Chapter 1922: Start Killing

A declaration called out, instantly sealing the fate of the high and the low.

The sharp, piercing sound permeated the fleshy walls, its undeniable echo reverberating between the ten cities of the Yin Cao.

Those trapped within the city limits felt an immense weight pressing down on them, an uncontrollable tremor starting from the depths of their souls.

They frantically looked around, their eyes filled with helplessness.

The power of the Divine Court and Yin Cao was too immense!

Compared to the previous chanting of the Jian Zu, the pressure felt here was dozens of times stronger, far exceeding it.

Everyone was searching for that person, but they couldn't see him.

It was as if, in this place, even someone as powerful as the Eighth Jian Xian had to blend in with ordinary people, just like the cultivators of Ling Yu and the trial-takers from the Gui Fo world.

"Can't even get past the gate..."

"He is Ba Zun An!"

An ancient Jian Xiu wore a bitter expression.

The faith in the hearts of all sword-wielders from the Eastern Domain seemed to have collapsed with the declaration.

Just then, a light chuckle came from the void:

"Many tricks and schemes, but you won't show your face. I've waited so long, and you send these rats to test me?"

—It was Ba Zun An's voice!

The calm and effortless tone in his voice instantly ignited hope in many.

At least, Ba Zun An was not crushed by the Divine Court's power in a single blow, unlike these ants.

Huo Huo Huo...

The ghost fires flickered.

The countless Yin Gui forming the fleshy walls twisted their grotesque faces in unison, their myriad gazes converging on one spot.

Everyone's eyes immediately followed.

Far beyond the ten cities, at the southernmost part of the Feng Du Gate in the extreme north, a figure in white stood with hands clasped behind his back atop the Yin Cao's fleshy wall, his expression icy cold.

"Roar, roar!"

"Ho ho—"

"Eat... eat, delicious..."

Below him, festering ghost faces, oozing pus and crawling with maggots, stretched their necks, trying desperately to bite upwards.

But their bodies were pressed firmly down, unable to move at all.

The gloom and foul stench could not reach the sacred white attire above.

Ba Zun An stood in the Yin Cao, like a lotus emerging from mud, unstained by a speck of dust.

"Presumptuous!"

The strongmen carrying the coffin, and the bloated, corpulent monster within it, let out a sharp rebuke.

Its fleshy hand, so thick it looked like green grease would ooze out if squeezed, reached into its crotch and pulled out a gigantic black brush, which it pointed forward:

"I am the Yin Cao Pan Guan. I declare your entry into the capital to meet the Lord. This is a divine edict, how dare you disobey?"

The blood-red, soft bristles at the very tip of the Pan Guan brush pressed against the space before it, radiating an arcane formation diagram with complex Dao principles.

As the diagram spun, it transformed into a massive ancient character for "death" (死), which then burst into infinite waves of power, forcefully pushing towards the land of the ten cities.

"How dare you disobey—"

"Dare to disobey—"

"Disobey—"

The surging echoes instantly shattered those in the Yin Cao, causing blood and souls to splatter everywhere, and screams to erupt incessantly.

And the countless Yin Gui squeezed against the fleshy walls also cracked and bled as the "death" character's power waves advanced, displaying a myriad of horrifying sights.

The ten cities of Yin Cao, power connecting north and south.

In an instant, the blood-red character, which had broken through space and time from the Pan Guan brush, advanced to stand before Ba Zun An.

Before its power even arrived, it had already lifted his white robe and black hair high, shattering the space thousands of miles behind him.

"Disobey?"

Ba Zun An raised his eyelids, his eyes gleaming with a cold light.

Without any visible movement from him, the invisible power wave was forcefully halted by a single word lightly exhaled from his mouth, suspended before him, congealing back into the character "death."

"Above heaven and below earth, in the Yang world and the Yin realm, I dare to call myself尊.

"Who are you, Pan Guan, and by whose authority do you howl like a dog here?"

Ripples spread beneath his feet.

Ba Zun An took a step forward, his hands still clasped behind his waist.

He actually regarded the "death" character as nothing, and when his chest met the "death" character imbued with profound power, the "death" character also rippled.

It shattered instantly!

It was as if it had been shredded by an invisible sword intent; the surging power didn't even explode, but was completely absorbed into Ba Zun An's body.

And as his cold voice settled, after Ba Zun An's step, the afterimage in his original spot vanished.

Everyone's gaze shifted, moving one city over.

He had already stepped into a city!

"Presumptuous, presumptuous, how utterly presumptuous..."

The fat Pan Guan jumped in his coffin, as if no ghost had ever dared to defy his will here.

Immediately, he swung his gigantic Pan Guan brush repeatedly, spitting furiously as he shrieked:

"An outsider of the Yin Cao, a lowly guest from the Yang world, you are summoned by divine edict, a great honor from the Lord, and now not only do you disobey, but you also speak wildly..."

"Noisy."

Ba Zun An raised his sleeve and pointed a finger.

Above the ten cities of Yin Cao, a black line suddenly tore through the sky.

As the wind and sonic boom exploded, the corpulent Pan Guan on the distant coffin instantly turned to stone, his askew crown shattered, and more than half of his skull ripped away.

Green blood and brain matter splattered upwards, flowing over his forehead, eyelids, and fleshy cheeks, covering his entire face in the blink of an eye.

The fat-headed, big-eared monster was stunned; in its world, it seemed no ghost had ever dared to strike at it.

So much so that it temporarily forgot whether it should first be angry or counterattack.

"A monkey in a crown, a laughingstock."

"Go back and tell Hua Chang Deng, either he comes out to see me himself, or today this Divine Court Yin Cao..."

Ba Zun An paused, a faint cyan light gathering in his eyes as he swept his gaze across the defiled ten cities, a red pattern forming between his brows, "will know no peace."

Clearly, not a single ghost took his words seriously.

"Pan Guan!"

"Cui Ming Pan Guan?!"

In the halls of the ten cities, the eyes of the Ten Hall Yama Lords grew anxious.

Even the Black and White Shuang Sha, who held the hook-scythes and opened the Feng Du Gate, couldn't help but move closer to Pan Guan.

"Wah..."

The corpulent Pan Guan let out a cry from its mouth, as if it were agitated, enraged, or utterly provoked.

Its chubby hand swept over its head, like smoothing bangs, and the shattered skull instantly regenerated, the wound healing as good as new.

Then, with a wipe.

The blood on its face was gone.

Only a furious, sharp-toothed, beast-like face remained. It flicked its Pan Guan brush, left a sentence, and turned to lie back in its coffin:

"Kill him."

The Ten Hall Yama Lords were startled, and the Black and White Shuang Sha froze.

The eight strongmen beneath the coffin also paused, wanting to speak but holding back.

Just then, from within the Feng Du Gate, a graceful figure in green rushed out, holding a bowl, her face veiled:

"Hold on!"

In her other hand, she also clutched a divine edict.

After appearing, she didn't even look at the Pan Guan in the coffin. She unfolded the divine edict and declared loudly, pronouncing judgment on his behalf:

"By the gracious reward of the Lord, supreme power is bestowed. All Yin Cao Gui Xiu, unite the power of the death god, and fight this fiend together. Those who obtain Ba Zun An's soul blood shall be promoted one rank; those who obtain Ba Zun An's soul flesh shall have the death god's power permanently solidified; those who decapitate Ba Zun An..."

She hadn't finished speaking when she felt a pang in her chest.

Her gaze shifted downwards; the divine edict in her hand had been torn apart by sword intent at some unknown point, scattering into a sky full of starlight.

And she herself...

A huge bloody hole had opened in her chest.

Green blood surged out, and even the power within her began to drain, her delicate skin unable to maintain itself, beginning to wrinkle.

In an instant, the graceful maiden had transformed into a hunched old woman.

"Meng Po Ah Nai!"

"Be careful, this fiend's strength is not weak, just now Pan Guan was..."

"Shut up! All of you, shut up!"

"Lower your heads! All of you, lower your heads!"

The Ten Hall Yama Lords immediately cried out in alarm, followed by the terrified voices of the Black and White Shuang Sha.

Instantly, within the Yin Cao's fleshy walls, countless malevolent ghosts immediately lowered their heads, not daring to look away for a moment.

The old woman called Meng Po was convulsing and trembling all over; after she managed to raise her head with difficulty, her black hair turned white.

Aside from her face, which remained youthful, her entire body exuded the decaying stench of old age.

She gazed into the distance.

Far away, the peerlessly elegant white-robed figure gently lowered the finger he had pointed at her.

Undoubtedly...

The divine edict, he had shattered it.

Her own injury, he had inflicted it.

Meng Po Ah Nai took a deep breath, a hoarse, piercing shriek echoing through the Yin Cao, even more potent than Cui Ming Pan Guan's earlier cry:

"Attack!"

"Rong Cheng! Rong Cheng!"

"Within a quarter of an hour, I want him to be nothing more than a wisp of residual soul, to be brought into the capital to apologize, and to be tortured to death by me!"

After the divine edict's starlight shattered, it transformed into complex Dao patterns.

This caused the already tattered edict, once broken, to summon surging death god power from within the Feng Du Gate, sending out billions of streams of light, which injected into the coffin-bearing strongmen, the Black and White Shuang Sha, the Ten Hall Yama Lords...

And even into the myriad Yin Gui within the cities of the ten realms, who had formed the fleshy walls, pressing against each other until they could barely breathe!

"Chh!"

Hong Niang watched wide-eyed as the fleshy wall beside her seemed to "melt," and the fat-faced ghost fell down, right in front of her, impossibly large.

Its body ignited with the power of the Zuyuan, and after its entire body shuddered, it let out a long howl:

"Hiss—"

It wasn't just the white-faced ghost.

Throughout the vast ten cities, billions of Yin soldiers were all unleashed.

Each one was imbued with at least one strand of Zuyuan power, and they all howled and struggled free from their restraints, rushing into the void.

"How can there be so much death god power..."

Yue Gong Nu's eyes widened in alarm. She reached out and immediately pulled Yu and Liu behind her, avoiding these terrifying ghosts with their various ghastly appearances.

Fortunately, after these Yin Gui were unsealed, they completely ignored everyone else, their only target being:

Ba Zun An!

A drop of blood, a promotion in rank.

If they obtained his soul flesh, the death god's power would be permanent.

If they were lucky enough to take that damned guy's head, there was no need to ask about the reward; it would surely be priceless!

Who among the myriad ghosts of Yin Cao would not flock to it?

Yue Gong Nu looked up; countless Yin Gui leaped like fish over a dragon gate, all eager to tear that figure to shreds at the first opportunity and share the spoils.

The scene was terrifyingly grotesque.

The ghost creatures capable of forming walls were, at minimum, soul energy bodies.

Leaving aside combat experience, compared to the ethereal soul bodies of ordinary refiners, souls that could solidify into energy bodies were tens of thousands of times stronger.

Moreover, these ghost creatures were all imbued with the power of the Zu Shen. This was like trying to drown Ba Zun An with spit, they wanted him dead!

"Giggle."

Wu Ji shrank into Yu Zhi Wen's embrace, indicating he was greatly startled.

Is this the perfect Divine Court?

Can accumulated Zu Yuan power from billions of years be bestowed upon such cheap ghost creatures as if it were worthless?

Even if each ghost received one strand, when combined, billions of strands...

What kind of magnitude was this?

If these things were added to one person, even Wu Liang Ji Zi with his nine mouths couldn't swallow it all in one gulp!

"Hua Chang Deng is also a mad dog..."

"Does he want to make Ba Zun An explode?"

"Or does he want to break his Hidden Sword Art and ruin his thirty years of sealed sword Dao foundation before they meet again?"

Ba Zun An frowned.

He too had never experienced a perfect Divine Court and had indeed underestimated Hua Chang Deng.

For Hua Chang Deng to obtain such relics of the Zu Shen was like adding wings to a tiger.

Of course, these were external objects.

But Gui Jian Shu's spirit-controlling诡术 originally emphasized the "control" aspect, and besides, Hua Chang Deng was no longer a pure ancient Jian Xiu.

His "ghost" Dao, it seemed now, was more important than his "sword" Dao.

He was not the Lord of Feng Du, the second realm in ancient sword arts.

What he wanted to be was the true Lord of Feng Du, replacing the Gui Zu!

"Swallowing is impossible..."

Although the Undying Sword Body was called "undying," it still had some differences compared to the immortal bodies of the five great supreme bodies.

After all, it was formed later and focused more on the "sword" aspect.

And compared to the Divine Court Yin Cao, it was incomparable.

After all, it was merely a later-formed sword body—even a congenital saint body would be exploded by such immense Zu Yuan power!

He weighed his options.

There was no other way.

Facing the ghosts扑 from all directions, Ba Zun An lowered his eyebrows, his killing intent chilling.

In his heart, there was only one answer left:

Destroy them all!

"Hiss-la"

The plump white-faced ghost dangled its long, fleshy tongue, its eyes glowing green, its face filled with desire, charging forward.

Its hungry expression seemed to say... give it to me, just a drop, Mr. Ba Zun An, just a drop is enough.

"Boom."

Ba Zun An pointed a finger, ripples spreading from its tip.

The large lump of flesh in front exploded into shredded pieces, unable to even emit a scream; its hunger had been killed by his finger.

As for the wisp of Zu Yuan power within it, it was crushed by sword intent from a distance, then turned into dark, noxious gas, sinking heavily.

"Chh-chh..."

A whooshing sound came from the right.

Ba Zun An didn't even look, pointing another finger into the void. The night bat that had swooped down exploded into dust, leaving only unwillingness.

Black gas sank.

"Ha-la, ha-la..."

Maggots with drool dripping made a sneak attack from behind. Ba Zun An simply closed his eyes, opened his mind's eye, and flicked his finger.

*Splat*, the maggot was crushed.

Black gas sank.

"Boom!"

"Boom boom!"

"Boom boom boom..."

Point to stop, point to not stop.

Like the most elegant void musician, the white-robed figure stood motionless amidst the ghosts, his hands fluttering, afterimages trailing, his ten fingers transforming into flying flowers, performing a magnificent movement.

Within a radius of ten zhang, no malevolent ghost could approach.

Shredded flesh splattered for several li, and black gas diffused into clumps.

Just a few breaths later, a vast ocean of death god power emanated from beneath Ba Zun An, with countless shattered corpse souls floating within it.

But around him...

There were still countless ghosts, densely packed!

They blotted out the sky and covered the earth, extending for hundreds of thousands of li!

This scene was terrifying, and the sheer number was astonishing. The Refiners below watched, plagued by nightmares, their hands and feet turning cold:

"He can't hold on, it's impossible..."

"Even if he is Ba Zun An, he can't withstand such a massive onslaught. He simply can't kill them all, can't kill them all..."

Soon, even the "boom boom" sounds of shattered souls from his attacks were drowned out by the impenetrable mass of malevolent ghosts.

The void became a giant ball of flesh; except for occasional wisps of black gas sinking from the crevices into the black ocean, there was no other sound.

Ba Zun An was enveloped.

Even if he wasn't torn to shreds, he would be exhausted by so many ghosts.

At the very least...

Everyone thought of Ba Zun An's state on Ling Yu Mountain before, after swallowing countless swords and the lightning tribulation, when his Dao chains were strained.

"I'd say Ba Zun An is finished!"

"The power he swallowed before has become a limitation. Once he loses control, his Dao foundation, hidden for years, might all explode!"

"And until now, he hasn't even seen Hua Chang Deng's face..."

Gou Wu Yue's brows also furrowed as he watched.

The Divine Court was undoubtedly strong, incredibly strong.

And this was just the beginning; Hua Chang Deng must have prepared far more for his mortal enemy.

Ba Zun An was also not weak; shattering a strand of Zu Yuan power with a single finger was incredibly fierce.

One strand was fine, but if it was like this for every strand, any other ancient Jian Xiu would likely be exhausted to the point of collapse.

None of that mattered!

What Gou Wu Yue was watching was not these things.

He focused on the black ocean forming from the black gas, which was the shattered death god power, re-condensing beneath Ba Zun An and the myriad ghosts.

"What is this?"

Gou Wu Yue felt a faint stirring in his heart.

It looked like death god power, but it leaned more towards pure Zu Yuan power.

It was as if the mark belonging to the "Gui Zu" had also been quietly shattered by Ba Zun An's touch...