And so, the spirit ark, carrying the twelve cultivators from Duskwild Prefecture, finally set off towards the border of Duravia Trade Prefecture.
Li Dalong stood with his hands behind his back, gazing down at the mountains and forests of the borderlands below. He could see that every 5 miles, there were cultivators standing guard.
There were also formations, and within them, animals were kept in cages.
This was a method of communication in the cultivation world. At the slightest sign of trouble, the animals in the cages would be killed.
The extinguishing of their soul flames would serve as a message, and the number of cages used would signify different levels of alert.
"Once a large army gathers, the signal will be transmitted to the Duravia Trade Prefecture instantly. There are spies from the Duravia Trade Prefecture in my Eternal Sun Prefecture as well. Though Prince Qian is arrogant, he is also meticulous. He will be aware of the slightest disturbance."
Li Dalong said to the White Qilin, "If we want to kill him, we can't give him any chance to notice us. Otherwise, he'll just make more preparations."
"So your people…"
The White Qilin understood.
Li Dalong casually unfastened the Heaven-Piercing Coffin. Below, the cultivators had already sensed the auras on the spirit ark and were killing the animals in their formations to send the signal.
"Moon God, Soul Duke, Qu Yang, Lai Teng! By my command, take control of the Endless Sea of the Dead! Lead the zombies to charge into the Duravia Trade Prefecture! The zombie tide is to seek out all places with dense immortal spirit Qi. I give you Corpse Emperors free rein to slaughter indiscriminately for sixty days."
Li Dalong's voice was casual.
But the cultivators below who caught a glimpse of the silver coffin in the sky stared with their eyes wide in utter horror!
The Heaven-Piercing Coffin floated high in the air. A deep, grinding sound of the coffin and its lid scraping against each other echoed across the sky. In the blink of an eye, a black river was divided, its streams flowing like ribbons up into the air against gravity.
A wave of Deathly Qi spread out, and a nauseating stench filled the air as the sky gradually grew dim!
"Zombies… So many zombies!!!" a cultivator on the ground cried out, his face ashen with horror.
It wasn't that he had never seen a zombie before. In places like mass graves, zombies would often rise up due to the dense Deathly Qi, and disciples from sects and clans would frequently be sent down the mountain to eliminate them.
But now, he collapsed onto the ground, shivering uncontrollably.
He saw it. Within those black, ribbon-like currents flowing against gravity, endless zombies surged upward.
The Sea of the Dead in the sky, like a roiling black mist, was teeming with countless zombies swimming within it. And as this boundless Sea of the Dead expanded, their numbers would only continue to grow!
Beneath that endless sea, Corpse Emperors rose into the air one by one.
These were the very Corpse Emperors Li Dalong had spent the last forty years refining. Even the bodies of Tian Xing's former avatars had been turned into zombies under his hand.
No wonder Tian Xing himself had once said that, given enough time, Li Dalong would become an existence even more heaven-defying than he was!
Among these Corpse Emperors, the Moon God and the Soul Duke were by far the most powerful.
Existences such as zombies gain sentience from the Corpse King stage onwards, allowing them to cultivate on their own.
Within the Endless Sea of the Dead, the Moon God and the Soul Duke had gained considerable benefits.
"Yes, Coffin Master!"
The assembled Corpse Emperors bowed deeply, then floated up into the boundless Sea of the Dead. Forming a battle array, they accepted Li Dalong's command, taking control of the great army and leading the innumerable zombies.
This scene startled even the White Qilin.
The boundless Sea of the Dead was still flowing out, spreading across the sky.
It would take at least a full day for the sea to empty completely. Then, the zombies would appear upon its surface, and within its domain, their power would be multiplied!
Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling...
As the sound of the bells faded, Xuan Tianzi, the most sentient of the zombies, appeared in the form of a young girl. "Greetings, Master."
"Xuan Tianzi, I order you to act as warden over the Endless Sea of the Dead. Duravia Trade Prefecture will do everything in its power to stop the zombie tide. You are to pay no mind to any zombie that is destroyed. On the day the sixty days of slaughter are over—even if every last zombie has been wiped out—I want you to bring the Endless Sea of the Dead back to this place. Either I will be here waiting for you, or only the Heaven Coffin will remain."
"Yes, Master!"
Xuan Tianzi vanished into the void.
The Endless Sea of the Dead continued to gather. The White Qilin was still staring at the sky in horror. He had seen necromancers before, but never one as terrifying as this!
The cultivators from Duskwild Prefecture were in the same state.
They simply could not believe that such an apocalyptic scene could be the work of a single Divinity Transformation expert.
It was said that the cultivators of Duskwild who believed in ghosts and gods were heretical, but this… this was true heresy.
That day, when they had listened to the war simulation and heard Li Yaowen say her father would open a path with his zombies, they had never imagined such a horrifying spectacle!
Li Dalong remained calm.
"Sixty days. That is our window of opportunity as well."
At that moment, the White Qilin and the others from Duskwild Prefecture looked at Li Dalong with grave new respect.
Never mind the people of Azure Cloud; this move from Li Dalong alone was more than enough to command their full attention.
"The zombies making a deep incursion can only tie up a portion of the family powers in the Duravia Trade Prefecture. Yaowen has calculated that after sixty days, those powers will have time to react. If our forces haven't withdrawn from Duravia Trade Prefecture by then, they will form an encirclement, and it will be difficult to escape from that kind of inescapable net."
As Li Dalong's words fell, the White Qilin finally snapped out of the shock of seeing the full zombie tide unleashed.
"Even if Prince Qian dies and the three great sects are annihilated, the other family powers in the Duravia Trade Prefecture will not let the matter rest so easily in the short term."
The White Qilin asked, "As soon as the zombies appear, the powers near the center of Duravia Trade Prefecture will rally to protect Prince Qian, while the powers on the periphery will engage your zombie tide. The three great sects will be on high alert for us. We have sixty days. How are we supposed to break through?"
"I told you," Li Dalong said, "you are underestimating our old comrades from Azure Cloud."