In Black Mountain, There Are No Good People

Beneath the Nameless Immortal Platform.

The laughter of that ancient Immortal King grew ever clearer.

Cracks spread outward from beneath Wang Hao’s feet.

There was no soil in the depths of those cracks.

Only rotting flesh and blood.

This so-called Nameless Immortal Platform was, in truth, merely a piece of bone from the chest of some colossal being.

Boom!

The platform collapsed completely.

A hand that blotted out the sky slowly emerged from the depths of the earth.

Every finger bone on that hand was like a mountain range stretching across the void.

Amid the rotting flesh, countless human faces grew densely packed together.

All those faces opened their eyes at once.

“No imperial destiny.”

“No faith power.”

“No karmic ties of identity.”

“Your Dao Fruit is truly clean.”

“Give it to this King.”

A terrifying Immortal King’s might blanketed heaven and earth.

The rotten immortal vessels closing in from all sides came to a halt at the same time.

The immortals from the Bureau of Suppressing Aberrations, the Ascension Bureau, and the Bureau of Guidance looked up at the giant hand, their faces turning deathly pale.

“An Immortal King’s corpse!”

“How could an Immortal King’s corpse be buried here?”

“Retreat!”

Wang Hao was retreating as well.

The silver-haired youth poked his head out from the New Son of Heaven Sword.

“Master.”

“Didn’t you just say that you wanted to fight your way back up from the Skin-Tempering Realm?”

Wang Hao turned and ran.

“Fighting my way up from the Skin-Tempering Realm—”

“—doesn’t mean using the Skin-Tempering Realm to fight an Immortal King right now.”

The silver-haired youth considered this.

“That makes sense.”

“What do you mean, that makes sense?”

The black-robed artifact spirit’s weak voice came from within the sword.

“This is called being afraid of death.”

The silver-haired youth flew into a rage.

“You insulted Master again!”

“I was insulting you,” said the black-robed artifact spirit.

“Why?”

“Because he’s afraid of death, and you didn’t even realize it.”

The silver-haired youth fell silent for a moment.

“Master, can I go in first and beat him up?”

Wang Hao raised a hand.

With one slap, he sent both artifact spirits back into the sword.

“Say another word, and I’ll leave you behind to reason things out with the Immortal King.”

The New Son of Heaven Sword instantly fell silent.

Below the platform.

That rotten giant hand had risen completely.

Its five fingers pierced the void.

Countless threads of karma descended from its fingertips.

Every thread was connected to a living being.

There were officials of the Bureau of Guidance.

War corpses of the Bureau of Suppressing Aberrations.

And rogue immortals from the Fallen Immortals Gathering who had not yet managed to flee.

The karmic threads trembled lightly.

The souls of hundreds of immortals were torn from their bodies at once.

They did not even have time to scream before turning into streams of light and plunging into the giant hand.

More and more faces appeared upon the hand.

The aura of the Immortal King’s corpse was also recovering at a terrifying rate.

Wang Hao glanced behind him.

The eighty-four immortals, along with Gu Changfeng and the other two, were still following him.

Most of them were badly wounded.

More than ten could no longer even maintain intact immortal bodies.

If they kept running,

sooner or later, they would be caught by the Immortal King’s corpse.

What was more, the pursuing forces of the various Immortal Realm bureaus were closing in behind them.

An Immortal King’s corpse ahead.

The three bureaus hunting them from behind.

Wang Hao suddenly stopped.

Gu Changfeng said gravely,

“Why have we stopped?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“How to make them fight each other first.”

Su Hongxiu looked around.

“The Immortal King’s corpse has already set its sights on you.”

“Those pursuers have their eyes on you as well.”

“Why would they fight each other first?”

Wang Hao plucked out a strand of hair.

Immaculate kindling flame burned at his fingertips.

The hair soon transformed into a drop of blood.

This drop of blood contained no imperial aura.

Yet it retained faint traces left behind by Wang Hao’s battles along the way.

He then took out the rotten Dao Fruit left behind by Bai Wuchen.

Though the Dao Fruit no longer contained a complete consciousness, it still retained the aura of the Ascension Bureau’s Discipline Commissioner.

Wang Hao smeared his blood over the Dao Fruit.

Then he raised his hand.

And threw it toward the pursuing forces.

Bai Wuchen’s Dao Fruit crossed the void.

It landed squarely on an Ascension Bureau immortal vessel.

At almost the same moment,

Wang Hao’s aura vanished completely.

A Destinyless Immortal

was beyond the reach of karmic tracking.

Now that he had deliberately withdrawn his immortal power, the karmic threads hanging from the Immortal King corpse’s fingertips immediately lost their target.

The next instant,

every karmic thread coiled around that Dao Fruit at once.

A deep roar reverberated through the void.

“Found it.”

“A pure Dao Fruit!”

Aboard the Ascension Bureau’s immortal vessel,

a Heavenly Immortal’s face changed drastically.

“No!”

“This isn’t Wang Hao!”

“It’s Lord Bai Wuchen’s Dao Fruit!”

The Immortal King corpse paid him no heed.

Its rotting giant hand swept across the void.

Dozens of immortal vessels exploded at once.

Countless immortals were smashed into bloody mist.

The Corpse-Suppressing Bureau’s army of war corpses had only just formed its battle array when a single finger crushed through them.

More than half of the hundred thousand war corpses shattered in an instant.

The immortals of the Reception Bureau retreated frantically.

“Where is Wang Hao?”

“He got away!”

“Chase him!”

Boom!

The void collapsed once more.

Half of the Immortal King corpse’s head slowly rose from the depths of the earth.

It had no eyes.

Within its eye sockets grew two gaping, blood-filled maws.

Both mouths opened at the same time.

One bit toward the Ascension Bureau.

The other bit toward the Corpse-Suppressing Bureau.

The pursuers no longer had the leisure to worry about Wang Hao.

Every immortal vessel turned around.

Immortal light, Dao Fruits, and immortal domains erupted all at once.

Countless divine arts bombarded the Immortal King corpse.

The dark void was illuminated.

It was as though a rotting sun were rising at the edge of the Immortal Realm.

Wang Hao had already led the immortals into the pitch-black rift that had appeared after the Immortal Platform collapsed.

The Longevity Earth Immortal glanced back.

“Supreme… Fellow Daoist Wang.”

“Would this count as killing with a borrowed knife?”

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

“Making use of waste.”

“Using whom?”

“Both sides.”

Deep within the rift,

space was wildly unstable.

Blades of black astral wind continuously sliced at the immortals’ protective light.

Some immortals’ bodies split apart.

Some had their souls thrown into turmoil.

One Earth Immortal even had the lower half of his body swallowed by space, leaving only his upper half fleeing through the void.

As he flew, he lowered his head to look at himself.

“Where are my legs?”

A rogue immortal beside him said,

“Maybe they left ahead of you.”

“Do they know where they’re going?”

“No.”

“Then I’m finished.”

Wang Hao reached out and grabbed.

The first strike of the Heaven-Imprisoning, Earth-Overturning Palm descended.

The chaotic space around them came to a temporary standstill.

The missing lower half of that Earth Immortal’s body actually fell out from another rift.

Wang Hao pressed the two halves together.

Stainless Kindling flared along the severed wound.

The black flesh buds contaminated by spatial corruption swiftly turned to ash.

The Earth Immortal’s flesh regenerated.

His expression was complicated.

“Fellow Daoist Wang.”

“For saving my life, I have no way to repay you.”

“Then owe me for now.”

“Do I have to pay it back?”

“Of course.”

“I thought rogue immortals didn’t keep tabs.”

Wang Hao looked at the Longevity Earth Immortal.

The Longevity Earth Immortal immediately took out a register.

“Name.”

The Earth Immortal’s face stiffened.

“Zhao… Zhao Wuqian.”

“Good name.”

Wang Hao nodded.

“For now, you owe one complete Dao Fruit.”

Zhao Wuqian’s eyes widened.

“My two legs are worth a complete Dao Fruit?”

“They weren’t before.”

“And now?”

“After I saved you... it was worth it.”

“Can’t you not do this?”

“I can.”

“Really?”

“Give me back my leg.”

Zhao Wuqian immediately fell silent.

The immortals traveled through the spatial rift for a full half hour.

The Immortal King’s roar behind them gradually faded into the distance.

Yet a thick expanse of black mist appeared ahead.

Within the black mist—

mountains stretched endlessly into the distance.

Those peaks were not formed of ordinary stone.

They were made from segments of jet-black bones.

Black trees grew between the bones.

Their trunks were covered in humanoid fruits.

Some of the fruits had already ripened.

They opened their eyes, hanging from the branches as they wept softly.

The spatial rift spat the immortals out.

Everyone fell at once.

Taixuan Heavenly Immortal tried to take flight.

But the moment he rose a hundred zhang into the air,

a black vine shot out from the mountains and instantly wrapped around his ankle.

A mouth split open across the vine’s surface.

It lunged viciously at Taixuan Heavenly Immortal’s immortal body.

A flash of sword-light.

The vine was severed.

Taixuan Heavenly Immortal dropped back to the ground.

No sap flowed from the broken vine.

There were only countless tiny maggots.

After hitting the ground, the maggots quickly burrowed into the rocks.

Gu Changfeng looked ahead.

“This is the Black Mountain Range.”

“One of the most dangerous regions in the Unclaimed Immortal Domain.”

Wang Hao asked,

“How dangerous?”

“Legend says these mountains were formed from the spine of an Immortal King.”

“Deep within Black Mountain, there are even bizarre entities at the Golden Immortal level.”

Wang Hao looked back at the spatial rift.

On the other side,

the Immortal King’s corpse was still battling the pursuers from the Three Offices.

Then he looked at the Black Mountains before them.

“Immortal Kings in front and behind us.”

“Looks like we can only choose the one that’s been dead longer.”

The immortals headed deeper into Black Mountain.

Flying was impossible here.

Ancient immortal auras lingered around every mountain peak.

Some peaks moved on their own at night.

Heartbeats echoed from within others.

There was even a low black hill whose surface was covered in gravestones.

As the immortals passed by,

every gravestone turned at once.

The names carved upon them changed into the immortals’ names.

When Zhao Wuqian saw his own gravestone, his face went pale.

“I’m still alive.”

A voice came from within the gravestone.

“Only a matter of time.”

Zhao Wuqian turned and ran.

The gravestone added,

“Debts must be repaid too.”

Zhao Wuqian ran even faster.

Half a day later,

the immortals arrived at a fractured valley.

Deep within it stood many abandoned mine tunnels.

Taixuan Heavenly Immortal inspected the area for a moment.

“There are no living creatures here for now.”

“We can hide here.”

Wang Hao shook his head.

“More than eighty people gathered in one place.”

“Even if we were all dead, they’d still smell us out.”

Gu Changfeng asked,

“Then what do you intend to do?”

Wang Hao pointed into the distance.

At the end of the mountain range,

a tattered black banner swayed in the mountain wind.

Painted upon it was a Dao Fruit split neatly in two.

Below it were three large characters:

Immortal Tribulation Stronghold.

Beneath the black banner,

a group of Earth Immortals clad in beast-hide immortal armor were besieging a battered immortal vessel.

There were only seven Ascenders aboard.

Their highest cultivation was merely the first level of the Earth Immortal realm.

Two of them had only just condensed their immortal bodies.

The men of Immortal Tribulation Stronghold did not kill them immediately.

Instead, they drove iron hooks through their collarbones and dragged them toward the mountains.

The one-eyed brawny man at their head burst into laughter.

“Not a bad haul today!”

“Seven fresh Earth Immortal Dao Fruits!”

One of the Ascenders roared,

“We have no grudge against you!”

The one-eyed man grinned.

“No grudges, no enmity—makes it easier to rob them without feeling guilty.”

Wang Hao looked at the black banner.

The Sign-In Intelligence System appeared.

【Special location detected: Black Mountain Boundary Marker.】

【Sign in?】

“Sign in.”

【Sign-in successful.】

【Obtained: Life-Swap Black Talisman.】

【Life-Swap Black Talisman: Temporarily exchanges the outward aura, injuries, and karmic traces of two targets for six hours.】

【Intelligence obtained: The Black Mountain Range was formed from the spine and tainted blood of an ancient Immortal King. Flight is forbidden within the mountains. Anyone flying above one hundred zhang will be attacked by the will of Black Mountain.】

【Intelligence obtained: Immortal Bandit Stronghold has a total of 3,721 immortal bandits. Its seven chieftains are all Heavenly Immortals.】

【Intelligence obtained: First Chieftain Duan Tiantu is at the ninth level of the Heavenly Immortal realm. He possesses the Black Mountain Stronghold Seal and can temporarily wield thirty percent of Black Mountain’s power.】

【Intelligence obtained: The seven chieftains distrust one another. First Chieftain Duan Tiantu is preparing to use tomorrow’s Fruit Division Banquet to devour the other six chieftains.】

【Intelligence obtained: Second Chieftain Yin Jiuzhu has secretly pledged allegiance to the Ascension Office and intends to open the Black Mountain Bewildering Array during the Fruit Division Banquet.】

【Intelligence obtained: Third Chieftain Liu Hongyi has been searching for her late husband’s remains. She does not know that his head is buried beneath the First Chieftain’s seat.】

【Intelligence obtained: Beneath the Immortal Bandit Stronghold lies an ancient Heaven-Imprisoning Well.】

Wang Hao’s eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Seven Heavenly Immortals.

More than three thousand Earth Immortals.

A Black Mountain grand array capable of shielding them from the tracking of the Immortal Realm’s authorities.

And a ready-made mountain gate, mines, storehouses, and immortal materials.

How was this a mere bandit stronghold?

It was clearly a palace prepared specifically for him.

Su Hongxiu noticed his expression.

“What are you thinking about now?”

Wang Hao said,

“We need a base.”

Gu Changfeng looked toward the Immortal Bandit Stronghold.

“You want to attack that place?”

“We can’t attack it.”

“Why not?”

“I can kill one Heavenly Immortal.”

Wang Hao was completely candid.

“If all seven attack together, I’ll die.”

Mo Xuan said solemnly,

“We can help.”

“Your injuries haven’t healed.”

“And besides…”

Wang Hao looked at the gathered immortals.

“A frontal assault will get people killed.”

“I no longer have a billion units of aspiration power.”

“Nor do I have any protective divine abilities.”

“If you die, I can’t bring you back.”

The immortals fell briefly silent.

Since severing his imperial destiny,

this was the first time Wang Hao had said something like that.

Without aspiration power,

he could no longer bear every cost through the fortune of an empire, as he had before.

The life and death of every immortal now had to be reconsidered.

Wang Hao turned to look at the Black Mountain mines.

“Taixuan, Ku Rong, Gu Changfeng—take your people and hide in the mines.”

“Su Hongxiu and Mo Xuan, scout the perimeter.”

“Longevity Earth Immortal.”

“Present.”

“Keep the accounts.”

Longevity Earth Immortal took out a ledger.

“Account for what?”

“From this day forward,” Wang Hao said, “every single stone in the Immortal Bandit Stronghold belongs to me.”

The immortals: “...”

Su Hongxiu frowned.

“You haven’t even taken it yet.”

Wang Hao said,

“It’s only a matter of time.”

“What if they damage the stronghold?”

“They’ll compensate us at full value.”

“What if they die?”

“Deduct it from their Dao Fruits.”

Wang Hao slung the new Son of Heaven Sword across his back.

Then he walked alone toward the Immortal Bandit Stronghold.

The silver-haired youth poked his head out again.

“Master, are we going to storm the mountain?”

“No.”

“A sneak attack?”

“No.”

“Poison them?”

“Not that either.”

“Then what are we going there for?”

Wang Hao looked ahead at the more than three thousand Tribulation Immortals.

“First, I’ll play the mole.”

“Then, I’ll become a bandit king.”

Half an hour later.

Before the mountain gate of the Tribulation Immortals’ stronghold.

Several hundred Earth Immortals drew their weapons at the same time.