Living in the deep palace

"Just a single, remaining severed finger possesses power comparable to a mid-stage Great Luo Immortal?"

A hint of surprise flashed in Su Chen's eyes, but more than that, he was delighted.

"Good! Very good!"

"This means that the main character inside... is definitely powerful!"

"Giant! Protect the warship!"

"I'm going to check out this finger!"

Su Chen took a step forward, and his figure instantly left the deck of the warship.

He swelled in the air amidst the wind, transforming in the blink of an eye into a cyan-gold chaotic giant. Although his size was still not as large as the severed finger, his aura was as dazzling as the blazing sun.

“Open it… for me!!”

Su Chen threw a punch.

This punch combined the indestructible power of the Primordial Divine Weapon Branch with the explosive force of the Chaos Furnace.

Wherever the fist passed, the gray mist was forcibly torn apart, forming a vacuum channel.

Boom-! ! !
Fist and fingertips collided violently.

A visible shockwave swept out, pressing a massive crater thousands of feet deep into the gray, foggy sea below.

Click!

That severed finger, as long as a mountain range, was actually bent backward by Su Chen's punch!
Large amounts of corpse fluid and black blood gushed out, each drop corroding black holes as it fell into the void.

"Roar--!!!"

The severed finger, in pain, let out a roar resembling that of a wild beast. Instead of retreating, it seemed enraged; the green hairs at the knuckle suddenly grew wildly, transforming into countless green venomous pythons that coiled towards Su Chen.

"You still dare to resist?"

"Perfect, I'll use you as a whetstone!"

Su Chen sneered and advanced instead of retreating.

He grabbed the green fur that had been entangled with him with both hands, and the Chaos Fire suddenly erupted.

Zizizi!
The chaotic fire, powerful enough to incinerate the laws of nature, burned its way up the green hair, instantly turning the severed finger into a giant torch.

"Longevity - Gluttony!"

Su Chen opened his mouth wide and took a deep breath at the still-burning severed finger.

call--

The severed finger, powerful enough to crush an ordinary Great Luo Immortal, was powerless to resist under Su Chen's absolute power. It shrank and was swallowed whole by him.

"Hmm... the meat is tough, a bit like dried bacon."

"But this corpse aura... is very peculiar."

Su Chen smacked his lips, a strange light flashing in his eyes.

This corpse energy actually contained a faint trace of "immortality." Even when burned by the Chaos Fire, that trace of immortality stubbornly persisted for a long time before being decomposed.

"Even a severed finger possesses immortal properties..."

"The owner of this severed finger was definitely a being who surpassed the Great Luo Golden Immortal in life, and even touched the threshold of 'Quasi-Emperor' (half-step to the fifth realm)!"

Su Chen looked up in the direction from which the severed finger had flown.

There, the gray fog was even thicker, resembling a black wall.

"go!"

"Let's go and see what's playing tricks on us."

Su Chen returned to the warship, steered the vessel, and plunged into the black mist.

They traveled for about half an hour.

The fog in front of us suddenly dissipated.

A scene that would shock or even suffocate any living being appeared before everyone's eyes.

It was a vast, empty graveyard.

Countless shattered stars and broken continental plates float silently here.

And in the center of these wreckages.

There lay a... corpse.

It was a human-shaped corpse, but it was too big.

He lay suspended in the void, his length immeasurable, spanning billions of miles. His head alone was even larger than the previous Xuanhuang Realm! His hair, like strands of black starlight, cascaded into the depths of the void. His skin was a dark cyan, covered with corpse spots resembling mountain ravines.

He wore a tattered ancient imperial robe, which was mostly rotten, but the nine black dragon totems embroidered on it were still visible, each of them exuding a pressure that made the heavens and earth tremble.

He lay there quietly, as if he had been dead for countless ages.

But a huge broken sword was stuck in his chest.

The broken sword emitted a dazzling golden light, firmly pinning his heart as if sealing something away.

And the most terrifying thing is...

As the crowd arrived, the previously lifeless corpse suddenly... stirred.

Boom!
A heartbeat.

Like the thunder at the beginning of the universe, it exploded directly in the depths of everyone's soul!
puff!puff!puff!
On the warship, countless Yin soldiers and giant spirit guards with lower cultivation levels were instantly turned into blood mist by this heartbeat!
Even Giant Spirit No. 1 turned pale, spat out a mouthful of blood, and knelt on the ground.

"What kind of monster is this?!"

"He's not dead?! He's still alive?!"

"Quasi-Emperor... Corpse Demon!"

Su Chen stared intently at the enormous corpse, and even he felt an unprecedented sense of oppression at this moment.

That's not the aura of a living person.

That was born from the depths of death, nurtured by endless resentment and the aura of corpses... a great terror!
"I see……"

"This is a quasi-emperor who failed to break through to the fifth realm in the ancient era."

"He was nailed here, but his physical body was too strong, too strong to be erased."

"After countless years of sedimentation, this corpse developed new intelligence and transformed into a corpse demon."

Su Chen's gaze gradually shifted from initial solemnity to an undisguised...fervor.

He licked his chapped lips, and every cell in his body trembled.

That's excitement.

"The physical body of a quasi-emperor..."

"The origin of the half-step fifth realm..."

"And that broken sword stuck in his chest... it looks like a primordial spiritual treasure!"

"This is hardly a graveyard."

"This is clearly... a ladder to heaven bestowed upon me, Su Chen, to ascend to the [Great Immortal Realm]!!"

Su Chen walked step by step to the bow of the ship, his aura reaching its peak at this moment.

He pointed to the corpse, which was larger than a galaxy, and made the most arrogant declaration:

"I want this corpse!"

"Who is in favor? Who is against?"

Roar--! ! !
It seemed that she understood Su Chen's provocation.

The enormous corpse, with its eyes that had been closed for countless epochs, suddenly opened!

Two blood-red beams of light pierced through the void in an instant and shot straight towards us!

"Insects... deserve to be killed!"

The war is about to break out!
……

[At the deepest part of the Ruins, lies the Ruins Graveyard]

"Insects... deserve to be killed!"

That roar from the ancient era, devoid of any emotion, was like a judgment of the Great Dao, carrying sound waves powerful enough to collapse galaxies, and instantly swept across the entire graveyard.

Rumble——! ! !
The impact of the sound waves alone caused the bronze warship beneath Su Chen's feet, which had evolved from the Primordial Divine Weapon Branch, to tremble violently, and 30% of the defensive Dao patterns on the surface of the ship instantly crumbled.

"puff!"

Inside the ship's cabin, hundreds of Yin soldiers with slightly weaker cultivation levels didn't even have time to scream before they were directly blasted into nothingness particles under this indescribable pressure.

"Such terrifying physical strength..."

"Is this the existence that has touched the threshold of the 'Fifth Realm'?"

Su Chen stood at the bow of the ship, his body unmoved by the storm, though his robes fluttered wildly and his black hair danced in the wind. His eyes were fixed on the enormous creature slowly "rising" before him, his expression more grave than ever before. The corpse was enormous.

When he finally stood up, he had the gray sky of the Ruins above his head and the endless remnants of stars beneath his feet. It was as if the entire Ruins could not contain this god-demon.

Those newly opened eyes, like two blood-red suns, radiated a despairing light of "annihilation."

"Roar--"

The Corpse Demon lowered its head and looked at the bronze warship at its feet, which was as small as a speck of dust.

He didn't use any supernatural powers; he simply raised a massive, sky-covering hand and slowly brought it down.

The movements appear slow, but in reality, they seal off all space and time.

Under this palm strike, there was no escape, no way to avoid it!

"Giant! Retreat 30,000 li with your warships!!"

With a roar, Su Chen stomped on the deck and charged towards the descending giant hand like a nail shooting upwards against the sky.

"You want to kill me?"

"Then we'll see if your palms are hard enough!"

"Longevity - Fourth Branch - Law of Heaven and Earth - Ultimate!!"

boom!
During the flight, Su Chen's body swelled up rapidly.

Ten thousand feet...one hundred thousand feet...one million feet!

Although he was still like an infant compared to that corpse demon that spanned billions of miles, Su Chen was now surrounded by azure-gold primordial divine light. Behind him, the phantom of the Longevity Tree appeared, the Five Elements Laws rotated, and chaotic energy flowed around him like a dragon.

He is no longer the demon who simply devours, but a war god who has mastered the ultimate power!
"Hold on...!"

Su Chen raised his arms high, making a gesture as if supporting the sky.

Boom-! ! !
A muffled sound, loud enough to shatter the eardrums of a Great Immortal.

Su Chen's arms slammed hard into the Corpse Demon's palms.

It was pure physical contact, without any fancy moves.

Click!

The void beneath Su Chen's feet instantly collapsed, forming a massive black hole. His arm bones groaned under the strain, and countless fine cracks appeared in his newly evolved [Primordial Divine Weapon Bones]!

"So heavy!!"

Su Chen gritted his teeth, feeling as if he was supporting not just one hand, but the weight of three thousand great worlds!

This is the physical body of the Quasi-Emperor Corpse Demon.

Having undergone countless epochs of sedimentation and absorbed the endless death energy of the Void, this body has already undergone a qualitative change, reaching the realm of "indestructible through countless eons".

"Get away!!"

Su Chen roared, and the [Chaos Furnace] within his body operated wildly, burning all the Xuanhuang Realm origins he had previously devoured.

boom!
An explosive force surged from his body, actually managing to force open a small gap in the large hand.

Taking advantage of this gap, Su Chen flashed and transformed into a streak of cyan-gold light, rushing along the corpse demon's arm and heading straight for its head!

If I can't hit your hand, I'll hit your face!

"Divine Weapon Branch, All Weapons Return to Origin, Emperor-Slaying Style!"

Clang——!!!
Su Chen made a grasping motion with his right hand, and the [Primordial Divine Weapon Branch] within his body instantly transformed into a bronze giant sword that stretched for tens of thousands of miles.

He leaped high into the air and stabbed fiercely at the corpse demon's enormous brow!

This sword strike, incorporating the "Disruption of Order" magic-breaking attribute, is powerful enough to pierce through the Haotian Mirror's defenses!

however.

Ding!
A crisp metallic clang.

Su Chen felt as if his sword had struck the hardest wall in the world.

Only a white dot remained on the Corpse Demon's brow. Its dark blue skin was incredibly tough, even possessing a kind of "slippery" force-dissipating principle, allowing it to easily deflect Su Chen's devastating sword strike!
"what?!"

Su Chen's pupils suddenly contracted.

It can't even break the skin?

"Roar!"

The Corpse Demon seemed to be getting a little annoyed by this "flea".

His blood-red eyes suddenly turned and locked onto Su Chen.

hum!
Two beams of red death light shot out instantly.

The light was so fast that it defied the perception of time.

Su Chen had no time to dodge and could only hold the bronze greatsword horizontally in front of his chest.

boom!
The giant sword was instantly half melted by the death ray!
The terrifying impact sent Su Chen flying hundreds of thousands of miles away, crashing into the floating continental debris like a meteor and shattering the continent into pieces.

"Cough cough cough..."

Amidst the ruins, Su Chen struggled to his feet, coughing up mouthfuls of black blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.

A huge, charred hole appeared in his chest, the result of being grazed by the death ray. The death ray contained an extremely domineering law of "decay," which was frantically eroding his wound and preventing flesh from regenerating.

"Is the difference between a Great Luo Golden Immortal and the Fifth Realm... or even just a half-step Fifth Realm, really that big?"

Su Chen wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, but the fighting spirit in his eyes did not diminish; instead, it burned even more fiercely.

"If it were a normal method, I would indeed be dying here today."

"but……"

Su Chen looked down at his wound, which was being corroded.

"Comparing deathly aura? Comparing decay?"

"Don't you know my family runs the underworld?!"

"Bones!!"

Su Chen roared to the sky, his voice piercing through the mist of Guixu and reaching the distant warship.

"Why are you still standing there?!"

"This sky is filled with the aura of death, this endless intent to die!"

"Isn't this the opportunity to attain enlightenment you've been dreaming of?!"

On the warship.

Lady Meng Po, dressed in a black robe adorned with spider lilies, was clinging tightly to the ship's railing, her face pale as she stared at the corpse that resembled a god or demon.

fear.

That is the instinctive fear that living beings have when facing their natural enemies.

But beneath this fear, deep within her soul, the Dao heart belonging to a "corpse path cultivator" was trembling wildly.

Just as Su Chen said.

This quasi-emperor corpse demon is a devastating disaster for others, but for her, who cultivates the Great Dao of Death, it is a... supreme holy mountain!

That dense, almost impenetrable aura of death, that pure, ultimate law of death… If she could comprehend even a trace of it, if she could absorb even a single breath, she could break free from the shackles that had plagued her for thousands of years!
"The Dao Ancestor has decreed..."

Lady Dry Bones' gaze gradually hardened, finally transforming into a resolute madness.

"Fight!!"

"The worst that can happen is death! If I die, I'll just soak in the Reincarnation Pool!!"

boom!
Lady Kugu stepped off the warship.

She didn't have Su Chen's powerful physical body, so as soon as she left the protection of the warship, the overwhelming pressure almost crushed her soul.

But she gritted her teeth and formed an ancient and strange hand seal with her hands.

The mark of the withered leaf bestowed by Su Chen on his brow suddenly lit up, emitting a dazzling gray-white light.

"Eternal Netherworld, All Ghosts Hear My Command!"

"I am Meng Po, in charge of life and death!"

"Borrowing the power of the underworld... to open the gates of hell!!"

Om-! ! !
Behind Lady Bone, the void cracked open.

A majestic and eerie phantom of the "Gate of Hell" slowly emerged. Behind the gate flowed the roaring, rushing River of the Underworld, and the hillsides were covered with wildflowers of the other shore.

As the Gates of Hell opened, a complete law of death belonging to the "Eternal Underworld" was bestowed upon Lady Bone.

Her aura surged instantly!

Having reached the peak of the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm, he forcefully broke through that membrane. Although not yet fully stable, he had already touched the edge of the Daluo realm! (End of Chapter)