That roar exploded on the divine continent's defensive line like a powder keg igniting in every ear, then, as if by some dark magic, it awakened the boiling blood and murderous intent within every being. This frenzied, churning blood and intense killing aura surged into their minds, blanking thought, leaving only the desire to annihilate everything before them.

Thus, the military general commanding the long-range laser artillery, his eyes blazing crimson, roared hideously and frantically hammered the firing trigger. Beams of light rained down like a torrent of flowing metal upon the dark line ahead, carving graceful arcs across the air, leaving trails of translucent energy as they blasted toward the boundless, surging black tide before them!

Boom, boom, boom—

Explosions erupted like brilliant fireworks, kicking up countless sprays of bloody mist and torn flesh. Large patches of black specks drifted down from the sky. The corpse-monsters, their bodies perforated or ripped apart by artillery shells, lost all strength and plummeted from the heavens, crashing into the forests and rivers below with earth-shaking impacts that gouged out deep craters.

The Yellow Emperor stood before the army of warriors, gripping the Xuanyuan Divine Sword. Its golden blade was as broad as a man’s palm, planted firmly into the hard earth, the tip piercing the soil. He leaned both hands upon the hilt, the sacred golden jewels embedded in the pommel flashing with an exquisite luster.

Crimson light, like a cascading curtain of water, poured over him, reflecting dazzlingly off his golden armor, making him shine as brightly as a fierce, incandescent sun.

The Yellow Emperor’s deep eyes were like a vast, cerulean ocean. His five fingers slowly tightened around the sword hilt. He knew with absolute certainty that the corpses annihilated along the defensive line were mere foot soldiers in this legion of the dead, not the formidable, ancient corpses sealed deep beneath the earth for millions of years. These creatures had become mindless husks, infected by some mysterious, terrible virus after being gnawed upon by the vanguard of the surging dead army as it swept across the continent, their originally calm and clear eyes now blazing blood-red and savage.

Among this corps of the undead, the truly ancient corpses, sealed for millennia deep underground, numbered only a hundred, as indicated by the initial reconnaissance reports!

And yet...

Memories tumbled through the Yellow Emperor’s mind. Just a few days prior, even deploying his strongest ultimate technique had only managed to push back ten of the monstrous undead beasts—merely repel them, achieving no actual damage. His proudest weapon, the Xuanyuan Divine Sword, swinging with seemingly limitless power, had only left faint black scorch marks on their hides. No blood seeped out; it seemed the very fluid within them had frozen into ice and snow during their countless years of dormancy.

He now understood: for these corpses to remain unrotted into mere skeletons after such an epoch underground, capable of motion, they must have been supremely terrifying beasts in life. Any single one was beyond his ability to resist, clearly belonging to the echelon of the Ten Palace Masters!

Though he forced himself to remain calm, a sliver of stark terror began to creep into his heart. He could not fathom what cataclysmic event in their distant past could have led to the downfall and burial of so many extraordinarily powerful beasts.

Yet, this history felt like a thin, ethereal legend. It was entirely absent from the records of all nations and major civilizations, as if it had been... wiped clean from existence without a trace!

As he stood leaning on his sword in contemplation, the hard, metal-forged city wall behind him suddenly erupted with a sharp, piercing whine, like a barrage from an automated machine gun as energy projectiles launched from their barrels.

Beams of light, indescribably beautiful and laced with streaks of crackling lightning, descended in arcing trajectories. They swept past the Yellow Emperor’s monumental, pillar-like frame, whipping the fabric of his robes before whistling onward toward the enemy.

With the enhanced magnification of his sighting gear, the Yellow Emperor could perceive scenes millions of kilometers away. The surging tide of beasts rushing toward them now looked like an army of ten thousand stampeding horses, advancing with the devastating momentum of a tidal wave sweeping over mountains and seas. Leading them were several monstrous creatures covered in thick, scaled armor, sharp horns jutting from their elbows and foreheads, their heads resembling dragons, their backs bearing two bat-like demonic wings as they roared savagely forward.

The Yellow Emperor’s heart gave a slight, heavy thud, like the suffocating pressure of an overwhelming army closing in. He silently watched the scene unfold. Amidst the cacophony of roars and snarls, amidst the oncoming tide of foul-smelling beasts, a profound stillness settled over his soul, like the surface of a placid lake.

It was as if he were quietly observing a final, indelible landscape.

When death stands before you, how will you react?

He merely watched, his gaze as dark as starless night, carrying a faint, ineffable sorrow and melancholy. Then, looking upon the monstrous legion that had breached the 100,000-kilometer defense perimeter, his five fingers suddenly tightened, and he wrenched the Xuanyuan Divine Sword from the ground.

The tip pointed skyward. The crimson light reflecting on the blade elicited a sharp, resonant clang that echoed powerfully across the battlefield, humming like a taut string. His eyes filled with resolve and lethal intent. A low, fierce roar ripped from his throat, and golden light, sharp as needles from the afterglow of a setting sun, erupted from every pore of his body, transforming him into a Holy Knight bathed in divine radiance.

Roaring, shouting wildly, he charged forward—charging ahead without reservation.

A bloody glow enveloped the land, casting a hazy, crimson sheen over the scales of every beast and the armor of every warrior, a color heavy with gore and malice.

Suddenly, a black and white beam of light appeared in the sky, like two furious dragons intertwining and spinning, forming a vortex-like pillar that pierced the dark clouds, shattering the dust motes in the air as it plummeted down into the heart of the black army.

Fu Xi, hovering high above, had made his move.

At the instant of his action, the Yellow Emperor seemed to connect telepathically. Without coordination, he gripped his longsword, raised it high above his head, the blade shimmering with a faint, rising golden mist. He brought it down in a mighty swing, the hazy golden vapor seeming to be violently flung outward, following the sword tip straight toward the distance.

A single golden sword Qi stretched across a hundred thousand kilometers, tearing open the void to reveal a golden river of light. In a sudden convergence, it raced alongside the black and white swirling light from the heavens toward the exact same location, violently colliding with the leading beast—one structured like a mighty lion, bearing six pairs of black feathered wings. The dazzling golden sword energy struck its thick scales, the razor-sharp impact resembling the final moments of an aurora, crashing hard. The black and white rotational energy from above followed, slamming into the beast’s neck.

These two meteor-like beams struck the creature’s chest simultaneously. Despite its immense power, the beast was jolted so forcefully by the twin energies that its assault was halted mid-motion. It tumbled backward several somersaults, top-heavy, before falling into the corpse army behind it, carving a temporary rift in the surging black tide before finally stopping.

The two beams of light gradually lost their momentum, fading into pinpricks of light that vanished in the wind. The crimson light washed over the scales on the beast’s chest, revealing not a single wound, only a shallow indentation; otherwise, not a hair on its body was disturbed.

This corpse-beast, enraged like a startled lion, shook its entire frame as it righted itself, releasing a powerful aura. The undead beasts surging up from behind instinctively gave it space. From within the horde, a faint, ethereal flute melody drifted forth, reaching the beast's ears. Its blood-red eyes brightened perceptibly. It roared once, dropped low to the ground, and charged forward like an enraged ox.

The Yellow Emperor and Fu Xi leaped forward. Eons of shared existence had forged a level of tacit understanding between them that defied description. The Bagua Mirror in Fu Xi’s hand emitted a resonant, humming vibration, rising and churning in the dim sky. The mirror’s surface reflected a blinding, needle-sharp glare, becoming the sole light source in the heavens.

Fu Xi gripped the Bagua Mirror, hovering in the air, and directed it toward the stampeding corpse-beast army advancing from afar. The white brilliance projected from the mirror became even more searingly bright. As it swept across the ranks of the undead, countless other beasts infected by the corpse virus rapidly decomposed, shrieking in agony as they plummeted from the sky, crashing tens of thousands of kilometers down to the earth below with brittle cracks of bone and rib that made the observers’ teeth ache.

The Yellow Emperor, at this moment, also raised his sword. A sweep of golden light flashed across the blade. Holding the divine sword aloft, the fierce, howling wind whipped his long black hair upward. The soft silks bordering his armor billowed and snapped around him. Behind him rose a colossal, sky-piercing phantom image of a divine sword, stretching upward, emitting an ear-splitting, resounding hum.

From this golden phantom sword, countless small sword energies slowly separated, shooting out like a deluge into the oncoming black torrent. Accompanied by blooming bursts of blood-flowers and desperate cries, innumerable black specks rained down from the air.

Under the combined assault of the pair, these infected corpse-monsters, which were not the strongest, melted away like snow facing a raging fire. In moments, the densely packed mass had thinned down to a small cluster.

However, the Yellow Emperor knew this remaining cluster comprised the elite undead beasts. His expression grew even more solemn. His divine sword whistled and flashed, sending out streaks of sword Qi that struck down the lesser corpse-monsters. Most of these were peak Divine Spirit level or early Divine Emperor level.

Under his powerful, iron-fisted command, each fell without the slightest capacity to resist.

Behind him, four soaring figures approached, looking like absolute sovereigns controlling their own domains—the four remaining Emperors, excluding Shao Hao. All wore grave expressions, gripping their weapons tightly as they plunged into the edge of the advancing horde, slaughtering along the periphery, deliberately avoiding the main concentration points of the truly ancient, millennia-old corpses. In a battle of this magnitude, even they had to proceed with extreme caution.

The Yellow Emperor cleaved a low-level Divine Emperor corpse-beast in two with one strike. He turned, the violent, killing wind ruffling his already messy black hair. His gaze, beneath dense sword-brows, swept across the vast distance and suddenly fixed upon a bizarre sight. His pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks, his face etched with utter disbelief. (To be continued)