Chapter 420 - The Granite Sarcophagus

Yu Yifeng clasped firmly on Xiao Chen’s arm, “Calm down!”

Xiao Chen stretched his fingers, his hand numb from the devastating blowback caused when the Great Immortal parried his stroke. Beads of tears hung from his eyelashes as he murmured, “Muxue… She’s… she’s… Six more days, and Red Sleeve will… she will…” His voice broke at the foreboding of whatever monstrosity Red Sleeve could possibly conceive.

“Red Sleeve?” Yu Yifeng uttered, puzzled and confused. Xiao Chen merely shook his head, his expression dour and sullen, simply explaining, “That’s the Divine Corpse.”

Tens of yards behind, the invaders were still incredulous with repudiation. Among them, Zuoqiu Yang felt the worst. The sight of Xiao Chen casually reducing tens of Corpse Puppets into smithereens would forever haunt him like a nightmare, gnawing at his confidence that he began to feel meek and helpless. Even in his best, he could at most kill one or two of these abominations. But Xiao Chen had overdone him by leaps and bounds!

At that precise moment, there was only a bottomless chasm in his heart and from within the dark abyss clambered up jealousy and hatred. Since the day he was born, Zuoqiu Yang was showered with love, respect, and prestige. He was hailed as a child prodigy within his clan in his youth and the exclusive heir of the Leader of the Divine Mist Sect. There he was, roosting at the pinnacle of the world, until the day a young man called Xiao Chen became renowned. From then all, the world collapsed around him. Failures visited him with rhythmic constancy and no matter how hard he tried, Xiao Chen would always be far ahead of him. Just when he thought Xiao Chen was barely nearing the later levels of the Nascent Soul Realm while he was already well beyond, his nemesis has reentered the fold, now wielding the powers of the Nirvana Realm! Why, He almost burst out aloud, Why?!

In his resentment, frustration, and anxiety, his eyes grew scarlet red with hatred. Why!? Why must I be in the shadows of Xiao Chen!?

Just then, a deep groaning rumble came from afar and shocked everyone. Two figures appeared in the horizons, racing quickly towards the battlefield like a pair of shooting stars. As they grew closer, everyone recognized one of them the frigid and deathlike appearance of Ye Wuxin and the other person – no, a thing – was a Corpse Puppet. A Corpse Puppet dressed in the rich velvety raiments of an emperor and a matching headdress!

It was the same Corpse King they had seen before. Only this time, it was nothing more but an asinine lackey without any more of its former fiendish glory and horrors. Nevertheless, the other Corpse Puppets trembled as it drew nearer as if they were shaking with fear. Fueled by Malicious Grudge, it was a common occurrence when a Corpse Puppet with greater and stronger Grudge enters the fold.

The Elders of the Sect present quickly began muttering words of incantations to calm the rest of the Corpse Puppets to prevent them from losing control. The invaders were all reeling with shock for they too felt how powerful this Corpse King was compared to the rest of its lesser counterparts.

The acolytes of the Sect threw themselves to the ground just as Ye Wuxin landed, prostrating themselves humbly at his heels. The Great Immortal went up to the High Chieftain of the Corpse Refinery Sect and asked with a skeptical look, “Was it a failure?”

“The assimilation has failed,” Ye Wuxin nodded grimly, “But it is still under control.” He pivoted and turned to face the legion of invaders. “You might as well stay, since all of you have come a long way. I’m sure we have ample permanent accommodations for all of you here in the Corpse Refinery Sect,” he declared icily. His timely appearance had not only impregnated the defenders with the resolve and confidence to upkeep the defense of the Ridge, but also delivered a powerful blow to the morale of the invaders of the Orthodox Path.

He surveyed the invaders and saw a seething Xiao Chen. In a steely voice, he snickered and said, “I see. It is you. Fine. You would be fit nicely as a human corpse for me.”

“Careful,” The Great Immortal cautioned with a hushed voice, “There is something wrong with this man. He has a Malicious Grudge so great that it dwarfs even that of our century-old Corpse Puppets.”

“Oh?” Ye Wuxin muttered flatly with hardly any interest in the warning, “I’m curious.”

Xiao Chen’s face was flushed with fury. His eyes were boring deep into Ye Wuxin as the urge in him to lunge and tear and rip was burgeoning beyond control. With a snarl, he threw himself at the High Chieftain of the Corpse Refinery Sect, bringing his saber down at his head but his enemy merely nonchalantly raised an arm. A ringing clang resounded across the silent battlefield and Xiao Chen could not quite believe his eyes; Ye Wuxin had only needed two fingers to hold his Blood Lotus Demon Blade in a vice-like grip!

“Funny. Surely you do not believe me as feeble as my Corpse Puppets? You have a great Malicious Grudge too, I hear? Let’s see how powerful it is then.”

No one dared breathe. With two fingers, this man stopped that redoubtable Xiao Chen’s attack?! What is he? Is he even more powerful than the Great Immortal from Hell? But behind him, the other Elders of the Sect were looking as if they had recovered from their bewilderment. They must have realized something.

With his teeth gnashing with anger, Xiao Chen tried as best he could, still the blade would not fall. A single chuckle echoed from amongst the invaders. Zuoqiu Yang, although he himself could not understand why. Yet somehow, he found it amusing seeing Xiao Chen mustering every ounce of strength in his being and yet to no avail. Then a thought came to Zuoqiu Yang, If only Ye Wuxin can give Xiao Chen a good and heavy walloping!

A terrible BANG ensued. But instead of successfully dealing his blow, it was Xiao Chen who was sent flying for several yards like a piece of trash before he crashed to the ground. Ye Wuxin simply needed no Corpse Puppets to do his fighting for him. Not when he was facing the present Xiao Chen and it was more than enough to make Zuoqiu Yang guffaw with satisfaction.

Yu Yifeng rushed to help Xiao Chen with Luo Shangyan and the others following just behind. The Elders Zi Mo and Qingfeng hardly moved; they were guarding against any movements from the millennia-old Corpse King now towering obediently beside Ye Wuxin.

Xiao Chen waved off his friends and glowered at Ye Wuxin, hardly bothered by his failure, “Where’s Muxue!”

“I’ll hazard you’re referring to the girl I had taken just a few days ago? Given to the Corpse King, of course. I guess she has been fully assimilated by it now –”

“WHAT – DID – YOU – SAY!?” Xiao Chen’s left eye shone with a peculiar glow of blood-red as he roared, one word for each breath, with a voice that seemed unfamiliar even to himself.

“As I said, she is now an intrinsic instrument indispensable to the awakening of the Corpse King,” Ye Wuxin pronounced with a devilish grin, “You should be thanking me. She has now attained an everlasting life…”

What he heard made Xiao Chen trembled. Only he was hardly the only one; every single member of the Jade Qing Sect present – most notably Zi Mo and Yanluo, both of whom were already staggering unsteadily – were reeling at the startling and mortifying revelation. With a palpable tremor in his voice that was teetering on breaking, he gasped, “You’ve… she’s… impossible… a Corpse Puppet…”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true,” Ye Wuxin confirmed with a lackadaisical smile.

“I’LL KILL YOU!” Xiao Chen bellowed, charging at Ye Wuxin as he swung his saber again at his enemy. The swinging of his weapon was so forceful that a gale of wind blew and pushed everyone in its way off-balance that Luo Shangyan and her companions all fell down.

CLANG! A deafening ring of steel against steel screamed across the battlefield, its resonance shattering the flagstones of the battered plaza that was the site of the battle of the Ridge, and instantly weakening the foundations of many wavering structures that they immediately crashed into piles of dusty gravel and rubbles on the ground.

Fiery sparks shot by Xiao Chen’s eyes when he hacked with his weapon, feeling something stopping it in its travel. Then he realized what it was: the broadsword of the millennia-old Corpse King! It was exactly like the last time they fought. The surrealistic recognition of history repeating itself. It was the same as that night; the glint of their weapons in the light, the unnerving knot of adrenaline gurgling in their guts as both sides refused to back down, the intense sparks emitted when their weapons gnashed against each other. With foul and evil aura swirling around him as he engaged Xiao Chen in their dance of death, he stared at Xiao Chen through his lifeless eyes a deep black like obsidian.

Flames fluttered in Xiao Chen’s eyes and even his body seemed shrouded by a purplish-red flame slowly simmering over his skin. The crowd began to notice this, although none dared to utter a word at the glimpse of his left eye slowly turning red before it began steaming and fuming mildly. There was only the bewildered and agape expressions to illustrate their stupefaction.

“Powerful Malicious Grudge indeed,” Ye Wuxin merely grinned, “But what makes you think you have what it takes to kill me?”

Xiao Chen emitted another thunderous ARRGGGHH before he bellowed a name: Guifeng!

“My Lord!” A shadowy silhouette, lumbering at more than ten yards, took on a humanoid shape. Its girth and height were enough to make any man tremble as they retreated to make way with their breaths and voices stuck in their throats.

“SLAY THEM ALL! SHOW NO QUARTER!”

“Understood, My Lord!” Guifeng responded from atop his spectral destrier. He wheeled his stallion around, surveying his surroundings with the languid curls of dark energies roiling around him. His grip on his polearm tightened as his sinews tensed and stiffened, looking ever so proud, stern, and terrible. With a squeeze of his legs on the ribs of his ride, Guifeng charged at the defenders still petrified by fear.

In the midst of their panicked frenzy, the defenders, acolytes and Elders alike, quickly saw to their Corpse Puppets, redirecting the focus of their war machines at the new threat but to hardly any use; with a couple of strokes, Guifeng shredded the century-old Corpse Puppets like bits and crisps of paper.

In just a matter of seconds, Guifeng destroyed tens of Corpse Puppets as he rampaged his way hither and thither through the mobs of defenders and Puppets. Like a hot knife through butter, the dreadful invincibility of the Corpse Puppet amounted to nothing before this man; the mindless abominations all destroyed in varying forms of manner. Some he hacked with hardly any remorse, cleaving them cleanly into halves while some, he skewered with the blade of his weapon before tossing them over his shoulders ignominiously like a sack of filth and manure.

Not even the Great Immortal could maintain his cool composure any longer. This young man has always been a thorn in the side of the Corpse Refinery Sect, a born nemesis who wielded in his hands the key to destroying the Sect. Just then, the invaders recovered from their stupor. Seeing their chance to regain the initiative, they too charge ahead from over Xiao Chen’s shoulders.

More blood was spilled. Deserters began pouring from the ranks of defenders, abandoning their sacred oaths to defend the Ridge to their last breath whilst the remaining number of defenders that constituted the bulk of the defense dwindled with the tally of the dead or maimed spiking with terrifying alacrity. Heads fell on the ground, rolling like destroyed melons as flying swords swoop down on any prey they caught like falcons on the hunt if their bodies were not otherwise utterly decimated to mere bits of blood and flesh with hardly any mercy. Without the Corpse Puppets to maintain the frontlines, the defenses yielded before the unstoppable might of the invaders that finally breached the Ridge, their morale spiking for the first time since the invasion began at the stalemate finally broken.

Xiao Chen’s left eye was a complete shade of blood-red, fuming with red, bloodlike Qi as his Rancorous Qi climbed. His right eye looked relatively normal although the sight of him now was more than enough to frighten anyone.

“ARRGHHH!” Xiao Chen roared again. He could feel his hair standing on their end. He shoved the Corpse King aside, taking him by surprise and charged again at Ye Wuxin. “Give me back Muxue!”

Boom!

The earth shook and the air groaned as Xiao Chen’s weapon fell. Buildings and structures circumferencing the outer peripherals of the plaza began to cave in and tumble. But Ye Wuxin was hardly injured; he had stopped Xiao Chen’s stroke with his bare hands, clasping tightly on the deep-red blade of Xiao Chen’s weapon while wearing a casual smile, “Oops… A little more to go, I guess… More anger, more hatred, more grudge… that’s what you need…”

Another fierce roar escaped Xiao Chen’s throat. He released his weapon suddenly and lunged at Ye Wuxin with the viciousness of a raving beast. This seemed like the last thing Ye Wuxin expected as Xiao Chen’s claw-like hands closed in on his throat and he threw the High Chieftain of the Sect to the ground, pinning him down while delivering blows after blows into his face. The unceasing pounding of his fist into Ye Wuxin’s face echoed into the night as the dust and soot churned up glided lethargically in the air.

“GIVE ME BACK MUXUE! GIVE ME BACK MUXUE!” Xiao Chen continued shouting at the top of his voice, his emotions and mind utterly delirious. As if imbued with an unholy strength, Xiao Chen kept Ye Wuxin pinned to the ground, all the while never stopped battering one fist after another into the latter’s face, and there was nothing the latter could do to free himself.

No one could move and no one dared to say a word. Here was Ye Wuxin, the High Chieftain of the Corpse Refinery Sect, being beaten like a common dog…

More and more deserters fled at the sight of their supreme leader being clobbered, their hopes and convictions shattered to oblivion. Desperate to rally the defenders, the Great Immortal screamed, “The Divine Corpse will be rising any second now! Have faith! Have faith!” He turned to the battlefield and dashed forward, hoping to rescue Ye Wuxin when a purplish silhouette barred his advance. It was Zi Mo!

The rest of the invaders – Qingfeng, Perfected Immortal Feng Lan, and Perfected Immortal Fengxi among them – sprang into action. They engaged the rest of the available Corpse Puppet, clearing up the way for their other comrades to mop up any defenders of the Sect in sight. No amount of Corpse Puppets would be useful so long as there was no one to use them.

Amid the turmoil of the battle once again raging , Xiao Chen was still relentlessly hammering his fists into the face of Ye Wuxin, but to no avail. The High Chieftain merely cackled vilely, prodding vehemently, “More… more hatred… more anger… more rage… Surely this cannot be your all?”

“ARRGHH!” Xiao Chen let loose another howl and lifted Ye Wuxin and smashed him back to the ground like a sack of filth with so much force that a long trench, several yards long, appeared when the dust finally settled.

It was a sight so harrowing that the defenders of the Sect looked positively crestfallen and their morale smothered. The High Chieftain was their god. The object of their worship. And seeing how Ye Wuxin taking all the beating filled them with doubt and despair as any remaining will to fight on instantly crumbled.

Chaos ensued. The disciples of the Sect began deserting their posts, breaking ranks from the defensive formation as they began to flee. The Great Immortal and his band of Elders could no longer contain the situation and maintain order as the defenders disintegrated until suddenly, a powerful gush of aura, foul and frigid as the coldest and darkest of winters, swept across the field of battle. Everyone shuddered and jerked their heads to where it came from.

A dark shadow flitted through the sky, coming closer and closer by the piecemeal until everyone saw what it was: a moss-green granite sarcophagus. It flew in mid-air, dashing through the air like a Flying-cloud Stone, but no one could possibly overlook the dark and foul aura pouring from within it.

At that exact moment, there was only still silence on the front lines. No one dared to move and all the fighting had stopped, save for the trembling of muscles that came with the sensation of fear. Intense fear.

Xiao Chen was also gazing up at the sky, watching the sarcophagus coming closer when he suddenly felt a sharp, stabbing pain. There was something familiar about that deathly and frigid aura that made everyone shudder. But how? A voice said in his mind, What is it? What is coming? Do I know what it is?