Corpse Mud Demonic Form

Dark gold sludge slowly writhed among the rubble, like a living thing. Every rise and fall came with the bursting of viscous bubbles, while a sulfurous stench mixed with chaotic demonic intent filled the stone cavern. At the center of the sludge, the outstretched demonic claw was loosely clenched. The fragments of Ying Zheng's imperial sword had completely dissolved into the churning dark gold muck.

Ying Zheng stood thirty feet away, his Mysterious Black Dragon Robe stirring without wind. Dark gold flowed deep within his dragon eyes as he fixed them on that filthy mass that had devoured the imperial sword. His Imperial Pressure was as heavy as mountains and prisons, yet it could not fully suppress the chaos and devouring instinct emitting from the sludge. Deep within the stone cavern, the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit's roar grew even more furious. Its invisible pressure was like tangible shackles, heavily pressing down on the sludge and visibly slowing its writhing.

"Filth!" Ying Zheng's voice was icy as Tai'a Sword rose once more. Purple-Gold Dragon Qi, more condensed than before, inhaled and exhaled from its tip, its killing intent awe-inspiring. He would never allow this monster, mutated from Cheng Xi's corpse and having devoured the power of his imperial sword, to remain in this world!

Just as the sword strike was about to be unleashed—

The sludge suddenly contracted, then violently expanded! The demonic claw at its center abruptly opened, its five hooked fingers viciously plunging into the sludge itself!

"Gurgle... gurglegurgle..."

A scalp-numbing sound of swallowing and shaping sounded! As though kneaded by a Formless Hand, the sludge rapidly gathered and rose! The dark gold muck churned and condensed, barely sketching the twisted outline of a humanoid roughly half a man's height in an instant!

The outline was extremely crude, as though a child had casually piled it from rotten mud. It had no clear features; only a deep fissure split open where its head should have been, like a grotesque mouth. Its torso and limbs were made of continuously flowing, dripping dark gold sludge, barely maintaining their shape. Only the right arm embedded in the sludge, covered in dense and ferocious dark gold scales, with sharp hooked fingers, was stable and distinct.

Chaos Demonic Embryo, Corpse Dissolution Initial Form! The demonic form had begun to take shape!

The instant the demonic form took shape, the fissure on its head abruptly turned toward Ying Zheng! A cold, chaotic will filled with pure desire to devour and destroy stabbed viciously into Ying Zheng's sea of consciousness like an invisible poisonous thorn! It sensed the vast Ancestor Dragon True Power and Imperial Destiny contained within the living being before it—blood food even more tempting than the imperial sword fragments!

"Roar—!" An inhuman roar, mixed with the surge of viscous liquid and the scrape of metal, erupted from the fissure! The demonic form's right arm suddenly rose, and its scaled demonic claw performed a grasp in mid-air!

Rip!

Five streams of viscous Dark Gold Demonic Qi tore through the air. Accompanied by sizzling sounds as they corroded space, they pounced at Ying Zheng's face like five poisonous dragons! Wherever the demonic qi passed, even the Ancestor Dragon Pressure permeating the stone cavern was briefly corroded and twisted!

Mausoleum Gate Ash Bone

Outside the Dragon-Slaying Stone, the crimson-gold flames of the Demon-Burning Dragon Flame had reached their limit.

"Hold the line! Hold it even if you die!" Meng Tian's hoarse roar was drowned beneath the raging demonic tide and the flames' roar. Half-kneeling on the ground, he pressed both hands against his bloodstained sword embedded in a rock fissure. The web between his thumb and forefinger had long since split open, and blood ran down the hilt, becoming the last kindling to draw forth the Dragon Vein Earth Energy. The Ancestor Dragon Token hung above his head, its light violently flickering like a candle in the wind.

On the Dragon-Slaying Stone's surface, black iron and granite had turned a molten dark red under the relentless impacts and fiery burning. Several enormous cracks spread like a spider web. Every impact widened them a bit, and scorching air carrying sulfur stench and the howls of monsters spewed through the cracks, searing the defenders' faces.

The last cauldron of boiling fire oil had been poured through the prepared channels, forming a viscous road of flames outside the gate. Dragon flame clung to it, temporarily blocking the demonic tide's most frenzied assault. Yet through the cracks, they could see:

Burning Demonic Soldiers twisted and collapsed within the sea of fire, but even more Demonic Soldiers stepped over the ashes of their own kind. The Dark Gold Demonic Markings covering their bodies flickered within the flames, and they had faintly developed some resistance! Their scarlet Demonic Eyes pierced through the fire, locking onto the living aura behind the gate. Though their charging steps had slowed, they had never stopped!

Even more terrifying were those Dark Gold Demonic Tentacles! The thick tentacles rolled and blackened in the dragon flames, letting out teeth-grinding crackles. Yet their charred outer layers continuously peeled away, while an even tougher Dark Gold Cuticle, gleaming with a cold metallic light, rapidly formed beneath! Several especially thick demonic tentacles had even been repeatedly scorched at their tips by dragon flame until their mutated barbs and spikes melted into blazing liquid metal, emitting an even more dangerous aura!

"General! The fire... the fire is going out!" A captain's voice was hoarse with despair. The last cauldron of fire oil had burned dry, and without fuel, the dragon flame's might visibly waned.

Meng Tian suddenly raised his head. Through the largest crack, his bloodshot eyes saw the scene outside: the remaining dragon flame swayed unsteadily, while the demonic tide surged forward once more like a black wave that had smelled blood! An especially massive Demonic Soldier, half its body scorched black, held a bronze weapon that had melted and solidified into the shape of a Giant Hammer. Several demonic tentacles raised it high, aiming at the place where the cracks were most concentrated!

"There's no time..." A resolute will to die flashed in Meng Tian's eyes. He suddenly pulled his sword from the rock fissure, and blood gushed forth! Raising the bloodied sword high, he roared with the last of his strength:

"Valiant Old Qin—!"

"Until our blood runs dry, we shall fight until death!" The remaining dozens of elite soldiers erupted in an earth-shaking roar that overwhelmed the demonic tide's howls! They threw aside their broken shields, gripped their chipped weapons, and pounced toward the about-to-shatter gate with the eyes of wolves heading to their deaths!

Boom—crack!!!

The molten Giant Hammer, carrying the immense force of several demonic tentacles, smashed viciously into the center of the cracks! The already overburdened Dragon-Slaying Stone finally let out a groan of collapse, splitting open into a huge breach! Burning stones and scorching metal fragments shot inside like cannonballs!

"Kill!!!" Meng Tian was first to bear the brunt. His bloodied sword, carrying the remaining dragon flame and his resolve to die, turned into a crimson-gold streak and viciously slashed at the ferocious Demonic Soldier head thrust through the breach!

Crimson gold and dark red demonic light collided with a deafening crash! The Demonic Soldier's head shattered at once! But behind the broken pottery shards were more scarlet Demonic Eyes, more wildly dancing demonic tentacles! Like moths rushing into fire, the elite soldiers used their flesh and blood to block the breach. Their blades struck the Demonic Soldiers and threw off sparks, yet they were torn apart by more demonic claws and dragged into the monsters' mouths by demonic tentacles!

Screams, the sound of breaking bones, and demonic roars instantly filled the narrow passage! The gates of a hell of blood and fire burst wide open!

Kindling Fire Illuminates Veins

Deep within a hidden rock crevice on the main peak of Mount Li.

A faint orange-red light flickered in the darkness like a candle in the wind. Yan Lingji sat cross-legged, her face pale as paper and her aura weak. The Qingping Sword Sheath in her arms was covered in cracks, its spiritual glow dim. A newly added fine crack at the sheath's mouth was especially glaring—it was the price of destroying the final two dark gold fireflies.

She sank her mind into the earth beneath her feet. Deep in the earth veins, the chaotic demonic intent at the Northern Foothill Node had already dispersed, like rotten flesh carved from a festering wound. Warm, dense earthly vitality slowly flowed back from all directions, soothing the polluted region. Pangu Hall's call carried approval and guidance, leading threads of pure and gentle Earth Vein Spiritual Qi through her feet and slowly into her parched meridians.

The orange-red kindling fire heart lamp at her chest finally stabilized under the nourishment of pure Earth Vein Spiritual Qi, no longer swaying as though it might go out. The Emerald Core at the heart of its flame, the Tongtian Sacred Blood imprint, slowly circulated, radiating gentle life force as it repaired her nearly depleted mind.

"Whew..." Yan Lingji slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air carrying scorching heat. Her eyelashes trembled as she opened her eyes. Though her orange-gold eyes no longer possessed their former brilliance, the deathly gray had faded, and the will of flame burned within them once more.

Purifying the northern foothills was only the beginning. Pangu Hall's guidance clearly told her that several more hidden and troublesome contaminated nodes were nailed to the main roots of Mount Li's earth veins like Bone-Attached Maggots. Especially... deep within the imperial mausoleum! A vast and violent chaotic demonic intent was fiercely colliding with some majestic, imposing force, like magma churning underground, ready to erupt completely at any moment!

At the source of that collision... she faintly sensed two familiar auras—Ying Zheng's mountain-heavy Ancestor Dragon Pressure, and... the chaotic fluctuations within Cheng Xi that had once resonated with Pangu Hall, but had now become incomparably chaotic and sinister!

"Cheng Xi..." Yan Lingji hugged the Qingping Sword Sheath tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force. A faint chill came from the sheath, seeming to carry a barely perceptible comfort. She looked toward the imperial mausoleum, orange-gold flames rising in the depths of her eyes.

"Wait for me."

Demonic Form's Whisper

Within the stone cavern, imperial might and demonic intent violently clashed.

The Purple-Gold Dragon Qi sword aura unleashed by Ying Zheng collided in mid-air with the five Dark Gold Demonic Claws grasped forth by the demonic form!

Boom!!!

A piercing sound of annihilation exploded! Violent energy turbulence swept through the stone cavern! Rubble scattered like rain, while towering waves rose from the Dragon Source Stone Pool! Two severely injured Shadow Guards were completely thrown away and knocked unconscious in a corner.

As the dust and smoke slightly dispersed.

Ying Zheng retreated half a step. Several scorched marks had been corroded into the hem of his Mysterious Black Dragon Robe, and his Dragon Qi Shield violently fluctuated. His expression was grim, his dragon eyes fixed on the front.

The demonic form was in even worse condition. Its half-formed sludge body had been twisted and deformed by the blast's shockwave, nearly collapsing as dark gold sludge splattered everywhere. It let out a pained and furious shriek, the fissure in its head opening and closing violently.

Yet just as Ying Zheng's killing intent rose again and Tai'a Sword was about to fully leave its sheath—

The demonic form's collapsing body suddenly froze!

The deep fissure in its head no longer howled. Instead, it opened, closed, and writhed violently and soundlessly. Extremely faint, intermittent fragments of thought, carrying intense electronic-interference-like static, forcefully pierced through the barrier of chaotic demonic intent like shattered snowflakes and stabbed into Ying Zheng's sea of consciousness!

"...fre...quency...er...ror..."

"...dragon source...earth veins...same origin...not...enemy..."

"...analyzing...Ancestor Spirit...core...shackles..."

"...warn...ing...External Interference...anchor...point..."

The fragmented thoughts were incomparably chaotic, mixed with buzzing static, yet they contained a strange, cold logic. Every word was like a sharp shard, attempting to piece together some concealed truth.

Ying Zheng's gathered sword momentum abruptly paused! For the first time, a trace of shock and suspicion flashed through his dragon eyes! This was absolutely not the howl of a mere monster! Within these broken thoughts remained... the deduction logic and analytical properties of Cheng Xi's "system"! Was it struggling in the abyss of chaotic demonic nature to deliver one final... warning?

The demonic form seemed to have exhausted its strength transmitting those fragmented thoughts. Its collapsing sludge body violently trembled, and the fissure in its head opened and closed ever more slowly. The viscous dark gold sludge attempted to gather again, but the chaotic instinct of demonic nature once more gained the upper hand, releasing a threatening growl.

Ying Zheng's sword hand remained steady as a rock, but his killing intent was no longer as purely resolute as before. His cold gaze swept across the struggling puddle of sludge, then turned toward the direction of the imperial mausoleum depths, from which demonic roars and tremors came. External Interference? Shackles? An anchor point?

Just then—

The fissure in the demonic form's head, which was about to be covered by sludge once more, suddenly opened to the extreme! No sound emerged, but an even clearer mental impact shot out! This time, it was no longer fragmented words, but a twisted, fleeting deduction illusion forcibly projected into the depths of consciousness of Ying Zheng!

Within the illusion:

Mount Li's earth veins were like a giant dragon wrapped in chains, struggling in agony. At the end of those chains was not the furious Ancestor Dragon True Spirit deep within the imperial mausoleum, but... a White Jade Talisman floating Above the Nine Heavens and emitting the cold aura of the Heavenly Dao! The light cast by the talisman was like invisible shackles, deeply piercing the earth vein core! And at the core of the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit was likewise wrapped a fine yet incomparably tough chain of Purple-Gold Chains. The other end of that chain... was shockingly connected to the White Jade Talisman!

The illusion vanished in a flash, so quickly it seemed like an illusion.

The demonic form completely ran out of strength. Its sludge body accelerated its collapse, letting out an unwilling wail.

The stone cavern fell into dead silence. Only the demonic roars and tremors from the imperial mausoleum depths remained, like the beat of background drums.

Ying Zheng stood with his sword in hand, his Mysterious Black Dragon Robe motionless amid the chaotic air currents. Within his dragon eyes, the cold killing intent had been replaced by unprecedented gravity and deductions like stormy waves. He slowly lowered Tai'a Sword, his gaze seeming to pierce through the rock layers and look toward the unseen Above the Nine Heavens.

"Heavenly... Court?" The emperor's low murmur sounded within the stone cavern filled with sulfur stench and chaotic demonic intent, carrying a chill that pierced through the fog.

He looked once more at the dark gold sludge on the verge of collapse, which had nevertheless conveyed that world-shaking illusion. Deep within the emperor's eyes, within those cold vertical pupils, a chaotic swirl of stars was reflected for the first time.