Chapter 528 – Fusion of Great Ghost Domains, Invincible Li Yuan, A Historic Moment - Part 3

Far, far away.

A black-robed figure, who had earlier crept close to the battlefield between Happyland Zoo and the Ghost Prison, was now fleeing at top speed.

As he ran, his body shifted through a series of transformations, face and features morphing as if made of clay.

This was someone who clearly also commanded the power of Mortal World Transformation.

Anyone who could reach that level had to be a master, someone deeply entrenched in the Heaven Soul Realm.

He didn’t stop until he was many kilometers away. Then, panting, he muttered, “Is this some kind of joke?! How is it even possible to casually destroy Happyland Zoo like that?

“Yin energy is endless, but human strength always runs out. At best, one could stalemate, maybe suppress it for a while. But to completely wipe it out like that in open combat?!

“What kind of monster is that?! I’ve been asleep for so long... When did the world start sprouting freaks like this?”

Li Yuan had been right.

There was indeed a hidden predator. A sparrow lurking behind the mantis.

But the sparrow had been too cautious and didn’t dare reveal itself.

Now, in the black-robed figure’s mind, the image of that young boy wreathed in flames flashed again. The way that child speared the ghost spider, how he shredded the ghost rat.

He sucked in a cold breath, then muttered grimly, “The waters in this world have grown far too deep... I’d better lay low and recover my strength.”

With that, he vanished into the shadows, moving like a wraith across the landscape.

If it had just been Happyland Zoo he had to deal with, he wouldn’t have minded.

He could have suppressed it, maybe even turned the tide in a drawn-out fight.

But Happyland Zoo was tied to the Great Yin, a source of unending Yin energy. As long as that flow remained, he would never be able to kill its ghosts outright.

And that, really, was the nightmare of a ghost domain. Even if you could win, you couldn’t outlast it. You couldn’t destroy it.

But that strange, mysterious boy...

The black-robed man shuddered again.

He scanned his surroundings, sensing the nearby villages and towns.

With his powers, he could easily disguise himself as a commoner and slip into any of them. But it wouldn’t help.

Recovery...required resources.

Based on his recent observations, the black-robed man had come to a clear conclusion. If he wanted to recover, this land, this place that had become so spiritually barren...was no longer enough.

“I’ll have to go to the Eastern Sea’s Immortal Domain. Only there will I find the little things I need.”

He let out a long, tired sigh.

The times...had changed.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Gemhill County.

At last, the long, harrowing daylight hours had passed.

But the land was far from at peace.

Ghosts roamed freely across the countryside. What had once been a confined ghost domain was now bleeding into every corner of the world. Its boundaries, if they still existed, were dissolving fast.

Ghost servants were running loose. The rules that once tethered ghosts to specific regions had vanished.

The nine gates had shattered. The fate of the Dragon Vein? Unknown.

The great upheaval of this land had only just begun.

In homes across the county, blood-curdling screams echoed through the night. Terrified civilians watched helplessly as ghost servants darted past windows and crawled across rooftops.

The martial artists of the Bladeseekers, the faceless of the Court of Judges, and the enforcers of the temple all sprang into action. They raced through alleys and across fields, slaying ghost servants wherever they found them, doing their best to maintain a fragile order.

But the ghosts were like smoke and shadow, appearing, vanishing, and slipping through cracks. They couldn’t be everywhere at once.

Meanwhile, black smoke billowed from within the Ghost Prison. That once monochrome realm had fully consumed the plains that Happyland Zoo had brought into being. Now, like a silken cocoon wrapping around its prey, the fused landmass pulsed and twisted, birthing what would soon become a new, super-ghost domain.

Across the city, citizens huddled in fear.

Distant screams chilled their bones. Some didn’t move at all, paralyzed in place. Others curled up beneath beds, or knelt before statues of Yan Yu, praying over and over for safety.

In whispered tones, people asked each other about the young boy wreathed in flames. What was his name? Was he connected to Yan Yu? Was he her child? Her avatar? Her guardian?

Many had already begun muttering things.

“We should build him a shrine,”

“From now on, we must worship him too.”

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Little Ink Village.

In the basement of a residence, three figures remained hidden.

Tie Sha and Fang Jianlong said nothing. Just sat in the dark.

A teenager named Yun’er shifted, clearly struggling with being silent for so long. He opened his mouth to speak, only for Fang Jianlong to slap a firm hand over it.

None of them knew what was happening outside. All they could hear was an endless barrage of distant booms, crashes, and screams.

Waves of energy washed over them in turns, icy cold and blistering hot, slipping in through the cracks above. It felt like the world outside the stone ceiling was being torn between winter and summer, flipping back and forth in a matter of seconds.

Fang Jianlong stole a glance at Tie Sha in the dark. Respect and awe welled up in his chest.

The sect master really is the same man he was back then... Thank the heavens he dug this cellar and stocked it with food. This stash could keep us alive in here for at least two or three years.

His nerves finally started to settle. The tension in his body slowly unwound.

Before all this, he’d risen to the rank of elder in the Red Lotus Cult. Deep down, he’d always been a little proud of that.

But today...all that pride had been shattered. Crushed by the image of that young boy floating in the sky, wrapped in red ribbons, feet ablaze with fireballs, raining divine destruction down on the ghosts.

Was that even human? Can a person truly cultivate to that level?

Fang Jianlong wondered.

Or was that...a god? A god who had always lived on this ancient land?

So that’s what true power looks like...

Fang Jianlong’s heart pounded in his chest like a war drum. His long-extinguished desire for cultivation suddenly roared back to life, hot, urgent, and impossible to ignore.

The path forward...is vast. One can still reach the heavens.

If that was the case...then why shouldn't he give it his all and try again?

Fang Jianlong turned his head toward Tie Sha. And in the old sect master’s eyes, he saw it too, that same blazing fire.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Silver Creek.

In Li Yuan’s residence, Xie Yu stood by the water, belly round with child, gripping a longsword with both hands as she anxiously scanned her surroundings.

Suddenly, a figure dropped down beside her.

She turned and saw her man.

Only then did she finally exhale. But almost instantly, her relief twisted into a scowl. Her brows knit tightly as she snapped at him like a mother tiger.

“Where did

you

run off to?!”

“Practicing my blade,” Li Yuan replied smoothly, without missing a beat. “Was really getting into it when I heard all the commotion from this direction. Rushed back right away. What happened?”

Li Yuan was an old pro at this point. Even when guilty, he never looked it. He stuck to the story like it was truth carved in stone.

Xie Yu glared at him with fury, then shoved him in the chest.

“Practicing, practicing, what next, are you going to practice until your wife and kid vanish and you don’t even notice?! That’ll make you

real

happy, huh?!”

“Uhhh...” Li Yuan apologized over and over.

Later, how much later, he couldn’t quite tell...Xie Yu returned to the house and sat down in silence. Whether her anger had faded or simply gone cold, he couldn’t say.

Li Yuan let out a quiet sigh of relief, and tiptoed off to prepare a peace offering.

His eyes swept the room until they landed on a small pile of oranges on the table. He picked two, sat down, and started peeling them carefully.

As he worked, his gaze flicked back to the distant horizon, and a quiet weight settled in his eyes.

The Ghost Prison and Happyland Zoo were still fusing. That fusion would take time. And when Yan Yu emerged again, she’d likely be far more powerful than before.

But that wasn’t what concerned him most.

No, what gnawed at his thoughts now was a different question entirely.

What had become of the Dragon Veins?

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A few days later.

Crack! Crack!

From deep beneath the earth came a grinding, splintering noise like an endless spine of ancient bones being snapped all at once.

The Dragon Veins were breaking.

The destruction of the nine gates was no different from beheading the dragon.

Of the nine heads, only two remained, but it no longer mattered.

Gradually, the other two major collision sites, apart from the Ghost Prison, also began to settle. Yet within those churning rivers of dark energy, something was still brewing.

On a lonely gray cliff, cloaked in mist, a green robed woman stood quietly, her dress fluttering in the wind.

Beneath her, thick black smoke had condensed into an enormous cocoon.

This was the fusion of Ghost Lake, Ghost Peak, and Apparel Atelier, who’d already devoured half of the Exotic Beast Park.

No one knew what this fusion would produce.

But Ying Zhuoyao wasn’t worried.

No matter what emerged, whatever retained consciousness in the end would belong to her master.

As that thought crossed her mind, a figure in black robes leapt through the forest, landing silently at her side.

She studied him carefully, then gave a respectful bow.

“Your Majesty,” she said, “how did it go?”

This was no ordinary man.

This was the Celestial Sovereign, the shadow behind the curtain.

The current age belonged to the Great Zhou. Before Zhou came the Shang. Before Shang, the Xia.

The Zhou worshipped the mountains and rivers. The Shang made human sacrifices to the gods above.

Clearly, the Dragon Vein was not of the Xia Dynasty. The loyal souls resting within it had only lasted a few thousand years. Figures like Lu Xuanxian, Gao Kaiping, and Fish Guts were all from within that timeframe.

However, the Xia was different. If the Xia had no Dragon Vein...then what did

it have?

And the powerful beings who died in the time of the Xia, were they somehow still preserved?

Some questions still had no clear answers, but one thing was certain:

The powerful figures who perished during the Xia Dynasty had, without a doubt, been preserved.

But unlike the loyal souls of the Dragon Vein, they weren’t lingering as ghosts.

They had truly returned to life.

The Celestial Sovereign standing before Ying Zhuoyao was living proof.

In the Xia era, there had been three Emperors, the Celestial Sovereign, Terrestrial Sovereign, and Human Sovereign.

Each one represented the ultimate pinnacle of Heaven Soul, Earth Soul, and Human Soul.

The Celestial Sovereign had once stood at the peak of Heaven Soul cultivation. That he now wielded power over Mortal World Transformation came as no surprise.

And now, with his reawakening and personal journey to Gemhill County to intercept Yan Yu, the gravity of the moment was undeniable.

He had taken this threat seriously.

“I didn’t make a move,” the Celestial Sovereign said calmly.

Ying Zhuoyao blinked, surprised. “Was there some unexpected development?”

“There was a monster,” he replied. “That freak helped Yan Yu suppress most of Happyland Zoo single-handedly. I realized it wasn’t an opponent I could face directly, so I chose to retreat.”

“What kind of monster?” Ying Zhuoyao’s eyes lit up with curiosity. Then, her gaze shifted, hopeful. “Was it a thousand-foot-tall golden giant?”

She was almost excited.

The Celestial Sovereign shook his head. “Not him.”

“Really not?” she pressed.

“I do not lie,” he replied flatly. Then he added, “By the way, do you have a way into the Eastern Sea’s Immortal Domain? I want to slip in quietly, gather some resources, and restore my strength.”

Ying Zhuoyao nodded lightly, but didn’t speak further on that. Instead, she lifted her chin and said, “The Dragon Vein is crumbling. I don’t know what

He

intends to do...or perhaps He’s already begun. Aren’t you going to wait and see?”

“After all,” she said, eyes gleaming like polished jade as she looked into the distance, “This is a turning point in history, the moment an era truly begins to change.”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Far away, the imperial capital burned like a beacon of warning, turbulent currents surging in its shadows.

A young Emperor, like a dragon in chains, sat alone on a frozen Nine Dragon Throne.

He carried the weight of the last royal bloodline.

A child ruler in the eye of the storm.