The Immortal World Has Rotted

The passage through the immortal gate

was not long.

Wang Hao only felt the light and shadows around him distort.

His body seemed to be pulled apart

by countless hands

in every direction at once.

His Earth Immortal body

let out a series of deep rumbles.

If a Martial God realm expert had entered this place,

the spatial pressure within the passage alone

would have crushed their flesh into a mist of blood.

Ahead,

a point of light suddenly appeared.

The next instant,

Wang Hao stepped out of the void.

His feet

landed upon a stretch of white earth.

Boom!

The ground beneath his feet

sank by merely three inches.

Wang Hao’s gaze sharpened.

If that step had landed in the lower realm,

it would have shattered mountains ten thousand zhang high.

Yet here,

it had left only a shallow depression.

The laws of the Immortal Realm

were far more solid than those of the cultivation world.

The heavens and earth

were saturated with immortal qi so dense it was nearly liquid.

With just a single breath,

the Imperial Dao Immortal Foundation within Wang Hao

began to circulate on its own.

His cultivation

showed faint signs of advancing.

The sky was impossibly high.

Colossal mountains

floated above the sea of clouds.

Immortal waterfalls poured down

around their slopes.

Every drop of water

contained immortal Dao matter enough

to transform a Transcendence expert.

Farther away,

a golden sun

hung at the very end of heaven and earth.

Beside the sun,

nine moons rose at once.

Sun and moon shone together.

Immortal radiance stretched through countless layers.

The sight before them alone

was enough to drive any cultivator of the lower realm mad.

This truly seemed to be

the legendary Immortal Realm.

The Longevity Earth Immortal stood upon the white earth,

looking up at the firmament.

A trace of shock

appeared in his aged eyes.

“So this is the Immortal Realm?”

“Immortal qi turns to rain.”

“The Great Dao takes form.”

“If one cultivated here,”

“the speed at which an Earth Immortal breaks through”

“would be at least a hundred times faster.”

One Earth Immortal could not help spreading his arms,

madly absorbing the immortal qi around him.

“I have cultivated bitterly for eighty thousand years.”

“At last, I have entered the Immortal Realm!”

Within his body,

immortal apertures opened one after another.

A vast tide of immortal qi poured into his flesh.

A look of bliss

appeared on the Earth Immortal’s face.

“Indeed.”

“This is where immortals truly belong.”

Taixuan Heavenly Immortal stood in the distance,

but his expression was grim to the extreme.

“Shut up.”

“Don’t absorb it!”

The Earth Immortal froze slightly.

“Why?”

Taixuan Heavenly Immortal stared fixedly at his face.

“Because you’re already smiling.”

The Earth Immortal touched the corner of his mouth.

He truly was smiling.

Yet his face

had not formed a smile.

Beneath his skin,

it was as though another face

was slowly tearing the corners of his mouth upward.

“What is this?”

The Earth Immortal’s expression twisted in terror.

He tried to stop absorbing the immortal qi,

but the immortal apertures within him

were already beyond his control.

The crystalline, pristine immortal qi

in the air

rapidly transformed into countless tiny white specks

after entering his body.

Those specks

were not immortal Dao particles.

They were eggs,

each smaller than a grain of dust.

Crack!

Two fissures

split open across the Earth Immortal’s back.

Two pure white wings

burst forth from his flesh.

The wings were beautiful.

Every feather

was translucent and crystalline,

radiating a holy light.

But at the roots of the feathers

grew densely packed human teeth.

The teeth bit into the Earth Immortal’s flesh,

chewing without end.

Crunch.

Crunch.

The Earth Immortal screamed.

“Save me!”

“Get them out of me!”

“Quick!”

Wang Hao raised a hand.

Chains of Imperial Dao instantly wrapped around the Earth Immortal.

The New Son of Heaven Sword flew forth on its own.

Stainless Kindling Flame

flowed down along its blade.

Hiss!

The white wings quickly caught fire.

The teeth upon every feather

simultaneously let out cries like those of infants.

Within the Earth Immortal’s body.

More white eggs began to hatch.

His eyeballs turned transparent.

His skin gradually sprouted feathers.

His entire body—

seemed as though it were about to transform into a holy celestial emissary.

Yet beneath that transparent skin,

his flesh and blood had already been hollowed out by countless tiny mouths.

“Kill me…”

The Earth Immortal’s voice trembled.

“Kill me. Quickly.”

“I can feel it.”

“I’m eating myself.”

Wang Hao clenched his five fingers.

Chains of Imperial Dao

pierced through the Earth Immortal’s glabella.

Boom!

His immortal soul shattered.

Stainless sacred fire instantly engulfed his entire body.

The two beautiful, snow-white wings

flapped frantically amid the flames,

before finally turning to ash.

An Earth Immortal—

from absorbing immortal qi

to dying completely—

had lasted less than thirty breaths.

The immortals who had been marveling at the beauty of the Immortal Realm only moments ago

all froze where they stood.

Wang Hao raised his head

and looked once more at the resplendent immortal radiance filling heaven and earth.

Only then did he finally see clearly.

Within every beam of immortal light,

countless white eggs rose and fell.

The so-called immortal mist

was nothing more than spores exhaled by some living creature.

The so-called immortal rain

was made of drops of transparent slime.

The floating mountains above the clouds

were not mountains at all,

but colossal immortal corpses beyond imagining.

They hung upside down from the heavens.

Across the surface of their skin

grew mountains, rivers, grass, and trees.

The so-called waterfalls

flowed from the rotting wounds of those immortal corpses.

As for the golden sun in the distance,

it was no sun at all.

It was a gigantic eye.

That eye

was tightly shut at this very moment.

Across its eyelid,

countless golden tentacles swayed slowly like a solar corona.

Of the nine moons,

eight had already rotted away.

What fell with the moonlight

was not a clear, silvery glow,

but layer upon layer of white mold.

The Longevity Earth Immortal stared at the world before him.

The shock on his face

gradually turned to coldness.

“This isn’t an immortal realm.”

“It’s a corpse.”

The Taixuan Heavenly Immortal spoke hoarsely.

“This is only the Ascension Plain.”

“Twelve hundred thousand years ago,

pollution had already appeared here,

but it was nowhere near this severe.”

“Now,

even the immortal qi of heaven and earth cannot be absorbed.”

A system notification

appeared before Wang Hao’s eyes.

【Special location detected: Eastern Extremity Ascension Plain.】

【Would you like to check in?】

Wang Hao answered silently.

“Check in.”

【Check-in successful.】

【Item obtained: Immortal Realm Guide Stele.】

【Immortal Realm Guide Stele: A standard-issue immortal artifact of the Immortal Realm Ascension Office. It can identify ancient Immortal Realm script, regional routes, common sources of contamination, and danger levels.】

【Information on the current region has been loaded.】

【Current location: Eastern Extremity Ascension Plain, Ascension Zone No. 94.】

【Regional status: Completely overrun.】

【Danger level: Heavenly Immortal level.】

【Special Intelligence 1: Eastern Extremity Ascension Plain fell completely twelve thousand six hundred years ago. No normal immortal-path lifeforms remain within the Ascension Immortal City.】

【Special Intelligence 2: The immortal qi in this area has been contaminated by “Feathering Sickness.” Those who absorb immortal qi will gradually believe that they are undergoing feathered ascension, until they are ultimately devoured by the fledgling Feather Immortal larvae hatching inside their bodies.】

【Special Intelligence 3: Do not look directly at the golden sun. It is the right eye left behind after the death of the Eastern Extremity Immortal King.】

【Special Intelligence 4: Do not touch the white immortal rain. The rain records the aura of living beings and transmits it to nearby diseased immortals.】

【Special Intelligence 5: The Ascension Herald is still carrying out its duties, but it has forgotten what ascension truly means.】

【Next check-in location updated: Heaven’s Severed Head Gate.】

Wang Hao finished reading the intelligence report.

He immediately raised his right hand.

“Everyone.”

“Stop absorbing immortal qi.”

“Seal your immortal apertures.”

“Do not touch the rain.”

The moment his words fell—

A drop of pure white immortal rain drifted down from the sky.

A deeply corrupted Earth Immortal

was bound at the very edge of the formation by chains of Imperial Dao.

The raindrop landed squarely on his shoulder.

There was no explosion.

No corrosion, either.

The drop moved like a living thing.

It burrowed into his skin.

The corrupted Earth Immortal’s body stiffened.

Then,

he suddenly threw back his head.

A voice that did not belong to him came from his mouth.

“Ascenders detected.”

“Number.”

“Eighty-nine.”

Wang Hao corrected him.

“Eighty-eight.”

The corrupted Earth Immortal twisted his neck all the way around.

Then continued speaking.

“Ascenders detected.”

“Eighty-eight.”

“Residual coordinates from the lower realm detected.”

“Beginning retrieval.”

Taixuan Heavenly Immortal’s expression changed drastically.

“Sever his connection to the immortal rain!”

Wang Hao struck with his palm,

slamming it onto the corrupted Earth Immortal’s shoulder.

The mark left by the immortal rain exploded on the spot.

But an invisible ripple

had already spread into the distance.

At the far end of the land,

an ancient colossal city, once concealed within immortal mist,

slowly emerged.

That city

was ten thousand times larger than the Great Xia Imperial Capital.

Its walls towered into the clouds.

Every brick

had been forged from immortal gold.

Countless immortal formation patterns

flickered across the surface of the walls.

Above the city gate

hung three ancient immortal characters.

The Immortal Realm Guide Stele in Wang Hao’s hand

translated them on its own.

“City of Reception.”

Longevity Earth Immortal looked at the city.

“According to the ancient records,”

“after ascenders enter the Immortal Realm,”

“they must first register in the City of Reception.”

“They receive an immortal registry and a dwelling.”

The gaunt Earth Immortal

still had a Great Xia wooden plaque hanging around his neck.

At those words,

his eyes brightened slightly.

“A dwelling?”

Wang Hao glanced at him.

“If you like,”

“you can pick one first later.”

The gaunt Earth Immortal immediately became wary.

“Forget it.”

“This old man thinks sleeping out in the open is quite nice.”

Rumble—

The gates of the City of Reception

slowly opened.

Beyond them were no streets.

No immortal officials.

Only a mass of endlessly writhing darkness.

Then,

two ranks of golden-armored figures

marched out from the darkness in perfect order.

Each of them stood a hundred zhang tall.

Their immortal armor was magnificent,

and they carried golden immortal halberds.

But beneath their helmets,

there were no faces.

Only clusters of snow-white feathers.

Within the gaps between those feathers,

countless tiny eyes blinked without end.

One hundred.

One thousand.

Ten thousand.

More and more golden-armored immortal soldiers

emerged from the City of Reception.

With every step they took,

the earth trembled in measured rhythm.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The weakest among them

radiated the aura of an Earth Immortal.

The twelve at the forefront

had even reached the level of Heavenly Immortals.

The immortals’ expressions changed completely.

Back in the cultivation world,

each of them had stood high above all others.

Yet the moment they entered the Immortal Realm,

they encountered more than ten thousand diseased immortals.

One deeply corrupted Earth Immortal

suddenly grew excited.

The black veins within his body

began resonating with those golden-armored immortal soldiers.

“Home.”

“This is our true home.”

He abruptly snapped a section of the Imperial Dao chains

and rushed toward the City of Reception.

Wang Hao stepped on the chain,

yanking him back from midair.

“I said I’d let you move house.”

“I never told you to defect to the enemy.”

The corrupted Earth Immortal dropped onto all fours,

his body twisting madly like a wild beast.

“Let me go!”

“The Immortal Realm is calling to me!”

“I want to go back!”

Wang Hao raised his hand.

Hang a wooden placard around his neck.

“Contamination worsening.”

“Isolation recommended.”

The Earth Immortal lowered his gaze to the placard around his neck.

His roar grew even more frenzied.

Within Reception City—

A long, resonant bell pealed.

Clang—

More than ten thousand golden-armored immortal soldiers

came to a halt at the same instant.

They split into ranks along both sides

and bowed their heads.

Beyond the city gates,

an immortal carriage drawn by nine white wyrms

slowly emerged.