"We are almost there," announced Zhi Mei as she landed heavily beside BaiShe, her armor marked by splatters of Yin fluids. "But look at the ground."

Before them, the ashen earth had given way to a carpet of decomposing bodies that seemed to form a living road toward the pagoda. The corpses, some dating from the time of the Rakshasas, were still twitching, their hands reaching toward the travelers.

...

The eternal twilight of the Immortal Grave seemed to thicken with every step, transforming the plain of ashes into a quagmire of spiritual despair. The air, saturated with a Yin Qi of almost liquid density, no longer simply froze the blood; it now attacked directly the mental barriers of the three travelers. Despite this, BaiShe was rather calm...

At his side, Zhi Mei did not share his serenity. The Holy Templar had deployed her Sidhe wings, emitting an azure light that laboriously pushed back the fetid mist. Her blue eyes, usually so pious, burned with a warrior intensity as she scrutinized the moving shadows.

"They are getting more and more numerous..." murmured Zhi Mei, her gloved hand gripping the pommel of her blade with a force that made the leather creak. "These are no longer just ghouls. I sense resentments several millennia old awakening."

"The tomb is reacting to the presence of the Dao Executor, Miss Mei," replied BaiShe in a monotone voice, his monocle reflecting the purple gleams of the sky. "The Ashura does not like people coming to inspect its chains."

Suddenly, the basaltic ground exploded in a deafening crash. From the ashen earth emerged hundreds of higher-rank Yin Entities. They were Void Specters, ethereal forms with elongated limbs and faces frozen in a silent scream. Their number was incalculable, forming a tide of translucent flesh and death Qi that instantly overwhelmed the safety perimeter.

"they are not as strong as earlier..."

Chong Da, the blind monk, immediately sat in lotus position, levitating his body a few centimeters above the ground. A golden shockwave spread from his muscular body, his Buddhist mantras creating a protective barrier for the group.

"Buddhist Arts: Palm of the Wrathful Compassion," thundered the monk’s voice.

A giant palm imprint, made of binary light, slammed down on the first wave. The impact was visceral. One could hear the sound of Yin flesh boiling and ghostly bones pulverizing. The black and viscous blood of the entities sprayed the slabs, releasing a smell of sulfur and charred meat.

However, for each specter destroyed, ten others emerged from the crevasses. The ferocity of the Yin creatures increased visibly. Their black bone claws, imbued with corrupted Khao, hammered against Chong Da’s dome of light, leaving streaks of corruption.

Zhi Mei could no longer remain a spectator. She leaped out of the protection, her light armor highlighting her generous curves as she plunged into the heart of the massacre.

"Arts: Thorny Lotus Bloom," she cried.

A giant azure lotus bloomed instantly above the melee. The petals, sharp as razors, detached to whirl in a cyclone of purifying light. The spectacle was one of horror... The petals sliced through the limbs of the Yin entities, opening translucent chests and releasing dark entrails that dissolved before even touching the ground. The Sidhe’s purple blood and the monsters’ black fluid mixed on her armor, accentuating her allure as a goddess of war.

"BaiShe! Stay behind me!" ordered Zhi Mei, while decapitating two specters with a backhand charged with Overlord Qi. "Your Dantian is still young, do not let yourself be overwhelmed by their hatred!"

BaiShe let out a slight laugh, a sound that seemed to suspend the tumult of battle for a microsecond. He adjusted his monocle, his violet pupils capturing the Qi flows with divine precision thanks to his Third Eye Art.

"Miss Mei, your solicitude is touching," he declared while remaining perfectly still, his hands still behind his back. "However this Judge does not need a shield in front of his own condemned."

At that instant, the Yin-Yang symbol on BaiShe’s forehead illuminated with an unbearable radiance, a binary light that seemed to tear apart the darkness of the Immortal Grave. The young master finally released the entirety of his Executor aura, fusing his Devourer Qi with the Authority of the Dao that he had usurped.

"Law: Supreme Authority of the Dao," pronounced BaiShe in a voice that made the foundations of the earth tremble.

The space around him contracted violently. A monstrous gravitational pressure slammed down on the plain, forcing the Yin entities to crash to the ground, their bones cracking under the weight of celestial will. Zhi Mei herself felt her legs buckle, her heart skipping a beat before the magnitude of this power that she recognized all too well.

Simultaneously, BaiShe extended his right hand toward the sky. The air split with a strident whistle, and a lance of pure light, composed of the very will of the Temple, materialized between his fingers. The lance was not made of simple Qi; it vibrated with an energy capable of rewriting the laws of mortality.

"Arts: Blade of the Executor’s Punishment"

BaiShe did not content himself with brandishing the weapon. He began a dance of death at a speed that defied an Overlord’s perception. He was no longer the wise scholar, but Fatality itself. With a sharp movement, he swept the air with his lance of light.

The impact was cataclysmic. The wake of the lance sliced through hundreds of Yin creatures in a single blow. The gore was total: one could see heads exploding under thermal pressure and bodies vaporizing instantly in jets of white light. BaiShe moved with supernatural fluidity, appearing in the blind spots of the monsters to impale them without mercy.

A massive Yin entity, a six-armed Tomb Guardian, tried to charge BaiShe from behind. Without even turning around, the young master pivoted his lance behind his back. The point of pure light pierced the corrupted Dantian of the creature, exiting through the plexus in an explosion of purifying Qi. The Guardian collapsed with a heart-rending groan, its massive body transforming into divine dust under Zhi Mei’s widened eyes.

"Watch carefully, Miss Mei," murmured BaiShe as he continued his massacre. "This is how justice strikes down those who refuse balance."

Zhi Mei was petrified, her own lotus attack floating uselessly around her. She saw the man she wanted to protect transform into a god of destruction, slicing through enemy ranks with magnificent arrogance. Each time his lance of light cleaved the air, it left behind sealing runes that clung to the survivors’ meridians, immobilizing them before they were devoured by the sacred fire.

The battle became a demonstration of absolute power. BaiShe no longer sought to parry; he crushed. He raised his lance toward the sky and hurled it to the ground with force.

"Divine Radiance Judgment"

A pillar of binary light burst from the impact, sweeping the plain of ashes in a destructive arc. The Yin entities caught in the trajectory were literally cut into millions of pieces before being reduced to ashes. One could hear the sound of millions of simultaneous sections, a dry and continuous noise that seemed to tear the very fabric of the dimension.

Silence finally fell over the battlefield, a silence even heavier than before. Of the thousands of Yin entities, only a sparkling mist of divine dust remained, slowly falling onto the ground vitrified by the heat. BaiShe stood at the center of the crater, his lance of light dissipating into golden particles as he adjusted his broken monocle. His heterochromatic pupils, one violet and the other black, shone with a resolution that made Zhi Mei shiver.

The Holy Templar approached slowly, her Sidhe wings still palpitating with an emotion she could no longer name. She stopped in front of him, observing the traces of silvery blood on his jade face.

"BaiShe... you... you really used the will of the Dao at this level..." she stammered, her voice trembling with religious fervor and a more carnal trouble that she dared not admit.

BaiShe sketched a narcissistic smile, a predator’s grin savoring his victory. He extended a pale hand to delicately caress the saint’s cheek, ignoring the last residues of Yin Qi still crackling around them.

"Miss Mei, I told you," he murmured, his warm breath caressing her pointed ears. "Where logic stops, the Judge’s authority takes over. And this young scholar does not like to be interrupted during his walks."

Zhi Mei closed her eyes, letting herself be invaded by the overwhelming presence of her "Executor". She felt her own Qi binding to his, a dependence on the validation he had patiently anchored in her heart.

"I... I will always be by your side, my Lord," she swore while placing her hand on the young man’s muscular chest, feeling the titanic beats of his Omega Heart.

However, in the distance, the whistling of the wind on the Sealing Pagoda seemed to carry a lugubrious laugh. The true battle of the Immortal Grave was only just beginning, and the smell of divine blood mixed with the perfume of purifying lotus only agitated the Ashura.