The corpse worm inched towards Gu Hai.
Although the corpse worm feared Gu Hai, the lifespan cultivator’s urging and the instinctive threat it felt made it slowly approach him, wanting to deal him a fatal blow.
As the corpse worm neared, Gu Hai’s eyes gleamed with ruthless ferocity.
He had already gained complete immunity to this corpse lair. It had even become great nourishment for him. His heavenly soul was two hundred seventy meters tall, reaching perfection. All he needed was boundless energy. If he cultivated as normal, who knew how long it would take for him to find so much corpse energy? This was truly a heaven-sent opportunity.
Gu Hai also sensed a threat from the corpse worm. However, he had the Worldly Sorrowful Endowment, so he did not fear it. He merely watched as the corpse worm approached.
When the corpse worm was within thirty-three centimeters of Gu Hai, a cold light flashed in his eyes as he reached out to grab it.
“Roar!”
The corpse worm suddenly roared, producing a strange sound wave that rushed at Gu Hai’s head.
Buzz!
The sound filled Gu Hai’s mind, dazing him and dragging him into a dream.
“Ah!”
Gu Hai woke up somewhere, but he forgot what had happened. He only felt panicked and pain all over his body.
The surroundings were dark; he appeared to be in a cave.
Many worms crawled all over his body, digging into his skin and chewing on his flesh.
“Ah!” Gu Hai let out a startled cry. Some of the worms had consumed his flesh and crawled out of his eyes and mouth. When he lowered his head, he saw the worms had already eaten away his chest, leaving only bones.
Just then, his right eye suddenly fell off as he looked at his chest. There were many small worms crawling on it.
This looked exceptionally disgusting and horrifying.
Such a scene would scare anyone silly.
However, Gu Hai only let out two cries before calming down. He even showed a ferocious smile.
“A dream? What a disgusting dream!” Gu Hai sneered.
Boom!
A loud sound suddenly came from his body as the Heaven Suppressing Divine Imperial Seal shook intensely, shattering the dream.
The entire cave world shattered like glass, noisily turning into fragments. Then, Gu Hai woke up.
“We cultivate the Go Dao. Do you know how complicated our thoughts are? Using a dream to smother our consciousness? Hah! As long as a portion of our thoughts does not get covered up, we can trace the logic and quickly restore our mind. This is only so-so!” Gu Hai sneered as he woke up.
Gu Hai was still in the corpse lair. The earlier dream had dazed him for only a brief moment. However, the corpse worm attacked during this time.
While he was in a stupor, the corpse worm charged at his right hand, which he had extended to catch it.
Chomp!
The corpse worm immediately bit the center of Gu Hai’s right palm and dived into Gu Hai’s body.
Gu Hai’s physical body was already incredibly strong. The corpse worm’s chewing through his skin showed how sharp its teeth were.
After burrowing into Gu Hai’s arm, it headed towards the core of his body. It wanted to eat his brain so that it could control his body.
However, Gu Hai woke up at this moment.
The pain coming from his palm made him look at his right hand. When the corpse worm entered his body, it spread a corpse poison.
“Humph!”Gu Hai snorted coldly.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
His bones formed a wall. Countless bones strangely appeared, stopping the corpse worm’s advance.
Eeee! Eeee! Eeee!
The corpse worm bit through the bones ferociously, but it had slowed down.
As the bones blocked the corpse worm, countless tiny skulls moved around Gu Hai’s body and charged at the corpse worm.
“Roar!”
The corpse worm roared at the many tiny skulls as they gnawed on it. These tiny skulls came from the Life Ender Saber.
The corpse worm’s body was very tough, so the tiny skulls found gnawing it difficult. However, there were many of them. As they nibbled away, the corpse worm found it unbearable.
Eeee! Eeee! Eeee! Eeee!
The corpse worm cried out in pain. Clearly, it had suffered this time.
A fist-like bone emerged from Gu Hai’s right shoulder. Black fog surrounded that bone as the tiny skulls came out of the bone and went back in.
Then, the bone slowly opened from the center, like a flower blooming. The corpse worm seemed to be on its last breath in there. Black energy lingered around it as countless tiny skulls relentlessly gnawed it.
Gu Hai grabbed the corpse worm with his left hand and sneered.
Eeee! Eeee! Eeee! The corpse worm cried out continuously, gnashing its teeth.
Whoosh!
The bone at Gu Hai’s shoulder slowly returned to normal, retracting into his body. At the same time, the Worldly Sorrowful Endowment instantly absorbed the corpse poison, turning it into nourishment for Gu Hai.
“This little thing? You want to eat our brain? Humph!” Gu Hai’s eyes turned cold, as he wanted to crush it to death.
However, the corpse lair suddenly trembled when he applied some pressure.
“Oh? To think you are the core of this lifespan ritual array? You control the Corpse Energy?” Gu Hai narrowed his eyes.
If I crush it to death, the liquified Corpse Energy around me might scatter. Then my nourishment will be gone?
“I’ll let you live for a while longer!” Gu Hai’s eyes turned icy.
Eeee! Eeee! Eeee! Eeee! The corpse worm struggled.
Gu Hai held the corpse worm firmly, using the tiny skulls to drain its energy. Simultaneously, he drove the Worldly Sorrowful Endowment, quickly absorbing the boundless Corpse Energy.
Outside:
“Lifespan Beiming, how is it? Is Gu Hai dead?” Long Shenwu asked.
However, Lifespan Beiming frowned slightly as he kept up a constant chant of strange sounds to operate the corpse lair.
“What’s wrong?” Long Shenying asked.
“I don’t know. The corpse worm is still around, but I cannot get it to move,” Lifespan Beiming replied, frowning.
“You cannot get it to move? Why?”
“I’m not sure. However, don’t worry. Gu Hai is dead, for sure. He cannot endure this Corpse Energy. All the blessings in him should have drained away by now. He will turn into a corpse demon soon,” Lifespan Beiming said immediately.
“Hopefully, that is the case,” Long Shenying said.
“Could Gu Hai have hidden in his Gu’s Immortal Firmament?” the Southern Sea Dragon King asked.
“He did not. The corpse lair is the corpse worm’s territory. As long as there are living people inside, it will be angry. The corpse worm will only feel satisfied and calm down when the living people are gone,” Lifespan Beiming explained.
“How troublesome!” the Southern Sea Dragon King said.
Everyone waited for Gu Hai to turn into a corpse demon.
“The Spirit Mountain Holy Land truly went all out. Initially, we thought you would use an ordinary lifespan ritual array to deal with Gu Hai. Unexpectedly, you killed all the citizens in the city to achieve your goals, even using unsavory means,” Long Shenying said with a cold smile.
“Don’t you want to kill Gu Hai too? What is the point of saying this now?” the Southern Sea Dragon King said coldly.
“Humph!” Long Shenying snorted coldly.
At the side, Ao Sheng had eaten some medicinal pills, and his injuries had begun to recover. He suddenly frowned and said, “Something does not seem quite right.”
“Huh?” Everyone looked at Ao Sheng, feeling misgivings.
“Have you noticed the corpse lair is shrinking?” Ao Sheng said, puzzled.
“Shrinking?” Everyone turned their head and looked.
The corpse lair was humongous, like a vast sea. Since everyone stood nearby, they could not see a minuscule change. However, once they backed away and observed it in its entirety, the change became apparent.
“He’s right. It is shrinking.” Long Shenwu glared.
“What’s going on, Lifespan Beiming?” Long Shenying looked at Lifespan Beiming.
“I…I’m not sure. Why is it shrinking?” Lifespan Beiming said in confusion.
“Could Gu Hai be sending the liquified Corpse Energy of the corpse lair into his Gu’s Immortal Firmament?” the Southern Sea Dragon King speculated.
“That’s impossible. The liquified Corpse Energy formed because of the corpse worm. Once it leaves the corpse worm, it will dissipate immediately. If he sends such a vast amount of Corpse Energy into the Gu’s Immortal Firmament, the Gu’s Immortal Firmament would be crippled. All the lifeforms in it would die and turn into corpse demons. How could he do that?” Lifespan Beiming said with a frown.
“So, why is the corpse lair shrinking? Its shrinking is accelerating!” the Southern Sea Dragon King said worriedly.
“I’m not sure. Let’s just wait and see,” Lifespan Beiming said while frowning.
Long Shenying showed a sullen expression, suddenly having a foreboding.
The group felt restless as they watched the corpse lair shrink, but they did not know what was going on.
They waited, and waited, and waited…
Two hours…four hours later, the corpse lair shrank to one percent of its original size, and the rate only increased.
Boom!
The corpse lair shrank significantly after a while more. The Corpse Energy in the lifespan ritual array quickly replenished the corpse lair, but it could not keep up.
The Corpse Energy in the city steadily decreased. As the Corpse Energy from the malicious spirits drained, the spiritual souls regained their consciousnesses. The two hundred million corpse demons in the city stopped biting each other. When the Corpse Energy in their bodies disappeared, they fell to the ground, merely ordinary corpses.
“Something’s not right! Something’s not right! What’s happening to the Corpse Energy?” The Southern Sea Dragon King’s expression changed dramatically.
“Purified? Why do these malicious spirits and corpse demons seem purified? Something drained their Corpse Energy? This is impossible!” Lifespan Beiming’s expression changed.
Outside the Burial Mound Lifespan Ritual Array:
The Unborn Man and Lifespan Chunshen suddenly stopped fighting when the black fog outside Three Mountains City slowly reverted to white. The howling malicious spirits strangely got purified, turning back into spiritual souls that looked at their surroundings in confusion.
“What’s going on? Lifespan Beiming, what happened? Why is the Burial Mound Lifespan Ritual Array becoming unstable?” Lifespan Chunshen howled furiously.
Rumble…!
Indeed, a loud sound rang out as the white fog outside Three Mountains City slowly churned.
Boom!
The billowing fog suddenly exploded as if a powerful shockwave had blasted it apart.
“The Burial Mound Lifespan Ritual Array shattered?” The Unborn Man was shocked.
Lifespan Chunshen appeared confused. “How did this happen?”
When the fog scattered, it revealed two hundred million corpses. The Unborn Man’s expression changed. However, he immediately suppressed the anger in his heart as he looked at a tall platform above the city.
Long Shenying, Long Shenwu, the Southern Sea Dragon King, Lifespan Beiming, and Ao Sheng got ready to fight a powerful enemy, looking at the three-meter-wide corpse lair in front.
Boom!
When the lifespan ritual array exploded, all the Corpse Energy gathered in the corpse lair. The corpse lair strangely retracted, pouring into a figure in the center like water sucked in by a whale.
It was Gu Hai. He had sucked in all the Corpse Energy.
Eeee! Eeee! Eeee! Eeee! The corpse worm in Gu Hai’s hand let out miserable cries of despair.
Gu Hai’s closed eyes suddenly opened.
Boom!
A powerful shockwave from Gu Hai spread into the surroundings.
“A Corpse Energy core formed in the heavenly eye? The Upper Heavenly Palace Realm’s third layer?” Gu Hai’s eyes lit up with excitement.
Besides a Shaman Energy core, there was now a Corpse Energy core in the heavenly eye. As vast amounts of Corpse Energy poured into the heavenly eye, he felt that his heavenly eye would be slightly stronger now.
The Upper Heavenly Palace Realm’s third layer. Gu Hai’s cultivation had improved again.
“Gu Hai? You are alive?” Long Shenying’s expression suddenly changed.
“Corpse Energy? He absorbed all the Corpse Energy? How can this be? Who can cultivate using Corpse Energy? This Burial Mound Lifespan Ritual Array ended up benefiting Gu Hai?” Lifespan Beiming said in confusion.
