Strongest War Emperor

The giant ghost face boomed, ”Brat, I have no quarrel with you, past or present. Why must you insist on ruining my plans?”

It was a wisp of the Ghost King’s Divine Split that had caught up to him.

’It’s just a mere Divine Split, yet it’s this fast!’ Shen Lang’s heart tightened. ’If its true form came out, wouldn’t it be several times faster than the Netherworld Wolf King?’

He sneered and said, ”Old fool, what do you mean *I’m* ruining *your* plans? You’re the one who brought a whole gang of underlings to deal with me first.”

Shen Lang didn’t slow down as he spoke, maintaining his high-speed sprint.

”CRACKLE!”

The Power of Thunder and Lightning surged on the Celestial Water Blade. The moment Shen Lang finished speaking, he slashed upward.

The massive blade light instantly cleaved the giant ghost face in two.

”Aiyaya, little brother, this must be a misunderstanding! A complete misunderstanding! Can’t we just sit down and have a nice chat?”

Seeing that Shen Lang was completely ignoring him and not slowing down in the slightest, the Ghost King hurriedly spoke again.

”Chat about what? Our dreams and the meaning of life? Sorry, but yours truly only likes to discuss life with beautiful women, haha!”

As Shen Lang spoke, he unleashed two more slashes, obliterating the Ghosts that pounced on him.

”Beautiful women? Beautiful women!” The Ghost King in the sky suddenly had a realization.

Immediately, a dark shadow spun in the air, and a great wind rose. In the wilderness ahead of Shen Lang, dozens of completely naked women appeared, walking toward him with seductive smiles.

”Hmph! Shameless! Pervert! You little scoundrel, don’t look!” Nalan Ziyun shouted from within the Heaven-Sealing Cauldron.

But Shen Lang paid her no mind, and his expression didn’t change at all.

”SHING! SHING! SHING!”

Flashes of light from the Celestial Water Blade erupted, and before the enchanting women could even get close, they were sliced into gray mist.

”Years ago, yours truly already reached the realm of ’having seen so much porn, I’m completely desensitized.’ You dare try to use a cheap seduction trick like this on me?”

Shen Lang’s speed suddenly increased, and he charged toward the Ghost King’s advancement site like a whirlwind.

During this time, no matter what threats the Ghost King uttered or what illusions he created to slow him down, it was all in vain.

The five pursuing Rakshasa Ghosts wailed in frustration, but there was nothing they could do.

At Shen Lang’s full sprint, his speed was simply unimaginable. Even for extremely fast flying Ghosts like the Rakshasa Ghosts, it was difficult to catch up in a short amount of time.

Originally, the Rakshasa Ghosts and the Ghost King had all assumed that Shen Lang’s full-speed sprint would consume a massive amount of physical strength and Spiritual Power and definitely couldn’t be sustained.

Who would have thought that with the support of the Tai Chi Diagram, the Energy absorbed within it would provide him with a continuous supply of power? Not only did he show no signs of faltering during his sprint, but he actually ran faster and faster!

”Damn it, I thought we were the freaks here, but this human kid is even more of a monster than us! Didn’t Lord Ghost King say his Cultivation was only at the Spirit Martial Realm Second Heaven? That’s three or four Heavens lower than us! Damn it, he’s not even human!”

The Rakshasa Ghosts gave it their all in the chase, and every one of them was getting exhausted.

But not only did they fail to close the distance, they actually fell further and further behind, which made them all furious and frustrated.

”I don’t think we can stop him before he reaches the Barrier. Those lesser ghosts are useless when it counts. Our only hope now is the Barrier that Lord Ghost King set up!” one of the Rakshasa Ghosts said hatefully.

”That’s right, Lord Ghost King set up that Barrier himself. There’s no way that brat can break through it! The moment he’s delayed by the Barrier, we’ll have caught up! Let’s all be ruthless later. We absolutely can’t let him ruin Lord Ghost King’s plans, or when the blame falls on us, we’ll wish we were dead!”

”No shit, you think we don’t know that? We’ll use all our trump cards to slaughter this hateful brat, devour his flesh and blood, and perform Soul Extraction and Refining on him! Goddammit, the Dark Forest is our domain! This is the first time we’ve been humiliated like this! It pisses me the hell off!”

”If I don’t kill this person, I swear I’m not a man!”

”Bullshit. You’re a Rakshasa Ghost. Since when were you a man?”

While the five furious Rakshasa Ghosts behind him were plotting how to deal with Shen Lang, after nearly two hours of sprinting at full power, Shen Lang finally arrived at the Ghost King’s advancement site.

In the middle of the wilderness, a hollow shaped like a skull appeared in Shen Lang’s line of sight.

The hollow was a hundred zhang square and was enveloped by a faint, shimmering light shield.

Inside the light shield, black mist billowed, thick with ghostly energy.

In the center of the hollow floated a massive Ancient Bronze Coffin. Its surface was inscribed with countless bizarre patterns that glowed with a dazzling white light.

The interplay of black and white gave off an eerie, almost suffocating feeling.

’Looks like I made it after all.’

He strode to the edge of the Barrier, and without a second thought, raised the Celestial Water Blade high above his head and roared, ”Slash!”

As Shen Lang’s voice fell, a fierce wind tore through the sky. A sharp, domineering blade light, thirty feet long, rapidly formed in the blink of an eye. With a piercing sound of Breaking the Sky, it viciously slashed down upon the transparent Barrier!

”BANG!”

The moment the sharp blade light met the surface of the Barrier, a thunderous explosion echoed across the sky.

Ripples of Energy spread out from the point of impact. The entire Barrier shook violently, and the spot struck by the Celestial Water Blade caved in deeply.

However, after caving in, the seemingly fragile Barrier snapped back with incredible speed, and a tyrannical ball of Energy shot back toward Shen Lang!

Not only had Shen Lang’s domineering slash failed to threaten the Barrier’s defense, but the Barrier had actually reflected the immense power right back at him!

”Hm?”

His eyes flickered. With a blur, Shen Lang’s body left behind an afterimage as he instantly moved five meters to his left.

”BOOM!”

A tyrannical force tore through the air like lightning, and in an instant, it smashed into a large boulder more than ten meters behind where Shen Lang had been.

Instantly, Spiritual Power erupted like a volcano, filling the air. A massive Gang Feng swept through the area, and the boulder was instantly blasted into dust!

’Interesting. When this old ghost set up this defensive Barrier, he actually gathered the power of the countless Ghosts in the Dark Forest, added his own power at the Peak of the Spirit Martial Realm, and then used the might of this Array to reflect most of the Attack Power... If I want to break this with brute force, I’d probably need the power of someone at the Xuanwu Realm or higher.’

Shen Lang stared at the Barrier, lost in thought.

”Hahaha, brat, now you know how powerful I am, don’t you? An ant trying to shake a tree—you overestimate yourself! This defensive Barrier is something I learned from an Ancient Array Secret Manual. I gathered thousands of Ghosts, fused their power, and spent a full forty-nine days setting it up! With your Cultivation at the mere Spirit Martial Realm Early Stage, trying to break this Barrier is nothing but wishful thinking!”

The Ghost King’s Divine Split that had been following Shen Lang all along materialized once more, hovering at the top of the Barrier and laughing smugly.

At that moment, the sound of wailing ghosts and howling wolves rose from behind. The five Rakshasa Ghosts, leading a horde of other ghosts, had appeared on the distant horizon.

”Wahahaha, Lord Ghost King’s Barrier really is amazing! The brat’s been shut out!”

”I knew it. With this kid’s Cultivation, there’s no way he could break the Lord’s Barrier.”

”Yes, exactly. That’s what we were thinking, which is why we deliberately let him run a little faster, so he could witness Lord Ghost King’s power for himself!”

The Rakshasa Ghosts were still far away, but they were already chattering away.

They disdained Shen Lang, shamelessly flattered the Ghost King, and shirked responsibility for falling behind all at the same time.

”Do you really think... this Barrier can stop me?”

Shen Lang gave a silent, brilliant smile.

With his Silver Eyes of Truth activated, the Barrier’s flaws and weakest points were laid bare before him!

But right now, Shen Lang was in no hurry to break the Barrier.

’Arrays, Restrictions... aren’t these the things I’m best at?’

’A Barrier cobbled together by an old ghost at the Peak of the Spirit Martial Realm thinks it can stop me, Shen Lang, the one who received the War Emperor’s inheritance?’

’That’s the most ridiculous joke in the world.’

One must remember that the War Emperor, the Master of War God Hall, had once laid down a world-shaking Killing Array that even millions of experts attacking at once could not break!

His comprehension of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth had nearly reached the pinnacle of the Human Realm!

To the current Shen Lang, whether it was a Barrier, an Array, or a Restriction, it was all just a Spirit Array Map. Compared to the Spirit Array Maps carved inside a Spiritual Artifact, it merely had a different form of expression; there was no fundamental difference.

A Spirit Array Map is something that supreme experts from countless years ago created by comprehending the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, capturing the veins of nature, fusing it with their own understanding, and then slowly grinding and carving it out through countless attempts and refinements until it finally took shape.

Regardless of its strength, no Spirit Array Map is ever created from thin air.

They are all comprehended from the heavens, following the principles of nature and observing the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.

In this world, all things—famous mountains, great rivers, lakes, and seas—are actually covered in Spirit Array Maps.

A single leaf has veins, and a cut tree trunk has rings;

The veins of mountains and rivers are Spiritual Lines, and the earth itself is a Spirit Array Map;

The constellations in the sky are Spirit Array Maps, the galaxies formed by countless constellations are also Spirit Array Maps. These Spirit Array Maps are omnipresent.

When a true Artifact Refiner or Array Master stands at the pinnacle of their profession, they will understand one truth:

All things are maps, and the Great Dao connects all!

”And you call yourself a Ghost King, yet you’re nothing more than a frog in a well, only knowing how to lord over the Dark Forest, completely unaware of how vast the outside world is! In that case, let me show you what world-shaking methods a true Array Master possesses.”

As Shen Lang spoke, he pressed a single palm against the Barrier.

A force immediately rebounded from the Barrier, pushing his palm a short distance away.

A sharp glint flashed in Shen Lang’s eyes. He increased the force in his palm and pressed it firmly against the Barrier again.

Then, his Silver Eyes of Truth activated once more. Under their gaze, silver lines could be seen extending from his palm, spreading out across the Barrier until they slowly covered the entire thing.

It looked like an eyeball being covered in bloodshot veins.

Seeing Shen Lang press his palm against the Barrier, the Ghost King in the sky immediately burst out laughing.

In his eyes, for a brat at the Spirit Martial Realm to be making such moves was no different from being an idiot!

”You ignorant, wet-behind-the-ears junior! Spouting nonsense to me about ’Array Masters’ and ’world-shaking methods’? Be careful you don’t bite your tongue! Even if I haven’t left the Dark Forest in a hundred years, I know that a kid your age couldn’t even qualify as an apprentice to an Array Master! To arrogantly claim you’ll break my Odd Array... you’re courting death!”

The black mist formed by the Ghost King’s Divine Split drifted back and forth above the Barrier, mocking Shen Lang. ”Since you’re so arrogant, go on and give it a try. But don’t let your Divine Thought get counter-attacked by the Array and turn you into a drooling fool! I have no interest in the soul of an idiot, wahahaha!”

”Kill him! He can’t run this time!” the Rakshasa Ghosts in the rear shouted.

”JIE JIE JIE, just thinking about that brat’s tempting flesh and blood, I can’t wait...”

The five Rakshasa Ghosts were about to arrive. Shen Lang didn’t have much time to break this Array.

At this moment, even Nalan Ziyun inside the Heaven-Sealing Cauldron was holding her breath, not daring to make the slightest sound for fear of disturbing Shen Lang.

Feeling the dense network of Spiritual Lines within the Barrier, the corners of Shen Lang’s mouth curled up slightly, forming a faint smile...