Chapter 386 - In Trouble

Su Lianyue turned her head and asked softly, “What’s wrong?”

“The night might be beautiful, but don’t let it bewitch you.” Xiao Chen walked up to her and made a pinching motion in the air.

Su Lianyue looked at where he was pointing. Only then did she realize a thread tied between two trees, so thin that it was undetectable. The thread was just at the right height to slice her head off.

“Frozen Soul Heavenly Silk.” Cold sweat formed on Su Lianyue’s back when she muttered these words. Had Xiao Chen not stop her, her head might have left her shoulders now.

“Thank you, Young Master.” She didn’t expect that Xiao Chen could detect such a hidden thread like the Frozen Soul Heavenly Silk at a split second. It seemed that he wasn’t as simple as he presented.

“Shh…” Xiao Chen made a shushing motion and patted her shoulder, indicating for her to squat down. In the distance, a corpse herder was leading twenty more corpses toward their direction. Under the moon and the stars, it was a peculiar sight. The two of them hid amid the underbrush, holding their breath. Su Lianyue also shed off her fragrance.

The corpse herder, dressed in a yellow-and-white Taoist robe, was holding a Soul Absorbing Bell. Each time he shook the bell, the twenty more corpses would take a few steps forward and follow him. On their deathly pale faces, a black imprint rested between their eyebrows. Leaves rustled as they walked on the underbrush. They were now about ten feet away from where Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue were hiding. He could even detect the heavy malicious grudges from these corpses from here.

Finally, when the corpses were finally far away, Xiao Chen let out a sigh of relief. Su Lianyue’s cheeks were red from holding her breath for so long. Under the clear moonlight, she looked flirtatious and enchanting.

Xiao Chen motioned for her to keep quiet and pointed to their left, indicating for her to look in that direction. The altar was right in front of them. Being as close as they were, they would be easily discovered.

Thus, they began moving in silence under the canvas of bright moon and stars, using the greenery for cover. To their surprise, they found four to five of such altars along the way but the people on the altars were so preoccupied with their own business that they said little else. Xiao Chen whispered, “You’re more familiar with the Corpse Refinery Sect. What are they doing?”

Su Lianyue replied, “If I’m not mistaken, I think they’re gathering malicious grudges. There aren’t many in each altar, but countless altars could add up to quite a massive amount of malicious grudges. The only thing capable of sustaining such malicious grudges is probably their legendary thousand-year-old Divine Corpse.”

Xiao Chen frowned. The Corpse Refinery Sect hadn’t been very active in the past few years. Aside from Ye Wuxin’s clear ambition to annex the three other major Devil’s sects, no one knew what the other members of the sect were up to. Now, he was teaming up with Su Lianyue to investigate the sect without knowing her objective. Even so, he could tell that she wasn’t doing it for Fort Raksasa. His objective, on the other hand, was very clear.

First, he wanted to see if he could get a Corpse Puppet and use it to save Xiao Ning from Wuyin Monastery. Second, he had always suspected the Corpse Refinery Sect’s involvement in the disappearance of the thirty-one people. Of course, he wasn’t investigating for those victims but for the fact of the seventh day of the seventh month.

The birthday of these missing people all fell on the seventh day of the seventh month, and the victims were all women, too. Qingluan told him that such incidents could be traced as far back as two thousand years ago. If the Corpse Refinery Sect was truly involved, these disappearances might be hiding some major secret. It might even have something to do with the sect’s existence itself.

The seventh day of the seventh month was also Weiyang’s birthday. For some reason, he had a very bad feeling about all these. She had been appearing in his dreams lately, and always in a very dreadful manner. He felt very repressed. The discomfort that tugged at his heart was indescribable…

“Young Master?” Su Lianyue quietly called Xiao Chen, noticing his absent-mindedness.

Xiao Chen motioned for her to be quiet. Just as he was about to step forward and continue their journey, a burst of rustling noises rang behind them. Su Lianyue didn’t even think before turning around and producing a purple fog. The purple fog moved so swiftly that it instantly enveloped a person clad in red twenty feet away.

That person ought to be a Corpse Refinery Sect disciple who came out to relieve himself in the cover of the night. Unfortunately, he ran into Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue. His eyes glazed over after inhaling Su Lianyue’s Purple Aromatic Fog. Su Lianyue’s eyes flashed with a cold glint. She was about to take his life when Xiao Chen grabbed her hand. “Don’t!”

He walked up to the disciple soundlessly and tapped several parts of his body, knocking him unconscious. He then inserted a white radiance into the disciple’s glabella and wiped out his Divine Sense and memories. Only then did he drag the disciple into the underbrush to hide him.

“We can’t stay here. Let’s go.”

They didn’t go far before they detected several similar-looking altars. The temperature seemed to have dropped and cold wind blew from all around. A cold sensation quietly enveloped their surroundings. Hiding amid the underbrush, Su Lianyue said, “I think they’re really trying to revive that Divine Corpse. Why don’t we check out their main altar at the Mountain of Myriad Caves tonight?”

Xiao Chen shook his head. “We don’t want to alarm them. The Mountain of Myriad Caves has as many experts as there are trees in a forest. There’s Ye Wuxin, too. If we break in now, we’ll just be digging our own graves. Let’s just stick to our plan.”

His words startled Su Lianyue. Ye Wuxin’s excellent subordinates were already a hassle to deal with, never mind the Corpse Puppets that had accumulated several hundred years of malicious grudges. Since when has she become so brazen? Was it because of this man in front of her? She looked at Xiao Chen, and Xiao Chen stared back at her with a frown. “What’s wrong?”

His words startled Su Lianyue. Ye Wuxin’s subordinates were already a hassle to deal with, never mind the Corpse Puppets that had accumulated several hundred years of grievances. Since when has she become so brazen? Was it because of this man in front of her? She looked at Xiao Chen, and Xiao Chen stared back at her with a frown. “What’s wrong?”

Xiao Chen shuddered out of nowhere. His voice trembled when he replied, “A little. What about you?”

“Me too. Did someone discover us?”

“No, I think it’s corpses.”

Xiao Chen could clearly feel the sudden invasion of the intense cold. It was the manifestation of potent malicious grudges, so cold that it pierced deep into one’s bones. They immediately stood up and looked around. That was when they saw a dozen or so Corpse Puppets that had appeared around them without their notice. All of them had copper for heads and iron for arms, looking like creatures of steel and flesh. Dark green will-o’-the-wisps hovered inside their eye sockets as they stared at them. They were a horrifying sight to behold.

“Hundred-year-old Corpse Puppets!”

“Run!”

Xiao Chen didn’t even stop to think before he sprang out of the underbrush. These Corpse Puppets, with malicious grudges accumulated over hundreds of years, couldn’t be compared to those Walking Corpses that wouldn’t decay. Both of them were still in the Nascent Soul Realm. It was impossible for them to handle so many hundred-year-old Corpse Puppets.

“Clang!”

The muffled sound was nonetheless ear-piercing at night. Three to five Corpse Puppets had blocked their escape in a split second. The will-o’-the-wisp inside their eye sockets flared and their bodies seemed to have become entirely steel. The clanking of their limbs also alarmed the people on the faraway altars.

“Intruders!”

The cry made the tens of people on the altar put down the things in their hands and rushed over to the part of the forest that Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue were in. The dozen or so torches were particularly eye-catching at night, illuminating their surroundings as they swiftly closed in. Su Lianyue was alarmed. “Young Master, what do we do now?”

She stuck close to Xiao Chen’s back. She had a myriad of ways to handle most people, but she couldn’t even think of a solution to counter these mindless Corpse Puppets. Even her offense was far inferior to Xiao Chen’s.

The people from the altar had them surrounded. They controlled the dozen or so hundred-year-old Corpse Puppets to start attacking Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue. In the distance, a mass of Corpse Puppets were rushing toward them. Even many corpses, yet to be turned into puppets, were being ushered here by the corpse herders.

Under the moonlight, bodies and Corpse Puppets swiftly formed a sea. Like a scene of a thousand corpses crossing over to the Underworld in unison, it was a terrifying sight that numbed one’s scalp.

“Hold tight onto me!”

Xiao Chen cried, and immediately formed seals. The Unsullied Sword became larger and larger in the sky, its blade glowing with a layer of white radiance. One could faintly see its golden script throbbing. The ordinary Corpse Puppets dared not come close to the sword at all.

“The just and honest Qi of heaven and earth, unbounded in the world, that expels all evil creatures, rise!”

The clanging of metals shattered the air. The sword radiance of the Unsullied Sword intensified. Xiao Chen leaped onto the body of the sword, with Su Lianyue holding tightly on his arm. Swish! Like a white radiance flitting across the night sky, the Unsullied Sword carried them away from the place. This place was bound by restrictions that prevented the use of flying swords, but Xiao Chen used the Mystic Cyan mystic arts and was able to fly, if just barely.

On the sword, the two of them passed through the forest with Corpse Puppets hot on their tails. The Corpse Puppets were, astonishingly, not slower than them. The Corpse Refinery Sect disciples with higher cultivations had also caught up to them.

Xiao Chen pressed the fingers on his left hand together and made a slashing motion. A seal, bathed in golden glow, flew at the four to five people pursuing them from the side. He then increased the sword’s flying speed. Out of the blue, a rumbling noise shattered the air and a one-hundred-feet-tall dirt wall emerged in front of them. Xiao Chen instantly shifted the direction of the sword so that they wouldn’t ram into the wall, but Su Lianyue was screeching, having nearly had the inertia fling her off.

Not only were the Corpse Refinery Sect disciples good at manipulating puppets, but they were also experts of ground manipulation spells. Before long, more than ten dirt walls were produced. They would suddenly pop up on the left, and then on the right. This disoriented Xiao Chen enough that his pace became a lot slower.

Xiao Chen’s brows furrowed tightly at the sight of the relentless Corpse Puppets. If they fell, their bodies would certainly be lost in this sea of corpses. Once the Corpse Refinery Sect disciples arrive, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Su Lianyue took note of his strained expression and tightened her grip on him, afraid that he would abandon her and escape by himself. By now, a yellow-robed Taoist caught up to them and asked loudly, “Who are you two? How dare you trespass on the Corpse Refinery Sect’s forbidden ground! If you don’t stop right now, don’t blame me for being merciless!”

Thanks to the dark of the night, that person couldn’t get a clear look at Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue’s faces. Xiao Chen ignored him and twirled his left fingers. In a flash, nine flames erupted on the hollow of his palm. These were the Nine Heaven-scorching Flames. The yellow-robed Taoist was shocked. He could instantly feel the terrifying might hidden in these flames. He yelled, “What are you trying to do?!”

Xiao Chen didn’t even think twice before tossing the nine flames onto the sea of corpses below. A loud explosion shattered the air and blaze rocketed into the sky. The rolling flames dyed the sky an intense red. The storm produced by the nine raging flames instantly incinerated countless Corpse Puppets into ashes. Aside from the hundred-year-old Corpse Puppets, nothing survived.

This attack produced a massive commotion that drew the attention of many experts from the Corpse Refinery Sect. Xiao Chen hadn’t wanted to use it. The yellow-robed Taoist’s heart ached to see all the Corpse Puppets that he painstakingly refined destroyed. In a pained voice, he said, “You wretched child! I swear I’ll refine you into a Corpse Puppet today!”

The Taoist then recited an unknown spell, casting three to five red rays of light on Xiao Chen. Xiao Chen moved sideways to dodge them. He didn’t try to fight the Taoist as he was now trying to escape a siege. He casually threw a blade of Qi at the Taoist and increased the speed of the Unsullied Sword to the extreme, lest any more pursuers catch up to him.

Just then, a heavy sound drifted from the mountain range in the southwest direction. The voice was peculiar and low, like it was capable of sucking one’s soul out. The trees all around them were shaking. Under his feet, the Unsullied Sword that was speeding along shuddered twice.

Su Lianyue had a bad premonition. The seven or eight pursuers behind them stopped giving chase as well, all of them looking deathly pale as they stared at the mountain range in the southwest in a daze.