Tianming had thought Qing Ming’s corpse was splitting in half, but that actually wasn't the case. It seemed like the green bubble from before was merely a layer that covered his body. After molting it off, his body still seemed complete. Tianming saw that he now wore a green battle armor with fifteen tribulation patterns.
However, the main key was still the hunk of green flesh that had split off from his body—it rapidly grew until it was about ten meters tall, the entire length of which was covered in festering green boils. When they burst apart, the stench in the area intensified tenfold. Tianming's innards were writhing from the scent and pain. Even the Dragonhide and Infernal Armor weren't able to prevent it from permeating his nostrils!
"What in the world is this?!" Tianming asked, his brows furrowed in pain.
"Greenwater Ghoul Art. Have you heard of it?" Qing Ming smirked coldly as he stood beside the gigantic lump of flesh with the Greensky Ghostscythe in hand. Now that the boils were separated from his actual body, he didn't seem ugly at all. In fact, one could tell that he had looked rather handsome in his youth.
"Nope," Tianming said, shaking his head.
"You're pretty young, after all. This is one of the most impressive demonic arts in Nonahall. Naturally, your lot calls these forbidden arts."
Qing Ming stroked the boil-ridden flesh with a look of satisfaction. This was a special art that was separate from cultivation-based arts. For instance, the Godsoul Canon was one such special art, as well as the Purple Blood-Imprint, which Mu Qingqing from way back had used.
"I've spent three centuries killing people and gathering their bile, which I swallowed for my cultivation. I’ve literally tasted all the bitterness the world has to offer and cultivated this greenwater ghoul within me. It’s as strong as I am."
"So it's basically a clone?"
"Looks like you aren’t a total idiot after all."
"This world is filled with all sorts of mysteries. It looks like special techniques like these are comparable to battle arts."
"You're wrong. The arcane nature of these techniques are always superior to battle arts! Battle arts are mere tricks, while these hidden arts form the true basis of power!"
"I appreciate the lecture."
"No need. Make sure to study up more in your next life." As he spoke, the green blob formed into a human shape that was more than ten meters tall. It was covered in boils and stank to the high heavens. Then, the greenwater ghoul charged toward Tianming with its fist raised. The terrifying stench caused Tianming's guts to churn. He vomited quite a bit and felt rather weakened.
"Fuck off!" He attacked with tribulation sword ki, immediately cutting the ghoul in two. "Is that it?"
It felt a little too easy. As expected, the split flesh fused together once more and followed up with a punch. Meow Meow used Misty Hellthunder and turned into a vortex of black lightning, then rammed into the ghoul and sent it flying, allowing Tianming to avoid the strike. However, Qing Ming now charged at him.
"Li Tianming, you’re just a wee child. What right do you have to act so arrogantly before a ghoul king?!" Qing Ming roared as he slashed down with his scythe. At the same time, the undying greenwater ghoul charged in once more, its stench still overbearing and intoxicating. It burst into countless small meaty warts, each one forming mouths that threatened to bite Tianming. The gruesome sight and smell would make anyone's bones curl. Thankfully, Meow Meow made it in time and used Myriad Thundernet to wrap around Tianming, as it wasn't able to stop all the little warts. The next instant, Tianming's Animacorpus Eradication cut all the little pieces into smithereens, only for them to reform again.
It's practically unkillable! His head began hurting from all the frustration and the smell, which gave the ghoul king an opportunity. The scythe lashed out with all sorts of techniques, putting heavy pressure on Tianming. Now, even the Dragonhide's power seemed to wane. Even the weakest ghoul king is so hard to deal with! Perhaps fire will have more of an effect on him than lightning?
Just as Tianming was about to have Ying Huo come over, the greenwater ghoul suddenly turned toward Meow Meow, smashing directly against it and swallowing it whole. Then, countless black lightning bolts burst out from within the greenwater ghoul, but the mound of flesh seemed to be tearing Meow Meow's body apart and invading it at a faster rate.
"Your lifebound beast should be rather nutritious. I'll let it become one with my greenwater ghoul," Qing Ming mocked, his voice ringing from all directions.
Meow Meow was in serious danger! Even if it turned into a Regal Chaosfiend now, it wouldn't be able to shake off the greenwater ghoul. The sight of it sent Tianming into a furious rage. Ying Huo and Lan Huang also witnessed the sight.
"Cat Bro!" Xian Xian immediately teared up and asked Tianming, "Can I eat that flesh?"
"Of course! But it smells so bad and looks disgusting…." The greenwater ghoul really reminded him of nothing but disgust.
"No, it smells good!" Xian Xian said in the purest of voices.
Tianming figured that plants probably had a different sense of taste than animals. "Quick, go then!"
Before he even gave that order, Xian Xian spread out eighty percent of her black roots to surround the greenwater ghoul, piercing it and trapping it completely.
"Careful, don't eat your Cat Bro!" Tianming reminded it.
"I won't. Cats taste too bad!" Xian Xian proudly proclaimed.
Tianming widened his eyes and his heart rate increased. He had underestimated the power of Qing Ming, but it seemed that Xian Xian was a good match against the greenwater ghoul. He figured that if lightning didn't work on it, fire probably wouldn't either. However, the moment the roots penetrated its lumpy flesh, Tianming saw it visibly shake, and even heard its shriek of pain. It was now basically a lump of lifeless flesh.
Soon, the greenwater ghoul began to shrink at a rate visible to the naked eye. Meow Meow quickly burrowed out from what remained of the flesh, covered entirely in green goo.
"Cat Bro, are you alright?" Xian Xian anxiously asked.
"It smells so bad!" Meow Meow shrieked. The fact that it was still able to complain so loudly probably meant that it was still fine. Xian Xian had come to the rescue rather quickly, all the while still holding the locusts back with its other roots.
"What in the world is this?!" Qing Ming began to panic at the sight of the shrinking greenwater ghoul. Immediately, he readied his scythe to slash down at the roots.
"Qing Ming, you old fool!" Tianming and Meow Meow blocked off all of Qing Ming's escape routes. He wanted to make sure he killed Qing Ming while the Dragonhide was still active. There was no way he would let the ghoul king touch Xian Xian.
"I'll make sure you become a ghoul for real today!"
While Qing Ming had shown him how powerful a ghoul king could be, Tianming now had the upper hand, thanks to Xian Xian consuming the greenwater ghoul.
"Go!"
Fueled by anger, Meow Meow used its Ninefold Chaos Thunderscape a few times over, saving up lots of lightning and sending it all straight toward the ghoul king at once! The crackling bolts of lightning spread out and trapped the ghoul king in Misty Hellthunder, then Soulchasing Hellthunder entered his body and sped toward his heart. At the same time, Tianming used the Soulshaker Eye. Within an instant, the surroundings turned dark, leaving only a red eye with a diameter of thousands of kilometers within Qing Ming's field of vision.
"You think you can confuse me with your little tricks?" Qing Ming took the lightning strikes and cut open Misty Hellthunder with his scythe, then swept it toward Tianming. Then, he executed the Ninehells Darkriver Slash. His scythe left a hellish flowing river in its wake, instantly lowering the surrounding temperature. His eyes were completely fixed on Tianming.
"Sorry, but I think my little tricks will take your life!" Tianming combined the two Grand-Orient Swords into a greatsword. Then, lightning crackled beside him, making his hair and clothes flutter as he used the Ninesky Beastsoul Formation. With the power of lightning around him, he advanced like a ball of explosive electricity. Countless lightning bolts gathered around his sword, making it glow magnificently. Then the apparitions of nine great beasts exploded forth from the sword and formed a nonagonal formation fueled by chaos lightning.
Lightning and sword ki blended together and formed an explosive combination. The power of Tianming's strike overpowered the ghoul king, seemingly overcoming the limit set by Kilostar Domain as space itself seemed to bend and tear.
"Impossible!" the ghoul king raged, wearing an expression of disbelief. At that instant, Meow Meow’s Soulchasing Hellthunder finally reached his heart. Even though it wasn't able to destroy the organ, it was still enough to numb his entire body, which made him all the weaker, especially since he had just used a forbidden technique.
"Die!"
The might of the sword formation shattered the river formed by the scythe and sent the weapon flying before piercing through the tribulation artifact armor. Then, the sword lopped off the ghoul king's head. As the head went flying, Meow Meow bit onto it.
"No, no!" Qing Ming was still shrieking in fear and clinging to his sorry life. He was someone who feared dying by nature. But now that he no longer had the greenwater ghoul, he wasn't able to weather Tianming and Meow Meow's combined assault at all. A fifth-level life phase samsaran defeating an eleventh-level life phase ghoul king was analogous to a newborn infant defeating a strongman! If word of this spread, the Flameyellow Continent would be shaken like never before.
No matter how important Ye Bodhi had been, he couldn't possibly be compared to a ghoul king. Qing Ming was at least on the level of Xuanyuan Dao and Jian Wuyi, yet he was gone for good. As his consciousness began fading, he witnessed an even more despairing sight: the greenwater ghoul he’d created had been cleanly eaten up by Xian Xian, and the abdomen of his greenvoid skydevourer exploded. A little bird covered in green blood burst out of it in fiery glory. They had all died at the same time!
"Old ghoul, I admit you were tens of thousands of times stronger than I am. However, my comrades and I are the ones who’ll be sending you to the Yellow Springs!"
Those were the last words Qing Ming heard. How could this happen?! He had even used the Greenwater Ghoul Art, and his victory should have been guaranteed. Yet he had still lost in the end! Though, to be fair, he had only really lost because the Radix World Tree happened to be a perfect counter for his greenwater ghoul.
When the dust settled, Tianming took the ghoul king's belongings. He was no longer afraid that someone would be able to track him down as a result.
"I just killed… a ghoul king…." Holding the head of the ghoul king in his hands still felt unreal to him. It was as if he was still dreaming. "This is totally insane…. I wonder if Ling'er and the rest will get wind of this? The Kilostar Domain is crazy!"
If it weren’t for this place, there was no way he would have been able to achieve something so miraculous. "If I have a chance to send Xue Yi to the afterlife, too, it'll be even better! It's a shame that Qing Ming's foul aura couldn’t compare to Ye Bodhi's. I didn't get much good karma from it."
He turned toward the black hole star in the distance and started making his way to it.
……
Near the black hole star, Long Cangyuan was slowly pacing about. He had just been informed of Ye Bodhi's death not too long ago. There were twenty thousand other tribulation elders here, a significant number of them belonging to Quadform.
"I suppose those outside will be coming in soon."
"How’d it end this way? We'll be mocked and ridiculed to no end."
The atmosphere was rather heavy.
"Sect Master Long, there appears to be a battle taking place over there," someone reported.
"Send a few men to scout out the situation."
"Understood!"
Long Cangyuan waited a while, but they didn't come back.
"Someone's approaching!" somebody suddenly yelled.
Long Cangyuan and the thousands of elders looked in that direction and saw nothing but a gigantic bug.
"What’s that?"
More and more people went to see what was going on.
"It's Ghoul King Qing Ming's greenvoid skydevourer!"
However, it didn't show any signs of life.
"It's dead!" Panicked cries rang out and the whole group descended into chaos.
"What?!" Long Cangyuan's jaw was shaking from the realization. Who in the Kilostar Domain could possibly kill Qing Ming's lifebound beast? What about Qing Ming himself? As his mind raced, a little black cat with glowing eyes burst out of the corpse of the bug with a head in its mouth. Those who saw it immediately broke into tears.
"Ghoul King Qing Ming!"
They felt their hearts being torn apart. Even Long Cangyuan gasped with his mouth agape. That cat was Tianming's lifebound beast. It tossed the head away as everyone watched, meowing as it shook its head and turned to them in a cutesy manner. "Anyone like roast bug meat? I have a trade offer for you. I’ll receive two pieces of dried fish. You’ll receive a pound of bug meat. Any takers?"
