Lord of the dead: Exiled by my sect

The Ghost Domain

The violent spatial currents whipped against Li Tian’s face like razor blades, tearing his skin and forcing his eyes shut as he plummeted out of the dimensional rift.

CRASH!

He slammed face-first through the dense canopy of an ancient, pitch-black forest, snapping thick, rotting branches before cratering into wet, ash-colored dirt. The impact jarred his fractured Core Formation base, sending a wave of agonizing pain through his torso that forced a ragged gasp from his throat.

[Ding! Spatial transit completed.]

[Warning: Host's physical body has sustained 74% structural damage. Core Formation base is severely fractured and unstable!]

[Current Location: The Ghost Domain of the Southern Continent—The Ashen Forest.]

Li Tian spit out a mouthful of dirt and coagulated blood, his fingers digging into the cold, dead earth as he forced his upper body upward. His left eye still burned with a faint crimson fire, but his right eye—the one carrying the golden light of the Heaven-Breaking Jade—was completely dark, temporarily sealed by the immortal’s spatial backlash.

"Still alive..." Li Tian growled, a savage, bloody grin cutting across his pale face. "You failed to kill me, you high-and-mighty god."

"Master... look out..."

A weak, trembling voice echoed from his side. Shao Qing, the silver-haired Demon Empress, lay a few feet away, her tattered robes barely covering her pale skin. Her nine purple tails had vanished, and her spiritual form was so translucent that the grey grass beneath her was visible through her torso.

The absolute slave contract in Li Tian's soul vibrated, transmitting her intense weakness and a spike of sudden, external panic.

Rustle.

The surrounding ashen bushes parted.

Dozens of gaunt, pale-faced cultivators wearing black robes embroidered with human skulls crept into the clearing. Their eyes gleamed with a predatory, green light as their gazes swept over the bleeding Li Tian, finally locking onto the breathtaking, vulnerable form of the translucent Demon Empress.

"Jie jie jie! Look what the spatial storm dropped into our laps!" a hunched, elderly cultivator at the front cackled, rubbing his skeletal hands together. His aura fluctuated at the Foundation Establishment Stage Five. "A broken brat with a ruptured core, and a top-tier, pure-yin female phantom spirit! If we refine her into a ghost general, the Corpse Yin Sect will reward us with ten thousand spirit stones!"

"Fools," Li Tian whispered, his voice dangerously low.

He didn't waste time trying to stand. He pushed his mind straight into the system interface floating before his eyes.

"System! Execute emergency repairs! Devour the residual immortal qi in my meridians to forcefully stabilize my core!"

[Ding! Understood. Refining residual Immortal Qi...]

[Core Formation Base stabilized at Stage One!]

[System Warning: Host lacks sufficient spiritual energy to launch physical attacks. Activating auxiliary function: Ghost-Domain Domination!]

BOOM!

A freezing wave of pitch-black death qi violently erupted from Li Tian's chest, instantly turning the grey grass around him into brittle ice. The black vortex of his Death Core, now stabilized, hummed with a terrifying resonance that directly targeted the souls of everything within a five-mile radius.

The hunched elder’s cackle choked in his throat. His knees suddenly buckled, slamming violently into the mud as an unshakeable, primal terror gripped his heart. "What... what kind of pressure is this?! You're just a broken kid!"

"I am the Lord of the Dead," Li Tian said, his crimson left eye flaring with absolute authority. He pointed a single, bleeding index finger at the ground beneath the elder's feet. "And you are standing on my kingdom. Rise!"

ROAR!

The ground beneath the Corpse Yin Sect disciples violently ruptured.

Three colossal, ancient skeletal hands—each one thicker than a house and covered in green, necrotic fire—shot out from the underworld dirt. Before the pale cultivators could even draw their talisman swords, the skeletal hands clutched them in a massive, crushing grip.

CRUNCH!

"AAAGHH!"

The bones and organs of over twenty Foundation Establishment disciples were instantly crushed into a gory pulp, their screams abruptly cut short as their bodies were pulverized into a fine, red slurry.

[Ding! Slain 24 Corpse Yin Sect disciples! Extracting blood essence and yin souls!]

[Host’s spiritual energy restored by 40%!]

The hunched elder, who had barely dodged the initial strike by sacrificing a black ghost talisman, was now paralyzed with fear. He lay on his back, staring up at Li Tian, who was slowly floating into the air, wrapped in a shroud of gray Primordial Death-Sword Qi.

"Wait... senior, mercy! I am an outer elder of the Corpse Yin Sect!" the old man shrieked, wetting his robes. "Our Ancestor is a peak Nascent Soul powerhouse! If you kill me—"

Li Tian appeared directly in front of him, his black boot crushing the old man's chest before he could finish his sentence. "Tell your Ancestor to get his neck ready. I'm coming for his sect next."

BANG!

The elder’s chest caved in, his soul forcefully ripped out by the system and swallowed by Li Tian's Death Core.

With his energy partially restored, Li Tian landed softly beside the weakened Shao Qing. He scooped her translucent body into his arms, ignoring her faint gasp of surprise, and turned his gaze toward the deep, mist-covered mountains of the Ghost Domain. The system map was already lighting up, flashing a massive, glowing red marker three hundred miles away.

[Ding! Primary World-Quest Unlocked: Conquer the Corpse Yin Sect and seize the Ancient Underworld Vein to completely unseal the Heaven-Breaking Jade!]

But before Li Tian could take a single step forward, a massive, earth-shaking toll echoed from the deepest valley of the Ashen Forest. A giant, floating black carriage drawn by nine skeletal dragons tore through the clouds overhead, and a cold, majestic voice boomed down from the sky, locking onto Li Tian's exact position.

"Who dares to slaughter the disciples of my sect on the day of my wedding?!"