Gong Tinglan let out a sharp, thunderous cry and unleashed the Sun-Moon Star Disc, which suddenly shifted and transformed — as though a celestial disc had descended from the heavens. The constellations within it churned rapidly, dazzling and disorienting, striking directly at the soul.
The corpse specter Luo Zheng, just as Lang Jiuchuan had suspected, had long since awakened a spiritual consciousness. Witnessing the radiant might of this magical treasure, she felt her soul wracked with stabbing pain, and a great deal of the contempt she had harbored was visibly reined in. She let out a sharp, piercing shriek.
“Aaooo!”
She suddenly unleashed her power. The long hair that had been dragging along the ground shot upright. A thick, jet-black death aura roiled around her entire body, and countless faces — twisted in agony and contorted in grotesque anguish — writhed and swarmed all around her. Every single one of them opened their mouths and howled in unison.
It was like a demonic wail assaulting the very soul.
Gong Tinglan felt his own soul shudder from the force. His already cold and handsome features turned even more glacial. He urged the Star Disc’s formation array forward — the thousands upon thousands of morning stars became like razor-sharp threads of gang energy, coiling toward those incessant shadowy souls, while the solar fire on the Star Disc transformed into one enormous blazing fireball that came hurtling down upon the corpse specter.
The scorching, righteous yang fire caused the corpse specter’s expression to shift dramatically. She shrieked in fury: “You wretched, stinking Daoist — always chasing me without end! Today, I will make sure you never leave this place alive!”
She flung her arms wide in a rallying cry. The death aura grew even thicker, coiling into a dense black shroud that blocked out all light, and it swept toward that fireball. The resentful, dead, and baleful energy swallowed and smothered the fireball’s flames outright — then surged forward toward Gong Tinglan.
Gong Tinglan had earlier fallen victim to her ambush. Where the back of his hand had been gashed open, corpse venom had already seeped into his body. Fortunately, he possessed a righteous Daoist resonance naturally protecting his eight extraordinary meridians, preventing the venom from spreading further. Yet he had not had the time to force the venom out, and now he was expending his core yang life force to unleash the Sun-Moon Star Disc, driving the magical treasure’s spiritual array — his spiritual energy and vital essence were draining at a frightening pace.
Faced with that surging tide of dead, desolate baleful energy, Gong Tinglan rapidly shifted his hand seal, his will surging to full force. The yin moon on the Star Disc began to rotate, drawing in and absorbing every trace of that death aura.
Seeing this, the corpse specter was thrown into absolute fury.
Her lair had been obliterated. The yin and baleful death aura that had nourished and sustained her had all been purified. She had lost the foundational power of her lair — it was no different from having her very roots ripped out.
In plain terms: someone had dug up her grave.
How utterly humiliating. How infuriating. And yet, constrained by her master’s commands, she had been unable to go and seek retribution. She had channeled all her grief and rage into power, preying upon more and more living people — consuming their life force and blood essence to strengthen herself.
Yet this stinking Daoist, buzzing about like a fly, had been pursuing her relentlessly, and now he actually sought to destroy and purify her power. How could she not be enraged?
“You are seeking death!” She let out a frenzied, furious howl. The resentful spirit heads flanking her flew loose like wild horses breaking from their reins, launched forward by her force — all of them lunging and snapping at Gong Tinglan.
And she herself revealed her true form: resembling a dried-out corpse, yet swelling in a manic surge to a full zhang in height. Her fingernails were jet black and sharp as daggers, gleaming with a poisonous, icy light. Within her eye sockets blazed two rapidly spinning orbs of crimson, blood-tinged radiance.
And yet — she still wore Lang Jiuchuan’s face.
The clash of impressions was jarring beyond measure.
Gong Tinglan could not bear to look. The pure yang gang energy on his body blazed to its peak, scorching the resentful heads that had been snapping at him — tendrils of blue smoke curled up from them as they shrieked and vanished.
But that outburst cost him even more vital energy. His complexion turned a sickly pale, ashen green. Only his eyes remained exactly as they had always been — unwavering and resolute, sharp as a hawk’s gaze.
The corpse specter radiated a fierce, domineering Pressure Aura from her entire being. She had been born from the nourishment and incubation of ten thousand resentful spirits and an extremely yin earth vein — a wicked and unnatural entity. That she could now transform into a human form and awaken a spiritual consciousness was proof enough of her formidable power.
Now, as her Pressure Aura erupted, the resentful energy carried by the vengeful spirits instantly became like icy yin threads, burrowing into every pore of Gong Tinglan’s body.
Gong Tinglan’s expression darkened. He pressed his lips tightly together, just about to channel his primordial yang energy for a counterattack — when he caught a flicker in the air, as though the space itself were rippling and distorting. His heart leapt with elation.
Backup had arrived!
At the very moment Lang Jiuchuan burst out of the void, the Dizhong Bell in her hand gave a single resonant strike — a deep, resonant toll rang out like countless Buddha-seals dissolving through the air, severing the resentful and baleful energy surging toward Gong Tinglan, while simultaneously splitting off a portion to strike at the true skeletal demon herself.
The corpse specter sensed the threat. When she made out clearly that it was Lang Jiuchuan, her pair of crimson, blood-lit eyes locked onto her with piercing intensity. Hatred and fury surged sharply within her, and she roared at her in a garbled, indistinct voice: “It was you — you dug my grave, destroyed my sacred ground — you deserve to die!”
Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes were stinging a little. She pinched the Dizhong Bell between two fingers and said: “Though I’m no great beauty, I’m hardly plain to look at. But my face hanging on your face? That is genuinely revolting — it is so offensive to the eyes, it really ought to be destroyed…”
Her words had not yet fully fallen before her will stirred. The Daoist resonance poured into the Dizhong Bell, producing a resonant hum. The profound and cryptic inscriptions on the bell’s surface seemed to come alive, transforming into lightning blades that specifically targeted the head and face of the specter.
Can’t stand it for even a moment — I’ll carve off my own ‘face’!
Gong Tinglan: “……”
She was truly decisive. She could even bring herself to strike so savagely at her own face.
The Dizhong Bell, having repeatedly undergone refinement and tribulations alongside Lang Jiuchuan, had become ever more divine and awe-inspiring in its might. Having fought side by side with her on numerous occasions, their rapport was long established, and she and the bell were already one — her bell and her person united. Whatever her intent, the bell’s spirit naturally knew. The lightning blades were righteous and fierce, the lightning radiance crackling like electricity, leaving the corpse specter with nowhere to evade.
Her face had been conjured — an illusion — yet when those lightning bolts came carving through, she felt as though she were being sliced by ten thousand blades. Her illusory face-skin was destroyed, and her shadowy soul writhed in excruciating pain.
This woman truly was not easy to deal with!
The corpse specter took on another face — one that matched perfectly with her skull-bone structure. A pair of alluring and enchanting fox-like eyes, crimson red lips, a delicate oval face. She, too, was a beauty.
Having been subjected to the lightning blades’ thousand cuts, she let out a howl brimming with murderous malice, wrapped in a torrent of overwhelming death-resentment energy that took shape as a massive vengeful spirit — blotting out the sky — raising a clawed hand and swiping downward at Lang Jiuchuan’s head.
“Be careful — her power is growing stronger by the day,” Gong Tinglan said. Now that he had backup, he had also seized the chance to swallow a rejuvenating medicinal pill, and using the yang strength contained within his vital essence, he forced the corpse venom that had entered his body back out. Seeing that massive claw descending, he could not help but call out an urgent warning.
Lang Jiuchuan had already sensed it. This was a far more terrifying entity than even the skeletal demon from the corpse pit. Her figure flashed in an instant — just as that claw came crashing down, she had already used the Shifting Form and Swapping Shadows technique to dart right in front of the corpse specter. In her palm she held a Five Thunder Talisman. Combined with the lightning energy within her own body, she blasted it straight into the corpse specter.
Boom.
The ground shuddered.
The corpse specter let out a shrill, horrifying shriek — as if ten thousand resentful spirits were howling in torment all at once.
Lang Jiuchuan turned her head and saw where the corpse miasma and death-desolation energy had struck the ground — the earth was sizzling and crackling, and a single blade of grass was corroded into smoke before her eyes.
A strike delivered in rage truly possessed devastating power.
This corpse specter had long since reached full maturity. The more people she harmed, the denser the death-resentment energy she absorbed — and the more that energy became her own power.
“Wicked creature — you cannot be left alive!” Lang Jiuchuan’s expression turned grave. She formed a double-handed seal and once again unleashed the Dizhong Bell: “Lightning transforms into serpents — strike!”
A stream of purple-gold lightning from the bell’s body transformed into an electric serpent that coiled around the corpse specter. The crackling lightning energy was righteous and fierce, relentlessly eroding and consuming her death-desolation aura.
At this point, Gong Tinglan had also recovered a measure of his vital energy. He leapt forward on the tips of his feet and called out: “I will lend you my strength — Stellar Chains, bind!”
He struck himself hard on the chest, and a mouthful of pure primordial yang heart blood sprayed across the Sun-Moon Star Disc, causing it to blaze with an even greater luminescence. Countless brilliant, sacred rays of starlight shot out from the Star Disc, coalescing into chain after chain forged of stellar radiance, coiling around the corpse specter’s limbs and skull.