Chapter 195: Beyond the Version

“Envoy, my lord!”

Inside the prison, the battered and bloodied Li Hao lit up with joy the moment he saw Lu Yan holding the Soul Banner.

Hearing that title, Yu Mingyu’s legs immediately gave out, and he nearly collapsed to his knees.

Though he was the apparent leader of Gathering Point 73, in truth, everything there had been under the control of two Ninth-Rank Transcendents.

Now that both of those Ninth-Rank Transcendents had been slain, and the remaining elite Transcendents were being hunted down by the army of Yin Soldiers, the entire Gathering Point had completely lost control.

He couldn’t fathom it—how the Netherworld Envoy, who had fled in disgrace three months prior, could return so swiftly… and with such overwhelming force.

That boundless army of Yin Soldiers alone was proof that the legends passed from other Gathering Points were true.

The Netherworld Envoy really could wipe out a million zombies single-handedly!

Such a level of power had already surpassed the concept of personal strength. It was enough to influence the very fate of the apocalypse itself.

Those two Ninth-Rank Transcendents, who had been enough to suppress an entire Gathering Point, had been casually slain. As for him—nothing but a puppet propped up by those Transcendents—his fate was self-evident.

In the face of utter despair, Yu Mingyu’s fear gave way to rage and resentment.

With all his might, he summoned his Transcendent power and suddenly lunged at Li Hao, who was still bound in chains. A blade formed of pure power condensed in his hand, stabbing straight toward Li Hao’s heart.

He had no illusions about taking the envoy hostage. Instead, he chose the simplest, most vicious tactic—kill Li Hao and take him down as a final offering!

Lu Yan had been watching Li Hao from the moment he entered the prison. He lifted his index finger slightly, and the space inside the cell began to freeze. But the next second, Lu Yan’s eyes showed a trace of surprise, and he slowly lowered his hand.

Yu Mingyu reached Li Hao in an instant. The power-forged blade had already pierced through the bloodstained prison uniform.

But just as the blade was about to stab into Li Hao’s chest, Li Hao moved.

That emaciated hand shot out with inhuman speed and caught Yu Mingyu’s wrist. His blood-smeared face curled into a faint grin.

“Got you.”

The next moment, a transparent soul form lunged out of Li Hao and rushed into Yu Mingyu’s body. The blade in his hand immediately disintegrated, and under the force of inertia, his body slammed hard against the prison wall.

When they looked again, Yu Mingyu’s eyes were blank—his soul had been annihilated.

After finishing, Li Hao reached up and yanked the barbed chain out of his shoulder bone, despite the blood still streaming from the wound. He then respectfully knelt before Lu Yan.

“Li Hao thanks the envoy for your timely rescue!”

Lu Yan studied Li Hao with a bit of surprise.

In the apocalypse version, Li Hao didn’t appear as aged as he did in the demon version. Thanks to the longevity provided by the Transcendent system, he actually looked rather young—around forty, still in his prime.

Just now, Lu Yan had chosen not to act precisely because he noticed Li Hao’s true condition wasn’t as weak as it seemed.

And as expected, with Cultivation at the peak of Foundation Establishment, turning the tables on someone like Yu Mingyu was a trivial matter.

Lu Yan raised a brow and said, “Even locked in this prison, you preserved most of your strength. With or without my help, this place wouldn’t have held you.”

But Li Hao shook his head and replied, “You jest, my lord. My ability to preserve my strength was all thanks to you.

If those Transcendents hadn’t been wary of your existence, they would’ve killed me long ago. I’d never have had the chance to preserve anything.”

“What’s more, there are over thirty Fifth-Rank and above Transcendents here in Gathering Point 73, and two of them were Ninth-Rank. Even if I escaped this prison, I would’ve been walking into death.

Only by waiting here for your return was there any hope of survival.”

Li Hao’s clear understanding of both the situation and his own limitations earned Lu Yan’s admiration. It was no wonder this man had once built the Li Family from scratch.

Strictly speaking, though Lu Yan had saved Li Hao both times—in the demon version and this apocalypse version—the crises themselves were all caused by Lu Yan’s own actions.

In the demon version, Lu Yan became the target of a force behind the longevity version. The siege from the ancient families and internal Li family strife were merely tools to force him into revealing the Soul Banner. Li Hao was just collateral.

In the apocalypse version, Li Hao’s imprisonment was simply fallout from the exposure of True Law in the demon version.

Yet in both situations, Li Hao hadn’t been entirely passive.

In the demon version, he had secretly laid a grand formation to sacrifice the major families.

In the apocalypse version, he had feigned severe injuries to conserve strength, all while reading the room like a master strategist.

Had Lu Yan not arrived in time, Li Hao might not have died, but Lu Yan’s secrets would likely have been completely exposed.

A so-called Netherworld, unable to even defend its True Law, would’ve become a laughingstock.

At that point, Li Hao might still feign loyalty, but in his heart, doubt would take root.

Thankfully, Lu Yan resolved the fallout of the True Law incident with flawless precision.

Especially this time—summoning an army of Yin Soldiers and crushing the enemy with overwhelming force—he had delivered a display on par with the divine descents in the urban version.

Lu Yan’s powerful divine sense could feel it clearly: at this moment, Li Hao was utterly convinced, with not a shred of disloyalty in his heart.

And for Lu Yan, that was good news.

The Li Family had already been immensely helpful in the demon version. If they returned to the xianxia version, their support would undoubtedly grow even greater.

Lu Yan nudged a severed head with his foot and casually asked, “Do you recognize this one?”

The head was from a Gold Core Early Stage Transcendent he had just killed using the power of the Abyssal God.

Li Hao studied the face and replied, “Reporting to the envoy, that is Xu Kuan, one of the Ninth-Rank Transcendents who hunted you. He was known as the Indestructible Vajra.”

“After your disappearance, Xu Kuan and another Ninth-Rank took over this Gathering Point. They suspected you might return and hoped to ambush you.”

Lu Yan narrowed his eyes and asked, “Who else was trying to capture me at the time?”

Li Hao answered carefully:

“Thirteen Ninth-Rank Transcendents remained in Gathering Point 73 at the time, along with over a hundred more beneath them, all from various surrounding territories.

Besides them, there were some who seemed to possess special tracking methods. They didn’t enter the Gathering Point directly, but instead pursued you into the wilderness. I don’t know their exact identities.”

Lu Yan thought for a moment before asking another question.

“They were all human?”

Li Hao was taken aback.

He didn’t answer immediately but furrowed his brow in deep thought. After a while, he said:

“From everyone I encountered, yes, they were all human.

Especially the higher-ranked Transcendents—their power required enormous resources and their abilities were extremely distinct. There’s almost no way to fake that.”

That answer left Lu Yan silent.

Including the Abyssal God, the Transcendent whose soul was seized by the Yin Soldiers, and the one beheaded in the prison just now—he had now killed three Gold Core-level hunters.

And from those kills, he confirmed that the Abyss Realm of the demon version equated to the Early Gold Core Stage in the apocalypse version.

But there was one deeply troubling anomaly.

The Abyssal God, despite being an Abyss Realm cultivator, had turned into a zombie after shifting into the apocalypse version.

Yet the other Gold Core-level hunters remained fully human.

At first, Lu Yan assumed this transformation had something to do with the Abyssal God becoming the Dao itself—that his very nature as a cultivator had dissolved into the laws of the world.

In the demon version, Abyss Realm experts were nearly indistinguishable from the world’s laws. A regular cultivator couldn’t even look upon them without being eroded by the Dao.

So, it hadn’t seemed unreasonable that such a being would become a Gold Core Zombie in the apocalypse.

But these other Ninth-Rank Transcendents—also Abyss Realm cultivators—had retained their human forms. That alone was enough to prove the “Daoification Theory” was flawed.

This bizarre discrepancy put Lu Yan on edge.

That was why he asked whether any of them weren’t human.

Yet Li Hao’s answer only deepened the mystery.

If all the other hunters were truly human, then where did the Gold Core Zombie version of the Abyssal God come from?

They were all from the same realm. All were pursuers.

Why the stark contrast?

Lu Yan fell silent. The prison was utterly quiet, save for the endless war cries of the Yin Soldier army outside.

Then, a sudden flash of inspiration struck Lu Yan’s mind, and his expression changed dramatically.

“It’s the Longevity Version!”

“The biggest difference between the Abyssal God and the others… is that he was directly influenced by the Longevity Version. His existence was meant to block me from removing that version’s hidden threat using a high-energy world.”

“The Abyssal God was far more deeply corrupted by the Longevity Version than the others. That alone explains why he became a Gold Core Zombie.”

And then, an even more terrifying thought surfaced.

“If the Abyssal God turned into a Gold Core Zombie due to external influence from beyond the version… does that mean the other zombies in this apocalypse world were also created by something beyond the version?”

(End of Chapter)