Chapter 1158: Netherworld Lord

Just then, Han Wuxian suddenly felt that, at the edge of this lifeless star‑tomb void, an icy, lifeless yet immeasurably vast will, like an invisible tide, slowly seeped in! That will was filled with greed for vitality and covetousness for the buried, its strength far surpassing the Heaven Slaughter Sect Master and that Guide Envoy, even making him feel that the star‑robed figure before him was……unfathomably deep!

The Netherworld Dao's Ferry has arrived! And its strength far exceeds imagination!

No time to hesitate!

Han Wuxian bowed deeply to the star‑robed figure: 'Thank you, senior, for your guidance! If I do not die, I will surely repay this kindness!'

Having said that, he no longer hesitated, his Return to the Void Sword Origin operating at full power, resisting the spatial pressure of this place, he struggled to fly toward that 'Void Flow' crystal coffin!

Flight was extremely difficult, as if moving through sticky glue. Behind him, that icy will grew ever clearer, as if some colossal entity were trying to squeeze into this star‑tomb space!

The star‑robed figure stood still in place, holding that dim yellow lamp, watching Han Wuxian fly toward the crystal coffin, and also toward the icy will seeping in from the void's edge; on his blurred face no expression could be seen.

Finally, Han Wuxian reached the crystal coffin. Upon approaching, he discovered that the coffin's surface indeed bore an extremely fine spatial rift, constantly opening and closing, flashing with dangerous lightning!

Beyond the rift lay violent, chaotic spacetime turbulence, yet faintly he could sense a hint……of a familiar world's aura?

This is the place!

He finally glanced back at the star‑robed figure, only to see it still standing there silently, like an ancient monument. At the void's edge, a colossal black bone claw forged purely of Netherworld Death Qi had torn open space and was slowly reaching inward!

Han Wuxian hesitated no longer; gritting his teeth, he exerted all his strength, turning into a streak of light, and fiercely plunged into that dangerous spatial rift!

At the instant his figure vanished, the huge Netherworld bone claw seemed to pause, then erupted with even more terrifying fury, accelerating its grasp toward the crystal coffin!

Just then, the star‑robed figure finally moved.

He lightly raised the dim yellow bronze lamp in his hand.

The lamp's light seemed a trifle brighter than before.

The light shone upon that Netherworld bone claw.

There was no earth‑shaking explosion, no violent clash of laws.

That immeasurably huge Netherworld bone claw, exuding an aura of world‑annihilation, at the moment it touched the lamp's light, like a sketch erased by a rubber, began silently from the fingertips……and dissipated.

Along with that icy will behind it, it let out a low, startled‑angry grunt, as if burned, and swiftly recoiled, the torn space quickly sealing.

The star tomb returned to lifeless silence once more.

The star‑robed figure slowly lowered the lamp, as if nothing had happened. He silently gazed at the crystal coffin where Han Wuxian had vanished, remained silent for a long while, then let out a barely audible sigh, dissipating in place.

……

Violent spatial tearing sensations struck again!

This time, it was fiercer than when passing through the bronze giant gate! It felt as if body and soul were about to be completely torn apart by different spacetime dimensions!

Han Wuxian clung desperately to a sliver of clarity at his spirit platform, fully activating the Patrol Star Torch to shield himself, his Return to the Void Sword Origin running wildly, resisting the storm of chaotic laws.

No one knows how long passed, but just as he felt he was about to be utterly lost in the spacetime turbulence, the pressure around his body suddenly lightened!

Plop!

He fell heavily to the ground, intense pain sweeping through his whole body.

He struggled to lift his head, familiar thin and chaotic spiritual qi, familiar air tinged with poison miasma, familiar dim sky……

Before him lay the familiar yet perilous terrain of the Burial Star Ridge!

He had returned! Indeed, he had passed through that spatial rift and come back to the Heavenly Firmament Realm, somewhere in the Burial Star Ridge!

However, before he could catch his breath, an extremely intense spatial surge erupted behind him!

Hum!

A pitch‑black spatial gate, forged of Netherworld Death Qi, violently tore open space not far from him and was forced open!

Within, angry winds howled, ghostly shadows overlapped! A terrifying pressure, tens to hundreds of times stronger than that Guide Envoy, surged forth like a tsunami!

An icy, angry voice bearing supreme majesty emanated from within, echoing across the entire mountain range:

"Torch‑thieving villain! You destroyed my avatar and dare to flee back to this realm!"

"I, the helmsman of the 'Netherworld Ferry', the Seven Kill Netherworld Lord, have personally arrived! See where you can still flee!"

The true overlord of the Netherworld Dao, sparing no expense, had forcibly locked onto his position and crossed realms to pursue him!

Han Wuxian's face instantly turned ashen as paper!

The icy deathly pressure crashed down like a billion‑ton iceberg! The newly escaped Han Wuxian didn't even have time to clear his surroundings; his bones groaned under the strain, and his fledgling God Transformation cultivation was as insignificant as an ant before this cross‑realm terror!

He snapped his head up, only to see, not far away, within the Netherworld gate torn open by force, endless ghostly shadows roiling, a vast indistinct form condensed of pure Netherworld Death Qi, too huge for words, slowly emerging from within! Its gaze, like the coldest ice‑needle, locked firmly on him and on the Patrol Star Torch in his arms that had just burst forth with intense azure radiance!

Seven Kill Netherworld Lord! Helmsman of the Netherworld Ferry! His power absolutely surpasses God Transformation, likely a terrifying existence of Void Refinement or even Union stage! Even with his strength limited by the cross‑realm passage, his pressure is far beyond what a newly advanced God Transformation Han Wuxian can bear!

"Ant! Hand over the Immortal Treasure and bind your own soul!" The Netherworld Lord's voice, like a myriad of ghosts wailing, directly tore at his soul, shaking his sea of consciousness until his vision darkened and he spat another mouthful of blood!

Flee! He must flee immediately, or else in the next second both body and spirit would be annihilated!

Han Wuxian's eyes flashed with unprecedented resolve and madness! He didn't even think of resisting—that would be suicide! His only chance for survival was to exploit the moment when the opponent, having crossed realms, still had an unstable spatial channel, and flee once more!

And the direction of his escape……

His gaze swept fiercely downward to the familiar Burial Star Ridge below! He looked at the pervasive seven‑color poison miasma, and far off at the bottomless Starfall Sinkhole!

There, the Heaven Slaughter Sect had long operated a nest that polluted the stellar core, the source of the Rebirth Stream, and the place where the clash of Samsara law and stellar power was most intense! It was also……the most chaotic, best able to conceal aura, and perhaps able to borrow power to muddy the waters!

"Want it? Take it!"

Han Wuxian let out a hoarse roar, not aimed at the Netherworld Lord but at the Burial Star Ridge beneath his feet! He took an extremely daring action, hoisting the Patrol Star Torch high in his arms—not to attack, but to violently smash the immense stellar purification power within the lamp onto the ground below, toward the direction of the Starfall Sinkhole!

"Star Torch! Burn away the filth!"

Boom!!

The Patrol Star Torch's light blazed unprecedentedly fierce, like a fallen azure sun, slamming violently into the ground of the Burial Star Ridge! Pure, vast stellar power surged like the most violent flood into the earth's veins, following the evil arrays the Heaven Slaughter Sect had opened to draw out the stellar core, rushing wildly toward the polluted massive stellar fragments at the sinkhole's bottom!

Zizzle!!

Like pouring boiling oil on snow! The stellar purification power clashed violently with the Nine Netherworld Filth that had accumulated for untold years, an unprecedented fierce conflict! The entire Burial Star Ridge shuddered violently! Countless arrays laid by the Heaven Slaughter Sect overloaded and shattered at once! The earth split with huge fissures, and the seven‑color poison miasma boiled over and surged forth like boiling water!

What's more terrifying, the polluted stellar fragments at the sinkhole's bottom, apparently enraged by this sudden, same‑origin yet pure force, erupted with the resentment and deathly power of myriad ages, mixing with the purified filth to form an indescribable, destructive energy torrent that shot skyward!

At the same time, Han Wuxian ruthlessly drove a sliver of the Samsara Sword Intent he had just grasped but not yet mastered, mixed with his own Return to the Void Origin, like a poisonous thorn, viciously stabbing into the earth beneath his feet, aiming at the faintly sensed law conduit leading to the Rebirth Stream!

"Rebirth Stream! Rise!"

He is playing with fire! He is simultaneously detonating the pollution of the stellar core, the reincarnation law of the Rebirth Gully, and the purifying power of the Star-patrolling Torch! He intends to turn the entire Burial Star Ridge into a thorough energy dead zone!

"You're courting death!" The Seven Killing Netherworld Monarch of the Netherworld Sect was both shocked and furious! He never expected this ant to be so crazy, actually wanting to destroy this land of fallen stars that his Netherworld Dao has long coveted! That burst of Chaos energy turbulence, even for him it poses quite a threat, and more importantly, it completely disrupted his divine sense lock!

Now!

In the one-ten-thousandth of an instant when the monarch was slightly restrained by the earth-shaking energy blast from below and a sliver of opening appeared in his divine sense.

Han Wuxian ignited! Not a metaphor, but true ignition! He ignited the just-solidified Transformation Spirit Dao Foundation, ignited a portion of his soul source, and even did not hesitate to draw a wisp of the Xunjing Torch's primal star fire! Turning everything into a pure-to-the-extreme, extreme-speed-pursuing… evasion light!