Chapter 275: Breaking the Seal
"These zombies actually all listen to you?"
A curious voice came from that figure's mouth, breaking the air of lofty majesty.
"Shut up. This body is mine to control right now." The remnant soul let out a cold snort. With that, it directed Yao Shifeng's body toward the depths of the Nine Nether Domain.
Along the way, the zombies all retreated, bowing in obeisance.
These zombies were condensed out of the remnant soul's own power, and naturally fell under its control. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that with a single thought, the remnant soul could determine whether they lived or perished.
"What's going on?"
At the core of the Nine Nether Domain, three demonic sect cultivators at the Soul Transformation stage noticed the disturbance outside and rose to their feet. In an instant, a flood of deathly aura surged from their bodies.
These three demonic sect cultivators had already been completely transformed into zombies, but their consciousness had not dissipated. Moreover, after becoming zombies, their combat power had increased tremendously.
"Who are you!"
Very soon, the three Soul Transformation cultivators saw a lone figure walking leisurely toward them. Sensing the vitality within his body, the three of them revealed looks of shock.
The Nine Nether Domain was now a forbidden zone for the living. Even before they themselves had become zombies, they would never have dared step foot in here.
"Why do you not kneel before me?"
The remnant soul gazed coldly at the three Soul Transformation experts.
"You…"
To order three Soul Transformations to kneel with the words of a Nascent Soul—such arrogance would sour anyone's expression. If not for the strange ease with which he had entered the Nine Nether Domain, and the unusual aura about him, they would have already struck out to teach him the meaning of hierarchy.
But before they could erupt, a nameless dread welled up inside them. The dread grew stronger and stronger until it became terror.
Only when they fell to their knees did that terror subside. The three exchanged glances, seeing shock mirrored in each other's eyes.
Ignoring them, the remnant soul continued forward until it arrived before the headless corpse.
"So this is your true body?"
Yao Shifeng stared at the massive corpse, trembling inwardly. Faced with it directly, even his soul quivered—that was the instinctive fear caused by a lifeform of far higher order.
"That's right. So, did you really think I'd covet your body?" the remnant soul sneered.
"Heh."
Yao Shifeng gave a dry chuckle, though inwardly he scoffed. He'd be a fool to believe that.
Ignoring Yao Shifeng's sarcasm, the remnant soul's consciousness plunged straight into the headless corpse. In the next moment, that deathly still body stirred faintly with signs of revival.
"This, this is…"
The three Soul Transformations of the demonic sect were horrified. At the same time, they vaguely guessed this figure's origins—it must be connected to the missing head of the corpse.
Rumble!
As the corpse's revival aura grew stronger, it suddenly rose to its feet. In an instant, a colossal headless giant stood towering in the Nine Nether Domain.
At first glance, the corpse hadn't seemed all that large—only because the seal had restricted it. Now that the seal had been mostly worn down, the remnant soul's return allowed it to break free with a mere struggle.
Once the seal shattered, its true Dharma Body was revealed.
The bottomless Nine Nether Domain reached only to its waist. The clouds in the heavens floated merely at its chest.
"The seal on the headless corpse is broken!"
Such an immense figure appearing meant that nearly all of Tianyuan Cultivation World could see it. At that moment, despair welled up in countless cultivators' hearts.
Yet after breaking the seal, the headless corpse simply stood still without moving.
It wasn't that it didn't wish to act—it couldn't. Once freed, the remnant soul realized he couldn't control his true body at all.
The corpse's true body was of the Immortal realm. Its power was vast beyond measure, far beyond what a mere sliver of soul could handle.
Helpless, the remnant soul withdrew and returned to Yao Shifeng's body. For now, he could only manage a Nascent Soul vessel like this.
"Why did you come back?"
Sensing the remnant soul's return, Yao Shifeng asked curiously. He had assumed the remnant soul, once reunited with its body, would never return. After all, according to his own words, that was his true self.
"Hmph!"
The remnant soul snorted coldly and gave no answer.
At this moment, he was deep in thought. To regain control of his true body, the only way was to strengthen his own soul. Yet increasing soul strength was extremely difficult. Still, he knew many soul-refining arts. With enough souls, he could refine them into Soul Pills to rapidly fill the gap.
And where would these souls come from? Naturally, from harvesting this world. Now that his true body had broken its seal, even without control, its leaking power alone could spawn endless hordes of zombies—enough to sweep through this realm.
Once he gathered the souls of mortals and cultivators alike, he should be able to barely control the body. Then he could move on to other worlds, reaping more souls until he fully recovered.
"Senior, that is…"
Gu Mo, just arriving from the Qinghe Cultivation World, had only stepped into the Tianyuan realm when he caught sight of the towering headless giant in the distance. His heart skipped a beat.
"That Corpse Immortal… it still has a surviving remnant soul. We came too late." The spirit immortal's expression turned grave.
A soulless Corpse Immortal posed little threat. But with even a shred of soul intact, its danger soared sky-high.
Even if the remnant soul couldn't fully wield the body, with just a fraction of its power it would become nearly impossible to seal again.
"Senior, what should we do next?" Gu Mo asked.
"We can only keep weakening the Corpse Immortal's power, then attempt to seal it once more. But when its strength diminishes, the remnant soul may directly seize control of the weakened body. That would be an enormous threat." The spirit immortal frowned. The appearance of this remnant soul had thrown her plans into disarray.
Faced with such a situation, Gu Mo couldn't decide on his own. In the end, he resolved to return to Shennong Valley. Since this concerned the fate of the entire Tianyuan Cultivation World, the cultivators of Tianyuan would have to choose their path together.
"So many zombies!"
On the way to Shennong Valley, Gu Mo saw the mountains and plains crawling with zombies. Most of them weren't particularly strong, but their sheer numbers were staggering.
As he drew closer to Shennong Valley, the number of zombies steadily increased, and stronger ones began to appear as well.
It was clear that the most powerful zombies had gone to besiege the major sects. Among them, Gu Mo even spotted one at the Soul Transformation stage.
Fortunately, Shennong Valley's protective grand array was strong enough. If it had been a Nascent Soul sect instead, they would never have been able to withstand a Soul Transformation–level zombie.
That zombie outside the valley gates didn't just block the disciples inside from leaving, it also prevented Gu Mo from entering.
"Do you want me to step in?" the Celestial Spirit asked.
"No need. Senior, you must conserve your strength for sealing that Corpse Immortal. Leave this to me." Gu Mo shook his head. A mindless Soul Transformation zombie—this was still within his ability to handle. And besides, while these zombies were a threat to others…
To Gu Mo, they were nothing but treasure.
"You two, fall back a bit!"
Gu Mo spoke to Chu Feifei and Ruanruan. This time, only the two of them had accompanied him into the Tianyuan Cultivation Realm. Yuan Niya had remained in the Qinghe Cultivation Realm.
That was because Yuan Niya carried a vital mission: to arrange a super–grand array that would cover the entire Qinghe Cultivation Realm. The array design came from the Celestial Spirit—it was an immortal formation.
However, the formation had been modified. In order to lower the requirements for deployment, its scale was expanded—trading quantity for quality.
Once completed, this formation would completely block zombies from entering the Qinghe Realm. But to build such a massive array required immense manpower and resources.
Fortunately, Qinghe's Qinglu Sect had now firmly established itself as the unchallenged leader of the realm. With Qinglu Sect taking the lead, the array's construction would move forward without issue.
Of course, all of this relied on the Tianyuan Realm being able to hold off the zombie tide and prevent an overflow. If the zombies broke through before the array was finished, they would flood into the Qinghe Realm—then the situation would be dire.
"All right."
Chu Feifei lifted Ruanruan into her arms, a plume of smoke enveloping them both, masking every trace of their life aura. Even with a Soul Transformation zombie nearby, Chu Feifei wasn't worried about Gu Mo—after all, there was still the Celestial Spirit as their ultimate safeguard.
Once Chu Feifei and Ruanruan had withdrawn, Gu Mo charged directly into the zombie tide. Instead of going straight for the Soul Transformation zombie, he locked onto a zombie at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.
Sensing Gu Mo's approach, that zombie roared and lunged at him. But before it got close, a massive purple maw lined with jagged spikes snapped open and swallowed it whole.
It was one of Gu Mo's fourth-tier Big-Mouth Flowers. Little Purple, his fifth-tier one, was still busy slowly digesting the Corpse Immortal's head and wouldn't be able to act for quite some time. So Gu Mo had cultivated a new batch of fourth-tier Big-Mouth Flowers.
Gu Mo could easily handle Nascent Soul–level zombies himself, but feeding them to the Big-Mouth Flowers had added benefits: while digesting zombies, the flowers also released spiritual energy in return.
In Gu Mo's eyes, these zombies were nothing but walking spirit-energy sources. With that headless corpse having broken free of its seal, Gu Mo couldn't yet head to the Demonic Sect to dig up a fifth-tier spirit vein. For now, he could only rely on his Big-Mouth Flowers to devour zombies and use their feedback to enrich his cave-heaven's spirit energy.
A fourth-tier Big-Mouth Flower could completely digest a Nascent Soul zombie within just a few hours, after which it could feed again.
For Golden Core zombies, digestion was almost instant. Every time a Big-Mouth Flower digested a zombie, it released a portion of spirit energy. With so many zombies, how could his cave-heaven's aura not reach fifth-tier?
For this purpose, Gu Mo had spent a huge amount of Solar Essence to cultivate several dozen fourth-tier Big-Mouth Flowers and hundreds of third-tier ones.
He wandered through the zombie horde, feeding almost all the late- and peak-stage Nascent Soul zombies to his Big-Mouth Flowers.
As for the early- and mid-stage ones, he had to leave them be. There were simply too many. And really, if not for the overwhelming numbers of Nascent Soul zombies, they would never have been able to blockade a top-tier sect like Shennong Valley in the first place.
As for that Soul Transformation zombie, Gu Mo kept carefully circling around it. These zombies had no intelligence, and with his aura-suppressing technique concealing his life force, as long as he didn't get too close, it wouldn't notice him.
First, he needed to take care of the Nascent Soul zombies. Later, he would handle the Soul Transformation one. Too bad he hadn't managed to cultivate a second fifth-tier Big-Mouth Flower yet. If he had, even that Soul Transformation zombie would only take a single bite.
"Hm? The number of zombies is dropping!"
Inside Shennong Valley, disciples soon noticed the horde outside thinning. A Nascent Soul elder immediately stepped out to investigate.
By coincidence, it was Qi Chunde. With his many tricks and unmatched survival skills, he was naturally chosen for the task.
"You brat, when did you come back?"
Qi Chunde slipped past the Soul Transformation zombie outside the grand array and spotted Gu Mo in the distance, harvesting zombies with reckless abandon.
"Just arrived!"
Gu Mo waved at him, motioning for Qi Chunde to lure some zombies his way. His third-tier Big-Mouth Flowers were still hungry.
"So this is your new man-eating plant?"
Qi Chunde's gaze fell on the purple plants snapping up zombies in a single gulp. He immediately thought of the man-eating flowers some spirit-planters cultivated for battle.
"Something like that."
Gu Mo nodded. Indeed, the Big-Mouth Flowers were somewhat similar, but their abilities were on an entirely different level.
"What a terrifying digestion speed!"
Since all his third-tier Big-Mouth Flowers were top-grade, they could completely digest Golden Core zombies in moments before snapping up more.
After swallowing enough prey, the Big-Mouth Flowers could even evolve to a higher tier. This was the only plant he had ever seen that didn't require a cultivation pot to upgrade.
But Gu Mo still preferred to upgrade them with cultivation pots, maximizing the spirit energy they fed back to him instead of letting them absorb it themselves.
With more spirit energy in his cave-heaven, his Solar Flowers would produce more Solar Essence. Then he could use that essence to upgrade the Big-Mouth Flowers far faster than letting them evolve by eating.
Ultimately, Gu Mo's goal was to raise his cave-heaven's aura to fifth-tier. Just one portion of fifth-tier Solar Essence per day was nowhere near enough.
As the zombie numbers dwindled, the Soul Transformation zombie finally took notice. Though mindless, it still had instincts—like hunger for living beings and dependence on deathly energy.
The thinning horde lowered the deathly aura in the area, naturally drawing the Soul Transformation zombie's attention.
"At last—the main course has arrived."
Gu Mo's eyes locked onto the distant Soul Transformation zombie. His heart stirred with anticipation.
A fourth-tier Big-Mouth Flower couldn't swallow a Soul Transformation zombie outright. But if he could cripple it, reduce its strength down to Nascent Soul level… then his flowers should be able to devour it.
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