Unable to hold their breath any longer, a few men finally broke, taking huge gulps of air.

Their desperate gasps were completely drowned out by the howling wind.

However, the hundreds of Resentful Souls drifting in the air suddenly froze, turning in unison to look their way.

Before these unlucky bastards could even take two satisfying breaths, the Resentful Souls swarmed down, crashing straight into their heads.

With a POOF, the three flames of their Life Fire were instantly extinguished.

In a situation like this, who would dare intervene?

To the onlookers, after the Resentful Souls burrowed into their ears and noses, the men froze for two or three breaths before clutching their heads and screaming endlessly. Their eyes turned red and they drooled at the corners of their mouths, looking as if they were having a rabies attack. But unlike the Puppets possessed by the Three Corpses Insect, they didn’t attack the people around them. Instead, they scrambled about frantically with no sense of direction, either rolling on the ground or ramming into walls.

With dozens of Resentful Souls fighting, pulling, and attacking one another inside the same Sea of Consciousness, the sensation was like having scores of powerful firecrackers exploding in one’s head all at once. Who could possibly endure that?

In just over ten breaths, the men collapsed, dying with blood streaming from all seven of their facial orifices.

Everyone who watched felt their hearts pound in terror.

The trouble was, the faster their hearts beat, the harder it was to hold their breath. Most of the men were now reaching their limit, their faces turning purple from the strain. But the Resentful Souls continued to gush out endlessly. ’When will this ever end!’

The options were to suffocate or die with a Resentful Soul piercing one’s brain. Just a few breaths later, five or six more men couldn’t hold on any longer and suffered the same fate as those before them.

Hee Lingchuan and Nian Songyu were doing okay. As Martial Artists, their lung capacity was naturally powerful. Hee Chunhua’s face, however, was already a deep purple from the strain. It was clear he couldn’t hold on for much longer.

Hee Lingchuan didn’t have time to worry about anything else. He grabbed Sunx Fuping’s sleeve and mouthed, "Do something!"

He practiced the Martial Dao; the tricks up his sleeve were useless against Resentful Souls.

Sunx Fuping, perhaps sensing the time was right, shook off Hee Lingchuan’s hand with a flick of his wide sleeve. He walked into the midst of the soldiers and raised his Magic Staff.

He stuffed something into the beast’s mouth on the staff, then raised it and thrust it hard into the ground!

With the beast head as the center, a shield shimmering with yellow light appeared, perfectly enclosing everyone.

A Barrier!

Sunx Fuping shouted, "You can breathe now!" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

As if granted a great reprieve, everyone sagged at the waist. Some gasped for air so violently they couldn’t stop coughing.

This time, even Hee Chunhua was angry. "National Preceptor, why did you only act now?"

If you had acted a dozen breaths sooner, those five or six men wouldn’t have had to die.

Sunx Fuping’s expression was grave. "My Illusionary Barrier only lasts for a short time, and its effect is weaker than the Life Fire. I only use it as a last resort. Can you predict how much longer the Resentful Souls will continue to gush forth?"

No one could.

Hee Chunhua was left speechless. The looks the soldiers gave Sunx Fuping, however, were indescribable.

But he paid them no mind.

"Saving the majority is what’s most important," Nian Songyu said. "What do we do now?"

"We keep waiting," Sunx Fuping said, his eyes fixed on the surface of the pool. "We can only take the next step when it stops spewing out Resentful Souls."

Now that their frayed nerves had settled, they finally had a moment to observe the Resentful Souls filling the sky.

Situ Han let out a sound of surprise. "Most of the Resentful Souls emerging now are humanoid. There’s a large contingent of them armored and on horseback."

These Wandering Souls galloped madly, brandishing their blades and roaring in fury, as if they were still on a battlefield of endless slaughter.

"Fallen soldiers from a battlefield are the most numerous, and their resentment is the strongest," Hee Lingchuan said, then exclaimed with a start, "Look at that!"

The Resentful Souls gushing from the pool had evolved from bizarre shapes at first, to mostly human souls, and now to beings of astounding size. Although Resentful Souls have no weight, the one Hee Lingchuan was looking at seemed to be a combination of seven or eight of them. It didn’t just have seven hands and eight legs; it also had pairs of eyes covering its chest and shoulders.

A normal Resentful Soul standing before it was like an ordinary person in front of an ancient banyan tree—their sizes were simply incomparable.

The sense of oppression it exuded toward the living was on a completely different level as well.

Seeing this monster, Sunx Fuping, surprisingly, seemed to let out a sigh of relief. "Just as I expected."

"Expected what?" Hee Lingchuan asked. ’He always speaks in riddles,’ he thought. ’I bet he has trouble finishing a piss, too.’

"After being trapped in there for so long, some Resentful Souls begin to devour and merge with one another, forming new, powerful entities, much like cultivating a Gu," Sunx Fuping explained, pointing at the monster. "As expected, the Resentful Souls are appearing in order from weakest to strongest. This means our wait is almost over."

The seven-handed, eight-legged monster had crawled out and was about to follow the main swarm upward. But just as Sunx Fuping finished speaking, it suddenly turned its head. Its sixteen eyes blinked in unison, staring directly at the Barrier!

Hee Lingchuan’s skin crawled under its gaze. ’That stare is way scarier than Nian Songyu’s.’ "Can it see us?"

"Shh!" Sunx Fuping quickly cut him off.

But it was too late. The sixteen-eyed monster made a distinct sniffing motion, then crawled out of the pool and started toward the Barrier.

The sixteen-eyed monster’s movements were comical. Its limbs were uncoordinated, and it even stumbled a little. But Sunx Fuping knew this was only because it had just entered the Mortal World and had not yet fully adapted.

The Illusionary Barrier offered no real physical protection—nor could it, as that would only provoke the Resentful Souls into attacking. Its only function was to conceal the presence of the living, preventing the dead from smelling the scent of flesh and blood.

However, among the myriad types of Resentful Souls, there were always a few with special abilities that weren’t easily fooled. Judging from the sixteen-eyed monster’s behavior, it hadn’t completely seen through the Illusionary Barrier, but it had grown suspicious and was determined to investigate.

To its senses, the area covered by the Illusionary Barrier was devoid of any living presence. Yet, it could faintly perceive a tiny spark of life, like a lone firefly blinking in the night. When it tried to focus, the sensation blurred.

This undoubtedly piqued its curiosity, making it want to get a closer look.

Just as it was about to collide with the Barrier, Sunx Fuping gave a low shout, "Bai Shan, Cyan Water! The Soul-Stabilizing Banner!"

Two Attendants from behind him darted to the front of the group, stopping right at the Barrier’s edge. They produced a massive white cloth banner from out of nowhere and began waving it wildly at the sixteen-eyed monster.

The banner was covered in dense black and red runes. As it flapped against the wind, the runes seemed to lift off the cloth, rotating slowly as the faint sound of sacred chanting filled the air.

The banner looked like nothing more than a strip of white cloth on an ironwood pole, fluttering lightly in the wind. Yet, the Attendants clearly struggled to wield it; it took both of them, using all four hands, just to hold it aloft.

The way they waved the white banner was also peculiar, as if they were repeatedly tracing an infinity symbol (∞) in the air at a constant speed.

At the same time, Sunx Fuping moved to the front of the group and motioned for everyone to close their eyes.

The order, however, came a moment too late. The moment the white banner appeared, everyone’s gaze naturally followed its movements. After it had swayed just twice, the eyes of several men went vacant. As if drawn by a magnet, they began to walk toward it.

One of them walked past Hee Lingchuan, who firmly grabbed the man’s shoulders and forced his eyes shut.

The man struggled twice, then went still.

Others quickly followed his example, restraining their companions who had fallen prey to the Soul Capture.