Outside, as everyone knows, a year ago, our Dao Alliance obtained a vast quantity of rare treasures... true spiritual objects and divine artifacts! This achievement belongs entirely to young brother Gu Xichen. The Daoists of Laojun Valley encountered considerable difficulties while refining the Ponu Dan (Breaking Tyranny Pill). But thankfully, those spiritual items were available; after incorporating their essence and blood into the formulation, the Poxu Dan (Void Breaking Pill) was finally completed. Our Dao Alliance owes a great debt to young brother Gu Wuchen!"

This elder Daoist was the master of the Zhongnan Mountain lineage, styling himself Hanhe and officially bearing the Daoist name Xuanxuan'er, a top-tier grandmaster in the cultivation world. He was direct, laying out Gu Wuchen’s contributions for all to see. From this day forward, the members of the Asian Dao Alliance were bound to be indebted to Gu Xichen; apart from the Three Witch Sect, which was already irreconcilably opposed to him, all other sects would be his allies.

The Corpse Emperor merely chuckled several times, stomping his feet on a gust of Yin wind and surging into the sky. He boomed with laughter, “A mere trifle, hardly worth mentioning! Have the two Daoist friends spoiled the child for no reason.”

Though his words were polite, the sheer delight on the Corpse Emperor’s face revealed how utterly satisfied he was with Gu Wuchen, his disciple.

Whether it was the Poxu Dan or those spiritual materials, the credit belonged to Gu Xichen, which translated into merit for the Nine Nether Dao. In the cultivation world, where karma and destiny are paramount, this karmic connection was enough to ensure the Nine Nether Dao’s smooth sailing for centuries to come.

The three strongest Grandmasters, representing both the righteous and unorthodox paths of the cultivation world, exchanged pleasantries for a while, detailing the prescription for the Poxu Dan, the origin of its pill mantra, the significant problems encountered during the refinement process, and the sequence of events that led to their ultimate resolution. Following this, they arrived at the most crucial step of the day.

The Corpse Emperor surveyed the surroundings, bowed to the one hundred thousand Dao Alliance cultivators, and laughed heartily, “It is Heaven’s great fortune! On Pluto, this seat chanced upon comprehending a sliver of the profound mysteries of Heaven and Earth, successfully ascending to the Realm of Spirit Refining and Returning to the Void (Lian Shen Fan Xu). Today, this seat will not stand on ceremony; I shall strike first to seize this moment of glory, to claim this honor, allowing all fellow Daoists a chance to learn from my experience!”

After delivering these polite remarks, the Corpse Emperor flew out of the protective shield, halting above a meteor crater tens of miles away.

In the battle on Pluto, the Corpse Emperor had utilized the power of the three stars of Sha, Po, and Lang to step into the Void Realm. However, at that time, he did not truly possess the strength commensurate with that realm; he had merely glimpsed the doorway. Over the year that the Laojun Valley protectors guarded against the pill tribulation, utilizing Laojun Valley’s massive supply of elixirs, the Corpse Emperor’s cultivation progressed by leaps and bounds, finally reaching the critical point he stood at now.

Other Grandmasters of the Spirit Transformation Stage (Hua Shen Qi) needed to rely on the medicinal power of the Poxu Dan to forcefully communicate with Heaven and Earth, summoning the power of the cosmos to temper their bodies in pursuit of breaking through to the Lian Shen Fan Xu Realm. Cultivation achieved through the aid of elixirs was inherently unstable, creating a significant gap compared to the Corpse Emperor, who attained this realm purely through his own strength. Thus, the Corpse Emperor was seizing the initiative to break through to the Void Integration Realm (Hua Xu) using his own power before the others, purely to provide those who would consume the pills later with an extra opportunity for observation.

The heavenly tribulation rumored to accompany the breakthrough to the Void Integration Realm was no trivial matter; the more insight one gained beforehand, the less personal risk one would face later.

Grandmasters such as Daoist Baishui and Daoist Hanhe understood the Corpse Emperor’s intentions and accepted this favor wholeheartedly.

Gu Wuchen blended into the crowd, quietly observing the Corpse Emperor suspended motionless tens of miles away.

The Corpse Emperor, floating in mid-air with his hands clasped behind his back, slowly adjusted his state, meticulously arranging the true essence and magic power within his body into the most ideal configuration. After about fifteen minutes, the Corpse Emperor raised a hand, and eighteen zombies, their bodies gleaming with bronze light and completely naked, flew out from his palm. They shimmered in the void before instantly growing to the height of about one zhang.

Kan Hua gasped in awe, “Heh, Master has even dug into his coffin money! These are Master’s strongest corpse servants—the Eighteen Bronze Zombies!”

Gu Wuchen’s expression shifted. His mental fluctuations swept over the eighteen zombies, and he was horrified to discover that the bodies of these bronze zombies were several times more resilient than supposedly specialized alloys. Moreover, unlike Kan Hua, who was also a zombie, these entities possessed not a trace of sentience; only a deep, murky, suffocating aura of killing intent was hidden within them.

This was the difference between corpse servants and true cultivated zombies: corpse servants were pure tools of slaughter, whereas a Corpse Cultivator like Kan Hua was a member of the orthodox Dao lineage.

After releasing the eighteen corpse servants to form an array swirling with malevolent energy around him, the Corpse Emperor, fearing insufficient defense, cast out nine great banners crafted from human skin. Upon these ten-zhang-high banners, countless images of ghosts and gods were drawn in black blood. As the banners appeared, they enveloped nearly half of the dark side of the moon in sinister winds and wicked energies, stirring up the thick lunar dust, gradually causing the surroundings to become obscured by swirling particles.

Within the murky dust storm, the Corpse Emperor slowly dispersed his entire essence, spirit, and intent outward into the surrounding cosmos. Almost as soon as his nascent soul emerged from his body, the Corpse Emperor sensed an eternal, unchanging rhythmic fluctuation in the cosmos.

CRACK! With a deafening sound, countless spiritual energies spontaneously generated. The Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Qi from a radius of hundreds of thousands of miles tumbled in from all directions in space, coalescing into a vast, dense, shimmering cloud above the Corpse Emperor, spanning nearly ten thousand li. Massive flows of spiritual energy poured into the Corpse Emperor’s body, the intense current stretching and reinforcing his already formidable physique by expanding his meridians and acupoints.

This disturbance in spiritual energy lasted for about an hour. Gradually, the aura emanating from the Corpse Emperor weakened, until finally, everyone present could no longer sense his presence.

However, on a spiritual level, the soul pressure the Corpse Emperor exerted upon all the cultivators present grew ever stronger. As the Corpse Emperor formally entered the Void Realm, he had fundamentally become a being utterly different from current cultivators. Entering the Void Realm meant achieving the body of a Half-Immortal, a creature operating on an entirely different plane. It was like the instinctive fear a lamb feels toward a hungry wolf, or a chick toward a hunting falcon—the innate dread of a lower creature towards a higher one. Even Grandmasters like Daoist Baishui and Daoist Hanhe, though managing to stand upright, were sweating profusely from their backs, soaking their robes.

The disciples of the Nascent Soul and Golden Core stages, whose powers were insufficient, fared far worse. Many knelt, and some simply collapsed limply onto the ground, unable to move.

Kan Hua also struggled under the overwhelmingly potent soul pressure radiating from the Corpse Emperor. He was trembling so violently he nearly gave way, yet within his Purple Mansion Sea of Consciousness, the Drought Demon (Hanba) could not allow its ‘host’ to kneel before a ‘mere’ Void Realm figure. A scorching, evil energy enveloped Kan Hua’s entire body, forcing him to stand rigidly upright. Kan Hua’s muscles and tendons shook violently, the agonizing demonic energy almost bringing him to tears.

Only Gu Wuchen stood in place, utterly unperturbed, staring blankly at the Corpse Emperor undergoing some profound transformation.