Before the Heaven-Connecting Church Master could finish his threats, Lin Mo casually waved his hand and effortlessly severed his head.
Having slain the Heaven-Connecting Church Master and resolved the great calamity plaguing the Shadow Ink State, Lin Mo had only just breathed a faint sigh of relief.
The next instant, strands of dense black mist drifted out of the Heaven-Connecting Church Master's headless corpse.
The black mist radiated a terrifying evil aura and a pungent stench of blood. Lin Mo knitted his brows and instinctively took two steps back.
Under his tense gaze, the black mist actually condensed into an old man.
The old man was stark naked, his skin dry and wrinkled like tree bark. Sticky blood coated his entire body, and foul-smelling maggots crawled out of his wounds.
There was not the slightest trace of life in the old man, only endless resentment.
Lin Mo's pupils abruptly contracted. Something suddenly occurred to him, and a hint of delighted surprise appeared in his eyes.
"Could this be... the final corpse?!"
The old man extended his withered claws and slowly approached him, seemingly preparing to attack.
Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Mo summoned vitality essence to condense an Azure Spirit Branch, infused it with powerful sword intent, and unleashed a fierce blast of Sword Qi.
With a flash of blood, the Sword Qi severed the old man's head. His body abruptly stopped moving, then dissolved into black mist and vanished completely.
Seeing the corpse disappear before him, Lin Mo felt a stirring within. Without hesitation, he sat cross-legged on the ground and instantly entered a state of cultivation.
A moment later, Lin Mo discovered to his delight that the three masses of chaos that had hindered his breakthrough to the nascent soul realm for so long had indeed all vanished.