The Exalted Divine Tombs were an enormous mausoleum. Here lay not only divines from time immemorial, but also many creatures from the outer realms who’d happened to perish here. Altogether, their collective spite and resulting yin energy reached prodigiously unfathomable realms.

However, Lu Yun hadn’t sensed any such malice or resentment after arriving, and the only yin energy he sensed in the vicinity was accumulated in the yin dragon vein above the land where the demon fetus was sealed.

The only possible explanation was that something else had absorbed all of the spite and energy of yin. He’d understood that as soon as he saw the statue. But in the beginning, the only ones around had been Yueshen and his people. Though Yueshen had ascended the altar, she wasn’t a living entity and thus wouldn’t awaken the stone spirit.  

However, Donglin Taihuang just had to suddenly appear and kick the statue, as if some kind of cosmic conspiracy was at work!

After assimilating Donglin Taihuang’s life force and consciousness, the statue had transformed into a stone spirit. Donglin Taihuang’s one obsession in life was to obtain Qing Yu and her cosmic constitution, so the stone spirit immediately chased after Lu Yun upon inheriting this thought.

The stone spirit of the divine spirit of the origin was powerful beyond measure, a great horror in the... flesh. Even Empress Myrtlestar, an invincible figure from the Primordial Era, had no choice but to run for the hills.

With a speed that belied its mass, the stone spirit caught up to Lu Yun in a few strides.

“The woman with the cosmic constitution is mine.” The statue’s expression was stiff, but its tone mimicked Donglin Taihuang’s to the point where it could easily be confused for a real person.

Lu Yun had shrunk to the size of a microscopic particle and employed the Wandering Step without rest, but none of that prevented the stone spirit from catching up. For the statue, there was no difference between the dust particle that was Lu Yun’s and a normal-sized human.

It was extraordinarily powerful, far surpassing what immortals past or present could comprehend. To Lu Yun, its strength exceeded the cultivation realms he knew of—ingress, primordial, principal, supreme pure, jade pure, grand pure... The statue was a powerhouse of an even higher realm!

With the Wandering Step, one could traverse thousands of kilometers in a single stride, but the stone spirit was even faster! Given the threat, Lu Yun had no choice but to revert to the Boundless Step or the statue would’ve quickly overtaken him. But even so… he still couldn’t shake it off.

“What should I do, what should I do?!” Flustered and with growing panic settling in, he wanted to return to hell, but hell was currently even more fearsome than the stone spirit. Run over as it were by a horde of akasha ghosts, if not for Ge Long holding down the fort, they would’ve long destroyed hell in its entirety.

“That’s right… the demon fetus!” Lu Yun’s eyes lit up as he looked in another direction. The demon god fetus!

……

Giant tentacles burrowed out of the ground and relentlessly battered Qi Hai, Liu Chen, and the Exalted celestial emperor in midair.

The Exalted Mandate’s power was on full display. It’d propelled the celestial emperor’s strength to a level never before seen, so much so that he’d transcended origin dao immortal realm!

Meanwhile, the Exalted Chart threw off dazzling light, unleashing rays of brilliance that churned up the tentacles like sharp blades. The yin dragon vein in the sky had long been smashed into the ground to suppress the land. For that reason alone, the demon fetus was still kept underground, unable to fully emerge.

However, the tentacles themselves were enough to back the immortals into a corner, and there was still a sea of corpse demons that surged from every direction to slaughter the immortals like sheep.

Anyone still alive was seized with despair. If not for Lu Yun’s nine followers arriving in the nick of time, perhaps the Exalted celestial emperor, Qi Hai, and Liu Chen would be the only ones standing by now. Everyone else would have been swallowed whole by the corpse demons, Zhao Wushuang included.

The latter was presently covered in blood. In her hand, the heart of the Sword of Chaos danced in the air and carved up any corpse demon that came too close to her.

“We’ll all die sooner or later at this rate!” In despair, she looked up at the sky, stunned awe flashing through her eyes at the sight of the nine magnificent women.

She was now a void-ascended immortal, one whose phenomenon of ascension had affected the entire world of immortals! But compared to these nine women, the difference was night and day.

Each of them was a force of nature and cornerstone of the world. Thanks to their timely arrival, the lives of close to ten thousand immortals had been saved.

……

“Xiaoxiao, plant your flowers!” Yuying suddenly shouted.

“Very well!” Su Xiaoxiao waved her arm without hesitation. Seeds sprinkled down to the ground and quickly took root in corpse demon flesh.

“Yin Qingran,” Yuying yelled loudly.

“Ah?” Hidden in the crowd and busily making himself scarce, Yin Qingran looked up in confusion, wondering why the fairy had suddenly called his name.

“The Divine Fire Bead!” Yuying continued.

“What?” Yin Qingran stared with utter bafflement.

Boom!

A scorching heat wave spread outward as a miniature sun rose into the sky, bathing the area in blinding light and searing heat.

The Divine Fire Bead!

“Thank you.” Yuying nodded gratefully.

Yin Qingran’s jaw dropped.

“What? That bastard Yin Qingran is here? Find him and put him to death!” Ling immortals stomped with rage and swore out loud when they heard the name Yin Qingran.

Alas, being surrounded by corpse demons as they were, they were in no position to retrieve the bead, not to mention the even more dreadful tentacles drilling out of the ground every now and then. 

With the emergence of the Divine Fire Bead, the seeds infesting the corpse demons began to sprout and blossom into small blood-colored flowers, sucking away the undead energy. One after another, corpse demons toppled over.

“Be careful of the human-headed octopi.” Xingzi remained hidden beside Su Xiaoxiao, standing guard as her protector. The human-headed octopi on a tear through the area had gone missing when the demon fetus emerged, but she’d just caught a glimpse of the creatures again.

Corpse demons continued falling to pieces beneath them, their numbers dwindling at an increasing rate. Though even more approached from the distance, Feinie used the Formation Orb to deploy a great formation that prevented them from drawing closer.

“Raaaaughhh!!” A tremendous bellow ripped through the air as the ground fissured into small chunks, broken by an irate strength that erupted out of nowhere.

Boom!

The yin dragon vein shattered with a bang, leaving only the palace coffin to suppress the demon fetus. A tall black shadow slowly stood up from the ground.

“Is this the body thou hast chosen for me?” With no physical existence of its own, the shadow ‘looked’ at Princess Zhao Qing’s skeleton inside the palace coffin, modern human language coming out of its mouth.

“Honorable Lord Demon God, Princess Zhao Qing’s corpse is the flesh your children have picked for you!” Ge Yanxia’s voice reverberated in the sky.

Her body somehow wrinkled and shriveled, the dense retribution that’d coiled around her being was no more, and her cultivation had returned to aether dao immortal realm. Without a doubt, that retribution had been crucial to the advent of the demon fetus.

Whoosh!

The demonic shadow streaked into black light that barrelled into the palace coffin and melded with Zhao Qing’s figure.

Glug glug glug...

Flesh and blood quickly grew on Zhao Qing’s bones.

“Bastard!!” With a furious scream, Qi Hai blurred into a streak as he charged into the palace coffin.