538: Chapter 538 A Heart Also Wants to Become a Spirit

Li Heng looked at the line of blood-red words on the stone tablet; his face showed no extra emotion, he just found it a bit amusing.

“Welcome back, my Lord?”

He extended a finger and lightly tapped the word “Sacrifice,” as if brushing away dust.

“You've made quite a grand display, but I wonder if the master can actually take a hit.”

He muttered to himself, his voice not loud, yet it sounded exceptionally clear in this vast, deathly silent underground cavern.

It was at the exact moment his finger touched the stone tablet.

“Whoosh—!”

A sudden sound of something piercing the air erupted from behind him without warning!

Fast!

Extremely fast!

It was a condensed dark-purple claw shadow, silent and stealthy, tearing through the air and aiming straight for the back of Li Heng's head.

Entwined around the claw shadow were thick Death Qi and Evil Qi, and the power it contained had shockingly reached the Peak Soul Transformation Stage!

This was a killing blow capable of instantly slaying any top expert of the Eastern Wasteland Divine Dynasty!

However, facing this sudden and lethal sneak attack, Li Heng didn't even turn his head.

It was as if he had eyes in the back of his head, or rather, he simply didn't take this attack to heart at all.

He just casually waved his hand backward.

The movement was light and airy, as if shooing away an annoying fly.

“Pa!”

A crisp explosive sound rang out.

That dark-purple claw shadow, capable of tearing through mountains and rivers, shattered like fragile glassware the moment it touched his palm, dissipating into a sky full of light specks.

The sneak attack failed, and the attacker seemed to daze for a moment.

It was during this split-second pause that Li Heng slowly turned around.

He saw the appearance of the attacker clearly.

It was the skeleton of the strongest Body Integration Stage Cultivator that he had scanned with his Divine Thought earlier, which had been sitting cross-legged in the center of the altar!

Oh, that's not right.

It couldn't be called a skeleton anymore.

The originally dry bone frame had been covered at some point by a layer of shriveled flesh, the skin showing a bizarre greenish-black color. In the position of the eyes, two clusters of eerie purple Soul-fire burned.

From its body emanated a nauseating stench of corpses and resentment.

“So it's a corpse.” A hint of surprise finally appeared in Li Heng's expression.

But this surprise wasn't because of the opponent's strength, but because of its form of existence.

A battle Puppet that had reached the Peak Soul Transformation Stage, refined from the corpse of a former Body Integration Stage powerhouse.

“Somewhat interesting,” he commented.

“Roar!”

The Dried Corpse seemed completely enraged by Li Heng's dismissive attitude, letting out a non-human roar from its throat.

It slammed a foot onto the ground, causing the hard rock floor to instantly crack, and its entire body turned into an afterimage, lunging at Li Heng once more!

This time, it was no longer a sneak attack.

It was a direct frontal assault!

The Evil Qi all over its body surged frantically, condensing into a massive black skull in front of it. Opening its bloody maw, it bit down hard toward Li Heng with an Aura that seemed ready to devour everything.

The air in the entire cavern seemed to be sucked dry by this strike.

Facing this violent offensive, Li Heng's movements remained simple.

He didn't even change his stance; he just raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist.

There were no spiritual energy fluctuations, no Law manifestations, and no flashy light effects.

It was just such an unremarkable, ordinary punch.

Then, he thrust it forward.

“Boom—!”

The fist collided with the massive black skull.

There was no world-shaking explosion as imagined, nor was there a stalemate of clashing energies.

Li Heng's fist was like a red-hot iron plunging into snow.

That seemingly indestructible Evil Qi skull, condensed with the full power of a Peak Soul Transformation corpse Puppet, failed to provide even a moment's resistance. It was directly pierced through by the punch and exploded into the most primitive energy particles.

And Li Heng's fist did not lose its momentum.

In the Dried Corpse's eye sockets where the Soul-fire burned, that growing fist was reflected.

It seemed to feel an unprecedented fear, wanting to retreat, wanting to dodge.

But it was already too late.

Time seemed to be put on slow motion at this moment.

The fist accurately imprinted itself onto the Dried Corpse's chest.

“Crack... crack crack crack...”

First came a series of fine bone-cracking sounds, popping like frying beans.

Immediately after, an indescribable and terrifying force erupted within the Dried Corpse's body!

“Bang!”

A muffled sound.

That Peak Soul Transformation corpse, with a body as hard as a Magic Treasure and capable of withstanding Divine Ability strikes, was like a watermelon hit by a heavy hammer. From the inside out, it disintegrated inch by inch, exploding into a cloud of flying gray-black powder!

A light breeze blew by.

The powder dispersed.

Even the ashes were scattered clean.

It was as if that fiercely powerful Dried Corpse had never existed in this world.

Li Heng withdrew his fist and brushed off non-existent dust from his hand, his expression somewhat bored.

“After all that, it was just a string Puppet?”

He shook his head, his gaze falling back onto that ancient stone tablet.

In that moment just now, he had clearly felt an obscure power controlling the Dried Corpse through some kind of invisible thread.

And now that the corpse was gone, that thread had snapped.

Li Heng walked slowly to the stone tablet, reached out, and pressed his hand against the cold surface.

“Let me see what kind of monsters and demons are hidden behind this stone of yours.”

He applied a slight force with his hand.

“Rumble—”

The entire stone tablet, along with the mountain wall behind it, began to vibrate violently.

Accompanied by a dull sound, the stone tablet slowly moved to one side, revealing a bottomless, pitch-black entrance.

A cold and evil Aura, a hundred times thicker than before, rushed out from the entrance.

In that Aura, there was also a faint, indistinct sound of a heartbeat.

“Thump... thump... thump...”

Slow, yet powerful.

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Heng stepped inside.

The space behind the entrance was far wider than imagined.

It was like the hollowed-out belly of a mountain, incredibly massive.

In the very center of the mountain's belly, the sight was terrifying.

Thick black chains, as wide as water buckets, extended from the rock walls in all directions, densely packed, together locking an object suspended in mid-air.

It was a heart.

A giant heart the size of a house, composed entirely of some unknown black crystal, still slowly beating!

“Thump... thump...”

Every beat seemed to merge with the pulse of the entire space, emitting a heart-palpitating and terrifying pressure.

Those chains were covered with dense golden runes, like shackles tightly binding this heart, seemingly suppressing something.

And the source of all the Evil Qi and evil Aura Li Heng had felt earlier was precisely this heart!

“Interesting.”

Li Heng floated in mid-air, observing this bizarre Black Crystal Heart.

“A heart also wants to become a spirit?”