The north.
The Nether Soil manifested.
"My lord, please."
Ahead, in the great void, stood twelve ghostly figures condensed from shadows, hanging upside down, turbid dew dripping from their bodies. The faces hidden in darkness slowly lifted, then silently turned toward the newcomer.
The black-clad youth looked coldly down at the scene before him. The energies of "subduing earth" and "Wu earth" intertwined and condensed around his body, seemingly forming a boundary that divided life from death and severed above from below: the living could not enter the Netherworld, and the dead could not enter the world of the living.
Wonders sprang into being wherever he set foot. Dusky yellow earthen light descended heavily, gathering into a road that reached to heaven and led toward the Nether Soil.
"All twelve envoys under Strategy have assembled... were you wild ghosts sent here to watch me?"
"The Northern Nether Yin Continent has manifested. We have come to escort Your Majesty to take possession."
"No need to trouble yourselves. I can walk on my own!"
Li Huanyou-or rather... Wuma Gongliang-had now brought his divine abilities to the utmost perfection, like a bottle filled to overflowing. Even one more thread of attention from the golden rank might turn him into an evil creature.
Behind him, an even more terrifying, formless presence drew near.
That thing was immense, yet had no physical shape. Only when it approached the Nether Soil did it reveal a swath of dusky yellow radiance, like a lamp flickering and swaying in the darkness, drawing Shao You and countless wild ghosts to its side.
And so it swallowed each newcomer in turn. In mere moments, it devoured every ghost lingering around the Nether Soil, making even those twelve yin spirits shudder!
It was the manifestation of that Wu earth golden nature-