When the Bag of Corpse Refinement exploded, a rain of zombies fell from the sky. Some were already fully undead, while others were still in the process of being zombified. Lu Yun’s pupils constricted slightly as he saw many familiar faces among the collected dead; most were geniuses from the Sovereign Arena and Sovereign World.

Compared to him, the other immortals nearby were numb to this revelation. The Corpse Refiners had slaughtered every genius they could find of late, arraying the rest of the world against them. In the world of immortals, the number one demonic sect was no longer the Star Demon Sect, but the Corpse Refiners!

……

“How dare you destroy my treasure!” Jiangchen Xie’s face contorted with fury. Bags of Corpse Refinement were very important to the Corpse Refiners, and his bag in particular was superior-grade—far better than all of the others. There was no bag like it in all the sect.

“You’re the current master of Violetgrave!” Suddenly, he noticed the bewitching violet glow in Lu Yun’s right hand. “Everything you have today is owed to that sword… which means you’ll be dead, sooner or later. I have no need to quarrel with you!”

The genius changed his mind upon seeing the sword, abruptly no longer interested in dueling Lu Yun. The Corpse Refiners’ special heritage retained records about the sword named Violetgrave.

The evil blade had a habit of elevating its master to the peak of the world, beyond the heights of mortal reach. However, the moment of their greatest triumph was also the day of their demise, for they would be devoured as a sacrifice to the sword!

Jiangchen Xie already saw Lu Yun as a dead man. What reason did he have to fight someone like that? More importantly, someone who reached their level of strength relying on an artifact like that had no right to be his opponent.

Even a pig who wielded Violetgrave would be able to dominate the world… for a time. Like a shooting star, they were destined for short-lived glory and would soon be out of sight, out of mind.

“Get out of my way!” Snorting, Jiangchen Xie repelled the charging Lu Yun with a Corpse Refinement Formation formed from three hundred sixty-five formation flags.

A roiling stench of death buried the Dusk capital in a noxious shroud. Jiangchen Xie was attempting to refine every living thing in the city into a zombie!

“No!” the Fangyang youth screeched angrily. “That’s the most powerful Corpse Refinement Formation the Corpse Refiners possess. He’s going to turn us all into zombies!”

The Corpse Refiners never had true allies for long. Anyone who left their backs open to them would become battle zombies by their side. In the eyes of the sect’s disciples, zombies were the only trustworthy comrades they had.

“Break the formation!” The nine lords and thirty-six champions were no longer interested in killing or ganging up on Zhu Yan and Yue Longsha. They were one consolidated force, drilling as hard as they could into the dome choking the city.

Alas, the Corpse Refinement Formation was far too strong. Even Lu Yun couldn’t come up with a way to defeat it immediately from his position outside, much less the trapped cultivators.

Splash!

A loud sound of sloshing water broke through the din as a barrier of black water and pristine white mist slowly rose into existence, covering the Dusk capital in a protective membrane. The corpse odor of the Corpse Refinement Formation was shunted aside by the aqueous defense.

Bare feet tucked under aged white robes slowly descended from the sky, the owner of which was a young girl with a subtle bloody glimmer in the depths of her eyes. Eighteen black flags fluttered by her side, glowing with the same shade of faint crimson. These were the source of the endless stream of water and mist.

Diexi!

The zombie king, Diexi.

She was now at peak peerless immortal and could pluck an aether dao fruit anytime she wanted. The eighteen foreboding flags that flanked her were eighteen formidable zombies, all of which had submitted to her command.

The Celestial Mistfield Banners were among the top ten defensive treasures of the ancient immortal court. Not even a connate-grade treasure would be able to penetrate its bulwark.

Although the Corpse Refiners were the ones who’d refined the banners into zombies, Lu Yun had refined them again with the power of hell when Diexi obtained them, distilling their power in the process. As a zombie king, she had subjugated the zombified flags with ease.

……

“Those are the Celestial Misfield Banners! They’re our treasures!” Inside the Corpse Refinement Formation, Jiangchen Xie looked on darkly.

When a senior had obtained them after the ancient war, he’d refined them into zombie flags for Corpse Refiner disciples to use more easily. Who would’ve expected the banners to be turned against them?

“That zombie king! That’s the one that fool Jin Heyi was after!” Jiangchen Xie looked at Diexi with unmasked desire.

“Are you really unwilling to continue our duel, Jiangchen Xie?” Lu Yun furrowed his brows as he shouted toward his opponent. No matter how much the cultivators and immortals inside rained attacks down on the formation, the sect disciple’s reinforcement made it largely invulnerable.

“The puppet of an evil sword has no right to fight me,” Jiangchen Xie sneered, then made a special seal with his hands.

The eighteen Celestial Mistfield Banners by Diexi’s side began shaking, seemingly struggling to be free of the zombie king’s control! Considering how long the sect had had with the flags, it was no wonder that the Corpse Refiners would have a method of retaking control of them if they were lost.

Color draining from her face and eyes narrowing, the bloody light in Diexi’s eyes intensified.

“As you wish!” Lu Yun suddenly put Violetgrave away and ceased attacking the Corpse Refinement Formation. He made a resolute declaration from the air. “You’re using a supplemental path against the Dusk capital. I will respond in kind and break it!”

“Planning on using that war treasure, are you?” Jiangchen Xie snickered. “Doing that will destroy my formation, but it will also annihilate everyone in the city.”

“War treasure? You don’t know me very well, do you? Does everyone think that’s the only thing Dusk Province has?” Lu Yun threw his head back with laughter. “If that’s the case, let me show you what my province really has up its sleeve!

“Come!” he bellowed into the air.

The Cerulean Sword Dragon locked in combat with the bone beast disintegrated on command. Likewise, the Sugato Sword exploded into a cloud of sword aura, filling the firmament with fragments of devastation.

As the target at the heart of the blast radius, the bone monster was torn to shreds by the detonation. And then…

Thud!

The entire province shook as a huge mountain uprooted itself from the ground.

……

“That… that’s the inheritance tower! Lu Yun’s using the inheritance tower!” the dao immortals watching from outside the city shrieked in dismay. Lord Sugato’s tower was the main reason why they were here. Lu Yun was activating its latent power, but they could do nothing more than watch!

The Sugato Sword turned into rays of sword light and fused with the tower. Rising high into the sky, the structure slammed down upon Jiangchen Xie’s formation with destructive force.