Chapter 870 - 858: Failure
Under the Moonlight Tree, looking at the barrier that stood as firm as ever, Chen Mu chuckled softly.
He exerted more force, expanding the portal of Thousand Lanterns City, swiftly gathering the remaining Yin Spirits.
Soon, the area around the Moonlight Tree was left with only the City Defense Camp soldiers.
These people were imparted with the Jade Gate Curse by him, forming a part of the Ghost Gate.
Chen Mu took a deep breath, and the hundred thousand ghosts along with those City Defense Camp soldiers transformed into a black cloud covering the sky.
The black cloud contracted inward, coalescing into an ancient gray-white archway as tall as a five to six-story building, appearing in mid-air.
Chen Mu continued to activate the Ghost Gate.
A black sphere started to slowly protrude outward from the doorway.
As it moved outward, it expanded, eventually enveloping the entire Ghost Gate and transforming into a massive black sphere.
Inside, it was pitch black and profound, and the surrounding light seemed to be swallowed by it. At a glance, it seemed more like an infinitely deep spherical hole!
"Successfully channeling the River of Oblivion's power!"
Chen Mu's face lit up with joy.
Immediately, he quickly suppressed the excitement in his heart, using the aura of the hundred thousand ghosts and the Yin Soldiers of the City Defense Camp to start perceiving the Netherworld.
Unexpectedly, just a slight attempt immediately locked onto a strand of aura.
"Haha! It worked!"
"With more people, the strength is greater. Bringing the City Defense Camp into the Ghost Gate indeed makes it easier to lock onto the Netherworld."
Chen Mu was overjoyed.
He glanced back at the child who was staring at him angrily, waving cheerfully.
"Play here by yourself, I'm leaving now."
Finishing his words, he did not hesitate and stepped into the black sphere.
Light and shadow shifted, countless stars twinkled, and the directions of up, down, left, and right were lost in a twist.
In just a blink of an eye, Chen Mu arrived... arrived at the other side of the black sphere.
Looking up at the Moonlight Tree in front, then turning back to look at the large black sphere he just passed through, and finally glancing at the One-eyed Giant and the red-clothed Child in the distant sky,
Chen Mu: "..."
No...
The Ghost Gate was successfully activated, the positioning also succeeded, why did I just step out and I'm still standing here?!
This is absurd!
"No, need to try again!"
Chen Mu didn't believe it.
Immediately, he activated the Ghost Gate again.
The familiar scene replayed, and the Ghost Gate once more transformed into a large black sphere, and Chen Mu stepped into it without hesitation.
Then...
Then, as soon as his front foot went in, his back foot came out from the same spot.
"This is even worse than before!"
...
"Are you here to make us laugh?"
"What a performance! Hahaha..." The Pan Luo Child, who was always observing Chen Mu, laughed heartily.
Chen Mu's face turned somber.
This child is really annoying.
"Laughing so loudly, doesn't your face hurt?"
Chen Mu said quietly.
"Just you wait, once I go in watch how I deal with you!" The Pan Luo Child was momentarily stunned, then jumped and shouted furiously, "Moon Eclipse, where did your men go, open the barrier for me quickly!"
"I'm going in to kill him!"
With those words.
Countless blood streaks flew from the horizon, like a meteor shower.
Landing on the ground, manifesting as one-eyed men clad in armor.
They were expressionless, silent, and uniformly marched to the edge of the barrier. Then their bodies suddenly collapsed, turning with a puff into pools of black-red blood.
Numerous pools of blood gathered, like a large black-red curtain, firmly adhering to the barrier, obscuring half the sky.
Along with the whispering and rustling sound, the viscous blood water incessantly writhed,
on the originally invisible Tree King Barrier, an invisible ripple spread, and wisps of white vapor rose.
Chen Mu, filled with uncertainty, noticed that the Tree King Barrier once covering a hundred miles was now starting to retract inward.
Looking at the Pan Luo Child grinning and baring teeth at him.
Chen Mu's heart skipped a beat.
Trouble!
...
Deep in the Mist Ridge, within a large underground cavern.
Scarlet blood water inundated half the cave, forming a blood-level lake.
The Mo Nuo General lay on the water surface, the power of destruction and regrowth of flesh was drawn away by strands of bloodwater beneath him. His missing left shoulder and face, with the help of the blood water, slowly and steadily reconstructed.
Finally, amidst the flickering blood light, a pitch-black eyeball appeared in the hollow left-eye socket. The eyeball seemed to possess its own awareness, darting around up, down, left, and right. After a while, it fixed its gaze forward, as if adjusting its vision.
The Mo Nuo General sat up from the blood water as if sitting on solid ground, steadily seated on the bloodwater surface.
Immediately, a twisted golden line flew out from the center of his eyebrows, slowly descending into the blood lake beneath him.
With the golden line's descent, the tranquil bloodwater swiftly lost its color, turning into a deep black pool,
Swoosh!
Within the deep pool, a golden eyeball occupying the entire cavern suddenly opened.
With just a glance, the Mo Nuo General was frozen in place, not daring to move.
Moments later, the eyeball vanished with a swish, and the pool became pitch black and bottomless again.
The Mo Nuo General breathed a sigh of relief.
Summoning the Great Nether Venerable always filled him with trepidation.
He did not dare be negligent, summoning a large stone eyeball-like Cloud Mirage Pearl, tossing it into the pitch-black pool.
"Once the Great Nether Venerable pulls my mark into a deeper portion of the blood sea, I will surely gain more power from the blood sea."
"Then let's see who still dares covet my position as a Divine General!"
"Hmph!"
The Mo Nuo murmured to himself.
Just as he was feeling excited, a streak of black-red blood quietly appeared in the pool below.
Like ink dropped into clean water, the blood color swiftly spread and dyed the pool entirely black-red in a blink.
Just a glance filled the Mo Nuo's mind with the insane murmuring of countless people, like floodwaters breaching a dam.
Swoosh!
A human face abruptly emerged in the pool.
Their eyes crystalline red, a playful smile on their face.
"Divine General, long time no see."
"Lan Zhang!"
"You dare to contaminate the Nether Venerable's mark?"
"How dare you?!"
The Mo Nuo's face was full of shock and anger.
But before he could react, countless blood blisters suddenly appeared on the recently regrown left arm.
Crack, pop... blood blisters burst, revealing hundreds of scarlet eyeballs inside.
They all stared at the Mo Nuo in unison, and the intense insane murmurs instantly flooded deep into the Mo Nuo's mind.
The Mo Nuo's face instantly turned deathly pale.
...
At the edge of Mist Ridge.
With the corrosion by the bloodwaters formed by the one-eyed men, within just a few breaths, the Tree King Barrier had shrunk several miles in area.
The once towering Tree King Dharma Form also began to tremble and contract.
Chen Mu felt anxious, immediately gathering all the Mist of Confusion within Thousand Lanterns City and feeding it into the gaping mouth of the Moonwort Tree King.
But this only slightly slowed the contraction of the barrier.
"If I can't teleport to the Netherworld, what about other places?" Chen Mu suppressed his nervousness, turned, and looked at the Ghost Gate again, and immediately began to try.
Almost instantly, a Vermilion Feather Sword buried underground hundreds of miles away broke through the earth.
Nearby void, a vortex of black fog quickly emerged, then a Vermilion Feather Sword tumbled out from the vortex.
"At least teleportation within Mist Forest is unhindered."
"I can't return to the Netherworld, but I can avoid the troubles at hand." Chen Mu, monitoring the Vermilion Feather Sword with his Truth Listening Divine Power from afar, sighed in relief.
Yet he didn't rush to leave, merely maneuvering the Vermilion Feather Sword to fly further, searching for a safer perch.
Currently, although the barrier is shrinking, it still persists.
Plus, with the Mist of Confusion from Thousand Lanterns City aiding, it should hold for a while longer.
Rather than hastily teleporting away, it's better to stay within the barrier for now.
After all, with the Ghost Gate as a base, he could leave anytime.
"So, why did the Ghost Gate's cross-boundary teleportation fail?" Chen Mu frowned.