Dominator Emperor

SPURT— A cultivator cut down several of the dead in a single flurry, but suddenly, a palm-sized spider appeared out of nowhere. It instantly landed on the cultivator’s head. With a CRACK, it bit through his skull and began loudly slurping up his brain matter! The cultivator’s blood-curdling scream echoed through the canyon.

”Kill—!” The master cultivators from this sect had come prepared and were quite powerful. After round after round of fierce assaults, they actually managed to push their way into the canyon.

BUZZ— Just as victory was within their grasp, right as they were about to charge into the canyon, a Treasure Tower suddenly flew up from within it. The tower opened up, like a terrifying black hole or a demon’s maw, and instantly sucked in the cultivators who had rushed in. A cacophony of screams erupted. All the cultivators pulled into the Treasure Tower were instantly refined into a bloody pulp! The Treasure Tower then flew back into the canyon, and all the Earth Corpses retreated without a sound.

In an instant, the entire canyon returned to tranquility. If not for the bloodstains left on the ground, no one would have imagined that a brutal battle had just taken place here.

At this moment, a cold wind blew past. Nan Huairun and the other juniors couldn’t help but shiver. This was the first time they had seen an Earth Corpse use a Treasure Artifact and unleash a Cultivation Technique. They had thought Earth Corpses were just like zombies or puppets!

”There’s at least a Saint Venerable Level Earth Corpse in this canyon.” Shi Gantou looked at the canyon, sighed softly, and said, ”I wonder what kind of treasures or Spiritual Elixirs and Herbs are inside.”

It was only now that Nan Huairun and the other juniors truly realized the power of the Earth Corpses and the terror of the Ancient Sky Corpse Land. This was merely the fringe of the land, yet a group of powerful cultivators had been so easily wiped out. One could only imagine what kind of monstrous and terrifying Earth Corpses existed in the depths of the Ancient Sky Corpse Land.

”What, scared now?” Li Qiye looked at the pale faces of the juniors and said with a smile.

Nan Huairun swallowed, mustered his courage, and said with a chuckle, ”With Senior Brother here, what do we have to fear? We’ll slay any demon and slaughter any god we meet!” As he said this, he couldn’t help but puff out his chest, his courage bolstered.

”Such a suck-up.” Li Qiye smacked him on the back of the head, chiding him with a laugh. Nan Huairun just chuckled.

”Senior Brother, a-are, are we going to trade with the Earth Corpses?” Xu Pei couldn’t help but feel her skin crawl. If Li Qiye hadn’t been there, her legs would have probably turned to jelly.

”No, Earth Corpses don’t trade. We trade with Treasure Lords,” Li Qiye said, shaking his head.

Zhang Yu couldn’t help but ask curiously, ”What’s a Treasure Lord? Is it the master of the Earth Corpses? Does it command them?”

”No.” Li Qiye shook his head. ”A Treasure Lord isn’t the master of the Earth Corpses. To be precise, Earth Corpses don’t have masters. If you had to say they have a master, it would be the Ancient Sky Corpse Land itself. ’Treasure Lord’ is just a cryptic title. In the Ancient Sky Corpse Land, there aren’t just Earth Corpses, but also Treasure Lords and Earth Immortals.”

”Earth Immortals!” Even Chen Baojiao was visibly moved. She asked, ”Are they Immortals? Or Immortals who died here?”

”Neither,” Li Qiye said, gently shaking his head. ”Earth Corpses, Treasure Lords, and Earth Immortals can all be considered dead, but there are differences. Earth Corpses are the most numerous beings in the Ancient Sky Corpse Land. This includes cultivators who have died here, Flying Birds and Beasts, poisonous creatures, and Insect Kings! Once they are transformed by the Corpse Qi, they become Earth Corpses. Earth Corpses have no consciousness and no intelligence; they are merely corpses. However, they are territorial. Anyone who steps into the Ancient Sky Corpse Land will be attacked by them!”

”What about Treasure Lords and Earth Immortals?” At this point, the juniors were all extremely curious. This was the first time they had ever heard such a thing.

”A Treasure Lord refers to a dead person interred in a Fengshui Treasure Land, or a dying person with one breath left who is buried there. Of course, if you bury yourself in the Ancient Sky Corpse Land but choose the wrong spot, you’ll just become an Earth Corpse—a puppet of this place,” Li Qiye explained. ”Those who can find a proper Fengshui Treasure Land to be buried in were all extremely powerful individuals in life, some even on par with Great Sages. They were all influential figures who commanded respect far and wide. Not just anyone can be buried in a treasure land here. To be truly buried in a proper Fengshui Treasure Land, one must be an immensely powerful cultivator.”

”Can one really be reborn if buried in the right Fengshui Treasure Land?” even Li Shuangyan couldn’t help but ask. The Ancient Sky Corpse Land had always been the most yearned-for place for the dying, as all dying experts hoped for a second life.

”Rebirth, another lifetime... that’s far easier said than done,” Li Qiye said with a smile. ”Even in a proper Fengshui Treasure Land, rebirth is difficult. However, if you’re already dead when buried there, you can regain a single breath of life, as if resurrected. Of course, it’s still just that—one breath. The longer you’re buried, the longer you can ’breathe.’ With the passage of time, you can recover a little bit of Blood Qi. But true rebirth is another story. It might take tens of millions of years of burial just to nurture a small amount of life, say, for eight or ten years. Now, if you bury yourself *before* you’re completely dead, your chances are a bit better.”

”So there is a chance for rebirth if you’re buried in the right Fengshui Treasure Land,” Chen Baojiao said, her expression stirred.

Li Qiye nodded. ”In principle, yes. But the odds are smaller than stumbling upon an Immortal Emperor True Artifact. You need to be buried in a Fengshui Treasure Land for millions, even tens of millions of years, just to nurture a tiny bit of life. Gaining eight to ten years of lifespan would already be an incredibly heaven-defying feat. And it’s not like your burial is permanent. A heaven-defying expert could barge in, dig you up, and steal your treasures. Or, someone else might covet your Fengshui Treasure Land, dig you up, and bury themselves in your place! So, for a Treasure Lord to be resurrected, the difficulty is unimaginable!”

”This means that the places where Treasure Lords are buried are all set up with incredibly powerful measures—be it arrays, killing formations, or defenses—to stop later generations from excavating their Fengshui Treasure Land,” Li Shuangyan murmured.

”That’s right. Also, if you really do try to excavate a Fengshui Treasure Land and the Treasure Lord is pushed to the brink, it will climb out to kill the intruder. However, unless they have absolutely no other choice, they won’t easily emerge to kill. Doing so would make their millions of years of effort go down the drain,” Li Qiye nodded and said.

Hearing this, the juniors couldn’t help but feel a chill run down their spines. Someone dead for so long could still climb out to kill.

”If they had to be buried for tens of millions of years just to recover a bit of life, why didn’t they take Longevity Medicine when they were alive? Can’t Longevity Medicine extend one’s lifespan?” Xu Pei asked, somewhat naively.

”You think they didn’t take them when they were alive?” Li Qiye said with a laugh. ”For great figures like them, they probably consumed every single life-extending thing they could get their hands on! Longevity Medicine isn’t a panacea. The more you take, the weaker its effects become, until it’s completely useless. If they weren’t at a dead end, who would be willing to bury themselves in a place like this?”

”Then what about Earth Immortals?” Luo Fenghua couldn’t help but ask curiously. ”What are they?”

”In essence, Earth Immortals are the same as Treasure Lords,” Li Qiye said. ”However, Earth Immortals are even more terrifying. They are buried in Dragon Caves. In principle, an Earth Immortal’s chance of resurrection is greater than a Treasure Lord’s. Those who can become Earth Immortals are unimaginably terrifying figures. They might have even been invincible existences in their own eras, symbols of absolute authority! What’s even more frightening is that an Earth Immortal can command the followers or subordinates buried with them. When an Earth Immortal becomes unbelievably powerful, they can even command the Earth Corpses!”

”I’ve heard legends like that,” Niu Fen couldn’t help but murmur. ”It is said that before the Age of Emperors, an invincible titan on par with an Immortal Emperor buried himself in a Dragon Cave. Whether he actually became an Earth Immortal or not is unknown.”

The juniors were all horrified. An existence on par with an Immortal Emperor... even if not as strong as a true Immortal Emperor, it would still be a being capable of annihilating the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands with a single hand. How terrifying was that!

”So, in the Ancient Sky Corpse Land, the Earth Corpses are the lowest level, then Treasure Lords, and the strongest are the Earth Immortals,” Chen Baojiao said.

”That’s both right and wrong,” Li Qiye said. ”An Earth Corpse isn’t necessarily the weakest being. There have been invincible-level figures who tried to break into the deepest part of the Ancient Sky Corpse Land, only to fail and become puppets of this place, transforming into Earth Corpses. When such an Earth Corpse appears, forget Treasure Lords—even Earth Immortals would have to give them a wide berth!”

After hearing Li Qiye’s explanation, the juniors finally had a general concept of the beings within the Ancient Sky Corpse Land.

”Senior Brother, then why are we trading with Treasure Lords and not Earth Immortals?” Xu Pei asked curiously.

”Earth Immortals won’t work.” Li Qiye gently shook his head. ”A dead being that has reached the level of an Earth Immortal won’t easily trade with people, unless it’s through sacrificial offerings. Besides, we can’t even reach the places where Earth Immortals are buried. Although I have this Ancient Celestial Robe for protection, as things stand now, you all wouldn’t be able to endure long enough to reach their hiding places. You would be tainted by the Corpse Qi.”

”The Treasure Lords are already buried. Will they really climb out to trade with us?” Chen Baojiao also found this incredible.

”Whether it’s Treasure Lords or Earth Immortals, being buried here is the same as being dead. They are all slumbering. Although they have some consciousness, most of the time they exist in a muddled state. However, certain things can awaken them, and they will be more than willing to climb out and trade with us.”

At this point, Li Qiye smiled. ”Follow me closely. Stay right behind me, no more than half a foot away. Don’t stray. And remember, when I’m making the trade, you are not to speak. Otherwise, you’d better be careful not to die here.” With that, he stepped into the Ancient Sky Corpse Land.

Li Shuangyan and the others’ hearts tightened. Not daring to be careless, they formed two lines and followed closely behind Li Qiye.