Within the Forsaken Immortal Pit, ten thousand ghosts wailed in unison.
The black-furred giant hand protruding from the earth possessed fingers like hooks, each nail shimmering with an eerie green phosphorous light. As the hand exerted its strength, the mountain of bones began to collapse. Countless broken blades took flight, filling the air with the ear-piercing screech of metal grinding against jade.
"The Lu Ancestor?" Hua Sui let out a cold snort. He placed the unconscious 4402 behind a barricade of white bones and slammed his right foot into the ground. "Since you've died once already, start acting like a corpse!"
The "Empyrean True Fire" he had recently devoured had not yet fully settled. Now, fueled by his rage, it surged through his meridians and erupted from his body, forming a circular wave of dark-red flame that swept away the stench of decay within a ten-foot radius.
"Jie-jie... 9527, you are still too young." The aged voice echoed through the deep pit, causing the bone mountain to tremble. "That brat from the Lu family was merely a 'Blood Seed' I planted ten thousand years ago. By killing him, you've released my divine soul which had been imprisoned for an eternity. In fact, I should thank this 'Inverse Vein' body of yours. Without your rebellious Qi clashing against the seal, the gates to this 'Gods' Graveyard' would never have opened!"
BOOM—!
A thunderous roar erupted from deep underground. The pitch-black wooden tablet in Hua Sui's hand vibrated violently, and the patterns on its surface began to seep dark-red blood.
Hua Sui looked down. Three vigorous yet desolate characters emerged on the tablet:
"The God-Burying Tablet."
This was no mere wooden plaque; it was a fragment of a boundary stone brought down from the "High Realm" by the founder of the Scarlet Cloud Sect during his fall!
"The karma of ten thousand years ends today. I will be the one to sever it!"
Hua Sui did not retreat. Instead, he gripped the God-Burying Tablet with both hands, treating it like a massive slab-like greatsword, and swung it with devastating force toward the black-furred giant hand.
There were no fancy sword techniques—only the extreme brute force of a mortal body and the violent output of Inverse Vein True Qi.
"Inverse Path: Severing Causality!"
A grey sword-light burst from the edge of the tablet, colliding with the black-furred hand. In an instant, a terrifying shockwave swept through the area. The surrounding white bones were pulverized into dust, creating a ghastly pale bone-storm.
The giant hand was sliced open, revealing a wound deep enough to see the bone. However, what flowed out was not red blood, but a thick, ink-like black mist.
"Argh—! The God-Burying Tablet! That old ghost still hasn't given up!" The voice from below turned from arrogant to panicked and furious. "You are just a piece of medicinal dross who hasn't even reached the Qi Refining stage! How can you activate a Boundary Tablet?!"
"Because in this body of mine, not a single bone grew according to your will!"
Hua Sui was bathed in fire. He felt the God-Burying Tablet greedily draining his life force. His silver hair grew brittle at a visible speed, and his skin began to wither, but the madness in his eyes only burned brighter.
At that moment, the corpse of 0911 sitting at the summit began to emit a faint light.
It wasn't spiritual energy. It was the "Refined Will" forged from a lifetime of striking iron at the anvil.
"Brother... take the sword."
An illusory voice whispered in Hua Sui's ear.
The bone mountain beneath 0911 split open. A sword, glowing crimson as if freshly pulled from the forge, rose from the depths. It had no crossguard, no decorations, and even bore several visible hammer marks, but the moment it appeared, the vengeful spirits of the Forsaken Immortal Pit fell deathly silent.
This was the "Life-Severing Sword."
Using his heart's blood and the marrow of his bones, 0911 had forged one last weapon for Hua Sui in the depths of this despair—a blade capable of cutting the throats of the gods.
Hua Sui grabbed the Life-Severing Sword with his left hand and gripped the God-Burying Tablet with his right. He transformed into a streak of red and grey light, crashing directly into the rift opened in the giant hand and plunging into the dark abyss below.
Below the earth, the scene was horrifying.
Countless stone statues, each a hundred feet tall, were bound to the rock walls by thick chains. Stone pillars were driven into their chests, siphoning the remaining essence from their forms. At the center of the altar, a half-man, half-beast monstrosity struggled wildly. One of its hands had been maimed by Hua Sui, and it was currently using the other to try and close the rift leading to the "High Realm."
"9527! If you take one more step, the thousands of divine remnant souls in this graveyard will vanish forever because of you! You are committing deicide!" the monster roared.
"The gods are rotten. The era of man is here!"
Hua Sui merged with his weapons. The God-Burying Tablet on the left, the Life-Severing Sword on the right.
"Finishing Move: Mortal Instant!"
He took the final step through the air.
In that instant, time seemed to stand still.
Hua Sui remembered the screams in the Pill-Pits, the final hammer strike of 0911, and the look in his mother's eyes when she sent him away. All the pain, the resentment, and the rage condensed into this single strike.
The crimson tip of the sword pierced the monster's brow; the pitch-black boundary tablet crushed the foundation of the altar.
CRACK—!
The monster's head split open. A golden divine soul attempted to flee, only to be ground into nothingness by the "Refined Will" attached to the Life-Severing Sword.
"No... I refuse... ten thousand years of planning..."
The monster's remains dissolved into countless black specks. The underground space began to shake violently, and the chains binding the stone statues snapped one by one.
Hua Sui spat out a mouthful of blood, his body falling like a kite with a broken string.
Just as he was about to plummet into the endless abyss, a cool hand caught his collar.
It was 4402.
The clarity had returned to her eyes, though they were filled with an indescribable complexity. "9527... you really did it. You broke the door open."
As the altar collapsed, a passage appeared before them—one that led neither to the world of men nor the Celestial Realm. It was a grey void, vast and filled with the unknown.
"Let's go," Hua Sui's voice was hoarse.
He knew that he had only killed a gatekeeper. The true "Gods" might be sitting on the other side, waiting for this rebel who had trespassed into the forbidden lands.
The Perimeter of the Gods' Graveyard.
Hua Sui leaned on his broken sword, standing on a grey wasteland. There was no sun here, only countless dim stars suspended in the sky.
Each star represented a fallen civilization.
4402 stood behind him, whispering, "Hua Sui... a new line of text has appeared on the God-Burying Tablet."
Hua Sui turned over the pitch-black wooden tablet. Below the three large characters for "God-Burying Tablet," a new line of small, vermillion text had emerged:
"The Undertaker: Hua Sui."
Hua Sui froze for a moment, then burst into a roar of laughter.
"The Undertaker? I see... if the buddhas and gods of the heavens refuse to age with dignity, then I, Hua Sui, shall be the one to see them into the earth!"