Chapter 360: Almost Became the Fifth Great Legendary Man

"Hahahaha! You're ruthless!"

The Skin Corpse King let out a burst of laughter, his face becoming increasingly hideous amidst the sound.

"But let me tell you, there is one thing I really didn't lie to you about: as long as I die, that little girl will die too!"

"You probably don't know yet, do you? That little girl is actually the manifestation of the Human Emperor Flag's artifact spirit! It is precisely because I devoured her that I was able to fuse perfectly with the flag surface. If I die, that little girl's consciousness will also completely dissipate!"

The Skin Corpse King wore an expression of unperturbed confidence, even looking at Ye Lin with a hint of provocation.

"Now, do you still dare to kill..."

Before the Skin Corpse King could finish his sentence, Ye Lin had already stomped down heavily, driving his head into the gravel.

"You aren't even professional at lying. As long as the Human Emperor Flag still exists, the artifact spirit cannot die."

Ye Lin's tone was cold, and he stomped down again, flattening the Skin Corpse King's head.

His Eternal Balance had only been half-intact at the time, covered in cracks and on the verge of shattering, yet the artifact spirit inside was perfectly fine. The Human Emperor Flag had only been broken into three pieces; if Xia Qinglan were truly the artifact spirit, how could she possibly die?

Furthermore, the Human Emperor Flag was merely a divine artifact; even if it had been refined to nine stars, whether it could produce an artifact spirit was still up for debate.

Ye Lin was more inclined to believe this was a stalling tactic the Skin Corpse King had come up with to save his own life.

"Are you really not afraid at all that what I said is true?"

The Skin Corpse King looked at the Ye Lin before him in sheer terror; this guy seemed to have no human emotions at all!

"What does it matter if it's true or false? I cannot verify it, and for uncontrollable matters, one must remain optimistic. So, go in peace."

Ye Lin pressed down on the Skin Corpse King's head. At this moment, the Skin Corpse King was incomparably weak and had no ability to resist at all.

As the Endless Devouring was activated, the corpse the Skin Corpse King had used as a host was devoured bit by bit, until in the end, only a layer of human skin remained.

Ye Lin grabbed the human skin with one hand and the surface of the Human Emperor Flag with the other, then pulled with force.

The weak Skin Corpse King seemed to want to resist; the human skin emitted a series of eerie writhing motions, and Ye Lin immediately felt a cold and powerful resistance.

"Oi, brat, I don't have much time left, it's starting to feel a bit hot."

Ye Lin's gaze sharpened, and the demonic purplish-red Karmic Fire emerged from his palm, immediately enveloping the Skin Corpse King.

The Skin Corpse King, now reduced to just the human skin, let out a shrill, miserable scream. He could not withstand the extreme high temperature brought by the Karmic Fire.

"You won't get away either! I can feel it—the aura of a certain lord is approaching this place at high speed. You are dead too!"

Feeling his consciousness dissipating, the Skin Corpse King glared at Ye Lin with venomous hatred, his heart full of resentment and malice almost ready to burst forth.

But in the end, under the burning of the Karmic Fire, he became nothing more than a strange black human skin.

Once the Skin Corpse King's consciousness dissipated, Ye Lin gave a hard tug, and the human skin and the surface of the Human Emperor Flag were separated once more.

Ye Lin examined the flag surface in his hand as if looking at a scroll containing ancient history. The patterns on the flag surface flowed with a faint golden light, and every line seemed to contain scenes of past battles.

Before Ye Lin could examine it any further, a booming explosion occurred, and an indescribably terrifying force struck him. Ye Lin died on the spot, and the barrier formed by the Return to the Underworld of the Dead dissipated completely at this moment.

Just after being reborn, Ye Lin saw a woman.

A woman with purple eyes and black hair, beautiful to the extreme.

A robe as soft as floating catkins was draped casually over her body, outlining the most exquisite curves in the world; the undulations beneath the robe were enough to drive any member of the opposite sex to madness.

The woman walked slowly toward Ye Lin in a lazy yet aesthetic posture, swaying with every step, her crystalline, plump, beautiful legs appearing and disappearing beneath the robe.

The only flaw was that this woman's face was currently filled with ice-cold, bone-chilling killing intent.

"Hehe... Little Soul, long time no see~"

Cold sweat broke out on Ye Lin instantly. When he went all out, he had guessed that he would definitely alert the high-level figures of the Demon Realm, but he hadn't expected the Soul-Devouring Empress to arrive so quickly.

From the moment he went all out to the moment he completely finished off the Skin Corpse King, less than an hour had passed. It was clear that the Soul-Devouring Empress truly hated him and must have started traveling at full speed the moment she received news of him.

"Long? I only remember 5, 21 hours."

The Soul-Devouring Empress spoke coldly, murderous intent exploding in the depths of her eyes.

"Ye Lin, your time of death has arrived!"

"Little Soul, you've already killed me once; shouldn't our business be settled by now?" Facing a Demon with an Imperial-level bloodline, Ye Lin felt a massive headache.

"Don't think I don't know you have the Eternal Balance! What I want is for you to disappear completely from the physical plane!"

On the Soul-Devouring Empress's body, purple demonic energy roiled and steamed like boiling water, twisting and shattering the surrounding space.

In her pair of purple eyes, stars were falling, releasing a terrifying chill.

Ye Lin instantly felt a strong sense of suffocation, as if an invisible giant hand had gripped his throat.

He had a feeling that even if the Skin Corpse King were resurrected at full strength, he probably wouldn't be able to last half an hour in front of the Soul-Devouring Empress.

Before Ye Lin could even react, he felt his vision go black and was obliterated by the Soul-Devouring Empress once again.

At the same time, as the barrier of the Return to the Underworld of the Dead was broken, the Skin Corpses within the Millennium City surged toward Ye Lin in unison.

The massive resentment seemed to materialize at this moment, instantly submerging the newly resurrected Ye Lin.

This resentment originated from the pain and unwillingness of the Skin Corpses when they were skinned alive during their lifetimes. They twisted and coiled like a sticky black tide, crazily tearing at Ye Lin, filled with despair and venom.

Every wisp of resentment was like a carving knife, penetrating every pore, cutting into Ye Lin's will and life force, and incessantly eroding his soul.

The threat these resentments posed to Ye Lin was even greater than that of the Soul-Devouring Empress!

Just then, a faint voice sounded in Ye Lin's ear.

"Xie Hong, just do it for me—wield the Human Emperor Flag against them."

"Please let the banner of the Human Emperor fly once again over the land of the Demon Realm!"

Ye Lin was shocked to his core.

"This voice... are you Xia Qinglan?"

Ye Lin had not expected that the cute girl with the wide eyes was actually the artifact spirit of the Human Emperor Flag!

Damn, that was close!

Upon learning this truth, Ye Lin felt a lingering fear in his heart. Thank goodness, thank goodness he had resisted Xia Qinglan's temptation at the time and hadn't done anything strange to her.

Otherwise, he would have become the fifth great legendary man, following the grass-roots hero Xu Xian, the Immortal Lord Dong Yong, the insect-taming master Luo Shiyi, and the Ghost Rider Ning Caichen.