"Hmph. A mere pure-yang Dao-artifact, and you think it can break my Netherworld Ghostflame? Keep dreaming."
Seated atop the Throne of Wailing Souls, the Ghost Emperor watched as the Starborn Kid forced open a gap in the pale firestorm. The child was about to dart free—when the Ghost Emperor suddenly opened his mouth wide.
A tidal wave of Netherworld Ghostflame burst forth.
In an instant, the world turned bone-white.
A curtain of cold flame spread across the sky, a radius of fifty miles swallowed in one sweeping breath. Below, the ancient wilderness withered as if drained of life—trees blackened, animals collapsed, insects and beasts alike shriveling as their souls were snatched into the swirling pale inferno.
This was the terror of Netherworld Ghostflame:
It devoured all souls—beasts, insects, even the faint life-force of plants. A plundering, annihilating fire… a cold-flame born from mass slaughter, distilled from stolen spirits and the vilest demonic essences.
The Immortal-Slayer Bandit frowned but did not intervene.
Fifty square miles of ghostflame smothered the sky, even overwhelming the radiance of the Day-Moon Five-Star Bracelet.
"Abyssal Gate! Open—devour every drop of ghostflame!"
In the blink of an eye, Fang Han acted.
Blood Night King roared forward. Starborn's astral light swept aside a swath of ghostfire. But as the Ghost Emperor spat even more, the spirit Yan suddenly unfolded the Abyssal Gate from within Fang Han's body.
The supreme demonic portal opened.
A vortex of pitch-black force spiraled outward, and the ghostflame was dragged inside as if sucked down by a cosmic whirlpool. Abyssal qi thickened until it felt like a tangible ocean of misery.
"Kuuu… kuuu… kuuu…"
Endless wails rose from the swirling darkness—every note a crystallization of mortal suffering. A sea of agony churned behind the portal, fueling the Gate with unimaginable power.
In a single heartbeat, half of the ghostflame was already consumed.
"Impossible! The Yellow-Springs Diagram was supposed to be heavily damaged! How can it open the Abyssal Gate?!"
For the first time, the Ghost Emperor stood up from his throne—shaken to his core.
As a former elder of the Yellow-Springs Demon Sect, he knew better than anyone:
If the Abyssal Gate were ever fully restored, it could devour everything—consigning the world to endless torment.
He had planned to suppress Fang Han with layered spells, seize him alive, take the Diagram…
But the Gate's appearance froze his movements for a fatal moment.
A moment Fang Han seized.
"Break!"
As the Gate devoured the ghostflame, Fang Han shot upward like a bolt of divine light, tearing into the clouds. Escape—now!
He had barely survived the Ghost Emperor's first strike. If more spells or a full Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation descended, he would be crushed.
He had to flee. Now.
"Trying to leave? You underestimate us."
Two clouds above suddenly warped.
Out stepped Moon-Piercing Bandit and Star-Extinguishing Bandit—two Golden Core assassins—each bearing a swirling golden core above their heads. Their mere presence froze the surrounding space, sealing Fang Han's path.
They had been lying in wait all along.
Fairy Lianyun, fleeing in another direction, encountered no blockade. Even these ruthless bandits balked at provoking the Linglong Paradise—and she carried far less value than Fang Han.
The two assassins didn't bother with spells—only lifted their Golden Cores. Against someone like Fang Han, nothing struck harder than the core itself, indestructible and bursting with compressed divine abilities.
But Fang Han's eyes lit with savage joy.
"Don't! The Abyssal Gate devours Golden Cores!" the Ghost Emperor roared.
"If even a trace of abyssal qi taints your core, it will be destroyed forever!"
Too late.
"Geh—geh—geh—"
Yan's laughter echoed from the roiling Gate.
Two streams of abyssal qi lashed out like chains of tortured souls, smashing through the Golden Core pressure and slamming directly into the assassins' cores.
"Not good!"
Moon-Piercing and Star-Extinguishing Bandits paled.
Their Golden Cores—extensions of their very lives—shuddered violently, connection wavering.
A cultivator's core was eternal, indestructible… and now it trembled as if being pried from their spirits.
They had intended to blast Fang Han back.
Instead, they had hurled their own lifeblood straight into the Abyssal Gate.
"Truly, heaven helps me today," Fang Han laughed coldly. "You threw your Golden Cores into the Abyssal Gate's maw—you've trapped yourselves."
Once a core crossed the Gate's threshold, it would never return.
The two bandits panicked, calling their own names—channels of intent firing desperately—just barely halting their drifting cores on the brink of the portal.
One more breath—and they'd be lost forever.
"Ghost Serpent Sword—go!"
The Ghost Emperor flicked his wrist.
A streak of black light, writhing like a living snake, shot toward Fang Han's skull—the Ghost Serpent Sword, an exceptional-grade treasure.
"Ten-Thousand Ghost Soul-Lock!"
Simultaneously, countless banners of ghostly qi erupted from him, embedding into sky and earth. A thick shroud of black mist blanketed the world—a sealing formation:
the Ten-Thousand Ghost Soul-Lock Great Array.
Anyone trapped inside could forget escape unless they were a True Longevity Titan.
"Blood Night King!"
Fang Han sensed a deadly strike descending behind him—his second sea of consciousness now razor-sharp. The bloodblade met the Ghost Serpent Sword head-on with a thunderous clash. Though the Serpent Sword was flexible and treacherous, its raw power lagged behind the Blood Night King and it was knocked aside…
But like a true ghost-serpent, it twisted midair, sliding past the bloodblade in a flash, angling once more for Fang Han's head—sinuous, silent, deadly.
Even Fang Han had never seen swordsmanship so slippery.
"Purifying Lotus!"
The Immortal-Slayer Bandit finally moved.
She refused to watch the two Golden Core assassins lose their cores—their value would plummet to nothing, their lives reduced to fragile husks.
A spinning lotus of white light burst from her hand, sweeping toward Fang Han in perfect synchrony with the Ghost Serpent Sword.
Starborn Kid reacted instantly, raising the Day-Moon Five-Star Bracelet and expanding a dome of starlight that enveloped everyone—including the two assassins.
Astral force scrambled their focus; their struggling cores wavered again—dragged even closer to the Gate.
"You court death!" Fang Han snarled.
"You lose your Golden Cores, and I'll make your bodies into a Sage's Relic!"
He struck—Five Emperors Demon Fist descending on the weakened assassins.
"Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation!"
The Ghost Emperor finally finished locking down the battlefield.
With a roar, a torrent of qi erupted from him—shaking heaven and earth.
A towering manifestation appeared behind him:
a black-scaled demon with three heads and six arms, fanged and monstrous. Three weapons, two hand-seals, and one free hand—
That free hand, large as a mountain, lunged straight toward Fang Han.