Chapter Fifty-Five: The People of Fusang

The Death Palace arrived, carrying billowing black clouds and crushing all beneath its oppressive aura, leaving everyone gasping for breath. Even the corpse wheel behind Luo Longyu was suppressed by the Death Palace, nearly coming to a halt.

“It’s useless. The weapon engineering from the Burial Lands is no less formidable than your corpse system. I admit the corpse engineering is vast, but unless you truly master it one day, unlocking all its secrets, I might not be your match. But now, your control is barely worth mentioning.” Watching Luo Longyu struggle under the Death Palace’s pressure, Zang Wusheng stepped through the void, speaking with the calm contempt of a victor.

On the other side, Tong Wushao and the others tried to rush to aid him, but Luo Longyu clenched his teeth and shouted, “Don’t come! The Death Palace has altered the spatial molecules around me. If you enter, your own molecular structure will change!”

Long Shaoxian summoned her dragon force, wielding her dragon halberd to support Luo Longyu, but as she reached the edge of the Death Palace’s domain, she was blocked. The Death Palace had completely sealed the space within a hundred meters of Luo Longyu, and Long Shaoxian couldn’t break through.

“Damn… The spatial molecules have changed. I need to recalculate the dragon force output formula…” Long Shaoxian muttered to herself, her dragon eyes flickering.

Zang Wusheng let out a low chuckle. “You’d better hurry. The Nine Secrets of Heaven Burial possess nine weapon systems, their calculation speed beyond your imagination. Do you really think you can surpass or disrupt the speed of the Nine Secrets?” With that, Zang Wusheng ignored Long Shaoxian, fixing his gaze on Luo Longyu. “The corpse path… acquired with no effort at all. Once I decipher its code, I will be king!”

“King, my foot! Little Guai, go!” Just as the Death Palace prepared to devour Luo Longyu, a loud curse rang out. The sky erupted in flames, a phoenix’s cry shattered the heavens, and a colossal phoenix claw, blazing with fierce fire, struck the Death Palace, shaking it violently.

At the same moment, the earth quaked. Cracks split the ground with deafening booms as an ancient tree burst forth, its leaves aflame, burning the Burial Lands. The molecules of the surrounding void were forcibly realigned, and the force field imprisoning Luo Longyu dissipated swiftly.

Luo Mengxuan descended from the sky, landing beside Luo Longyu. She grinned sheepishly, “Finally found you! Haha, went a bit too far by accident. Saw the sea and realized it, so I rushed back.”

Luo Longyu was speechless. Saw the sea? That meant she’d charged straight to the Persian Gulf…

Luo Mengxuan’s sudden appearance caught Zang Wusheng off guard. Before he could react, the celestial phoenix—Little Guai—struck again, its tremendous power and searing heat forcing Zang Wusheng to retreat, raising his hands in a flurry of seals to fend Little Guai off.

Staring at the towering, nearly hundred-meter-tall flaming tree that had erupted from the ground, Zang Wusheng’s brows knitted tightly. “Fusang tree… You possess Fusang energy. But why is there only one?”

Luo Mengxuan looked up, flashed her white teeth in a brilliant smile that made her seem innocent as a child, but her words chilled Zang Wusheng to the bone. “What’s wrong? Want to see another? Fine, turn around.”

Before Zang Wusheng could turn, a deafening boom and overwhelming heat burst out behind him, sending him soaring skyward in panic. Another Fusang tree burst from the earth, its branches—seemingly alive—reaching for each other and entwining rapidly, transforming the area into a domain of fire.

Looking upon Luo Mengxuan’s radiant smile, Zang Wusheng realized he had encountered a truly formidable opponent.

“How can this be? Wasn’t Fusang destroyed by Da Yi…” Zang Wusheng gritted his teeth.

Luo Mengxuan giggled, “Yep, but it’s been repaired.”

Long Shaoxian landed back on the ground, breathless. Her exchange with Zang Wusheng had left her utterly exhausted.

“Hehe, Sister Long, see? I told you bringing me along would help.” Luo Mengxuan crossed her arms, smiling at the slightly disheveled Long Shaoxian.

Long Shaoxian cast a glance at the smug Luo Mengxuan and said coolly, “Control your Yangxi, or you’ll destroy everything here.”

“No worries, I know my limits,” replied Luo Mengxuan.

Luo Longyu was utterly dumbfounded. He’d known Luo Mengxuan was powerful, but not so monstrously so—yet she always acted like a naive child. As Long Shaoxian landed beside him, he instinctively pointed at the two Fusang trees. “What… exactly are those?”

Long Shaoxian replied calmly, “Fusang energy fusion devices, products of the Third Epoch. They were originally used to power Earth and the spaceports, connecting ground, spaceport, and underground energy channels. When the spaceport was invaded, the nine major energy furnaces were seized, Fusang devices compromised, all energy supplied to the furnaces. Later, Da Yi forcibly severed the Fusang device’s energy conversion system, destroying the channels and detonating the furnaces.”

“Who would’ve thought that a creation of the ancient Sun God Xi He would still function, and now it’s implanted in a little blonde girl,” Zang Wusheng clenched his fists in fury. He’d been on the verge of capturing the corpse path, only to be thwarted by a girl wielding a Fusang device. The energy it produced was immense—if unleashed, it could rival the extinction of a civilization!

Hearing herself called a little blonde girl, Luo Mengxuan instantly bristled, hands on her hips, shouting, “You’re the little blonde! Your whole family’s little blondes! Luo Longyu! He insulted me! Help me beat him!”

Long Shaoxian snorted, “Is he even worthy to be your opponent?”

“No matter, Luo Longyu, go ahead. I’ll light up the sky for you!” Luo Mengxuan declared boldly, sending several seals onto the Fusang trees. Where their trunks joined, dazzling light erupted, shooting skyward to form a massive orb in the sky, far larger than the sun itself. Had Long Shaoxian not intervened for the sake of earthly life, who knew how immense Luo Mengxuan might have made it.

Sunlight flooded the land. The marines and Cangshou locked in battle all froze, staring at the sudden giant sun overhead, unable to process what they saw.

On the aircraft carrier, energy alarms blared. Soldiers shouted, “A massive energy surge in the Kubakbu region! Peak value—nine thousand, about to break ten thousand!”

Wang Ruihan squinted at the enormous sun in the sky, saying nothing.

Bathed in sunlight, Luo Longyu felt his silicon-based genes activate within him. His body dried rapidly, cracked skin sprouting mottled crystals, his corpse wheel spinning faster, his power surging back.

“Boom!”

Without a word, Luo Longyu soared into the sky, charging at Zang Wusheng.

Zang Wusheng’s expression hardened, manifesting a powerful alloy crossbow and firing a blinding bolt at Luo Longyu, who met it head-on. The light struck him, causing only a brief pause, but no harm.

“His corpse body is terrifyingly strong…” Zang Wusheng’s face changed.

Luo Longyu’s eyes blazed with blood light, his silver corpse wheel fierce. With the silicon-based genes active, the power of the corpse path erupted, and its wild nature emerged, his body displaying ancestral traits unique to the corpse path—like the fangs of a zombie!

A thunderous explosion shook the sky, visible shockwaves sweeping across ten-thousand-mile skies. Even Baghdad and western Iran could faintly hear the distant roaring.

High above the Kubakbu region, Luo Longyu and Zang Wusheng’s fists collided, locked in stalemate. Seeing Luo Longyu’s dried, fearsome visage, Zang Wusheng growled, “Hmph, nothing but a soulless killing machine. Luo Longyu, look at yourself—how should you be addressed in this place?”

Luo Longyu roared, striking again. Zang Wusheng raised his arm to block, the force sending both hurtling a hundred meters. Clearly, Zang Wusheng’s physical strength was nearly equal to Luo Longyu’s; he could stand toe-to-toe.

At the Xuan Yi Center, Elder Xuan watched real-time drone footage from Iraq. He abruptly stood up, astonished. “Bone Burial Clan! How… are they here?”

General Zhuo Yong, a military officer beside him, changed expression. “The clan from the records? The ones skilled in the path of death?”

Elder Xuan nodded. “Yes, them. But their clan was wiped out in the Third Epoch’s destruction. How have they returned?”

Zhuo Yong frowned, turning to his adjutant. “Pull up all information on the Burial Clan, immediately!”

“Understood!” The adjutant nodded, quickly gathering all records and legends on the Burial Clan.

Soon, he reported, “Burial Clan, full name Bone Burial Clan, also known as Bone Collectors, originated in the Third Epoch, sharing origins with the gods. Later, the gods pursued life, the Burial Clan pursued death, gradually diverging into two life forms. They were destroyed at the end of the Third Epoch. Their combat power source remains unclear, but ancient texts suggest it derives from the dark plane, opposed to our visible plane. They excel at altering the arrangement of basic particles of living matter, transforming it into dark plane energy for their own use. They dwell in deep mountains and wilderness, places of extinction, rarely appearing in the world, and are shunned by the gods…”

“Dark plane energy… Like the yin-yang opposition in Taiji?” Zhuo Yong mused.

Elder Xuan replied, “Exactly. If our world is yang, the Burial Clan are yin. They rarely enter our world. The first life forms of the Third Epoch became two branches due to their pursuit of power—one became the legendary gods, the mainstream of the Epoch, while the Burial Clan sought invisible, opposing energy, thus stepping into the dark plane, leaving our world. At the end of the Third Epoch, when the Void Spirits invaded, both opposing planes were destroyed, and the Burial Clan was thought annihilated. Now it seems… those skilled in death may have fooled the Void Spirits through death itself…”

“Then Luo Longyu and the others… Could they match him?” Zhuo Yong was worried.

Elder Xuan was silent for a moment. “Uncertain. The corpse path is Earth’s most powerful known weapon, mastering both plane energies and perfectly fusing silicon and carbon bases—a being whose existence far surpasses our current scientific understanding. If Luo Longyu can master it, defeating the Burial Clan would be no challenge. But now… even with the help of ancient god descendants and dragonkind, it’s hard to say…” He paused, then looked at Zhuo Yong. “Commander, I need to leave the base for a few days to learn more about the Burial Clan. I’ll leave things here to you.”

Zhuo Yong gazed at Elder Xuan, then nodded after a long silence. “Go quickly and return soon.”