As soon as these words were spoken, not only was Yin Wudao stunned, but even Cangming and Tuoba Feng on the side were shaken.
Surpassing the Golden Buddha?
If anyone else had said this, they would have surely sneered, considering the speaker a madman who didn't know the heights of heaven and depths of the earth.
But coming from the mouth of this unfathomable Dragon Ancestor, they had no choice but to believe it.
Yin Wudao's expression flickered between light and dark as he stared fixedly at Chen Zhou, his mind racing.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind like a bolt of lightning.
"Could it be..." Yin Wudao's eyes widened. "Could it be that he is like me?!"
He was referring to his own special identity, no longer a pure human, but an existence caught between human and god.
He believed the reason Chen Zhou could ignore the Golden Buddha’s rules was surely because that paper-clothed sword cultivator was unique in himself.
In this world, there were indeed some special existences that could transcend heaven and earth.
"The same?"
Hearing this, Chen Zhou shook his head.
"No, it is not the same."
"You are merely a half-baked amateur."
"He is much stronger than you."
Jian Huaishuang was not a living person; he was an evil spirit.
Evil spirits were, by nature, immortal and indestructible existences.
As long as there was enough death qi and origin to support them, an evil spirit could recover infinitely.
Jian Huaishuang's Ghost General contract had bound his origin to Chen Zhou through the system building, the General-Summoning Platform.
The General-Summoning Platform and Chen Zhou's main Altar were both situated within the City of the Wrongfully Dead. Because of the various auspices and the blessing of the Gathering Fortune Pavilion, the city’s spiritual rhythm was dense, far beyond what the outside world could compare to.
This made the life force exceptionally thick, combined with the life-death transformation of the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm.
As long as life force was unceasing, death qi would never run out. Under the infusion of his massive quantities of death qi, the speed of an evil spirit's recovery after death would only be faster.
A mere Golden Buddha... how was it worthy of judging his Ghost General?
Chen Zhou had long discovered that even among rules, there was a distinction in priority.
The sacrifice rules bestowed by the system had the highest priority.
So far, he had never encountered anything that could resist sacrifice. Even an immortal and indestructible evil spirit would be completely decomposed once dragged into the Altar.
And the rules of an evil spirit, in turn, were above those of the Golden Buddha.
Chen Zhou noticed that the brand placed on Jian Huaishuang had already dissipated because he had died once. In other words, the Golden Buddha was powerless against evil spirits.
This was good news.
Yin Wudao’s expression changed drastically as a terrifying thought surfaced in his mind.
Could it be... that the Lord of Two Domains, like him, had also received the favor—or even the inheritance—of some True God?
No, that wasn't right.
If there were a True God standing behind him, it would be impossible for the Golden Buddha’s rules to be ineffective against him.
Gods were the rules of heaven and earth, representing the order of the world.
Those who followed gods derived their power from heaven and earth; how could they use those rules to oppose heaven and earth itself?
Unless...
Yin Wudao suddenly remembered the black smoke that occasionally rose from Chen Zhou and his composed demeanor under the golden light.
An even more absurd guess emerged.
"You... could you have already..."
Chen Zhou interrupted him.
"Stop guessing."
"This Deity is different from all of you."
"Different?"
"So that's how it is..."
Yin Wudao muttered to himself.
He suddenly began to laugh, his laughter growing louder and more frenzied.
"Good, a fine 'different' indeed!"
"I thought I was the only one in this world who had touched the stairway to godhood. I didn't expect... that you would be hiding even deeper than I!"
Chen Zhou remained expressionless.
"Knowing now is not too late."
As he spoke, Jian Huaishuang, who had just finished reforming his body, seemed to receive a command. The death qi he had kept restrained through the Hidden Sword technique finally erupted.
Three surges of death qi clashed atop the Star-Picking Platform.
Paper snow began to fall from the sky.
The fluttering white paper snow mixed with the golden light filling the air, appearing exceptionally jarring.
Every flake of paper snow that fell would strip the life force from an area, assimilating everything it touched into pale paper.
"Damn it!"
Yin Wudao felt the pressure multiply.
Under the pincer attack of the two surges of death qi, his wall of myriad ghosts began to show cracks. Countless malevolent ghosts shrieked in despair before being annihilated by the death qi.
With his hands behind his back, Chen Zhou strolled through the storm of death qi as if taking a leisurely walk, closing in on Yin Wudao step by step.
His Domain of Defiled Earth was incredibly dominant, continuously compressing Yin Wudao's space to survive.
"How is it, Prince?"
Chen Zhou looked down at the grim-faced Yin Wudao and said indifferently.
"The current situation seems a bit different from what you envisioned."
"As long as I eliminate you, there will be no suspense as to who the final victor is."
"When the Golden Buddha descends to the world, This Deity will naturally enjoy it in your stead."
Yin Wudao’s face turned ashen. He never expected that after all his meticulous planning, he would be backed into such a corner.
However, he wasn't in a hurry. He was now even more convinced that Chen Zhou, like him, was striving for godhood.
Furthermore, the other man had gone further and more thoroughly than he had.
But it didn't matter; he still had a trump card.
Yin Wudao suddenly calmed down, knowing he couldn't delay any longer.
A ruthless glint appeared in his eyes, and a gentle curve hooked at the corner of his mouth.
"Since you insist on seeking death, then do not blame me for being impolite."
"Did you truly think I only had these few tricks?"
Yin Wudao suddenly raised his hand, curling his fingers into a claw, and thrust them violently into his left eye socket.
Splat—
Blood sprayed.
He forcibly gouged out an eyeball trailing bloody veins.
The eyeball did not lose its vitality after leaving his body; instead, it throbbed slightly in his palm, the pupil reflecting Yin Wudao's composed smile.
"With my eye, I call thy true name."
Yin Wudao suddenly spread his arms and roared toward the heavens.
"Underworld... Open!!"
The sinful karma within him burned to the limit in an instant, enveloping his entire being in a mass of black light as thick as ink.
Rumble—!!
An earth-shattering roar echoed from deep underground.
The entire imperial city, and even the lands of the provincial capital, trembled violently at this moment.
The Star-Picking Platform began to sway, the ground cracked, and countless palace buildings collapsed amidst the tremors, kicking up clouds of dust.
"What's happening? Is it an earthquake?!"
Cangming gripped the railing in a panic, his face turning pale as he watched the imperial palace below instantly turn into ruins.
Tuoba Feng’s expression was also grave; he keenly sensed something was reviving beneath the ground.
Crack! Crack!
Giant fissures tore open the ground of the imperial city, and thick ghost qi geysered up from the depths, shooting straight into the clouds.
Immediately after, pale arms reached out from the cracks.
Malevolent ghosts.
Countless malevolent ghosts.
They struggled and roared as they crawled out from the depths of hell, instantly filling the entire imperial palace.
And mixed among the malevolent ghosts were even more eerie existences.
They were pitch-black, their skin covered in irregular spots. Their movements were slow and stiff, but the aura they radiated was far more dangerous than that of the malevolent ghosts.
Chen Zhou frowned. He hadn't expected Yin Wudao to be so insane as to use the hell of the provincial capital as his trump card.
The release of evil ghosts and black-spot monsters that had been imprisoned for untold years would be a catastrophe for the entire Gloomlight Province.
His gaze turned cold, and with a casual wave, a bone spear shot like a bolt of lightning toward the space between Yin Wudao's eyebrows.
Rate on N.U.
