Plague of the Undead (Part 2)

The once lush forest had transformed completely, its natural beauty replaced by broken stumps, rocks, and fissures. A shadowy figure gradually emerged upon this devastated land.

Silence enveloped the area, a thick scent of blood assaulting the senses. Yet, under this nauseating stench, the shadow remained unaffected, even showing a hint of excitement.

Despite nature's ten days of washing and exposure, the bloody stench from that day hadn't completely dissipated, a testament to the horrific events. Thousands who had come to witness the battle, mostly below the saint tier, were almost all slaughtered by Ye Han's madness. Of the twenty-plus saint-tier combatants, only four escaped with injuries. This merciless, bloodthirsty, and savage nature of Ye Han once again shocked the continent.

For ten whole days, the events that unfolded in Miat City spread rapidly across the continent. Everyone was terrified of Ye Han's methods. What puzzled everyone was the absence of any divine-tier powerhouses from Miat City to stop the massacre, and their subsequent disappearance.

Naturally, no one believed that Ye Han, merely a ninth-tier upstart, could kill divine-tier powerhouses. Divine-tier beings are the true pinnacle of power on the continent. If a saint-tier is a newborn baby, then a divine-tier is like a seasoned champion boxer.

The continent is vast, with countless talents and formidable fighting techniques emerging constantly. Saint-tier beings have an incomplete understanding of laws and lack the tempering of the will of heaven and earth. But divine-tier beings are different, and thus, in the history of Qingming Continent, no one below divine-tier had ever successfully killed a divine-tier powerhouse.

Ye Han's infamous deeds deeply shook the entire continent. All the families and forces involved in the incident suffered massive losses. Cultivating a genius is incredibly difficult, and the value of a saint-tier powerhouse is immense.

Suddenly, the entire continent quieted down. All families and forces that had ideas of confronting Ye Han fell silent. No one wanted to provoke the bloodthirsty Ye Han, but how long this peace would last, no one knew.

However, one thing was certain: Ye Han would not remain quiet. Xiaoya's departure filled him with hatred for the entire continent. He intended to bring his slaughter to the whole land.

Ye Han stood on the land, ravaged as if by a level-10 earthquake, instantly connecting with the undead surrounding Miat City. A brief understanding of the situation over the past ten days revealed the outcome of the task he had assigned to them.

Of the two thousand five hundred people, less than a thousand survived the fearless massacre, sacrificing nearly two thousand lives. But the outcome was significant.

In ten days, tens of thousands were slaughtered in Miat City. Limbs and corpses, belonging to civilians, swordsmen, magicians, and undead, were strewn everywhere, turning the city blood-red.

"Master," upon receiving Ye Han's signal, two undead riding winged dragons swiftly appeared before him, dismounting and standing respectfully.

"How did it go?"

"Besides the first day, there was no organized resistance. We slaughtered mercilessly, but in the following days, under the leadership of Miat City's lord, Evelyn, and other ninth-tier powerhouses, our progress slowed. Additionally, the involvement of the Church of Light, with their holy light, led to many of our losses."

"Holy light," Ye Han realized. Although he was no longer vulnerable to intense sunlight, these undead were. They were zombies, a lower level than him. Under intense sunlight, they suffered corrosion. Only when he advanced in his zombie rank would they evolve alongside him.

"Third-level zombies, when will that be? Surely we can't just give up," Ye Han muttered to himself. Giving up was out of the question.

"Are the corpses from the dead still in Miat City?"

"Yes, we've been blocking the four city gates. They couldn't remove the bodies, and the civilians are in such a panic that they haven't had the time to deal with them. So they're still inside."

"Good, very good," Ye Han said as he waved his hand, summoning the saint-tier dragon Baireis to his side. The recent battle had left Baireis, who had just entered saint-tier, with significant injuries, but after ten days in the apocalypse prison, he had mostly recovered. As Baireis appeared, the two winged dragons trembled and lay prostrate on the ground, fearfully looking at Baireis.

Seeing the giant dragon beneath Ye Han, the two undead exchanged a look. "Master, three days ago, a dragon clan came here," said the one on the left.

"What dragon clan? How do you know?" Ye Han was surprised. The dragon clan, a powerful and proud race.

"It was sensed by them," the undead pointed at the trembling winged dragons.

Ye Han understood immediately. Winged dragons, being hybrids of dragons and other magical beasts, were extremely sensitive to the presence of dragon clan members, and they were never wrong in their sensing.

"Did the dragon clan do anything?" Ye Han asked darkly. The appearance of the dragon clan gave him a bad premonition, although he couldn't pinpoint what it was. However, he was sure that the upheaval in the Hengduan Mountain Range was initiated by the dragon clan. Only they could summon so many saint-tier and above magical beasts, and only they could convene late-stage saint-tier beasts.

"We don't know. According to their sensing, the dragon clan seemed to be searching for something here," said the undead. The contract signed with the winged dragons created a soul bond that allowed communication at the soul level, but it was limited to the master and the beast.

"Searching for something?" Dragons were fond of shiny objects, but there was nothing of interest left in the destroyed land. Why had they come here?

Ye Han's mind was filled with questions, none of which had reasonable answers. "What about the magical beast groups below saint-tier?"

"They haven't moved. They've stayed in place without any other actions."

Ye Han pondered for a moment, then shook his head. If he couldn't figure it out, he wouldn't dwell on it. The most important thing now was to exterminate Miat City. "Leave thirty people at each of the other three gates, and gather everyone else at the east gate," he ordered, then mounted Baireis and flew toward Miat City.

The two undead quickly mounted their winged dragons and flew to the other gates. As Ye Han and Baireis approached Miat City, he could see the transformed city from above. The original yellow stone streets and green stone walls were now stained with blood. Most of the buildings had been destroyed, except for the lord's mansion, which stood intact at the center of Miat City. All survivors had gathered at the mansion's gates. Each gate was guarded by a large number of swordsmen and magicians, and there were several members of the Church of Light in every location. They seemed to have identified the undead's weakness to intense light, and the holy light of the Church was the perfect counter.

"Haha," Ye Han laughed loudly in the air, his voice echoing over the entire Miat City. The calm crowd below began to stir at the sound.

"The devil has come!"

"The Blood Shura is here. We're doomed. We'll all die at his hands."

The several hundred thousand people on the ground spoke in terror, looking at the black dot in the sky. Their bodies trembled, their souls shook. Under the threat of death, everything seemed so fragile. Ye Han, looking down at the civilians and the less powerful, felt no sympathy or mercy, only laughing louder and more unrestrained.

This was the fate of the weak. In the eyes of the powerful, they were as insignificant as ants, with no right to choose life or death. Everything was controlled by the strong. In this era of survival of the fittest, the weak were less valuable than dogs.

"Whoosh, whoosh," several sounds of breaking air came from the lord's mansion.

"Everyone, be quiet. Please rest assured, as long as I, Evelyn, am here, I will not let him enter," declared a middle-aged man dressed in the lord's attire, using his fighting spirit to project his voice across the city. Due to the beast attack ten days ago, Evelyn and his saint-tier companions had not gone to watch Ye Han's battle with Atimov. Thus, Evelyn had escaped that catastrophe, but he was fully aware of what had happened

 that day. As a late-stage saint-tier, he looked at Ye Han with fear in his eyes, but his intent to kill was even stronger.

Ten days, ten full days of slaughter, transformed Miat City, once a famous bustling city of the Frostwind Empire, into a hell on earth. The tens of thousands of citizens slaughtered, the countless buildings destroyed, and the thick bloodstains lingering in the air – all were the doing of the young man in the black robe.

When Evelyn emerged with a few saint-tier powerhouses, Ye Han immediately recognized him as the one who had previously instigated the Kakris family to send three saint-tier individuals to kill him. Ye Han's eyes flashed coldly with increasing murderous intent.

"Do you really have the ability?" Ye Han's cold voice, though not loud, clearly reached everyone's ears in Miat City.

"I'll kill you," shouted an early-stage saint-tier individual beside Evelyn, placing his hands together in front of his chest. Ye Han, seeing this, quickly ordered Baireis to retreat.

"Domain of Azure Waters and Clear Skies."

But no matter how fast Baireis was, he couldn't outrun the swift hand seals. In an instant, Ye Han and his dragon disappeared from the sky.

Surrounded by the domain, Ye Han found himself in a blue space, standing above a vast ocean with waves roaring intermittently.

"Without using their domain, a saint-tier is only about ten times stronger than a ninth-tier individual. But with their domain, they're dozens of times stronger," Ye Han muttered to himself as he observed the surrounding space.

"Don't think that having some strange fighting techniques makes you invincible. The previous times, those people were complacent and underestimated you, giving you a chance. I won't make the same mistake," a voice echoed in the blue space, but the speaker remained unseen.

"Raging Waves from the Heavens."

The calm sea suddenly churned, forming gigantic waves. In an instant, a dozen water dragons, each a hundred meters long, surged towards Ye Han with immense destructive force.

"Hmph," Ye Han scoffed, a cold smile on his face. "Soul Annihilation." A powerful, bloodthirsty aura emerged around him. Since the sword he had taken from Ortius was lost after the battle, he had no choice but to use the Blood Sword. A regular sword would only shatter under such an assault.

"Sword Qi Across the Sky." A blood-red sword aura, tens of meters long, fiercely slashed through the saint-tier's domain, not towards the approaching water dragons, but towards the tumultuous sea. The fierce, powerful sword energy filled the entire domain.

"You can't possibly..." A voice of disbelief and fear echoed through the domain.

Ye Han's sword, with its tens of meters of blood-red aura, struck the sea with more speed and force than the attacking water dragons.

"Boom!" The impact sounded like a strike upon the earth itself, causing the entire domain to tremble violently under Ye Han's attack.

After Ye Han's strike, the dozen water dragons dissipated in the wild energy surge. "Let's see where you can hide now," Ye Han shouted, as Baireis, understanding his intent, swiftly flew to the right.

Suddenly, Baireis opened its mouth and spewed a massive flame of purple fire, boiling the sea below.

"Whoosh!" The purple flame, accompanied by thick steam, shot forward. At the same time, Ye Han's figure vanished from Baireis's back.

Simultaneously, to the right of Baireis, a shadow appeared, wielding a blood-red sword. Swirling with blood-colored ripples and a sharp whistling sound, it swept through the void.

A blood-red crescent-shaped sword qi instantly swept out.

"No, I can't believe it," a voice of unwillingness and disbelief spread throughout the domain, but was quickly drowned out by two explosive sounds. Baireis flew back under Ye Han's feet, but he didn't stay there. With a tap of his foot, he shot out again. A massive hand, completely enveloped in gray light, formed a fist about ten meters away from Baireis, striking the void with a force so powerful it caused a ripple in space.

"Bang!"

Ripples quickly spread outwards in the space.

"Puff!"

A figure was blasted out of the void, coughing up blood. Ye Han, with his foot on the other, extended his hands like claws, reaching for the bleeding figure.

"How ridiculous for someone who has just grasped their power to think they can kill me," Ye Han scoffed.