Chapter 134: Despair Descends

Legend says that the Underworld possesses a stone mill equal in weight to Heaven and Earth. No matter how powerful a soul placed within it might be, it will be ground into dust. The Reincarnation Millstone Formation was inspired by this very tale.

Of course, what Jiang Li had the siblings set up was a low-tier version.

Within the formation’s area, it was like an entirely separate world. The environment was drastically different, with ten times gravity crushing down on the zombie whales, making it hard for them to even lift their fleshy wings.

Merciless icicles reappeared in the air, accelerated to terrifying speed by the intense gravity. The soldiers of Eternal Stronghold could only watch from afar as a flash of white light streaked by—and just as a whale was about to break free from an icicle, a new one nailed it to the ground.

This time, it was driven even deeper! There was no way the whales could break free now!

The once-dominant zombie whales were now like fish on a cutting board—thrashing tails, no way to escape, waiting to be butchered.

The two formations above and below began rotating, releasing a suffocating pressure that slowly crushed the whales into pulp.

New formations appeared in the sky, stirring heavenly thunder and earthly fire. Heavenly might surged, lightning crashed down like a thousand cannons firing at once—only stronger.

Tier-4 zombies had thick hides and tough flesh, and human weapons barely scratched them. But now the Eternal Stronghold soldiers saw with their own eyes—each flash of thunder split the whales’ flesh wide open!

“Huff… huff…” Luo Ying was panting heavily. Though he was now in the Foundation Establishment Stage, his body was still utterly drained—but his eyes shone with light, full of excitement. “The grand formation is finally activated.”

This formation was designed to kill Nascent Soul Stage enemies. While its main power came from the spiritual energy in the brain cores, it still needed cultivators to inject spiritual energy to activate it.

Even so, it had nearly exhausted the two early Foundation Establishment cultivators completely.

Luo Zhu’s limbs were limp, but her cheeks flushed with excitement—a rare sight. Though she hadn’t experienced the full despair of the apocalypse like her brother had, just hearing his stories made it easy to imagine the horrors these zombies brought to humanity.

Now, with the greatest threat—zombie whales—about to die, and other dangerous zombies not yet fully developed, the zombie crisis was finally coming to an end. The kind of world her brother once described—where families were torn apart, where a box of biscuits and a bottle of water could buy a woman’s first night, where people lived just waiting to die—that future… would never come.

No one wanted to face zombies. Sure, being a hero admired by millions in the apocalypse might sound glorious, but if given a choice, who wouldn’t prefer living in a peaceful era with games, novels, comics, and TV shows?

Even the less experienced soldiers of Eternal Stronghold could see—the whales didn’t stand a chance before the grand formation.

Heavenly thunder tore open their flesh, gravity crushed their bones, and their brain cores were exposed to the air. Already, more than a dozen brain cores had been shattered by the lightning, their spiritual energy leaking out and fueling the formation, making it even stronger.

When facing a corpse tide, they had to preserve the brain cores, so they could only decapitate the zombies, limiting the formation’s full potential. But now, none of the three planned to keep the brain cores.

Killing the whales within the formation was already hard enough. If they got greedy and tried to save the cores, weakening the formation and letting the whales break free—that would be a disaster.

Suddenly, one whale tore its own wing apart and broke free from the icicle holding it down. Its massive body flopped like a fish accidentally stranded on land. The ground shook, and cracks spiderwebbed out in every direction.

Jiang Li frowned.

The whale rolled toward its companions. But instead of trying to save them—it devoured one of their brain cores.

After swallowing one, it regained some strength, rolled to the next, and ate that core too.

“M-Mr. Jiang…” Luo Ying’s heart shot to his throat. Luo Zhu stared anxiously at Jiang Li.

This formation was a kill zone—anything that entered it would die. But the siblings couldn’t stop something that weighed nearly a thousand tons from crawling.

The only way to stop this whale would be to dismantle the formation and destroy the brain cores manually—leave it nothing to eat. But there were still many whales alive and struggling inside. If the formation was taken down, they would immediately retaliate.

This whale was a total anomaly. It kept devouring its companions’ brain cores.

The whales without brain cores died—but no one watching felt happy.

The more brain cores it swallowed, the greater the chance it would evolve.

“Focus all heavenly thunder on that beast.”

The thunder came from the second formation—Heaven-Slaying Thunder Formation. It struck randomly within a set area, but the siblings could tweak the probability, making it more likely to strike that particular whale.

They poured every last drop of their spiritual energy into controlling the thunder formation.

Boom—
Boom—
Boom—

The thunder’s pattern changed. Roughly half the strikes that were meant for other whales now targeted this one. In a flash, it was glowing so brightly it hurt to look at.

Even under the bombardment of heavenly thunder and crushing gravity, the whale kept crawling. It even flipped itself over—exposing its belly to the sky, using it to absorb the thunder, shielding its brain core.

It dragged its enormous body forward, still eating more brain cores.

“Redirect the thunder to the zombies still alive,” Jiang Li ordered. If they couldn’t kill this whale directly, they’d destroy the remaining brain cores.

This turned into a race against time—the thunder striking down to shatter the brain cores versus the whale devouring them.

“Huff—finally shattered all the brain cores.”

Luo Zhu let out a sigh of relief. She turned to share the moment with her brother—but found both him and Jiang Li frowning at the one whale that had been thrashing just moments ago and now lay perfectly still.

Woooo… Woooo…

The whale let out a low, haunting call. Its torn wings began to regrow at a speed visible to the naked eye. Its body started to swell.

It flapped its wings, letting thunder rain down freely. The formation could no longer restrain it. Its eyes locked onto Luo Ying and Luo Zhu—filled with rage.

The worst-case scenario had happened.

“…Tier 5,” Luo Ying muttered, face grim.

No detector needed—he was far too familiar with that aura. It was the power only the highest-tier zombies of his past life possessed.

They hadn’t killed the whale—they had helped it evolve!

The zombie whales all had similar power levels. They’d never had a chance to consume each other’s brain cores before. This formation had gifted one the opportunity.

A Tier-5 zombie—that meant the power to wipe out humanity. There had been Tier-5 zombies in the previous life too, but humans also had Tier-5 Enhancers to barely hold the line.

But now? Luo Ying and Luo Zhu were the strongest humans alive—yet they were only Tier-2.

The gap was vast—like Heaven and Earth.

As the zombie whale flew straight at them, Luo Ying knew they were doomed.

“Mr. Jiang… do I have another shot at rebirth?”

Jiang Li shook his head regretfully. “The fragment of the Stairway to Immortality might not have enough power to save you again.”

“I figured.” Luo Ying didn’t seem surprised. A second rebirth? That kind of miracle doesn’t come twice.

He looked at his sister with deep affection. What a shame. After all he’d done to save her… it was all going to end here.

But Luo Zhu felt content. Though her brother had never said it outright, it was clear from his stories—she hadn’t existed in his past life. She must’ve died at the very beginning.

To have lived four extra months this time—she was already grateful.

“No need to be so grim.” Jiang Li, though he couldn’t actually touch Luo Ying, made a gesture like patting his shoulder.

“Starting today, you have a new title—Shadow King Buddha.”

“Huh?”