Chapter 88: The Terrifying Sea of Lightning

After spending a quarter of an hour setting up the Eightfold Barbaric Thunder Array, Li Yunfei cast out ten Bone Spirit Crests, summoning ten skeletal warriors and ordering them to split into two groups of five, standing to his left and right. Each skeletal warrior was fully armored, their crescent blades resting by their sides, standing opposite one another on either side of the altar.

In this moment, Li Yunfei truly felt like a great general commanding his troops, and the exhilaration was unparalleled. He had been a squad leader in the army before, leading nine soldiers, but that thrill was nothing compared to this.

Once all preparations were complete, Li Yunfei donned his Astral Qi Armor and Eight-Trigram Daoist Robe. Exchanging a knowing smile with the little fox, he issued a mental command.

"Select Level 36 Mass Grave Instance."

"Instance level selected. Enter?"

"Enter."

"Confirmed. Entering instance. Launching instance program."

As the system notification echoed in his mind, the mass grave began to transform.

"Woo... woo..."

"Hehehe..."

Dark clouds surged forth, and in an instant, the mass grave became an isolated space, with all manner of specters appearing one after another. This time, the instance began not only with the wailing of ghosts but also with chilling laughter.

Every instance was a self-contained realm. Though the Mass Grave and the Golden Weasel's Nest were in the same physical location, he had entered the Mass Grave instance, which meant the golden weasel would not appear here.

The Mass Grave instance was indeed vastly different from the Graveyard instance—not only were the numbers of monsters on an entirely different scale, their strength was much greater as well.

The main force was still vengeful spirits, but mixed among them were many sinister red-clad ghosts, their eerie laughter cutting through the gloom, as well as fiendish specters wreathed in a murderous aura.

Among the walking corpses, there were some whose bodies were no longer rotten. Apart from their bloodless skin, corpse-pale faces, and eyes devoid of pupils, they were indistinguishable from the living. What made one's scalp prickle was that every one of these corpses wore a twisted smile, and they moved far faster than the decayed ones—nearly as quick and agile as living humans.

If these smiling corpses moved in numbers, it would be truly terrifying.

If the decayed corpses were akin to the shambling zombies from “Resident Evil,” then the smiling corpses were more like those from “Train to Busan” or “World War Z”—capable of surging forth in unstoppable waves.

It seemed that the red-clad vengeful ghosts, fiendish spirits, and these smiling corpses all belonged to the elite class of monsters.

"Red-clad fiends, smiling corpses—ghostly laughter more dreadful than weeping. Well, it seems we've met them all," Li Yunfei remarked with a wry smile to the little fox.

The little fox only tilted her head, making no comment. She had no idea what distinction there was between fiendish spirits and vengeful ghosts, nor how powerful they might be.

Having surveyed the ghosts and corpses, Li Yunfei turned his attention to the skeletons and zombies.

These skeletons were still unarmed, likely modeled by the system after commoners’ remains, and so naturally bore no weapons. If this were an ancient battlefield instance, they would probably appear as armed skeleton warriors.

Despite lacking weapons, the skeletons in the mass grave had bones as white and gleaming as polished metal, just like his own skeleton warriors after consuming two Blood Pills. Compared to those in the graveyard instance, their bone density and strength had clearly improved greatly.

The zombies were still dominated by black-furred zombies, but mixed among them were over thirty green-furred zombies. In the Level 31 Graveyard, green-furred zombies had been the final boss, but here in the Level 36 Mass Grave, they were merely elite monsters.

So what would the final boss be? A hair zombie?

If it were a hair zombie, Li Yunfei would not be concerned. As long as it wasn’t a flying zombie, its speed would not match his, and without ranged attacks, he had nothing to fear. No matter how strong its attacks, they would be useless if it couldn’t hit him, and even the toughest defense could be worn down.

But if the boss was not a zombie, but an evil spirit or a demon of the rakshasa class, that would be far more troublesome.

Let’s hope it’s not one of those things.

Soon, no more monsters appeared in the mass grave. Li Yunfei swept his gaze across the scene—the number of monsters was about three times that of the Level 31 Graveyard, almost enough for an entire brigade.

Since all the monsters had arrived, Li Yunfei wasted no time.

As usual, he swallowed a bottle of Boar King Potion, then picked up the peachwood sword from the table, holding it upright before his chest, his sword fingers pressed against the blade. He began to chant:

“Heaven’s thunder rumbles; dragon and tiger walk together. Grand and mysterious, thunder and lightning race, sand and stones fly, waves overturn, clouds gather and disperse, bringing fair or foul weather, gathering souls and spirits…”

“From the Isle of Penglai, Minister of Storm and Rain, Thunderbolt Iron Axe, Honored Spirit Hao, banisher of evil, Wood Wolf disperses clouds, Wind Wheel Fire Chariot, General Zhenling, thunder for ten thousand miles, breaking hidden ghosts and gods, act at once by imperial command!”

As Li Yunfei chanted, black clouds gathered in the sky, roiling endlessly, covering the heavens within the instance.

This was the incantation to activate the Eightfold Barbaric Thunder Array, or rather, the activation spell for all thunder arrays. The array was like a mighty weapon, and the thunder in the sky its inexhaustible power source.

As long as Li Yunfei maintained the thunderclouds above, limitless lightning would pour down, providing infinite energy for the array.

There were two ways to maintain the thunderclouds and keep the thunder’s power strong. One was to continually cast Heavenly Thunder Talismans into the clouds; lacking enough talismans, one would have to sustain it with their own spiritual cultivation.

For most practitioners, this would be extremely difficult, and the Eightfold Barbaric Thunder Array could not be maintained for long. They could not possibly have an endless supply of talismans, and those below the Golden Core stage would quickly be exhausted if relying solely on their own cultivation.

But Li Yunfei was different! He could maintain this Eightfold Barbaric Thunder Array until the end of time.

When the incantation ended, Li Yunfei thrust his peachwood sword diagonally toward the heavens, sending a surge of spiritual power into the clouds.

“Boom! Boom!”

As soon as his power entered the clouds, the thunderclouds blazed with light, and lightning fell like a torrential rain.

But the bolts, each as thick as a man’s arm, did not strike directly at the monsters below. Instead, they crashed down upon eight points surrounding the mass grave.

No matter how dense the lightning from above, without targeted strikes, its destructive power would be limited and its force wasted. That was why Li Yunfei had taken the trouble to set up the Eightfold Barbaric Thunder Array.

The greatest strength of an array lies in amplification, unleashing threefold or more the power from every unit of energy.

The eight massive, hidden sigils reappeared, absorbing all the lightning from the sky without exception, their light growing ever brighter.

A terrifying scene unfolded—endless lightning wove itself into a net, enveloping the entire mass grave in an instant, forming a dreadful sea of thunder.

Not a single monster escaped; all were caught within the tempest.

“Aaah!”

“Roar—!”

The red-clad vengeful ghosts could no longer laugh, screaming in utter agony, while the fiendish specters howled in torment.

The resentment and malice shrouding them poured from their souls like smoke from a chimney, dissipating at astounding speed.

Once all the resentment and malice were gone, so too would their souls be utterly destroyed.