The Supreme Monarch Witch Queen Manjusaka had returned!
According to the rules of the Undead Beast Graveyard, as the guardian of the Other Shore Flower, she should not have been allowed to assist a challenger in besieging the Gate of Hell. However, since she had gone through the proper process of Summoning Magic, it was equivalent to obtaining official authorization and fulfilling the requirements.
Lu Jun had exploited a loophole. This had also been part of the agreement the two had made before challenging the Gate of Hell.
If the Golden-Eyed White Tiger possessed human emotions, it would probably be cursing about cheating right now.
On Lu Jun's side, he spared no effort, summoning an enormous army of contracted creatures. At its core were two Supreme Monarchs and four Great Monarchs, accompanied by more than a dozen Monarchs with considerable combat power. Such a lineup, if placed in the Magic World, could flatten even a medium-sized nation so long as Forbidden Curse Mages did not intervene.
Of course, the price was Lu Jun's rapidly draining magical energy as he maintained the summoned creatures in battle.
The reason he was going all out was because of Yulü's abilities. Aside from being a Supreme Monarch itself, it was also a supreme summoner capable of enslaving ten thousand ghosts, no weaker in that regard than Ksitigarbha.
The Golden-Eyed White Tiger remained expressionless. Even the appearance of its "colleague," the Other Shore Flower, failed to move it in the slightest.
Roar!
It threw its head back and let out a mighty roar, shaking the endless black mist. The Gate of Hell resonated with the sound as the colossal gate trembled and rumbled. The boundless black mist walls on either side began to churn violently.
The various evil ghost carvings on the Gate of Hell lit up with nether radiance. At that moment, they all came alive, their ferocious forms bulging outward before crawling out from the gate itself.
Countless shadows emerged in dense masses, surging forward like a tide of darkness.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
It was as if the fifteenth night of the seventh lunar month had arrived, the Gate of Hell stood open, and ten thousand ghosts marched through the night. Countless evil spirits rampaged forth, including many Monarch-level ghost gods.
Boom!
The summoned armies of both sides collided.
The deafening impact shook heaven and earth. Even the stable space of the Beast Graveyard was torn apart, black cracks spreading like spiderwebs across the sky. Brilliant torrents of multicolored energy swept outward in every direction, crushing and destroying everything in their path.
Fortunately, most of the undead Lu Jun had summoned possessed the characteristic of false life, taking on the essence of living creatures. They were therefore unaffected by Yulü's authority. Otherwise, relying solely on the Summoning Element, he would have had little chance of competing against an army of ten thousand ghosts.
Meanwhile, Lu Jun remained expressionless.
Holding the Tai'a Sword in his hand, he charged straight toward the Golden-Eyed White Tiger.
Clang!
Lu Jun swung his sword.
Metal and Water fused together as a vast yellow-white sword radiance surged forth. It possessed the boundless grandeur of an ocean rising into the heavens, with rolling tides sweeping endlessly forward. At the same time, it carried the heavy and sharp edge of countless metallic blades, cleaving through the sky before crashing down upon the Golden-Eyed White Tiger.
In that instant, the Golden-Eyed White Tiger felt a chill run through its soul.
It sensed mortal danger.
This attack had unquestionably reached the level of a Forbidden Curse. Even a Supreme Monarch would be helpless before it.
Without hesitation, it slashed forward with a tiger claw.
A long spatial rift split open before it, revealing a phantom Gate of Hell. The crack aligned perfectly with the gate's opening.
Then, with a flash, the tiger stepped through and vanished from this world.
Buzz!
The supreme sword radiance released by Lu Jun swept across the phantom Gate of Hell, carrying limitless destructive force before striking the true, immortal Gate of Hell itself.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The colossal Gate of Hell shook violently.
The dense black mist in every direction collapsed in vast swaths, as though an entire ocean of darkness had been swept clean. The earth of the Undead Beast Graveyard trembled violently.
The tail end of the sword radiance continued onward for an immeasurable distance, disappearing into the endless darkness.
When the commotion finally subsided, a deep sword scar had been left upon the bronze-colored surface of the Gate of Hell.
Seeing this, Lu Jun frowned.
Yulü possessed another extremely troublesome ability.
It could open the Gate of Hell and freely travel through the Nine Nether Realms all the way down to the Eighteen Layers of Hell. Ordinary attacks could never penetrate through all "eighteen layers."
The term "hell" here was figurative.
It was more akin to the pocket dimensions created by Space Mages.
The difference was that the dimensions opened by Yulü were fused with the power of death, possessing characteristics of the deeper Spirit World. They were also arranged like an endless set of nested boxes, one layer inside another, extending endlessly into the void.
And that was not even the most absurd part.
Every generation of Yulü's descendants could inherit the hell dimensions of their predecessors, continuing to expand and excavate them. Eventually, even they themselves no longer knew how many layers of void existed or how many ancestral treasures were hidden within.
Fortunately, according to the Other Shore Flower, the current descendant of Yulü was merely a lucky being within the Undead Beast Graveyard whose bloodline had reverted to its ancestor.
The era of the original Yulü was simply too distant.
Everything had long since faded away, and it had failed to inherit its ancestor's legacy, relying entirely on its own efforts to develop its abilities.
Otherwise, the Golden-Eyed White Tiger would not merely be a guardian of the Gate of Hell.
It would instead be a true Dominator Emperor, the ruler of the Undead Beast Graveyard itself.
Even so, beings below the Emperor level had no means of dealing with it.
However, this was not enough to trouble Lu Jun.
He let out a cold laugh.
A triangular Dimensional Mirror leapt out above his head as his immense spiritual power spread outward. Countless thoughts extended into the dimensional void, exploring one layer after another.
In only a few seconds, Lu Jun had already locked onto the descendant of Yulü hidden at the very bottom of the "Eighteen Layers of Hell."
Fusion Method, Three Thousand Worlds!
Lu Jun raised the Tai'a Sword once more.
This time, platinum radiance fused together with silver brilliance, condensing into a dazzling silver-white sword beam.
The sword light flashed and vanished. Crossing layer upon layer of space, ignoring all dimensional barriers, it descended with supreme sharpness upon the terrified Golden-Eyed White Tiger hidden deep within the void.
The fusion of the Space Element and Metal Element was simply a match made in heaven. The killing sharpness of Metal combined with the elusive unpredictability of Space and its ability to tear through all dimensions, becoming even more formidable.
Slash!
There were no surprises.
The descendant of Yulü was struck by the transparent sword light, and its body was cleaved into two halves.
The next instant, the countless ghosts filling heaven and earth around Lu Jun froze in place before rapidly dispersing, transforming into strands of black energy that returned to the Gate of Hell.
Lu Jun finally let out a sigh of relief.
To capture the bandits, first capture their leader.
Compared to the endless hordes of evil ghosts that were nearly impossible to eliminate completely, dealing directly with Yulü's true body was far easier, no matter how powerful it was.
To be fair, Lu Jun felt that the troublesome nature of this descendant of Yulü had, in certain aspects, already reached the level of an Emperor. Otherwise, it would not have been able to contend with him for so long.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
A moment later, a Golden-Eyed White Tiger fell from the void, its aura greatly weakened.
The descendant of Yulü was not dead.
It possessed part of the essence of an undead creature, and coupled with the vitality of a Supreme Monarch, it had survived a Forbidden Curse-level strike. That alone was enough to be proud of.
However, it no longer possessed the ability to continue fighting.
This trial was considered lost.
"Roar! Roar! Roar!"
The Golden-Eyed White Tiger accepted its defeat wholeheartedly. It let out a deep roar toward the human before it, signaling that he had passed.
Hearing this, Lu Jun could not help but carefully examine the white tiger before him.
The White Tiger pendant hanging around his neck resonated faintly.
As expected, it was a descendant of the Sacred Beast White Tiger. He had no idea how it had ended up sinking into the Undead Beast Graveyard.
After thinking about it, however, it did not seem strange.
After all, even one of Jiuzhou's national beasts had become an Emperor within this place.
Lu Jun was genuinely tempted by the Golden-Eyed White Tiger.
Its combat strength was formidable, its abilities were versatile, and he wanted to contract it as a summoned beast through the High-Tier Contract Gate.
The identity of Gate of Hell Guardian also perfectly matched the true meaning behind the Contract Gate.
Furthermore, with only a little cultivation, it would soon become an Emperor-level battle beast.
Lu Jun attempted to extend an invitation.
Unexpectedly, the Golden-Eyed White Tiger rejected him without hesitation.
It had no desire to follow a human.
Given another one or two hundred years, it could advance to the Emperor level through its own efforts and enter the depths of the Undead Beast Graveyard, where it could rule and enjoy itself freely.
Why would it willingly become someone else's servant?
Lu Jun felt some regret, but not disappointment.
In the final analysis, the abilities of the descendant of Yulü were already completely covered by his own powers. The two overlapped significantly, making it less than an ideal contracted beast.
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