Ascension of The Unholy Immortal

Up high in the sky, not far from the battlefield, a gray-robed man looked down with a pained expression.

"Senior, that should be enough... right?" he asked hesitantly, turning to the figure seated upon a floating boulder beside him.

Revenant Sia gazed at him with mild interest. Her expression was unreadable. "I would have never expected that this place would give birth to an Abyssal Corpse like you."

Few now remember that the Azure Light Continent once harbored an unholy land.

Unholy Lands are regions steeped in yin qi and death essence—realms so saturated with gloom that yin ghosts and spirit corpses form naturally, without the aid of rituals or arrays.

The Azure Light Continent's own unholy land was once contained and minor, tucked away and avoided by the wise. But it was also the birthplace of Revenant Sia.

In her early life, the unholy land was confined to this continent. Yet, after her resurrection, the land's influence expanded wildly—spreading across the stars to envelop nine entire planets.

After she departed once again, the unholy land remained untouched. Many ambitious cultivators used it as a place to temper themselves, but only the most desperate lingered for long. Most knew better.

When she left, the most powerful creature that roamed the land was a newly formed Heavenly Corpse.

Who would have imagined that upon her return, she would find something altogether more monstrous: an Abyssal Corpse.

Heavenly Corpses, are known to rival mid to late–stage Void Transformation Realm cultivators in terms of strength.

As the Heavenly Corpses' comprehension of the life and death laws increases, they have the potential to break through to a higher state known as the Yin Revenant Realm.

This advancement brings about a significant boost in spiritual power and physical abilities. Yin Revenants possess an ethereal appearance, resembling ordinary humans or even surpassing their beauty.

Reaching the Yin Revenant Realm is a task of near-impossible difficulty. Before achieving this state, a Heavenly Corpse must survive a series of Seven Heavenly Tribulations—each more destructive than the last. The majority do not survive. Their remains are scattered, their souls torn to fragments.

Yet not all who fail the tribulations perish entirely. A rare few survive, albeit in a transformed and altered state. These survivors are known as Abyssal Corpses—a divergent evolution of the Heavenly Corpse. Unlike the Yin Revenants, who regain fragments or full recollections of their mortal lives, Abyssal Corpses remain bereft of such memories. Despite this, they are not mindless. Possessing sentience, cunning, and individuality, Abyssal Corpses retain their ability to reason, learn, and cultivate.

Their strength far exceed that of ordinary Heavenly Corpses due to the violent fusion of Law fragments and broken tribulation power lingering within their bodies.

Within their own unholy lands, their power may reach the level of late-stage Void Return experts.

Unlike Yin Revenants, who cultivate through harmony between death land ife, Abyssal Corpses walk another path. It is a cultivation method born from failure—an instinctive path that draws from the residue of tribulation lightning, shattered laws, and the death qi.

This path does not aim for ascension, but rather stability through imperfection. Practitioners refine their corrupted bodies through cycles of collapse and rebirth, forming Soul Hollows—crystalline abyssal-cores that stabilize the backlash of tribulation energies. The deeper an Abyssal cultivates, the more their body becomes an embodiment of contradiction: life that cannot live, death that refuses to end.

Only a rare few walk this road to its bitter pinnacle. Those who do reach the apex state known as the True Abyss. In that state, they are terrors even late-stage Void Return Realm cultivators would hesitate to provoke.

Revenant Sia looked down once more, "To endure failure and emerge stronger from it... that is a rare and terrifying path indeed."

The gray-robed man cupped his fists and bowed. "This one thanks Senior for her guidance and favor. Without your grace in the past, I would not have survived my lowest moment, much less risen to this state."

His tone was proper, reverent—but deep within, his dead heart stirred with discomfort.

She's back... after all these years.

He had long grown used to being the ruler of this forsaken unholy land. Cultivators feared him. Yin spirits paid him tribute. Heavenly Corpses obeyed his commands. Within these cursed lands, his authority was unshakable.

But now she sat above him once more—aloof, enigmatic, and utterly terrifying. Revenant Sia. Her very presence scratched at his pride and sense of control.

And worse—her so-called "disciple" had just slaughtered four of his strongest subordinates. These weren't mere corpse soldiers. They were elite, refined through centuries of bloodshed and imbued with death law runes personally inscribed by him. And yet, they had been destroyed utterly. Crushed beneath fists of devil fire and forbidden mudras.

How could he not be displeased?

Yet, that displeasure remained buried, cold and deep like an untouched grave. He didn't voice it. He dared not.

He still valued his existence. No matter how twisted or painful it had become, he wished to live—or at least reach a state where death no longer ruled him.

He was strong—comparable to a Void Return cultivator. Within this land, he was unmatched.

Yet he was still a corpse.

How far could a dead thing truly go?

His gaze fell to his own hand, pale and inhuman. But deep within his chest, he felt the subtle hum of something more. His last chance. His final gambit.

The opportunity to step into the True Abyss.

If he succeeded… he would challenge the Heavenly Tribulation once more. And if he withstood it....If he survived, he would shed his cursed form and ascend to the Divine Revenant Realm.

No longer bound to death. No longer imprisoned by undeath.

His hands clenched at the thought, but his expression stayed calm.

And then—

"Strange," Revenant Sia said suddenly, tilting her head slightly, her eyes flicking with strange light. "For someone to reach such a level, you must have been quite the figure in life. You are not an ordinary corpse... are you?"