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

Above the Investigation Bureau building, Hu Lie was tightly surrounded by three corpses and one "person".

Four figures blocked his retreat from four directions.

Hu Lie took a deep breath, his chest heaving.

The two corpse clans, Thousand Faces and Lustful Desire, joined forces to control Lin Zhili and obtained some of his memories.

The investigation bureau has most likely already learned of all its arrangements and plans in Lanhe City, and the situation is extremely critical.

But he can't panic. As the strongest fighter in Lanhe City right now, if he panics and something goes wrong, then it's all over.

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the three corpses and one "person," and said in a steady voice, "Good method."

This is the truth, and it's a fact that we have to admit.

There has never been a precedent for such cooperation among the zombie race. The Bureau of Investigation's life indicator lights have never malfunctioned, nor has there been any instance of the torchbearers being manipulated. This is a consequence of information asymmetry, and what's done is done.

And after this, the situation was completely different.

The fact that the two zombie clans were working together made Hu Lie realize a more serious problem—the invasion of the zombie world into the human world had entered a more intense and profound stage.

Even two different and hostile races of undead have begun to join forces, which shows that their attention to the human world has reached an unprecedented level.

Hu Lie suppressed his anger, his gaze lingered on Lin Zhili's face for a moment, and then turned to the three black cloaks.

"You've made such a big fuss just to hold a sacrificial ceremony to please your so-called god." His voice was unhurried. "But I have a question—now that you two members of the Corpse Clan are cooperating, which god is this sacrifice being offered to?"

He paused.

"Is he the god of your Thousand-Faced Corpse Clan? Or the god of the Lustful Clan? Or perhaps, half of both?"

His gaze swept back and forth over the three people in black cloaks.

"But I see that your Thousand-Faced Corpse Clan lost a high-ranking member and made so many arrangements. Your contribution is clearly greater than that of the Lustful Corpse Clan."

Upon hearing this, the three corpses and the "person" remained silent for a moment.

The leader, cloaked in black, spoke, his voice still flat: "You don't need to sow discord. The great God of a Thousand Faces will handle the sacrifice."

"Anyway, you won't see the sacrificial ceremony begin." 'Lin Zhili' chimed in, his voice filled with an evil laugh.

Upon hearing this, Hu Lie laughed instead of getting angry.

"Ha ha ha ha--"

The laughter was loud and clear, echoing through the sky.

His gaze suddenly sharpened, and his aura began to rise. His black trench coat fluttered and rustled even without wind.

"So what if you're four eighth-tier cultivators now?" His voice was deep and powerful, each word seemingly forced from his chest. "In my eyes, you're still nothing but clay chickens and earthen dogs!"

"And as I just said—look me in the eye, you bastards!"

The next instant, an invisible wave of energy suddenly spread out from his body! The wave of energy, carrying an astonishing pressure, swept in all directions, even pushing aside the clouds in the sky.

The aura of the eighth-order limit on Hu Lie's body was rapidly increasing, even exceeding a certain limit!

The three corpses and one "person" were startled at the same time and looked up in unison.

A faint humanoid phantom, hundreds of meters tall, slowly appeared in mid-air above Lanhe City.

The phantom was pale gold and semi-transparent, as if woven from light. It hovered above the clouds, looking down with piercing eyes.

The three corpses and one "human" were as insignificant as ants in front of that humanoid phantom.

And the humanoid face was exactly the same as Hu Lie's.

Hu Lie's true form had somehow left its original position. When his figure reappeared, it was already hovering in mid-air between the eyebrows of the giant humanoid phantom.

Upon seeing this, the three eighth-rank black-cloaked figures couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"An illusion?!?"

"How is that possible?!?"

"When did you...?"

But they soon realized something was wrong.

At this moment, Hu Lie, located between the illusory eyebrows, had bright red blood seeping from all his facial features. Not just his facial features—every pore on his body was constantly oozing bright red blood.

"No!" For the first time, the voice of the leader in the black cloak showed emotion. "You haven't broken through! You're merely a half-step Void Realm cultivator who burned his life force to forcibly cross that threshold!"

Hu Lie ignored him.

He stretched out his right hand, the movement slow and heavy, as if he were lifting something heavy.

At the same time, the enormous phantom also extended its right hand, slowly grabbing towards the three corpses and one "person". The palm covered the sky and the sun, the five fingers were like pillars, and the air was compressed into a solid white wave of air wherever the palm wind passed, emitting a deep rumbling sound.

The men in black cloaks continued their sarcastic remarks, but as the enormous hand, resembling a five-fingered mountain, descended from the sky, they were all terrified.

Their bodies were much more honest than their mouths; the moment they saw the giant hand, they flew away at lightning speed, their trails almost invisible.

Meanwhile, inside the Bureau of Investigation building.

Ye Yi heard every word of the conversation outside through the earpiece on Hu Lie's body.

His face looked very pale.

I thought this was a trap set for the zombies, but it turns out it was a trap within a trap set by the zombies themselves.

The Investigation Bureau is making its moves, and so is the Corpse Clan; it's a case of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

Based on what he had heard before, Ye Yi also realized the seriousness of the problem—the zombie species had launched a further invasion of the human world, and this invasion was more covert and deadly than any before.

With his sixth-level strength, he could naturally see the huge figure above the Investigation Bureau, as well as Hu Lie, who was bleeding profusely.

Ye Yi clenched his fists. He was completely unable to intervene in the battle between the high-level experts in mid-air.

For the first time, he felt a deep resentment at how weak his sixth-tier strength was.

Meanwhile, Wu You, who had already destroyed three ritual nodes, was moving rapidly within the fourth combat zone, harvesting the corpses that appeared everywhere.

He was as fast as a black lightning bolt.

Wherever it passed, the combat teams that were clearing out the zombies could only see a figure flash by before the zombies in front of them turned into black smoke and disappeared.

A third-tier torchbearer stared dumbfounded at the suddenly vanished corpse before him, his hand still raised in mid-air, unable to react for a long time.

"Holy crap..." he muttered, "Even with the protective force field isolating the Dark Domain and limiting the strength of the Corpse Species, Lord You's speed in killing them is just too outrageous..."

The fourth-rank squad leader next to him patted him on the shoulder, his expression calm, but the shock in his eyes was unmistakable: "That's Lord You. Alright, stop daydreaming, let's move on to the next area."

The numbers on Wu You's panel were increasing at a visible rate.

Allocable experience points: 400→510→1520→1820……

万剑归藏：2（25%）→2（45%）→2（75%）→3（15%）……

Suddenly, Wu You, who was moving at high speed, sensed something.

He abruptly stopped and turned to look in the direction of the Bureau of Investigation building.

A gigantic figure hovered in mid-air, its pale golden form resembling an ancient deity, overlooking the entire city.

Although the illusory face was faint, the contours of its features were exactly the same as Hu Lie's.

"Uncle Hu is that fierce?"

Despite saying that, Wu You was not at ease at all, because anyone who could make Hu Lie fight so fiercely must be a high-level expert among the Corpse Seeds!

He paused for only two seconds before continuing to harvest the corpse seeds.

Now is not the time for sentimentality; his battlefield is here.

Above the Bureau of Investigation building.

The three corpses and one "person" barely managed to dodge the grasp of that illusory giant hand.

But the humanoid phantom has two hands!

One of the black-cloaked figures had just dodged the first hand and hadn't even had a chance to catch its breath when a huge fist, like a meteorite falling from the sky, was already in front of it.

The fist's trajectory was unpredictable, as if its escape route had been calculated in advance.

The man in the black cloak was terrified, and the black mist inside his body surged out wildly as he desperately tried to fly to the side to escape the range of the fist's attack.

But it was too late.

The moment the enormous fist made contact with its body—there was no sound of impact, no explosion, only a muffled thud, like a fist smashing into mud. Its body instantly exploded into a cloud of black smoke, the thick smoke spreading outwards before slowly dissipating in the air.

The gap between the eighth and ninth rank of Void Aspect is too great. Even a half-step Void Aspect can completely crush four eighth-rank Void Aspects.

The remaining two black-cloaked figures exchanged a glance. They thought: if they didn't do something soon, they would probably be reduced to ashes before Hu Lie's life force was completely burned out.

The two men in black cloaks glanced at 'Lin Zhili' again and nodded simultaneously. 'Lin Zhili' also nodded, and the three seemed to have reached some kind of consensus.

Seeing this, Hu Lie had a bad feeling.

He endured the excruciating pain coursing through his body and once again manipulated the illusory form to launch an attack.

Each movement was accompanied by a fierce burning of life force; the blood energy overflowing from the pores grew thicker and thicker, while the color of the illusory form became fainter and fainter.

This time, instead of retreating, Lin Zhili moved forward, leaning towards the giant humanoid phantom!

Hu Lie frowned: What does it want to do?

The illusory figure slapped one of its hands toward Lin Zhili, the palm wind as strong as a mountain, unstoppable.

But 'Lin Zhili' neither dodged nor avoided, and said in an eerie voice, "Lin Zhili can still live, are you sure you want to kill him like this?"

At the same time, the evil intent in Lin Zhili's eyes faded, revealing the look that Hu Lie was familiar with!

Hu Lie was stunned for a moment: Is there any hope for Lin Zhili?

At this moment, Lin Zhili, who had gained control, said...

"Old Hu, don't worry about me! Kill those two priests first! The sacrificial ritual is just a cover! Their real purpose is to perform the descent ritual!"

He speaks very fast.

Hu Lie's pupils contracted sharply.

Advent Ceremony!

It is not a sacrifice, it is an arrival!

He knew the difference between the two words all too well.

Sacrifice is the offering of food to their gods in order to please them and ask for power or blessings.

And the Advent Ritual—

The term "descent ceremony" is what humans refer to it as.

On the side of the Corpse Clan, this is called a divine descent ritual!

Without any hesitation, his huge hand, which was about to strike Lin Zhili, suddenly changed direction in mid-air, and both hands attacked the two black-cloaked figures simultaneously.

His left hand, with its five fingers spread wide, resembled five giant pillars descending from the sky; his right hand, clenched into a fist, crashed down with the force of a collapsing mountain.

But it was too late.

There was a time lag between Hu Lie's momentary daze and the attack with both hands.

The two combined allowed the leader in the black cloak to evade Hu Lie's attack!

The next moment, a jet-black flame rose up from its body.

The six-pointed star pattern rooted in its body, licked by the dark flames, began to twist, stretch, and multiply as if it were alive! Simple lines proliferated and intertwined wildly, and the geometric structure was analyzed and reconstructed in an instant.

A sixteen-sided magic circle, far more complex and precise than a six-pointed star, and filled with eerie divinity, took shape brilliantly in the black flames!

The moment the hexagonal magic array was formed, the number of corpses appearing in various places in Lanhe City—residential areas, office buildings, supermarkets, schools—suddenly surged!

They appeared so quickly and in such large numbers that they completely exceeded the Bureau of Investigation's current capacity to clean them up.

"Ah—a monster!"

"Help! Someone please help me!"

"Run! Run! There's a monster!"

Cries for help rang out, then quickly disappeared, leaving only the continuous sucking sounds.

One after another, vibrant lives are lost.

Panic is spreading, and despair is pervasive.

Meanwhile, the strength of those lustful corpses is increasing rapidly.

They devour fear and despair, absorbing the negative emotions permeating the air like a sponge, transforming them into their own power.

In a short while, the first-tier Desire Corpse Seed became second-tier, and the second-tier one became third-tier.

Those combat squads that were initially holding on were now retreating steadily.

The order that the Bureau of Investigation has painstakingly maintained is collapsing at an extremely rapid pace.

Wu You, who was cleaning up the corpses, frowned.

"Why are there suddenly so many zombie species?"

He looked at the horde of undead that suddenly appeared before him, and with a flick of his wrist, the four-colored crystal longsword drew a dazzling arc in the air.

The three corpses closest to him simultaneously turned into black smoke.

But he didn't stop.

The Nine Shadow Steps are activated, creating nine afterimages and the real body. Ten swords are wielded simultaneously, their light weaving into an impenetrable net.

Each sword strike landed precisely on a corpse, each sword taking away a twisted life.

Experience points are increasing, and Wan Jian Gui Cang is constantly being charged.

But Wu You's expression was unusually grave: something was wrong, something must have happened!