Chapter 156: River of Ten Thousand Ghosts
After a low, guttural roar, the Spectral Wolf—its form translucent—stood atop the dark red Bloodsoil. Magical light flickered in its eyes, and power surged at its claws, distorting the waves of magic nearby in a way that felt almost unnatural, as if the world itself recoiled.
This was the true might of an Essence Relic incarnate...
Unfortunately, Lord Shaun's trembling voice shattered the tension, its fear so palpable it almost mocked the gravity of the moment.
"Leon, are you sure about this...?"
"Enough chatter..." Leon snapped, each breath a struggle as the Bloodwood Colossus pressed in. There was no room for doubt now. "Just hurry up—Soul Cage!"
Purple beams laced the hexagram array, dazzling against the blood-red earth. The air grew dense with surging magic, and in an instant, a seamless prison rose from the Bloodsoil—impenetrable, suffocating.
This was the Soul Cage...
Suddenly, the entire Bloodwood Colossus shuddered violently. A crimson shadow thrashed madly within the Soul Cage—unmistakably, it was the soul of the Bloodwood Colossus!
"Damn it, hurry up!" The instant the Soul Cage was cast, Lord Shaun let out a terrified scream. He could feel it—the Bloodwood Colossus's soul was thrashing and fighting back with savage desperation. If it broke free, he'd be lucky to escape with his powers intact, maybe even fall to the Soulbound tier...
This was a true life-or-death struggle...
Lord Shaun threw every ounce of strength he had into reinforcing the Soul Cage, barely managing to contain the frenzied soul of the Bloodwood Colossus.
But he knew it wouldn't last long...
The Bloodwood Colossus was a terrifying Level 25 entity. With Lord Shaun's current power, keeping the Soul Cage intact for thirty seconds would be a miracle.
Leon knew this too...
For Leon, this was the only chance.
The Soul Cage wasn't a separate world, but it could imprison the Bloodwood Colossus's soul. Once the soul was trapped, it was as if the Colossus had been exiled to another plane—this was the only way to separate it from the Bloodsoil.
Leon had just thirty seconds to utterly destroy the Bloodwood Colossus...
So Leon didn't dare waste a single moment. The instant the Soul Cage appeared, he unleashed his full spellcasting power.
In a matter of moments, Leon unleashed over a dozen spells, each one draining his power to its absolute limit.
But it still wasn't enough...
Leon realized the Bloodwood Colossus showed no signs of collapsing. Instead, it thrashed even harder within the Soul Cage.
"Screw it!" With no way out, Leon poured a surge of magic into the Sage's Chapter—Frost Ring erupted instantly.
It was the strongest control spell among all second-tier magic...
Now amplified into a Limit Spell, its control was breathtaking. A blue halo radiated from Leon, spreading hundreds of meters in every direction, transforming the world into a frozen wasteland. Even the frenzied Bloodwood Colossus was entombed in thick ice, barely able to move.
Of course, the most important part was those tentacle-like branches...
Hundreds of branches froze solid beneath the blue halo, turning into ice sculptures—no longer able to attack Leon.
But at the same time, Leon lost his last means of survival.
He'd meant to save Frost Ring for a desperate escape if the Colossus couldn't be toppled. Now, that chance was gone.
But now, even his last Frost Ring was spent.
Leon knew he had no retreat left...
His only option was to seize the moment—while the Colossus's branches were frozen and powerless—and go all in to bring down the Bloodwood Colossus.
Leon’s magic burned to the very edge of exhaustion...
At this point, defense, control, mobility—none of it mattered. For Leon, it was a contest of raw damage: either destroy the Bloodwood Colossus, or be destroyed by it.
His mana engine spun wildly, magic surging from Leon like a flood unleashed. Spell after spell erupted in dazzling bursts from his hands.
For a moment, all manner of spells hammered the trunk of the Bloodwood Colossus.
Flames, frost, thunder and lightning...
A suffocating storm of elemental fury ravaged the Bloodwood Colossus.
"I can't hold on much longer..." came Lord Shaun's hoarse cry from below. Leon ignored him, utterly absorbed in his spellcasting, shutting out everything else.
Leon had only one thought left in his mind...
Faster, faster, even faster...
Seconds ticked by. Over twenty seconds had passed—the Soul Cage’s glow was fading, and that blood-red shadow was about to break free.
Leon knew this was his last chance.
He poured another surge of magic into the Sage’s Chapter. The final Limit Spell’s sigil blazed in the night sky.
This was the last Limit Spell Leon had saved for himself—Flame Storm!
It was also the most powerful of them all.
The moment his mana surged, the crystalline Sage’s Chapter blazed like a living inferno in Leon’s hands. With a thunderous roar, nine fire dragons erupted from the Sage’s Chapter, their deafening howls igniting the very air and sending magical waves boiling. The power unleashed rivaled even sixth-tier spells.
Then, a thunderous explosion.
BOOM—
Nine fire dragons crashed into the red shadow inside the Soul Cage, which let out a piercing, agonized scream...
Suddenly, the world went silent.
The towering Bloodwood Colossus, hundreds of meters tall, began to wither at a shocking rate. Hundreds of branches drooped, then disintegrated into drifting ash on the breeze. Leaves yellowed, the trunk dried and cracked, and the once-mighty ruler of the Bloodwood Forest seemed to age thousands of years in an instant, crumbling into dust and returning to the blood-red earth.
Leon let out a long breath, slowly descending from the air.
He searched through the ashes for the all-important Bloodheart, pausing to check on Lord Shaun: "So, did you die?"
"If you die, I'll outlive you for sure!" The ash-covered Spectral Wolf crawled out, shaking off the dirt and ashes, and snapped back indignantly.
"True enough. Worst case, you’d just drop to a Soulbound Relic..." Leon muttered, then quickly found the Bloodheart in the ashes.
The Bloodheart was about the size of a fist, pure as a ruby, radiating a mesmerizing crimson glow in the night. When Leon held it, it throbbed rhythmically in his hand—
Each beat of the Bloodheart pulsed with surging vitality. Compared to this, those so-called life crystals were nothing; they weren’t even in the same league. The life force contained in the Bloodheart far surpassed all the life crystals from the undead trees of the Bloodwood Forest combined.
Indeed, this Bloodheart was the true source of life for all the undead trees in the Bloodwood Forest.
Now, with the Bloodwood Forest deprived of its Bloodheart, death swept the land instantly—grass withered, leaves fell, and one by one, the undead trees crumbled into drifting ash. In mere minutes, the lush forest was reduced to a barren plain.
"Now, heading to the River of Ten Thousand Ghosts, there should still be time..." Leon pocketed the Bloodheart, stepped through the thick ashes, and left the land that had nearly driven him to despair.
The River of Ten Thousand Ghosts wasn't far from the Bloodwood Forest. It took Leon only twenty minutes to reach the edge of a steep cliff, where a cold, eerie wind howled overhead and a raging black river flowed below.
Countless wraiths struggled and drifted in the river, their anguished cries and weeping filling Leon's ears. Death's suffocating power hung over everything, and endless phantasms flickered before his eyes. Compared to this, the trials in the Prince's Crypt were nothing.
For the first time, Leon's mental defenses failed him...
Even with his mental protection, Leon couldn't shake off the wraiths' relentless pursuit.
There was no escape—the River of Ten Thousand Ghosts was swarming with wraiths, too many to count. A few could be endured, but when tens of thousands appeared at once, even a Grand Mage would be overwhelmed by the illusions.
This was truly a road of no return.
Only a titled Magister could hope to cross this river, sealed by ten thousand ghosts.
Yet standing atop the cliff, Leon didn't hesitate. With a levitation spell, then water walking, he leaped into the black river where wraiths struggled and drifted.