Layers of Yin earth stretched away, and the astral winds howled without pause. A blood-brown river surged in from beyond the heavens and poured into the Yellow Springs that ran through this realm, joining the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss—which had assimilated the Underworld—to Luofeng. Dreamlike mists filled the land. Within six black peaks of death, formed from the sediment of the oldest turbid qi, Ghost Emperor Xuanming gazed silently upstream, flames of anger flickering in his eye sockets.
Over the years, he had gradually lost control of Luofeng and could only retreat to his dojo. Before long, he would have to abandon this layer completely and withdraw to the Black Prison.
Just then, a flash of blood-red appeared in his eyes. It was as if all the flesh and blood essence of every living thing in heaven and earth had merged into an ocean, which tipped over and poured down with the fall of a palm. It surged toward the boundary of the Nine Abysses, intent on swallowing the blood-brown, acquired Yellow Springs and severing the connection between Luofeng Black Prison and the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
"An opportunity!"
Though Ghost Emperor Xuanming had always been cruel and merciless, fond of devouring flesh and blood, he was nothing like Nine Chaos Heavenly Venerable, whose madness and chaos had nearly consumed all reason. He grasped what was happening in an instant and chose what best served him, thrusting a ghostly claw out from the Pitch-Black Peak without the slightest hesitation.
Wherever the claw passed, the astral winds that had howled for eternity froze into snowflakes filling the sky, and the barren Yin earth turned into layer upon layer of crystalline ice. Vengeful spirits and evil ghosts rose as one and fell into the claw, forming a silent, pitch-black vortex