"The Heaven-Governing Seal Blade?" Ye Xiu had yet to witness the true might of that blade, but knowing it was the weapon Yama held most dear among his divine artifacts, it certainly couldn't be underestimated. He leaped onto the rooftop opposite Yama. "Mei Yi—where is she? You deliberately lured me here; surely, it isn't just to cross swords with me."

"That girl is also one of our own from the Heaven-Governing Seal Blade Sect. Why would I harm her? You should worry about your own predicament, Shinigami!" As Yama spoke, he raised the Heaven-Governing Seal Blade. The several small blades near the hilt simultaneously shot out toward the surrounding city buildings. They vibrated, hooking tightly onto various doors. With a crash, the doors shattered, and countless bizarre roars echoed from within. "Don't forget, this is the Qin Shi Huang mausoleum. His subjects do not appreciate outsiders disturbing their Great King."

Ye Xiu had been prepared the moment he saw the Corpse Flowers. He looked toward the source of the sounds, and indeed, various kinds of zombies shambled out of the houses, some clutching hoes, others wielding hammers—clearly, the laborers who built the imperial tomb. "You think these things can stop me? Stop wasting time."

Yama ignored Ye Xiu. He retracted his small blades, leaped up from the high platform, and flew towards the palace. "Deal with these things first, hehe."

"Damn it!" Ye Xiu sprang up, intending to follow Yama’s trajectory, but at that moment, a hand burst through the rooftop beneath his feet and grabbed his ankle. He looked down; the hand was not rotten, the muscles on the arm still looked vibrant and full of life. He brought his sword down, slicing the arm clean off. "Trying to stop me!"

"Pff... Ah..." As the arm was severed, the surrounding zombies were suddenly enraged. They maintained a humanoid shape, but their movements were animalistic. They moved with incredible speed, scrambling onto the buildings closest to Ye Xiu, some even gripping sharp long blades in their mouths.

Ye Xiu bolted toward Yama's direction at top speed. Just then, the monsters beside him suddenly leaped, attempting to slash him with the long blades in their mouths. He summoned his Sky-Surveying Sword, enveloped it in black flames, and instantly incinerated the attackers into ash. While the Sky-Surveying Sword was exceptionally sharp, at this moment, it acted merely as an ordinary sword; it showed no distinguishing features of a divine weapon.

"Whoosh... whoosh..." A swarm of countless chains suddenly shot down from the rooftops. These chains didn't resemble weapons but tools for hoisting massive objects. However, wielded together by a group of zombies, they dragged down the building Ye Xiu was standing on into ruin.

These must be the workers who were buried alive when the mausoleum of the First Emperor was constructed. They were, tragically, a group whose lives were spent as toiling slaves, and even in death, they served as zombies, guarding the tomb day and night for the First Emperor.

"Whoa!" Ye Xiu felt the ground beneath him shift and leaped high toward an adjacent building. To his surprise, the creatures seemed to anticipate his next landing spot; the chains shot up from the ground again, pulling that building down as well.

"Hoo..." Ye Xiu leaped at high speed, landing roughly and rolling several times. Surrounded by a forest of zombies, a pack of dog-like figures rushed toward him, ready to tear at his body. With no other choice, he unleashed his black flames from both hands, blasting them and the surrounding structures into dust. "I originally wanted to leave something behind for those experts and scholars, but now, it seems unnecessary."

"Hiss..." As countless buildings collapsed, an open space appeared within the city. In the clearing lay a formation of black cavalry, surrounded by a billowing black fog that coiled like a black dragon, blocking Ye Xiu's path. At the very front of the cavalry line stood a figure, massive and mechanical, radiating arrogance. Behind him fluttered a banner inscribed with the character 'Xu.'

"Ha..." Ye Xiu sucked in a sharp breath. He instantly recognized the general's features. This cavalry troop was the elite force led by Xu Fu when he set out across the Eastern Sea to seek immortals. The standing figure was precisely Xu Fu himself.

"Hah!" At this moment, Xu Fu's cavalry had locked onto Ye Xiu's position. With a sweep of his sword, the horsemen behind him charged like hungry wolves fighting for prey, their momentum shaking the very sky and causing the entire city to tremble.

Ye Xiu glanced behind him. The zombies crawling on the ground seemed terrified by this cavalry formation and were retreating incessantly. He knew clearly that to catch up to Yama, he had to break through this legion of ten thousand riders.

"Rumble! Rumble!" Led by Xu Fu, the iron cavalry charged toward the lone Ye Xiu like a massive assault force. With his longsword in hand, he struck out, intending to finish Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu seized the moment, using his black flames to blast a vice-general off his horse next to Xu Fu. Just as Xu Fu's sword descended, Ye Xiu blocked it with his own blade and simultaneously vaulted onto the black horse beside Xu Fu. "How about a cavalry duel!"

"Whoosh!" Xu Fu’s cavalry was clearly composed of zombies, and their reactions were somewhat mechanical. This time, Xu Fu hard-turned his body to strike Ye Xiu again, but his rear troops failed to follow suit, forcing him to cut down his own subordinate just to manage to halt his horse.

"Ya-hoo!" Meanwhile, Ye Xiu was in his element, forcefully driving the horse down into the chaotic formation behind. With one sweep of his sword, he knocked a soldier attempting to impale him with a long halberd from his horse. Furthermore, black flames now ignited on the Sky-Surveying Sword; where the blade passed, fire lingered, setting the zombies alight.

"Roar!" Seeing his formation shattered, Xu Fu abandoned his horse and leaped toward Ye Xiu, thrusting forward. His movement was sluggish, but the attack carried immense, heavy power. It seemed that after being transformed into a zombie by the Corpse Flower, Xu Fu had gained a touch more of a man’s unyielding spirit.

Ye Xiu, facing imminent danger, also jumped from the horse's back without hesitation. The Sky-Surveying Sword met Xu Fu's ancient martial arts longsword. The instant the two blades clashed, Xu Fu dissolved into black smoke, vanishing into the air along with the surrounding cavalry. Ye Xiu recalled with profound melancholy the story that transpired at the Four-Layered Pagoda: Xu Fu’s troop joyfully brought the immortals from the Eastern Sea back to their King, believing they would gain wealth and status. In the end, they did gain immortality, but it was a mindless existence that everyone scorned.

"Swish..." In the dim chaos, a small blade once again shattered the calm following the battle. It shot out and wrapped around Ye Xiu’s Sky-Surveying Sword. It turned out Yama was now standing atop the roof of the First Emperor's palace, one foot resting on the ornate dragon head carved into the roof, grinning darkly. "Want a lift?"

"Thanks!" Ye Xiu planted his feet firmly, attempting to violently pull Yama closer. But his strength momentarily failed against the tightening of the small blade. This wasn't Yama’s power, but the might of the Heaven-Governing Seal Blade itself—the chain of the Qilin Skull was retracting, directly dragging him across the vast expanse outside the main palace hall.

"There's one more thing you need to play with. In a moment, you'll witness the most spectacular duel in the world." Yama drew his long blade across the plaza, the edge cleaving the ground in two with uncanny precision. From the broken surface, countless tentacles erupted, hooking onto the split halves of the plaza like iron claws. They pulled relentlessly, expanding the gap, tearing the rift even wider.

Ye Xiu retracted the Sky-Surveying Sword and stared coldly into the depths of the rift. Those tentacles originated from the Corpse Flower, for he could already see an unprecedentedly enormous flower ball emerging from the earth. It was surrounded by petals of various shades of purple, and those petals were actually covered in sharp white teeth. Dripping from between the teeth was a viscous fluid—the saliva of the Corpse Flower. It was hungry, and its meal was the Ye Xiu standing before it.

Yama sheathed his long blade and settled comfortably onto the dragon-head roof, pointing leisurely at the Corpse Flower ball. "I didn't intend to release it this early, but the fellow underground is behind schedule. I suppose I must let this beautiful flower keep you company for a while longer."

"Boom!" Ye Xiu raised a hand, igniting his black flames, glaring fiercely at Yama. This man didn't seem inherently evil, but his words were profoundly incomprehensible.

"Aoo... Aoo..." By now, the entire Corpse Flower ball had surfaced on the plaza. If the Corpse Flower inside the Nine Poisonous Fiend Array had been the King of Corpse Flowers, this one had become an awakened King. Thick vines resembling limbs were erupting from the flower ball without restraint, suspended in the air, looking as if they were about to stand up like humans.

Ye Xiu unleashed both hands, projecting nine dragons of black flame. However, this fire was utterly insufficient against such a massive, fully formed Corpse Flower. He lamented that the Sky-Surveying Sword had not fully awakened, unable to unleash the terrifying, hair-splitting power of the Eight Directions Solitude. Alas, the crow, the natural predator of the Corpse Flower, was absent from this location.

"Run out of tricks, Shinigami?" Yama was also a Shinigami, possessing flame-based abilities like Ye Xiu. However, he relied solely on the power granted by the divine artifact, the Heaven-Governing Seal Blade, never mentioning his own nature as a Shinigami. "Now you should understand the significance of possessing a peerless divine weapon. For me, it's a matter of one strike, but look at you? Have you truly no recourse?"

Ye Xiu certainly couldn't endure Yama's mockery. The Corpse Flower King, now like a giant, swung its thick vines toward him. He used the Sky-Surveying Sword to defend but found the sword inadequate to sever such things. The vines wrapped around the sword with the flexibility of silk, possessing incredible vitality.

"Flame Rise!" Ye Xiu’s eyes flared, and black flames immediately coated the Sky-Surveying Sword. The concentrated fire burned through the slender, coiling vines, forcing them back into the flower ball. Ye Xiu discerned the trick and let out a slight, cold laugh. "Hmph, it seems when dealing with behemoths, one must begin with the minute details."