Realm Walker

"Kid, toss me the blade," said Earth God.

He stood over Tone Deaf, his fists raining down heavily against the Musician, every blow slamming against the light barrier the breastplate threw up. Flat on his back, Tone Deaf's face was twisted with pain, but nothing had actually gotten through. The two Music Slaves had lost the fight for Earth God's body and were pinned deep inside, going nowhere.

A Transcendent-tier Earth Wraith had three characteristics: natural toughness, defense, and control over the earth. Being possessed by a spirit could rattle an Earth Wraith for a moment, but it couldn't strip away that freakish toughness or take over a body that was built in that way.

Zhang Yuanqing strode over to the narrow-mouthed blade, scooped it up, and barked out, "Catch!"

The dark iron blade spun end over end toward Earth God with a low, muffled whistle. Earth God swept an arm up and caught it cleanly, then dropped both knees onto Tone Deaf's chest, took the blade in both hands, and drove it straight down.

No matter how hard Earth God had hit him with his fists, the shimmering barrier protecting Tone Deaf had only rippled lazily with each strike. The instant the tip of the blade touched it, though, a tight pattern of rings raced outward across its surface, their frequency growing faster and faster.

Earth God was old but built like an ox. His arms swelled, straining his sleeves, and the veins on the backs of his hands bulged. He leaned his weight into the sword without a sound as the barrier rippled frantically under the point of the blade.

Tone Deaf's expression turned into pure terror. Finally, he panicked. However badly the fight had gone before, the breastplate had always protected him. That one-centimeter shell of energy floating over the armor which had felt so completely unbreakable was seconds from folding.

Green Pine and World Ablaze had already been eliminated. If he went out too, their whole little squad would be wiped, and they would only walk away with a few hundred thousand in prize money. It was not nothing, sure, but compared to what the top three took home, a few hundred thousand was pocket change to be casually tossed at a beggar.

He felt a stab of pain in his chest and looked down, horrified. The tip of the blade was inside the breastplate now, and the barrier had gone as thin as plastic film, one little push away from tearing.

It's over. No more illusions.

Suddenly, from across the field came a scream, high and raw, drawing everyone's attention. It was Sun Miaomiao. Behind her, black flames were crawling over the body of the ghost in the sleeping gown, and the damage done to the spirit had rebounded straight into its master's soul.

She's cracking? Zhang Yuanqing felt his stomach drop as his gaze snapped to Zhao Chenghuang.

A yellow paper charm was pinched between two of Zhao Chenghuang fingers, black flame burning off it, cold and quiet. There was no smoke, no smell, no heat, just a clammy chill.

Sun Miaomiao's face twitched. "A Spirit Extinguishing Talisman. So you can even create one of those..."

She steeled herself, bit her own tongue bloody, then whipped her head around and spat a bloody mist at her ghostly spirit servant.

The blood hit the black fire with a hiss. The flames swelled into a puff of surreal black vapor, then guttered out. Sun Miaomiao's pretty face was twisted with pain.

"It’s such a waste, having to use a Spirit Extinguishing Talisman to break your maze trick," Zhao Chenghuang said flatly.

He swept his gaze across the field, pausing momentarily on Yuanshi Tianzun, before sliding to the impasse between Earth God and Tone Deaf.

He flicked the charm away and snapped his fingers. "Go."

The Level 4 yin corpse behind him shot out over the dirt wall like a hunting leopard, dashing across the piles of rubble, a black smear the eye could barely track, straight at Earth God.

Zhang Yuanqing snorted inwardly. Directing a yin corpse requires just a single thought, yet he snaps his fingers. Who is he putting on this show for?

He snapped his own fingers and sent Corpse No. 1 to cut it off. Tone Deaf was one heartbeat from elimination, and there was no way he was letting Zhao Chenghuang pull off a save.

Corpse No. 1 crashed in from the side like a berserker, and the two yin corpses met with a sound like boulders colliding, flesh striking flesh like stone against stone. The Level 4 yin corpse staggered back a step while Corpse No. 1 went flying, crashing into a heap of rubble in a graceless sprawl.

Zhang Yuanqing felt a jolt run through him. Corpse No. 1 had been constructed from the body of an Enchanting Demon and packed with Earth Wraith gems for extra "thickness." Despite possessing both the Enchanting Demon's ferocity and the Earth Wraith's armor, though, in the face of that Saint-tier corpse, it might as well have been paper.

Zhang Yuanqing unleashed the Red Dancing Shoes on the spot, setting them on the Level 4 yin corpse, and pulled out the Burst Pistol, running and squeezing the trigger at once. With Green Pine dead, the shoes had lost their target, and to keep them from picking the worst possible moment to draw him into some cringe solo dance, he'd found a bug. If he turned on its second mode and wore the shoes, they would stay locked in combat mode, which pushed back the timing of his forfeit.

The shoes closed in on the Level 4 yin corpse with quick, brutal steps, attacking it with steady, heavy blows, while the Burst Pistol sent dull red tracers into the yin corpses' knees and skull, chewing it up.

"Sun Miaomiao, hold Zhao Chenghuang off! Buy me time!" Zhang Yuanqing yelled over his shoulder.

She ground her teeth as inky blackness churned within her eye sockets. The ghost behind her breathed a thread of cold spirit-air at Zhao Chenghuang and Yuan Ting, throwing the ghost wall illusion back over the both of them.

Zhao Chenghuang's body split apart like a reflection, leaving one dazed Yuan Ting to turn about in a circle where the two of them had stood. Sun Miaomiao was the one who had been snared by an illusion, and the real Zhao Chenghuang had slipped out under the cover of it long ago.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Zhang Yuanqing's chest tightened. This is bad.

He looked over at Earth God, and his gaze caught the cold arrogance on Zhao Chenghuang's face in the same frame. The man had risen up behind the old fighter without a whisper, his armored right fist drawn back like the string of a heavy bow.

Bang!

A mountain was knocked down. Earth God shot off like he'd been strapped to a roller coaster, punching through wall after wall of packed dirt before he slammed into a half-collapsed building, which came down on top of him with a roar and a fountain of dust.

Zhao Chenghuang glanced down at Tone Deaf lying at his feet. "From here on out, back me up with your flute. This item will shield your spirit body, preventing any harm from the likes of spirit servants or from Yuanshi Tianzun's curse item."

He dropped a bone blade beside him. Tone Deaf snatched it up and skimmed the stats. It had three abilities: armor piercing, spirit slaying, and spirit summoning. Following the information that appeared in his mind, he gladly slit his own wrist open. The bone blade drank in the blood, and a slow, curling wisp of a shade rose up and sank into him. All at once, his spirit body felt as though it had been sheathed in a second skin. It was as if a suit of armor had been pulled on over his soul.

Across the field, Sun Miaomiao let out a furious shriek, and out of her mouth came strand after strand of black smoke, a bundle of spirit servants, seven or eight of them. They wound around each other into a braid, forming a long surreal whip that gave off dense black vapor.

The moment it appeared, every Spirit Realm Walker on the field felt a tremor work its way through their own souls, a dread with no source behind it. This fear was not within the mind, but deep within the soul. The soul itself was afraid of that whip.

Sun Miaomiao worked differently from Zhao Chenghuang. His prowess was in corpse refining and a rare ability to control the Power of the Dark Moon, while hers were the handling of spirit servants. This move, the God-slaying Whip, was Elder Sun's own creation, passed down to his granddaughter and no one else. It was the thing that placed her in the top three.

She strode forward, hauling the ghostly whip along, and swung it with everything she had at Zhao Chenghuang and Tone Deaf. It whipped up a wind as cold as the grave, full of the wailing of ghosts.

Zhao Chenghuang and Tone Deaf leapt upwards in sync. The former wore a look of real wariness, as if he knew exactly what that whip could do. He hadn't shown such an expression before, even when going up against Earth God.

It feels like one lash from that whip, and my soul will break apart, Zhang Yuanqing realized. This is her killer move. Hold on. yin corpses have spirit bodies too.

Zhang Yuanqing's eyes lit up. He took advantage of this opening, finding Corpse No. 1 within his sea of consciousness and sinking his awareness into it.

With a crash, Corpse No. 1 tore itself out of the rubble. As the Red Dancing Shoes battered one side of Zhao Chenghuang's yin corpse, Corpse No. 1 charged forward and wrapped itself around the Level 4 yin corpse's waist. The Level 4 yin corpse snarled and rained fists and knees down on the thing clamped around it. This was where the downside of the yin corpse's limited cunning was revealed. It had been given a simple order to just fight, so when an enemy showed up, instinct took over, and it just swung.

Corpse No. 1 spoke, human words coming out of a corpse's mouth. "Sun Miaomiao. Here. Hit here."

She caught it instantly. A flick of the wrist, and the surreal whip swept across the battlefield and slammed into the Level 4 yin corpse.

The Level 4 yin corpse seized up, its savage assault faltering mid-swing. It stood there blankly, the killing light in its eyes dimming away. Its spirit body had suffered a severe wound and had gone dormant.

Zhang Yuanqing brought his awareness back into his own body. He took the Silencer out of his inventory, went into Night Wandering, and quickly closed in on the Level 4 yin corpse. He had to seal Zhao Chenghuang's corpse while it was down.

Without warning, the wailing tune of the flute came back, steel needles of mourning piercing their way into his skull. Zhang Yuanqing grabbed his head and dropped out of Night Wandering, the veins in his temples pounding.

Across the field, veins bulging on his own forehead and suffering the same pain, Zhao Chenghuang latched onto his own yin corpse within his sea of consciousness and split his awareness in two. A burst of light flared within the Level 4 yin corpse's eyes. He had taken over its body.

The corpse spoke, its voice grinding and ugly. "Yuanshi Tianzun. You're strong. Stronger than I figured. I had you pegged for top eight at best. I never guessed that you were sandbagging. But you won't beat me. Not even with Sun Miaomiao in your pocket."

Even as it spoke, it didn't slow. Its right arm shot out like lightning, fingers closing around Corpse No. 1's throat, crushing it.

With a loud bang, a halo of earthly yellow light burst across Corpse No. 1's skin as the defensive shell it had relied on for so long was immediately crushed by that raw grip. Zhao Chenghuang's yin corpse was made from a Level 4 Saint-tier Fire Sage's frame, and even with its skills locked out, it could grind a Transcendent-tier corpse to nothing using just strength and speed alone. Level 3 and Level 4 were worlds apart.

It flung Corpse No. 1 at Yuanshi Tianzun, then leaped several meters straight at him.

Zhang Yuanqing left the leathery Corpse No. 1 to fend for itself, sidestepping it like he'd seen it coming from a mile off, and pulled out the Thug's Gauntlets. He drove a fist into the Level 4 yin corpse's face like an artillery shell.

"Zhao Chenghuang" checked his forward momentum and threw an elbow up, catching the punch dead on. Zhang Yuanqing heard his own knuckles break with a crunch.

The mournful flute kept going without stopping, and the steady sonic pressure kept every Nocturnal Specter on the field locked out of Night Wandering. Attacking would break it, and getting hit would break it as well.

Zhang Yuanqing heard the thundering cracks as fist and elbow, knee and foot met. Zhao Chenghuang, one with his yin corpse, held off Corpse No. 1 and Zhang Yuanqing both, his Level 4 frame soaking up the blows from the Red Dancing Shoes as it continued to advance. Zhang Yuanqing nearly ate a clean hit several times over, and only his Scout-level ability to read the fight and the Fire Sage-level speed kept him in the fight at all.

Tone Deaf's flute is disgusting, he thought to himself. Both the Musician and Zhao Chenghuang were down to three points. One report from Yuan Ting and both of them could be dropped at once. While blocking and weaving, Zhang Yuanqing stole a look across the field. Yuan Ting was still boxed inside the maze, lunging one way then reeling around the other way.

This is not the moment to file a report, he realized. There was nothing to be done. Yuan Ting was solidly pinned down by Sun Miaomiao, and he could hardly go tell her that he was one of theirs and to let him go. Once he said that, it would completely blow any chance for Yuan Ting to backstab Zhao Chenghuang in the future.

They were all Level 3 Nocturnal Specters, but despite that, both Sun Miaomiao and Zhao Chenghuang could crush Yuan Ting with their spirit servants and yin corpses. That was the gap between a nobody and nobility that was born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

Over on her side, Sun Miaomiao pressed one hand to her head against the pain and swung the whip with the other, going for Tone Deaf and Zhao Chenghuang's real body. She missed again and again.

"Hey, old man! You awake yet?" Zhang Yuanqing shouted.

"Up, I'm up," Earth God answered as he dragged himself out of the wreck in a clatter of broken brick, cursing while he rolled his neck and worked his back. "That Zhao kid has no honor, sucker-punching an old man like that. That really messed me up."

Then he was up and charging forward with the narrow-mouthed longsword yet again.

Just then, Zhao Chenghuang's real body started to transform. His skin turned a dark blue-black, the veins under it standing up in raised cords, and his eyes turned bloodshot as black, needle-sharp claws sprouted from his ten fingers. His whole aura spiked, and he met Earth God head-on with both fists crossing hard over his chest.

Boom!

The narrow-mouthed blade came down against Zhao Chenghuang's guard, and the impact was like a bomb going off, sending clods of dirt and pulverized roof tiles flying outward. Zhao Chenghuang's Origin Overdrive[1] buffed his defences, and with Tone Deaf's flute backing him up, he had split himself two ways, holding off two men at once without giving an inch.

As Zhang Yuanqing traded blows with the Level 4 yin corpse, he ran through his items in his head.

The gauntlets' explosion does nothing to a Saint-tier Fire Sage. Using it just grants me speed and no killing power. It's the same story with the Burst Pistol. The Straw Doll could wreck Zhao Chenghuang's sanity—No, he casually handed Tone Deaf a spirit-body shield, so he's clearly not short on that kind of thing either.

The Yin Yang Spell Robe puts me in a place where I can't lose, but fire's useless against this yin corpse, while water's worse. This yin corpse is already dead and doesn't breathe. The Red Dancing Shoes don't hit hard enough. They're good at providing support, but they won't decide anything. The way to kill this corpse is what Jiang Jingwei did, which is to break its arms and legs. But if I had the muscles for that, I wouldn't need an item.

Could I try Origin Overdrive? No. I have only enough pills for one dose. If I burn it here in round two, the ultimate showdown will be forfeit. Think first. Overdrive is the last resort.

He went through the whole scenario again, and then it hit him. Why am I in a slugging match with Zhao Chenghuang at all?

If they took out Tone Deaf, the support, and let him and Sun Miaomiao recover before teaming up with Earth God, how could Zhao Chenghuang prevail? Plus. he still had Yuan Ting, the mole.

He peeled off the second the thought surfaced and left the Red Dancing Shoes and Corpse No. 1 to handle this version of Zhao Chenghuang as he made a break for Earth God.

"Old man, Give me the helmet. I'll go carve up Tone Deaf."

1. The name of the ability in which a Nocturnal Specter pushes the limits of the Power of the Dark Moon within them. ☜