Resurrection of the Decayed Immortals

Zhongzhou.

The ancestral temples of the seventy-two sacred lands had all collapsed.

Countless disciples still knelt amid the ruins.

They were still seeing the Bell Ringer off.

Suddenly.

The shattered ground began to tremble.

One ruin after another slid apart to either side.

Deep beneath the earth.

A massive bronze gate emerged.

Carved upon it were seventy-two ancient sigils.

Each sigil corresponded to one of the sacred lands.

The experts of the seventy-two sacred lands changed expressions the moment they saw the bronze gate.

They were the leaders of the various sacred lands.

Yet none of them had known that such a thing lay beneath the ancestral temples.

Only a few ancient Holy Lords nearing the end of their lifespans revealed looks of terror.

“The Immortal Gate.”

“The legend is true.”

“When the seventy-two sacred lands were first established, they were never meant to pass down martial arts.”

“They were built to guard an immortal!”

A young disciple froze.

“An immortal needs to be guarded?”

The old Holy Lord’s lips trembled.

“Not an immortal.”

“An immortal corpse.”

Boom!

The massive bronze gate was pushed open from within.

A hand covered in golden skin reached out.

At first glance, the palm appeared sacred.

Yet the gaps beneath its fingernails were stuffed with rotting flesh.

Immediately afterward.

An old man in a white Daoist robe walked out from within the gate.

His body was so emaciated that only a skeleton remained.

Golden skin covered half of his face.

The other half was completely rotten.

Within his hollow eye socket.

A ball of white immortal fire slowly burned.

Above the seventy-two sacred lands.

A broken immortal ring condensed in the sky.

The old Holy Lord suddenly fell to his knees.

“Welcome, Taiyi Ancient Immortal!”

Countless disciples were struck as if by lightning.

An immortal!

Beneath the seventy-two sacred lands.

There truly slept an immortal!

Taiyi Ancient Immortal slowly raised his head.

He did not look at the kneeling disciples of the sacred lands.

Nor did he look at the fallen Bell Ringer.

His gaze crossed an endless distance.

It fixed itself upon Xuanming.

More precisely.

It was fixed upon the point where the Immortal Dao and the strange fused within Xuanming’s body.

“It worked.”

“Someone truly succeeded.”

Taiyi Ancient Immortal’s voice was filled with greed.

“Using the Immortal Dao as bone.”

“Using the strange as blood.”

“Using his own obsession to control both.”

“As long as I eat him.”

“This immortal can come back to life!”

A sacred-land elder mustered his courage and spoke:

“Ancient Immortal.”

“The First Alliance Leader has already fallen while protecting the Nine Provinces.”

“We humbly ask that you take action.”

Taiyi Ancient Immortal finally turned his gaze toward them.

“The First Alliance Leader?”

“He was nothing more than a Bell-Keeping Slave before this immortal’s coffin.”

“That he could awaken this immortal with his own Great Dao…”

“Was his honor.”

The excitement on the disciples’ faces gradually stiffened.

They had not received an immortal’s protection.

They had received nothing but the words “Bell-Keeping Slave.”

The elder still wanted to speak.

Taiyi Ancient Immortal raised a hand and clenched it.

Throughout the ruins of the seventy-two sacred lands.

Countless remnants of incense offerings rose at once.

The power of the incense gathered into a golden river.

It all surged into Taiyi Ancient Immortal’s mouth.

And it was not only the incense.

Golden light also flew from the bodies of those sacred-land experts who had once offered their faith before the ancestral temples.

Their faces rapidly aged.

Their strength was stripped away by an invisible force.

“These things were left by this immortal for himself.”

“You have enjoyed them for all these years.”

“It is time to return them.”

The old Holy Lord collapsed to the ground.

He finally understood.

The being worshiped by the seventy-two sacred lands for countless ages.

Was not an immortal who protected all living beings.

It was a monster hiding beneath the earth.

Waiting to harvest the power of incense.

Taiyi Ancient Immortal swallowed the last strand of incense.

Upon his rotten face.

A small patch of golden skin began to grow anew.

He took one step forward.

Space folded beneath his feet.

He headed straight for the Dark Ancestral Court.

The Southern Region.

The Blood Desire Demon Palace.

The fragments of the bronze bell left behind by the Red Dust Demon Lord still floated upon the sea of blood.

Countless demon cultivators knelt along the shore.

Some were silent.

Some were weeping.

Others gripped their weapons tightly, wanting to head to the Dark Ancestral Court.

The Red Dust Demon Lord could die.

But the Blood Desire Demon Palace could not simply do nothing.

Just as everyone was preparing to set out.

A massive vortex appeared in the center of the sea of blood.

The seawater rapidly receded.

In the space of a few breaths.

The sea of blood, which had existed for tens of thousands of years, completely dried up.

A blood-red altar was revealed.

Lying upon the altar.

Was a woman dressed in ancient robes.

She had no skin.

Her blood vessels and muscles were exposed directly to the air.

Within every blood vessel.

Tiny human figures swam.

She opened her eyes.

Her pupils were like two blood-colored abysses.

The blood within the bodies of every demon cultivator began to boil at once.

An old ancestor of the demon palace turned pale.

“Blood Luo Immortal Lord!”

“The source of the demonic path recorded in the chronicles of our First Ancestor!”

The Blood-Clad Woman slowly sat up.

She glanced at the bronze bell left behind by the Red Dust Demon Lord.

“A little girl who cultivated the path of desire.”

“She has some talent.”

A demon cultivator immediately said:

“Immortal Lord.”

“Our First Ancestor died at the hands of Xuanming.”

“Please avenge our First Ancestor!”

The Blood Luo Immortal Lord tilted her head.

She seemed unable to understand those words.

“Vengeance?”

“Why would this immortal avenge an ant?”

She extended her tongue.

And licked her skinless lips.

“But Xuanming’s flavor…”

“Is indeed very fragrant.”

“Half immortal, half strange.”

“As long as I swallow his flesh and blood.”

“This immortal’s decayed body will gain new life.”

She reached out toward the Blood Desire Demon Palace.

Several hundred of the demon sect’s most powerful experts flew into the air against their will.

Their bodies exploded in midair.

All their blood gathered.

A layer of bright-red skin formed across the Blood Luo Immortal Lord’s body.

The remaining demon cultivators retreated in terror.

The Blood Luo Immortal Lord revealed a satisfied expression.

“While this immortal slept.”

“You borrowed this immortal’s Great Dao to cultivate.”

“Now that this immortal has awakened.”

“Eating a few of you…”

“Is only fair.”

With that.

She transformed into a streak of blood-colored light.

And vanished into the Southern Region.

In the deepest part of the Western Wasteland.

All nine ancient immortal-copper coffins opened.

There were no complete immortal bodies within them.

Only nine separate pieces of rotting flesh.

A head.

A section of spine.

Two arms.

Two legs.

A heart.

A pair of eyeballs.

And a piece of human skin covered in black fur.

The nine pieces of flesh flew up at the same time.

In midair, they pieced themselves together into a grotesque humanoid figure.

His left hand grew from his right shoulder.

His head was embedded in his chest.

His two legs were of different lengths.

His spine jutted from his back.

Like a barbed tail.

Finally.

The human skin spread over him.

Barely wrapping the flesh together.

“Wuming.”

“That little fellow is dead too?”

The deformed immortal looked toward the place where Ancient Emperor Wuming had fallen.

There was no sorrow on his face.

Instead, he looked displeased.

“This immortal passed down the Corpse Dao to him.”

“I expected him to transcend, so I could take his Great Dao and use it to repair this body.”

“How dare he die at someone else’s hands?”

“What a waste.”

This immortal was known as Corpse Liberation.

He was the source of the Corpse Dao in the Western Wasteland.

Ancient Emperor Wuming had spent his entire life believing that he had accidentally obtained the inheritance of the Corpse Dao in some ancient ruin.

He had never imagined that the so-called opportunity.

Was merely a seed planted by Corpse Liberation Immortal.

Once the seed matured.

Its master would harvest it.

Corpse Liberation Immortal twisted his crooked neck.

His gaze fell upon the Dark Ancestral Court.

When he saw Xuanming.

The head embedded in his chest revealed an ecstatic smile.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Wuming’s Corpse Dao was only a minor supplement.”

“Xuanming is the true great medicine.”

The nine ancient immortal-copper coffins transformed into nine streaks of light.

They embedded themselves in various parts of his body.

Corpse Liberation Immortal stepped into the void.

With every step he took.

Large amounts of rotten flesh fell from his body.

When that flesh landed upon the Western Wasteland.

It immediately transformed into grotesque corpse beasts.

They frenziedly attacked every living creature nearby.

The Northern Frontier.

The Immemorial Icefield suddenly split open.

A sword cry rang out across heaven and earth.

At the same moment, every longsword in the hands of the sword cultivators across the Northern Frontier snapped.

Countless broken blades flew toward the deepest reaches of the ice plain.

There was no palace there.

Nor was there a coffin.

Only a gray-robed man, nailed into the ice.

His four limbs,

his brow,

his heart,

and his dantian

were each pierced by a hiltless stone sword.

Seven stone swords sealed him in place.

The countless broken blades converged,

forming a river of swords that crashed against the seven stone swords.

The first stone sword shattered.

The gray-robed man's left hand regained its movement.

The second stone sword shattered.

His right hand rose.

The third.

The fourth.

The fifth.

Immortal sword intent erupted from the depths of the ice plain.

The entire Northern Frontier was split in two.

When the sixth stone sword broke,

the gray-robed man opened his eyes.

His eyes had long since been gouged out.

A small, rust-covered sword was lodged in each empty socket.

The seventh stone sword shattered.

The gray-robed man took one step out of the ice.

Countless broken blades circled his body.

He looked toward the place where the Sword-Burier had fallen.

There was not the slightest ripple in his hollow eye sockets.

“Nine hundred and seventy thousand broken swords.”

“And they still failed to nurture a single immortal sword.”

“Useless.”

This man was known as the Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal.

The Sword-Burier had established the Northern Frontier Sword Mound and gathered broken swords from across the world.

The original inheritance had come from a wisp of the Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal’s sword intent.

The Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal had intended to borrow the power of every sword cultivator under heaven to nurture a sword capable of cutting away his own decay.

But the Sword-Burier had burned all the broken swords and struck at Xuanming.

The Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal was deeply displeased.

Yet when he sensed the vitality radiating from Xuanming now,

that displeasure instantly transformed into longing.

“Why bother nurturing an immortal sword?”

“A body that is half immortal and half strange…”

“Now that is the most perfect sword sheath in the world.”

The river of swords shot into the sky.

The Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal stepped onto the blades and headed south.

In the Eastern Sea’s Guixu,

that enormous head, as large as an island, was also slowly rising.

But it had only risen halfway

when the deep-blue chains left behind by the Heaven-Bearing Old Man’s self-detonation in Guixu came twisting up from the seafloor.

They wrapped tightly around the head.

The enormous head let out an enraged roar.

A world-ending tsunami surged across the Eastern Sea.

“Old turtle!”

“Even dead, you still have to ruin this immortal’s plans!”

The deep-blue chains tightened further and further.

The head could not break free.

It could only stare greedily at Xuanming across endless space.

In the Dark Ancestral Court,

Wang Hao took in everything happening throughout the Nine Provinces.

The Great Xia national fortune covered the realm.

The changes in the Central Plains, the Southern Domain, and the Western Wastes all flowed into his mind through the wishes of the common people.

His expression grew darker and darker.

The Dragon-Slayer could also sense wave after wave of decayed immortal might.

“How can there be so many immortals hidden in the Nine Provinces?”

Wang Hao shook his head.

“They are not living immortals.”

“They are all corpses.”

“They rely on their sects’ incense offerings, their disciples’ vital essence, and the inheritance of their Great Dao to delay their decay.”

The Dragon-Slayer said gravely,

“Why have they awakened only now?”

“Because of Xuanming.”

Wang Hao looked toward the half-immortal, half-strange being within the rift.

“To those decayed immortal corpses,

Xuanming is not an enemy.”

“He is a great medicine capable of bringing them back to life.”

A trace of sorrow appeared in the Dragon-Slayer’s eyes.

“The Bell Ringer and the others guarded the Nine Provinces for tens of thousands of years.”

“Yet these immortals hid underground the entire time.”

“Now that the mortal world is in danger,

they do not awaken.”

“But the moment they smell something that can save their lives,

they wake faster than the next.”

Wang Hao said calmly,

“Senior,

don’t imagine immortals to be too noble.”

“Greater strength and longer lives do not mean thinner skin.”

“For example, me.”

The Dragon-Slayer glanced at him.

“At least you know your own nature.”

Wang Hao sighed.

“What I mean is…”

“I am powerful, and I will certainly live a long time, but my skin is not thick in the slightest.”

The Dragon-Slayer silently turned his head away.

He did not want to discuss skin thickness with Wang Hao.

There was no point.

Xuanming had also sensed those resurgent presences.

He stopped tearing at the boundary wall.

His left eye turned toward the Central Plains.

His right eye turned toward the Southern Domain.

Then he swept his gaze across the Western Wastes and the Northern Frontier.

“Taiyi.”

“Blood Luo.”

“Corpse Liberation.”

“Heaven-Deficient.”

“When the Immortal Realm shattered, you were nothing but a pack of cowards who only knew how to run.”

“And now you dare covet this immortal?”

The void twisted.

Taiyi Ancient Immortal was the first to descend.

He stood upon a long river of incense offerings.

A smile rested upon his half-decayed face.

“Xuanming.”

“Back then, you were merely a gatekeeping immortal in the northern reaches of the Immortal Realm.”

“If you had not hidden inside the Ancient Xuanming Well,

you would have long since been devoured by the strange tide.”

Blood light blanketed the southern sky.

Blood Luo Immortal Lord stepped out of a sea of blood.

The skin she had only just condensed was already rotting away.

Drops of blood fell from her body.

Each drop transformed into a crimson lake.

“Taiyi.”

“You still talk too much.”

“Just tear Xuanming open.”

“You take the immortal body.”

“I take the strange blood.”

Corpse aura soared across the western sky.

The Corpse Liberation Immortal descended, dragging nine bronze coffins behind him.

“Why should you get it?”

“I am missing the most parts.”

“Xuanming’s immortal body should belong to me.”

A ray of sword light pierced through the Northern Frontier and the Central Plains.

The Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal landed in a single step.

Countless broken swords hovered above his head.

“What you lack is not body parts.”

“It is a brain.”

The head embedded in the Corpse Liberation Immortal’s chest slowly turned.

“Blind man.”

“Do you want to fight first?”

The small swords in the Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal’s empty eye sockets trembled faintly.

“Certainly.”

The four decayed immortals had yet to attack Xuanming,

yet they were already on the verge of turning against one another.

Wang Hao watched with shining eyes.

The Dragon-Slayer frowned.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I’m doing the accounts.”

“What accounts?”

“Taiyi’s river of incense offerings.”

“Blood Luo’s immortal blood.”

“The Corpse Liberation Immortal’s nine bronze coffins.”

“The Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal’s countless broken swords.”

Wang Hao counted on his fingers.

“If all those things were moved into Great Xia’s treasury,

we wouldn’t have to worry about the army’s expenses for the next three years.”

The Dragon-Slayer was stunned.

“Those are four immortals.”

Wang Hao answered seriously,

“I know.”

“That’s why they’re valuable.”

“I wouldn’t even bother looking at ordinary people’s possessions.”

The Dragon-Slayer lowered his head and glanced at the rusty woodcutter’s knife in his hand.

Suddenly, he felt that the Great Xia Emperor’s gaze toward him was not entirely friendly either.

Without making a sound, he slipped the knife behind his back.

The sharp teeth in Xuanming’s right eye spun ceaselessly.

His black, strange body radiated an intense desire to devour.

The four decayed immortals regarded him as a great medicine.

But why would he not wish to devour those four immortal corpses as well?

As long as he ate them,

completed the origin of the immortal path,

and used the Great Dao of the Nine Provinces to stabilize the balance,

he would be able to truly cross the final boundary between the immortal and the strange.