A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu had gone through multiple scenarios before this. He knew that he would not be Wang Jiaohe’s match if he were to face the Mansion Master alone, no matter how many external objects he borrowed.

The reality proved him right. Even with the assistance of the Three Treasures Scepter and the support of his Weapon-Release Incarnation Wei Wugui, Qi Xuansu only had the ability to fight. Victory was still far out of reach.

Even so, Qi Xuansu still chose to engage Wang Jiaohe because he was buying time for Little Yin.

Little Yin’s body swelled like a balloon because she was transforming elemental energy around her into yin energy.

After absorbing enough elemental energy, Little Yin finally began to exhale. Her mouth opened wide, and the yin energy she expelled howled like a fierce wind while her body visibly shrank back to its normal size.

The yin wind instantly spread throughout the estate, which had already been reduced to ruins.

Wang Jiaohe noticed this, so he turned his attack toward Little Yin.

Little Yin had managed to bite Sun Heyu earlier, but she was stabbed in a single sword strike. Now, against Wang Jiaohe, she stood even less of a chance.

Seeing Wang Jiaohe’s hostile stance, Little Yin let out a cry and fled in panic, all while clutching her head.

Qi Xuansu would not allow Wang Jiaohe to have his way, rushing after him and ignoring his own injuries.

In the blink of an eye, Little Yin vanished into the ruins shrouded in yin energy. The yin energy was her natural barrier. Without dispersing it, finding her would not be easy. If this were hide-and-seek in the Ghost Kingdom, even a Pseudo-Immortal might not be able to locate her.

When his strike missed, Wang Jiaohe used his righteous qi to blow away part of the obscuring yin energy. A dark, pitch-black deep hole appeared in the ground, the opening just large enough for a short-limbed little girl to crawl into.

Little Yin was not great in a head-on fight, but she had no shortage of unconventional tricks, especially since she possessed a semi-immortal object known as the Unbound Thought, allowing her to manifest whatever she could think of.

Seizing the opportunity, Qi Xuansu chased after them and swung the Three Treasures Scepter straight ahead.

Wang Jiaohe dared not take the hit directly, as the Three Treasures Scepter would most likely dent his face if it were to land solidly. Thus, he raised the jade ruler to block.

Seeing this, Wei Wugui seized the moment to rush in and lend his support.

The three of them were once again locked in battle.

At that very moment, ink marks appeared out of thin air on a broken wall in the distance, as though an invisible brush were drawing a circle. When the circle closed, it turned into a pitch-black hole.

A small head peeked out cautiously, looking around in all directions. Only after confirming there was no danger did Little Yin crawl out of the hole.

After she emerged, the black hole reverted to an ordinary circle.

Little Yin glanced toward Qi Xuansu. When she saw that Qi Xuansu had successfully pinned Wang Jiaohe down, she shouted, “Open the gate!”

Rolling waves of yin energy surged like the rising and falling of tides.

Countless strands of black mist condensed into dark clouds that blotted out the sky. The ground turned sticky and soft. It was no longer the hard bluestone pavement but more like flesh and blood, writhing ceaselessly.

In the next instant, a massive fist thrust out from the black mist. The fist alone was 15 meters tall.

Behind the fist came the wrist, forearm, and elbow. On closer inspection, they were pieced together from countless corpses.

Corpse qi billowed in waves.

“Mighty Lord of Ten Thousand Corpses!” Wang Jiaohe sighed. With no other choice, he used the Five Peaks Sealing Hand to meet the punch.

Wang Jiaohe was not Feng Bo, so he was not smashed to pieces by a single punch.

Instead, the two forces proved evenly matched. The fist withdrew back into the black mist and vanished in an instant.

Qi Xuansu seized this opportunity and brought the Three Treasures Scepter crashing down toward Wang Jiaohe’s head.

This blow knocked Wang Jiaohe down from midair back to the ground, his feet sinking into the earth up to his knees.

At the same time, the ground shook violently.

Wang Jiaohe’s expression turned exceedingly grave.

In the next instant, five towering pillars of varying heights burst up from the ground around where he stood. On closer inspection, they were not pillars but five fingers.

A gigantic palm rose from beneath the earth, like the legendary Buddha’s Five Fingers, seizing Wang Jiaohe directly in its grasp.

Wang Jiaohe allowed the jade ruler to hover freely as he thrust his hands outward to either side to strengthen his protective qi shield into a perfectly round sphere so as to prevent the fingers from closing. At a glance, it looked as though the enormous hand were clutching a dragon pearl.

The earth split open. Fissures and ravines stretched all the way toward the seashore, causing seawater to rush back inland.

Countless fragments of rock, soil, and architectural debris slid down along the edges of the ravines. Only the hand gripping Wang Jiaohe remained towering, like a solitary peak.

Immediately afterward, another massive hand grabbed onto the edge of the fissure, and then a colossal body crawled out from the heart of the mountain.

Compared to Madam Bai’s delicate and compact form, the Yin Being before them was truly gargantuan, nearly 300 meters tall, like a pillar holding up the heavens. In comparison, both Qi Xuansu and Wang Jiaohe were as small as ants.

It was none other than Master Wan.

Master Wan could not conceal himself like Master Yin. He always appeared in his true form—his entire body covered in countless eyes without pupils and countless mouths without tongues that spewed corpse qi and foul liquid.

As Master Wan crawled up onto the surface, the decayed corpse remnants on his body continually fell.

Vast amounts of corpse qi—visible to the naked eye—spread in all directions, accompanied by a thick stench of decay. Wherever it passed, vegetation withered, and even inanimate things like soil and stone were stained with an ominous grayish hue.

Fortunately, Du Yuhua had anticipated that Qi Xuansu and Wang Jiaohe would clash here and had already instructed Du Fuzhou to disperse the family in advance, so there was no need to worry about innocent casualties.

Master Wan brought both hands together, his palms facing each other, and then exerted force with mountain-crushing might, relentlessly compressing Wang Jiaohe, who was trapped between them.

His brute force was unmatched. As he exerted strength, he simultaneously allowed the dense corpse qi and decay aura seep in.

Although righteous qi was famed for repelling all techniques, Master Wan’s cultivation was slightly higher than Wang Jiaohe. This was because the fusion of the Three Yin Beings could produce a true Immortal. Thus, the Three Yin Beings were technically incomplete Immortals, similar to a divine descent incarnation.

Wang Jiaohe’s protective qi shield shattered. In the same instant, his body shot skyward, narrowly evading the moment when Master Wan’s two palms met.

Seeing Wang Jiaohe escape, Master Wan extended his massive hand to seize his opponent. Corpse fluids and filthy blood splattered in all directions, and waves of putrid corpse stench surged forth like a storm of malodorous wind and bloody rain.

Crimson light flared around Wang Jiaohe like a blazing sun. When it fell upon Master Wan’s palm, sizzling sounds could be heard. All the corpse qi, corpse fluids, and rotting flesh melted away like ice.

In pain, Master Wan transformed his palm into a fist that resembled a small mountain. It whistled through the air and toward Wang Jiaohe. Before the punch even landed, the sheer force of the gale it brought made Wang Jiaohe’s facial skin tremble slightly.

Master Wan was not a Spiritual Statue but was refined from the flesh and blood of countless corpses. Standing 300 meters tall, a single fist alone rose about 15 meters high. Even though his flesh weighed far less than stone of the same volume, the fist itself still weighed roughly 3,000 tonnes. Adding the force behind the strike, this punch carried about 5,000 tonnes of power.

Of course, Master Wan also had weaknesses. Ordinary ground could not bear his immense weight, so he sank underground. As a result, he had to connect himself to earth qi. In a sense, Master Wan had already merged with the land itself, which was why he emerged from beneath the ground. However, this also made his movements slow, allowing Wang Jiaohe to evade the punch.

Qi Xuansu saw this clearly and once again moved in to distract Wang Jiaohe while Master Wan waited for an opening. After all, a single arm of his could cross long distances, compensating for his slow movement.

Wang Jiaohe fully activated the Heavenly Heart Sword Technique.

Sword qi centered on Wang Jiaohe and filled a radius of 300 meters, forcing Qi Xuansu back at once. Taking advantage of this moment, Master Wan’s second punch had already arrived.

This time, Wang Jiaohe did not evade. Instead, he poured all of his righteous qi into the jade ruler in his hand. This ruler, which was originally only one meter long, rapidly expanded to about 100 meters in length and over 3 meters wide. Wang Jiaohe stood at its hilt, wielding it as it collided head-on with Master Wan’s punch.

This was akin to an ordinary fist smashing onto a metal blade.

In an instant, the entire fist exploded, accompanied by a thunderous rumble that sounded like a mountain collapsing. Master Wan’s arm began to crumble—countless bones and corpse fragments flung out, while filthy blood and corpse fluids poured down like a torrential rain.

Meanwhile, the jade ruler remained completely unscathed.

Master Wan did not care in the slightest. He merely let out a low, mocking laugh.

The arm fragments that had already collapsed were swiftly drawn together under the pull of surging corpse qi. Corpse remnants, bones, and blood reassembled into a massive arm, which once again seized Wang Jiaohe. Even as the sharp sword qi shredded the entire palm into pieces, it continued to reform endlessly.

This arm had already separated from Master Wan completely, yet it was rooted in the earth. Only then did Wang Jiaohe realize that Master Wan was not a living being. When a living person’s arm was severed, the fallen limb would become a dead object. But Master Wan only had a humanoid form. His severed arm was still a part of him. As long as his corpse qi was circulating, Master Wan could still reassemble himself even if he were cut into countless fragments.

Even the seasoned Wang Jiaohe had no easy way to deal with such an undying creature. Its connection to earth qi allowed corpse qi to condense corpse flesh and bones, the two transforming into each other to continually reconstitute its body. Since earth qi was nearly inexhaustible, the Mighty Lord of Ten Thousand Corpses also had endless corpse qi. Thus, to destroy this undying creature, one had to sever its connection to earth qi.