Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

"Bing Yun!" Bing He cried. Her emotions immediately sunk into an abyss of sorrow, regret, and blistering rage!

Bing Yun was her younger cousin, and he was only here to operate one of the coffins. With his death, she would have no way to explain this to her aunt and uncle after they return. Her gaze that seemed to spew fire and lava turned towards Yan Zaizen. It contained unfathomable hatred and desire to consume flesh.

"YOU!" She bared her teeth with madness. The others also had rage swell in their eyes and their auras radiating like the fiercest of fires.

However, Yan Zaizen only chuckled in response. They wanted to trap him, kill him, and take the things he possessed. Was he supposed to not retaliate? What type of mentality did she have? Those who're willing to kill should be ready and willing to be killed.

To Yan Zaizen who grew up in the Xiantu Realm, especially in Presba, murderous conflict was common and often between both humans and beasts, but in grand realms such as this, deaths were relatively uncommon amongst top-tier powers. Especially within the realm itself. After all, each power likely was interconnected to an even greater power.

This left few willing to directly offend their backers, and at most, they would capture and subject them to compensation rather than slaughter. Typically, and this was a more common aspect, the internal conflict would lead to killing than external conflict.

"UNLEASH THEM!" She bellowed, forming a strange handseal once more. However, as the soul energy attempted to affect Yan Zaizen's senses, his soul energy surged combating its influence immediately.

"I may be interested in what you all can unleash, but I'm not going to stand here and be a punching bag!" His eyes filled with killing intent. Initially, he didn't wish to directly kill anyone, but now that he had done so, it would be impossible to avoid any consequences. Hefting Sky Shatter, he moved his body towards Bing He.

Bing He saw this, her eyes that were filled with madness suffused with a hint of caution and fear suddenly. She was a third-floor Heavenly Genesis cultivator, but she was fearful of Sky Shatter. In the entire Sirius Titan Realm, there wouldn't be a single person who was ignorant of its legacy. The fact it was being wielded so easily in Yan Zaizen's hands left her slightly reeling in shock, but also an intense greed welled inside her heart.

If she could obtain Sky Shatter, with her Gigantus bloodline, she could immediately take a step towards elites!

She changed her handseal, performing several in succession, and profound soul energy radiated outwards. Yan Zaizen felt a sudden sting in his soul, but it vanished as quickly as it erupted. "A soul attack?" Startled, Yan Zaizen understood what happened.

His unique soul form had been under attack but had immediately devoured the energy that struck it. He could only feel the soul energy he used to dispel the previous illusions had already recovered. "Hahaha!" With a mad laugh, he felt enlivened.

To him, soul attacks were inconsequential!

Unfortunately, illusions can still affect him.

Witnessing Yan Zaizen not hindered by a single second from her attack, she started to panic. Retreating, she pulled the mountain-sized, grey coffin towards her side. The other coffins stopped functioning in a formation. However, this was before.

An ominous sound resounded that was like crows dying in a violent storm.

"What?" Turning around, Yan Zaizen felt shocked. The coffins were vibrating intensely, like something within wanted to explode outwards seeking freedom and rebirth. "Could these coffins actually have bodies in them?" Questioning, he became more vigilant.

The other six experts, with madness in their eyes, slammed their palms atop the coffins in unison. Their heavenly might and vital energy surged into the coffins without concern. It was as if they were even dumping their very vitality into the coffins. As someone who cultivated life law, Yan Zaizen could see lifeforce energy being sent into the coffins.

"This?!" He could feel that the six members suddenly grow older, but their appearance didn't change. That being said, they must've lost at least ten thousand years of their lives in utilizing this art.

CREAK!!

The coffin lids opened like a door to the netherworld. A deathly aura permeated the surroundings. The expressions of all the onlookers turned solemn, and Yan Zaizen furrowed his brows. This deathly aura was something he was completely familiar with.

"Rebirth Arts?" Pinaka's voice was filled with uncertainty, but she immediately added, "Reanimation Arts!"

Reanimation Arts?

They were arts that utilized lifeforce energy to temporarily bring back a corpses functionality. Yan Zaizen had refined a corpse into a puppet, but it was fundamentally different. Reanimation arts were a divine-class art because the cost was one's own lifeforce, not just energy. Not only that, you could restore a corpse to carry some semblance of its abilities and consciousness.

"Hmph! Idiots!" Yan Zaizen saw this and couldn't help but coldly snort. He ignored Bing He, dashing towards the six gigantic corpses. He could feel their vital energy stored in their bodies erupt with an unprecedented intensity. If he had to estimate, each of these corpses was at rank-five Fiendgods!

As he appraised the corpses, he felt a tinge of danger in his heart. "Does this mean, my instincts suggest a rank-five Fiendgod corpse can pose danger to me?" As he calmly analyzed, his eyes flickered with an inky, black light that seemed to embody death itself.

Herculean Avatar Art: Death Form!

Yan Zaizen's body was etched in profound inscriptions that radiated a deathly aura. He took a breath. The spatial void siphoned into his lungs. The deathly aura strengthened.

"If I didn't comprehend life and death, this would actually pose a threat, but now?" He approached the first gigantus corpse, it had the size of a mountain, and it took action. The wielder of this corpse stood atop its head, performing a handseal, it seemed to have established a connection. The cultivator merged into the corpse's head.

"Oh?" Finding this intriguing, Yan Zaizen could suddenly feel the corpse come to life. With its gigantic hands that could collapse hills, it smashed towards Yan Zaizen with a palm.

Keeping Sky Shatter, Yan Zaizen extended his arms to intercept the incoming palm. It smashed heavily into his body. A booming sound reverberated in the surrounding space, if normal cultivators beneath the heavenly path were nearby, they would immediately lose their hearing.

"That lifeforce you injected into this corpse, I must thank you. It'll be a delicious meal!" With a malicious smile, he breathed in, and then the world seemed to be siphoned inwardly as space was drawn into it. However, the lifeforce infused in the corpse seemed to be especially targeted. It was wrenched away like candy from a baby, being pulled out in white wisps of energy, and entering Yan Zaizen's nostrils.

"NO!" A voice resounded in the gigantus corpse. The head exploded violently as the cultivator darted out with a panicked rush. The others were shocked. White wisps were being pulled from his body as well, flowing into Yan Zaizen's nostrils.

"MORE!" Breathing in more, the deathly aura extended to shroud the cultivator and corpse, and siphoned ruthlessly all that was within its space - especially lifeforce. The cultivator started to visibly age.

"What the!" The other witnesses couldn't help but reel. They knew death laws could deteriorate lifeforce, drain vitality, or even terminate life itself, but never had they seen a concept where death absorbed life! When the cultivator finally escaped the deathly shroud, by igniting his heavenly shrine, he seemed to have aged by thirty years.

To heavenly cultivators, this likely meant he lost fifty to sixty thousand years of life. As for the corpse, its entire existence was being siphoned. Its flesh, bones, stale blood, and remnant soul were being siphoned into Yan Zaizen's nostrils.

They watched as, in three seconds, the entirety of this rank-five Fiendgod corpse was absorbed.

The deathly aura around Yan Zaizen increased, by the shroud didn't. Purposefully keeping it restricted, Yan Zaizen could feel the limitations when he battled Yu Shi no longer existed. Before, Yan Zaizen couldn't utilize the death form as much as he wanted, when it siphoned a certain amount, it would immediately enter life soul form. However, it didn't so now.

His eyes were no longer dark-amber, but inky, black color that seemed to desire the very heavens. He felt immense power well in his body, but there was no more resistance from the concepts. It was as if it was tamed, or at least, it became obedient.

"Is this the effect of the Sky Opening Gate?" He deeply questioned. In truth, it was. After removing the limitations of the heavens from his body, the regalia were no longer independent concepts but thoroughly merged within him without restriction. Therefore, his forms no longer had limitations or acted without his will.

He smacked his lips as the inky, black deathly aura surged in his body felt extraordinary. It was as if he was death itself and all those before him must await their judgment.

His black eyes turned towards the other corpses with immense desire and greed within.

"I think I'll have another, please!"