This was an extremely eerie scene — one old grave mound after another splitting open, snow-white, even rotted bone-hands reaching out, slowly climbing up.

It was hard to believe — even bone fragments already decayed beyond recognition were assembling themselves into skeletons, rapidly growing flesh and blood, and then the heavenly soldier armor in the graves, already reduced to dust long ago, reversed the flow of time, clanking and clattering as it transformed back into battle robes, draping itself over their bodies.

Those heavenly soldiers had pale faces, expressionless, letting the armor cover them, and then, holding weapons, walked out step by step, forming into battle formations, advancing forward.

This made people almost unable to believe it, scalps prickling, cold air surging through their pores. They couldn’t understand — could someone truly live forever without dying?

The rain poured down torrentially, bolt after bolt of blood-colored lightning splitting across the night sky, from time to time illuminating the pitch-black cemetery. Everything here was hair-raising, utterly inexplicable no matter how one puzzled over it.

“This old Daoist has dug graves for a lifetime, and I’ve never encountered a scene like this. All of them came alive — it doesn’t fit common sense!” Duan De forcefully swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

He had encountered Yin soldiers before, seen fierce ghosts, fought corpse-transformed demons, but he’d never seen living people emerge from coffins. It unsettled even him, and he said he didn’t feel like doing archaeology anymore after this.

“The Feathering Divine Dynasty is too bizarre. What secret did they discover — how did these people come back to life? What exactly is going on here?”

This was the cemetery of generations of heavenly soldiers, an accumulation of endless years. If they all came back to life, a single dynasty’s strength alone could sweep across the world — even the ancient clans couldn’t withstand it.

“Very terrifying. If the Heavenly Generals’ cemetery is like this too, with Dao-severing kings continuously reviving, I think we’d better leave as soon as possible — going deeper means certain death.” The old blind man said.

This was the heavenly soldiers’ cemetery, ancient graves stretching in patches, no telling how many, an accumulation of tens of thousands of years. The Heavenly Generals’ cemetery should certainly exist too, but not here — thinking of this outcome made everyone’s scalp go numb.

The dead coming back to life — what a scene this was, generations of powerhouses all reviving at the same moment, sending chills down everyone’s spines, all sorts of terrifying consequences rapidly surfacing in their minds.

“I don’t believe in evil spirits, wait for me.” Fatty Duan was very bold, sneaking toward an out-of-the-way corner where there were only a few scattered old graves. He waited quietly for a skeleton to crawl out, and the instant it revived, he threw a trapped-immortal sack over it, stuffing it inside in one motion, and slung it on his back to run.

Even though he moved fast and chose an out-of-the-way spot, he was still discovered, and a group of heavenly soldiers came chasing after his backside to kill him.

Seeing this, everyone turned and fled — this dead fatty always had itchy hands, bringing disaster upon them again. But the others didn’t blame him too much; they also wanted to understand what was going on here, since it made them very uneasy.

The earth trembled, several hundred heavenly soldiers forming a battle formation charging over, like a sky-flooding torrent, each step shaking this entire small world, killing intent splitting the heavens.

At this time, the rain poured down like the Milky Way hanging upside-down, growing heavier and heavier, drenching people so they couldn’t open their eyes, splashing on the ground and rising in layers of light mist.

Ye Fan and the others ran wildly, quickly disappearing into the hills, vanishing into the mountain forest, finally shaking off the group of living dead behind them.

Duan De opened the sack, releasing the prisoner, who fell into the mud and water. Just as the heavenly soldier tried to struggle, it was swatted down by one of the Black Emperor’s huge paws.

Several of them moved in together, sealing it, then immediately probing its sea of consciousness, trying to understand everything.

“This is bizarre — its sea of consciousness is completely blank, how can there be nothing at all. Oh, no, something’s appeared, it’s simply to kill all of us.” Dongfang Ye was puzzled, an odd expression on his face.

The others came forward one after another, also discovering this strange phenomenon. Duan De was very alert, and suddenly his face changed color, saying: “Not good, retreat quickly!”

They had just flown back when this heavenly soldier exploded, trying to injure them this way, rotten flesh and bone scattering everywhere, its life force vanishing in an instant, returning once more to death.

Duan De picked up a small piece of bone, pondering over it for a long while, and said: “Let’s go back and see how those few heavenly soldiers we killed are doing now.”

They retraced their path, moving stealthily, and along the way saw many dead bodies, all cultivators who had just entered, slaughtered by that heavenly soldier formation, corpses strewn everywhere, an unbearable sight, blood and rainwater mixed together in a sheet of crimson.

“Strange, this is clearly the spot, we finished off at least seven or eight heavenly soldiers here — where did the bodies go.” Everyone was astonished, unable to find the corpses.

“No need to search — they’re all still here, just turned to dust.” Duan De said in a deep voice. He found a rotted piece of bone in the mud and water, riddled with hundreds of tiny holes, decayed beyond recognition.

Duan De took out the Great Sage’s Dao Bone Mirror, circulated his mana, and illuminated the area. Everyone immediately saw several ghastly images. Seven or eight corpses had, in a very short time, seemingly experienced over two hundred thousand years — flesh and blood rotting away, turning to ash and dust, bones aging, and then completely decaying, leaving only some fragments behind, while the heavenly soldier armor shattered inch by inch, crumbling into dust.

“They really were alive just now, no mistake about it. Who would have thought they’d become like this the instant they died!” Everyone pondered for a long time, unable to make sense of it.

The Feathering Divine Dynasty was too bizarre. Their ultimate goal was ascension to immortality — this was most likely a strange method they’d discovered in the past, not true resurrection at all.

“Many people have died, but quite a few also made it through. Let’s hurry on our way too, never mind these strange matters — we can ponder them again once we’re back.”

The palace hall blazed with light, remarkably conspicuous in the pitch-black rainy night, like a sacred immortal pavilion, having opened a path to the heavenly realm, illuminating all directions. The group approached quickly, not wanting to miss the opportunity.

Suddenly, amid the pouring rain, a beam of black light flashed forth, swallowing and spitting out the world’s essence, rushing straight at Ye Fan, wanting to dissolve him — this was a Grand Dao Treasure Vase, possessing the power to swallow heaven itself!

“Clang!”

Ye Fan flicked it away with a finger, and in that instant saw Hua Yunfei, who in the rainy night looked like a banished immortal, robed in blue, untouched by a single drop of rain.

“Hiss!”

A beam of golden light flew over — Li Xiaoman appeared from another direction as well, striking out a golden crocodile shadow that tore through the night sky.

Ye Fan threw a punch that shattered the golden crocodile-shadow into pieces, exploding into a sky-flooding wave of energy that annihilated itself in the sky.

“Still dare to show yourselves?” Pang Bo’s eyes went sharp — even meeting old acquaintances who’d come from the other shore together, killing intent showed openly, because in the past he’d nearly died being hunted by them.

Ye Fan said not a word, charging to kill Hua Yunfei, while Pang Bo attacked Li Xiaoman, and a world-shaking battle broke out on the spot, beam after beam of divine light illuminating the night sky.

“Shua!”

A flash of light, and Hua Yunfei and Li Xiaoman merged together, fleeing together, not lingering to fight.

Ye Fan, Pang Bo, the Monkey and the others quickly gave chase, especially Ye Fan, who had the Walking Word Mantra, moving at extreme speed, catching up several times, single-handedly battling both of them, his golden fist-force intertwining with the lightning in the sky.

“Stop!” Suddenly, Ye Fan halted, because he’d heard a rumbling sound, sensing the earth trembling slightly.

“Run quickly!” Qi Luo shouted loudly — he had spotted four battle formations, each with five hundred heavenly soldiers, meaning two thousand Grand Masters in total. This was far too terrifying.

“These two want to lead us into the midst of the chaotic army.”

They had no choice but to give up, veering off to the side, fleeing quickly, avoiding the four terrifying formations. Who would dare fight so many heavenly soldiers alone? That was pure suicide.

They approached the glowing palace hall through the curtain of rain — there were many heavenly soldiers here, but the cultivators rushing in from outside were also growing more numerous, gradually gaining the upper hand, a large group killing their way in.

Corpse after corpse, they fought their way through in chaos, and looking at the light source on the high platform ahead, they were all shaken — it was that shrine, within which sat a stone figure, not even half a foot tall, seated cross-legged there.

People already knew that the runes surrounding it could dissolve a person, so no one dared to look at it directly. Instead, it was flowing outward with the most sacred kind of power, wisp after wisp, sinking into the void, dancing together with the lightning, disappearing into the distance.

“It’s coming from the direction of the cemetery!” Ye Fan was astonished.

“Correct, this is the power that revived those bones.” Qi Luo said with certainty — he sensed a familiar aura, the same as what was on the heavenly soldiers’ bodies.

“I think I understand now — using others’ feathering to achieve one’s own ascension. There’s a fragmentary record of this in the classical texts.” Ji Ziyue spoke up. Doing this naturally came with enormous drawbacks, and ultimately would not be feasible.

Yet what they saw before them was clearly based on that forbidden method. One could imagine how many people had died entering this ancient temple — every heavenly soldier corresponded to one life.

“The heavenly soldiers aren’t worth worrying about — they won’t last in this world more than a few days, and will eventually return to dust. However, this ancestral temple is truly terrifying — I’m afraid it’s far more troublesome than we imagined. There’s likely really someone alive controlling things.”

They found the stone gate and quickly rushed into the small world of the thirty-second level. This was a dim territory, no torrential rain here, the ground dry, but even more dangerous.

The moment they entered, a demonic shadow turned around in the darkness, revealing a pair of cold, merciless eyes, like two ghost-fires.

“Boom!”

He held a black broadsword and slashed straight down on the spot, splitting heaven and earth in two, an overwhelmingly dominant display of might.

The Monkey swung his great iron staff to meet him head-on, a resounding “clang” echoing through all directions, deafening, chain after chain of Dao-law surging up, blood-red.

“A Dao-severing king, extremely powerful — this is a Heavenly General!”

A fierce battle broke out. Although the Monkey ultimately smashed this king’s head with one strike of his staff, it also cost him considerable vital energy — clearly not an ordinary king.

Over the following two days, they encountered enormous trouble, unable to leave the entire time. The small world of the thirty-second level had no heavenly soldiers — they were all Heavenly Generals!

This was a shocking matter — all of them were Dao-severing kings; ordinary people entering here would certainly die, with no path to survival whatsoever.

The only fortunate thing was that the Dao-severing Heavenly Generals weren’t so numerous, and they all acted alone, not forming into battle formations, giving them an opening to exploit.

Even so, with generations of Heavenly Generals reviving, their numbers were still not few, making this territory nearly impossible to traverse. Ye Fan and the others were trapped here for two days, nearly bathed in blood. And the others were either heavily wounded and killed, or also trapped, almost unable to pass through — the Heavenly Generals’ killing power was immense. During this process, the Heavenly Emperor’s Son once set a trap, wholeheartedly wanting to kill the Monkey and Ye Fan, with several beings close to sainthood joining in, nearly succeeding.

The small world of the thirty-second level was filled with killing intent — besides dealing with the heavenly soldiers, they also had to guard against various assassination attempts. Ye Fan and the others struggled with each step, as the Assassin Divine Dynasty, the Heavenly Emperor’s Son, the ancient clans and others had all made moves against them one after another.

What surprised Ye Fan most was that Hua Yunfei’s protector had once clashed with Qi Luo. Although wounded, he’d still retreated safely. They had never seen this person before, and by the looks of it, Hua Yunfei was quite cold toward him, clearly not very willing to travel alongside him.

“That protector is truly terrifying — he’s most likely been in long-term contact with an Emperor-level weapon; there’s a supreme weapon’s tainted aura on his body!” Duan De’s brow kept twitching.

This piece of news shocked everyone, though they didn’t doubt the unscrupulous Daoist — he’d been accompanying the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Lid for years and had all sorts of strange methods, so his judgment shouldn’t be wrong.

That the Ruthless Man’s Successor’s protector could accompany a supreme Emperor-weapon year-round was a matter of tremendous significance, truly chilling to the bone the more one thought about it!

“Which sacred ground could this be, or could it be that the Ruthless Man has other Emperor-weapons passed down?”

A day later, more cultivators rushed in, and everyone joined forces, attacking together, fighting the Heavenly Generals in a great battle, with some even bringing out heirloom sacred weapons, finally breaking through into the small world of the thirty-third hall.