Chapter 1075

〈 Chapter 1075 〉 1075. Spirit’s Atlantis

“Cheonma! The monster is coming closer!!”

Lee Mei said urgently.

I turned my gaze toward the monster. Up close, it looked even more terrifying. A putrid smell wafted through the air.

“No matter how much I eat… I’m still not full… I’m hungry…”

BOOM BOOM. With every step the monster took, the ground shook violently. Lee Mei and I retreated backward. The transformed King Xuan seemed either less intelligent or didn’t recognize us as enemies, instead devouring nearby corpses first.

It was obvious what would happen once King Xuan finished eating all the bodies around him. Killing him beforehand would save us a lot of trouble.

Heavenly Demon Art: Black Flame Demon Dragon.

A black flame spun in my palm. I squeezed every last bit of mana out of myself. The black flames compressed into the shape of a dragon. I hurled the black flames. The dark dragon flew toward King Xuan, wrapping around his massive body and igniting.

“GRRRAAAAAAAH! It’s hot!”

KKKIIIIIEEEEEEEE!

The screams of King Xuan and other souls overlapped. His body continued to burn with black flames, producing thick gray smoke continuously.

Other souls inside him were dying in his place. The black flames kept burning.

‘I’ve killed at least thirty times already. But there’s no sign of an end. How many deaths will it take to kill this thing?’

Had he grown accustomed to the pain of the black flames enveloping his entire body? At some point, King Xuan stopped screaming and started tearing apart one of the fallen corpses with his heavy hands.

“What are we supposed to do about that thing?”

Lee Mei asked, sounding sickened.

“Hmm.”

Even I had no brilliant ideas. The only option that came to mind was to keep killing him until he finally died.

‘This guy may seem dumb, but fighting him endlessly like this will just exhaust me first.’

In the distance, Qing Xiaoli, who was laughing, caught my eye. If I killed him, would King Xuan stop?

‘Not an easy opponent. He probably has more tricks up his sleeve. And there’s no way Lee Mei can handle King Xuan alone if I move against Qing Xiaoli.’

My mana was almost depleted. Even using full recovery wouldn’t guarantee victory.

“Let’s retreat.”

“Huh? After coming all this way?”

“We can’t handle this monster right now. Our goal isn’t to kill this monster anyway. It’s to claim the position of Black Sect Leader.”

Originally, we needed to kill King Xuan to claim the position of Black Sect Leader, but the situation had changed.

King Xuan was already finished as the Black Sect Leader. All we had to do was inform the Black Sect officers about the current state. There wouldn’t be anyone willing to serve under and worship such a monster.

“…I see. I understand what you mean.”

Without needing further explanation, Lee Mei understood. We both pulled out teleportation scrolls from our robes and tore them simultaneously. But our bodies remained in place.

“You cannot use the teleportation scroll.”

“Hahaha. Thought you could come in and leave whenever you wanted? Did you really think I’d let you do that so easily?”

Qing Xiaoli laughed. He had blocked our teleportation. Exchanging glances, Lee Mei and I ran toward the door.

Only his echoing laughter followed us from behind.

We sprinted down the corridor. Earlier, there were a few servants around, but now none were in sight. It seemed like only Lee Mei and I were left in the palace.

“Okay, we managed to get out here… but how do we escape?”

All the Black Sect members outside were our enemies.

“Most of…”


“Those weaklings, they’ll be fine somehow.”

I was more concerned about Qing Guorui’s infuriatingly calm attitude.

When we stepped outside the palace, we were utterly shocked. A scene akin to hell itself stretched before our eyes. They were killing each other.

“You piece of monster scum!!”

“Sa, save me!!”

“Why are you doing this? If you have grievances, say it with words! Words!”

“It’s undead! When they die, they turn into undead!”

“Heheh. You fools don’t even know who the true master of the Black Bamboo Sect is.”

“Die. Your only way to help Him is by dying.”

A civil war had broken out.

Killers, resistors, and escapees – chaos incarnate. The worst part was that the dead rose again as undead monsters and attacked the living.

The 50-meter wall had become a prison. Escaping by flying into the sky was impossible due to the barrier blocking the way.

And then I spotted a massive black pillar. Easily over 100 meters tall, it hadn’t been there when we entered the palace.

Li Mei looked around and bit her lip.

“I feel like an insect collected for someone’s amusement. Since when… since when has the Black Bamboo Sect been playing into Qing Guorui’s hands?”

“No idea, but it’s been quite some time probably. But that doesn’t matter now. What matters is how we make our escape.”

I glanced at the wall. There were gates connecting us to the outside world. If flying was out of the question, we’d have to go through one of those.

There were four gates in total—one each on the east, west, south, and north sides. I chose the western gate with Li Mei; it seemed the weakest option.

We dashed toward the west gate. Li Mei didn’t need protection—she wasn’t weak enough to fall to random riffraff.

KABOOM!

The palace gates shattered dramatically, revealing Wang Xuan in a horrifying state. Whether undead or human, he grabbed them indiscriminately and shoved them into his mouth to chew.

“AAAAHHHHH…!”

“It’s a monster!!”

“That face—it’s the Sect Leader?!”

“Even the Sect Leader has turned into a monster?!”

The confusion worsened.

It wasn’t bad for us, though. The more chaotic things got, the easier it was to escape. But not for long. Some people were following us toward the west.

“Miss Li Mei!!”

“And me too! Please take me along!”

“I pledge my loyalty to Miss Li Mei!”

The quick-witted ones were trailing behind us. Neither Li Mei nor I bothered to shake them off. We didn’t have the time, and if they survived by luck, they might serve as decent witnesses later.

“Hahahaha! It’s hilarious watching you run like chickens with your heads cut off! Aren’t you embarrassed as Hellten?!”

Qing Guorui’s voice boomed loudly. His taunts were meaningless.

Four men guarded the western gate. Their skin was not just pale but deathly blue.

“Mr. Tianma. These aren’t humans—they’re zombies,” Li Mei said. Indeed, no trace of human presence emanated from them.

“Do you know much about them? Any weaknesses?”

“Not sure. One of the highly classified projects in the Black Bamboo Sect was creating and operating a zombie army. Zhang Chao was their captain. I thought it failed, but judging by what we see now, it seems successful.”

“So you understand zombies well? Anything useful, like vulnerabilities?”

“Probably not. As undead, they might be weak to holy power. Qing Guorui created and controls these zombies, so they’re nothing more than loyal killing puppets.”

At the mention of divine power, ‘The Heretic Inquisitor’s Leather Gloves’ came to mind. However, I refrained from pulling them out. Those gloves could channel Celbertina’s divine power, but using them might raise suspicions from the system or other gods.

‘Time to use it here. Full Recovery.’

[Using Full Recovery.]

My fatigue vanished, stamina restored, and mana surged within me. I tried hard not to grin at the corner of my lips. Using Full Recovery while exhausted was special—it felt like being reborn after dying. Though dying itself feels pretty awful, to be honest.

Tianma Divine Art (天魔神功) – Tianma Sword (天魔劍).

Refined demonic energy flowed into the sword. A pitch-black blade aura, also known as an Aura Blade, was swung toward the zombies.

The dark blade managed to slice through part of the zombie’s body before stopping.

“Tch.”

What would be hailed as supreme in any ordinary fantasy novel was merely slightly above average in this world.


“Nope. This ghoul is special.”

Heaven-Demon-Spirit Arts, Heaven-Demon Blade, Demon Wind.

It endlessly sliced through the ghouls’ bodies. Cutting off arms and ankles, they didn’t scream once and continued to counterattack. Murder dolls. Mei’s evaluation of them was spot-on.

Chop, chop.

The severed body of a ghoul hit the floor. I rotated my sore shoulder and headed for the door.

The door opened. It was quiet. No moving corpses, no screaming humans.

Mei and I sprinted toward the second wall.

“The door’s open!”

“Let’s go!”

“Lord Mei! I pledge my loyalty to you!”

“Save me!!”

A lot of people followed behind us.

•••

Surprisingly, we got out easily.

There were no trackers sent by Qing Guoli. Qing Guoli didn’t even try to catch us.

I looked at the Black Bamboo Sect members who chased after us. Around 300. These were all the survivors. The others couldn’t escape and died. According to Mei, over 1,500 people perished.

“Feels weird saying this… but why isn’t Qing Guoli chasing us?”

“Probably either he never intended to kill us in the first place, or he’s confident he can eliminate us anytime. Only he knows the exact reason.”

We trudged outside to completely escape the 5,845th Zone, with its three walls.

Halt. My steps stopped. Not by my will. A transparent, invisible wall blocked us right ahead.

“You cannot leave the zone.”

“…”

Distorting my face, I swung my sword at the transparent wall. The black energy-coated blade rebounded violently. Not a single scratch on the wall.

The faces of Mei and the others turned pale. They clung to the wall, pounding it with their fists and shouting.

“What the hell!”

“System! What the heck is this nonsense!”

“Let us out immediately!”

Qing Guoli knew from the start that we wouldn’t be able to escape.

“Heaven Ma, look behind us.”

Mei said seriously. I turned my head back. The huge black pillar in front of the palace was growing bigger. Already surpassing 150 meters, then 200 meters… 300 meters, it kept stretching.

Black waves radiated from the pillar in all directions. Walls touched by the wave mutated, twisted, broke, and squirmed. The sky grew darker and darker.

“Zone erosion has begun.”

I realized how screwed we were.

If we stayed like this, we’d all die. Glancing sideways, I looked at Mei. If what I thought was correct, I might survive somehow—I had enough power for that. But Mei couldn’t. She wouldn’t last long if we stayed here.

‘I need to use System AP. I must borrow divine power.’

“A minimum of 1.3 million AP is required.”

Borrowing divine power to break this situation was impossible. Needing over a million AP meant just how dire our situation was.

“Mei. Come here, I have something important to tell you.”

“Yes. Is there a way?”

“…”

Mei approached me.

I raised my sword and stabbed the wall. The tip couldn’t penetrate it.

Heaven-Demon-Spirit Arts, Heaven-Demon Blade.

I concentrated Heavenly Demon Qi at the tip of my sword.

Normally, the system barrier would be unbreakable. But now, with the zone eroding, things were different.

Squeal.

The sword pierced the wall. I took a deep breath and focused harder. With Heaven-Demon Arts (SSS), it could work.

I swung down the sword.

The transparent wall split, connecting to the outside.

“Mei! Go!”

“B-But what about you, Heaven Ma?”

“I’ll manage. Just go! And find the Valdert Dukedom! Got it?”

Mei’s eyes wavered. After hesitating for a moment, she went outside.

Squeal!

The transparent wall trembled. My sword was deflected outward. I could only create a gap in the wall; escaping myself was beyond me.

Outside, Mei pounded on the wall, opening and closing her mouth repeatedly. She seemed to be shouting something, but I couldn’t hear a thing. Smiling faintly, I waved at her.