In the space of a heartbeat—
Yan wielded the Abyssal Gate, dragging the Golden Cores of the Moon-Piercing Bandit and Star-Extinguishing Bandit toward its swirling maw.
Fang Han moved just as swiftly, sealing their bodies with a flurry of sigils.
Starborn Kid held the Day-Moon Five-Star Bracelet aloft, its light shielding against the Ghost Serpent Sword's vicious lunge.
The Blood Night King hurled itself toward the Immortal-Slayer Bandit's deadly Buddhist art—Purifying Lotus—its murderous aura colliding with her serene radiance.
And above it all, the Ghost Emperor unleashed his full strength.
His Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation erupted into the sky—a towering, three-headed, six-armed demon of blackened scales. Its presence drowned out every treasure and divine ability on the battlefield. Even the two Dao-artifacts dimmed beneath its shadow.
Only the Abyssal Gate, fueled by the Yellow-Springs Diagram, retained its abyssal luster.
Fang Han felt his heart tighten.
The Ghost Emperor had thrown everything into this strike—no holding back, no restraint. A devil-path master of Tenfold Divine Ability, not as overwhelming as Hua Tiandu, but still a mountain-crushing force.
And Fang Han was five entire realms beneath him.
Whether he could survive even a single blow was uncertain.
The Nature of a Manifestation
A Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation was the ultimate evolution of the Golden Core.
Sevenfold Divine Ability: Golden Core Seed
Eightfold Divine Ability: Wind-Fire Tribulation
Ninefold Divine Ability: Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation
A single, continuous metamorphosis.
A Golden Core endured tribulation, fused with life essence, shed its shell, and emerged as a spiritual avatar. It could solidify or dissolve at will—capable of clashing with treasures, even Dao-artifacts.
Hua Tiandu's manifestation had nearly torn apart the Taiyuan Immortal Mansion itself.
And a cultivator who reached this level could even survive bodily death—as long as the Manifestation fled, it could seize another body and revive, though lifespan would be severely crippled.
But there was a cost.
A Golden Core's self-destruction left the cultivator crippled but alive.
A Manifestation's self-destruction meant absolute death—spiritual annihilation.
Because the Manifestation was nothing less than the cultivator's entire essence made manifest.
Now, the Ghost Emperor's manifestation—the Nine-Ghost Primordial Spirit—had appeared.
Its three heads and six arms represented nine demonic ghosts, nine facets of malice.
The moment it descended, the Blood Night King was blasted back into a shrieking retreat. The Day-Moon Bracelet dimmed under its suffocating ghost-qi. Even the two bandits trapped in starlight regained some clarity and desperately tugged their Golden Cores back toward themselves.
Yan's voice boomed like a curse across the battlefield.
"Yin Wuchang! If you weren't a traitor who perverted the Yellow-Springs arts, your Manifestation might've saved them. But your Nine-Ghost Primordial Spirit is powerless before the Abyssal Gate! When my strength is restored, I will drag all nine of your ghost-souls into the Gate—let you suffer unending torment! You dare to defy the Yellow-Springs Emperor? After three thousand years, it seems you've forgotten fear!"
Black smoke surged from the Yellow-Springs Diagram, lashing toward the Manifestation like a living tide.
The Ghost Emperor snorted.
"Pathetic. The Yellow-Springs Emperor is dead. Yan, I'll drag you back myself—and burn you with Netherworld Ghostfire until you beg for death."
His Manifestation's six arms lashed out. One hand seized the black smoke—but the moment it touched it—
Ssssshhhhh—
The Manifestation's fingers sizzled as if soaked in acid. A harsh, acrid smoke rose from its demonic skin.
Abyssal qi—the nemesis of all Yellow-Springs arts.
"Damn you!"
The Ghost Emperor recoiled, forcing vast ghost-qi outward to shake off the burning tendrils.
Seizing the Moment
"Now!"
Fang Han struck instantly.
The Five Emperor Divine Arts—gold, wood, water, earth, and fire—wove into a flawless cycle.
Five colors converged into a sealing formation that slammed onto the two bandits.
"AAAHHH—!"
The Moon-Piercing and Star-Extinguishing Bandits screamed, summoning the last flicker of their will to detonate their Golden Cores.
"Explode! Explode!! EXPLODE!!!"
Their Cores—each containing twenty divine abilities—shuddered violently, golden shells cracking. A single explosion could shatter mountains, sink seas… even damage the Yellow-Springs Diagram.
But Yan's chanting drowned out their madness.
"Śākadā… Marayana…"
From within the Abyssal Gate, a colossal ghostly visage emerged.
It opened its mouth—and swallowed both Golden Cores whole.
Gone.
Like pebbles vanishing into the ocean.
The two bandits' bodies collapsed as if their souls had been scooped out.
"Our… our Golden Cores… centuries of cultivation… gone… We shouldn't have used our cores… shouldn't have attacked…!"
Their despair lasted only seconds before Fang Han's Five Emperor Seal froze their bodies. With a wave, he cast both into the Yellow-Springs Diagram.
Two infamous figures of the Forty Bandits—slaughterers of countless innocents—erased in a single battle.
And their bodies?
Treasures beyond price.
The remains of Golden Core experts could be refined into Sage's Relics, granting immense power to anyone below the Heaven's Mandate Realm. Worth tens of millions of pills at auction.
But Fang Han already knew where these relics would go: to trusted allies in his sect.
Then something at their waists caught his attention.
"Hah! They're carrying Hundred-Treasure Satchels!"
A sweep of his divine sense confirmed it—both wore outfits made from upper-grade treasures, and each carried a spatial satchel crafted from rare void-crystal.
The loot alone made this battle worth the risk.
But there was no time to inspect anything.
Escape
"The Ghost Emperor is too strong. If I keep fighting, I'll die."
Gathering his strength, Fang Han clutched all trophies, condensed his qi, and shot upward. The Blood Night King's blade-edge fused with starlight, tearing a bloody path into the sky—
Only for a massive black banner to unfurl above him.
"Ten-Thousand Ghost Soul-Lock Array!"
Yan recognized it instantly.
And instantly acted.
The Abyssal Gate roared. Its vortex expanded, chains of abyssal force spiraling outward. The black banner was yanked into the Gate with a single wrenching pull.
A hole tore open in the sky.
Sunlight poured down.
Fang Han surged upward, leaping through the breach into open air.
Cloudlight engulfed him. He invoked the Sea-Mirage Art, dissolving into white clouds and streaming away into the distant sky.
Within seconds—
he was gone.
Fury of the Ghost Emperor
"ABYSSAL GATE!"
The Ghost Emperor's face turned from pale to iron-blue.
His formation broken.
His banner devoured.
His Manifestation restrained.
His prey escaped.
"Yellow-Springs Diagram… Fang Han… I will chase you to the ends of the world!"
He slammed a hand onto his Wailing-Soul Throne and shot into the sky, a raging gale of ghost-qi tearing after Fang Han's lingering trail.
Behind him, the Immortal-Slayer Bandit trembled with fury.
"That Diagram… it can swallow Golden Cores… No wonder the Yellow-Springs Emperor dominated worlds. But we cannot let two Golden Core experts die like this! The eldest will never forgive us!"
Her expression twisted with cold resolve.
She did not chase Fang Han.
She transformed into a streak of sword-light—
and fled toward the open sea.