Tianyi held his chin with his fingers. Just who had the power to enter the Nether Realm using the opportunity Immortal Court Spirit made?
Well, he could definitely cross the Buzhou Immortal Sect from the list of suspects. Aside from them, the most obvious suspect would be the Numinous Sword Sect, but that seemed too obvious, and Immortal Court Spirit would be wary of them.
'It couldn't somehow be the Dragon Emperor, right?' An absurd thought entered Tianyi's brain. He quickly shook his head. 'Maybe the demons who were forced out of the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System?'
That didn't seem likely either. If True Demon Realm dragons were to appear, then the Buzhou Immortal Sect and the Numinous Sword Sect would dispatch a squad to slay them. At least on this front, they were united.
He felt like he was forgetting an important third party, but for the life of him, Tianyi couldn't remember. Since he couldn't figure out who the intruder was, Tianyi focused on speeding up his progress.
He doubled back on the ninth and eighth weakest ghost rulers and captured them into his inner universe. His Past Incarnation had the same amount of strength as him inside the Nine Heavens Universe, so there was no worry about two weaker ghost monarchs causing trouble.
But just to be safe, he sealed them on Ninth Heaven, where the yang energy was most powerful since it suppressed the yin nature of ghosts.
From there, Tianyi made his way toward the fourth-strongest ghost ruler. From fourth and up, all the ghost rulers were at least ghost emperors. He flew towards Harmony River Yama Palace while hiding himself between folded space.
Since the Nether Realm was more stable than the Huang Realm, space was harder to manipulate, but Tianyi just needed to compensate with more energy. Although it increased the risk of discovery, it was still much better than flying without concealing himself.
Upon arriving at Harmony River Yama Palace, Tianyi had a strange expression. Compared to the Yama Palace, ruled by the strongest ghost monarch he had just paid a rather rude visit to, there was a visible decrease in soldiers and followers.
Soon, Tianyi realized why. The ghost emperor had taken a pill to forcibly raise his realm to that of an emperor. Compared to this ghost emperor, many more ghosts placed greater importance on the ghost monarch's potential.
'Geez, if the sect had pills that could increase someone's cultivation to an immortal emperor, or even immortal monarchs, we would have long dominated the whole Huang Realm. Or maybe we aren't using them for some reason?' Tianyi thought.
He didn't have time to test his mettle against a ghost monarch, so Tianyi took out his Chaos Measuring Ruler. He formed numerous hand seals with a single hand and then slammed them on the base of the blade before swiping towards the tip.
Nine Heavens Style - Planetary Purgatory Ruler Integration
The Chaos Measuring Ruler glowed black with countless tiny motes of white, but within that black light, it cycled through several colors: red, pure black, green, white, and yellow.
Tianyi slashed downward.
An invisible ripple descended onto the land. Without warning or sound, a canyon over a thousand kilometers long and a hundred meters deep appeared across the land. Tianyi successfully disconnected the Harmony River Yama Palace from Youdu.
He could already see chaos descend on Harmony River Yama Palace. The spiritual qi became chaotic and turbulent. At some points, it was incredibly dense, but at other points, it was as it was almost nonexistent.
It even reached the point that just the qi alone destroyed the land and a few ghost soldiers.
"Who dares to attack my Harmony River Yama Palace!" An angry roar echoed throughout the surrounding, but Tianyi was in no mood.
Tianyi turned around to leave, but the ghost emperor had appeared above the Yama Palace. Upon seeing no perpetrator in sight, he roared again. "You dare to attack, but you don't dare to reveal yourself, coward!"
The ghost emperor roared and unleashed a wide-range sound attack. Normally, Tianyi wouldn't have been affected by such a weak attack, but with the constraints placed by the Nether Realm, he was forcibly pushed out of the folds of space.
Tianyi sighed and turned around, blocking the ghost emperor's claw strike with the Chaos Measuring Ruler. Tianyi increased the grip on the ruler when he felt the ghost emperor's claws vibrating at high speed, increasing their strength and cutting ability.
"You!" The ghost emperor shouted but then froze momentarily. "You're not a soul or a ghost! You're alive!"
"Yes, and you're about to be deader than dead," Tianyi said as the cosmic cloak wrapped around his body. He wasn't done yet as the night sky that formed his cosmic cloak turned into day.
The yang qi radiating off of Tianyi's cosmic cloak caused the ghost emperor to flinch, allowing Tianyi to fling him back by swinging his ruler. Ghosts, as lifeforms formed from souls, could not cultivate the martial way and their physical strength was subpar unless under special circumstances.
Tianyi wasn't done yet. He formed several hand seals one-handed and then slammed his hand on the base of the Chaos Measuring Ruler.
Nine Heavens Style - Stellar Silence Ruler Integration
From the center of the Chaos Measuring Ruler, a gold line appeared and slowly widened to color the Chaos Measuring Ruler the color of the sun. Not only did it resemble the sun, it felt like it too, as waves of immense heat rolled off.
The space in front of Tianyi parted, creating a vacuum that drew him forward and increased his speed. When he appeared in front of the ghost emperor, he swung the Chaos Measuring Ruler down.
The ghost emperor raised his claw to block Tianyi's attack, but upon the golden ruler coming into contact with his claws, he screamed in pain. His claws emitted black smoke as Tianyi's Chaos Measuring Ruler sheared through his claws and struck his chest.
"Grahhhh!" The ghost emperor screamed in pain as his ghostly visage took on a blue tone.
Tianyi hadn't sliced through his claws, so much as seared through them with the sheer heat and cauterized the wound at the same time. His clawless fingers and his chest hissed as black smoke continued to emit from them.
Fear entered the ghost emperor's eyes as he looked at Tianyi, who was already charging over. Without delay, he opened his mouth and released a piercing shriek.
The ghosts on the ground screamed in pain as they clutched their ears. They fell onto the ground if they were flying and fell onto their knees if they had been standing.
Tianyi narrowed his eyes as the grating sounds entered his ears. Unfortunately for the ghost emperor, unless his sound could shatter space, it did nothing to him as he closed in on the fleeing ghost emperor's back.
With another downward slash and gave another wound to the ghost emperor. He reached out and grabbed the ghost emperor's shoulder. His cosmic cloak shifted into liquid and attached itself to the ghost emperor's body before reforming back into a cloak.
The ghost emperor screamed as the yang qi radiating cosmic cloak burned him. He tried to get it off, but it clung to him like some sort of prisoner garment.
Tianyi didn't let go either, as he continued to slash at the ghost emperor. Madness entered the ghost emperor's eyes as he abandoned all defense and attacked Tianyi with reckless abandon.
Unfortunately for the ghost emperor, the most damage he could accomplish was giving Tianyi a slash wound that quickly healed. Tianyi's attacks, on the other hand, constantly wore down the ghost emperor and damaged his soul.
"Noooo.....!"
Tianyi watched emotionlessly as the last wisps of the ghost emperor's soul evaporated under his yang qi. When it finally vanished, the cosmic cloak and the golden glow on his Chaos Measuring Ruler receded and disappeared.
Casting one final glance at the ghosts below, Tianyi turned around and vanished within the folds of space.
Tianyi made haste to the next destination, Piercing Wheel Yama Palace. According to Youdu Spirit's information, it contained a ghost emperor and the third strongest ghost ruler of the ten.
When Tianyi arrived, he discovered that Piercing Wheel Yama Palace was covered with layers upon layers of formations. He sucked in a deep breath and got to work, finding the loopholes and moving through them.
'Cautious bastard,' Tianyi thought as he sifted through the twenty-fourth formation. He was taking weeks to get through these formations.
The formations were unique and found their construction innovative, but this almost made it trouble to find the loopholes. If Tianyi had time, he wouldn't mind taking longer to study them, but he didn't.
A month later, he finally reached the forty-ninth formation and entered the core area, but the moment he did so, a black awl pierced towards him and forced him out of folded space.
'Does everyone here know how to break my spatial concealment technique?!' Tianyi thought as anger stewed in his chest.
Tianyi slapped the awl away, but not before a hole was pierced in his hand. The hole leading to the Nine Heavens Universe swiftly healed as he observed the ghost monarch receiving his weapon.
The ghost emperor of Grand Mountain Yama Palace also observed Tianyi. Although he had a paper-white visage, he looked perfectly human otherwise.
"You must be the intruder that is going around and attacking the Yama Palaces," the ghost emperor said.
Tianyi was surprised by the courtesy. Most of the ghost monarchs and emperor he met were savage and seemed to be ruled by malice, not logic like this ghost emperor.
"I don't really feel like fighting you. How about you leave, and let's forget about this? You aren't my opponent," the ghost emperor said. There was no pride in his voice as if only stating a fact.
Tianyi suppressed the twitch in his eye as he heard the ghost emperor's words. It wasn't like he couldn't leave, but he had to disconnect Grand Mountain Yama Palace's connection to Youdu first, but doing so harmed the long-term prosperity of the land around the Yama Palaces.
With how confident the ghost emperor was, how could he allow Tianyi to disconnect it? Plus, that was on the basis that he was sincere.
Tianyi frowned as a white awl phased through his body and flew into the ghost emperor's hands.
The ghost emperor sighed. "I was hoping you'd die to that attack. I guess there's not much to be said. I'll add your head to my collection."
Ghost Emperor Corspehead his only interest seemed to be collecting the head of corpses, a rarity in the Nether Realm where most beings were souls.
Tianyi summoned his cosmic cloak and Chaos Measuring Ruler again. The cosmic cloak took on a golden hue once more as it radiated off yang qi. During this process, Tianyi formed several hand seals and integrated Stellar Silence into the ruler again.
Emperor Corpsehead frowned as he felt the yang qi, but he still sent his black awl piercing at Tianyi, but he was too late. Tianyi had already finished his technique and slammed the Chaos Measuring Ruler into the awl and forced it back.
The ghost emperor snatched the awl before it was sent flying into the distance from the force. When his hand started hissing with smoke emitting from it, he frowned as he erased the yang qi stuck to the awl.
Emperor Corpsehead looked at Tianyi. "I admit you do have the capabilities to battle me, but you're woefully wrong if you think that is enough to defeat me."
Dense black qi smoked out of the ghost emperor's body like a cloud. Several corpse heads also appeared behind him and absorbed the black qi, growing hundred of times larger with an unholy glow emitting out of their empty eye sockets.
He opened his arms out wide, and the two largest heads groaned and clutched the black and white awls in their mouths. After he formed several hand seals, one corpse became black while the other became white.
The two awl-clutching heads soared towards Tianyi in concert, to which he dodged. However, they circled around and continued to attack him like heat-seeking missiles.
Tianyi frowned and continued dodging them, all the while allowing Emperor Corpsehead's other heads to try to bite him. Their physical ability wasn't much and should have a higher focus on soul attacks.
Finally, when the black and white heads flew side by side at him, Tianyi held out his free hand. He released massive amounts of immortal qi of primordial chaos, causing the heads to scream as the corrosive energy touched them.
More importantly, the space in front of Tianyi's hand twisted, and upon contact with the black and white awl tips, a massive explosion engulfed Tianyi.
Emperor Corpsehead frowned as he waited for the smoke to clear. Tianyi appeared relatively unharmed with some tears in his cosmic cloaks, but several of his fingers were missing with immortal qi of primordial chaos leaking from them.
"What did you do with my Bliss and Misery Awls?" Emperor Corpsehead demanded.
"Guess," Tianyi simply said. And after a moment, he added. "You can't defeat me. How about let's forget about this after I accomplish my goal?"
Weren't those his words? Emperor Corpsehead's expression turned ugly as his skin took on a poisonous purple color. "You little shit, I'll rip you to shreds!"
Tianyi's smirk froze as he heard a transmission from Youdu Spirit.
"Someone broke the ninth Yama Palace's connection, and he's heading over. You better come quickly if you don't want me to be taken by someone else."
Tianyi focused his eyes on the ground. Without bothering to pay attention to Emperor Corpsehead, he slashed the Chaos Measuring Ruler at it. A golden crescent emerged as the golden light left the ruler.
When the golden crescent neared the ground, numerous ghostly qi rose and dissipated most of the force. Tianyi turned towards Emperor Corpsehead and glared.
His free hand, now healed, held a black sphere, the nuclear detonation sphere. He reversed his palm and allowed the nuclear detonation sphere to fall down. Not just one, but eight more.
Emperor Corpsehead didn't know what Tianyi was planning, but he had a bad feeling and commanded the formations to stop the black spheres. Ghostly visages of decapitated heads emerged from the ground and rose up to block the black spheres.
When one of the ghost heads opened its maw and swallowed the black sphere, a blinding light immediately appeared. Sound and light had lost meaning, but with the coming of that light, eight more followed.
It wasn't full of yang qi, just pure destruction. Emperor Corpsehead covered himself and blocked it as much as possible. "Are you mad? You're going to kill yourself to kill me!?"
When the light disappeared, Emperor Corpsehead had an ugly expression. Ninety percent of the formations he spent over a thousand years constructing had shattered. Before he could even count his losses, a second golden crescent slammed into the ground and created a new canyon.
"You're not dead?" Emperor Corpsehead said with an ugly expression.
Tianyi smiled, but he was not uninjured. Half of his clothes had been burnt to a crisp, and numerous patches of voids appeared on his skin, but they were quickly healing. He turned tail and fled.
Without the formations stopping him, Emperor Corpsehead could never catch him. The ghost emperor knew this, so he could only watch Tianyi leave with hatred. Not only had Tianyi destroyed almost all his formations, but he had lost the Bliss and Misery Awls.
Tianyi didn't care; he had accomplished his goal. He urged vacuums to form faster in front of him as he rushed towards Youdu.
"Come on, come on," Tianyi said. "Faster, faster,"
He even began to use the temporal aspects he had sealed away, doubling his speed, but it was still not fast enough. It was at this moment that something clicked in Tianyi's head.
He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I mastered the Concept of Lightspeed."
Tianyi's body turned into a stream of black light filled with countless stars. His speed doubled more than ten times, and he arrived at Youdu in a week.
When he arrived, he saw a Yama Palace shrouded in a Buddhist light. The plaque containing the Yama Palace's former name had been erased and now read Ksitigarbha Yama Palace.
