The Bronze Immortal Hall?!

The Heavenly Demonic Saber devoured the Dark Supremes' blood and bones, along with the fragments of their weapons.

Blood-colored mist spread everywhere. Sky Cry descended upon the world as black lightning slashed across the stars and a storm of blood and carnage raged.

It was as though Heaven were mourning its fallen favorites.

Li Ming had killed seven Dark Supremes single-handedly, shaking the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.

"Demon Venerable!"

The Ancestral Kings and Great Saints spread the news across the Life Source Grounds.

Countless beings cried out "Demon Venerable," as though nothing less could express their awe of Li Ming.

The Demon Venerable was invincible, supreme throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.

To many, Li Ming was a living legend.

Killing seven Dark Supremes in a single day was rarely seen through the ages.

Some said the Demon Venerable dealt with his enemies with extraordinary cruelty. Even on the Ancient Starry Sky Road, nearly all his opponents had been killed without a bone left behind.

Few knew Li Ming had devoured their origins. They assumed he had killed his enemies and refused to leave even fragments of their corpses.

Yet by killing the Dark Supremes, Li Ming had unwittingly saved billions of lives.

The great holy lands and clans had their complaints about Li Ming, especially those whose members possessed special constitutions.

But they could not stem the worship of the far more numerous Mortal Body cultivators.

At that moment, the entire universe erupted.

Li Ming sat quietly in meditation. No one dared disturb him in the Cosmic Frontier Wasteland.

He was refining the Dark Supremes' origins and fusing them into his body, hoping to transform and strengthen his Chaotic Body further.

At his current cultivation level, their origins had little effect on him, but the Grand Dao Brands unique to those Dark Supremes were extremely useful.

His cultivation had climbed ever higher, and he had already forged a Grand Dao of his own.

At the same time, he carefully studied their Grand Dao Scriptures.

Contrary to what people guessed, he was not there to heal. His body had suffered little harm.

Those Dark Supremes had been no match for him, and he was at the peak of his strength.

Any minor wounds he had taken were repaired with a wave of his hand.

The Heavenly Demonic Saber refined and devoured those finest materials, drawing them into itself.

Li Ming, meanwhile, studied the Grand Dao Scriptures.

Just as he thought no one would dare attack him again and he could go anywhere under heaven, a chill suddenly crawled down his spine.

He drove his Carefree Boots forward and instantly shifted into another starfield, moving at an unbelievable speed.

A bronze palace appeared out of thin air, nearly smashing Li Ming to pieces.

He had escaped by a hair's breadth.

His body took a slight wound, and Chaotic Blood flowed from it.

Minor as the injury was, it was enough to show how terrifying the newcomer was.

A figure black as ink emerged from the void and landed atop the bronze palace.

Endless Immortal Dao Runes danced across it, while divine radiance filled the sky. Immortal Spirits seemed to swirl around it, and it carried an aura of ascension.

"The Bronze Immortal Hall!"

Li Ming had not expected that person to conceal his presence with the Bronze Immortal Hall. No wonder he had managed to launch a sneak attack.

Aside from the Kunlun Immortal Bell and the Desolate Pagoda, it was the third Immortal Weapon.

At this time, the Immortal Ascension Cauldron had not yet been forged, and the Netherworld Venerable's Heaven-Piercing Spirit Treasure had not yet become an Immortal Weapon.

Who was that ink-black figure?

He was undoubtedly a formidable enemy, someone who had lived at least into a Third Lifetime!

In the blink of an eye, Li Ming healed his wound.

The minor injury meant nothing to him, but the fact that he had been wounded was an insult.

The ink-black figure suddenly opened his eyes.

Looking into them, Li Ming remembered someone.

"It's you!"

"That nameless old ghost from the Divine Ruins!" Li Ming said coldly.

He knew he was in trouble.

He had not expected the old monster to be so powerful. He must have lived at least into a Third Lifetime; otherwise, such strength would have been impossible.

Yet in the Divine Ruins, the man had acted like a kindly elder. Li Ming did not know why he had suddenly become so savage, as though he wanted to eat him alive.

Still, though he was in trouble, Li Ming felt no fear.

He had ample confidence in his strength and, more importantly, in his Chaotic Body.

A transformation into a Third Lifetime brought a tremendous surge of power, but he believed his own strength could overcome that gap.

Black mist blotted out the sky and sun, engulfing this region of the universe in an instant.

Before Li Ming could even react, he realized the old monster had used the Bronze Immortal Hall to hide himself and silently completed his preparations during Li Ming's battle with the seven Dark Supremes.

The black mist even forcibly blocked the Dark Supremes from peering inside.

"What is that?"

"It seems familiar, yet strange!"

"I smell decay!"

"Some old monster left over from who knows what age has set his sights on the Demon Venerable!"

"It's him!"

"This is bad. If that old monster has targeted the Chaotic Body, he's probably as good as dead."

In a Dark Restricted Area, one Dark Supreme appeared to know just how fearsome that old monster was.

But when the others looked to him for answers, the Dark Supreme merely shook his head and did not reveal the old monster's identity.

"What a pity. That Chaotic Body is about to die at the old monster's hands, when he could have been the great medicine that let a Dark Supreme live a new lifetime..."

Every Dark Supreme believed that devouring Li Ming, a Supreme of the current era, would let them live a new lifetime.

They believed in the miraculous power of the Chaotic Body.

The many Dark Supremes were far from united. Some even hated one another.

Yet with the opening of the Road to Immortality approaching, they had no choice but to band together.

In their hearts, each would rather see a fellow cultivator die than die himself. They hoped the other Supremes would all perish, leaving fewer rivals for the places on the Road to Immortality.

Li Ming frowned as he studied the old ghost and the boundless black mist that had suddenly appeared around him.

The thick black haze reeked of decay, like the Netherworld Soil of the Underworld.

More startling still, countless Grand Dao Runes shone within the mist. They linked together into terrifying chains, turning the surrounding stars into something like a cage.

He felt a strange pressure connected to the Bronze Immortal Hall. For the moment, he could neither break free nor escape the cage.

The old monster seemed able to merge with the black mist, ready at any moment to devour the flesh and Primordial Spirit of anyone trapped within.

An idea struck Li Ming. His Five Great Secret Realms roared, and dazzling Immortal Ascension Light burst from his body, erasing that eerie devouring force.

That devouring force was entirely different from Li Ming's own.

"You really are a spite-filled old ghost!"

"No disguise can hide your malice!"

"Looks like my guess was right!" Li Ming said coldly toward a patch of black mist.

The old monster had made no attempt to conceal his aura. He truly was the ancient monster from the Divine Ruins, an unknown Ancient Heavenly Venerable who had lived for countless years.

He was not even mentioned in the original story.

"Heh, heh, heh..."

His sinister, terrifying laughter came from every direction, shaking the mind and carrying the faint suggestion of a curse.

Gone was the kindly, venerable elder. He was plainly an evil ghost that had crawled out of Nine Netherworld Hell.

"To think I misjudged you..."

"Your strength has actually grown to this point..."

"It seems you're finally ripe for harvest..."

A hazy figure took shape within the dense black mist.

The mist was his flesh, long since decayed to ash and transformed into Devil Mist.

His corpse was the Devil Mist, and the Devil Mist was his body.

His Primordial Spirit had also fused with it, leaving him in a truly strange state.

When Li Ming had met the old monster before, the man's body had seemed to radiate chilling yin energy one moment and burn like a blazing fire the next. It had been deeply peculiar.

Looking back, Li Ming realized the man had likely been trying to turn his body from yin to yang and live a new lifetime.

But now, after seeing Li Ming, the old monster seemed to have found another path.

He intended to seize Li Ming's body outright and live a new lifetime through it.

Seeing the uncertainty in Li Ming's eyes, the old monster said haughtily, "You can't divine my past or future, can you?"

"I was born in a place you could never imagine."

"Don't waste your effort trying to divine it."

"I've been preparing to take your body for a long time."

"This cage is a Supreme Prison I built with great care. Even with the strength of a Heavenly Venerable, you won't escape."

"With the Bronze Immortal Hall as the formation's heart, even if the Eight Heavenly Venerables came, they could only look on helplessly..."

The old monster spoke with open arrogance.

Li Ming snorted. He did not believe the old monster's boasts.

He had a general idea of how the Bronze Immortal Hall was described in the original story.

It might boost a Great Emperor's or Ancient Emperor's combat strength to some degree, but that was all.

The Bronze Immortal Hall had long since lost its Weapon Deity.

As for the Desolate Pagoda's Weapon Deity, the Azure Emperor had subdued it with ease in his First Lifetime.

What did that mean?

It meant the Weapon Deity of an Immortal Weapon was not actually all that powerful.

That cast doubt on the strength of Immortal Weapons themselves.

Of course, the Azure Emperor's ability to subdue the Desolate Pagoda's Weapon Deity might have been connected to his former identity as the Green Lotus Immortal King and the ties he had once had to the Desolate Heavenly Emperor. That might have been why the Weapon Deity had been willing to submit to him.

And it had merely been subdued or controlled. Perhaps the Weapon Deity had surrendered control of its own accord. The Azure Emperor had not killed it.

Li Ming remembered that when the Beidou Road to Immortality opened, the Desolate Pagoda had rushed out of its own accord, only to vanish almost at once.

According to the Azure Emperor, he had been absorbed in evolving the Immortal Domain at the time. He was asleep and had not yet awakened.

So that brief appearance of the Desolate Pagoda must have been directed by its Weapon Deity.

By that reasoning, it seemed more likely that the Weapon Deity had surrendered control voluntarily than that the Azure Emperor had truly subdued it.

The most precious things on an Immortal Weapon were its Immortal Dao Runes. Those were what Li Ming wanted most.

Li Ming gazed intently at the Bronze Immortal Hall, which shimmered with immortal radiance.

He wanted to brand all those Immortal Dao Runes onto his body and the Heavenly Demonic Saber.

If possible, he even wanted to melt the Bronze Immortal Hall into the Heavenly Demonic Saber.

But the Bronze Immortal Hall had likely been forged by a True Immortal or an Immortal King. To melt it into the Heavenly Demonic Saber, he would need the strength of a True Immortal at the very least.

He would probably have to live several more lifetimes before he could extract its Divine Substance and fuse it into the Heavenly Demonic Saber.

After studying the Bronze Immortal Hall for a while, Li Ming turned to the endless black mist and densely packed runes around him.

Thinking of the Bronze Mirror within his body, Li Ming regained his confidence.

"Heh. It can't have been easy for an old ghost like you to survive for so many tens of thousands of years..."

"Seizing one body after another, just to keep living."

"From the look of you, you've lived at least into a Third Lifetime."

At Li Ming's mention of a Third Lifetime, a chilling gleam burst from the old ghost's eyes.

Clearly, he had not expected Li Ming to see through him.

The old ghost was indeed nearing the end of his Third Lifetime.

He desperately needed to live a new one.

Otherwise, he would have no choice but to sever his own Dao again and become a Dark Venerable.

"You think taking my body and merging with my Primordial Spirit will let you live a new lifetime?" Li Ming asked with a frown.

"That's right!" The old monster's voice remained sinister and terrifying.

"Over countless years, I've lost track of how many bodies I've seized."

"As my strength grew, ordinary bodies could no longer meet my needs."

"Even an ordinary Supreme can no longer bear my Primordial Spirit."

"And it isn't merely a problem of the body. Our Grand Daos conflict as well."

"But you're different!"

"You have a Chaotic Body. You can merge with the Myriad Dao of Heaven and Earth!"

Hope suddenly kindled in the old ghost's eyes.

Li Ming said disdainfully, "What good is living a new lifetime through such a crooked path?"

"Even if you take my body and merge with my Primordial Spirit, will the result still be you?"

Li Ming had nothing but contempt for the old ghost's Longevity Method, his way of living a new lifetime.

In the original story, the Carefree Heavenly Venerable had seized body after body and survived until Ye Fan's era, only to find himself growing weaker and weaker.

Not only had he failed to live a new lifetime, he could no longer retain the combat strength he had possessed as a Heavenly Venerable.

In the end, he had only the strength of an ordinary Dark Supreme.

Ye Fan, who had merely attained the Great Achievement Sacred Body, had smashed him apart with ease.

He had utterly shattered the imposing reputation of the Nine Heavenly Venerables.

In truth, Li Ming had never thought Carefree Heavenly Venerable was all that weak.

At least, when he had killed Carefree Heavenly Venerable back then, Li Ming had felt that he was indeed powerful.

He had possessed the strength to kill several Dark Supremes single-handedly.

Faced with Li Ming's disdainful gaze, the old ghost still looked as though everything was under his control.

Rather than rushing to devour Li Ming, he began discoursing on profound mysteries and the Dao again, like a senior instructing a junior.

For a fleeting moment, it almost felt as though they were back in the Divine Ruins.

This led Li Ming to keenly realize that the old ghost seemed to have a fractured mind, most likely because he had possessed too many bodies or fused with too many other Primordial Spirits.

Otherwise, he would not have displayed such a divided personality.

"What do you know, you little junior!"

"Do you know how I, your ancestor, came into being?"

"I can tell you right now: I was born in a mysterious expanse of Netherworld Soil!"

"Later, Netherworld Venerable occupied that expanse of Netherworld Soil and founded the Underworld there!"

"I was the first Yin Spirit born in the Netherworld Soil, nurtured by heaven and earth. I was born without a physical body, nothing more than a Yin God!"

"I thought I would spend my entire life drifting along in a muddled haze. But unexpectedly, I happened to possess someone's body and began cultivating. As though understanding without a teacher, I grasped many principles of cultivation!"

"I possessed all manner of living beings beneath heaven, refining and fusing the mysteries of their bodies. I even sought to forge a chaotic body and carve out a path of the Grand Dao that belonged to me alone!"

"To others, possession is something utterly abhorrent. But for me, seizing others' bodies is what I was born to do. It is my birthright, bestowed upon me by Heaven!"

Watching the old ghost, Li Ming began to wonder whether he had later met his downfall at Carefree Heavenly Venerable's hands.

Had Carefree Heavenly Venerable turned the tables and killed him?

Was that why he had remained unknown?

Recalling how Carefree Heavenly Venerable had also tried to possess his body, Li Ming suddenly wondered, Could Carefree Heavenly Venerable have learned that secret art from this old ghost?

According to the old ghost, every time he possessed and fused with a new living being, it was as though he had refined and absorbed that being's essence.

As long as he possessed enough beings, he would fuse enough essences.

Then he might very well become a true chaotic body.

Yet reality had not followed his predictions.

As he occupied more and more bodies, not only had he failed to become a chaotic body, but his yin energy had instead grown ever heavier.

He had become an incomparably powerful Ghost Venerable.

At some point, an obsession with transforming yin into yang had taken root in his heart.

He wanted to cleanse himself of yin energy and become a true living being, like a blazing sun.

"I also tried possessing Sacred Spirits and gestating as they do, to see whether I could cleanse myself of yin energy."

"But I still failed!"

"At least seven or eight Sacred Spirits died after I possessed them."

The old ghost spoke with some regret.

"But things are different now."

"The appearance of a chaotic body like you, who has even achieved enlightenment as supreme, fills me with anticipation. Endless hope wells up in my heart."

"Heh heh heh..."

The old ghost once again let out a terrifying, sinister laugh, seemingly certain that Li Ming was already his for the taking.

"You old bastard, do you really think you have me in the bag?"

Li Ming smiled and stared straight into the old monster's eyes.

Immortal Ascension Light flickered over Li Ming's body, incomparably sacred, instantly dissolving every trace of sinister yin power.

The old ghost showed no surprise at the sight. Instead, he grew even more delighted.

"The stronger you are, the happier I am!"

"Because everything you have will serve to fulfill me!"

Clatter, clatter.

Within the black mist, countless grand dao runes linked together, condensing into mysterious chains over which an unfathomable aura flowed.

With the aid of the Bronze Immortal Hall's aura, they actually suppressed Li Ming's Immortal Ascension Light in an instant.

The black mist seeped into Li Ming's body, silent and astonishingly swift.

The old ghost looked as though his scheme had succeeded.

"Boy, just leave your body and Primordial Spirit to your ancestor without a worry!"

"One day, your ancestor will surely take you to achieve Mortal-World Ascension!"

As Li Ming felt that aura of decay, his expression grew increasingly peculiar.

He could not help revealing an odd smile.

"You think the likes of you can achieve Mortal-World Ascension?"

"I can send you straight to the Western Heaven right now!"

The black mist that had invaded Li Ming's body dissipated without a sound, and dazzling Immortal Ascension Light burst from his body once more.

All the black mist rapidly vanished, melting away like ice and snow.

"What?"

"How is this possible..."

The old ghost's face was filled with horror...