"Attack!" Chen Zhou commanded indifferently.
In the next second, two torrents of white bone collided violently.
The ghost servants had not been out to stretch their limbs for a long time; after being suppressed for so long, they turned the battle into a one-sided slaughter.
The bone monsters emerging from the bone pillar were numerous, but they were essentially only at the fourth or fifth stage.
They were nothing special, with crude combat techniques and no souls, knowing only how to charge mindlessly.
Their strength was mediocre, perhaps even weak compared to others of the same stage; they only relied on their numbers to intimidate.
Chen Zhou's skeleton ghost servants formed a battle array, wielding bone shields and bone blades like a bulldozer, crushing the bone monsters before them into powder.
Chen Zhou didn't even lift a finger, simply standing in place with his hands behind his back, watching his subordinates work like an overseer.
"Too weak."
Chen Zhou shook his head.
If this was the Golden Buddha's trial, it was far too trivial.
As the last bone monster fell, transforming into white qi and returning to the bone pillar, the pillar vibrated once more, splitting open a gap large enough for one person to pass through.
A rule was transmitted once again: Enter.
After waiting for another fifteen minutes without any further developments, Chen Zhou led his bone legion and marched grandly into the rift.
Light and shadow shifted.
Chen Zhou arrived in the second space.
It was a similar scene with similar rules.
Still that same word: Kill.
The bone pillar erupted with monsters again.
This time, the level of the bone monsters was higher, reaching the peak of the fifth stage, with a few sixth-stage early-phase elite monsters mixed in.
However, their numbers were significantly fewer.
"Still not enough to look at."
Chen Zhou still had no intention of intervening.
To him and his legion now, the fifth and sixth stages were no different from the previous cannon fodder.
He didn't even need to command personally; the ghost servants could handle it themselves.
While his subordinates cleared the monsters, Chen Zhou began to review the entire situation in his mind.
He thought back to the previous Grave-keeper.
The Western Region Coffin-Carrier had a mysterious origin and formidable strength.
The Western Region was a land of death, and Chen Zhou had previously speculated that it was the source of the underground black spots.
The Eastern Region, being at the furthest downstream point, was already troubled enough that the low-level Sea Race had been forced to migrate their entire race. If it wasn't resolved in a few hundred years, the Eastern Region would likely face extinction.
As for the Central Province in the midstream—the nest of Yin Wudao—they were quite clever.
He had built a hell underground, using the dragon vein and arrays to lock all the malevolent ghosts inside.
Whenever the black spots formed monsters, they would fight the malevolent ghosts in hell.
To the provincial capital, ghosts were merely consumables.
They had far too many useful and obedient strawman malevolent ghosts.
The distorted laws encouraged wrongdoing to manufacture sinful karma, which they then harvested. Even after harvesting, the malevolent ghosts weren't wasted; they could be banished to hell as consumables to fight the black spot monsters in a dog-eat-dog struggle.
By utilizing this balance, they could barely maintain stability and prosperity on the surface.
Even Chen Zhou had to admit that this circulatory system, while cruel and disgusting, was indeed effective.
It was the absolute pinnacle of the principle he had always believed in: sustainable depletion.
And as for the Western Region, the source...
The black spots there would likely be even more severe.
Chen Zhou speculated: the Western Region had been closed off for years, known as a forbidden zone for living beings that avoided contact with the outside world. Could this also be related to the black spots?
That Coffin-Carrier, carrying such a massive coffin—was he suppressing something, or looking for something?
As he pondered, the sounds of battle before him subsided.
Chen Zhou looked up.
The ghost servants had swept through the battlefield like dead leaves in the wind, already finishing the cleanup.
Chen Zhou nodded, set aside his thoughts, and stepped into the passage opened by the bone pillar.
The third space was smaller.
Furthermore, this time, the bone pillar did not release any more monsters.
Producing sixth-stage monsters that hadn't undergone eerification seemed to be its limit.
The rule coming from the bone pillar changed.
Wait.
"Wait?"
Chen Zhou frowned slightly.
Wait for what? The next wave of monsters? Or for other people?
Chen Zhou waved his hand to have the ghost servants form a defensive array while he sat cross-legged, waiting patiently.
The rules of this space were very peculiar.
It was extremely clean, devoid of both spiritual energy and death qi. Even the previous bone monsters had lacked the aura typical of living beings or dead souls.
After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
Buzz—
The bone pillar finally moved again.
A gap split open, and a staggering figure emerged from within.
It was a sixth-stage second-transformation demon.
Its body was covered in black fur, resembling a mutated black bear spirit, but it currently looked miserable.
It was one of the many demons from the Star-Picking Platform earlier.
Chen Zhou had some memory of him because he carried heavy sinful karma and had appeared very composed under the golden light, even arrogantly mocking his agonized colleagues at the time.
Now, this demon was panting heavily, covered in wounds. One arm was severed and dripping with blood; he had clearly survived a bitter struggle in the previous stage.
As soon as he stepped out, before he could even see his surroundings clearly, he spat out a curse.
"Dammit, what kind of trash trial is this? It almost cost me my life!"
Then, he looked up and saw Chen Zhou sitting not far away, completely unharmed.
And behind Chen Zhou was that neat, murderous white bone legion.
The demon froze.
Then he trembled all over, as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head.
He had run into the God of Slaughter already?
Though he looked fierce on the outside, he knew that this person was the Lord of Two Domains, referred to as the Exalted Saint. Even a ruthless character like Yin Wudao had to show him great respect.
Especially those calm, rippleless eyes that looked at him as if he were a dead pig.
The demon panicked and scrambled to force a smile that looked worse than crying, shouting loudly:
"Exalted Saint! I'm one of yours, one of yours!"
"You might not remember me, but I'm also a member of the Golden Buddha Alliance that His Highness the Prince brought together!"
"I'm from Yellow Mud Village..."
Puchi—!
Before he could finish, a thick bone spear instantly transfixed the demon's chest.
Chen Zhou slowly withdrew his hand, his expression blank.
Because the moment this demon appeared, he felt the rules within the bone pillar change.
That word 'Wait' had instantly transformed into two blood-red words.
Kill. Surrender.
It meant he had to either kill him or make him surrender.
But Chen Zhou was too lazy to waste words.
A demon like this, covered in sinful karma and possessing no utility value, was just a waste of air.
"Ah...!"
The demon's eyes bulged, looking at the bloody hole in his chest in disbelief. He hadn't expected Chen Zhou to be so decisive, not even giving him a chance to beg for mercy.
"Surrender... I surrender..."
He tried to use his last breath to shout that word.
But Chen Zhou's bone spear carried Withering Venom and the defense-ignoring Hatred Fire, instantly corroding and incinerating his life force.
The demon's body twitched violently before transforming into a thick cloud of black smoke, which was then sucked into the bone pillar.
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