When the tongue was stretched to full length, it looked a little like a longsword with spikes. Green Longtongue's favorite pastime was to penetrate people's abdomen with his tongue and drag their hearts out before swallowing them whole. There was no such thing as a ban on forbidden techniques in Nonahall Divine Realm. One might even say that special moves and techniques were even more commonplace than traditional ones there, which was one of the sources of their strength.

The second sibling was called Crimson Bloodfiend. She was a woman with blood-colored skin and looked rather ugly, not that she cared much about her looks in the first place. Additionally, she was also the eldest disciple of Xue Yi. As Xue Yi was Si Ling's elder brother, Crimson Bloodfiend now served her instead.

The third sibling was known as Houndgod Palewhite, and was a man dressed in a white robe with skin as pale as his clothes. He was tall, lanky, and seemed rather feeble, but had oily green eyes that looked like wispy flares burning in the darkness. No doubt his name had lots to do with his lifebound beast.

The fourth sibling was Goldspirit Ghoulmount. He was a tall man, about three to four meters in height, but what forbidden technique he had used to achieve his physique was unknown. He looked like a raging bull, ready to charge at any time.

As for the youngest sibling, she was called Timber Woodchild. She looked like a sickly girl with a head of green hair, standing in the middle of her siblings with a pale look. She was the one who had given that little speech about blood and water. While others weren't aware of it, those within the Nonahall Ghost Sect knew that she was the one who had the most authority among the five siblings despite her young age, thanks to her amazing talent. It was said that the position of the ninth ghoul king had been left vacant since the death of Qing Ming so that she would one day assume it.

Timber Woodchild was of the same generation as Li Caiwei, the only person she wasn’t certain she could defeat. Other than that, however, none of her other peers were her match. She was among the youngest third-origin tribulation elders in the entire Flameyellow Continent, apart from Li Caiwei.

All five of them had been serving Ghoul King Si Ling for about four decades. During the recent conflict at Pentaphase, they'd achieved magnificent results. The fact that Si Ling kept them by her side showed how much she valued them.

Right now, the five of them were watching as the ghoul king expended her necromantic energy to activate Necromantic Metamorphosis. A brand new army of corpse puppets was slowly being formed. Even though they had short lifespans, it was more than long enough to attack Tianming City.

However, nobody could have expected a gigantic tree to appear out of nowhere along with a strong gust of wind. Xian Xian used Evernight Curse, spreading billions of astral pollen all over. They were so small that they were really hard to detect, making them incredibly effective against the children of broodmother-type beasts. If the nightmare bugs entered the corpse puppets, they would be shielded from the pollen for the most part. However, right now, there were more than thirty million of them floating in mid air waiting for their turn to inhabit a host.

After all, there was no way Si Ling would be able to make so many corpse puppets in one go. The waiting nightmare bugs were infected by the pollen and immediately lost all semblance of control then began randomly darting around and killing themselves off. They ignored all commands from the nightmare soulworm.

Si Ling's plans had been interrupted. While she didn't lack nightmare bugs, as the nightmare soulworm was easily able to produce them almost indefinitely, there was more than enough pollen in the air for them all! Even if Necromantic Metamorphosis itself wasn't affected, the broodmother’s control over the nightmare bugs was. Once the corpse puppets were made, they would go out of control without the nightmare soulworm to properly control them.

"What's going on? Something's weird!" the nightmare soulworm said.

"Five Wraiths, look to the south!" Si Ling cried. The last time this had happened, at Tianming City, she had been completely unaware of how Tianming was able to disrupt their control of the corpse puppets.

"Understood!"

The five of them immediately made their move.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know."

Tianming's position was actually not too far off from theirs. Once they charged into the sky and turned south, they saw a gigantic tree with three stand-out flowers.

"Ghoul King, it's Li Tianming's lifebound beast!" Green Longtongue reported.

"Why would he be here?" she snapped.

"That tree should be the cause," the nightmare soulworm said.

"You five! Two of you inspect the surroundings to see if anyone else is around! The other three, go kill him! Send people to Tianming City to see what’s going on as well!"

'Understood!"

"I can't move right now, so be careful," SI Ling said.

"Rest assured, Ghoul King. This isn't the Kilostar Domain. The best he can take on is an eighth-level death phase samsaran, right?"

All five of them were tenth-level life samsarans, so they were still confident in being able to deal with Tianming. The time Tianming had battled Xue Yi was within the Kilostar Domain, and that was merely five days ago! There was no way they could be aware of Tianming's two consecutive breakthroughs as well as him having Feiling's help.

Immediately, the five wraiths made their move. The two women, Crimson Bloodfiend and Timber Woodchild, split up to search for other reinforcements, while Green Longtongue, Houndgod Palewhite, and Goldspirit Ghoulmount charged straight for the tree.

"Let's get rid of that tree that's bothering the ghoul king first!" Green Longtongue said.

"Understood!"

They flew past tens of streets at a time until they reached the tree that was rooted to the ground. Beneath the tree was a lifebound beast the size of a mountain with two dragon heads. It roared loudly when it saw them. Atop the beast was a white-haired youth. As for Ying Huo and Meow Meow on his shoulder, they were so small from that distance they were overlooked.

"It's him after all!"

"Kill him!"

The three brothers roared as they charged with the power of tenth-level life phase samsarans.

"Die!"

When they lashed out, their lifebound beasts appeared from their lifebound spaces at the same time. Green Longtongue's beast was a gigantic green toad called a cloudsky fiendtoad. It sported a huge body that was covered in toxic boils. It opened its mouth and a blood-red tongue five hundred meters in length came whipping out. It was the perfect match for Green Longtongue.

Houndgod Palewhite's lifebound beast was a similarly pale hound with five heads, all on the same neck. Each of them leaked drool nonstop. There were more than eight hundred and eighty stars in their eyes. This was a hell ghosthound, and it loved eating human heads. Every time it killed someone, its heads would violently fight each other for the head.

As for Goldspirit Ghoulmount, his lifebound beast was a kilosword titanrhino. As its name suggested, it was covered in swords like a porcupine. Goldspirit Ghoulmount himself wielded a golden spear and stood on the head of his beast as it rapidly charged toward Tianming.