The Examiner's Fall

Several more hours passed, and the number of deaths of the zombie lifeforms exceeded 120,000, several hours earlier than the Sea Emperor had initially predicted.

"The death toll has exceeded 120,000, and Deadpool's slumber has begun to fluctuate. He is expected to wake up within half an hour." After saying this, Sea Emperor did not try to dissuade Gu Ding from leaving again, but chose to remain silent.

The next half hour was undoubtedly long and agonizing. The Sea Emperor did not say another word, and Gu Ding remained silent as well.

"Roar..." A loud roar suddenly came from a distant direction, the sound waves carrying strong air pressure, spreading in all directions like waves.

That direction wasn't far from Gu Ding. When a strong gust of wind appeared, accompanied by a roar, Gu Ding quickly sped off in that direction.

The changes that occurred here were clearly noticed by the examiner Li Bo, who was outside the secret realm.

Because the commotion caused by Deadpool's awakening was too great, and several contestants near Deadpool were instantly turned into zombies, their deaths were also transmitted to Li Bo's monitoring equipment.

Upon seeing this bizarre transformation of the corpse, Li Bo's expression changed. He immediately recalled the legend about this secret realm from over two million years ago.

After activating his communication device, Li Bo immediately contacted the higher-ups at the Heavenly God Palace.

"Vice Palace Lord Master, this is Li Bo. There are some issues with the secret realm where the assessment is being conducted. In addition to abnormal energy fluctuations, I have also discovered that a few participants have undergone strange physical changes. It looks somewhat like a special viral infection, and they have lost all signs of life."

"Are you talking about zombie resurrection?" the Vice Palace Lord's aged voice echoed back. "Isn't it somewhat similar to the situation from over two million years ago in legends?"

"That's right, when I saw it, the first thing that came to mind was that legend..." Li Bo nodded.

"I understand. I'll organize people to provide support immediately and send those contestants out of the secret realm," the Vice Palace Lord replied promptly. "You keep an eye on things and report back to me immediately if there are any developments."

"Vice Palace Lord, I think I should go in first to see what's going on, and also warn the contestants to stay away from the area with the energy fluctuations." Li Bo knew that such energy fluctuations would definitely attract many contestants who were confident in their abilities. Based on the zombie transformation he had seen in the video, he wanted to warn the contestants as soon as possible not to approach that unknown area.

"Alright then. You go in first. It's just a secret realm, and with your strength, you shouldn't be in any danger. Just be careful." The Vice Palace Lord agreed.

Li Bo immediately reopened the secret realm and stepped into it.

After entering the secret realm, his voice quickly echoed throughout it, "Attention all participants, I am Li Bo, the examiner for this assessment. There is an abnormal energy fluctuation in the Trial Space of this assessment. The source of that energy fluctuation is extremely dangerous. Please do not approach that area! I have already notified the higher-ups of the Heavenly God Palace. Once they arrive, they will escort everyone out of the Trial Space one by one."

Li Bo's words clearly didn't have a good warning effect. If he had simply said that anyone who approached would be disqualified from the assessment, many people probably wouldn't have gone near. But his wording led many to believe that the source of the energy fluctuations must be some extraordinary opportunity that the Heavenly God Palace wanted to monopolize, which was why they were preventing everyone from getting close. This caused many confident in their abilities to rush towards the source of the energy fluctuations.

Of course, Gu Ding's purpose in rushing off wasn't that; he knew perfectly well what was at the source of the energy fluctuations. His goal was to use his Absolute Seal Divine Power to completely seal the Dead Servant. Of course, he wasn't 100% certain that his Absolute Seal Divine Power would work on the Dead Servant, but he felt it was worth a try.

After notifying them several times, Li Bo also sped toward the source of the energy fluctuations.

This kind of secret realm with low spatial stability is not very suitable for spatial movement; one can only rely on flight.

More than half an hour later, Li Bo finally saw in the distance a swirling black cloud covering an area of hundreds of kilometers in the sky.

He knew that this was the source of the abnormal energy fluctuations, but he didn't know what was in the center of that black cloud vortex.

"Li Bo has reached the vicinity of the area covered by the black cloud vortex," the Sea Emperor reminded Gu Ding.

At this moment, Gu Ding was still some distance from the black cloud vortex, so he sped away.

On the other side, Li Bo only paused briefly at the outer edge of the black cloud vortex before rushing straight in.

He had barely ventured a few kilometers in when Deadpool's zombification curse began to take effect. His body began to decay at a visible rate, as if millions of years had passed in the blink of an eye, and he aged rapidly... His consciousness also began to blur, as if alcohol had numbed his brain, or as if a drowsy sleep had descended upon him... He knew that once he fell asleep, he probably would never wake up again. He tried to forcefully control his body to leave this eerie area, but this resistance was too weak for his body to receive the commands.

In less than a minute, Li Bo's body collapsed to the ground, motionless like a lifeless corpse.

Three minutes later, the "corpse" suddenly and slowly rose to its feet. Its once clear eyes were now bloodshot, the pupils completely dilated, and a faint grayish-white layer had begun to cover the surface of its retina. Its skin was a deathly pale white, with prominent, clearly visible purple veins.

After standing up, he began to walk slowly and aimlessly, his facial expression blank and his gaze unfocused.

"Your examiner Li Bo, has turned into a zombie..." Sea Emperor relayed what he had seen to Gu Ding.

"The native inhabitants of this world have too weak a soul. Although Li Bo is a true god of the Ninth Sequence, his soul strength is far inferior to mine. In this world, in terms of Combat Strength, only the Palace Master of the Heavenly God Palace can reliably suppress this dead servant." As he said this, Gu Ding had just arrived at the outer edge of the black cloud vortex.

"Elementary Death Servant has a limited attack range, usually not exceeding three hundred kilometers. Entering this range will result in a curse and a zombie transformation. No matter what methods you have, do not approach his attack range," Sea Emperor warned.

"I have the supernatural power of Darkness Immunity, let's try it first to see if his curse is ineffective against me. Even if it is, it shouldn't be so easy for him to turn me into a zombie, I can get out in time." Gu Ding decided to try it out according to his plan first.

Sea Emperor didn't say anything more. He knew that Gu Ding had made up his mind and there was no way for him to stop him.

Outside the area covered by the black cloud vortex, Gu Ding took a deep breath, then stepped out and stood less than a meter away from the outer edge of the vortex's coverage.

Before he could even steady himself, Gu Ding clearly felt two strange forces seep into his body. His Darkness Immunity ability activated automatically, and within moments, one of the strange forces vanished. The second force, however, attempted to erode his Soul Space, but just as it reached Soul Space vicinity, a golden light shot out from Soul Space, shattering the strange force. Gu Ding noticed this and immediately looked into his Soul Space; the source of the attack was none other than the pyramid shimmering with a mesmerizing light.

"So Deadpool's curse has two attack effects: one is the zombification of the physical body, and the other is a direct attack on the consciousness. No wonder those zombified guys all became Deadpool's subordinates." Gu Ding had personally experienced it and only then did he understand Deadpool's attack methods.

As he spoke, he took a few more steps forward, but strangely, he was no longer attacked. "It seems that this curse can only be applied once, and then it should cause continuous damage over time."

After Gu Ding finished speaking, he continued to step forward, slowly venturing over a hundred kilometers without being attacked a second time, which confirmed that his guess was correct.

At this moment, more than half an hour had passed, and Gu Ding heard the Sea Emperor's voice again, "The reinforcements from the Heavenly God Palace have entered this secret realm and will be here soon."

"Has their palace master arrived?" Gu Ding asked hurriedly.

"No, two Vice Palace Lords, five elders, and a bunch of other Ninth Sequence true gods have arrived. It seems the Heavenly God Palace's foundation is much richer than we imagined; there are more than twenty Ninth Sequence true gods here alone," the Sea Emperor couldn't help but exclaim.

"Are they all just True Gods of the Ninth Sequence?" Gu Ding frowned slightly upon hearing this.

"That's right, including the two Vice Palace Lords, there isn't a single one in the Tenth Sequence, let alone a celestial being." The Sea Emperor gave Gu Ding an answer he didn't want to hear.

"It seems they have no idea what the situation is. Sending Ninth Sequence True God here is nothing short of suicide. Without a strong enough expert to distract the Death Servants, my plan will be difficult to continue," Gu Ding, somewhat troubled.

"What exactly is your plan?" the Sea Emperor finally asked.

"I want to use the Absolute Seal technique to seal Deadpool. I've already taken the first step—entering Deadpool's cursed attack zone. But to unleash the Absolute Seal, someone must be able to distract Deadpool so I can have a chance to launch a successful sneak attack. Otherwise, with my current strength, I certainly wouldn't survive a direct attack from Deadpool. I initially thought the Ninth Sequence True Gods could hold Deadpool off for a while, but Li Bo turned into a zombie so quickly. This batch of Ninth Sequence True Gods probably won't last long either, and won't be able to create an opportunity for my sneak attack..." (To be continued~^~)