Starting as a Grandmaster, all of my cultivation techniques are at max level.

Xia Jin took a deep breath, preparing to unleash her eleventh sword strike.

However, at the very moment he raised his sword,

The three-zhang-tall corpse suddenly raised its head.

Those empty, grayish-white eyes stared intently at Xia Jin, and her previously expressionless face now displayed an extremely angry expression.

Its withered lips parted, and it let out a roar.

"Holy crap!"

It was clearly a corpse that had been dead for countless years, yet it was now enraged.

"Hmm? Could it be that the corpse has become a spirit?!" Xia Jin stared at the corpse with some suspicion.

From the fist-sized hole in the corpse's chest, countless eerie green tentacles emerged.

The tentacles spread out in all directions, reaching into the depths of the void, as if searching for something.

Xia Jin's sword, which he was about to unleash, hovered in mid-air. He narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze falling on the tentacles swirling in the air: "Hmm? What's going on?"

Ripples of pale green light spread across the void.

Hei Hong, whose face had been showing worry, was stunned when he saw this scene, and then a look of ecstasy instantly appeared on his face.

"Hahahaha!! You're dead! You human brat, you're dead!!"

He pointed to the roaring corpse, his face beaming with excitement.

"You have enraged the Progenitor! It is now automatically searching for its heart!! That 'Corpse Embryo Heart' is of the same origin and body as the Progenitor's physical body. Once the heart is returned to its place, the Progenitor will be able to temporarily regain its former power! At that time..."

"You human, you are doomed!!"

"A corpse fetus heart!?" A glint of light suddenly flashed in Xia Jin's eyes.

He stared at the tentacles flying everywhere, a slight smile playing on his lips; he was actually laughing.

"I see," Xia Jin murmured to herself, her smile growing wider.

"I was just wondering where that 'corpse fetus heart' was hidden. It seems you, this corpse, are actively helping me find it?"

With a casual wave of his hand, the four stone swords above his head plunged directly into his sea of ​​consciousness.

Hei Hong was taken aback when he saw that the man had put away the stone sword and even had a calm smile on his face. He then sneered, "Hmph! Kid, instead of running away now, you dare to stay and laugh?! Once the Ancestor's heart is back in place, you won't even know how to spell 'death'!"

Xia Jin didn't even bother to glance at him, simply waving her hand dismissively. "Whether I leave or not is none of your business!"

"You!!" Hei Hong was speechless, his face turning ashen, but he dared not make a move.

The fact that the ancestor's corpse could deal with this human race does not mean that he himself can.

He could only stare intently at the ever-extending tentacles, frantically praying that the progenitor's heart would return to its place as soon as possible.

time flies.

suddenly,

"Thump."

A very faint heartbeat came from a very distant place.

"Thump."

There was another sound, clearer than before.

"Thump, thump!"

The sound grew louder and closer, from barely audible to deafening, in just a few dozen breaths.

With the rhythm of her heartbeat, one meteorite fragment after another floating around Xia Jin began to pulsate, creating an extremely eerie scene.

Xia Jin raised his eyebrows slightly, sensing the increasingly powerful life force within him.

Not far away, Hei Hong's face lit up with wild joy, and he threw his head back and laughed loudly: "Hahahaha!! Found it!! The corpse fetus's heart has been found!!"

"You're dead! You're really dead this time!!"

Xia Jin did not answer.

He sensed an immense energy rushing toward him from the distant horizon.

Sure enough, soon, countless dark green lines appeared in the distant void.

Hundreds of tentacles, like taut ropes, converged from all directions in the same direction, and under the pull of those tentacles, a crimson planet about a hundred feet in size was rushing toward them at an extremely fast speed.

Xia Jin's gaze was fixed on the crimson planet, her voice tinged with excitement: "Could it be that the 'Corpse Embryo Heart' is hidden within this planet?"

With that thought in mind, he took action.

"The Sword Sutra of No Life - The Sword Qi of Annihilation"

A wisp of grayish-white sword energy flew silently from his fingertips, slashing towards the crimson planet.

"You bastard!!" Hei Hong suddenly cried out in alarm, roaring wildly, "You dare to lay a hand on the 'Corpse Embryo Heart'!! You're courting death!!!"

A hint of disdain flashed in Xia Jin's eyes: "Fool. If it were truly the heart of a Saint Realm expert, how could my sword possibly have harmed it?"

As expected, the result was just as he predicted: the crimson planet shattered, revealing the very center of its core.

A heart the size of a fist, as clear and translucent as glass, is beating slowly.

Xia Jin's eyes lit up instantly.

"That's right! This heart is mine now!!"

He shouted and vanished from the spot. As he moved, he spread his five fingers on his right hand and grabbed at the glass heart.

"Ancestor!!" Hei Hong's voice cracked with urgency as he frantically shouted at the three-zhang-tall corpse, "This is your heart!! It must not fall into the hands of this human!!!"

Seemingly sensing the pulse of its own heart, the corpse, which had been merely roaring instinctively, suddenly let out an even deeper, more muffled howl.

Its withered arms suddenly stretched forward, fingers spread wide, and an extremely terrifying suction force burst forth from the hollow of its chest.

An invisible vortex seemed to have appeared between heaven and earth, frantically devouring the corpse at its center.

The glass heart that was flying towards Xia Jin suddenly stopped in mid-air, and then abruptly changed direction, pulled by that terrifying suction force, and sped towards the corpse.

Xia Jin's outstretched right hand grasped at empty air, and his expression changed slightly: "What?!"

The glass heart drifted further and further away from him, flying at an incredible speed toward the waiting, outstretched corpse.

Upon seeing this, Hei Hong burst into maniacal laughter: "Hahahaha!! Did you see that?! That originally belonged to the Ancestor!! How dare you, an outsider, try to take it from the Ancestor?!"

Xia Jin's face was filled with coldness: "Hmph. You can't take what's mine."

He abruptly closed his eyes, and a sudden tremor ran through the depths of his consciousness.

"The Eastern Emperor Bell!!"

A clear and melodious bell rang throughout the entire void.

A burst of golden light shone from Xia Jin's brow, and the palm-sized Eastern Emperor Bell shot out from between his brows, instantly transforming into a giant bell tens of feet in size!

The mouth of the Eastern Emperor Bell was aligned with that crystal heart.

"Buzz!!"

The giant bell descended, enveloping the glass heart and the surrounding space within a hundred feet.

Then, the Eastern Emperor Bell shrank rapidly, transforming into a golden stream of light that carried the glass heart and directly entered Xia Jin's sea of ​​consciousness between her brows.

"when!!"

A long, resonant chime echoed in Xia Jin's mind. Her glass heart was suppressed inside the Eastern Emperor Bell, unable to struggle any further.

Xia Jin slowly opened her eyes and let out a long sigh.

"Finally... I succeeded."

The corpse, having lost its target, seemed to have fallen into a daze.

Its empty, grayish-white eyes stared straight at Xia Jin, and after a few breaths, it seemed to realize something.

"Give it back to me!! Give it back to me!!"

"Hmph! Once it's in my hands, don't even think about getting it!!" Xia Jin sneered.

Just then, a long-lost voice rang in his mind.

【Ding! 】

[Congratulations, host! You have completed the system mission: Obtain the "Corpse Embryo Heart" and prevent the Corpse Clan Saint from using the heart's power to revive again!]

[Reward for successful mission: God-Slaying Spear Technique (Beginner Level), one million years of cultivation!]