the creature that was coming out.
Just like how anyone higher than Spirit realm experts couldn't come through the rift, nothing stronger than that could come out from the gate either.
But that's exactly what was happening right now. An undead monster that was at least at Profound level or higher was trying to break through and come here. And judging from its sheer size, it was much higher than Profound realm, much much higher.
"What the hell is that?!" Zeng Yu mumbled absentmindedly in disbelief.
Looking at the limb struggle, Jin Wang sighed. Closing his eyes he sat down where he was, "Something that's not supposed to be here. It doesn't matter anymore old man, just give up. We're not gonna survive long enough to go through that rift."
Zeng Yu's brows shot up in anger, "Shut the hell up! Grow a damn pair and get up, what's wrong with you? Just because of one monster you're giving up? And it's not even here yet!"
The bubble-like barrier stretched and a part of the limb broke out.
A massive pressure descended on the entire planet. No matter who they were or where, they would be able to feel this pressure. It felt like a normal human was instantly transported to the bottom of the ocean.
Everyone fell down to their knees, the living or dead, spirit realm or below, everyone was on the ground now.
Only Jin Wang was doing a bit better because he already sat down beforehand, just slumping his shoulders from the pressure.
A booming noise came from the gate. It couldn't be put into words, but it instilled fear within everyone present. (Authors note for the noise)
*GROOOWL*
*Shrieeeek*
*Hooowl*
A mass of noises came from every single monster in response, as if celebrating the arrival of the incoming beast.
Be it inside the valley or outside, every undead was down on its knees kowtowing towards the gate.
Zeng Yu raised his head with some effort and looked at the pitch-black limb, "What….is it?" he mumbled to himself.
"You'll see, it will be out soon," Jin Wang replied nonchalantly.
It sounded like he was talking about someone else. As if death wasn't waiting for him nearby. Or maybe, he just didn't care anymore.
Ma Yu who was knocked out by the side slowly opened her eyes. As she turned her head the massive limb came into sight.
She ignored it and looked around to find a nearby guard, "Hey….is brother Hao here yet?"
