The undead have descended upon the world? I possess a sword that can cleave the heavens once more!

Meanwhile, deep within the dark domain of Yunshang Province, at the city wall of the Jiuli stronghold.

The fog outside the stronghold was even thicker than before. It seemed as if an invisible hand was constantly stirring the fog, causing it to surge up from the edge of the city wall and then recede, with an irregular and unsettling rhythm.

Old Wei stood by the teleportation gate on the city wall, his gaze fixed on the direction outside the stronghold.

No clear outline could be seen in that direction anymore, only a thick, ever-growing fog that seemed to be sucking in all the light.

After receiving confirmation of the story about the white-haired figure from several torchbearers who had just returned from outside the stronghold, Old Wei frowned deeply.

At this moment, the ninth-rank torchbearers, each carrying a golden sword-shaped handle on their shoulder, descended from mid-air and landed beside Elder Wei: "Governor Wei, what happened?"

Old Wei simply shook his head, his expression grave.

He pondered for a moment, then raised his head, his gaze falling on the middle-aged torchbearer with a square face among the five ninth-level torchbearers, as if he had made a decision: "Zhu Yuanzhi, from now on, you will be in charge of all matters at the base while I am away."

Then, Elder Wei looked around at the other four ninth-level torchbearers, as if making a final confirmation with his gaze: "Xu Xing, Zhao Xuan, Su Jingyang, Chen Mu, the four of you will follow Zhu Yuanzhi's instructions and assist in taking charge of the next defense work of the stronghold."

Upon hearing Elder Wei's arrangement, the five ninth-rank torchbearers immediately understood his meaning—the other side was about to establish a base!

The ninth-rank torchbearer, Zhu Yuanzhi, with a square face, was the first to speak: "Governor Wei, you mustn't!"

"It's too dangerous to go out now!"

His voice sounded a little strained.

The other four ninth-tier torchbearers echoed, "Governor Wei, all communication outside is cut off now. Trying to rescue people one by one is far too inefficient!"

"Furthermore, judging from the news from the border region, those ultra-high-level zombie species are heading towards the stronghold."

"If we go out now, we'll likely run into them!"

"Although you are a True Yang Realm expert, your opponent is also a tenth-level being!"

"And there's more than one!"

Hearing his comrades' words, Zhu Yuanzhi nodded and added, "Moreover, it's still during the Dark Mist Tide, and the Corpse Species have also been strengthened."

"Fighting the zombies outside under these circumstances is really not—"

Before Zhu Yuanzhi could finish speaking, Old Wei waved his hand.

The movement was subtle, but carried an undeniable decisiveness: "This is an order."

Then, Elder Wei looked at Zhu Yuanzhi and the others, and said with a serious expression, "The defense of the stronghold is now in your hands. No matter what happens, you must hold the stronghold!"

"This is your duty!"

After saying that, Old Wei's figure flickered and floated towards a teleportation portal, disappearing into it in the blink of an eye.

All five of them frowned, looking in the direction of the teleportation portal, wondering why Elder Wei was suddenly in such a hurry.

Having known each other for so many years, they knew that Old Wei was always calm, thoughtful, and wouldn't do anything without a reason.

Then, they looked at the torchbearers who had just returned from outside and whom Old Wei had questioned earlier.

Among them was a trainee from this year's preliminary round.

From him, they learned what Elder Wei had been asking and quickly extracted the key information: "This year's top student?"

"An eighth-ranked person who is not even twenty years old?"

"He was allowed to pass the preliminary selection after only two days of testing?"

Zhu Yuanzhi frowned upon understanding what had happened: "He is indeed a rare genius, but even geniuses cannot disobey orders!"

"They were clearly notified to assemble at the city wall, so why did he disobey orders and head towards the outside of the stronghold?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Mu, one of the other ninth-rank torchbearers, spoke up: "Old Zhu, saying these things now is pointless."

"Let's start arranging defenses as soon as possible."

Zhu Yuanzhi naturally understood this point; he was just somewhat resentful that Old Wei had taken such a risk for others.

He sighed, his voice tinged with a hint of helplessness.

He quickly calmed down, then looked around and began to make arrangements in an orderly manner—who was responsible for which section of the city wall, who was responsible for activating which part of the stronghold ritual, who was responsible for making the final confirmation before the portal closed, and so on. Every instruction was very clear.

. . . . . .

On the other side, Wu You activated the True Yang Wheel again, transforming into a silver stream of light that flowed rapidly through the dark mist.

His mind was filled with the image of the massive tide of corpses arranged in formation, as described by Wang Qi and the other man.

At his current speed, he had already covered a considerable distance in just a few minutes.

A moment later, he stopped.

With the blessing of the True Yang Ring, his gaze pierced through the dark fog and he saw the scene a kilometer ahead.

There, a dozen or so enormous figures, each hundreds of meters tall and resembling a dozen small mountains, moved slowly and steadily toward him.

Below those dozen or so small mountain-like figures, there was a densely packed army of corpses in various forms!

The corpses weren't crammed together haphazardly; instead, they were arranged in different columns like trained soldiers, each moving forward at the same speed with almost uniform spacing.

Seeing the well-organized army of zombies, Wu You took a deep breath: "I've finally found you."

Then, without any hesitation.

Boom—!

The thick, almost liquid dark fog where Wu You had originally stood seemed to be under some kind of outward pressure, spreading outwards at a visible speed.

The diffusion was so fast that the dark fog seemed to be blown away in an instant, revealing a clean, fog-free circular space at the center.

The dark fog within the circular space surged, receded, and fled in all directions like a tide.

Then, a giant nearly a thousand meters tall, radiating a dazzling, solid silver-white light, appeared from below in the cleared space.

The giant's two eyes, which resembled miniature, compressed stars, also turned their gaze toward the army of undead ahead.

Such a commotion, coupled with such a large size, naturally attracted the attention of the zombie horde.

The dozen or so enormous corpses, each the size of a small mountain, also stopped and turned their gaze toward the silver-white giant.

Their eyes held no fear, only stickiness and savagery.

"Human illusion?"

"They actually saw us and didn't run away?"

"What does he want to do?"

"Does he still intend to fight us at this moment of high tide?"

"And, just him alone?"

The zombies' tone was either mocking or contemptuous.

It seemed as if the giants, thousands of meters tall, were no problem for them at all.

Among the massive corpses, the one standing at the very front, and also the largest in size, spoke up: "No need for words, let's move forward."

"Crush him!"

Upon hearing this, the mountain of corpses fell silent and quickened their pace.

The ground trembled slightly under their footsteps, as if a dozen drums were being struck simultaneously.

As the leading high-level corpse species accelerated its pace, the densely packed corpse species below it also quickened their pace.

But the silver-white giant, watching the massive army of undead creatures rushing toward him across the mountains, simply raised his right hand.

A massive, silvery-white arm rose from his side, palm facing upwards, fingers slightly spread, and a jet-black longsword once again took shape in his hand.

Wu You thus controlled the silver-white giant, wielding a jet-black longsword, to block the path of the zombie army!

Today, he will face the densely packed army of zombies alone with only his sword!