Northern Plains.
Autumn Blade Plains.
A Gu Immortal walked barefoot across the grassland.
He was burly, his skin bearing a red-copper hue. He wore a vest that left his shoulders exposed, with his trouser legs rolled up to reveal his calves.
Every step he took left behind footprints formed of blood.
His name was Meng Tu.
A quasi-grandmaster of the Blade Dao, a Seventh Transformation Gu Immortal, a peak combatant—one of the top three strongest among the Meng Family's Seventh Transformation cultivators!
To break through to a higher realm in the Blade Dao, Meng Tu had volunteered to guard Autumn Blade Plains. Emulating the Human Ancestor, he spent his days in bitter seclusion, barely concerning himself with worldly affairs.
He was silent as iron, walking step by step across Autumn Blade Plains, eyes shut, brow slightly furrowed, contemplating the ultimate truths of the Blade Dao.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes!
Waves of ghosts surged toward him, howling with bloodcurdling screams.
These ghosts were terrifying and ghastly—largely humanoid, but grotesque and hideous. Blue faces with protruding fangs, clawed hands like blades, and every pair of eyes brimming with blood-red killing intent. The dense murderous aura made every hair on Meng Tu's body stand on end.
"What the hell are these things?!" Meng Tu was both shocked and furious.
He clashed with the ghosts and was horrified to discover that every single one of them possessed Seventh Transformation combat strength!
Even at his peak Seventh Transformation power, facing this endless, unceasing tide of ghost attacks, he had no choice but to fall back.
But just as he was about to retreat, the ghosts attacking him suddenly detonated themselves.
This development completely exceeded Meng Tu's expectations and genuinely caught him off guard.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ghosts self-destructed one after another with immense force. Meng Tu vomited blood and blasted backward.
"These ghosts attack in coordinated formations—strict discipline, flawless cooperation. A Gu Immortal must be controlling them from behind! But whether it's Soul Path or Slave Path, I can't tell!"
A heavy shadow fell over Meng Tu's heart. He was about to send an urgent message to his clan for reinforcements when suddenly the heaven and earth underwent a drastic transformation.
By the time Meng Tu came to his senses, he was already trapped inside an Immortal battlefield.
"What kind of Immortal battlefield is this?! It was deployed so quickly?!" A flash of horror crossed Meng Tu's eyes.
Through all the fighting, he hadn't even caught a glimpse of his opponent's true face.
"Who exactly are you, and why are you making things difficult for my Meng Family?" Meng Tu shouted.
The mastermind behind the scenes, Fang Yuan, chuckled softly but paid him no attention. Instead, he began channeling the Soul-Losing Seal.
Fang Yuan lacked Wu Yong's concealment methods. The moment he started channeling the Soul-Losing Seal, storm clouds gathered and a towering, overwhelming aura swept across the entire Yamaraja Battlefield.
His position was thus exposed.
Meng Tu's blade-sharp gaze immediately swept over, and he saw that Fang Yuan was an unremarkable Gu Immortal in a plain gray robe—utterly ordinary, the sort of person who would vanish in a crowd.
But Fang Yuan's aura in that moment shook Meng Tu to his core.
Meng Tu was even somewhat bewildered: "He's clearly only at peak Seventh Transformation cultivation—so how can he drive an Eighth Transformation killing move?"
In truth, the Soul-Losing Seal was only quasi-Eighth Transformation. Its aura was terrifying, yes, but Fang Yuan currently lacked Eighth Transformation Immortal Essence, so the version he was wielding had been significantly trimmed down.
Meng Tu gritted his teeth and charged at Fang Yuan.
The Gu Immortals of the Northern Plains were just this fierce and fearless!
Fang Yuan chuckled lightly, perfectly composed, as though Meng Tu didn't even exist.
Large numbers of humanoid Yamaraja ghosts materialized, throwing themselves recklessly into Meng Tu's path to block him.
The sheer number of Yamaraja ghosts drove Meng Tu to despair!
Fang Yuan's Soul-Losing Seal finished charging, and he struck from afar.
Under the relentless pressure of the Yamaraja ghosts, Meng Tu blocked left and dodged right but couldn't evade in time. The Soul-Losing Seal struck him squarely.
In an instant, a deathly gray pallor spread across his face.
He was dead.
His soul had completely dissipated—not a wisp remained.
Fang Yuan cleared the battlefield.
Meng Tu's physical body was perfectly intact. His Immortal aperture remained, along with the massive cultivation resources stored within it and three Immortal Gu.
In his previous life, when Meng Tu had self-destructed, Fang Yuan had only obtained a single Blade Wing Immortal Gu. This time, his harvest was far more generous.
After dissolving the Yamaraja Battlefield, Fang Yuan proceeded to scour the entirety of Autumn Blade Plains.