Retreating Again in the South China Sea, Signing In at the Abyss

After another hundred thousand li.

At an ancient frontier pass of the Shanhe Sacred Land, Wang Hao disguised himself as a powerful expert from the Shanhe Sacred Land. Using the phantom of the Ancestral Vein Dragon Spear, he launched a sneak attack on Ji Wushang.

In a fit of rage, Ji Wushang shattered three frontier passes of the Shanhe Sacred Land.

Shanhe Sacred Lord’s face turned as black as the bottom of a cooking pot.

After another thirty thousand li.

At the Blood Lotus Sacred Land’s old battlefield, Wang Hao set up a fake Blood Lotus Killing Array.

The array’s power was mediocre, but its ability to humiliate was extraordinary.

Ji Wushang was plastered across the face by a phantom of a blood lotus.

It roared, “The Blood Lotus Sacred Land must be destroyed!”

Then it turned around and swallowed three thousand li of blood-fiend territory.

The Blood Lotus Ancestor’s heart ached so badly that the corners of his eyes twitched.

After another twenty thousand li.

Wang Hao disguised himself as a sword cultivator from the Sword Ruins and drew his sword atop a Heaven-Severing Gorge.

Of the Nine Swords of Heaven-Opening, he unleashed only the first.

The sword light was not meant to kill.

It was meant only to leave a mark.

That sword scar stretched across the sky. At first glance, it looked almost identical to the Sword Ruins’ inheritance.

Ji Wushang took one look at it, and its eerie eye once again filled with blood.

“The Sword Ruins…”

The Sword Ruins Patriarch behind them remained silent for a long time.

“His attainments in the sword path are indeed impressive.”

An elder beside him said furiously, “Patriarch, is this really the time to praise him?”

The Sword Ruins Patriarch closed his eyes.

“I merely think that makes this even more infuriating.”

After another thirty thousand li.

Ji Wushang’s injuries had worsened to the extreme.

Its tenth-level Eerie Domain was no longer complete.

The black heavenly river flickered in and out of existence.

Cracks covered the area around its damaged eerie eye, and corpse aura from the Myriad Corpses Yin Spring continued to seep out through them, gnawing at it from within.

If it stopped now, it might still be able to preserve its foundation.

But Wang Hao would not let it stop.

Whenever Ji Wushang slowed down, Wang Hao had the eighth level of the Thunder Abyss Suppressing Demon Tower release a thunder phoenix to harass it.

The thunder phoenix never fought head-on. It merely swept past from a distance.

Sometimes it would snatch away a strand of eerie aura.

Sometimes it would spit out a mouthful of lightning fire.

Sometimes it would simply manifest the phantom of the Thunder Zenith from afar.

Lord of Thunder Zenith had already become numb.

These days, whenever he heard the word “thunder,” he felt like vomiting.

After another ten thousand li.

The Great Xia spirit vessel finally fell apart.

It had not been blasted apart.

Wang Hao and the others had simply dismantled and reassembled it too many times. It could no longer be put back together.

Everyone stood in midair, staring at the wreckage of the spirit vessel as it swayed precariously.

Yin Jiuyou fell silent.

“Your Majesty, we have no ship left.”

Wang Hao looked behind them.

The allied forces of the twelve sacred lands still had a large number of warships.

But they were some distance away.

Ji Wushang, however, was almost upon them.

The Demon Lord said heavily, “This time, getting away won’t be easy.”

Han Shanyue tightened his grip on his battle axe.

“I’ll hold them off.”

Wang Hao shook his head.

“No need.”

He raised a hand.

The Thunder Abyss Suppressing Demon Tower appeared.

The nine-story tower shimmered with lightning patterns.

The gate to the ninth level trembled faintly.

Inside were two remaining attacks from purple thunder dragons.

This was a trump card.

It was also one of the reasons Wang Hao dared to keep provoking Ji Wushang all the way here.

But he had never used it.

The ninth-level thunder dragon was far too conspicuous.

If he used it too early, Ji Wushang might recognize him.

Now, however, the time had come.

A ruthless glint flashed deep in Wang Hao’s eyes.

He looked at Ji Wushang charging toward them in the distance. Then, suddenly, he activated all of his imperial dragon aura and layered it with the Thunder Zenith manifestation.

Purple lightning covered his black robes.

From afar, he truly looked like some hidden ancestor of the Thunder Zenith Sacred Land burning his own origin.

Lord of Thunder Zenith saw this from behind them, and his eyelids began to twitch violently.

“This is bad!”

“What is he trying to do now?!”

Wang Hao placed a hand on the Thunder Abyss Suppressing Demon Tower.

The gate to the ninth level opened.

A dragon’s roar shattered the sea of clouds.

A purple thunder dragon burst forth.

At that moment, the heavens and earth seemed to be pierced by violet light.

The thunder dragon stretched for ten thousand zhang. Its scales looked as though they had been forged from a prison of thunder, and every inch of its body contained the destructive force of a full-power strike from a ninth-stage martial expert.

Roaring, it charged toward Ji Wushang’s damaged eerie eye.

Ji Wushang instinctively sensed the danger.

It tried to dodge.

But its injuries were too severe.

Its tenth-level Eerie Domain had been worn down throughout the pursuit, slowing its reaction by a single instant.

That instant was enough.

The purple thunder dragon slammed into the eerie eye.

Boom!

The black heavenly river was torn apart by lightning.

Half of Ji Wushang’s head exploded.

Its damaged eerie eye was nearly blasted through.

Its shriek transformed into tangible sound waves that swept across ten thousand li.

Countless mountains split apart at the waist.

Countless cultivators were shaken until blood streamed from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths.

The allied forces of the twelve sacred lands behind them were also stunned by the attack.

Lord of Thunder Zenith’s face turned deathly pale.

Everyone looked toward him.

Lord of Lunar Shade slowly said, “A purple thunder dragon.”

The Blood Lotus Ancestor gave him a sinister look.

“Fellow Daoist Thunder Zenith, what other explanation do you have?”

The Sword Ruins Patriarch said seriously, “That strike was indeed very much in the style of the Thunder Zenith Sacred Land.”

Lord of Thunder Zenith nearly went mad.

“It wasn’t me!”

“Really, it wasn’t me!”

The Thunder Zenith Ancestor threw his head back and sighed.

“Stop talking.”

“The more you explain, the more it sounds like you.”

Taking advantage of the aftermath of the purple lightning’s explosion, Wang Hao led everyone into the teleportation array Yin Jiuyou had prepared in advance.

A flash of light passed.

They shifted three thousand li through space.

They landed beside the wreckage of an ancient warship from the Great Qin Dynasty, one that had just been destroyed by eerie aura.

Wang Hao waved his hand with practiced ease.

“Repair the ship.”

Yin Jiuyou, the Demon Lord, Xue Wuhen, and the others immediately got to work.

The surviving soldiers of Great Qin watched them with complicated expressions.

“Great Xia’s Emperor?”

Wang Hao removed his black robes, revealing his true appearance. His face was filled with righteous dignity.

“You have suffered greatly, gentlemen.”

“I have come to save you.”

The Great Qin soldiers were so moved that they nearly shed tears.

Then they watched as the people of Great Xia began dismantling the ship’s formation core.

One soldier said in a trembling voice, “Your Majesty, that is our last power core.”

Wang Hao patted him on the shoulder.

“You’re all injured this badly. What do you need a power core for?”

The soldier fell silent.

Wang Hao handed him a bottle of pills.

“Treat your wounds.”

The soldier glanced at the bottle.

These were pills from Great Qin’s own warship medical stores.

Even so, he choked out, “Your Majesty is truly benevolent.”

Wang Hao nodded.

“As long as you live, that is what matters.”

A moment later, a new ship rose into the sky. It had been pieced together from the wreckage of the Great Qin vessel, Taiyin formation panels, Golden Watcher armor, and Blood Lotus banners.

Its appearance was even more absurd than before.

But it could fly.

Wang Hao put his black robes back on.

He looked toward the distance.

After being gravely wounded by the purple thunder dragon, Ji Wushang finally no longer dared to pursue them too closely.

It changed direction and fled south.

That was the direction of the Southern Sea.

Yin Jiuyou studied the map, his voice hoarse.

“Your Majesty, it’s trying to flee Central Continent.”

Wang Hao narrowed his eyes.

“The Southern Sea?”

The Demon Lord nodded.

“The depths of the Southern Sea are filled with countless islands and crisscrossing sea abysses. There are also many cracks leading to ancient eerie domains.”

“If it escapes in there, finding it again will be difficult.”

Wang Hao smiled faintly.

“Difficult to find, perhaps.”

“But with injuries like these, it won’t recover within a hundred years.”

Han Shanyue’s eyes lit up with excitement.

“Your Majesty, we did it?”

Wang Hao gazed toward the southern horizon.

“We still have one final stretch to go.”

“Pursue it.”

Yin Jiuyou looked utterly despairing.

“We’re still chasing it?”

Wang Hao glanced at him.

“Aren’t you supposed to have danger premonitions?”

Yin Jiuyou looked as though he might cry.

“My current premonition is: extreme terror.”

Wang Hao nodded.

“That means we’re heading in the right direction.”

Everyone fell silent.

And so, the pursuit covering two hundred thousand li began.

Ji Wushang fled south.

The twelve sacred lands gritted their teeth and pursued.

The people of Great Xia mingled among them, constantly striking from the shadows, provoking their enemies, and leaving behind evidence implicating the sacred lands.

Lord of Thunder Zenith went from fury to collapse, and from collapse to numbness.

Lord of Lunar Shade had begun to question his entire existence.

The Blood Lotus Ancestor was already planning to change his name the moment he returned.

The Sword Ruins Patriarch, meanwhile, repeatedly pondered the Black-Robed Man’s swordsmanship. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

And the hatred in Ji Wushang’s heart finally solidified completely.

The twelve sacred lands.

Enemies until death.

At the end of the Southern Sea, the heavens and earth lost all color.

They had already left the heartland of Central Continent far behind.

Where sea met sky, dark clouds pressed low, resembling enormous inverted tombs.

The waves were not blue.

They were gray-black.

Countless sea-beast corpses drifted across the surface of the ocean. Some were as enormous as islands, some were covered in grotesque tumors, and from the bodies of others emerged slender black shadows that wailed amid the waves like crying infants.

The South Sea had never been a peaceful place.

Its waters stretched far and wide, dotted with countless islands.

Fragments of ancient battlefields lay buried in its depths, along with quite a few sealed rifts leading to sinister domains.

Under normal circumstances, the major forces of the Central Continent rarely ventured into the deepest reaches of the South Sea.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to.

It simply wasn’t worth it.

There were resources here.

But there was even more danger.

And now, Ji Wushang had arrived.

A severely wounded tenth-level aberration dragged its ruined body all the way from the Central Continent to the South Sea.

The black river of darkness behind it had dwindled from a mighty expanse stretching ten thousand miles into intermittent wisps of sinister mist.

Its fractured demonic eye was nearly closed.

Not because it didn’t want to open it.

It simply couldn’t.

That eye had been pierced by a purple thunder dragon, then repeatedly torn apart by the backlash of the Heaven-Opening Sword Intent, the Heaven-Imprisoning Palm Force, and the Myriad Corpse Yin Spring.

The injuries within it were no longer ordinary wounds.

Its foundation had been damaged.

Aberrations possessed astonishing regenerative abilities.

Especially tenth-level aberrations. As long as they had sufficient deathly energy, resentment, and vengeful souls, they could quickly restore themselves.

But Ji Wushang was different.

Its demonic eye was the core of its tenth-level war form.

That core had been blasted apart again and again.

And every attempt to heal it had been interrupted.

Worse still, throughout this journey of two hundred thousand miles, Wang Hao had never given it a chance to devour anything in peace.

It wanted to consume the deathly aura of the battlefield.

Wang Hao dismantled the nodes.

It wanted to absorb the Yin Spring.

Wang Hao suppressed the Yin Spring.

It wanted to stop and catch its breath.

Wang Hao arrived wearing a Sacred Land projection and struck it directly in the eye.

Ji Wushang couldn’t understand how humanity could be so shameless.

It only knew one thing.

The Sacred Lands deserved to die.

All twelve Sacred Lands deserved to die.

At the edge of the South Sea, the allied forces of the twelve Sacred Lands finally caught up.

Everyone was exhausted to the limit.

The auras of the Transcendent Ancestors had weakened.

The Sacred Lords’ faces were pale.

Even ordinary Martial God experts had to keep swallowing pills just to stay on their feet.

The battle had begun at the edge of the Central Continent’s aberration war, continued to the Burial Yin Plain, and then proceeded all the way from the Burial Yin Plain to the South Sea, spanning two hundred thousand kilometers.

Mountains and rivers had collapsed.

Restricted zones had been shaken.

Ancient cities had been reduced to ruins.

The various great powers of the Central Continent had all been dragged into the conflict.

This was no ordinary encirclement and pursuit.

It was an apocalyptic hunt worthy of being recorded in the annals of history.

If one ignored the fact that the Sacred Lands had been framed so thoroughly along the way, it could indeed be called a glorious campaign.

Lord of Thunder Zenith stood at the prow of a warship, his hair disheveled and his eyes hollow.

He had stopped trying to explain himself.

There was no point.

Ji Wushang wouldn’t listen.

The alliance only half-believed him.

And that black-robed bastard managed to produce a Thunder Zenith projection at the most opportune moment every single time.

He had even left behind seven Thunder Zenith command tokens,

three broken Thunder Zenith spears,

a Thunder Zenith elder’s robe,

and a blood-written note that read: “You old dog Ji Wushang, Thunder Zenith will kill you!”

Most crucially, the genuine seal of the Thunder Zenith Sacred Land was stamped on the blood letter.

Lord of Thunder Zenith couldn’t figure it out.

Where had that bastard obtained the real seal?

The answer was actually quite simple.

Wang Hao had once rescued several disciples of Thunder Zenith from a Thunder Zenith battlefield.

While saving them, he had casually taken a few things.

Not much.

Just enough to be useful.

The situation of Lord of Lunar Shade was no better.

Half of the northern ore veins belonging to the Lunar Shade Sacred Land had been smashed apart by Ji Wushang with a single palm strike.

Three more Lunar Shade outposts had been caught up in the destruction along the way.

Although the true culprit was the Black-Robed Man,

Ji Wushang refused to acknowledge that.

It recognized only the aura of Lunar Shade.

The Blood Lotus Sacred Land had suffered even worse losses.

For some reason, Wang Hao was particularly fond of using Blood Lotus projections to set up fake formations.

The formations themselves were not very powerful.

But their visual effect was extraordinarily sinister.

Every time, it looked as though the Blood Lotus Sacred Land intended to refine Ji Wushang into a pill.

Ji Wushang’s hatred of Blood Lotus was now second only to his hatred of Thunder Zenith.

The Sword Ruins Sacred Land, meanwhile, had suffered a spiritual trauma.

That was because every time the Black-Robed Man imitated the sword intent of Sword Ruins, he made it seem almost right—but not quite.

You could say he didn’t know how to use it, yet he truly could injure Ji Wushang with it.

You could say he did know how to use it, yet he deliberately wielded it in a way that looked wrong.

It was as if someone had put on the robes of the Sword Ruins Patriarch and danced atop the ancestral tombs of Sword Ruins.

And danced rather beautifully, at that.