Nine Heavens Martial Emperor

On the ground, the black liquid that had yet to disappear suddenly began to roil.

In just an instant, the black liquid transformed into a massive black hand.

Then, the massive black hand shot out and seized Ling Xiao’s ankle.

Lin Hao didn’t even have time to cry out before he saw Ling Xiao’s body being dragged into the ground.

And Lin Hao was no exception. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

As his body was dragged into the ground, Lin Hao’s vision went black. An immense pressure crushed him from all sides, and an overwhelmingly foul stench assaulted his senses.

It was a full few minutes before Lin Hao felt the pressure disappear. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a wide, open space.

The massive black hand was long gone, and beside him stood a dazed Ling Xiao.

Lin Hao glanced around, realizing he was in a colossal, circular cave. It was so vast that the rock walls were at the very edge of his vision.

Needless to say, this was the third level of the Demon Suppression Cave.

The cave was vast and seemingly empty, yet an unprecedented sense of alarm rose within Lin Hao.

He felt as if unseen eyes were scanning his body.

As those eyes swept over him, the sinister current of energy within his body began to surge restlessly, appearing almost gleeful.

"Senior Brother, something feels wrong," Ling Xiao finally whispered, coming to his senses as he stood by Lin Hao’s side.

His expression was just as grave.

"Stay on your guard," Lin Hao said with a nod, looking at Ling Xiao.

"Senior Brother, your condition..." Ling Xiao trailed off, his voice filled with worry as he saw the black miasma on Lin Hao’s face grow even denser.

It was a clear sign that the poison was invading his vital organs.

"I’m afraid I’m done for. You need to look after yourself," Lin Hao said with a bitter smile.

"No! Senior Brother, I’ll get you out of here, I swear!" Ling Xiao shook his head, refusing to accept it.

In the past, Ling Xiao would have been thrilled to see Lin Hao so gravely poisoned. With Lin Hao dead, no one would be left to challenge him for the position of Head Disciple.

But things were different now. Here in the Demon Suppression Cave, Lin Hao had saved him time and again. Without Lin Hao, he wouldn’t even be alive, let alone have a chance to advance his cultivation.

"Whatever you are, stop hiding and get out here!" Ling Xiao scanned the area, but seeing nothing, he roared in frustration.

His voice reverberated through the vast cavern, the echoes bouncing off the distant walls and lingering in the air.

"Watch out below!" Lin Hao suddenly cried out, having heard a strange noise from beneath the ground.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

The moment the words left Lin Hao’s mouth, the ground began to shift, and then skeletal hands started clawing their way up from the dirt.

One after another, skeletons clawed into view.

Ling Xiao stood protectively in front of Lin Hao, bracing for a major battle.

Before long, the once-empty cavern was teeming with grotesque skeletons.

Ling Xiao took a step forward and threw a punch with both fists.

The two skeletons directly in his path instantly disintegrated, turning to dust.

But that wasn’t all. The force of his punches generated a powerful gust of wind that shredded several more skeletons standing behind them.

However, Ling Xiao’s expression turned exceptionally grim.

He watched in horror as the shattered skeletons—all except for the two he’d reduced to dust—instantly began to reassemble.

After only a moment’s hesitation, Ling Xiao shot forward like a cheetah.

With no wasted motion, he punched with both fists, driving relentlessly forward.

With every punch, another skeleton was reduced to dust.

At that moment, Ling Xiao had only one thought: ’End this quickly and get Lin Hao out of here.’

He became a terrifying humanoid machine, reaping one skeleton after another.

Ling Xiao’s punches grew faster and faster, whipping up a gale inside the cavern. Shards of bone were swept up into a veritable Mad Dragon, crashing against the rock walls with a deafening rattle.

While Ling Xiao was lost in his fighting frenzy, several skeletons silently closed in on Lin Hao.

Unable to move, Lin Hao could only watch helplessly as they approached.

The grotesque skeletons drew near, then opened their maws and lunged, intending to tear Lin Hao limb from limb.

TING!

However, when the skeletons’ jaws clamped down on Lin Hao’s body, they produced only a sharp, metallic ring.

Lin Hao’s body was as tough as tempered steel; the skeletons couldn’t harm him in the slightest.

Not only that, but the gale from Ling Xiao’s punches sent Lin Hao’s hair whipping through the air. The moment one of these dancing strands touched a skeleton’s skull, the skull instantly shattered into countless fragments.

Hair shattering skulls—the sight was utterly terrifying!

In the Saha World, Lin Hao had practiced Refining Essence into Hair, making every single strand of his hair as heavy as a human body and as sharp as a weapon.

Having dealt with the skeletons in the rest of the cavern, Ling Xiao turned his head just in time to witness this scene.

He knew Lin Hao was incredibly powerful, but he still couldn’t believe his eyes at the sight of hair shattering skulls.

His eyes flew wide, and he was shocked beyond measure.

"Quick, get rid of them," Lin Hao urged, seeing Ling Xiao frozen in a daze.

Ling Xiao snapped out of it and, with a flurry of punches, obliterated the skeletons surrounding Lin Hao.

He had just finished off the last skeleton and hadn’t even had a chance to catch his breath when the ground began to shift ominously again.

More strange creatures were emerging from the earth.

This time, it was skeletons again, but they were more robust and clutched bone axes in their hands.

That’s right, bone axes—battle-axes forged from bone itself.

After only a moment’s hesitation, Ling Xiao shot forward again.

He reacted so quickly this time that many of the skeletons were obliterated before they could fully emerge from the ground.

But the skeletons that emerged this time were clearly far more powerful. Not only were they grotesque and terrifying, but they were also incredibly agile, swinging their bone axes with a sinister WHOOSH.

As the saying goes, two fists are no match for four hands. Worse still, he couldn’t use any Cultivation Techniques or martial arts in this place. Before long, Ling Xiao had already been struck by several axes.

The bone axes that had drawn his blood began to glow with a crystalline luster. A crimson hue spread across their blades and refused to fade, giving them a bizarre and terrifying appearance.

For some reason, the sight of those blood-stained bone axes filled Lin Hao with a powerful sense of dread.

"Take out the skeletons with the blood-red axes first!" Lin Hao shouted from the side.

The moment Lin Hao spoke, Ling Xiao acted without a second thought.

Ever since they entered the Demon Suppression Cave, Lin Hao hadn’t been wrong once.

Ling Xiao charged toward the skeletons that had wounded him, but the sound of Lin Hao’s voice had drawn the attention of all the others, which now swarmed toward him instead.

It was a hair-raising sight as countless bone axes were raised high before chopping down on Lin Hao.

However, Lin Hao’s physical body was simply too tough. He stood there perfectly still, and not only was he unharmed, but every single bone axe that struck him shattered on impact, breaking into countless fragments.

After finishing off his targets, Ling Xiao turned and saw this. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he recovered, and he began to ambush the remaining skeletons from behind.

He had grown numb to it all.

It took much longer to finish off the skeletons this time.

When the last skeleton was destroyed, Ling Xiao still didn’t relax his guard, his eyes fixed tensely on the ground.

Sure enough, the ground began to shift again.

Ling Xiao took a deep breath.

He had expended a great deal of energy.

If these creatures kept emerging from the ground endlessly, he would eventually be worn down and killed.

But Ling Xiao had no choice.

This time, it was skeletons again. At a glance, they looked no different from the last wave, but upon closer inspection, their empty eye sockets were deeper, like black holes capable of devouring a person’s Divine Soul.

"Don’t look into their eyes!" Lin Hao shouted.

But it was too late. Ling Xiao swayed for a moment, then collapsed with a thud.

Far fewer skeletons emerged this time. Ignoring the fallen Ling Xiao, they walked straight toward Lin Hao.

It was as if they had suddenly developed the ability to think—a bizarre and horrifying sight.

Lin Hao struggled to avert his gaze, but an invisible force, one that even he could not resist, compelled him to look into the skeletons’ eyes.

The force was overpowering, impossible to resist.

Then, Lin Hao’s gaze met the deep, black-hole-like eye sockets of one of the skeletons.

With that one glance, Lin Hao felt as if his very soul was being sucked out of him.

Those bizarre eyes could devour a person’s very life force.

A wave of dizziness washed over Lin Hao.

But in the next moment, the Tai Chi Array Map within his body began to spin wildly of its own accord. A peculiar True Essence was generated, surging toward the center of the Tai Chi Array Map.

That was the domain of Lin Hao’s True Self Divine Soul.

Lin Hao could "see" the Tai Chi Array Map in his Dantian glowing brilliantly. A majestic and immense Chaos Qi swirled at its center.

BOOM!

Suddenly, two streams of energy erupted from the center of the Tai Chi Array Map, shooting upward with unstoppable force.

The next moment, a divine light began to suffuse Lin Hao’s eyes.

In an instant of silence, a skeleton before him turned to dust.

Lin Hao shifted his gaze, and another skeleton disintegrated into dust.

Lin Hao’s eyes were like a pair of divine orbs; wherever his gaze landed, the skeletons were utterly reduced to dust.

His gaze annihilated the profane, turning all it touched to dust.

It was an unbelievably shocking sight.

As Lin Hao’s gaze swept across the vast cavern, it was like a ray of sunlight piercing the darkness, completely dispelling the chilling, sinister aura.

However, in the next moment, a fierce gale erupted in the cavern.

Lin Hao then witnessed another bizarre scene.

The gale swirled, converging in the center of the cavern, and at the same time, an intensely evil aura permeated the air.

Before the gale subsided, a massive skeletal figure appeared.

It stood nearly three meters tall, and every bone in its body was incredibly thick. Bizarrely, its eyes were as large as bronze bells, and they were actually moving.

Suddenly, its gaze fell upon Lin Hao.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Lin Hao’s body was already numb and stiff, yet the creature’s mere gaze was enough to force him back several steps against his will.

He had not taken those steps willingly; he had been forced back by an immense pressure.

The world spun around Lin Hao.

Yet his gaze was drawn irresistibly to the skeletal figure’s eyes.

Once again, it was completely beyond his control.

The next moment, the skeletal figure’s eyes suddenly pulsed inward.

An immense suction force shot out, probing deep into Lin Hao’s body.

Lin Hao’s heart clenched. The bizarre force nearly sucked his True Self right out from the center of his Tai Chi Array Map.

However, this True Self was a Divine Soul of his own creation. With a mere flicker of his will, it snapped back into place.

The Tai Chi Array Map in Lin Hao’s Dantian spun wildly, Chaos Qi churning at its center. Unlike before, this surge of Chaos Qi instantly enveloped the entire Tai Chi Array Map, flooding his Dantian completely.

The True Self was on the verge of erupting in fury.