Chapter 190: Dangerous Fight with Corpse Horde
“Since you can receive a blow from me without dying, I will spare you. Ga! Ga! Ga! Ga!” The Corpse Monarch laughed strangely. He waved his right hand and corpses streamed out of the ground continuously.
Upon careful inspection, these corpses were the missing miners. Someone had used special methods to refine them; they were much stronger than the regular corpses.
The Corpse Monarch laughed strangely, “Have fun, I still have things to do. Ga! Ga! Ga! Ga!”
The Corpse Monarch slowly sank into the ground and quickly disappeared without a trace. However, the ground was still as smooth as it was before, there were no traces of cracks at all.
“Earth Evasion Spell?” When Xiao Chen saw the way the Corpse Monarch had left, he immediately thought of the Earth Evasion Spell recorded in the Compendium of Cultivation. What he just saw was almost exactly the same as the Earth Evasion Spell.
However, the situation did not permit him to be able to think about it. The corpses that surrounded them had already launched themselves at the pair rapidly. The narrow tunnel was densely packed with hundreds of corpses.
“Pu! Pu! Pu!”
Xiao Chen moved the scabbard in his hand very quickly as he turned into flowing water. He launched himself at the corpses. He managed to push all of them back and he was able to occasionally help out Ma Chen.
Suddenly Xiao Chen thought of something. He turned around and asked Ma Chen behind him, “Senior Brother Ma, did you see Junior Sister Mu?”
Ma Chen had an alarmed expression, then he felt it was strange, “That’s right, where is Junior Sister Mu? When did she leave?”
Damn it! Xiao Chen cursed in his heart. In the end, after staying on guard for so long, he still let her disappear quietly without a trace.
Mu Xinya must have taken advantage of the time they were distracted by Supervisor Wang to slip away.
Ma Chen kicked away a corpse then he leaned to the side and avoided another attack. After that, he struck a corpse with his saber, creating a metallic clang. It was as if he had struck metal. The corpse was simply knocked back, it was not split in half.
“Junior Brother, what should we do? These corpses seem invulnerable. Furthermore, there are so many of them. I’m afraid I can’t think of anything. The situation is bad!” Ma Chen said anxiously.
Xiao Chen just muttered to himself without saying anything; he was carefully searching for a solution. These corpses were only as fast and as strong as an ordinary Martial Grand Master.
If so, with Ma Chen’s cultivation, he should be able to kill them easily. Furthermore, if nothing went wrong, Xiao Chen would be able to deal with this horde himself.
However, the problematic thing was that the skin of these corpses were like steel. When the saber blade struck them, they only left a shallow mark. The matter that caused him a headache was that these corpse did not feel pain.
If you were not able to knock them back, they would ignore their injuries and attack continuously, it was extremely troublesome.
Xiao Chen would be able to escape easily but he did not wish to reveal too much of his abilities to Ma Chen. After all, he had only known him for a while; it was best to stay on his guard.
“Break out! Senior Brother Ma, there is no point in staying here out of pride,” Xiao Chen said indifferently. Ma Chen had completed this mission in the mines many times. Xiao Chen did not believe that he lacked trump cards.
There can only be one reason why he had not used his trump card—he wanted to preserve his strength and force Xiao Chen to reveal his hand.
Ma Chen revealed an awkward expression and smiled bitterly, “I am really not holding back because of pride. I am truly not confident and I really require you to help me out. Otherwise, I will not be able to accomplish it.”
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Xiao Chen wielded his saber with his left hand and punched with his right fist thrice, easily forcing back three corpses that had launched themselves forward; his body was tempered by the Seven Leaf Flower and the training he did in the past.
Even without using Essence, he could rely on his physical strength and punch out with more than a thousand kilograms of force. These corpses were forced back by him with one punch.
Even their steel-like skin was slightly cracked by Xiao Chen as they were knocked flying. The corpses behind them were also knocked to the ground.
When Ma Chen saw this, he felt very astonished. He could not tell why Xiao Chen had such strength despite being an Inferior Grade Martial Grand Master.
“What good move does Senior Brother Ma have to break through the encirclement that would require my help to execute? I will do what I can,” Xiao Chen said.
Ma Chen pushed back two corpses with his saber as he said, “I have an area-of-effect Martial Technique. It should be able to carve a path out for us. However, it takes some time to execute it. As such, I need Junior Brother Ye to protect me for a while.”
“That is not a problem,” Xiao Chen said.
Xiao Chen used the Azure Dragon Cloud Soaring Art and he moved rapidly around Ma Chen; it looked like the Azure Dragon was circling around him. Xiao Chen used his scabbard like a club to knock back the corpses launching themselves at them.
Under Xiao Chen’s protection, there were no corpses within ten meters of Ma Chen.
Ma Chen inhaled deeply and a bright light flashed in his eyes. Suddenly, he took two steps forward and shouted. The surrounding Spiritual Energy surged towards his saber blade like flowing water.
“Flowing Water Breaking Mountain!”
There was a sound of gushing water within the tunnels. An unearthly river gathered on Ma Chen’s saber. Ma Chen flicked his saber forward slightly and a visible ripple could be seen extending out into the surroundings.
The Mountain Splitting Saber Technique was a very common Saber Technique in the Heavenly Saber Pavilion. However, there were very few people who could practice it to the ninth move—Flowing Water Breaking Mountain. This Ma Chen could be considered as someone who surpassed his peers.
“Rumble…!”
The corpses launching themselves at the pair were immediately blasted back. The river on the saber then blasted away the corpses that were blocking their way in the front.
“I’m not done yet! Gather!”
Suddenly, Ma Chen swung his saber. The scattered river gathered back together before firing out an instant later. All the corpses in a straight path were pierced through their chest. They then collapsed and fell apart in the next moment, crumbling into pieces; they became as dead as doorknobs.
Flowing Water Breaking Mountain… So that is how it is… the flowing water was only a prelude. The breaking mountain bit is the true finishing move, Xiao Chen thought to himself.
The two of them took advantage of this opportunity to break out from the horde of corpses. They managed to break out to an open space. Afterwards, they both executed their Movement Techniques and threw off the corpses that chased after them.
“Let’s go, we need to inform Martial uncle Ye quickly.” The two of them quickly headed to the eighth layer’s headquarters.
However, before they had gotten very far, they discovered something they had not expected. All the miners they met along the way had turned into corpses. They obstructed their path, making it very hard for them to advance forward.
The good thing was that these corpses did not have strong bodies like the corpses they encountered earlier. With their strength, it was easy to deal with these corpses.
Another corpse recklessly charged towards Xiao Chen. He punched its head and the wind caused its hair to be blown back, revealing a pale and miserable face.
Xiao Chen’s expression changed and he could not help but pause. How could it be him? This corpse was the supervisor that had begged Xiao Chen for help the night before. It was just a night and his premonitions came true.
Including him, all the miners that had almost completed their term had all turned into corpses.
“Shua!”
While Xiao Chen was distracted, a saber light slashed downwards and split a corpse into half. Ma Chen said anxiously, “What are your thinking about? Be careful of the corpse poison. If you get infected, you will turn into a corpse as well.”
“Hu! Hu!”
Xiao Chen sent out two gust of winds with his palm and blew away the black fluid the corpse spurted out to the side. Although his expression did not change, his heart felt like it had been stabbed by something and he felt an incredible heartache.
“Let’s go, stop daydreaming.” Ma Chen quickly urged when he saw Xiao Chen not moving.
Xiao Chen let out a grunt as he did his best to recover his calm. After he picked himself up, he followed behind Ma Chen and headed for the headquarters quickly.
The two thousand-odd miners in the mines had all turned into corpses. The pair did not hesitate to attack them, easily killing their way forward.
A journey that would normally take ten minutes now required an hour to complete.
When they arrived, something surprising happened again. The ten-odd Martial Saints who were normally at the headquarters had all vanished. The place was completely empty and there was no one around.
There were piles of finished Inferior Grade Spirit Stones in one of the huge rooms; their glow was very dazzling.
In front of the door to the stone room, there was a barrier of light. The two of them knew it was a special barrier. Without a permit, they would not be able to enter. Even though there were so many Spirit Stones, they could only look at them.
After spending much effort to rush over, the two of them did not expect such a result. The two of them discussed with each other for a while before they decided to find a place to rest.
They definitely could not travel by the path they took to get here, that was filled with corpses. They had already killed corpses until they were tired. They did not want to continue doing that.
They took out the map and picked a desolated dead tunnel, they were prepared to go there to rest before making further plans. They hurried to the location and went deep into the tunnel before they relaxed.
Ma Chen immediately plopped his butt on the ground and panted, “After coming here for so long, this is the first time I encountered such a situation. It might really be the end this time.”
Xiao Chen was already starting to calm down, he asked, “Senior Brother Ma, you are more experienced. Is there any method to turn so many people into corpses and make them behave so deranged?
Ma Chen thought for a while before answering, “Aside from the already Running Corpse Sect which is already extinct in the Tianwei Continent, I can’t think of any other reasons. However, this Running Corpse Sect has already disappeared for almost a thousand years.”
The Running Corpse Sect was an extremely evil sect. The period prior to the Tianwu Dynasty was the most chaotic time of mankind. That was also the most glorious period for the Running Corpse Sect.
The Running Corpse Sect was separated into two factions, one faction focused on herding and controlling corpses. If they obtained a strong corpse, their combat prowess would increase significantly.
This faction was denounced by mankind. In order to find strong corpses, they would frequently dig up the remains of others’ ancestors.
The corpses of regular people did not hold any attraction to them. They specialized in digging out the ancestors of big clans and sects. These powers had strong ancestors so they were the first target of the Running Corpse Sect.
Before the Tianwu Dynasty, they even dug out a Great Emperor’s body. After they turned it into a moving corpse, it became even more powerful than when it was alive. It was almost unparalleled.
However, they finally incited public anger and the Tianwu Emperor personally moved and killed all the experts of this faction. After this, this faction was completely destroyed and disappeared from the world completely.
Aside from this faction, there was another faction. This faction cultivated the way of corpses. They used special Cultivation Techniques to refine themselves into corpses that were neither dead or alive.