Signing In at the Soul-Severing Stele, the Town-Physic Celestial Seal

Beneath the Soul-Severing Stele, black mist rolled backward.

In that instant, the entire perimeter of the Burialshade Plains seemed to be pressed down by an invisible hand.

The wind stopped.

The mist stopped.

Even the thunderous roar of divine techniques from the distant battle between the Twelve Holy Lands and the Weird Tide sounded as though it had been shut away in another world.

Wang Hao stood before the stele, his robes billowing, his gaze calm and composed.

Yet the sign-in intelligence system within him was trembling more violently than ever before.

[Sign-in successful.]

[Reward obtained: Heaven-Sealing Corpse Suppression Seal.]

[Heaven-Sealing Corpse Suppression Seal: A one-use forbidden-zone treasure. It can temporarily suppress ancient corpses, yin spirits, corpse aura, and eruptions of yin springs. It has an absolute suppressive effect on Weird Corpses below Level Nine, and can briefly hinder Level Ten Weirds. Duration: thirty breaths.]

[Intelligence update: The Myriad Corpses Yin Spring deep within the Burialshade Plains is the remnant core of an ancient corpse-path formation. Ji Wushang intends to use the yin spring to restore his damaged Weird Eye.]

[Intelligence update: If the Myriad Corpses Yin Spring is suppressed, Ji Wushang’s restoration of his Weird Eye will be interrupted, and he will suffer backlash from the yin spring.]

[Intelligence update: Ji Wushang’s greatest current target of hatred: the Twelve Holy Lands.]

[Intelligence update: Ji Wushang’s second-greatest current target of hatred: Wang Hao.]

[Intelligence update: If Wang Hao continues attacking Ji Wushang while disguised as the Twelve Holy Lands, Ji Wushang’s hatred will become completely fixed upon the Twelve Holy Lands.]

Wang Hao’s eyes brightened slightly when he read the final line.

This system…

It understood him very well.

Yin Jiuyou stood nearby, rubbing his stiff, frozen hands as he asked cautiously, “Your Majesty, what did the sign-in give you?”

Wang Hao raised his hand.

An ancient stone seal appeared in his palm.

The seal was about the size of a hand. Its entire body was gray-white, as if compressed from countless bones. Four ancient seal-script characters were carved upon it.

Heaven-Sealing Corpse Suppression Seal.

Faintly, the wails of myriad corpses echoed from beneath the seal’s surface.

Yin Jiuyou took one look at it, and his face turned green on the spot.

“This thing… is vicious.”

The Demon Lord’s expression grew solemn.

“A forbidden-zone treasure.”

“And it resonates with the aura of the Burialshade Plains.”

Han Shanyue said gravely, “Your Majesty, is this meant to deal with Ji Wushang?”

Wang Hao nodded.

“To be precise, it’s meant to deal with his cooking pot.”

Everyone immediately understood.

Once again, they were smashing the bowl.

Only this time, it was not some peripheral node like Blackbone Mound.

It was the Myriad Corpses Yin Spring deep within the Burialshade Plains.

Ji Wushang had fled into the Burialshade Plains precisely to use the Myriad Corpses Yin Spring to restore his damaged Weird Eye.

If they suppressed the yin spring now, Ji Wushang would not only be unable to partake of it—he would also suffer backlash from the spring.

This was not merely rubbing salt into a wound.

It was pouring thunderfire into that wound, then stitching it shut.

Yin Jiuyou swallowed.

“Your Majesty, the Myriad Corpses Yin Spring is deep inside the Burialshade Plains.”

“Ji Wushang is there now, as are the Holy Lands and the ancient corpses.”

“If we go in, wouldn’t that be just a little bit…”

He carefully considered his wording.

Wang Hao finished for him.

“Suicide?”

Yin Jiuyou nodded earnestly.

“I’m not afraid of death, Your Majesty.”

“I merely feel that Your Majesty’s dragon body is too precious to personally go and throw it away.”

Wang Hao glanced at him blandly.

“You just said you were afraid of death.”

Yin Jiuyou fell silent for a moment.

“I fear death, but I fear even more that Your Majesty will take me to my death with you.”

Everyone fell silent.

The Demon Lord gave Yin Jiuyou a look.

This boy knew how to live.

Wang Hao, however, laughed.

“Who said we’re going in under the name of Great Xia?”

Yin Jiuyou froze.

The New Emperor Sword instantly perked up.

“Master, are we framing someone again?”

Wang Hao corrected it.

“What do you mean, framing someone?”

“This is tactical camouflage.”

The New Emperor Sword pondered for a moment.

“That sounds even more shameless.”

Wang Hao raised his hand and slapped the sword hilt.

The New Emperor Sword immediately shut up.

Wang Hao looked into the distance.

Within the Burialshade Plains, black mist churned.

The Twelve Holy Lands had already stormed inside.

The Thunder Zenith Sea stretched across the sky.

The Lunar Shade Silver Moon split open the heavens.

A Blood Lotus killing formation spread across ten thousand miles.

The Sword Ruins’ broken swords surged backward like a river of stars.

Warships from the Ancient Qin Dynasty formed the main line, golden light from the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple illuminated the land, and demonic aura from the Demonspine Mountains soared into the heavens.

This was the true foundation of Central Continent.

On any ordinary day, such a display of power would have been enough to crush any major domain.

But today, they were facing Ji Wushang, a Level Ten Weird.

A being who, despite suffering severe injuries, could still make the heavens and earth lose their color.

Deep within the Burialshade Plains, black blood dripped from Ji Wushang’s damaged Weird Eye as his enormous Weird body forced its way into the yin mist.

Countless ancient coffins burst from the earth.

Their lids exploded open.

One ancient corpse after another, asleep for a thousand years, crawled out.

Among them were powerful ancient saints clad in battered sacred armor.

There were ancient demon corpses with only half a head remaining.

There were black-robed Daoists whose shoulder blades had been pierced by iron chains.

There was even a headless giant corpse whose body towered like a mountain.

Awakened by Ji Wushang’s Level Ten Weird Domain and drawn by the corpse aura of the Myriad Corpses Yin Spring, they surged toward the allied forces.

Lord of Thunder Zenith roared, “Open the Thunder Sea and clear the way!”

Boom!

Ten thousand zhang of lightning crashed down, shattering hundreds of ancient corpses.

But in the next moment, the broken chunks of corpse flesh began to writhe. They reassembled into new Weird Corpses.

The Lord of Lunar Shade held the Ancient Lunar Yin Mirror, his expression grim.

“These ancient corpses are nourished by the yin spring. They cannot be destroyed.”

The Blood Lotus Ancestor gritted his teeth.

“We must sever the yin spring’s connection!”

The Sword Ruins Patriarch sneered.

“Easier said than done. Ji Wushang is right above the yin spring. Who’s going?”

The group fell silent.

Who would go?

Anyone who did would die.

Even Transcendent Patriarchs were unwilling to force their way toward the Myriad Corpses Yin Spring in Ji Wushang’s presence.

They had already pursued him this far by staking the foundations of their sects.

But asking them to sacrifice themselves on the spot was another matter. Everyone hesitated.

It was not that they were afraid to die.

They simply did not want to die without purpose.

At that very moment, a deep and imposing voice suddenly rang out from within the black mist at the edge of the Burialshade Plains.

“Fellow members of the Holy Lands.”

“As long as Ji Wushang lives, Central Continent will know no peace.”

“Today, we shall slay this beast!”

Lord of Thunder Zenith froze.

That voice…

It sounded unfamiliar.

But in the next instant—

The black mist exploded.

Sixteen Holy Land manifestations rose simultaneously.

Divine Thunder of Thunder Zenith.

The Ancient Moon of Lunar Shade.

The Blood Lotus Killing Sea.

The Ten Thousand Swords of the Sword Ruins.

The Ancestral Mountains and Rivers.

The Boundless Buddhist Lamp.

The Gilded Vault’s Geng Metal.

The Profound Nether Cold Abyss…

A full sixteen Holy Land manifestations illuminated the Burialshade Plains.

The faces of everyone from the Twelve Holy Lands stiffened at once.

That familiar feeling.

That familiar formula.

That black-robed man!

He was back!

Lord of Thunder Zenith completely lost his composure.

“It’s him!”

“It’s that bastard again! He’s impersonating Thunder Zenith again!”

The Lord of Lunar Shade’s eyes turned icy.

“Seize him!”

The Sword Ruins Patriarch was so furious that his sword aura trembled.

“This time, we absolutely cannot let him escape!”

However, before they could make a move, Ji Wushang, deep within the black mist, suddenly raised his head.

Hatred surged from his damaged Weird Eye like an overturned ocean.

“Holy… Lands…”

“It’s… you… again…”

The Twelve Holy Lands: “…”

No.

Wait a moment.

That wasn’t us!

Lord of Thunder Zenith hurriedly roared, “Ji Wushang! That isn’t Thunder Zenith!”

Ji Wushang did not listen in the slightest.

Did Weirds care about logic?

No.

They did not.

It only remembered that the last time these sixteen Holy Land manifestations had appeared, they had blasted its Weird Eye apart.

Now, it had just entered the Burialshade Plains to recover, and the auras of the Holy Lands had appeared again.

And this time, there were sixteen of them at once.

Excellent.

The Holy Lands.

They all deserved to die.

Wang Hao stood aboard a battered spirit boat that had been temporarily modified, dressed in a black robe.

Behind him, the Demon Lord released demonic energy, disguising it as the blood fiend aura of the Blood Lotus Holy Land.

Yin Jiuyou held a formation plate, forcibly projecting several false manifestations, including those of Lunar Shade, the Boundless Buddha, and the Gilded Vault.

Han Shanyue’s blood and vital energy surged like a mountain. After Wang Hao pasted several talismans “rescued” from the Golden Vault Sacred Land onto him, he looked from afar like a giant formed from the ancestral leyline of the Mountains and Rivers Sacred Land.

The New Emperor Sword hovered beside Wang Hao, its blade wrapped in the phantom image of a broken sword from the Sword Ruins Sacred Land.

It trembled with excitement.

“Master, do we look like the saviors of the sacred lands now?”

Wang Hao replied calmly:

“No.”

“We look like their ancestors.”

The New Emperor Sword: “…”

Its master was becoming shameless by the day.

Wang Hao looked toward the depths of the Burial Yin Plains.

The location of the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Yin Spring had already been marked in his sea of consciousness by the system.

It was a black spring eye.

The liquid within was not water, but a bizarre mixture of corpse aura, resentment, yin spirits, and stagnant blood.

Half of Ji Wushang’s grotesque body was submerged in the Yin Spring, frantically devouring its power.

Fine sprouts of flesh were already writhing across its remaining grotesque eye.

They could wait no longer.

Wang Hao raised a hand.

The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda appeared.

The gate to the eighth level opened.

A thunder phoenix burst out.

Purple-red lightning and flames illuminated the black mist.

But Wang Hao did not have the thunder phoenix attack Ji Wushang directly.

Instead, he sent it along an extremely sinister arc, skimming past the battle formation of the Thunder Zenith Sacred Land first.

Lord of Thunder Zenith’s eyelid twitched violently.

“What are you doing?!”

Wang Hao shouted in his disguised, hoarse voice:

“Fellow cultivators of Thunder Zenith, lend me your thunderous might!”

With that, the thunder phoenix wrapped itself in the residual lightning of the Thunder Zenith Sacred Land’s battle formation and thundered toward the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Yin Spring.

Ji Wushang saw this from afar.

Its incomplete grotesque eye filled with even greater resentment.

Thunder Zenith.

So it really was Thunder Zenith!

Lord of Thunder Zenith nearly vomited blood.

“Did I lend it to you?”

“When did I ever lend it to you?!”

No one listened to his explanation.

The thunder phoenix had already crashed into the sky above the Yin Spring.

Boom!

The Ten-Thousand-Corpse Yin Spring erupted into a thousand-zhang wave of corpse water.

Countless ancient corpses shrieked.

Ji Wushang roared as a pale, gigantic hand reached across the sky.

The palm blotted out the heavens, while black rivers of grotesque power streamed between its fingers.

The pressure alone caused the spirit boat beneath Wang Hao’s feet to begin collapsing.

Yin Jiuyou screamed:

“Your Majesty!”

Wang Hao’s gaze turned cold.

“Corpse-Suppressing Heavenly Seal.”

He raised his hand and cast out the stone seal.

The gray-white stone seal expanded in the wind, transforming in an instant into a thousand-zhang heavenly seal that crashed down upon the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Yin Spring.

Ancient runes lit up beneath its surface.

Suppress!

That single character seemed to come from the end of the ancient corpse path.

The Burial Yin Plains shook violently.

The Ten-Thousand-Corpse Yin Spring instantly solidified.

The ancient corpses that had been constantly reviving all froze in place.

Even the pale, gigantic hand reaching toward them halted in midair for a moment.

Thirty breaths.

Only thirty breaths.

But for Wang Hao, that was enough.

He took one step forward.

Imperial dragon aura coiled around him.

The New Emperor Sword fell into his hand.

Sixteen sacred-land manifestations swirled across the blade.

The divine thunder of Thunder Zenith shone the brightest, the ancient moon of Lunar Shade was the coldest, and the sword phantom of the Sword Ruins Sacred Land was the sharpest.

Wang Hao was nothing if not fair.

He had arranged everything clearly for every sacred land.

He would make sure Ji Wushang saw it all clearly.

And make sure the twelve sacred lands died with perfect clarity.

“Heaven-Splitting Nine Swords.”

“First sword.”

“Slash!”

Sword light tore through the black mist.

A crack appeared above the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Yin Spring.

Ji Wushang flew into a rage.

“The sacred lands!”

“Damn you!”

Second breath.

“Second sword!”

The sword light blazed brighter.

The crack in the Yin Spring widened.

Corpse aura rolled backward.

Third breath.

“Third sword!”

The pupils of the Sword Ruins Patriarch contracted.

“This sword intent…”

“It isn’t from my Sword Ruins Sacred Land.”

“But he’s wearing our skin!”

The people of the Sword Ruins Sacred Land were furious enough to cough blood.

He had stolen their clothes, used their name, and then taken them to stab a tenth-level grotesque being.

What kind of inhuman beast did this?

From the fourth breath to the tenth, Wang Hao continued unleashing sword after sword.

Every strike landed precisely on the formation core of the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Yin Spring.

Ji Wushang struggled madly.

But the Corpse-Suppressing Heavenly Seal had suppressed the Yin Spring, causing the power it was devouring to recoil and turn against it.

Half of its grotesque body was trapped in the Yin Spring, and for a time, it was unable to escape.

The Transcendent Ancestors of the twelve sacred lands were all old monsters.

They were angry, and they hated Wang Hao, but they would never let such an opportunity pass.

The Thunder Zenith Ancestor roared:

“Kill Ji Wushang first!”

“Deal with that black-robed man afterward!”

Lord of Lunar Shade gritted her teeth.

“Attack!”

Boom!

The foundations of the twelve sacred lands erupted once more.

A sea of thunder, moon blades, blood lotuses, sword dragons, Mountains-and-Rivers Spears, and Boundless Lamps all blasted toward Ji Wushang.

Attacked from within and without, Ji Wushang’s incomplete grotesque eye exploded once again.

Black blood gushed forth like a heavenly river.

Eighteenth breath.

Wang Hao sheathed his sword and switched to palm strikes.

“Heaven-Imprisoning Earth-Covering Palm.”

First palm!

A golden giant palm descended, crushing the edge of the Yin Spring.

Second palm!

The earth veins shattered.

Third palm!

The ancient coffins turned to ash.

Fourth palm!

The corpse aura flowed backward.

Fifth palm!

The Yin Spring’s formation patterns exploded.

Sixth palm!

Half of Ji Wushang’s grotesque body was shaken free from the Yin Spring.

Wang Hao’s meridians throbbed with tearing pain.

His previous injuries had not yet healed.

Now that he had forcibly employed a divine-grade martial technique, his blood and vital energy boiled within him, while his internal organs roared.

Yet his gaze did not waver in the slightest.

When beating a dog that had fallen into the water, one absolutely must not show mercy.

Especially when that dog was still thinking about eating you.

Seventh palm!

Boom!

The Ten-Thousand-Corpse Yin Spring split apart completely.

A lamentation of ten thousand corpses rose from underground.

Cracks also appeared across the Corpse-Suppressing Heavenly Seal at that very moment.

Twenty-ninth breath.

Wang Hao looked up at Ji Wushang’s incomplete grotesque eye.

He smiled.

Then, deliberately, he activated the Thunder Zenith manifestation, causing purple lightning to cover his entire body.

“Thunder Zenith Sacred Land, I’ll send you on your way!”

Lord of Thunder Zenith’s vision went black in the distance.

“I didn’t!”

Wang Hao’s palm descended.

Eighth palm!

Heaven imprisoned, earth overturned—the palm suppressed ten thousand corpses!

Rumble!

The Ten-Thousand-Corpse Yin Spring exploded.

The sprouts of flesh that had just grown from Ji Wushang’s incomplete grotesque eye were forcibly corroded into black water by the backlash from the Yin Spring.

It let out a miserable shriek that shook the entire Burial Yin Plains.

The sound pierced ten thousand miles.

The dark clouds across the heavens shattered.

The eardrums of countless low-level cultivators burst.

Yet the experts of the twelve sacred lands were invigorated.

They had injured it!

They had injured it again!

This time, Ji Wushang had not suffered an ordinary injury.

Its healing had been interrupted, and it had also been struck by the backlash of the Yin Spring.

That kind of wound was more vicious than taking several blows from ancestral artifacts head-on.