Chapter Seventy-Four: From Falsehood to Reality

Bai Wanming’s body temperature began to rise, demonic energy flooding through him until he could no longer control it. Unbound, the energy grew increasingly violent, first probing and seizing his body, then starting to destroy him from within. Though the destruction seemed to be reforging his body, it was by no means beneficial; even Zhou Bai could see the dire consequences—his form was irreversibly transforming into that of a monster.

The human part of Bai Wanming faded away, his muscle tissue replaced by plant fibers, his skin growing ever more wooden. Soon, he had become a treant, though unlike his prior false incarnation, this treant stood just over two meters tall, its trunk withered and yellow, its aura condensed and formidable.

Bai Wanming charged toward the direction where the corpse and Yu Jun were locked in battle. Countless vines stretched from his body, snatching up fragments of stone from the ground and hurling them. As he drew closer, the vines wrapped around the corpse, and though Yu Jun was on the brink of death, she summoned all her will to launch a frenzied assault.

The corpse found itself beset on all sides, unable to break free. Seeing an opening, Zhou Bai moved as well.

He unleashed his Killing Curse technique, transforming into a flash of golden light. Gripping his butcher’s blade in both hands, he moved at a speed invisible to the naked eye.

In an instant, Zhou Bai stood before the corpse, his blade slashing down with a force that drew a cold gleam, forming a full moon behind him. His arms bulged with muscle; he held nothing back, knowing such fleeting chances were rare.

The corpse’s face showed surprise. It licked its lips, giving Zhou Bai—a mere imitation body—a grudging measure of respect, though it hardly believed a worm could harm it.

But the moment the blade struck, any trace of appreciation vanished. The killing energy contained a surge of bloodlust, potent enough to affect the corpse’s avatar. A deep gash, bone-deep, ran from shoulder to armpit.

Now the corpse was truly enraged. Its aura exploded outward, drawing the chill of the Ghost Valley Earth-Locking Formation into itself. As it absorbed more and more yin energy, its body began to swell, growing half a meter with every breath.

Its once-emaciated frame swelled with muscle; by the time it ceased absorbing yin energy, it had become a giant towering over ten meters tall.

Zhou Bai was about to use his divine technique to escape when the corpse reached out with unnatural speed and seized him mid-flight.

“Today, you will all die,” the corpse declared, holding Zhou Bai’s head in its grip. With a slight squeeze, it snapped his spine.

It then took the butcher’s blade and Tang sword, examined them briefly, then tossed them aside with disdain.

Zhou Bai’s body went limp, the ghost tree in his dantian struggling to emerge, but the corpse’s yin energy had already wrapped him completely.

Confronted with such overwhelming power, Yu Jun felt the futility of resistance. She collapsed, the strength draining from her, her body wracked with the sound of breaking bones.

Only Bai Wanming kept attacking, though his consciousness seemed gone, leaving only the beast’s instincts.

Without intelligence, Bai Wanming’s attacks became wild and disordered, easily dodged by the corpse. It did not hurry to retaliate, merely watched the treant with cold interest.

“Tsk, tsk. The Underworld Canon Division is full of madmen, trying to seize their true form so crudely—seeking their own destruction,” the corpse sneered. It struck Bai Wanming’s body with force, slamming him into the ground and scattering much of his wooden form.

Turning its gaze back to Zhou Bai, it noted that despite his injuries, the main damage was the severed spine—his body no longer responded.

The corpse was deeply curious about Zhou Bai, sensing many secrets hidden within him. With a claw, it gently scored Zhou Bai’s forehead, intent on peeling back the flesh to see what lay within.

Zhou Bai struggled to regain control, but the unfamiliar yin energy suffusing him rendered all effort useless.

The corpse’s hand plunged into his flesh. In his middle dantian, the lotus sensed danger and radiated bursts of Buddhist light.

“Buddhist arts?” The corpse wrinkled its nose in disgust and abandoned its attempt to tear out Zhou Bai’s bones.

“In that case, I’ll just destroy you. Ghost Dao, Human Dao, and even the Buddhist path are all present in you, Zhou Bai. What a freak you are.”

It pressed a finger to Zhou Bai’s brow, channeling a concentrated dose of corpse poison into him.

From that point, Zhou Bai felt searing heat spread through his body, his muscles dissolving beneath his skin.

With a bored expression, the corpse tossed him aside and began to walk slowly toward the edge of the formation.

At first, Zhou Bai could still feel pain, but as his skin dissolved, only numbness remained. The ghost tree in his dantian tried to repair his body, but the corpse poison could even dissolve it, so it curled tightly into his bones.

Before long, Zhou Bai’s flesh and blood were gone, leaving nothing but a pile of white bones. Yet, inexplicably, his mind remained clear and alert.

Using his consciousness, Zhou Bai communicated with the ghost tree, urging it to release yin energy. The ghost tree obeyed, slowly suffusing his bones with the dark energy.

Meanwhile, the corpse reached the edge of the formation. Yu Jun’s vacant eyes watched its back as it suddenly turned.

The wind howled, and the dust in the sky began to shift in a strange pattern. The sand gathered in midair, forming the shape of a skull, and the yin energy grew erratic.

The corpse’s expression turned grave, a rare uncertainty flickering across its face. For reasons it could not explain, it sensed something unusual.

From the rising dust, a figure emerged, moving slowly toward it. Though the figure’s pace was unhurried, it exuded an overwhelming pressure.

As it drew near, a jade-white skeleton appeared before the corpse. Only its eyes were sheathed in flesh, the pupils contracted to black pinpricks. Though its aura was subtle, it set the corpse on edge.

“Mere tricks!” the corpse spat, flicking a stream of yin energy from its fingertip toward the skeleton.

The skeleton merely raised its hand and blocked the attack. Its jaw moved, and Zhou Bai’s voice issued forth:

“All beings are but white bone—my form alone is truth!”