Chapter 173: 173
Li Qingshan said, “This boat’s pretty good . Xiao An likes it very much as well!” Xiao An currently leaned against the edge, focusing all of her attention on the tiny, wing-like oars paddling in the water .
Zhang Lanqing smiled . “I made it myself . So she’s called Xiao An . Won’t it be dangerous for her if she comes with us?”
Li Qingshan rubbed Xiao An’s head . “She can take care of herself . Why don’t you use propellers?”
“What are propellers?”
Li Qingshan gave a slight explanation, and Zhang Lanqing understood the idea . He immediately sank into his thoughts . “What a special design . It seems like it’ll be more…”
Li Qingshan said, “Be careful!”
Distracted, the boat immediately hurtled towards some rocks . Zhang Lanqing returned to his senses and steered the boat in a hurry . He patted his chest to calm himself down . “So close . ”
Hao Pingyang said, “Keep your head clear! Don’t become distracted as soon as you think of new concepts!”
Zhang Lanqing said, “I’ll try it out when I get back . Qingshan, if you join the school of Mohism, you’ll definitely become quite accomplished . ”
Li Qingshan said, “Perhaps . ” Advice from others could be helpful at times .
On the side of the cave that the boat had just passed by, a pair of emerald eyes lit up in the pitch-black grooves that light was unable to reach . It was actually a preserved corpse . Its entire body seemed to have become part of the cavern wall, covered in moss . Who knows how long it had been there for already . It did not even give off any stink anymore . It did not give off any aura either . As such, even Li Qingshan failed to notice it .
As if it had received some kind of order, it broke free from the cave with a struggle, but its movements suddenly halted . A shiny, white prayer bead floated nearby .
Even though it only possessed a subservient consciousness and a desire for flesh and blood after being refined, it still experienced an instinctual fear towards the prayer bead . The Skull Prayer Bead pierced its head and red light emerged from its body, turning its flesh into fire and its bones into fluid . It became a part of the tiny prayer bead .
In the depths of the cave, an old man who was as thin as a stick opened his eyes . He had lost the connection to a corpse he had just awakened . Before the connection was lost, something very strange had happened . There was a ripple as if there was a sense of fear .
Such a matter was obviously absurd . How could corpses feel fear? Even if their souls were still restrained to their bodies, they had lost the ability to fear a long time ago . It must have been a false impression .
Afterwards, he thought of what he had discovered in the huge, open pit outside Ancient Wind city for some reason .
As a result, he spent most of his time as a grave robber . As soon as he heard about the incident in Ancient Wind city, he took action . That was a thousand corpses, with quite a few Qi Practitioners among them . He would definitely be able to find fantastic corpses to refine . However, when he arrived, all he found was an empty pit . All he felt was shock and fear . He felt fortunate that he had come late .
It had been quite a few years since he last felt fear .
Then he thought about what had happened in the morgue . The body of a Body Practitioner was quite tempting, but he had never trusted Zhuo Zhibo before, so he was extremely careful . The trap cast down by the disciples of mohism seemed like a joke in his eyes . While he did lose his Submerged Shadow sword out of carelessness, forcing him to flee which exasperated him, he did not feel fear . He had experienced dangers and setbacks that were far more severe than that in his life .
However, just as his substitute fooled his opponents, and he managed to escape from the morgue, he saw something strange . An extremely pretty child sat on the roof under the moonlight, looking at him quietly . It was as if she saw through his concealing technique completely . She did not give off a particularly powerful aura, but her dark, calm eyes made him shudder from the depths of his very soul . He felt as if he had encountered his natural enemy .
However, he managed to escape from her gaze very soon, and the shuddering feeling became an illusion . However, the sight became firmly embedded in his head without dispersing at all .
He felt like there was some sort of connection between all of this, but he failed to pinpoint what it was .
He shook his head . All he had lost was an insignificant corpse, so why was he thinking so much? He cast his thoughts aside and sneered . The intruders would die very soon, becoming a part of his zombie army .
He leaned against a stone coffin beside him . The coffin was engraved with glyphs that extended to the ground . It was locked up firmly by iron chains . With this treasure, no one could kill him . Not even Zhuo Zhibo!
Xiao An leaned on the edge of the boat and gently played around with the water . She silently scooped up the Skull Prayer Bead, but when she turned around, all she saw was Li Qingshan staring straight at her . She stuck her tongue out at him .
The Skull Prayer Bead was no regular spiritual artifact . Instead, it was more like a part of her body, which was why it could fly very far away; it could even see and hear for her .
To be frank, she did not like the taste of zombies too much . Some of them were dry, and some of them were like a delicacy she had eaten a while back, a kind of pastry that was hard and tough . However, the good part was that they were combustible and not that noisy .
Hao Pingyang suddenly said, “Something is approaching!”
They all looked ahead . Zhang Lanqing pierced the lantern, and the light gathered together like a searchlight, piercing through the darkness . They could vaguely make out something floating on the surface of the water . It was clustered together and pale . It did not drift along with the flow of water, remaining stationary instead as if it were awaiting the arrival of the boat .
“They’re corpses!” He Yishi cried out .
The pale objects were all floating bodies that had swollen up in the water . They seemed like fatties floating on the water, covering the entire area . Who knows how many there were .
Hao Pingyang said, “Don’t let them get near!”
Li Qingshan drew his Wind-entwining blade and channeled true qi into it in an attempt to launch a wind blade, but the blade did not respond at all . He hit it a few times and confirmed that the blade was completely destroyed now . A low grade spiritual artifact really could not endure the wear in his hands . Although he could achieve the same results through true qi alone, it would be far too wasteful of true qi . It was not worth it . Zhang Lanqing passed a Thousand Mechanism crossbow and a few magazines of Fire Crow bolts to Li Qingshan . “I need to steer the boat! You use it!”
“Alrighty!” Li Qingshan accepted the Thousand Mechanism crossbow and aimed at the surface of the water, launching a barrage and blowing up seven or eight floating corpses . He had learned archery before, so he was more accurate than Jin Yuan and Jin Bao, earning him some praise .
Li Qingshan suddenly felt a gaze lock onto him . Looking back, all he found was Xiao An looking up eagerly at the Thousand Mechanism crossbow . She no longer looked at the oars anymore .
“You try!” Li Qingshan passed the Thousand Mechanism crossbow to her, and she accepted it happily .
Hao Pingyang tried to stop them in a hurry . “Don’t mess around!” He was frustrated with how Li Qingshan did not take everything seriously . How could he give such a dangerous weapon to a child? The Thousand Mechanism crossbow was powerful, so it would be bad if Xiao An was unable to wield it properly and fired them randomly on the boat .
He reached towards the crossbow in Xiao An’s hand, but he grabbed nothing . He was surprised . Looking back, he only found that Xiao An had already arrived at the nose of the boat, shooting at the corpses . Moreover, her accuracy was outstanding . She basically took out a corpse with each bolt .
Li Qingshan patted Hao Pingyang’s shoulder . “I told you that she could take care of herself . She’s taking care of you now as well!”
Hao Pingyang shot a glance at him; this kid was mysterious . Even the child by his side was so strange .
With Xiao An at the helm, the others all stopped shooting, saving some of their Fire Crow bolts as they watched on . They would praise from time to time, “Nicely done!”
Jin Bao smiled complacently . “Zombie Daoist, do you think you can handle us with these puny tricks? Looks like there’s nothing impressive about you at all . ” However, as soon as he finished talking, he caught the whiff of a stink . The smell was so sharp that it basically made him dizzy .
Hao Pingyang said, “Hold your breaths! The foul smell is poisonous!”
The boat just happened to have reached where the floating corpses had first appeared . Li Qingshan could clearly see that while the corpses had been blown to shreds, doing so also released the gas within their bodies, which turned into a thick, pale green gas . It filled the entire cave and grew thicker the further they advanced . Even the lantern light was unable to pierce through it . Everyone held their breaths in a hurry . As Qi Practitioners, the circulation of true qi in their bodies could replace their breathing . However, as the poisonous gas became thicker, their eyes began to sting and water . Even their skin gave off a burning smell . Even without Hao Pingyang’s warning, they all released their true qi instinctively .
Just as everyone fended off the poisonous gas and was disoriented, something moved in the water . Li Qingshan noticed it first . “There’s something in the water!”
Splash! Splash! Blue hands rotten to a point where their bones were visible extended out from the water, grabbing the oars and then the edge of the boat, climbing aboard . They revealed eyeless, noseless heads while producing terrifying groans .
Just when He Yishi had aimed his Thousand Mechanism crossbow, there was a gust of wind from above, and he raised his head in a hurry . He saw a shriveled corpse lunge towards him through the poisonous gas from the dark roof of the cavern .
“Above too!” Hao Pingyang bellowed . He swung his Yellow Dragon’s Cannon of Devouring Light and smacked the corpse away .
Li Qingshan raised his head . On the ceiling of the cave, on those teeth-like stalactites, were dried corpses that lunged down one after another .
Specks of emerald light glimmered on the two sides of the cavern . Corpses broke free from the walls of the cave one by one, opening their shriveled mouths and lunging at the boat . The quiet cave suddenly seemed to spring alive, becoming a terrifying hell filled with vicious, horrifying corpses .
He Yishi and the others raised their crossbows as if they were confused as to where to shoot .
Although they had said that they wanted to redeem themselves, a mentality for battle could not be developed so easily . It required plenty of battle experience, or they had to be geniuses at fighting like Li Qingshan .
Clearly, they possessed neither of the qualities . Jin Bao pulled the trigger of his crossbow in a hurry, basically shooting at his own companions, but he failed to hit a single zombie .
The Wind-entwining blade sliced through the air in an arc and beheaded two shriveled corpses . Li Qingshan said, “Leave the ones above to me . You all get down and focus on the ones in the water . ” They all crouched down in a hurry . Without saying anything more, Hao Pingyang lifted his cannon and smacked away all the corpses lunging over from the two sides .
Before they could even get a footing in this chaotic situation, shrill screams rang out from the nose of the boat and rapidly drew closer .