Immortal of the Nine Realms

Stepping past the barrier, Fang Chen saw the massive head of the Candle Dragon facing him, completely motionless. Its colossal frame was faintly discernible within the pitch-black waters of the Forgotten River. If an ordinary person were to witness this sight, they could easily be scared to the point of suffocation. After all, it possessed the form of a human head on a dragon’s body.

”Have you been waiting a long time?”

Fang Chen walked forward with a smile and tapped the Candle Dragon’s cheek before turning around to look back.

It was as if he was watching something being eroded away by a sandstorm. The barrier vanished bit by bit until it was completely gone without a trace, and the faintly visible city receded entirely into nothingness.

”I wonder if there will ever be another opportunity to enter this History Immortal Book in the future,” murmured Fang Chen softly to himself.

He checked the items he had brought out with him. The Primal Beginning Origin Milk and the Saint Blood Bodhi were there. But the most critical item of all was the Eighteen Heavens Prison Tower.

With a thought, the Eighteen Heavens Prison Tower flew out from his Primordial Spirit, spinning rapidly directly above his head. With every revolution, it doubled in size. Before he knew it, the ash-gray sky seemed on the verge of being torn apart by this prison tower. It grew unimaginably massive. Not only did Fang Chen appear as minuscule as a speck of dust before it, but even the Candle Dragon looked pitifully small in comparison.

The Eighteen Heavens Prison Tower was frantically absorbing the power of karma within the void. Like a Taotie devouring its prey, every single mouthful it took could swallow a hole right out of the sky! Its aura also became far more aggressive and overt than it had been inside the History Immortal Book, stripping away its final shred of restraint. It was as if it were announcing to the world that it had returned.

Such a terrifying aura swept out toward all four directions. In an instant, countless supreme existences within the Greater Underworld were startled awake from their slumbers, turning their gazes uniformly toward this single direction.

”A supreme treasure of the Underworld has emerged?!”

”Which one is it?”

The top-tier figures of various factions began to grow restless, setting out one after another to rush toward this direction.

Fang Chen looked at the Eighteen Heavens Prison Tower with a rather strange expression. A spectacle of this magnitude was not what he desired, but he simply could not control it at the moment. It was as if it had been parched for countless years, frantically gorging itself on karma without stopping.

Within the Eighteen Heavens Prison Tower, waves of wretched wails could be faintly heard. It was the agonizing shrieks of the souls Fang Lie had imprisoned inside.

Suddenly, Fang Chen sensed a flicker of unease from the Candle Dragon. He gently patted the Candle Dragon’s cheek, reassuring it, ”Don’t be afraid, this has nothing to do with you.”

At the same time, he scanned their surroundings, a look of solemnity rising in his eyes. A commotion of this scale would bound to draw in all the supreme existences within the Greater Underworld. There were quite a few individuals who walked the path of Ghost Immortals within the Greater Underworld. Accumulated over countless years, nobody knew exactly how many ninth-transformation Ghost Immortals actually existed.

Moreover, the majority of them had already lost their sanity, turning into something akin to the walking dead. Even so, Fang Chen understood that if he were to be surrounded and attacked by a horde of these Ghost Immortals, it would pose a massive problem. Not to mention, there was still a peerless Heavenly Demon residing within the Greater Underworld, Motian Dizang.

Fang Chen looked toward the Eighteen Heavens Prison Tower. ”I hope it finishes up a bit faster.”

As long as it concluded quickly, he could swiftly depart alongside the Candle Dragon. As for abandoning the Eighteen Heavens Prison Tower at this moment, that was naturally out of the question.

”I wonder what the situation is like inside...”

With a thought, Fang Chen materialized inside the Eighteen Heavens Prison Tower.

He saw a continuous, never-ending stream of yin energy replenishing the space inside. It transformed into waves of Extreme Yin Fire, burning the wandering souls within until they were leaping about and wailing in misery. The wandering souls with weaker cultivation had already stopped screaming, the Extreme Yin Fire on them starting to fade away. They had been successfully refined, becoming Nether Soldiers that Fang Chen could command.

”The old man said that if there is an abundance of pure Yin Lifespan, it can accelerate the refinement speed. In that case, wouldn’t it mean...”

With another shift of his intent, Fang Chen arrived at the Fifteenth Abyssal Heavens Prison.

The ones being refined here were those at the Third Step of Limit Breaking. In the Nether Ruins, they had all been prominent figures. Yet, because they had stood on the wrong side, the old man had slaughtered them with a strike of Immortal Suppression. Their primary souls had likely entered the cycle of reincarnation. What remained here now were all remnant souls. As long as the refinement succeeded, they would still possess extraordinary capabilities.

One of the remnant souls was suffering so terribly under the Extreme Yin Fire that he replaced his screams of agony with furious curses. ”Fang Lie, screw your entire family and all eighteen generations of your ancestors! You damned old ghost, you have no humanity! Treating members of your own race like this! Damn it all!”

The pain was so intense that even his voice had become distorted.

The remaining remnant souls were not faring any better. While cursing, they simultaneously attempted to resist the Extreme Yin Fire. It was just that with their level of strength, it was fundamentally impossible to alter the outcome. In the end, they were being refined inch by inch by the Extreme Yin Fire.

Fang Chen’s eyes lit up slightly. ”One hundred and eight individuals at the Third Step of Limit Breaking. Looking at it this way, it won’t take long for the refinement to succeed.”

If the refinement succeeded, he could mobilize one hundred and eight somewhat weakened Third Step Limit Breaking experts. Even if they individually couldn’t match a Half-Step Heavenly Dao, drowning them with numbers shouldn’t be an issue.

More importantly, a Half Step Heavenly Dao was similarly stretched thin across different fronts. If he dispatched this batch of Third Step Limit Breaking experts, he could completely sweep away the chaos within the Underworld in a short period and rebuild the Nether Division, completely free of any fear toward the existence of the Motian Division.

Thinking up to that point, Fang Chen went over to the Fourteenth Abyssal Heavens Prison to take a look. This layer held over four hundred individuals, all of whom were at the Second Step of Limit Breaking. Their refinement speed far exceeded that of the layer above. It wouldn’t be long before Fang Chen could command them.

The Thirteenth Abyssal Heavens Prison presented a highly similar sight, except the souls here didn’t have the strength to curse and shout anymore. They could only emit waves of shrill, agonizing shrieks, their eyes gradually turning vacant and dull.

Fang Chen’s eyes shone slightly. ”No matter how flawed these First Step Limit Breakings are, they should still be stronger than a ninth transformation.”

The Second- and Third-Step Limit Breaking cultivators would still require some time before they could be completely refined. But these First-Step Limit Breaking cultivators could very likely be fully refined within a few months! They had already undergone several years of refinement back when they were in the Nether Ruins. Now that the Eighteen Heavens Prison Tower was frantically absorbing pure karma—Yin Lifespan—it instantly pushed the refinement speed to its absolute peak.

Fang Chen’s thoughts churned.

”With this force around, even if the information spread by the God Dao Sect is intercepted by other heretical factions, as long as the ones coming aren’t Half Saints, the Nine Realms will possess the strength to wage a battle.”

The issues he was considering now were no longer the internal situation of the Nine Realms. Regarding that aspect, there was no longer any need for him to deliberate further. The primary danger originated from the outside world. From the Divine Realm under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Qingming Alliance.

***

Several days flew by in the blink of an eye.

Inside the Eighteen Heavens Prison Tower, the portion of souls with cultivations ranging from seventh to ninth transformation had been thoroughly refined. Their combined numbers already reached a staggering one hundred thousand! Among them, the seventh transformation comprised seventy to eighty percent, with the remainder being eighth and ninth transformation.

Standing before Fang Chen was a densely packed, dark mass of ninth-transformation Yin Soldiers. The number of Yin Soldiers was immense, roughly four to five thousand. Any single one of them was no match for a standard ninth transformation of the same rank. They could be described as the weakest ninth transformation, without exception. Yet, when their numbers coalesced into a unified force, wherever their swords pointed, not a blade of grass would remain!

”This force is enough to easily reverse the situation in the Taicang Realm. However, the situation over there has mostly stabilized anyway. The main threat still comes from the external factions.”

Fang Chen silently gazed upon this batch of ninth-transformation Yin Soldiers before him as if reviewing his troops, a trace of deep emotion surfacing in his eyes.

It was only until this very moment that he truly felt he had solidified his status as the Monarch Yan.