Volume 4: Super-Tier Awakening & The Ancient Capital Calamity
Chapter 341
The Deathly Knell: The Mountain-Cleaving Corpse Monarch Awakens
The sky above the southern outskirts of the Ancient Capital had been entirely stripped of its remaining light. A thick, ink-like layer of black clouds rolled violently, intertwining with ten-thousand-year-old lingering grudges that refused to dissipate, pressing down so heavily upon the earth that even the air molecules felt frozen in place. A suffocating stench—the signature odor of decay, millennium-old corpses, and dried blood welling up from the depths of the earth—suddenly surged forth, piercing straight into the nasal passages of every living soul within a ten-mile radius.
“CRACK... BOOM!!”
A heaven-shaking explosion erupted from the depths of the earth, resembling the furious roar of an enraged deity. The ground across the southern plains of the Ancient Capital violently quaked, sending massive, web-like fissures spider-webbing across the landscape at a breakneck speed, swallowing everything in their path. In the blink of an eye, an abyssal trench over five miles long and dozens of meters wide tore open the earth’s crust, erupting with bone-chilling cold air and towering pillars of pitch-black vapor thick as asphalt.
From within that bottomless, hellish crevice, a colossal silhouette slowly rose, inch by inch eclipsing the darkened sky.
This was no ordinary demonic beast; it was a bona fide mobile mountain towering over a hundred meters high! Its grotesque physique was fused from tens of thousands of ancient mummies, corpses of soldiers from bygone feudal dynasties, and millennia-old magma corroded black by death qi. Sprouting densely across its hunched, gigantic back were rows of dark, jagged stone spikes sharp as swords and spears, dripping with blood and greenish pus. Every single stride taken by this behemoth caused the earth to groan and buckle under a weight of tens of millions of tons.
The Mountain-Cleaving Corpse Monarch! A ruling overlord-tier chieftain who had stepped into the true Early Monarch realm; its mere existence was the living embodiment of an apocalyptic doom for mankind!
The pressure of the Monarch realm was unleashed without a shred of restraint, rolling outward like an invisible yet thousand-ton psychological tempest. Under this horrifying pressure, the earth within a ten-mile radius instantly sank half a meter, and massive boulders were crushed into fine powder. Grass, trees, and any minor living creature unable to escape within this zone instantly withered, drying up within a single heartbeat, devoured by the death qi until nothing remained save for piles of gray ash.
“DONG... DONG... DONG...”
Amidst the bone-chilling silence of destruction, a deep, resonant sound imbued with boundless grief and desolation suddenly echoed out. It was the tolling of an ancient bronze bell, as large as a residential house, bound tightly around the neck of the Mountain-Cleaving Corpse Monarch by thick, dried-blood-encrusted iron chains.
Every time the giant moved, the bronze bell slammed against its fleshless ribcage, emitting a sound that shook souls to their core. That tolling sounded like the grim reaper’s death knell, carrying a bizarre magic that pierced straight through all layers of mental defense.
Hearing this mournful bell, tens of thousands of skeletons, ghouls, and wraiths lurking across the plains suddenly went berserk. Their eye sockets flared with eerie green will-o’-wisps. All those fiendish creatures collectively dropped to their knees, trembling violently as they kowtowed toward the moving mountain, resembling loyal subjects welcoming their supreme emperor ascending to a blood-drenched throne.
Not far away, atop the towering ramparts of the Ancient Capital’s southern gate, thousands of battle-mages belonging to the garrison army stood frozen in place.
Not a single soul could maintain composure before this terrifying spectacle. The pressure from the Monarch’s aura was entirely too oppressive, weighing down upon every muscle fiber as cold sweat streamed down their foreheads. Many Intermediate Mages, and even several elite advanced-tier Fire and Earth Mages who had just stepped into the High realm, felt their chests tighten painfully, rendering breathing an arduous task.
“Crash!”
A young soldier stationed at the watchtower could no longer maintain his grip on his magical weapon. Memories of war, of past battles against Commander-tier beasts, suddenly felt meaningless before this hundred-meter-tall monster. An overwhelming sense of helplessness gripped his mind, causing his stomach to spasm violently. He doubled over, vomiting all his gastric juices and bile right there upon the fortified ramparts.
Around him, a flurry of other mages exhibited identical symptoms. Some had their legs turn to jelly, collapsing onto the cold stone floor while muttering incoherent words in the grip of sheer panic. The spiritual might of the Mountain-Cleaving Corpse Monarch had crushed the fighting spirit of an elite mage squad with nothing more than a single bell toll and a sweeping glance.
“Hold your positions! Anyone who dares retreat shall be executed on the spot!”
A stern, furious roar resounded from the command tower. Chief Enforcer Zhang Xia soared into the air, his body shimmering with the brilliant silver light of the Space element and the blazing golden flames of Advanced-tier Fire magic. Staring fiercely at the churning sea of monsters in the distance, his hands clenched so tightly that his fingernails dug deep into his flesh, drawing blood.
He understood the terrifying nature of the Mountain-Cleaving Corpse Monarch better than anyone. At the Monarch tier, its capabilities were sufficient to single-handedly flatten a heavily fortified city were it not for the intervention of Super-tier Mages or Forbidden Curse Mages. The appearance of this monster was not merely a harassment raid; it was the opening bell for an existential war of subjugation.
Standing behind Zhang Xia, Mo Fan wore a simple black tunic, his hands tucked into his jacket pockets as his profound gaze locked onto the colossal figure towering amidst the sea of dark clouds. His face bore none of the panic afflicting the rookie soldiers; instead, a fierce battle-intent and chilling sharpness flashed within his deep black eyes.
“Early Monarch... Hmph, its momentum is indeed extraordinary.” Mo Fan muttered, the corners of his lips curling into a faint smile tinged with his signature arrogance. “Still, if you want to swallow this Ancient Capital whole, you’ll have to see whether your old bones are tough enough!”
Just as the atmosphere atop the ramparts grew taut as a bowstring, standing at the frontline a mere three miles from the southern gate, the Mountain-Cleaving Corpse Monarch abruptly halted its heavy strides.
The earth stopped shaking, but the bronze bell’s tolls continued to echo faintly in the night wind, breeding a hair-raising resonance. The monster slowly raised its massive skull. From its hollow eye sockets, two gouts of blood-red flames burned furiously, piercing through the gloomy night and shooting razor-sharp glares like butcher knives straight toward the Ancient Capital’s gate where thousands of humans stood panting.
That gaze held no life; it brimmed solely with endless hatred for the living breath of human civilization, alongside the fury of a ruler whose dignity had been profaned.
It locked onto the central sector of the southern gate, where the elite fighters and command staff were congregated. Following a breathless moment of stillness, the Mountain-Cleaving Corpse Monarch slowly raised its gargantuan right arm high into the air!
It was a protracted arm forged from hundreds of ancient beast skeletons fused together with granite boulders melted and re-cemented by hellfire. The sheer scale of that arm was no smaller than a thirty-story skyscraper suspended in the heavens. As it lifted, the surrounding space warped instantly, spawning minuscule spatial fissures that emitted sharp, hissing screeches.
All the death qi within a radius of ten leagues frantically surged toward that colossal arm, condensing into a thick layer of pitch-black armor Qi as sharp as a colossal reaper’s blade poised to cleave humanity asunder!
The true storm had finally begun.