“Damn it all!” Even the usually stern Qi Gu Daoist from the Holy Academy couldn’t help but exclaim.
“No, we should say we’ve seen an immortal!” The plump Cao Yusheng corrected.
In the distance, shattered rocks pierced the clouds as towering figures soared into the sky, their auras vast and boundless, their blood energy piercing through the sun and moon. The oppressive might was terrifying.
Though they were far away, it felt as though one divine weapon after another was awakening, shaking the very souls of those present. Such treasures were nearly impossible to find in the current era!
Yet now, in this single place, four or five of them erupted at once, their power surging like a breached starry river, unstoppable in its momentum!
The Immortal Tomb had opened, and immortal corpses soared into the heavens—an unprecedented phenomenon in all of history!
What was this place? Why were they obeying the commands of the skeletal woman here? It had to be the sound of the zither summoning them, calling them to slaughter.
And with the six colossal figures towering into the heavens nearby, shaking the earth, the scene grew even more horrifying.
Six undying creatures drew closer, ready to strike!
Immortal corpses in the distance, undying corpses nearby—how could anyone resist? It was a hopeless fight, with no chance of victory.
“Run!”
The best choice was to flee. To stand and fight here meant certain death—no exceptions.
The Grand Elder unfurled the burial shroud, wrapping it around everyone, preparing to open a spatial passage and escape.
The foreign invaders also moved. Though they were warlike, they weren’t foolish enough to throw their lives away. Faced with certain doom, they decisively activated the Immortal-Slaying Pot, forging an escape route.
Whoosh!
A gale howled, tinged with blood and black lightning. The world twisted into something eerie and terrifying, disrupting both treasures.
Ancient runes rose around them, suffused with immortal light. An ancient grand formation awakened, cutting off their escape.
“Bad news! We can’t traverse the void—we’re locked in! This place is too strange!” roared an elder from the foreign realm.
“Try again!” someone bellowed. At the brink of life and death, they had to fight—or everyone would perish here.
“In this world, the Immortal-Slaying Pot is suppressed. It must contend with the will of heaven itself,” another said grimly. The pot was a supreme artifact, capable of slaying immortals, yet here it struggled against the very fabric of the universe.
Meanwhile, Grand Elder Meng Tianzheng was even more frantic. He, too, was hindered. The formation couldn’t harm them, but it blocked their escape.
This land, this void—both bore intricate, eternal engravings that now played their part with devastating effect.
Boom!
The void trembled as an enormous claw descended, covered in azure scales. It belonged to an undying corpse from the foreign realm, large enough to pluck the sun and moon from the sky.
Now, it aimed to crush both groups beneath it.
“You are an ancestor of our world! How can you do this?!” a foreign elder roared, eyes bulging with fury and disbelief.
Clang!
The Immortal-Slaying Pot flared, blocking the strike—but it shuddered violently.
Swoosh!
Another monstrous beast opened its maw, biting through the heavens in an instant, seeking to devour them all.
Grand Elder Meng Tianzheng brandished his glowing sword, slashing forward with a razor-sharp beam. The burial shroud expanded into a radiant barrier, resisting the attack.
The situation was dire. Undying corpses advanced, swinging their terrifying forms to annihilate them. Meanwhile, the immortal corpses neared, transforming into divine beams that shattered the world—unstoppable.
The zither’s melody still played, summoning and controlling these skeletal corpses.
“Suppress it!”
The foreign invaders roared. A warlike race, their combat instincts were sharp. They shifted tactics instantly, no longer fleeing but charging toward the skeletal woman playing the zither.
If they could subdue her, the crisis would end.
Grand Elder Meng Tianzheng had the same thought—only more direct. He lunged forward, aiming to bypass the crystalline skeleton and escape.
Both sides attacked the woman simultaneously, provoking a counterstrike from the Phoenix Zither. The colossal corpse of a phoenix spread its wings, swooping toward them.
This was alarming. It seemed even the undying phoenix cared deeply for this skeletal woman, protecting her.
“Fight! Even if we suffer backlash, we must break through! Unleash the Immortal-Slaying Pot at full power!” the foreigners bellowed.
Boom!
The foreign elders chanted incantations, a prayer—or perhaps a sacrificial rite. The pot blazed with undying energy, as though an ancient ancestor had awakened within the chaos, radiating unparalleled killing intent.
“Slay the immortals!”
Two archaic syllables echoed—the very purpose of the pot’s existence. It was born to bury all immortals.
Heaven and earth split apart. Even the grand formation couldn’t withstand the pot’s unleashed might. The will of the world itself seemed momentarily repelled.
Faintly, they heard countless voices from the foreign realm chanting scriptures—accumulated over countless generations, empowered by the strongest of countless races.
The cosmos ruptured. Chaos churned.
The zither’s melody faltered under this overwhelming force. The pot, fully awakened, was peerless.
But the cost was immense. Some beneath the pot coughed blood, and even young monarchs exploded, unable to endure the backlash.
The pot wasn’t indiscriminate—it simply wasn’t meant for them. It belonged to the foreign realm’s most ancient and powerful beings.
Swoosh!
With the zither silenced, the skeletal woman seemed lost, tilting her head as if deep in thought.
A phoenix’s cry rang out as the undead phoenix dove, desperately resisting the pot.
In the distance, the only living creature—a juvenile corrupted blood phoenix—screeched, as if communicating with the skeletal woman.
“Once-in-a-lifetime chance! This skeleton has no soul fire in her skull—she’s still thinking? What madness! Charge!” the foreigners roared.
At the same time, Grand Elder Meng Tianzheng surged forward. They had to escape.
Behind them, the six undying corpses attacked anew, and the immortal corpses arrived—this was annihilation!
Bang!
The adult phoenix corpse, eyes blazing crimson, clashed with the pot in a cataclysmic impact. Though it had once been invincible, death had weakened it. Its feathers scattered as it was flung aside.
“Kill!”
The foreigners pushed the pot to its limits, even as its power cracked their own bodies, blood spilling from their mouths.
The skeletal woman remained motionless, lost in thought. The juvenile blood phoenix shrieked a warning.
Clang!
The pot struck her. The skeleton collapsed into a heap on the ground.
“Success!” the foreigners cheered.
But their joy froze. Though scattered, not a single bone was broken.
Then, the bones glowed, swiftly reassembling into a slender figure standing tall.
“What kind of monster is this? The pot can slay immortals—yet it couldn’t shatter mere bones?” they gasped in horror.
Still, they had broken through.
Grand Elder Meng Tianzheng’s group also surged past, narrowly avoiding certain death.
“Should we take the coffin?” a foreigner muttered. Ahead, atop an altar, lay an ancient immortal wood coffin, its surface adorned with crystalline leaves and wreathed in immortal mist.
“Don’t act recklessly!” another cautioned.
But the pot’s passing stirred a fierce gale, disturbing the coffin.
“What’s that—?” a foreigner gasped.
The coffin glowed, its lid turning transparent, revealing its contents.
“Heavens… it’s her coffin?” The Nine Heavens group, having just arrived, witnessed this as well.
The wooden coffin was extraordinary, now radiant and clear. Inside lay a flawless, snow-robed woman—identical to the skeletal woman’s restored form.
“Wait—it’s just a husk! Look, there’s a slit in her body—it’s hollow, like a shed skin!”
“Her head holds a glowing sphere… is she reviving?”
This was terrifying—and bizarre. Was this creature not truly dead? Or was it an unimaginable spirit? Or perhaps… a metamorphosis?
If it was metamorphosis, it defied reason. Normally, one shed the old to emerge anew—yet she had shed everything but her beauty.
“Could a ghost truly become an immortal? This place holds heaven-defying fortune. She’s been nourished, transformed into something else entirely—a post-death immortal, no longer her former self,” Grand Elder Meng Tianzheng murmured.
Boom!
The world trembled. The void solidified.
Both the Immortal-Slaying Pot and the Immortal King’s burial shroud were locked in place by an overwhelming force, then dragged back. Escape was impossible.
Inside the coffin, the woman opened her eyes.
Within them, universes were born and destroyed, gods and demons slaughtered, stars collapsing into ruin.
“What kind of nightmare is this? First immortal corpses, then undying bones, and now… a ghost becoming an immortal?” Cao Yusheng cursed, equal parts terrified and awed.
The moment her eyes opened, even the two supreme artifacts were pulled back. Was she determined to keep them all here?
A crushing weight pressed upon every heart, as though a mountain of divine steel bore down on them.
“Who disturbs my eternal slumber? Who shatters my tranquil heart?”
A calm voice echoed from the coffin, resonating deep within their souls.
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