Chapter 897 250: Living Dead

This time, Su Changxing clearly saw the person in the starlight—it was just a skeleton, no flesh at all, and missing one arm.

[Unpredictable Living Dead: Tier Four, the Ancient Saints who died but did not stiffen, existing in the world with will that surpasses the ordinary, shackled by rules, belonging neither to the Undead nor to humanity, dwelling on the boundary between existence and non-existence.]

Ancient Saints?

So this person was probably one of the Saints that existed before the Great Migration, who survived for reasons unknown.

Previously, he had searched for traces of this person, but found nothing, and yet at this moment the figure suddenly appeared.

At the same time.

High above the World of Heaven, a half‑open Bronze Gate appeared out of thin air, its surface mottled with clear green rust.

"I'll hold him off. You leave this place—the passage out of this world, I've already opened it."

"Hurry! The passage can only last for half a moment."

Starlight leapt around his body, turning into countless Flying Swords that spun and fell like rain from the sky, piercing through Wanfang's gigantic body.

His strength was unimaginably powerful, actually able to contend, to a certain extent, with Wanfang in his current state.

Su Changxing noticed a pitch‑black door appearing directly beneath the Bronze Gate, not far from them.

He had never imagined anyone would come to save him. He looked toward the man and asked, "Who are you? Why would you come to save me?"

"Who am I? As for a name, I should be called Hongjun. Some call me the Guardian of the Dao, others call me the Lost One."

"As for why I'm saving you—is that so hard to understand? And this isn't even the first time I've saved you. I've guarded our world for nearly ten thousand years, and now my heart is willing but my strength is lacking. I see hope in you, so you must not die."

"Go! Leave this to me. Any later and you won't be able to get away—this bastard's strength is only growing."

Wanfang, his body pierced through by ten thousand swords, slowly crawled up from the ground, a strange smile spreading across his face:

"After all these years, you still haven't died?"

Hongjun, carrying a thread of rage, cursed, "Beast, I never should've saved you back then!"

"Hahahaha!" Wanfang's mad laughter echoed through this dead, silent heaven and earth.

Su Changxing mainly just ran with Jin toward that pitch‑black door without looking back.

When he reached the door, he turned to look, only to see an enormous blood‑red hand drag Hongjun down from the sky.

...

"He's dead?" Shen Jinxuan's face showed confusion and unease.

Su Changxing shook his head. "No idea. That man wasn't an ordinary existence to begin with—you can't judge him by dead or Immortal."

He only felt that all of this was far too strange. This man called Hongjun—early or late, he never appeared, yet chose to show himself precisely at this moment.

Passing through that pitch‑black door, they arrived at a bizarre place. There was no light here; it was Darkness, yet they could clearly see the surroundings, and could sense no rules at all.

A Long Bridge built of stone bricks stretched ahead, black river water flowing slowly on both sides, the sound of splashing faintly audible.

"What's that?" Shen Jinxuan looked down at the water's surface and saw shadow‑like things moving upon it, unconsciously shrinking back.

After coming here, Jin, for some unknown reason, naturally fell into slumber.

"Is that a corpse?" Su Changxing looked at the thing and couldn't help but knit his brows.

A corpse with skin and flesh swollen from soaking in the water, yet with eyes still open, fixed on them, its mouth constantly opening and closing as if trying to say something.

[Corpse: dead, yet the soul still lives, bound within the corpse, in a certain sense still alive.]

Shen Jinxuan drew in a breath of cold air. "Then why is it still moving? Is it possessed by something?"

Of the three, her strength was the weakest, but she was still a Tier Eight Extraordinary, a Funeral Director, with little direct combat ability, yet able to Perceive the onset of death—a sort of Foreknowledge Ability.

At this moment, Su Changxing had returned to human form, feeling waves of dizziness in his head—his Spiritual Power was nearly exhausted.

In truth, he had already reached his limit just now. Though he possessed inexhaustible Faith, his own Spiritual Power still had a cap; once it was drained, death would be waiting for him as well.

He'd only forced himself to hold on, not letting Wanfang see the slightest flaw.

Su Changxing observed their surroundings, then thought for a moment and said:

"This place is very strange. Its rules differ greatly from the normal world. Souls here seem not to disperse, but are bound within their bodies."

Shen Jinxuan nodded thoughtfully and turned to look at Su Changxing, feeling that his complexion didn't look good:

"How about we rest here for a while?"

Su Changxing shook his head. "No need. This place may not be safe either. It's weird—I can't Perceive any rules here."

If he couldn't Perceive rules, he couldn't draw on the Power of rules, and thus couldn't form a Domain.

His strength would therefore be heavily restricted.

Extraordinaries above Tier Five were powerful mostly not because of physical Power, but because they could use Spirit to guide rules.

In a place where rules couldn't be used, the gap between High-tier Extraordinaries would narrow, shrinking roughly from the difference between guns and cannons down to bricks and knives.

They walked forward for about ten meters before coming to a fork, a cross‑shaped intersection of bridges. Every bridge looked exactly the same, with no discernible difference, except that at the edge of the bridge directly ahead lay a corpse, already rotted, seemingly dead for a long time.

"Don't go forward!"

That corpse turned its gaze on them and spoke, repeating the words over and over.

Su Changxing approached and stared at him. "What is this place?"

"Don't go forward!"

"Don't go forward!"

He kept repeating it again and again, as if driven by some obsession.

"Looks like their souls haven't dispersed, but their minds have suffered massive damage, almost no self‑awareness left." Su Changxing analyzed aloud.

Shen Jinxuan let out a sigh. "How is that any different from being dead? It's more like a kind of torment, imprisoning the soul in the body. Better to just die outright."

"It is indeed like that." Su Changxing nodded in agreement.

It reminded him of those punishments in the Hell of legend, the torture of souls.

"So which way do we go?" Shen Jinxuan asked.

Su Changxing thought for a moment and said, "Since he warned us not to go forward, then we'll simply not go forward. Let's take the left. There are fewer corpses on the water surface that way—it's probably a bit safer."

Shen Jinxuan hesitated and said, "Or maybe we should go right?"