A Will Eternal

Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath as his eyes shone with the desire to do battle. With each second that ticked by, his conviction in being able to kidnap Ghostmother grew stronger.

“Step A is accomplished. Now… it’s time for step B!” He clenched his right hand into a fist, causing his fleshly body power to surge. At the same time, the aura of both the Live Forever Codex and the Undying Codex rose up, merging together into something that surpassed an ordinary quasi-celestial…. He now thrummed with energy that was very close to the level of a true celestial!

The sky went dim, and the area was further darkened by the cloud of ghosts. But nothing could conceal how dangerous Bai Xiaochun looked at this moment, like an unsheathed sword filled with endless fury. He took a step forward, and then blurred into a streak of light that headed directly toward Ghostmother.

“Ghost Gate: Open!” Ghostmother’s slender fingers blurred in an incantation gesture, and then she pointed at Bai Xiaochun, causing the boundless cloud of ghosts to suddenly form together into a huge vortex. As soon as the vortex opened, endless evil ghosts poured out of it toward Bai Xiaochun.

There seemed to be no end to them!

“Ghost Dao: Arise!” And yet, things weren’t over yet. Even as the ghosts began to pour out, Ghostmother performed another incantation gesture. In response, the ghosts fell upon themselves, consuming and augmenting each other so that, in the blink of an eye, they became a gigantic 3,000-meter-tall ghost king!

This ghost king was covered with ghost eyes from head to toe, making him look bizarre to the extreme. Radiating quasi-celestial energy, he began to run toward Bai Xiaochun!

“Ghost Mirroring: Initiate!” But there was still more to come. Ghostmother performed another incantation gesture, causing an afterimage to spring up as a second ghost king stepped out of thin air. Then a third, and a fourth! Within moments, four ghost kings were in formation, barreling toward Bai Xiaochun.

These Daoist magics vastly surpassed anything that Daoist Heavenspan had used. And yet, Bai Xiaochun simply chuckled coldly, accelerating forward to smash through all four ghost kings, none of whom were even close to being a match for him.

However, the scorn had still not left Ghostmother’s eyes. Her right hand flashed with an incantation gesture, and she pointed out.

“Ghost Gate: Imprison!”

In response, the four ghost kings, who were in the middle of tumbling backward, exploded into bits, and then formed back together into the shape of a huge gate.

This ghost gate then swung toward Bai Xiaochun, radiating intense pressure that caused even him to gasp. There was no time for him to react; the gate slammed down on top of him, trapping him right on the surface of the Eternal Sea.

She made no further attacks. At the moment, she actually didn’t fear his world treasure as much as his terrifying powers of regeneration. Although she had put on a front of being wildly domineering and arrogant, the truth was that she was very frustrated by his ability to heal himself.

No matter how hard she hit him, he wouldn’t die. And worse, she couldn’t think of any way to overcome that strength of his. Now that he was temporarily confined by her ghost gate, she immediately headed toward the lizard bone galleon to attempt to free it from the Live Forever Lamp.

As she closed in, she drew fully on her celestial cultivation base, summoning a host of ghost hands that seemed capable of ripping apart any barrier. The hands flew forward, latched onto the Live Forever Lamp, and then began to rip at it!

Intense rumbling sounds echoed out as the Live Forever Lamp was torn to shreds. And yet, even as Ghostmother’s face lit up with joy, a multitude of smaller Live Forever Lamps could be seen, each of which contained a projection of the lizard bone galleon.

“Dammit!!” she growled angrily. Never could she have guessed that the Live Forever Lamp would have a second form. Just as she was preparing to unleash another attack, her ghost gate suddenly exploded, and Bai Xiaochun shot up from the surface of the Eternal Sea!

He seemed a bit ruffled, but not injured in any way.

Gritting her teeth in anger, Ghostmother slapped her bag of holding to summon a small bell.

As the crisp chime of the bell echoed out, countless dead sea beasts that had been buried on the seafloor for endless years suddenly shot up in response to the call.

From a distance, it was possible to see countless bones suddenly erupting from the surface of the sea!

“Bone Miasma!” Ghostmother said in a grating voice. In response, the bones exploded, transforming into a toxic powder that filled the area!

“Strong fleshly body? I’ll just corrode it!” Snorting coldly, she performed an incantation gesture with her right hand and then waved her finger. As a result, the bell began to toll faster and faster, causing more bones to rise up from the Eternal Sea.

Far off in the distance, where the third immortal domain met the Eternal Sea, cracks appeared in the ground, and then bones flew up into the air, where they would shatter and turn into a bone miasma!

“Miasma Burial!” Eyes flashing with killing intent, Ghostmother performed a sealing gesture, causing the bone miasma to turn corporeal, becoming like soil that rushed forth to bury Bai Xiaochun!

Rumbling sounds echoed out as he was buried by the bone miasma. At the same time, Ghostmother looked on, panting a bit as her trump cards played out. Having sealed Bai Xiaochun again, she turned and shot up into the sky, throwing her hands wide and letting out a piercing scream, a soundwave that battered the heavens, causing one Live Forever Lamp after another to shatter. In the blink of an eye, they were all destroyed!

However, before a smile could even appear on her face, her expression flickered with shock; after the Live Forever Lamps vanished, their aura appeared again, surrounding the lizard bone galleon!

This time, the entire world was the lampshade! The lands beneath all served as the lampstand! This Live Forever Lamp… could not be destroyed!

“How is this even possible!?!?” Ghostmother gasped. As far as she was concerned, not even true celestials should be able to utilize a Daoist magic this powerful, let alone a quasi-celestial like Bai Xiaochun.

Even as she reeled in shock, the soil of bone miasma exploded, and Bai Xiaochun appeared in the open again.

He looked a bit roughed up, but… was uninjured!

“How very disappointing, Ghostmother,” he said coolly.

Ghostmother glared at him, her chest heaving. By now, she had given up on her idea of destroying the Live Forever Lamp. It might have been one thing if she were in control of the battleship, but since she wasn’t, it didn’t seem possible to free it any time soon.

In her fury, her killing intent grew stronger.

“Do you really think I can’t handle you? I just didn’t want to cause a big scene and attract other celestials!” Eyes flashing with determination, she suddenly extended her right hand. As she did, her eyes began to flicker with mysterious light that, on close inspection, looked like the images of ghosts.

“In the Celestial Realm, you can form a Daoseed, which contains the Will of the world…. Feel free to take a look at true celestial-level Daoist magic!” As she finished speaking, her left hand shot out and grabbed at Bai Xiaochun!

Everything began to tremble, including all three of the immortal domains controlled by the Vile-Emperor Dynasty. All prefectures, all counties, all cities, all cultivators, all mortals. Everyone looked around in shock as… they suddenly realized their left hands were reaching out in the direction of the Eternal Sea!

Also in that moment, the Vile-Emperor Dynasty’s only archaean, the reigning Vile-Emperor himself, suddenly opened his eyes as he sat there in meditation. He wasn’t the only one to react in that way. The other five celestials in Vile-Emperor City, regardless of what they were doing at the moment, suddenly turned to look in the direction of the Eternal Sea.

“Someone is using celestial magic!!”

“That aura belongs to… Ghostmother!”

Meanwhile, Bai Xiaochun’s face flickered with anxiety. Earlier, he had come to the conclusion that the Celestial Realm didn’t seem very much different from the Demigod Realm. It just seemed more powerful.

But now, he realized that he had been wrong. All of a sudden, he felt like… he was surrounded by an infinitude of hands!

There were simply too many of them. It was as if every living being in all of the immortal domains of the Vile-Emperor Dynasty were reaching out to grab him! It was something he couldn’t fight against.

He couldn’t even control himself as he began to inch toward Ghostmother! For some reason, it was actually a familiar sensation….

“I didn’t want people to know about what was going on here, but since things have reached this point, I guess I’ll just have to extract some profit from your soul. Your fleshly body is undying, and has heaven-defying regenerative capabilities. But let’s see if your soul is the same!

“Ghost Dao Soul Magic!” As she spoke the words, her left hand suddenly turned translucent, as though it suddenly didn’t quite exist in the world. And at the same time, she pushed it closer to Bai Xiaochun.

Apparently, she was going to bypass his fleshly body to grab his divine soul!

And yet, before she could touch his forehead, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes glittered as his left hand shot up to grab Ghostmother’s left hand!

As a flash of shock appeared in Ghostmother’s eyes, his right hand suddenly blurred, the Greatsword of the North appearing in it, which he… chopped directly toward her left arm!

“I’ve been waiting this whole time to get close to your left arm! Time to wake up, Gongsun Wan’er!!”