The legendary Jiangchen genius, the one who’d sealed himself away after sensing the void realm thirty thousand years ago, had lost!

With a single blow, Lu Yun dismantled the endless rings of bones surrounding Jiangchen Xie. Mere aftershocks were enough to send the archaic genius deep into the earth. Furthermore, Lu Yun’s disdainful words depicted his defeated opponent as completely worthless.

“I’m a failure? A pathetic worm?” Jiangchen Xie’s eyes became empty.

When he’d first sensed the void realm thirty thousand years ago, he’d also seen that long, white path. He knew the streaks of crimson upon it were painted by the blood of his own kind.

After a very long period of hesitation, he’d shied away from stepping foot upon the path proper. He could have found the long-lost void realm, yes… but he would’ve also died doing so.

“No!” Jiangchen Xie regained his focus. “I’m still alive… so I haven’t failed! I’ll never fail!”

Boom!

His body tunneled out from the ground. “Lu Yun!”

Following a loud, explosive roar, his scattered monster of white bone began collecting back into shape. Its new body was fifty kilometers long and bore both draconic and tigrine features. A single horn was perched upon its crown. It stood in front of Dusk capital like a mountain range, every bit as humongous as the walled city before it.

Jiangchen Xie himself was enveloped by a bone-white aura of light. His presence intensified once more, until it reached the zenith of what was possible for returned void. Standing atop the head of his bone beast, a thick mantle of white fire had replaced the air of corpse energy about him.

Despite being roughly ten kilometers away, Lu Yun felt a peculiar wave of both extreme heat and cold hit him. It was a rather paradoxical feeling.

“Hadal Bonefire!” The young man paled slightly.

Such a terrifying flame was born only in a place of boundless death and disaster when an unfathomable amount of malignant air set bones alight. The fire’s polarizing duality of hot and cold was potent enough to destroy all things.

Nurturing the malignant air within that served as its fuel, it was one of the strongest kinds of fire in all of existence—worthy enough to be mentioned alongside the three immortal fires of the world.

Lu Yun hadn’t expected Jiangchen Xie to carry such a sinister flame, nor had he accounted for the genius’s remarkable skill with it.

“The Hadal Bonefire comes from the bone beast beneath him!” he gasped, realizing the key. Jiangchen Xie hadn’t just tamed the fire for himself, he’d also refined its natural vessel into his treasure.

“Come on, then!” Jiangchen Xie roared again.

The bone serpent beneath him shambled toward Lu Yun with surprising speed, a tongue of bleached fire from its maw leading the charge.

The surrounding immortals and cultivators scattered, afraid of the slightest touch from the fire. If the fire made contact, it would strip the flesh from their bones without fail. The earth began trembling as the Dusk city walls behind Lu Yun fissured with frightening cracks.

Corpse Refiners invaded the city from every direction, a zombie horde in tow. Their objective was clear: anyone who wasn’t one of their own must die!

The world’s great factions and clans had always tried forming alliances to hunt them down. Even after the sect had become the ruler of Truespirit Major, plenty had refused to give up their efforts. Thus, they were perfectly content to attack indiscriminately. Both outsider geniuses and Dusk cultivators and immortals were on their hit list.

Outside the city, Xing Chen and Qing Yu were still grappling with Mo Qitian and Wu Tulong. Shockwaves from their battle were nearly enough to level the city, and those caught in the crossfire could only flee and pray.

By now, Xing Chen was fully recovered from his injuries. A pillar of light erupted from his body as he closed in with Wu Tulong. What shocked him, though, was the fact that this Wu Tulong was stronger than the ‘Lu Shenhou’ from just before. He could only hold his ground with all hundred scrolls of his Sword Atlas unfurled.

……

Dusk City, main gate.

Streams of sword aura wove to and fro upon the Sugato Sword, turning into a Cerulean Sword Dragon fifty kilometers long. The monumental manifestation of bladed power stood in the bone beast’s way.

The two serpentine creatures bared their teeth and tore into each other in midair. Though Lu Yun’s Cerulean Sword Dragon was annihilated countless times, the Sugato Sword’s light continually restored it to life.

Lu Yun floated above the battle, Violetgrave in hand and his body a brilliant violet. Hadal Bonefire was too powerful for him to take lightly; he didn’t want to use too much hellfire, as it would only draw unwanted attention. Violetgrave, on the other hand, was more than capable of shielding him from the Bonefire, enabling him to remain unscathed in the upcoming duel.

Jiangchen Xie howled in anger. Zombies teemed all around him, surging toward Lu Yun like an army of relentless clones.

Boom!

A sudden unified attack from more than a hundred zombies sent Lu Yun crashing into a section of the city wall.

“Zombies?” Dusting himself off awkwardly from the ruins, Lu Yun rose into the sky once more. “I have quite a few helpers myself!”

With a wave of his hand, he flung thirty-six golden beans into the air.

Hum...

The same number of armored soldiers appeared in a scintillating blaze of light. As they popped into existence, Lu Yun tossed each of them a Weaponry Talisman, the paper slips turning into weapons in their hands.

“Charge!” the soldiers boomed as they stormed toward the zombies.

“Void realm summons?!” Jiangchen Xie was astounded by the strength of the conjured soldiers. However, there was no time for him to marvel over them. He marshaled his zombies into a Corpse Refinement Formation as fast as he could.

Alas, the soldiers were completely undaunted by the formation’s power, as they were protected by a sacred light that pierced through the noisome air.

“Return!” Jiangchen Xie brandished the Bag of Corpse Refinement, which flew out from his hands.

Before he could grasp it, a pernicious violet streak arced across the sky and drew a heavy scar across the ochre bag.

Skrrrk!

The treasured bag of the Corpse Refiners was broken.