Outside the gates of Haoran Prefecture’s main city, Lu Xuan and Mu Yun stood firmly atop the void.
At this moment, the main city was tightly encased in a thick, ink-like white mist.
This white mist continuously radiated a bone-chilling cold that seemed as if it could condense into frost at any moment.
Shrouded in this piercingly cold, frosty white fog, even martial artists with exceptional eyesight struggled to see through the dense white vapor and make out the scene within the city.
Mu Yun, clad in a striking red Mysterious Bird uniform that blazed like living flames, had his hands casually clasped behind his back as he floated gracefully beside Lu Xuan.
Yet his face was etched with gravity, his eyes betraying a rare trace of worry.
It had been a long time since he had encountered such formidable yin energy—the last time he faced a Catastrophe-class anomaly was over a century ago.
Back then, the late Emperor was still alive, and Mu Yun himself had only been an Earth-grade Mysterious Bird Guard!
“Such dense yin energy!”
Mu Yun muttered to himself, his voice tinged with barely concealed alarm.
Beside him, a faint layer of purple radiance began to emanate from Lu Xuan’s body, its soft glow rippling outward like water waves.
The ripples spread through the surrounding space along Lu Xuan’s form.
Then, the Primordial Spirit power within Lu Xuan’s Divine Mansion surged like an awakened torrent, flowing wildly through his body.
Every inch of flesh on Lu Xuan’s surface shimmered like a river of light, radiating profound golden gleams.
Finally, a concentrated and pure strand of Primordial Spirit energy shot forth from his Divine Mansion, rushing swiftly into the Floating Realm that hung before his chest.
In an instant, the void before Lu Xuan seemed to be torn open by an invisible hand, splitting apart.
Then, a massive dark-colored blade materialized, hovering silently before him.
At the sight, Lu Xuan slowly raised his right hand—a deliberate motion, yet brimming with absolute confidence.
In the next moment, his five fingers clenched sharply in the air, and the Netherflame Dark Saber shot toward him with a sharp, piercing momentum, landing solidly in his palm.
The moment the blade fell into his grasp, the mystical patterns on its surface burst forth with dazzling dark light.
Feeling the primordial source power within the Netherflame Dark Saber, Lu Xuan did not rush to act.
Instead, he narrowed his eyes slightly, a glint of deep thought flashing through them. Then, he slowly turned his head and fixed his gaze on Mu Yun beside him.
“Let’s go, Commander Mu.”
Lu Xuan’s primary objective in coming to Haoran Prefecture’s main city was not to directly confront and eliminate this Catastrophe-class anomaly.
Rather, it was to have Mu Yun accompany him into the city to verify the true nature of this eerie presence.
Besides, he still couldn’t tell whether the city’s inhabitants were alive or dead.
If not for these two reasons, given Lu Xuan’s temperament, he would have long since unleashed his full-powered Burning Heaven Saber Technique from outside the city and razed the entire place to the ground!
Why would he waste precious time at such a critical juncture, risking his own safety by entering the ghost realm within the city to hunt down a hidden Catastrophe-class anomaly?
At his current level, with the Seven-Pattern Moon Artifact—the Netherflame Dark Saber—and the fifth-layer Burning Heaven Saber Technique, Lu Xuan could effortlessly unleash power equivalent to the consummate stage of the Divine Mansion realm.
As long as this Catastrophe-class anomaly’s strength did not exceed the consummate Divine Mansion stage, dispatching it would be a matter of just a few strikes.
In the blink of an eye, Lu Xuan and Mu Yun were both enveloped by an invisible force—a shield as unbreakable as solid armor that protected them tightly.
Then, Lu Xuan shot forward, leading the way as he slammed headlong into the overwhelming, sky-blanketing white yin energy.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Mu Yun followed closely behind, crashing straight into the frigid white mist as well.
“Boom!”
With a dull, thunderous impact, the yin energy that shrouded the entire main city was violently torn open.
Lu Xuan and Mu Yun streaked like lightning through the gap, landing firmly within the city walls.
The moment his feet touched the ground, Lu Xuan was met by a wave of decay, gloom, and bitter cold surging toward him.
Everywhere he looked, the city’s streets lay empty and deathly still.
The buildings around them were crumbling and dilapidated under the erosion of the yin energy—tiles had fallen away, and plaster was peeling off the walls.
It was as if the city had been forgotten by time itself, leaving behind only endless desolation and eerie strangeness.
Taking in the dead, silent scene before him, Lu Xuan’s eyes suddenly burst forth with dazzling light.
The thick purple radiance that erupted from his pupils gushed out like a breached flood—unstoppable and fierce.
And intertwined within this brilliantly intense purple glow was an overwhelmingly scorching aura.
This terrifying, searing heat spread from Lu Xuan’s body with the speed of a prairie fire, surging outward in an instant.
In that moment, boundless purple light swept across Haoran Prefecture’s main city.
The purple radiance was so blinding that it was nearly impossible to look at directly—like a massive sun slowly rising and burning in the sky.
What terrifying power!
“So this is Commander Lu’s strength?” Mu Yun marveled inwardly, his eyes wide with shock.
A power rivaling that of a Primordial Spirit cultivator!
Staring at the churning purple light around Lu Xuan, disbelief was written all over his face.
“Such terrifying power!”
Though Lu Xuan hadn’t moved an inch, the sheer force radiating from him made Mu Yun’s breath catch in his throat.
His body even trembled slightly under the immense pressure.
Instinctively, Mu Yun tightened his grip on the Green Nether Sword, trying to steady himself.
But his hand was still shaking—he simply couldn’t calm the storm within.
While Mu Yun was still in shock, the purple light released by Lu Xuan illuminated every dead, lifeless thing in its path.
What Mu Yun didn’t realize was that within this sky-churning sea of purple radiance was also Lu Xuan’s terrifying Primordial Spirit power.
The very next moment, Lu Xuan’s blazing and oppressive Primordial Spirit energy spread like an invisible yet resilient net.
With astonishing speed, it extended across the entire city, covering it completely.
At this critical instant, from every corner of the city—as if an invisible hand had simultaneously seized their lifeblood—piercing shrieks erupted in all directions.
The screams were ear-splitting and sharp, like the wails of wronged souls from the deepest abyss, burrowing straight into one’s eardrums and making one’s scalp tingle.
Under Lu Xuan’s gaze, those previously empty, lifeless houses suddenly, as if possessed by some sinister magic, erupted with countless shadowy black figures.
These ink-black silhouettes moved with incredible speed, in the blink of an eye filling the space all around.
Looking closely, each shadow’s face bore a truly bizarre expression.
It was a tableau of all human emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness—appearing and vanishing in chaotic succession.
Compared to Lu Xuan’s calm composure, Mu Yun’s reaction was worlds apart.
His pupils seemed frozen in place, as if nailed down by the sudden, eerie spectacle before him—his gaze hollow and lifeless.
The vital energy that had been circulating within Mu Yun now seemed to hit an invisible dam, gradually slowing until it came to a complete halt.
His body trembled faintly, as though gripped by an intangible force.
He could neither move an inch nor snap himself out of this spine-chilling scene.
“Hm?”
Lu Xuan suddenly turned around, his eyes fixed on Mu Yun, instantly detecting his abnormal state.
Without the slightest hesitation, a strand of concentrated Primordial Spirit power shot from Lu Xuan’s fingertip.
Like an unstoppable arrow of light, it drove straight toward Mu Yun and surged into his body through his chest.
“So this is the netherworld power of the ghost realm?”
Lu Xuan’s strand of Primordial Spirit energy, now inside Mu Yun, felt as though it had stepped into an icy world.
Mu Yun’s body was tightly blocked by a layer of eerie, cold black energy—so dense that not even a crack of light could pass through.
At first glance, it looked like black air currents. But under Lu Xuan’s keen perception, that bone-chilling black flow had the consistency of viscous, flowing liquid.
This black fluid writhed slowly through Mu Yun’s body in a most grotesque manner.
Sometimes it coiled down along his arms; other times, it gathered and churned at his chest.
As if alive, it continuously shifted shape, each movement radiating a dread-inducing aura that chilled every inch of Mu Yun’s flesh.
Even more shocking to Lu Xuan was the sight of Mu Yun’s internal energy—originally blazing like a roaring fire—now on the verge of freezing into ice crystals under the corrosion of this netherworld force.
And Mu Yun was no ordinary Outer Gang Grandmaster—his internal energy contained a trace of divine consciousness power.
That placed him at the half-step Divine Mansion realm.
Yet within this bizarre ghost realm, a martial artist of his caliber had been infiltrated by netherworld power at first contact.
In the blink of an eye, Lu Xuan’s overwhelming Primordial Spirit power surged like an unstoppable ocean of flames through Mu Yun’s body, rampaging unopposed.
Wherever Lu Xuan’s Primordial Spirit energy passed, that sinister, eerie netherworld power dissipated like snow under the scorching sun.
In mere moments, the netherworld force that had filled Mu Yun’s body was completely annihilated by Lu Xuan’s Primordial Spirit power—wiped out without a trace, leaving not a single remnant.
Having purged the netherworld power from Mu Yun, Lu Xuan caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye of the countless black shadowy figures surging toward them from all directions.
These grotesque phantoms flailed wildly, radiating a chilling, bone-deep coldness as if they meant to devour Lu Xuan and Mu Yun both.
For an ordinary martial artist, facing this overwhelming, seemingly endless tide of black phantoms would make them feel as small as ants.
In the face of such overwhelming odds, most people would have every thought of resistance crushed in an instant, leaving behind only despair and terror.
But Lu Xuan was completely different. His eyes locked onto those surging shadows, and a faint, barely contained excitement and thrill crept across his calm face.
In Lu Xuan’s eyes, these countless phantoms were no deadly threat—they were piles and piles of system points!
As long as he annihilated them one by one, he would reap a massive harvest of system points.
Suddenly, Lu Xuan’s aura skyrocketed. The muscles in his right hand, gripping the Netherflame Dark Saber, tensed and bulged with veins.
Then, he swept the blade in a wide arc toward his surroundings and bellowed: “Burning Heaven!”
Instantly, the blade of the Netherflame Dark Saber erupted with profound, dark netherflames.
These flames were thick as ink, carrying boundless searing heat, rolling and churning with the force of an avalanche.
Then, a purple flame of extreme temperature quietly appeared on the blade as well.
The purple fire danced nimbly, swiftly intertwining with the dark netherflame.
The two distinct flames wrapped around and fused together, transforming into a magnificent, awe-inspiring black-purple fire dragon.
The black-purple fire dragon first coiled around Lu Xuan and Mu Yun, spiraling and shielding them securely within its protective embrace.
Then, it let out a roar that shook the heavens, charging with unparalleled momentum toward the overwhelming tide of black phantoms.
The instant it neared the phantoms, the black-purple dragon exploded outward, transforming into a towering tsunami of black-purple flame.
Wherever the black-purple flame wave passed, the air ignited instantly, crackling and hissing, and everything in its path was incinerated into nothingness by its unstoppable might.
The endless black phantoms let out agonizing shrieks within that terrifying sea of fire.
Within moments, they were scattering and dissipating, turning into wisps of smoke that vanished beneath the black-purple flames that painted the heavens and earth red.
In just over a dozen breaths, that overwhelming, countless tide of black phantoms seemed to gain a sliver of awareness.
As if sensing impending doom, they fled in panic away from that terrifying sea of black-purple fire.
Then, those phantoms that had managed to escape the flames seemed pulled by some invisible force, soaring upward into the sky.
They gathered with lightning speed, merging and coalescing into one.
In the blink of an eye, a massive, immense face materialized in the sky—so vast it covered nearly half the city.
The face was flawless, exquisitely beautiful, yet its skin was pale as snow, utterly devoid of color.
Clearly, it was a woman’s face—regular features that somehow radiated an inexplicable eeriness.
Her cold, empty eyes stared down at the world below, as if she meant to draw all existence into infinite stillness and silence.
Lu Xuan paid her no heed. Instead, he quickly turned his attention to the system panel deep within his mind.
Host: Lu Xuan
Realm: Divine Mansion Primordial Spirit (Great Completion)
Cultivation Methods: Burning Heaven Saber Technique 5/9, Horizon’s Reach 2/9, Indestructible Immortality 4/9 (Upgradable)
Points: 77,660
Host, please confirm: Do you wish to consume 50,000 system points to upgrade Indestructible Immortality?
A surge of joy filled Lu Xuan’s heart—he hadn’t expected that a single casual strike had earned him 30,000 system points.
Good heavens!
That was equivalent to the points he’d gain from refining a top-grade heavenly treasure.
While Lu Xuan was reviewing his system points, Mu Yun suddenly cried out in alarm!
“Commander Lu!”
Then, Mu Yun urgently shouted: “That woman up there—she’s not Princess Xingyue!”
“She’s the personal handmaiden the late Emperor bestowed upon Princess Xingyue!”
Mu Yun was no simple man—he fully understood the horrifying implications behind this.
If Princess Xingyue’s personal handmaiden was dead, that meant Princess Xingyue was in grave danger!
