<h4 ss="">Chapter 403.1: Army of Spirits</h4>


    Elder Mu had used the powers of the Golden Tree once before to support him and Elder Xuan in restraining Di Tian. At this time, the Golden Tree’s powers were used once more to protect the entire city and to help Shrek City’s warriors recover. The amount of energy that this endeavor consumed from the Golden Tree was astounding!


    The battle wasn’t over, and the soul beast army remained just outside the city. They were still charging against the wall as if they felt no exhaustion, and the Golden Tree’s energies were being continuously spent. This also meant that Elder Mu and Elder Xuan were drawing less energy from the Golden Tree on their side, and this also meant they would seal Di Tian for a shorter period of time. It was a desperate method to solve their problems at hand without any consideration for the consequences, a solution that they could only turn to when they had no other choice!


    Elder Song hovered in midair and felt her soul power regenerating as she gazed into the sky and muttered, “If the Golden Tree is used like that one more time, we may no longer be able to maintain that seal in the sky.”


    Unleashing the Golden Tree’s energies directly affected the seal in the sky. The light ripples in the sky were now visibly stronger than before, as if Di Tian’s struggles had be much more intense.


    This protection would only allow Shrek’s warriors tost for another two to four more hours. But what about afterwards?


    Shrek Academy’s senior individuals were contemting this problem, and were almost hopeless.


    Suddenly, the Valkyrie Douluo, Xian Lin’er pointed to a certain direction and asked, “Mum, look – what’s that?”


    She was pointing towards the northwest. She was high in the sky, so she could see clearly, and even though the night was dark, the dark green light that shone faintly from that direction were unnaturally obvious and ring. Those dark green hues were tinged with dark red and white, and seemed very drifty and fleeting as they moved towards Shrek City.


    These dots were still quite sparse and dispersed in the beginning, but they swiftly grew in number within her field of vision. They became dense andpact as they tromped towards Shrek City, and even though they weren’t moving very quickly, they were definitely moving towards Shrek City.


    “What are those things? Are they our reinforcements?” Elder Song focused her attention towards those lights. The night was dark, and those lights were still quite a distance away, so she couldn’t see very clearly.


    Xian Lin’er forced augh and replied, “My only wish is that those things aren’t reinforcements for the soul beast army.”


    The army of soul beasts didn’t seem to sense the arrival of those unwee guests, because the golden light that suddenly emerged from Shrek City caused quite a disturbance among them. The Bear Lord, the Myriad Demon King, the Scarlet King, and the other powerful soul beasts were attacking that golden light with every ounce of their strength.


    There were quite a few of them now, and it didn’t take long before many different colors dotted the horizon densely in the distance.


    Xian Lin’er swiftly descended back into the city. She retrieved a telescopic soul tool and then gazed towards the northwest again, and her face quickly became ghastly pale.


    “What are those things? Tell me. What can be worse than total annihtion of Shrek City?” Elder Songughed bitterly as she spoke.


    Xian Lin’er was momentarily stunned. “I can see skeletons, jiangshi, headless horsemen, and many different strange and peculiar creatures. They seem like…”


    “The Holy Ghost Church?” Elder Song was also taken aback. If the Holy Ghost Church interfered at a time like this, they were definitely not here to aid Shrek City. Shrek City was currently besieged by a great army of soul beasts, and the Holy Ghost Church would have only one goal if they were here: they wanted to reap unfair gains from this battle!


    There were a spectacr number of soul beasts who had perished on the battlefield, and quite a number of Shrek City’s soldiers were also dead. Those spirits and corpses had always been what the Holy Ghost Church liked best.


    “That’s not right! If they were here to reap unfair benefits, they wouldn’t have appeared so quickly. They would have waited until both sides suffered heavy losses before making a move so that they could maximize their profits and gains. Furthermore, they would have to defeat this powerful beast tide. The Holy Ghost Church can’t be that stupid. Can it be that they’re unafraid of the beast tide attacking them?” Xian Lin’er was full of doubts and confusion.


    Elder Song’s expression was solemn as she said, “Unless the Holy Ghost Church has something to do with this beast tide from the Great Star Dou Forest... perhaps this has been their arrangement from the start.”


    Xian Lin’er snapped around at her mother and said, “Mum, your spection is too frightening. However, the Great Star Dou Forest’s soul beasts should hate the Holy Ghost Church more than they hate us. How can those soul beasts work together with them?”


    Elder Song heaved a sigh and said, “It doesn’t matter whether my guess is frightening or not. The only thing we can do is resign ourselves to fate.”


    The Golden Tree’s golden light dome was bing increasingly weaker, and Shrek’s soul masters had recovered to about fifty percent of their physical energy and their soul power. They had another shot in this battle, but could they really see the light at the end of the tunnel?


    Right at this moment, the soul beast army finally discovered the masses of unwee guests that wereing from the northwest. Shrek Academy’s powerful individuals who were hovering and watching in midair heaved a sigh of relief when they saw the soul beasts’ reaction.


    A pack of soul beasts separated from the back of the great army outside the western and northern city walls and charged towards those unwee guests. Apparently, those unwee guests seemed ferocious and unfriendly to them as well.


    Elder Song suddenly raised her voice and hollered in the sky, “Our reinforcements are here! Hold on, everyone. Victory is in sight!” Her voice was very loud, and sound waves resonated throughout every corner of Shrek City.


    She soared through the sky as she spoke, transformed into a Greenshadow Godly Hawk once more, and flew towards the Bear Lord.


    Elderly people had the most experience and the most wisdom. Temporarily disregarding the fact that Elder Song was the strongest individual in Shrek City’s camp for now, her calm response during a crucial moment to utilize these unwee guests so that she could galvanize Shrek’s warriors created very important effects.


    At this point, Shrek City’s warriors were all fatigued and exhausted. The Golden Tree could only help them recover part of their physical strength and soul power, but it couldn’t take away their fatigue and their exhausted minds. What else was better to boost morale other than reinforcements?


    Reinforcements meant hope, the hope to survive!


    The Golden Tree’s protection quietly dissipated, and the battle erupted once more after that temporary pause. Shrek’s soul masters had managed to recover part of their strength via the Golden Tree’s powers, and they seemed like they had been injected with steroids as their ?morale flourished. The coordination and teamwork that they seemed to have lost due to their fatigue and exhaustion seemed to return, and the soldiers managed to suppress the soul beasts to the point where they couldn’t charge onto the top of the city wall.


    This was the fighting strength that morale brought; word of reinforcements had reignited the mes in everyone’s hearts!


    The pack of soul beasts who had separated from the army shed with the strange mass of unwee guests in the distance. Both parties started to fight, but they were quite a distance away, and nothing much could be clearly seen. However, everyone could see beams of light glowing here and there, and the soul beasts were clearly unleashing various soul skills to fight those unwee guests.


    The flickering lights that came from those unwee guests in the distance were quickly extinguished, but they seemed like the beast tide when they attacked the city, there were just so many of them! It didn’t take long before the pack of soul beasts were overrun, and the mass of unwee guests began to pick up the pace as they charged towards Shrek City.


    Xian Lin’er helped her mother fight back soul beasts while she monitored those unwee guests in the distance.?Reinforcements? Are they really reinforcements? How can those spectral creatures be reinforcements for Shrek City? But they are clearly fighting the army of soul beasts. How else can these forces be exined other than that they are reinforcements?


    Furious howls could be heard continuously from within the soul beast army. Orders came down from the higher-ranked soul beasts, and the army didn’t separate any more forces to fight those unwee guests. They continued to attack Shrek City arrogantly with everything they had.


    The enormous army of spectral creatures wereing closer and closer, and they quickly arrived near the edge of the soul beast army.


    Fortunately, the night was dark, and Shrek City’s soldiers couldn’t see anything at all as they fought on the city wall, they could only see dots of light. Under such circumstances, nobody could tell who was here to reinforce them and where they came from. However, everyone had a lot of faith and trust in Elder Song’s words, and they also believed her because they were craving reinforcements to arrive too much in their hearts.


    The spectral army began tounch an offensive. Their point of entry was very coincidental: they charged in from a position between the western and northern fronts at the start of the battle. The soul beasts on these two fronts were led respectively by the Myriad Demon King and the Scarlet King, and they would definitely fight back if they were attacked. However, they were currently besieging the city with their full strength, and they didn’t have much coordination between them. This external force actually forced their way deep into those soul beasts’ ranks.


    The soul beasts at the back of the army were rtively weaker, most of them being ten-year and hundred-year soul beasts. The spectral army charged through the army of soul beasts like a hot knife through butter.


    ——


    At this moment, there were ninerge pitch-ck gates located about twenty kilometers northwest of Shrek City that nobody could see, and these gates were spurting out spectral creatures continuously.


    There were skeletons, liches, and frightening headless horsemen among these spectral creatures. asionally, there would be enormous creatures like abominations that possessed frightening fighting strength, but there were no creatures stronger than those entities.


    There was a tremendous scarlet-gold vertical eye positioned in the sky in the center of and behind those nine gates, the eye flickering with eerie and chilly light.


    This vertical eye’s pupil was entirely white like snow, and deathly grey colors filled the space around it. There were streaks of scarlet-gold colors with sun patterns around those grey hues.


    This vertical eye emanated intense spiritual undtions. Muffled incantations could be heard as those scarlet-gold lights transformed into patterns that connected those nine gates together so that they could be opened continuously.


    Eye of the Asura, a martial soul true body.


    Yes, Huo Yuhao was here. He had returned when Shrek City needed reinforcements most.


    He had arrived before evening, but he didn’t rush towards Shrek City as soon as he reached it.


    He could clearly see what was happening to Shrek City high up in the sky from a distance. Huo Yuhao wasn’t hasty and impulsive when he witnessed that terrifying beast tide, and he didn’t head down to assist Shrek City despite his roiling emotions.


    He was very clear that even though he had be a Soul Sage, and he was far stronger than typical Soul Sages, he was still by himself after all. Could he deal with that tremendous army of soul beasts by himself? He couldn’t, and he would have a very slim chance of charging inside Shrek City and meeting up with hispanions, and doing so wouldn’t help the situation. Killing several soul beasts from the outside wouldn’t solve Shrek City’s problems at all, so he had to think of other ways to resolve Shrek City’s dire situation.