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

In underground shelters throughout Lanhe City, people huddle in dimly lit spaces, awaiting their unknown fate.

When that deafening roar came, the walls and the ground trembled violently. Many people hugged the people around them, some closed their eyes and began to pray, and some wept silently. Despair spread like a tide.

Then, the roaring sound disappeared, the walls stopped trembling, and the ground stopped shaking. The dull thuds outside the door also abruptly stopped.

Some people cautiously raised their heads to look at the tightly closed door, while others took out their phones and found that the cell phone signal was slowly recovering.

The torchbearers guarding the gate also received the message through their earpieces. They exchanged glances, the captain took a deep breath, and pushed open the door.

There were no corpses or black mist outside the door, only the orange-red light of the setting sun, which fell through the gaps in the clouds and shone on the devastated street.

"Is it... over?" the young torchbearer candidate murmured.

The captain looked at the ruined city without saying a word, but clenched his fists and his eyes reddened.

Meanwhile, the torchbearers who came to the rescue from Silverflower City, Jianwan City, and Great Lake City witnessed an unforgettable scene as soon as they passed through the outer dark domain and the psionic protective field.

A gigantic red head, exuding a terrifying aura, lay across the center of Lanhe City. It had no facial features, only a single vertical pupil with layers of golden halos within it, enough to send chills down one's spine just by looking at it.

Opposite it, an equally enormous humanoid phantom raised its sword to the sky, with a pure white halo slowly rotating behind its head.

Then, seven beams of starlight fell from the sky, transforming into a dazzling arc of sword energy. The moment the sword energy swept past, the terrifying head silently dissolved, the black mist of the Dark Domain receded like a tide, and the setting sun once again shone its light on the city riddled with holes.

The young man holding the silver insignia was slightly taken aback, his voice trembling: "Director... that is...."

The man with the broken eyebrow, addressed as "Chief," frowned deeply, staring at the gradually dissipating sword energy. He uttered four words: "Corpse-type deity... and tenth-tier True Yang..."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "That's power beyond the Golden Emblem level. If you can stay in Jiuli in the future, you might be able to reach that level."

He glanced around at everyone, then his voice suddenly rose: "Alright, stop standing around! Everyone split into two teams, one to rescue the people, and the other to clear out the zombies! Move out!"

"yes!"

The group in black trench coats quickly split into two teams.

A team began clearing out the remaining Lustful Corpse Species in Lanhe City.

As for the one-eyed followers of the Thousand-Faced God, they vanished into nothingness the moment the divine body dissipated.

The other, slightly weaker team went to various shelters and ruins to search for survivors.

The man with the broken eyebrow headed alone toward the ruins of the central battlefield.

Meanwhile, in a mountain forest on the outskirts of Lanhe City.

The figure that had been hiding since the Thousand-Faced God descended was moving swiftly, disguised as Lin Zhili, and was running very fast, like a black wind.

Suddenly, it stopped and abruptly turned its head to look in the direction of the center of the Lan River.

The layers of golden rings flashed by in its eyes and then quickly disappeared.

It frowned in confusion, seemingly not understanding why it had stopped earlier, but without dwelling on it, it spoke to the other consciousness within its body, its tone tinged with resentment: "Lin Zhili, your Lanhe City is truly lucky. Even in such a completely passive situation, you managed to escape unscathed!"

There was no answer. Only a cold snort responded: "Hmph."

At the heart of the ruins, the three directors of the Jinhui Bureau from Yinhua City, Jianwan City, and Dahu City arrived.

A dozen or so figures, dressed in tattered clothes, emerged from the ruins.

At the very front, Ye Yi, who still had golden hair and golden eyes, was holding a figure with long white hair in her arms.

The white hair almost reached the ground, gleaming silver in the setting sun, while the person's entire face was obscured, only a delicate and pale profile was visible, with eyes closed peacefully.

The others helped the seriously injured Hu Lie, who had many injuries, but at least he could still stand.

"General Hu!"

"Old Ye!"

What happened in Lanhe City?

"How could a corpse-type deity have descended upon the Lan River?"

"Who was it that dealt with the divine intervention?"

A series of questions were raised.

Ye Yi simply shook her head, her voice hoarse: "Let's go back to the Investigation Bureau building first."

Inside the Lanhe City Investigation Bureau building, which is less than half full.

After listening to Hu Lie's account, the director of the Yinhua City Investigation Bureau frowned deeply.

"Commander Hu, do you mean that this young man, who is not yet twenty years old, unleashed the strength of the tenth-level True Yang and defeated the Divine Descent Body with a single sword strike?"

Hu Lie nodded, his gaze falling on the face of the white-haired boy frozen on the hospital bed. The ice layer was thin and transparent, allowing his pure features to be seen clearly.

"That's right, he's only been awakened for a few months."

The director of Dahu City sighed, his voice low: "Judging from this, he must have obtained tenth-level strength in a short period of time through some kind of life-consuming ability."

The director of Jianwan City shook his head, "What a pity. With his talent, we could have had another powerhouse of Lord Li's caliber in just over a decade..."

Ye Yi interrupted them, "Let's not talk about that now. The most important thing is to stabilize Xiao You's condition."

"Old Li, Old Zhu, Old Pan, do you still have any medicinal herbs that can replenish life force? Our stock has been depleted."

The director of Yinhua City raised an eyebrow: "Do you need to tell me? I just notified our bureau to send the medicinal herbs over as quickly as possible."

The two bureau chiefs from Jianwan City and Dahu City echoed, "We've already notified them. They should arrive within half an hour."

Meanwhile, in Donghua City, the capital of Dongling Kingdom, at the central conference room of the Bureau of Anomalies Investigation.

A group of people dressed in black trench coats sat solemnly at a long conference table, the atmosphere heavy.

"Around 4 PM this afternoon, an incident occurred in Lanhe City, Xilin Province, where a corpse-deity descended." The person presiding over the meeting spoke in a calm voice, but every word weighed heavily on everyone's hearts like a stone. "More than 80% of the torchbearers in Lanhe City were injured or killed, and the number of casualties among ordinary residents exceeded one million."

The group of people in black trench coats at the conference table frowned deeply: More than 80%? A million?

These two numbers caused the temperature in the entire room to drop by several degrees.

"The incarnation of the Corpse God has been eliminated. The person responsible for the elimination was the Silver-Badged Torchbearer, number LH-36, from Lanhe City."

Some people looked puzzled. Silver Emblem? The descent of the deity that cleanses the corpse-type beings? These two words sound completely unrelated.

But no one interrupted; everyone waited for what would happen next.

"According to the reports, the zombie species has developed a method that has never been seen before, which allows them to indirectly parasitize humans. Lin Zhili, the former director of the Lanhe City Investigation Bureau, was manipulated by this method, which led to this tragedy."

"It can be said that without this indirect parasitic method, the descent of the Corpse God would not have been possible."

The person chairing the meeting paused, his gaze sweeping over every face in the room.

"This parasitic method is extremely covert. As long as the controlled person does not actively use the power of the Corpse Seed, not only will the Dark Domain Energy Detector be unable to detect it, but it can even deceive the life indicator light. Currently, we do not have an effective detection method that can be applied on a large scale."

……

"You all know the situation now." The man in the main seat looked around. "Now let's assign tasks."

"The research institute should develop a device as soon as possible to detect whether a host has been parasitized, based on its parasitic method."

"Ministry of Education, the invasion of the zombie race is intensifying. Even the two zombie clans that were originally irreconcilable have begun to cooperate. The development plan for ability users must be accelerated. The pilot program for opening up the martial arts subject in the college entrance examination will be canceled and will be fully implemented starting this year. We need to hurry up as well."

"The Ministry of People's Livelihood should quickly coordinate with Xilin Province to carry out rescue and reconstruction work in Lanhe City."

"Finally, regarding the reward for LH-36 for preventing this divine intervention."

The man in the main seat paused for a moment, then continued.

"LH-36 played an extremely important, even the most crucial, role in this incident, but he also paid a heavy price."

"First, mobilize the central warehouse to ensure an unlimited supply of necessary items such as special medicinal materials."

Upon hearing this, the others below echoed, "Agreed."

"agree."

"agree."

. . .

"Secondly, we will add him to the 'Torchlight' list, inscribe his name on the Torchstone, and include him in the core talent pool."

Upon hearing this, the crowd began to whisper among themselves, clearly understanding what the so-called torchbearer list meant.

The man in the main seat was in no hurry and watched the crowd below discuss the matter.

A moment later, a middle-aged man with a young face but half-white hair raised his hand.

"speak."

"Director-General, nowadays, there are probably only three names left on the monument."

"The Torchstone is currently our only means of increasing the chances of breaking through to the strongest level, and LH-36 has been severely injured in this battle, its potential has probably been somewhat diminished..."

The man in the main seat nodded to indicate that he understood. He tapped his fingers on the table, and beams of light rose up in front of everyone.

"Take a look at the information on LH-36 first."

Everyone looked at the light screen.

"What?!"

"Awakened less than half a year ago, a divine body capable of slaying a thousand faces?!"

"!!!"

"This speed of advancement is probably only comparable to what it was back in the day..."

Everyone fell silent.

Seeing this, the man in the main seat looked around and said, "Everyone, even if LH-36 has only a slight chance of recovery, there is a high probability that humanity will have another supreme powerhouse in a dozen years."

"Everyone knows what it means to be the strongest."

"Moreover, the situation is becoming increasingly severe, so we should make the best use of resources."

So, who's in favor and who's opposed?

After a while.

After learning about Wu You's experiences, the man who had initially stood up to object was now the first to nod and say, "I agree."

This is not surprising, since those who can sit in this position make all their decisions based on public interest and the overall interests of the people.

Previous opposition was merely a concern that the extremely important and very limited resource of the torch monument would be wasted.

then.

"agree."

"agree."

"agree."

. . .

The man in the main seat nodded: "In that case, begin preparing the inscription ceremony today and strive to complete it within three months."

Regarding the notification...

"This concerns the monument; we'll notify you once the inscription ceremony is complete."

……

As orders were issued, the massive national machinery of the Eastern Spirit Kingdom began to operate rapidly.