The Underworld collapsed.
The once-imperishable Immortal Corpse gradually began to rot, dripping turbid, dark-yellow muddy blood that formed a lingering, foul-smelling rain over the Northern Frontier.
"Hearing the Nether" had changed.
Billowing golden divine fire burned through the immortal remains, only to be devoured entirely by the shadow at the Heart Aperture. The corpse's interior was continually being opened up, gradually transforming into another realm.
The shadow-wrought Dharma Form of the nether sovereign sat within it, holding the Mysterious Diagram and bearing Suffering Hell upon its back.
Boundless fear streamed from its body, and its divine status continued to rise.
The Position Proof of the Righteous Order governing the boundary between life and death had been breached. The Northern Nether Yin Continent, the core of the Netherworld, had shattered, and the primordial gloomy netherworld beneath Mount Tai had long since ceased to respond.
In an instant, illusory, somber wandering souls and wild ghosts became visible throughout the world. They gathered and scattered, drifting up and down, yet none could find a definite home. They could only dissolve into scattered spiritual light.
Strategy's divine status rose ever higher. Concealed within the Immortal Corpse, he said hollowly, "Today, I establish the [Undying Realm] and grant you immortality."
He dismantled the various authorities of the Gloomy Netherworld and filled this corpse with them. The divine paths that gave souls somewhere to return were gradually stripped from the world.
Decay.
From this moment onward, the newly dead could scarcely separate their souls from their bodies. They could only remain trapped within their rotting corpses, passing into oblivion alongside their flesh.
Another primordial fear had been born.
The boundaries of this Immortal Corpse began to dissolve, gradually merging into the lowest depths of the Great Void. Joining with boundless emptiness, it became a somber shadow.