Xing Chen stood protectively in front of the Ninth Heavens Demon-Destroying Patriarch, wielding the weapon of space in one hand and the weapon of time in the other. When the two dao weapons intersected and were augmented by the six paths of his nascent spirit, he deployed the reincarnation of space-time.

“You!” yelled the Spiriteater Demon Snake, almost vomiting blood as he looked at the broken bone spear in his hand. This was his ultimate weapon, the spine of a primeval human king. It’d been refined with his core venomous fang, but had been destroyed after one blow of Lu Yun’s dao weapon!

Sadly, there was no time for the snake to wallow in misery—the Ninth Heavens Demon-Destroying Patriarch and Xing Chen were coming for his head.

……

Lu Yun’s primary body arrived beside Holy King Atrophy and shoveled into the latter’s mouth all of the various antidotes and medicines that Xingzi and Su Xiaoxiao had refined.

“Don’t waste them.” The holy king shook his head. “This is more the power of the Blood Sea than just a poison of the nascent spirit. There is no one in this world who can cure it.”

Poisonous blue light had completely invaded his body, but he clung to the hem of Lu Yun’s clothes with his remaining strength. “Promise me, become a holy king of the underworld, protect the underworld! If the underworld is destroyed, the world of immortals will be no more, and all life will fall to Chaos!”

“You’re not going to die.” Lu Yun called upon the Tome of Life and Death, slowly infusing the book’s strength into the holy king’s body. He wasn’t going to try and dispel the nascent spirit poison; instead, he was going to just bring the holy king back to life.

Death art: Resurrection!

This death art could revive anything that’d died within the last seven days, but Lu Yun didn’t want to wait and elected to forcefully continue Holy King Atrophy’s life before then. The nascent spirit poison had ended the holy king’s life prematurely, so Lu Yun would create a new one instead!

“What… is… going… what are you doing??” Holy King Atrophy yelled in disbelief upon discovering that vitality was returning to his soul. His originally dead body was also slowly coming back to life as well!

“No, wait, I can’t come back to life! Stop, stop!!” he yelled frantically.

Lu Yun frowned, then wordlessly redirected the flow of energy from the death art to the nascent spirit and soul instead. As life drained back out of his body, the holy king slowly retained his calm. He gaped at Lu Yun, unable to speak for the longest time.

“You can… just return Holy Lord Ashu back to life with a snap of your fingers…” he murmured, having just experienced a complete cycle of life and death. After being poisoned, he’d skipped the process of actually dying since Lu Yun had saved him.

“He doesn’t need it.” Lu Yun shook his head and stood up. “He can return to life through his own strength. Also, I can be a holy king of the underworld. My replica Xing Chen has refined the organs of heaven and earth. He’s stronger than me and so is more suited to be a holy king.

“He’s refined out of the sacred shamanic item the Nine Yin Soul-Parting Wood. As a connate constitution of extreme yin, he’ll be even more powerful in the underworld. What do you think?”

He floated over to Qing Yu as he spoke, remaining solidly planted in front of her. Two hours had passed, and two hours remained. Up in the air, Mo Yi, Chen Xiao, Qing Buyi, and Lu Feng had also joined the fray against the Spiriteater Demon Snake.

Wavelets of the Blood Sea surged around the snake king and an unending tide of creatures reared from the bloody depths, pouncing toward the Central World. If Holy King Atrophy had come to the world of immortals for Lu Yun, then the snake king was here for the Central World.

All of Nephrite Major was overcast in a deep crimson. If it wasn’t for Zhao Shenguang deploying his heavenly mandate and directing the celestial palace in protective maneuvers, the major would’ve been fully tainted by the Blood Sea by now.

By this point in time, everyone on Lu Yun’s side had committed themselves to battle. The thirteen heavyweights of the merchant alliance, five forefathers of the Star Demon Sect, Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign, and the ten Yama Kings were facing off against the Blood Sea.

After Holy King Atrophy revived, he shot into the sky and punched out at the snake king, almost destroying the void with his terrifying strength. This time however, the snake king’s strength grew to match his.

The Blood Sea to the southwest of Life Province also streamed into the air, imbuing the snake king with even greater power and turning him snow white. He returned to snake form, raising curtains of scarlet light throughout the sky. Though the punch connected, Holy King Atrophy did absolutely nothing to the snake, and neither was Lu Yun’s reincarnation of space-time having an effect anymore either.

“The Blood Sea has stirred into action, the Spiriteater Demon Snake coming ashore is just a scouting party! What do they want? Do they really want to destroy the world of immortals?!” Holy King Atrophy called out, “Old fellow, aren’t you afraid that my underworld will wage war on your Blood Sea?”

“Wage war?” a chilling voice answered from the bloody waters. “There are only three holy kings left in the underworld and you are hard pressed to defend yourself as well. The holy lords in your domain all have their own plans in mind and want to make their escape. Wage war? With what?”

“Indeed, the underworld is rotten and decayed, struggling for its last breaths,” another voice sounded. “This time, my Blood Sea will take advantage of an inactive immortal restriction to assimilate the entire world in one go. The Blood Sea will be the masters of the world of immortals!”

The key to such ambitions lay within the Central World. Although the twenty-fourth facet was a dead world, it was still part of the world of immortals. If the Blood Sea attempted to conquer the rest of the world, it would certainly face backlash from the immortal dao. Having just taken form, the Blood Sea couldn’t defy the will of the immortal dao yet.

However, the Central World was a dead world. If they began there, the immortal dao wouldn’t pay attention to anything they did in that facet.

With a thorough eruption of power and the snarls of the snake king, both entities churned toward Qing Yu over the Central World.

“Begone!” Unmoving thus far, the seventy-two peak origin dao golden warriors finally leapt into action. Like they rehearsed beforehand, they moved in perfect synchronization and flared with iridescent light, coalescing an enormous shield in midair.

Wham—

The snake king crashed into the shield and bounced right off, explosively rendering the warriors into dust as well.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Four enormous booms sounded in the air as four enormous coffins loomed out of the void. The Enneawyrm Coffinbearers, Nine-Phoenix Casket, Enneaqilin Coffinbiers, and Ninefooted Turtle Cist!

They weren’t accompanied by the four swords this time. Instead, an enormous red snake slowly manifested in the center of the coffins.

“Carmine… Eternal!” shrieked the snake king in terror.