As the giant Graveyard Spirit’s hand descended, it seemed to blot out the sun. At the same time, Shi Kaihuang, Chu Yingwan, Lin Shaoxuan, Cheng Tianhai, and the others all sprang into action. Their attacks collided with the giant hand, but the hand inexorably continued to advance as if nothing had happened to it.

As the hand continued to descend, Li Chongshan took action as well. A vigorous wave of energy collided with the giant hand, but the giant hand only paused momentarily before continuing its descent.

Even a Thought Manifestation Realm cultivator wasn’t capable of stopping this overbearing palm strike.

But at that moment, Su Chen struck out with his sword.

The Lightless Blade unleashed a Dimensional Slash.

Before the others had time to even react, a bloody line appeared on the giant hand before its skin burst open.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The giant Graveyard Spirit below the ground bellowed angrily, causing the earth and heavens to tremble as its giant hand retracted.

A bloody river spewed through the sky.

The other half of its hand began to separate and fall off, but before it could hit the ground, the giant Graveyard Spirit snatched it out of the air and actually devoured it. A nauseating, bloody stench filled the air. At the same time, the hand that it had just lost grew back without a sign of damage.

“Everyone, be careful. This creature has a very robust vitality. It probably won’t be easy to kill,” Su Chen warned.

He had a wealth of experience at this point, and was able to immediately identify the giant Graveyard Spirit’s specialties and strengths.

Even though Su Chen was no easy prey himself, no cultivator could constantly regenerate their body parts through self-cannibalism, which this creature could do.

“Leave it to me!” Intense flames began to orbit Gu Qingluo’s hands. “Let’s see if this abomination can survive the power of my Shining Dragon’s flames.”

As she spoke, she hurled a white fireball at the ground below her.

This fireball appeared simple on the surface, but when it splashed against the giant Graveyard Spirit’s body, its flames seemed to burrow into the creature’s body into its bone marrow, making them impossible to put out. The Graveyard Spirit roared and howled in pain repeatedly.

Su Chen’s Dimensional Slash was capable of cutting through even the toughest surface, but Gu Qingluo’s Shining Dragon flames were even more destructive than that.

Her flames burned on and on until they were finally extinguished.

An instant later, however, the huge Graveyard Spirit grabbed the creatures around it and threw them into its mouth, recovering from its grievous wounds yet again.

Not only that, but it also tilted its head back and exhaled a cloud of diseased air, which was tinged a sickly green color.

In fact, all of the other Graveyard Spirits within the city did the same.

In the blink of an eye, the sky was filled with this sickly faint green disease cloud. Shockingly, these disease clouds were actually groups of innumerable tiny bugs swarming about.

“Careful! Those are Pestilence Bugs!” Su Chen cautioned.

Pestilence Bugs were related to Catastrophe Bugs. Their ability to cause destruction was no less than that of the Catastrophe Bugs, but they weren’t nearly as physically resistant. Their entire life purpose could be condensed down to spreading diseases and plagues. Even high tier Origin Qi Scholars would have a hard time resisting the vile pestilent properties of their plague.

The Boundless Sect’s cultivators all sprang into action when they saw the swarms of Pestilence Bugs closing in on them, unleashing countless streaks of lightning.

Lightning-type attacks were exceptionally effective against poisonous bugs, which was why the Boundless Sect’s disciples had almost unanimously chosen to launch such attacks. The ensuing lightning storm was so intense that the sharp metallic smell of ozone pervaded the air; as a result, a large portion of the swarm was cut down.

Even so, quite a few of the disciples were still bit by the Pestilence Bugs and hurriedly sent to the back lines for treatment.

The huge Graveyard Spirit below howled yet again. This time, clouds of blood began to condense in the sky, brimming with corrosive potential.

These corrosive clouds of blood seemed capable of dissolving anything they came into contact with. Even Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators would be hard-pressed to fully withstand their effects.

But even more shocking than their corrosivity was the sheer number of blood clouds produced. The entire city was completely covered by these corrosive blood clouds, and more were forming by the second.

“Revolving Dragon’s Light formation!” Lin Shaoxuan cried out.

The Boundless Sect’s disciples pulled out their Origin Tools and got into formation before simultaneously unleashing their Origin Energy. A ring of light formed in the air. Following Lin Shaoxuan’s commands, the ring of light then descended, slamming into the corrosive blood clouds. As the two attacks met, violent shockwaves of energy pulsated through the city.

The two powerful attacks had actually canceled each other out.

The Graveyard Spirits were surprisingly formidable. The Boundless Sect’s forces numbered in the tens of thousands, but it had taken them an unexpected amount of effort to deal with just these corrosive blood clouds.

When the skies finally cleared, they found that they had expended quite a bit of energy.

Thankfully, the Boundless Sect had never lacked for strong soldiers.

Since this wave of soldiers was beginning to grow tired, they returned to the back lines, letting another ten thousand advance to take their place.

“Destructive Lightning!” Lin Shaoxuan commanded next.

Tens of thousands lightning bolts simultaneously streaked down from the sky, falling down even more heavily than raindrops in a storm.

The Boundless Sect couldn’t just allow the Graveyard Spirits to keep initiating the attacks.

This lightning storm swept across the entire city.

Each Boundless Sect disciple was unleashing roughly one lightning bolt a second, and in total, this meant that Reaper’s Temple was forced to endure an onslaught of nearly ten thousand lightning bolts every second.

Against a barrage this dense, there was virtually no safe place left in the whole temple. Every street and every surface was baptized with inordinate amounts of lightning. The Graveyard Spirits themselves were blasted to pieces one by one by bolts of charged electricity.

Even though they attempted to regenerate their bodies through consuming corpses and each other, their rate of regeneration was slower than the rate of destruction.

As such, it soon became obvious that these Graveyard Spirits were all slowly but surely being worn down.

“So they too were too weak to put up a fight?” Cheng Tianhai sighed.

“It’s not going to be that easy,” Su Chen responded, dousing him with cold water.

It was impossible for a place that the Astrals had sunk so many resources and energy into to be toppled so easily.

An instant later, the giant Graveyard Spirit let out a strange roar, which stirred all of the remaining Graveyard Spirits throughout the city into motion.

They all began to run frantically towards the giant Graveyard Spirit in the center of the city. The first Graveyard Spirit that arrived leapt towards the giant creature’s body and actually melted in, merging its body with the giant. The giant Graveyard Spirit’s body grew in size ever so slightly.

So they were actually combining into one gargantuan being.

As more and more Graveyard Spirits merged into the giant Graveyard Spirit, it became even larger. After just a few seconds, its size outstripped the limits of its territory, and it began to grow upwards at a rate visible to the naked eye.

More and more Graveyard Spirits continued to charge at the giant from all directions, causing it to grow even faster. A few seconds later, it had reached a height of a thousand feet, with a body completely made up of Graveyard Spirits. The sight was truly frightening and horrifying to behold.

The abomination’s face seemed to have been constructed from a hundred different female faces. When it finished absorbing all of the Graveyard Spirits, it tilted its head to the sky.

“AHHH!”

A shrill shriek escaped from its mouth.

It raked its hand through the sky yet again.

This time, Su Chen’s expression was much more serious.

“Dimensional Slash!”

“Dimensional Slash!”

“Dimensional Slash!”

Seven or eight Dimensional Slashes were unleashed in rapid succession.

Li Chongshan and the others could also use it — Su Chen had prepared a wide variety of spatial equipment for them to use on this expedition. However, since they had no comprehension of spatial Method Power, their equipment recovered energy much more slowly than Su Chen’s. As such, they were only willing to use them sparingly.

Against this gargantuan creature, however, there was no need to hold back.

The sword light descended upon the giant abomination, easily slicing through its body. Even so, the creature was so large that the wounds were almost superficial, like small holes on the creature’s hand. Even though they had managed to pierce the creature’s body, its movements were not impeded in the slightest.

The arm continued to rumble through the air.

“Heaven-Bracing Shield!” Lin Shaoxuan yelled.

The Boundless Sect rearranged themselves, rapidly entering a new formation. Then, streaks of light arced across the sky, interweaving to form a giant shield. Soon afterwards, the arm collided violently with the shield.

This was the most powerful attack that had been unleashed so far during this battle.

The Boundless Sect’s disciples’ formation were actually incapable of withstanding this blow and the formation was immediately broken. A few of the more unfortunate disciples were instantly smashed to smithereens.

The gargantuan creature immediately swung its arm again without any hesitation.

“Retreat, Thousand Rivers Ribbon!” Lin Shaoxuan continued to yell out commands somewhat hoarsely as his voice boomed out in all directions.

Streaks of energy once again weaved together, this time forming ribbons that wrapped around the giant’s body, arms, and legs in an attempt to restrain its movements.

This seemingly “softer” approach, however, was actually immediately effective, and the giant abomination froze in place.

The giant stomped and roared in frustration. The ensuing blasts of energy caused the thousands of ribbons to tear.

Lin Shaoxuan adapted yet again by commanding the Boundless Sect to switch to the Heavenly Song Formation. By using sound waves to attack, the Boundless Sect caused the giant’s ears to ring with excruciating pain. The giant responded with a roar of its own, using its voice to cancel out the effects of the song.

The Boundless Sect then rearranged themselves into the Blazing Sky Formation. The fierce flames burned away at the giant, consuming its mass and bleeding its strength away. The disciples then used their flying swords to follow up with another attack. The giant responded by unleashing swathes of black fog, which were capable of destroying Origin Tools. In the blink of an eye, thousands of Origin Tools were destroyed, causing the disciples’ hearts to pang with sadness.

The two sides continued to exchange blow after blow. For some time, it appeared that the Boundless Sect was incapable of doing anything against the giant abomination.

However, this was partly because the Boundless Sect was still holding back.

Of the sixty thousand Boundless Sect disciples, only ten thousand were attacking at any given moment.

This was a precaution; even if their opponent unveiled some invincible killer technique, they wouldn’t be all wiped out.

Even so, the Boundless Sect’s attacks were still quite powerful, and they were constantly unleashing them as they rotated back and forth. This ultimately resulted in a stalemate.

At that moment, however, Su Chen’s attention was placed elsewhere.

He glanced at a different location and muttered, “If they’re going to make a move, then they should be doing it sometime soon.”

As if responding to his words, a cloud of dust suddenly appeared behind the Boundless Sect. Another group of enemy soldiers had entered the fray, but this time, it was a giant flock of birds charging in their direction.

“Demonic Beasts? It seems like the Astrals have been quite busy lately.” Li Chongshan was stunned.

After the horde of beasts appeared, yet another large group of soldiers appeared off in the distance. This time, it was composed of the Trigenders, Kobaloi, and the Astrals’ puppets. Only the Astrals had yet to show themselves.

Everyone turned their gazes to the fourth direction.

“It seems like they’re planning on surrounding us. The Astrals never cease to amaze with their inventiveness,” Chu Yingwan chuckled.

“No, they’re not surrounding us,” Su Chen responded confidently. “The Astrals are not there, but rather here.”

He pointed right at the center of Reaper’s Temple.